Importance of Entertaining Advertising - Term Paper Example

Importance of Entertaining Advertising To be successful, a business must take the psychological aspect of consumer emotion into account when pricing and marketing products and services. Buyers are not always entirely rational and do not usually have ideal information when they purchase products. Perfect rationality implies that decisions are made in a way that maximizes the gain on every pound spent while accomplishing the goals and outcomes expected. Consumers are sometimes quite irrational in the way they go about making purchase decisions, particularly as they become influenced by their emotions. Buyers characteristically make many purchase decisions on an almost daily basis primarily based upon how the purchase will make them feel. They participate in this process within the context of the many other decisions and activities which make up their lives, causing varying degrees of stress and/or satisfaction. In the marketplace, they encounter a wide array of vendors and product offerings with a complex variety of benefits, prices, terms, and promotional messages all promising, to some degree or another, a desired emotional outcome. Research findings suggest that much of what people do when they buy products and services follows a definite logic. Consumers look for cues to help simplify decision making, and often rely on simple rules of thumb that will help them meet their present emotional need. Correspondingly, it is possible to identify patterns of behavior in the way buyers go about satisfying their needs (Morris, Morris, 1990). One of the primary means by which consumers determine their levels of emotional satisfaction is determined by their perception of the purchase made. Consumers often have few indicators of quality, so price may be perceived as one of the better available cues.  However, in making a purchase that gives them an emotional boost, they may also feel remorseful or guilty about the extravagance of purchasing something for their own gratification and make following purchases with an eye toward economy. By studying the various psychological aspects of consumer behavior as it is shaped by emotion, it becomes possible to market products and services to be of maximum appeal to the target market. In determining how emotion affects consumer behavior, one of the first questions that must be asked is what is emotion and how is it defined. According to Ritson & Elliott (1997), this is the biggest problem in the field as no easy answers have yet been proposed. “Plutchik (1980) reviewed 28 definitions of emotion. He concluded that there was little consistency among the definitions and that many of them were not sufficiently explicit to give a clear idea what an emotion actually is” (cited in Ritson & Elliott, 1997: 127). One of the more common understandings of what is meant by the term emotion is any kind of feeling that is brought about by a particular perception of a situation. However, this feeling cannot be intellectually based such as in the form of a judgment of others or a building curiosity and it cannot be physically based such as when someone is particularly energetic or worn down. Numerous studies are available attempting to place the role of emotions into a biological context, to predict probable emotional reaction to particular stimuli or to determine emotional reaction to advertising, but most of them are limited not only in their scope, but also in their ability to accurately measure the basic, fundamental emotions that drive much of the actions of human beings, such as love (Ritson & Elliott, 1997). Other problems with these types of studies are the tendency of these types of studies to test the extremes of emotions outside of the consumer context. “It is quite unlikely that consumption experiences will result in such extremes of emotional intensity” (Ritson & Elliott, 1997: 129). Instead, consumer emotions are much more subtle and exists within a narrower range of extremes. Studies attempting to more accurately measure the range of emotions associated with consumption behavior identified emotions such as “guilt, worry, eagerness, and optimism” (Ritson & Elliott, 1997: 142) as playing significant roles in purchasing decisions. Other emotion states that were identified as having an impact on purchasing behavior were suspicious, bored and uninvolved. Humor is often used as a means of making a product appear more in tune with the ‘in’ crowd, but usually do this at tremendous expense such as the Bud Lite commercial entitled “Bear Attack.” This advertisement opens up with a noisy and confused camera angle that quickly focuses in on two men and a dog running away from an angry and very large bear. One man tells the other to split up and the bear (and the camera) follows the one who spoke. Cornered against a sheer stone wall, the man digs a Bud Lite bottle out of his backpack, twists open the cap and places the beer on a rock. Throughout this action, the bear becomes increasing still, dropping to all fours and becoming almost tame at the sight of the outstretched bottle. However, just before the bear can grab the bottle, the other man comes running at an angle between