Visa ad
Do you feel tranquilly calm when surrounded by green fields and blue skies? Or perhaps slightly alarmed when staring at a red stop sign?
Color has been known to have a powerful psychological impact on people’s behavior and decisions, and this knowledge has been harnessed all too well by designers and marketers alike. Color can often be the sole reason someone purchases a product, where 93% of buyers focus on visual appearance and almost 85% claim color to be their primary reason for purchase!
The color research was conducted by online essay editor. Color research documents the following relationships between color and marketing:
92.6 percent said that they put most importance on visual factors when purchasing products. Only 5.6 percent said that the physical feel via the sense of touch was most important. Hearing and smell each drew 0.9 percent. You may also order a research or team of professionals may write essays for money concerning topic you need.
Research conducted by team of professionals from professional essay service reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.
The new Visa Black card caters to a higher echelon of consumer and is advertised in business magazines such as Business Week. The Visa Black card is an ‘elite’ consumer credit card that is only available to 1% of the population and comes with additional perks such as 24 hour world class concierge service and luxury gifts. The card has a $495 annual fee for membership and you can apply online or by phone. Visa is seeking out a highly specific target market for their new card and so they must carefully consider visual and text elements, audience appropriateness, and subtext in order to assure marketing success.
One of the most important elements of developing a good advertisement is the visual. Without a strong visual element to grab a viewer’s attention, a potential consumer will simply turn the page. Visa uses black in it’s ad to evoke a feeling of sophistication and elegance. Black is sleek and is associated with the ‘black tie’ affair, women all have a ‘little black dress as a wardrobe staple, black is the color of mystery and suspense. Additionally black is used to grab attention simply through the contrast it provides the bright yellow and white text. The use of black for both the card and the ad makes everything else on the page ‘pop’, more easily grabbing the reader’s attention. Visa also uses texture as a visual element. The card itself looks textured like a fine suit or tie fabric making it feel that just carrying it would put you in a higher class. The card is supposed to be made of a carbon material and the cross hatch pattern reflects the pattern of carbon fiber. The ad is also very simple and clean which adds to its feeling of sophistication. Its visual elements are simple and distinctive and both draw its audience in through visual contrast, but through the representation of what black represents in our society.
Visa uses textural elements to evoke a feeling of power, exclusivity and benefit to its viewer. The card is described as ‘the world’s most prestigious’, its benefits are listed under the heading ‘exclusive privileges’ and its perks are described as ‘limited’ membership, ‘world class’ concierge service, ‘exclusive’ rewards program, ‘luxury’ gifts, and ‘patent pending’ carbon card. Word choice makes the consumer feel they would be in a very elite class just carrying the card not even considering the benefits it would provide. It is mentioned that the card is ‘not just another piece of plastic’, but that it is ‘made with carbon, it is the ultimate buying tool’. Carbon is a strong, lightweight and versatile material and the advertisers associate the card and thus its holder as having these same properties. The ad also mentions that the card is ‘limited only to 1% of U.S. residents to ensure the highest caliber of personal service’ making the card holder feel as if they are in a class all their own.
Visa addresses audience appropriateness through its description of the item and visual elements. Those who would not qualify who see the ad will feel as if they would want to be a part of something ‘elite’ which feeds into the advertisers purpose. For those who may qualify they will want to apply to be in that top 1% of the population. It definitely feeds into the egos of top business executives and wealthy individuals who is the target audience that they want to capture. It is important that they also included the membership fee in the ad. It is listed at the very end of the ‘exclusive privileges’, an interesting choice as one would not necessarily consider paying $495 annual membership a ‘privilege’, but it does its job of separating the men from the boys because it immediately hones in on the audience as being those who could even afford that per year.
The use of subtext is very interesting in the ad. Outside of the sophistication and elitist feel created by the visual and textural elements, simply the use of the color and the word black implies wealth. It is a powerful tool, particularly in a failing economy to associate oneself with being ‘in the black’ financially and a message as subtext can easily be drawn from that parallel. It is used to not only weed out its target audience, but also to instill confidence in its consumer, which is particularly important when many banks have had to be bailed out and credit card companies are getting a bad reputation.
The ad for the new Visa Black card can be considered a marketing success. It has strong visual and textural elements which draw the consumer to its ad and then gets them interested by making them feel just having the card in their wallet would put them in an exclusive class of people. It definitely reaches its target audience through its ad placement in business magazines and through its inclusion of the cost of membership. Finally its subtle use of subtext parallels it with wealth and instills confidence. It would be effective for this particular item for Visa to change their logo not the shape or style, but maybe the color. On the card it is left as the white blue and yellow which downgrades the feel of the card. They could still achieve logo recognition by maintaining the shape, but changing the color scheme to possibly white, silver and gold. Although most people would be out of the loop in being able to afford such a card it is definitely easy to buy into the product idea. For individuals in that income bracket who are into status symbols it would likely be a must have item.
Works Cited
Visa. “Welcome to Black Card”. 29 March 2009. <https://www.blackcard.com/>.
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