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INSTITUT FOR ERHVERVSKOMMUNIKATION Department of Business Communication

STUDIENUMMER Student No.

Ts93113

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Bo Laursen

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53,695

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MMC 2011-2014

BA

“Narratives and Statistics – An In-depth Analysis of Colgate

Time Control”

By: Tim Steinbrenner (ts93113)

Supervisor: Bo Laursen

53,695 characters

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Summary A clutter of persuasive messages has become a constant presence in the modern

Western world. Now more than ever it is important for corporations to create effective

and persuasive advertisement. Many advertisers choose to persuade their viewers

through the use of evidence, more precisely through narratives or statistics. This

thesis aims to shed some light on the advertorial intentions of Colgate – one of the

world’s biggest health and hygiene companies – when deciding to include both a

narrative and statistics in their advertisement for Colgate Time Control.

Using a theoretical background based on persuasion literature, more precisely, within

evidence in persuasion, a discussion is made on the advertisement with regards to

central and peripheral processing. Statistics have indeed been found to be more

persuasive if viewers have high involvement and engage in central processing,

whereas narratives serve as a peripheral cue, along with other aspects such as speaker

credibility. The thesis’ research question concerns itself with just that:

Why has Colgate chosen to include both narratives and statistics in the “Colgate

Time Control” advertisement?

When answering this question, the advertisement is analysed based on the

methodology of Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics in order to uncover the true intentions

of the sender. The Colgate Time Control brand, in itself a sub-brand, is analysed, as

well as the text itself in a brand- and a discourse analysis. Sharing a name with the

mother brand, Colgate Time Control carries the same associations typically made

with Colgate, such as reliability and high functionality. Knowing that the toothpaste

does not directly appeal to everyone exposed to the advertisement, Colgate markets

their toothpaste as a shopping good – a good that consumers spend some time

thinking about before purchasing, in order to increase consideration of the product

and to justify the higher price compared to other toothpastes.

In the advertisement Colgate presents product features as well as personal

characteristics as both product features and product functionality make up the core

identity of Colgate Time Control. The main focus of the brand is set onto the

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functionality and the practical application of the toothpaste to avoid gum decay. The

core identity is also supported by the personal attributes provided by the female

speaker, who makes the brand seem caring and friendly, and by the voiceover

providing credibility presenting statistics based on clinical trials.

The discourse analysis goes on to show that the advertorial text is separated into two

different discoursive messages: The woman as a relatable character speaking about

her personal situation and the influence the product had on her life and the voiceover

providing factual information about the product. The Burkean Rhetoric analysis

shows a strong use of pathos from the female speaker and a strong use of ethos in the

voiceover.

These findings, in relation to persuasion theory, confirm that Colgate chooses to use

both a narrative and a statistical part in the advertisement to target different sets of

audiences that are exposed to the Colgate Time Control brand. People with low

involvement, at a certain age, are targeted through the advertisement’s narrative,

which serves as a peripheral cue, also supported by the credibility that is attributed to

Colgate with the presentation of test results by experts. People with high involvement

are given strong statistical evidence to support their central processing of the issue so

as to be persuaded into choosing the product to prevent gum and tooth decay.

Finally, both narrative and statistics do not only target different audiences, but also

work together to create a campaign that firstly evokes attention, creates interest, and

finally carries conviction to purchase the Colgate Time Control toothpaste.

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 6

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 8

METHOD AND METHODOLOGY 13

BRAND ANALYSIS 16

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 19 GENRE AND SENDER-RECEIVER RELATIONSHIP 19 IDEATIONAL RESOURCES 20 INTERPERSONAL RESOURCES 22 TEXTUAL RESOURCES 24 PREVAILING DISCOURSES 26 BURKEAN RHETORIC 28

RESULTS 29

DISCUSSION 30

REFERENCES 34

APPENDICES 36 ADVERTISEMENT TRANSCRIPT 36

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Introduction In the modern Western World, persuasion is everywhere. Not a day goes by without

somebody trying to influence us. According to Gass and Seiter (2011) the average

person is exposed to 300 to 3,000 persuasive messages each day. These messages may

come from friends or family, or even strangers or big corporations. Due to the sheer

amount of influential messages that people are confronted with, many of these

messages go undetected or fail to fulfil their purpose. This provides an immense

challenge to corporations that aim to persuade consumers to notice and eventually

purchase their products. In order to be as persuasive as possible, these advertisements

need to be as relevant as possible to reach their customers. The message(s) within an

advertisement have therefore to be built up very carefully. More often than not, not

only product information is given, but also a means to support the product

information, in form of a story – a narrative – or in form of statistical proof.

“One issue within the persuasion literature is a comparison of the persuasiveness of two

forms (statistical or narrative) of available evidence. Should a communicator concentrate on

finding and using narrative examples or statistical conclusions?” (Allen & Preiss, 1997, p.

125)

Exemplifying the much-discussed issue among persuasion theorists, Allen and Preiss

(1997) raise the question of whether narratives or statistics are the most persuasive.

Researchers on this subject have come to various conclusions depending on context,

the nature of the audience and the persuasive message itself. That being said, does it

have to be a one-off decision? In fact, many advertisers combine both narratives to

evoke listener and viewer interest and statistical evidence to demonstrate that the

narrative is not an isolated case.

One organisation, which often combines these two aspects in order to create a

compelling persuasive message, is also one of the world’s largest personal care

corporations, namely the Colgate-Palmolive Company. In advertisements for Colgate

products, such as toothpaste and mouth wash in particular, statistics are often

accompanied by narratives. Consumers who have tested the product are often featured

in the commercial to attest for its effects.

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Traditionally, Colgate television advertisements were based on expert evaluations and

product functionality, often with a dentist or person in a laboratory coat arguing the

benefits of using Colgate toothpaste. In recent years, however, Colgate advertisements

are making use of consumers offering their opinions about the product. A recent case,

where both a narrative and statistics are combined, is the television advertisement

“Colgate Time Control”; a brand of toothpastes said to prevent receding gums. With

Colgate’s recent persuasive strategy in mind, I thus set out to answer the following

research question:

Why has Colgate chosen to include both narratives and statistics in the “Colgate

Time Control” advertisement?

This thesis aims to shed light on Colgate’s intent in using two very different

persuasive strategies, to deliver their message, and also to clarify what they as a

sender expect to achieve in this particular advertisement.

