G.D.

GOENKA WORLD SCHOOL

EXENDED ESSAY
ENGLISH A: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
CATEGORY: 3

Name of the candidate: Tanya Singh

Research Topic- Role of mass media in creating

brand consciousness among the youth of NCR

Candidate Number- 002279-0098

Research QuestionSession- May 2015
Subject- English A Literature and Language
Category 3
Word countAbstractSupervisor- Mrs. Sarita Johri

Introduction-

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The effect of the mass media is not to elicit belief but to maintain the apparatus of addiction.
-

Christopher Lasch1

The topic I chose for my essay is The role of mass media in creating brand awareness among
the teenagers of India. I chose this topic because as I observed my surroundings, I realized that
most of the young students I come across are becoming more and more brand conscious. If one
does not possess the latest cell phone, or a branded school bag, he/she is not looked the same
way as others are. As I explored the reasons as to why this is currently happening, I came to one
conclusion- mass media. Mass media is the means of communication that reach large numbers of
people in a short time, such as television, newspapers, magazines and radio. 2 But as the above
mentioned quote suggests, it does not help in evoking belief, but it does so maintain the magic
that attracts you more towards itself. This can therefore be applied to brands. One of the only
common links I found among the variety of international brands that are popularly discussed
among the Indian youth is the role of mass media. The way they portray their goods through
numerous kinds of advertisements, how celebrities idealized by the young crowd displays their
love for brands in movies or real life, etc. The basic method of communicating such ideas to the
adolescents is the mass media. As a result, I would be analyzing how mass media comes into
play in this situation of spreading brand awareness and thereby creating brand conscious
youngsters.
But, what is brand consciousness? Literally, it refers to awareness of popular brands and wanting
to buy particular brand rather than others.3 With a population of about 1.252 billion (2013) 4,
1 "Christopher Lasch Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/christophe366672.html?src=t_mass_media>.
2 "Mass Media." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mass+media>.
3 "Cambridge Dictionaries Online." Brand-conscious. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
<http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/brand-conscious>.
4 "Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. <https://www.google.co.in/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=0LTMU_vQIIvV8ge56oDIAQ&gws_rd=ssl#q=population+of+india>.
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India is a developing country with the wave of globalization taking over the minds of a major
part of the population today. This major part includes the youth, that is the people who fall
under the age group of twelve nineteen. In a developing country like India, the population
generally gets divided into three sections- the rich, the middle class and the poor. So to maintain
their place in the society, brands play an important role among the youth. Brands reflect how able
the person is to go forth in living an elegant life. As everybody wishes to look their best, they
want to have the best of products to enhance their living and hence become confident about
themselves and their physical appearance. It is said that the first impression works miracles if
portrayed in the right way. This is why the youth uses brands as a medium of reflecting a number
of things, like physical appearance (brands of clothes, make-up, accessories etc), wealth
(vehicles) and so on.
Consequently, to investigate this topic, I will be using some data based on primary research.
Also, I will be analyzing the techniques used by print and visual media to sway away the fickle
minds of young children.

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Exploring mass mediaMass media is all around us. From a simple newspaper to a complex social networking website,
all such sources that surround human beings are a medium of communication. Broadly, I have
divided mass media into three categories- print, visual and the internet. Further, I will also be
describing how advertisements in each category satisfy their objective of selling their branded
product:
1. Print media:
Print media refers to ways of communication that involve printed text or pictures, such as
newspaper and magazine advertisements, hoardings, mails, etc. They use simple yet affective
language that leaves a significant remark on the readers brains. Since they have no visual
effects, their picture, colour scheme, jingle, logo and language of the content are the main
attractions. Each of the physical form of media is described belowNewspapers:
A brand can advertise its product easily through a newspaper, as every household has access to
one. Full page advertisements attract a lot of attention as compared to half or quarter page ones.
Newspaper advertisements have to be precise yet effective. As a consequence, they use
techniques like attractive colour schemes, statistics, tempting pictures, slogans and jingles that
capture the young minds. For example, Nike uses its slogan Just do it in all the advertisements.
Magazines:
Magazines work the same way as newspapers, but are a more effective way of brand advertising.
Since they are more specific to genre like sports, beauty, fashion, household, and so on, they
allow the countless brands to advertise in a specific genre, thereby reaching out to specifically
aimed audiences. For example, an advertisement of Audi R8 is more likely to be found in a
sports magazine than a fashion one.

