The Pitch Reflection

What main appeals did you use in your pitch? Why did you decide they would be the most effective? 
In order to appeal to the varying demographics we chose to target in New York so that they choose to buy food from 24 hour Organic supermarkets, we primarily used the appeal to affiliation, to achieve and to prominence. These resulted to be the most appropriate because we were considering what those demographics valued, and associated acquiring those valued aspects with consuming organic food. For instance, with the rich moms, we created an affiliation between clear, flawless skin with consuming organic food. The appeal to achieve also could be used universally with our audiences because in such a hectic city like New York, the personification of competition and consumerism, it is important to stand out socially, academically and professionally. All of these can only be achieved if their body has the right amount of energy that certainly, can only come from organic food. The appeal for prominence follows the same logic with standing out in such a hectic place like New York but we targeted it more specifically at the rich mums, who are socially competing against each other in order to climb up the social strata. 
What were some specific persuasive techniques you used (include examples) why did you believe these would be effective? 
-Bribery- it would be effective with college students because they don't have a lot of money because they're studying and hence need to access healthy food for an affordable price.
-Celebrity- because of affiliation and an ethos approach, using celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow to promote the advertisement would persuade rich moms of the reliability and need to consume in order keep up with the trends.
-Bandwagon- this would be effective with rich moms because organic food is a rising trend because of its benefits and 'cleanliness' in terms of pesticide use. Since everyone is doing it, they don't want to feel left out because that would marginalize them in their social groups. 
-Statistics (logos)- this would work effectively with university students and business people because they are highly educated. Therefore, they are more prone to be persuaded by something that appeals more to logic than emotion. 

How did an awareness of audience and context influence your overall approach to this activity? 
-Being aware of the variance in New York demographics led to having to approach the different audiences with different approaches. Although generalizations were still used to advertise, being aware of the context and audience meant that each ad campaign had to be carefully designed so that it could appeal to what is valued by that audience, and hence persuade them to make use of the organic store. 

Explain the use of some of the images you included. Why did you feel they would be effective? 
-The connotations of the images were chosen so that they could match with the aesthetic that we were envisioning for each target audience. For instance, the rich mums included celebrities shown on minimalist backgrounds, images of high-end apartments, organic juices, yoga classes– these were all images that surround these women on a day-to-day basis, which may make the product feel familiar to them if it already is presented in a familiar context. This can lead to them feeling confident in consuming from the organic store. A similar approach was used for the other two audiences.

Comment on the effectiveness of your presentation. How will this activity inform how you prepare for your FOA?
-Overall, I think the presentation was effective because the different target audiences were clearly defined, and they each made their own clear, individual use of persuasive techniques and appeals. Nevertheless, I think I personally still need to clean up my presentation skills, specially because although I knew the content, I was largely improvising. This is because not only was I prioritizing getting the message across, but also of doing so persuasively. This will come along with practice, which naturally, I will do lots of before presenting my actual FOA. The activity itself has just been a reality check of how much preparing I should be doing before actually standing up in front of the class and presenting. Nevertheless, from the activity I think I have a strong understanding of how advertisements are effective and how they manage to persuade their target audiences.

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