The theoretical background and framework of this paper is built on persuasion

literature, more specifically the use of evidence in persuasion. Gass and Seiter (2011)

provide insight into what defines persuasion in general, describing interaction

between the two parties necessary for the persuasive process, whereas Petty and

Cacioppo (1986) contribute with two different modes of processing information,

central processing (high involvement) and peripheral processing (low involvement),

as described in their paper on the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Following a general introduction to persuasion theory, a further elaboration on the

persuasiveness of narratives and statistics will be given. Allen and Preiss (1997) offer

an overview of the success of each persuasive means, while Braverman (2008) and

Reinard (1998) offer their explanations as to when each mode of persuasion is the

more effective, in relation to the Elaboration Likelihood model. Theories by Dickson

(1982), Brosius and Barthelt (1994), also in support of Braverman’s findings, aim to

offer an explanation of why different modes are more persuasive. Finally, theories by

O’Keefe (1998), Reinard (1998), Gass and Seiter (2011) account for the importance

of the quality of evidence and the characteristics in terms of strengthening persuasive

messages.

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As the aim of this paper is to identify the sender’s intention when developing the

advertisement, the analysis is based on methodological hermeneutics. The first part of

the analysis consists of a brand analysis of “Colgate Time Control”, based on Aaker’s

(2010) “Brand Identity System”, a modern business equivalent to Schleiermacher’s

psychological interpretation of a text. A discourse analysis, based on the writings of

Halliday (1978, 1994, in Stillar, 1998) makes up the second part of the analysis, with

an expansion of Burke’s rhetoric. Thus, the analysis represents Schleiermacher’s

second dimension in finding the author’s intentions, namely the analysis of the text’s

language.

My findings are based on both the discourse and brand analysis and the subsequent

discussion sets the results in relation to the theoretical background presented earlier.

The analysis is limited to one advertisement for “Colgate Time Control” and only to

the spoken words in the campaign. These limitations are a result of both spatial

constraints and relevance, in order to fully answer the research question proposed

above. As such, this paper only offers brief insight into Colgate’s general persuasion

strategy. A more in depth analysis into further Colgate campaigns would have to be

made in order to make generalisations about their persuasive strategy.

Theoretical Framework According to Gass and Seiter (2011), “persuasion involves one or more persons who

are engaged in the activity of creating, reinforcing, modifying, or extinguishing

beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, and/or behaviors, within the constraints of a

given communication context” (p. 33). Persuasion is an interaction between people; it

is two-directional, from sender to receiver and from receiver to sender. The

distinction between sender and receiver is not necessarily made, as persuasion also

appears in discussions where no initial sender or receiver existed, only two parties

discussing an issue. In which case, both parties intend on persuading the other party.

When the functions of persuasion are considered, one of the most cited models in

persuasion literature is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) by Petty and

Cacioppo (1986). The ELM has been described as a so-called dual process model

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(Chaiken & Trope, 1999), as it suggests that persuasion operates via two paths. The

first path has been named “central processing” and involves, according to Petty and

Cacioppo (1986), “cognitive elaboration”. The second path, referred to as “peripheral

processing”, is concerned with cues that are not necessarily cognitively perceived and

that are not directly related to the main message. Thus, when engaging in central

processing, the content of the message itself is elaborated on and the ideas presented

in the message are reflected. When engaging in peripheral processing however, the

focus is not on the content of the message, but on cues taken from aspects

surrounding the message, e.g. “the sheer quantity of arguments or a catchy jingle”

(Gass & Seiter, 2011, p. 34), which then serve as a basis for decision making.

According to Petty, Rucker, Bizer, and Cacioppo (2004), these two means of

processing represent two different ends of the elaboration continuum: At the one end

a person engages in little or no elaboration, at the other end he or she engages in high

elaboration. Whether a person engages in central or peripheral processing is

dependent on their motivation and ability to process the information. People that are

highly motivated to elaborate on a given issue show high involvement and thus

engage in central processing. This is usually the case when a topic affects somebody

personally. When a person shows low involvement, it is more likely that he or she

engages in peripheral processing. Furthermore, a person can only engage in central

processing when he or she has the ability to do so, meaning the necessary knowledge

and understanding to process information. If there is a lack in ability, people tend to

engage in peripheral processing.

Petty, Haugtvedt, and Smith (1995) argue that persuasion via the central route tends to

have a more long-lasting effect, whereas persuasion through the peripheral route is

more short-lived. As they argue, when people consider ideas and spend time thinking

about them, they are more likely to be absorbed. This has also lead Gass and Seiter

(2011) to the conclusion that “to make persuasion last, you’ve got to make people

think” (p. 36).

Despite having brought forward two opposing means of processing, Petty and

Cacioppo acknowledge the possibility of using both routes at once, which they have

named “parallel processing” (Petty et al, 2004). They do however suggest that there

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often is a trade-off between options, meaning that people tend to favour either central

processing or peripheral processing. Stiff (1986) is in agreement, and says that

“humans are capable of parallel processing and are apparently able to divide their

attention between processing central message cues and peripheral ones” (Stiff, 1986,

p. 87). As such, he argues, parallel processing is also likely to be used at moderate

levels of involvement.

In the aforementioned levels of involvement, either narrative or evidential persuasion

can prove more effective. In a 1997 study, using meta-analysis to compare the

persuasiveness of both narrative and statistical evidence, Allen and Preiss found that

45 per cent of individuals were persuaded through the use of a narrative, whereas 55

per cent were persuaded through the use of statistics. They concluded that: “the

persuader is slightly more effective with a message that uses statistical proof as

opposed to examples or narratives” (Allen & Preiss, 1997, p. 128).

Going beyond the broad comparison of the persuasiveness of narratives and statistics

respectively, Braverman (2008) finds that “informational messages are more

persuasive when perceived by individuals characterised by high rather than low

involvement and high rather than low need for cognition” (p. 666). He has conducted

three experiments that confirm this statement to the extent that “testimonial or

storytelling is more effective than expository or informational messages for those

individuals who are not motivated to scrutinize the message, either because they are

initially not concerned about their current state or because they are low in NC [need

for cognition]” (Braverman, 2008, p. 688).

In one of his two perspectives on persuasion, Reinard (1998) argues “that audiences

that follow the central route will be more influenced by evidence than (...) audiences

that follow the peripheral route” (p. 7). This has led him to the same conclusion as

Braverman: In order to persuade people that are highly involved in an issue, statistical

evidence proves more persuasive, whereas people with little involvement in a topic

are more likely to be persuaded by a narrative.