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Billboards, posters/Hoardings:
Brands reach out to more and more people through the medium of billboards and hoardings in
public areas such as marketplaces, flyovers or even buses and so on. Along with the techniques
described above, these may also use some creativity like 3D effects to grab more attention from
the audience. This form of advertising accomplishes the aim as teenagers, who usually leave
their house for school, etc get the opportunity to notice such billboards, posters or hoardings.
Their appeal is significantly increased by their huge font and pictures with less of written
content, making it simpler to be read on the go.

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The picture below is of a cell phone from the brand Micromax mobile, in promotion of their
A70. I have analyzed the way youngsters look at it and how they responded to this technique.

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The above text is a printed advertisement of a cell phone of the famous brand Micromax. Being a
printed advertisement, the brand focuses on precision of the content, effectiveness and simplicity
of language, supporting pictures and the logo. The advertisers designed the advertisement in a
way to compare the features and price of their phone to the Apple iPhone. The content of the
advertisement plays a key role here in turning the tables. As the largest font size for the words i
phone have been used and text is added over it, it is a clear cut indication of their aim, while
adding a tint of humor to it. No doubt this technique is very new and innovative method of
5 N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2015. <http://www.indianlogic.in/wpcontent/uploads/2015/01/getimage.dll_.png>.
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putting forward an idea. But how did this create brand awareness about the Apple product along
with the Micromax one is the question. The name of Apple is deeply rooted in the minds of
Indian youngsters due to several factors that this brand uses in the marketing of its products.
Keeping those facts aside, we now look at how this particular advertisement of Micromax A70
promotes both Apple and Micromax. Using a satirical approach, the advertisers emphasize on the
affordability of their product, by simultaneously comparing it to the Apple product without even
using their name. This also helps us in recognizing the irony in the slogan of the brand, which
says Nothing like anything.
As there is a huge price difference in the two, a major focus has been given to this aspect as the
word afford has been repeatedly utilized. Hence, it can be concluded from this aspect that the
audience for this advertisement are the Indian middle-class youngsters, who may not have the
means to buy an expensive phone like the Apple iPhone, but are getting a chance to get similar
features in an inexpensive one. This way, it increases the brand consciousness for iPhone too, as
it gives the readers an allusion regarding the same. Other features of the phone too are well
described using the picture and arrows. The font size, colours and style used for these points do
not catch much attention as they are not brought up in a way that portrays them as prime
characteristics of the mobile phone. The pictures of the front as well as the side view of the
phone depict exactly how it would look, giving the customers a better chance to judge the
appearance through the printed advertisement. The advertisement uses a simple and soothing
colour combination with a white background, which makes the description of the features in
distinct colours slightly more coherent. The black text of this advertisement draws the maximum
attention. Other helpful information, like the availability of the product and contact details, is
also mentioned at the bottom, in a much smaller font. This increases the effectiveness of the key
content even more. The logo and the slogan of the brand are indicated in the top right corner of
the advertisement, which too, successfully grabs the readers eyes. Overall, even though the
advertisement portrayed the pros of their phone well enough, their idea of bringing i phone in a
comical manner increased the brand awareness for Apple. As a consequence, the idea
successfully reached to only a particular section of the society.

