Language-An Effective Advertising Tool And Strategy-Yashvi

“ADVERTISING is a paid form of communicating a message by the use of various media. It is persuasive, informative, and designed to influence purchasing behavior or thought patterns.”
(Source: www.definethat.com)

From this statement we can make three clear inferences of the importance of advertising:

1. Advertisements are strongest means of communicating an idea with masses
2. Advertisements effects the thoughts and behavior of the consumers
3. Advertisements are educational and influential

If we try and find a way of achieving this unity we will surely see that the base of these three lies with language. The idea must be communicated to the masses in a language comprehensible to them easily. At the same time it must be influential and educational to withhold the attention of the audience.

Language is a tool for communication and it has an obvious role to play in influencing the way we experience the world around us. Language ought to be determined keeping in mind the product and audience targeted.

A sales girl who is to advertise Vastru Shastra goods must use high flown Hindi or Sanskrit. It is only then the advertisement is sure to leave the desired impact on the targeted audience. And similarly, a sales boy who is to promote a Bentley car must be use polished and refined English with French words here and there to make him sound elite and classy, same as the product he is promoting. Thus, language plays a vital role while advertising.

The use of bi-lingual language has been in trend now for quite a while. Thus, most advertisers make use of bilingual language to captivate the attention of the audience and make their business grow. One-liners used by advertisers are composed using both Hindi and English to make them popular with people of all socio-economic background. The use of Code switching and code borrowing has been on steady increase in the advertisements. Let us understand the concept of each:

• Code switching: It is a situation in which a speaker uses a mixture of distinct language varieties as discourse proceeds. This occurs quite commonly in everyday speech with regard to level of style, as for example, when speaker mix formal and informal styles. Example: Reena who live in this house woh aaj kal Mumbai mein job kar rahi hai.

• Code Borrowing: When speakers of language borrow words from another language, the foreign words come to be used as regular vocabulary items. Example: He had great confidence in his own savoir faire. (Savoir Faire is a French word, but it has come to be used as a vocabulary item in English. It means ‘The ability to say or do the right or graceful thing.’