As to why this is the case, theorists offer different explanations. Dickson (1982) finds

that generally “case-history information is claimed to have a greater impact on

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judgements because it is more vivid, personal, and concrete than remote, pallid, and

abstract statistics” (p. 398). As he goes on to argue, a “case information’s

characteristics make it easier to understand, easier to encode into memory, and more

available to memory” (Dickson, 1982, p. 398). That being said, his study does not

confirm this statement. In fact, “case information was found not to be more vivid or

interesting per se”. It should however be noted, that though his findings suggest that

case information is not necessarily more vivid and easier to grasp, the personal

characteristics of narratives, compared to that of statistics, are not easily ignored.

In a 1994 study, Brosius and Bathelt found that “contrary to their validity, the

vividness of general statements is quite low” (p. 49). The problem, they argue, is that

“base-rate information, despite its validity, does not affect recipients’ perceptions or

judgements about a problem” (p. 73).

At first sight, the two aforementioned studies suggest opposite conclusions.

Nevertheless, there is one important factor missing in their evaluations, namely the

audiences’ states of mind. As Reinard and Braverman suggest, the persuasiveness of

either narratives or statistics depend on the degree of audience involvement.

In Dickson’s study, the subjects, women from PTA and church groups, were

presented with two problem tasks that affected them directly. In the first scenario they

were asked to imagine that their refrigerator broke down and how they might react to

it; what actions they would take. The women thus faced a problem, which personally

affected them, and as such had the ability and the motivation to be highly involved

with the issue; their processing was likely to be central. In the second scenario, the

women were given a description of the breakdown rate of a brand of refrigerators and

asked to read it through carefully. As they were already in an imagined state, in which

they had a failed fridge at home, reading this information again increased the

likelihood of using central processing, especially as they were told to read the manual

through carefully.

In Brosius and Bathelt’s study however, students were indirectly encouraged to use

peripheral processing to answer the researchers questions. Telling the students that

they were to judge news stories created by other students, in terms of quality, the

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researchers put the main emphasis onto the way the news story was made, rather than

its content. The students thus had their main focus on how well the story was made

and structured and engaged in central processing, in terms of inspecting the story’s

quality. The researchers, however, presented the students with questions on content

details, rather than the questions that they had announced at the start of the study.

Having focused on build-up, rather than content, the students only registered the

content through peripheral processing, as they thought it not directly relevant to them;

proving low involvement. When the researchers conclude that base-rate information

does not affect recipients’ perceptions, there is a high possibility that the fact that

students used peripheral processing to come to their judgements, was left out.

Similarly, the consideration that central processing lead to the judgements of the

women in Dickson’s study is not made.

Considering that the subjects of Dickson’s study most probably used central

processing to come to a conclusion, his finding that a narrative does not prove more

vivid or interesting, is in light of Braverman’s findings not surprising. Similarly, when

Braverman’s findings is taken into account, as well as the probability that the students

in Brosius and Bathelt’s study used peripheral processing, their finding that base-rate

information does not affect recipient’s perceptions gives evidence to the fact that

statistical evidence is unlikely to be very persuasive when peripheral processing is

used.

O’Keefe (1998) outlines another aspect of the effectiveness of persuasive narratives

or statistics, describing how the quality of the supporting information affects

persuasion. He argues that “two advocates who are equally explicit about their

supporting materials might find different effects if one has closely-reasoned

arguments with high-quality supporting information and opinions where the other has

shoddy arguments with information of dubious relevance or provenance” (p. 68).

Thus, the use of evidence in itself might not necessarily be persuasive; the quality of

the evidence plays a role in the message’s persuasiveness. It is also not only the

quality of the evidence itself that has an impact on persuasiveness, the quality of the

source – namely the speaker’s characteristics, also play an important role. As Reinard

(1998) argues, “when an advocate starts out with credibility and high-quality evidence,

persuasive effects should be maximised. On the other hand, if the topic does not

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involve individuals personally, even good evidence is not likely to enhance a highly

respected advocate’s credibility” (p. 41). Thus, speaker credibility may also influence

persuasiveness.

According to Gass and Seiter (2011) there are three main dimensions to credibility:

Expertise, trustworthiness and goodwill; expertise being the most important of the

three. As Gass and Seiter argue, a speaker, who shows expertise, who seems

trustworthy and who shows care for the audience’s position receives high credibility.

In connection with the elaboration likelihood model, Gass and Seiter characterise

credibility as a peripheral cue, as “receivers with low-involvement are more likely to

defer to sources, because doing so requires less mental effort than concentrating on

the substance of a message” (p. 81). Having only limited interest in concentrating on

the persuasive message, the receiver who uses peripheral processing is likely to

consider a high-credibility speaker.

Method and Methodology As the analysis in the following is concerned with the reasoning behind using both a

narrative and a statistical part in a Colgate advertisement, the research methodology

has to be suitable for identifying the persuader’s intentions and the reason for the

message’s construction. The focus lies not on explaining a certain phenomenon, but in

understanding intentions. This can be done through interpretation or as

Schleiermacher in the early 1800s termed it: Methodological hermeneutics.

At the time when Schleiermacher introduced his model of hermeneutics, no generally

accepted model of interpretation had been established (Sherratt, 2005), and the

established natural science methods were not appropriate for human sciences.

Opposed to natural science methods that were established with the intention of

finding the truth, or to come to an explanation for a phenomenon, the study of

methodological hermeneutics as described by Schleiermacher, is concerned with the

interpretation of a text; focusing on the author’s thoughts and objectives especially.

As Schleiermacher argues, in order to understand the true meaning of a text, the

author’s intentions need to be established (Sherratt, 2005). Thus, hermeneutics,

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instead of searching for an absolute truth, is concerned with finding meaning in a text

as it was intended.

To uncover the true meaning of a text, Schleiermacher proposes two key elements:

The grammatical and the psychological (Sherratt, 2005, p. 59). The grammatical

dimension consists of the language and genre of a given text, whereas the

psychological dimension is established for “reconstructing an author’s original

experiences and intentions and then psychologically identifying or emphasising with

them” (Sherratt, 2005, p. 61). The language is analysed in terms of choice of words

and grammar, whereas the genre works in two dimensions: The discourses and

literary genre in which it is written, and the historical context in which the text is

composed. According to Schleiermacher, the grammatical and the psychological

dimension are equally important: “these two hermeneutical tasks are completely equal,

and it would be incorrect to label grammatical interpretation the “lower” and

psychological interpretation the “higher” task” (Schleiermacher in Sherratt, 2005, p.

62).

