Developments in the 1950’s were all about convenience and aesthetics, with inventions such as microwaves and color televisions that came in a variety of colors and designs to match your cookie cutter house perfectly. This decade was one of large progression for the development of the hearing aid. All of the ads centered on this time period are either completely focused on or largely focused on the fact that the hearing aid they are attempting to sell is smaller and less visible than other hearing aids or even previously produced ones. Of these three ads, two of them hyperbolize adjectives such as “miniature” and “invisible” to describe their product, and one ad even uses an “actual size” picture to give their customers a visual of the product they could buy. While there may not be anything offensive in the ads, all the models in the ads are pretty, young women. Young women and hearing aids seem like an odd combination considering you would expect the main customers of these devices to be older men and women who have progressively lost their hearing. Using the pretty women as the cover of their ads may bring more attention to their ads, but does not necessarily portray the correct group of people who would be seen using the devices. Another not so user friendly aspect of the ads is as we assume that you would be marketing to an older group of people, you would expect the ads to be fit for seniors to use and read easily. But this is not the case; two of the three ads contain large paragraphs of small words and not many pictures. The ads are almost full explanations of how the device works rather than just short and to the point statements that make it easy for an older person to quickly read and comprehend.
While the visual marketing strategies may have been a little off, the textual marketing worked very well. Each ad specifically focuses on how their hearing aid is more convenient and less visible than previous hearing aids. One ad specifically shows pictures of different angles of the ear with the hearing aid in and gives descriptions explaining how the hearing aid is nearly invisible. A separate ad appeals to its customers by pointing out all the flaws in other hearing aids and how their hearing aid improves those nuisances for its users. Both of these ads take different approaches in convincing the customer of their validity and functionality while still focusing on the same main idea of smaller hearing aids. One ad takes an almost mysterious approach with a life size picture and simple explanation of its small size. Without explaining why this hearing aid is better than the others, or the flaws of other previous hearing aids, the marketers still achieve their purpose and even exceed it as it leaves the readers curious and wanting to know more about how this hearing aid is so good. To give legitimacy to their claims, each ad includes the brand name in large letters, usually in a different font from the rest of the wording on the page. In most cases, the brand name is the firs thing that really pops out to your eyes and therefore one of the first things to read which consequently makes I nearly impossible to forget the name being advertised. Money and cost was an aspect that was only mentioned in one of the ads while the others did not even mention “low costs” let alone an actual price. This could indicate that the one ad would be marketed to more high-class person who would be curious about the price, but not be deterred by the cost of the hearing aid.
The main goal of all these ads was printed large and clear on every single of one their paper advertisements. This really helped get the ads to the point and to make them successful. Different marketing strategies were used by each ad, making them marketed to different types of people, but all remained to be informative and convincing in their ways.
Works Cited-
Otarion. “Actual Size of the New Otarion Whisperwate”. Advertisement. 1951. Washington University School of Medicine. Deafness in Disguise. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Beltone. “Invisible Hearing Aid”. Advertisement. 1957. American Memory from the Library of Congress. Printed Ephemera. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Zenith. “I’m Very Deaf but I Hear Everything with My New Zenith Miniature Hearing Aid”. Advertisement. Popular Mechanics. 23 Mar. 1950: 5. Modern Mechanix. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.