the first man and the rock, snatching the beer away in the process and further upsetting the bear. The announcer then tells us the name of the product as we watch the cool yellow liquid poured into a tall glass with beads of sweat already trickling their way down the sides and the bottle set down on a blue screen before the slogan pops up letting us know that this beer is “always worth it.” The scene then cuts to the top of another hill as the first man, with torn clothing and exhausted, finally catches up with his friend, who has apparently long since finished the beer and now seeks praise for his quick moves in snagging the beer: “Did you see those moves?! I was on fire!” This dark sort of humor may function well to draw a quick laugh from a group of college fraternity boys, but its message exploits more than it seems. While the idea that two men hiking in places so far away that very large bears might be chasing them, yet they still choose to carry this type of beer with them while they go helps to reinforce the idea that beer is always appropriate, the fact that they’re taking bottles into the wilderness demonstrates a profound lack of concern for natural places and wildlife. The advertiser no doubt thought that having an animal as wild as the bear is portrayed would make it seem as if their beer is so good that even primitive life knows of it and appreciates it. He succeeds instead in de-mystifying nature, placing it more into a ‘city’ perspective and tacitly granting permission to treat the forest in much the same way one might treat a city street, leading to the idea of broken beer bottles littering the floor of the forest is expected and normal. The anger of the bear, chasing the men with no apparent provocation sends out a message of nature as a hostile, threatening thing better avoided. The action of the friend, who runs in to snatch the beer out from under the bear’s paws just when he seems to be calming, is supposed to be the funny part, but the idea that he’s left his friend to be killed by a further enraged bear while he enjoys the beer that might have saved him sends out a very disturbing message about appropriate friendship relationships. Actions such as this would have been considered supremely dishonorable and disgusting not so long ago, but with advertising such as this, the idea of responsibility for one’s neighbor has gone out the window in favor of selfish self-gratification with no guilt or adverse consequences. Advertisements don’t always display such blatant disregard for societal concerns. Ford’s commercial for their Escape Hybrid featuring Kermit the Frog works to capitalize on the attitudes and beliefs of parents concerned about the quality of life in their children’s future as well as those who feel responsibility for the environment. The advertisement opens with an image of Kermit the Frog singing “It’s Not Easy Being Green” as he rides his bicycle over a rocky trail through brush-covered hills, paddles his way through rushing rapids through a rocky gorge, climbs a steep cliff looking over a pine-covered mountainside and finally parts the leaves of thick, bushy undergrowth to reveal the SUV. He peeks inside, giving the advertiser the opportunity to show off the interior and then walks around to the back where he sees the word “Hybrid” stamped to the side. The song stops as Kermit makes the observation that perhaps “I guess it is easy being green.” Then he stands there and nods his head vigorously as he stands back to look at the car while an announcer’s voice comes in to tell us this is “The 36-mile-per-gallon Ford Escape Hybrid.” The commercial ends with a white screen and the car’s name and logo prominently displayed, along with a website address where people can learn more. There are several ways in which this commercial works to influence the viewer. To begin with, their use of the character Kermit the Frog both conjures childhood memories for the target demographic as well as brings to mind thoughts of caring for the children of the world as the character is frequently a star in children’s programs. His song seems to be the lament of the environmentally conscious everywhere as they struggle to live a healthy, outdoorsy life while still doing the responsible thing for the environment. His travels through this environment are surrounded by the color green, though, emphasizing that maybe it isn’t so hard to be green, even while his activities and locations are reminiscent of several of the more popular activities people do while on vacation. Vacations, of course, represent relaxation and enjoyment, not the struggle and effort suggested in Kermit’s song. Finally, the fact that Kermit finds the SUV at the top of the mountain suggests that it was able to overcome all of the challenges he had already gone through during the space of the commercial. Not only is it environmentally friendly and frog-approved, it is spacious and rugged as well. By simply announcing the name and the gas mileage, the advertiser gives off the impression that this is all a person needs to know about this vehicle to make it worth buying. At the same time, the message being sent out to the community by this advertisement is that it really isn’t all