The following analysis is based on Schleiermacher’s concept of hermeneutics and

divided into two main parts: the analysis of the language of the text and the analysis

of the sender of the message in relation to the audience. In order to retrieve

information on the characteristics of the sender himself, a short brand analysis, based

on Aaker’s “Brand Identity System” (Aaker, 2010, p. 79), will be presented. As the

sender in this instance is not a singular person, e.g. an author, an analysis of the

author’s life and experiences, as suggested by Schleiermacher, is no applicable. The

channel, through which the message is received, is also not a book or any other form

of writing, but television. The message belongs to the advertising genre and as such

the focus lies rather on what the brand represents rather than one individual. The

brand, “Colgate Time Control”, represents the intentions that the corporation had for

this line of products, as it is constructed in order to appeal to a certain target group.

The brand analysis is conducted with the characteristics of the audience in mind, and

as such, it serves as a commercial application of Schleiermacher’s concept of

psychological interpretation.

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Discourse analysis, categorising language into three functions, as introduced by

Halliday (1978, 1994, in Stillar, 1998), provides a further basis for the textual analysis.

The first function, ideational, concerns itself with the “language’s resources for

constructing content” (Stillar, 1998, p. 20). The focus here lies on the text in terms of

concepts, relations, and events in connection with their circumstances. The second

function, the interpersonal function, “concerns [the] language’s resources for shaping

interaction” (Stillar, 1998, p. 20). Socially constructed relations between participants

in different contexts and situations, created through language, can be assigned through

the use of the language’s interpersonal resources. With these means, addressees can

be assigned a certain role and attitudes towards the addressee and the content can be

given. In the third and final function, the textual is used to create cohesion throughout

the text, in order to set parts of the text into the foreground to increase its prominence,

while other parts of the text are supportive to create contextual coherence. The

abovementioned functions, though analysed separately, are not to be seen

independently. In order to identify the intended meaning by the addresser, the

interdependence of these three functions must be kept in mind.

An expansion of Burke’s rhetoric will also be presented. Burke’s rhetoric functions,

as an expansion to Halliday’s discourse analysis, provide another way of analysing

rhetorical process of a linguistic message (Stillar, 1998). In his analytical system there

are three overall classifications: Grammar, rhetoric and logology.

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Brand Analysis Within the brand analysis and the discourse analysis several quotations of the

advertisement text are made. The transcribed text can be found in the appendix.

Toothpaste is usually a product that is bought habitually, rather than with serious

consideration. Kotler and others (2012, p. 508) classify toothpaste as a typical

convenience good, a good that consumers buy “frequently, immediately, and with a

minimum effort” (Kotler et al, 2012, p. 508). For Colgate, this might prove a problem,

as it is not the cheapest product on the market, but generally marketed as one of high

quality. If consumers just go and buy any toothpaste without much consideration, low

price could prove to be the decisive factor when making the purchase. Colgate also

does not market the sub-brand Colgate Time Control as a convenience good, but as a

product that is purchased with quality and suitability in mind. Kotler and others

(2012) classify such products as shopping goods. Consumers characteristically

evaluate shopping goods before they make the purchasing decision, based on criteria

such as “suitability, quality, price, and style” (Kotler et al, 2012, p. 508). Most often,

shopping goods have a higher price than convenience goods, making customers

consider their choices more intensively.

Gass and Seiter (2008) describe this type of consideration for a product, in connection

with persuasion, as “involvement”. In a situation where dental hygiene is not a main

priority in a person’s daily life, e.g. in a situation where a person has perfectly healthy

teeth and does not – or never did – experience any problems with their teeth or gums,

a he or she is more likely to have low involvement with a product such as toothpaste.

Priorities simply lie on other aspects of the daily routine. As brushing teeth is

considered a regular activity, much consideration to which toothbrush or toothpaste to

use is not made. As soon as problems with the teeth or gums occur however, people

are likely to increase their focus on dental health, as they are constantly reminded of

them e.g. when experiencing pain or an uncomfortable feeling of the mouth.

It is apparent that Colgate’s Time Control sub-brand targets mainly the latter group of

people, who notice possible teeth issues. The woman in the advertisement, a person

who has “decided” to try the product, speaks of change that comes with age, which in

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itself does not impose a problem to her. It is the accompanying changes in her dental

hygiene, “my gums starting to recede”, that worry her. This reflects the previously

mentioned situation of first showing low involvement, as long as the teeth and gums

are healthy, but increased involvement as soon as there is a problem with either. In

order to target people who have increased or high involvement with issues of dental

control as their age increases, Colgate thus created a specific sub-brand to their

toothpastes, called “Colgate Time “Control”.

At the core identity of the Colgate Time Control sub-brand, representing “the timeless

essence of a brand” (Aaker, 2010, p. 85), is the notion of high-quality toothpaste that

protects against dental hygiene issues arising with age. The core identity represents

the most important aspects of the brand, what consumer will connect with and which

aspects of the brand that the creators wish to be remembered. The slogan provided by

Colgate Time Control, “everyday protection against time”, represents the core identity

and also serves as an umbrella under which the core elements of the brand are

sheltered, though it cannot in itself capture the full essence of the brand (Aaker, 2010,

p. 87). Instead, it serves as a memorable combination of words that create associations

with Colgate Time Control’s core identity.

The core identity is furthermore supported within the advertisement itself, by the

information given in the voiceover. In the first sentence “clinical trials show that

Colgate Time Control’s formula penetrates gums and makes them up to 73% healthier,

helping prevent them from receding further”, the advertisement proves a clear focus

on the product’s features and attributes. This is also supported in the subsequent

sentence: “Colgate Time Control also contains Vitamin E”. Such aspects are typical

for a brand that is represented by product-related associations (Aaker, 2010, p. 78).

The Colgate Time Control brand can thus be described as a brand that is signified

largely through product associations, seeing as the product features play a large role

in the advertisement. In itself it plays a vital role in the promotion for Colgate Time

Control, as it is the only television spot made for the Colgate sub-brand. The Colgate

Time Control advertisement also provides the typical association for the occasion of

which the product would be used, as well as the typical Colgate Time Control user,

both associated with a brand that is largely based on product attributes.

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The typical product user, as shown in the advertisement, speaks both about her

increasing age as well as the accompanying challenges. She does not only serve as a

demonstration of a typical user of the brand, she also gives the brand a personality

and serves as one herself. While product features provide the users of a brand with

functional benefits, meaning benefits relating to the “functional utility to the customer”

(Aaker, 2010, p. 95), personal characteristics go beyond and provide a self-expressive

benefit to the brand user. Self-expressive benefits contribute to the self-image of

which the user aims to portray, to himself and to other people, when using a specific

brand. In the case of Colgate Time Control the female speaker, Tracey Bailey does

this prototypically. She emphasises her concern for good dental hygiene and healthy

gums, and as a consequence presents herself as a considerate, sensible and caring

personality. As she is a Colgate Time Control customer, and illustrative for the Time

Control brand, she transfers her personality to the brand; at the same time

encouraging consumers, who see themselves as considerate and sensitive, to try the

product.