2. Visual media:
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Visual media involves moving pictures, animation, etc with sounds. In this form, a lot of factors
determine how effective the advertisement of a brand is, which include the tone and language
used, duration of the advertisement, celebrity advertising it, sounds and background, and so on.
Also because visuals generally catch more eyes than printed still images and text, the former acts
as a more powerful source of spreading brand awareness as compared to the latter. Some of the
examples of visual advertisements are described belowTelevision/YouTube commercials:
Television or YouTube commercials are one of the leading ways of changing consumers minds.
They tend to use strong persuasive language supported by statistics, factual information about the
product, use of hyperbole, slogans and jingles, comparisons with non branded or ordinary
products, and showing results. Using celebrities to promote their products is a very common and
easily accomplishable task these days. This is because several teens these days idealize famous
celebrities as they observe them on screen. Their impressive personality or skills at particular
fields attract a lot of Indian youths attention. An example for this can be Mahendra Singh Dhoni,
the famous Indian cricketer, advertising for the sports brand Reebok.
Movies:
Movies are another way of swaying young minds. The cast uses expensive branded articles,
which encourage their fans to a great extent. We can find plenty of examples in this section, like
the Hollywood movie series Fast and Furious using various muscle cars, Bollywood movies
like Student of the Year show young students owning Ducati bikes and various sports cars, the
lead actress is obsessed with brands like Prada, Luis Vuitton, Zara, etc. Moreover, film industry
actors as brand ambassadors of international brands like Priyanka Chopra for Guess, Leonardo
Di Caprio for Tag Heuer, etc are another important reason for this. This kind of showcasing of
branded products represents a high class in society, since it is used by actors or, just telecasted
that way. Consequently, the minds of the youth are captured by use of brands, encouraging them
to use them in the way shown. Hence movies and stars allow the international brands to reach out
to the people of a specific region, India in this case.
The link below is a television commercial of a popular brand of hair products, LOral. I have
analyzed its effect in the minds of the public considering various features used by it.
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"L'Oral Paris Total Repair 5 - 20 Sec." YouTube. YouTube, 4 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEr2kDk8Px0>.
The above text is a twenty seconds long television commercial of a hair shampoo and
conditioner of the famous brand LOral Paris. There are many aspects of this advertisement that
might engage not only the younger, but also the older generation; females specifically. Therefore
the audience for this is the Indian females. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who is a well known
celebrity of the Hindi Film industry, is being used to advertise this brands products. She, as an
ambassador of the brand influences more youngsters who idealize her to use the commodities.
The commercial starts with a scene that uses only two colours- red and white, to match those in
the bottle of the shampoo. Besides that, these two colours in combination give a very classy and
rich look to the setting or background of the advertisement, which indicate that the product is
used by the higher class of the society. This further unconsciously makes the youngsters think
that it might be a high rated brand. The advertisement starts with an elementary yet vigorous
idea; it uses rhetorical device as the celebrity asks herself if she would cut their hair short just to
maintain the quality. The commercial catches the eye due to this simple idea, as most of the
teenage girls are obsessed with longer length of hair. She even depicts this by cutting off a hair
band and showing her perfect, long hair. Since the advertisement is about hair products, its main
focus lies on the actress hair and length. As the word Never is used by her, it gives the
customers a confidence about the products. The related facts about how the shampoo works in
solving the five major hair problems is represented using animation and scientific words, which
actually makes the audience think of it as a genuine spend of money. As the words five,
problems, damage and one solution are used, they emphasize on how the shampoo works
wonders by checking all possible hair problems. The celebrity even uses hand gestures to make
the idea more coherent. Since the product is for hair, it can be clearly seen how her hair has been
made to look smoother and shinier, thereby attracting more customers to buy and trust the brand.
She gives the consumers enough confidence on the product as she drops the scissors, reinforcing
the trust in the brand and its product. Her tone in the commercial is pleasant and persuasive.
Moreover, her expressions blend well with the language, content and tone of the advertisement.
The five hair troubles indicated clarify the issues, therefore attracting more of the young females
who may be experiencing the same troubles with their hair.

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But focusing on teen aged females, the advertisement can be analyzed through their perspective
as well. I, being of the same age group, too found this brand captivating, since I too would like to
keep long and healthy hair, as shown in the commercial. Those hair problems are something
almost every girl experiences. Furthermore, we are all concerned about their physical well being
and beauty to some extent. As a result, this particular advertisement makes it clear that the
commodities they are talking about are sure to work. Also, as teenagers are reluctant to watch
advertisements for a long time, this particular commercial is kept short, that is only twenty
seconds that can be watched on the go. The background sound too plays an important role, as it
gives a good base to the commercial and its content. The language used is effective and coherent
to most of the audience in India. Even if some portion of the audience is not too fluent with
English, this advertisement can reach out to them as well due to the choice of diction. (Also
available in Hindi) Talking about language, the celebrity also mentions the brands evergreen
slogan Because were worth it. The use of the word we impacts a large audience by giving
them the confidence. A picture of the product also comes up with a focus on the price, which is
Rs. 72, indicating its affordability. This way, the brand successfully attracts the targeted
audience, and promotes their product through the medium of visual advertisement.