A further aspect of a brand as a person is found in the voiceover. Presenting scientific

evidence for the product’s functionality and providing information on the product’s

components, the voiceover establishes an expert-to-customer relationship.

Colgate Time Control’s brand personality is also supported by its mother brand

“Colgate”, in itself associated as a sensible choice, and for people concerned with

dental hygiene. As Colgate Time Control carries the name of the mother brand,

consumers will relate to Colgate whenever hearing or seeing the name Colgate Time

Control, providing a direct link to associations with the Colgate brand. In order to

separate Colgate Time Control from the mother brand, a specific segment of the

market has been targeted. Market segmentation is based on UK geographics,

demographics and psychographics.

Demographic segmentation is based on general consumer characteristics, such as age,

gender, occupation and income (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). As Tracey Bailey is

presented as a typical Colgate Time Control customer, the demographic segmentation

is shown in terms of age, lifestage and possible education. The archetype buyer of

Colgate Time Control has, according to the advertisement, reached an age where

receding gums are a common issue, as well as an educated opinion about dental

  19  

hygiene and the challenges that come with age. This is supported in the

advertisement’s first sentences where she states that to her “change is normal: a little

grey here and a new wrinkle there. But when I noticed my gums starting to recede, I

was concerned.”

Psychographic segmentation, based on psychological dimensions such as lifestyle,

opinions, interests, and attitudes (Pickton & Broderick, 2005, p. 377), is often used

when consumer lifestyle or personality impacts purchasing behaviour. Choosing to

show the brand’s personality traits, Colgate is targeting consumers according to

psychographic as well as demographic and geographic aspects. In the advertisement

Colgate’s target group show personality traits such as a consciousness for a healthy

lifestyle, concern for their general hygiene and an aspiration for a positive self-image.

Tracey Bailey depicts all these traits, as she is concerned with her receding gums, her

decision to act upon it and the resulting satisfaction about her smile, as she says, she

hasn’t “felt this good about [it] […] in years” (ad text).

Summing up, the Colgate Time Control brand is focused on its functionality, as well

as the benefits it provides to its customers. People that are highly involved with dental

hygiene and that are of a certain age are targeted, and are likely to be generally

invested in their health and wellbeing.

Discourse Analysis Genre and Sender-Receiver Relationship Colgate’s “Time Control” advertisement deals specifically with age-related tooth

decay and appeared on television so as to promote the product. Typically for

advertisements, the overall communicative goal of the sender is to persuade the

receiver, in this case the individual watching television, to purchase their product. The

sender is Colgate, or to be more precise the publically owned Colgate-Palmolive

company, who aim to address the stakeholder group of their own customers, as well

as potential future customers with their campaign.

Though Colgate is the actual sender of the message, a differentiation needs to be

made within the advertisement itself. The campaign has two speakers – Tracey Bailey,

  20  

a horse trainer, presumably above the age of 40, and a male voiceover. Whether

Tracey Bailey is a fictional character invented by Colgate or actually gives her own

opinion about the product is cannot be determined, but nonetheless, she serves as

second sender to that of the male voiceover. While Tracey Bailey speaks of her

ageing and her worry about tooth decay, the voiceover presents facts about the

product at hand. As such, the following analysis of ideational and interpersonal

structural resources will analyse Tracey Bailey’s transcribed speak and the transcribed

voiceover separately. In the textual analysis both texts will be analysed together, in

order to establish a connection throughout.

Ideational Resources

As the woman in the advertisement represents a member of the public, who has

reached a certain age and is therefore concerned with her health, both mental and

actional process types are to be expected. Mental process involves a processor and

phenomenon, where the subject of the sentence represents the processor and the direct

object represents the phenomenon (Stillar, 1998). In the exemplary text, the second

sentence provides a relationship between the processor and the phenomenon with a

perceptive process, where the woman speaking is also the person perceiving: (“I”),

the phenomenon is “my gums starting to recede” and the verb indicating the mental

process is “noticed”.

This process is followed by a further mental process, this time in a combination with

an action process. The sentence “I decided to use the new Colgate Time Control”

represents a mental process, in particular, a reactive process focusing on the decision

to use Colgate Time Control. Within this mental process, there is an embedded action

process, expressed by “to use the new Colgate Time Control”. This sentence

represents an affective action process, where the agent is missing, but is implied to be

“I”, i.e. Tracey Bailey, and the patient is “the new Colgate Time Control”. This

combination of sensing as a mental process (Stillar, 1998, p. 25) and the

consequential action represents a logical sequence of processes that typically lead to

actions. A further perceptive mental process follows the action process: “I haven’t felt

this good about my smile in years”, and serves as a consequence to the action that was

previously taken.

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The timeline-setup of Tracy Bailey’s speak is supported by circumstantials, time and

perspective. Her expression, “when I noticed my gums starting to recede” serves as an

adverbial of time, to set the time frame of the departure of Tracey Bailey’s mental and

actional processes. This is supported by the time expressed through the tenses of the

verbs. All verbs previous to her trying Colgate Time Control (“noticed”, “was”,

“decided”) are set in past tense, representing the completed time before-now (Stillar,

1998, p. 27). The sentence representing the time after the trial of Colgate Time

Control, however, is constructed with the past perfect (“haven’t felt”), indicating a

process that has started before-now and which has just finished. In combination with

the process types and the circumstantials, the time frame establishes a clear timeline:

the time previous to Tracy Bailey’s trial, the decision to try the product and the phase

past her trial.

As opposed to the Tracey Bailey text, the voiceover text does not contain mental

processes, but is instead built up of action and relational processes. For the most part

of the text, the subject, the agent in an action process, is Colgate Time Control or its

formula. In the first example, it “penetrates gums” and “makes them up to 73%

healthier”; showing a direct relation between the product and the effect it will have

through these action processes. The product’s functionality is explained through a

more tangible process, an action process, rather than through abstract themes.

A possessional relational process, with Colgate as the possessor, can be identified in

the next sentence, where it is stated, that “Colgate Time Control also contains Vitamin

E”. Despite being more abstract than an actional process, this possessional process

outlines the extra ingredient in Colgate Time Control toothpaste in one clear

formulation. As opposed to the actional process previous to this example, the

relational process expresses that only one participant is involved – the product.

Whereas the focus previously was on the product’s interaction with a person’s gums,

now Colgate Time Control’s attribute is in the foreground in order to illustrate another

positive side.

Also unlike the first text are the lack of circumstantials and the exclusive use of

present tense. The perspective in all sentences is completed, which is indicated by the

  22  

use of the simple present tense. Furthermore, the present tense establishes a timeframe

in the present – now – showing that the statements are currently valid.

The validity and the helpfulness of these statements are supported by the use of

taxonomies revolving around the health theme. A meronomy, a part-whole

relationship, can be found in the sense that “healthier” is the whole, implying that

health is the conceptual field, and parts of it are, “prevent them [gums] from receding

further”, “vitamin E”, and “protection against time”. The way they are presented

creates an implied relationship of their contribution to the overall health and their

function as individual parts within the whole health theme.

Establishing an expository text with narrative elements with a health theme, Colgate

makes sure to point out the contribution of their product to dental health. Considering

the overall communicative goal, the voiceover serves to outline the positive

characteristics of Colgate Time Control in order to make the product more appealing,

ultimately making the advertisement more persuasive.

Interpersonal Resources

As the text presented by Tracey Bailey revolves around actional and mental processes

and is built up to show a narrative, its construction of exclusively declarative

sentences is appropriate. The use of the declaratives in the form of statements imposes

an authority on the listener and establishes the statements as factual (Stillar, 1998).

The use of declarative sentences indicates that the grammatical mood “performs a

relational function” (Stillar, 1998, p. 34), meaning that it shows the way the speaker

relates to the listener. That being said, despite the exclusive use of declarative

sentences, a positional resource in the form of a constructed attitude and evaluation is

also identified. Expressing “you can’t control time, but you can control its effects”,

the speaker shows her attitude towards the concept of time. Through the change of the

subject in this sentence compared to previous sentences, from the first person to the

second person, a change in perspective is made. The speaker still presents what is said

as factual, but directly addresses her audience instead of speaking of her own

experience. Conversely, the concept of “you” can also express a generalisation rather

than addressing a person or a group of people in particular. It is likely that the use of

  23  

“you”, as a generalisation, is intended in this sentence. Nevertheless, both uses of the

second person indicate the speaker’s attitude.

Whether “you” is seen as a generalisation or addresses the listener directly impacts

the use of modality. Depending on its use, modality can express both a positional and

a relational function (Stillar, 1998). If the second person is seen as directly addressing

the listener, the modality assigns permission and the lack of ability to the addressee.

The fragment “you can control its effects” serves as permission to the listener to take

control of his or her own situation. If the use of the second person is to represent a

generalisation, the modality has a positional function, to construct the speaker’s

orientation to reality. Saying, “you can’t control time”, the speaker shows her

understanding of time and the fact that individuals have no influence on the concept

of time. Both interpretations provide different views to the function that the modality

fulfils in this context. Nevertheless, it can be said, that both functions are likely to be

intended in this sentence, so that the modality carries both a positional and a relational

function within the same sentence.

Through the use of attitudinal lexis, the speaker presents her attitudes within the text.

Qualitative adjectives, such as “normal” and “good” are found, as well as a degree

adverb “this good”. These adjectives and adverbs show the position of the speaker

and therefore have a positional function.

The declarative text structure, establishing the speaker’s authority, together with

positional use of modality and positional function of attitudinal lexis create a text that

determines the woman speaking as a credible speaker, whose attitudes are relevant.

Similar to the first text, the voiceover in the second text only speaks in declarative

sentences, establishing authority towards the listener. The speaker presents the

information given to the audience as facts. This relational function is, other than in the

first text, not accompanied by any positional functions, such as positional modality,

attitudinal lexis, or sentence adjuncts. However, this fulfils a certain purpose. In the

first text the relationship between the speaker and the listener is established as one

party – the woman speaking – narrating her experiences. The intention is to

sympathise with her and to follow her story and ultimately her argumentation based

  24  

on her personal experience. In the second text, the speaker does not act as a person,

who has tried the product, but as a neutral voice speaking of the qualities of the

product. In order to appear factual, positional terms are left out of this text, and

instead neutral wording is used to describe the effects and qualities of Colgate Time

Control. The relationship with the listener is not based on sympathy, but on the

listener’s intention to learn more about the qualities of the product.

Considering the overall communicative purpose, the first text creates a different

relation between the audience and the speaker than the second. The first text

establishes a more personal relation, where the woman tells a story about her personal

situation, and the second text represents a professional relation, where the speaker

educates the listener of the product’s features.

Textual Resources

The textual message, set up in order to present how the ideational and interpersonal

functions are organised in terms of their linguistics message (Stillar, 1998), is based

on themes and cohesion in relation to the text’s medium and channel.

Through the use of a communicative channel that is exclusively one-way without the

possibility of instant feedback or responses, an atmosphere in which the listener only

has the possibility to accept or decline information is created, without the possibility

for the listener to negotiate or discuss with the speaker. As the message is mainly

spoken with some of the statements supported by a written version of the points made

(“Time Control”, “Up to 73% healthier”, “Everyday protection against time”), the

listener is encouraged to only retain information that is made out to be important.

These aspects have to be considered when analysing themes and cohesion in the text.

In the first text the voice is consistently active. No passive sentences are used and

within the active sentences, three different unmarked themes are detected.

Represented by the subject in an active sentence (Stillar, 1998), the unmarked theme

in the opening sentence is “change”. In the following three sentences the theme is the

speaker (“I”) and in the last sentence, the second person, “you. In the second text the

  25  

themes revolve around the product, “clinical trials”, “Colgate Time Control”, and

“new Colgate Time Control” being the respective unmarked themes.

The second text especially, shows logical coherence through the use of related themes,

making it easy to follow the argumentation. The first text seems more unorganised

with the changing of themes throughout the text. As the unmarked theme in the first

sentence spoken is “change”, rather than the person speaking, as it is in the following

sentences, a change in subject could be assumed. That being said, the “change” theme

and the person speaking are directly connected in this part, as the woman speaking

represents the change that people go through, as they grow older. Thus, the themes of

change and the person speaking are interrelated and a logical coherence is created. In

the final sentence where the unmarked theme is the second person, “you”, the theme

of change is applied to the listener. Telling the listener “you can’t control time, but

you can control its effects”, the speaker establishes the theme of change to the listener

and conveys the same application of change through time to the person seeing the

advertisement. The logical coherence that can be seen through the use of these

interrelated themes is firstly the notion of change in general, secondly, the change for

the woman speaking in the advertisement and lastly the change that affects everybody,

represented by the person seeing the advertisement.

Apart from a text’s theme, coherence is established through reference, ellipsis,

conjunction and lexicality (Stillar, 1998). Coherence in the form of reference, ellipsis

or conjunction is almost not to be found in these texts. Only one instance of coherence

through the use of a conjunction can be found in the use of the adversative “but”.