3. The Internet:
In the current hour, adolescents spend a major part of their free time on the internet; be it social
networking websites, games, research work, or even emails. As the use of this technology is
increasing progressively, brands are indulging more into this kind of advertising. But, as public
opinion and the freedom to speech through comments and posts are available on the internet to
an extent, it can also act as a source of defaming a particular brand, or comparing two products
of different brands. The following ways can be used to accomplish this taskBlogs:
Weblogs or blogs are widely utilized to raise a voice regarding a particular issue, post personal
opinions or write own experiences. Giving people the freedom to do so online, where massive
number of teenagers live, it is rather easy to spread a particular view to a huge number of
spectators. The following comparison was made between two phones, most the Apple iPhone 6
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Plus and Galaxy Note 3 after the news of the formers bending problem came up. A very
sarcastic comment saying Bend to those who are worthy has also been made into the picture.
Such humorous posts attract the maximum attention, which in turn spreads consciousness of the
brands involved. This followed to some more great responses from famous brands like Nestle
KitKat, LG USA Mobile and Heineken, continuing the mockery by sharing their views on
Twitter. The #bendgate got sufficient regard as soon as this picture came up:

Social Networking:
Famous websites like Instagram and Facebook assist a lot of brands in promoting their goods and
ideas by making separate pages, which are followed by massive numbers. They keep updating
their page to give the young audience a more inner look into the brand with its new collection,
technology, and other such ideas. An example for this can be the Instagram page of Mango,
where such updates are made on a regular basis.
6 "New Samsung Ad Capitalizes On Apple's IPhone 6 Plus Bending Problem."International Business
Times. Dylan Love, 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.ibtimes.com/new-samsung-adcapitalizes-apples-iphone-6-plus-bending-problem-1694861>.
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YouTube videos:
As any new electronic gadget launches, be it a mobile phone, camera, laptop, etc, a number of
reviews, tech support and comparison videos on YouTube line up. This further increases the
brand consciousness as the youngsters get to observe which brand products are being highlighted
more for such videos. An example for this can be the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 drop test.
The NCR marketThe Indian youth is successful in portraying their brand conscious minds, because of reasons
discussed previously. According to a survey conducted in the year 2008, India ranks in top five
countries where the people are inclined towards branded items.

Survey conductedTo know further about the topic under discussion, a small survey was conducted among 50
people of NCR, aged 16-30. People from different social status responded to the questions asked.
As a result, the survey proves to be accurate to some extent and gives the expected results.
They were asked some simple questions regarding their interests in brands, including the amount
they spent monthly (a rough idea), most preferred brands (whether they were expensive
international ones or regular Indian ones), their preferences for shopping and a choice between
quality of the product and brand name. Also, they were asked to rate their brand consciousness
on a scale from one to ten. 35 out of 50 people rated their brand consciousness as 6 and above,
showing clearly how the majority of the selected youth members are so selective in their choice
between goods and the brands.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Cambridge

Dictionaries

Online." Brand-conscious.

N.p.,

n.d.

Web.

25

Jan.

2015.

<http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/brand-conscious>.
"Christopher

Lasch

Quote." BrainyQuote.

Xplore,

n.d.

Web.

21

Sept.

2014.

<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/christophe366672.html?src=t_mass_media>.
"Google." Google.

N.p.,

n.d.

Web.

25

Jan.

2015.

<https://www.google.co.in/?

gfe_rd=cr&ei=0LTMU_vQIIvV8ge56oDIAQ&gws_rd=ssl#q=population+of+india>.
"Mass

Media." The

Free

Dictionary.

Farlex,

n.d.

Web.

25

Jan.

2015.

<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mass+media>.
"What Is Print Media Advertising?" Small Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/print-media-advertising-55550.html>.

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