Seeing both texts as one, as they appear within the advertisement, the observation that

they do not speak one after another can be made. Firstly, the female tells part of her

story, which is stopped at the point where she outlines that she decided to use the

product advertised. The voiceover outlines the product’s features in the next part. In

the following the woman tells of the positive effect the product has had on her and

what she has learned from using the product. Finally, the voiceover presents the name

of the product together with a product slogan.

Having these four parts by two different speakers in the advertisement, cohesion

through repetition, ellipsis or conjunction becomes nearly impossible, as the speakers

  26  

only present very few sentences before being superseded by the other speaker. Instead,

lexical cohesion is predominant throughout the advertisement.

Within this text, themed around both changes that comes with age and the product

Colgate Time Control, which has the purpose to stop hurtful changes to teeth and

gums, several lexical choices are found. “Grey hair” and “wrinkle” are typical terms

associated with change that comes with age, while “prevent them from receding

further” is aligned with the topic of stopping decay in teeth and gum quality.

Repetition is another cohesive choice found within text. The term “control” especially,

appears often when the length of the text is considered. Within the term “Colgate

Time Control” as well as otherwise in the text, “control” appears six times, creating

repetitional cohesion. The word combination “Colgate Time Control” appears four

times, emphasising the term throughout the advertisement and making it more

memorable.

Through the use of themes involving ageing, change and people’s ability to have an

effect on this change, the sender of the message evokes attention from a particular

group of people, who are able to identify with these issues. With the limitation of

providing a one-way channel through which the message is sent, where immediate

feedback is also not possible, the overall communicative purpose of arousing interest

to possibly encourage people to try the product can be achieved, though with the risk

that the message is not completely understood. In order to ensure this understanding,

repetition is used throughout, especially a regards product name.

Prevailing Discourses Two main discourses are to be found in the advertisement text. The first and most

prominent discourse is a health discourse. As previously mentioned, “Time Control”

carries the Colgate name, and with it Colgate’s brand associations. As Colgate is one

of the biggest brands within dental hygiene and health, and has been a prominent

brand for many years, its name is vastly associated with dental health. The Colgate

brand is also mentioned four times within the relatively short text, highlighting its

importance throughout.

  27  

The health discourse is further emphasised by both the female speaker and the

voiceover. In the first part of the text, the female speaker outlines: “when I noticed my

gums starting to recede, I was concerned”, showcasing how important oral health is to

her, compared to changes in physical appearance, which she argues to be normal. As a

result, health is given a higher importance compared to the other issues appearing in

the text. Te health discourse is furthermore underlined by the voiceover, stating that

“clinical trials show that Colgate Time Control’s formula penetrates gums and makes

them up to 73% healthier, helping them from receding further”. Terms such as

“clinical trials”, “penetrates gums” and “healthier” are also typically associated with

health and hygiene. The next sentence describes the ingredient Vitamin E, which is

vastly linked with being healthy and preventing diseases, more precisely gum decay,

as lack of Vitamin E was made out to be a cause of diseases, such as scurvy.

Throughout the majority of the text, the health discourse is highlighted and oral

hygiene specifically is often made the subject of elaboration.

A second discourse that is strongly represented in the advertisement is the ageing

discourse. Already in the first sentence, the female speaker says “change is normal: a

little grey here and a new wrinkle there”. With this, she describes the typical changes

in physical appearance that come with increasing age. The name of the product,

Colgate Time Control, also implies ageing, especially in connection with the last two

sentences of the text: “you can’t control time, but you can control its effects” and

“Colgate Time Control – everyday protection against time”. Here, “time” does not

describe the abstract concept of time, but serves as an analogy for increasing age. The

discourse attempts to show that despite the inevitability of age, the product can have a

positive influence on the effects brought upon by age.

Together the two discourses form a connection throughout the text that directly links

people’s general health and increasing age. By establishing this connection, the

authors are able to create discourses where Colgate Time Control is seen as a means

to improve oral health as opposed to not using the product which would have a direct

negative effect on teeth and gums.

  28  

Burkean Rhetoric Burke’s first classification, grammar, is concerned with how patterns in the discourse

index construct motives. He proposes a dramatistic pentadic model consisting of five

elements: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. Burke states that when attributing

motives to others, people rely on ratios between these elements. By identifying how

each element is construed in a text, it is possible to get a picture of its construction of

reality (Stillar, 1998).

In the first sentence of the voiceover “clinical trials show that Colgate Time Control’s

formula penetrates gums…” shows an agent:act ratio. The agent is “clinical trials”

and the attributed verb is “show”. Using “clinical trials” as the agent rather than the

product itself, which is the main focus of the advertisement, Colgate sets the motive

in order to display how experts conducting clinical trials see the product. The subject

in this first sentence is not Colgate itself, but another group of experts, allowing

Colgate to portray neutrality in assessing the product and to increase believability

towards the audience.

A purpose:act ratio is found in both the woman’s and the voiceover’s text. In the first

text, the sentences “But when I noticed my gums starting to recede, I was concerned. I

decided to try the new Colgate Time Control” create a prupose:act ratio with the first

sentence serving as the purpose and the second sentence as the resulting action. A

similar relation is noticeable in the subordinate clause “that Colgate Time Control’s

formula penetrates gums and makes them up to 73% healthier, helping prevent them

from receding further”. In this sentence the purpose is stated in the second part,

whereas the first part serves as the act. With this purpose:act ratio Colgate established

a logical connection between health benefits and the use of their product in order to

create such an association in the viewer.

The purpose:act ratio, with the implied motive along the lines of “by using Colgate

Time Control you are preserving your dental health”, makes the listener identify with

the message. Using a woman who outlines her experience with the product in relation

to her health, the creators of the advertisement appeal to the audience’s pathos. The

person seeing the advertisement may identify with the issues presented by the woman,

  29  

despite not being addressed directly, creating a feeling of empathy and thus reducing

emotional distance. In emphasising the importance of good dental health in the text, a

conviction that is shared in most of the Western World, Colgate convinces the

audience that they share “substance” with the sender.

In the second ratio, the agent:act ratio, a form of social order marked by hierarchy is

established. As previously mentioned, the sentence is constructed in a declarative,

meaning that no direct orders are given to the addressee. However, a hierarchy is

established through the use of the term “clinical trials”, implying a panel of experts

analysing the products. Mentioning the experts’ assessment of the product enhances

the credibility of the campaign and influences the viewer through ethos, as

knowledgeable people in the field find it effective.

Results The brand analysis of Colgate’s sub-brand Colgate Time Control has revealed that

Colgate markets the product as a shopping good rather than as a convenience good,

making it possible for them to charge a higher price. In order to have consumers

choose their product over a cheaper alternative, the Time Control branding is set up to

increase consumer involvement with the issue of dental hygiene, especially those

consumers already concerned with such issues. The core identity of the Colgate Time

Control brand is defined by its functional aspects, toothpaste that protects against

ageing gum decay. This core identity is supported by more functional aspects of the

brand and a personalisation in the form of the typical product user, represented by the

woman Tracey Bailey. She attaches personal characteristics to the brand, such as

trustworthiness, functionality and expertise; characteristics that are also carried by the

Colgate mother-brand, when lending its name to the Time Control sub-brand. A

distinction between these two is made through the establishment of a narrow target

group for Colgate Time Control; people of increasing age.

In the discourse analysis, a separation of the advertisement into two different

linguistic and discursive messages was identified. On the one hand, the woman

speaking in the advertisement is a character that the viewer of the advertisement is to

empathise with. She speaks about her personal situation in order to make viewers

  30  

identify with her situation, arguing that Colgate Time Control helped her overcome

her difficulties. Through the use of narrative language, sentence structure, and the

build-up of a timeline, she becomes a relatable person. The voiceover on the other

hand provides factual information on the product through the use of simple language

in the present tense without any circumstantials or other deflective language.

The analysis based on Burkean rhetoric adds to the finding, as it suggests that the part

of the advertisement with the female speaker contains language that creates an appeal

through pathos, whereas the text of the voiceover represents an appeal through ethos,

expertise is given through the use of expert status and factual information. Despite the

separateness of these parts, the advertisement is connected as one, through the use of

a consistent theme of the change that comes with age and the use of Colgate Time

Control to battle this change. Cohesiveness throughout the advertisement is created

with repetition of the product’s name and the prevailing discourse of dental hygiene.

Discussion Looking at the results in light of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, it becomes

apparent that viewers are targeted both through the central and the peripheral route.

Central processing is encouraged by the factual information provided by the

voiceover. The information is not particularly tangible, but here the strongest

arguments are given. When engaging in central processing, viewers typically assess

information given with regards to quality, provided by strong arguments.

People, who are conscious about personal dental hygiene, be it of a preventative

nature or as a result of problems will show high involvement and can therefore be

described as using central processing.

Peripheral processing is supported by the inclusion of the female speaker in the

advertisement. As her text does not contain any statistical information, but is based on

her personal experience, viewers who might not otherwise be interested in the product,

e.g. they already have good tooth hygiene or are in another age group than that

identified by the advert, are given the opportunity to favour the Colgate Time Control

toothpaste; sympathising with the woman for elaborating on her personal situation.

This is a type of identification that happens through a less cognitive process than

  31  

through statistical evaluation. The identification without high involvement is

supported by the simple structure of her narrative that enable viewers to follow her

arguments without much concentration.

It is thus possible to conclude that the findings support the hypothesis by Braverman

(2008) and Reinard (1998): Narratives are used to persuade people with low

involvement whereas statistics are targeted at people with higher involvement.

As was also identified in the brand analysis, Colgate is fully aware of the fact that the

sub-brand Colgate Time Control is not relevant to everyone. With its specific

characteristics, through which it is also defined, Colgate Time Control appeals

through both high functionality and personal brand associations, reinforcing their

target group as people of a certain age. Knowing that their product has only limited

relevance to most of those exposed to the advertisement, as segmentation into

different target groups is nearly impossible within television, Colgate conducts the

message in a way that people for which the product has limited relevance are

addressed, as well as people for whom it is highly relevant.

In order to target the people not particularly interested in toothpaste, Colgate needed

to create a message that appeals without demanding too much attention and

elaboration from the viewer. With a simple narrative, Colgate offers a message that is

easy to follow as well as a sympathetic character, i.e. Tracey Bailey. Colgate thus

manages to evoke some attention without needing too much attention from the viewer

to bring their message across.

The narrative is however unable to persuade people with high involvement in itself,

and as such, statistical evidence is equally presented in the advertisement. As viewers,

who fit the target group – people with gum problems or of increasing age – are likely

to look for strong evidence to support their involvement with the issue, Colgate

provides little, but strong statistical evidence in the advertisement.

The two parts of the advertisement aimed at two different kinds of audiences also

work together as a whole. As previously mentioned, Petty and Cacioppo (Petty, 2004)

acknowledge the possibility of parallel processing, using both central and peripheral

  32  

processing at once. In this case, involvement might be described as lying somewhere

in between high and low involvement so that the viewer collects both central and

peripheral cues to come to a decision. By providing both a narrative and statistical

evidence, Colgate targets people with moderate involvement as well as people with

high and low involvement.

Finally, both the narrative and the statistical part of the advertisement offer different

kinds of information to different viewers, thought they also interact to form a

common persuasive message. The first part of the advertisement, where the woman is

talking about change and her own personal change, has the function to create attention

and to provide an identifiable narrative. A further peripheral means of persuasion is

used in the first sentence, where clinical trials are referenced, adding to the product’s

credibility. These elements serve as peripheral cues, but help add more substance to

the message. The second part of the advertisement provides statistics in order to show

that the given narrative is not an isolated case, but rather a typical development. As

such, the two parts work together to form a collective persuasive message, in order to

create long-term persuasion with consumers with both high and low involvement.

In conclusion, there are two main reasons why Colgate uses both a narrative and a

statistical part in this particular advertisement. On the one hand, the senders look to

address people with high, moderate, and low involvement, to persuade each of them

with the same advertisement, knowing that all of these groups exist in the consumer

group for Colgate products. On the other hand, the message is set up in a way that the

advertisement first evokes attention from people who might not have been very

interested through a narrative and then facilitates long-term persuasion, firstly through

further peripheral cues of credibility, and then through the use of concise statistical

evidence.

That being said, the scope of this paper only provides insight into why Colgate chose

this setup for this particular advertisement. In order to say something substantial about

why Colgate aims to persuade their target audiences in general, further investigation

into different Colgate advertisements will need to be made. To answer why

companies combine narratives with statistics in general, an extensive analysis of

various other advertisements, containing both elements, need also be conducted.

  33  

While this analysis provides an insight into some of the reasons why a combination of

both elements is used by an organisation, no general claims can be made about the

reasoning for all persuaders to combine narratives and statistics in their persuasive

message. It is however interesting to note that a further investigation into this

phenomenon might provide valuable insight into the correlated benefits of narrative

and statistical persuasion as opposed to the majority research’s focus on the

persuasive elements individual characteristics.

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