that difficult to be green, taking small steps to protect the world that’s constantly around us without significantly affecting our own comforts and luxuries. Although a believer in freedom of expression, a close look at the advertisements on TV display a wide range of both responsible and irresponsible messages sent out on a regular basis that typically goes unnoticed and unremarked upon. Because the consumer market typically pays only scant attention to these commercials, the messages they send are able to insinuate themselves into the popular culture. The more humorous they are, the more they are remarked upon and discussed in general conversation and the further their message is spread. This is the intent in an effort to sell the product, but the secondary effect is a general acceptance of the type of selfish behavior demonstrated by the second man in the Bud Lite commercial, allowing this sort of behavior to be enacted within the general society and breaking down any kind of connections that might have been made under older codes of honor that are now featured as merely the butt of jokes. However, there is evidence that advertisers can choose to advertise their products with a high degree of social responsibility, as is demonstrated in the Escape Hybrid commercial. Although it helps if the product, like this example, is one designed to assist the environment, this is not always the case nor is it a necessary prerequisite. Rather than banning or restricting the types of things that can be included in commercials, it would be better to run independent commercials that serve to educate the consumer on how to see through the marketing ploys and encourage them to promote more responsible and positive messages on TV through their feedback to the companies involved in objectionable advertising. The debate between whether advertisements should concentrate on building emotional bonds with consumers or should focus on brands has been held since the advent of scientific application to the field. While ad agencies in America embraced the psychology of images to influence consumer choice reflecting an emotional appeal to the senses, businesses recognized the need to avoid the outrageous claims and voyeurism most commonly associated with the medical hawkers that worked to swindle people out of their money by selling contrived unproven concoctions to cure everything from balding heads to excess weight (Thomson, 1996). Meanwhile, the British market took the stance that it was the marketer’s responsibility to educate a previously unthinking public about the brands and products available, effectively providing all information necessary for them to make the ‘correct’ decision (Church, 2000). Despite this early emphasis on bringing product features to the attention of a viewing audience, recent scientific thought regarding the importance of relationship principles has led to what Deighton (1996) has labeled a tremendous paradigm shift in the world of advertising. While some researchers conclude that presenting feature-based arguments is the most effective means of promoting a product or service (Millar & Millar, 1990), others now insist emotion-based appeals are the best method of eliciting desired consumer behavior (Edwards & von Hippel, 1995). Despite the willingness of corporations to jump into the relationship market, though, there remain few studies that examine the reasons consumers might seek ongoing relationships with specific brands or even if they do (Webster, 1992). The debate between whether advertisements should concentrate on building emotional bonds with consumers or should focus on brands has been held since the advent of scientific application to the field. While ad agencies in America embraced the psychology of images to influence consumer choice reflecting an emotional appeal to the senses, businesses recognized the need to avoid the outrageous claims and voyeurism most commonly associated with the medical hawkers that worked to swindle people out of their money by selling contrived unproven concoctions to cure everything from balding heads to excess weight (Thomson, 1996). Meanwhile, the British market took the stance that it was the marketer’s responsibility to educate a previously unthinking public about the brands and products available, effectively providing all information necessary for them to make the ‘correct’ decision (Church, 2000). Despite this early emphasis on bringing product features to the attention of a viewing audience, recent scientific thought regarding the importance of relationship principles has led to what Deighton (1996) has labeled a tremendous paradigm shift in the world of advertising. While some researchers conclude that presenting feature-based arguments is the most effective means of promoting a product or service (Millar & Millar, 1990), others now insist emotion-based appeals are the best method of eliciting desired consumer behavior (Edwards & von Hippel, 1995). Despite the willingness of corporations to jump into the relationship market, though, there remain few studies that examine the reasons consumers might seek ongoing relationships with specific brands or even if they do (Webster, 1992). This method of appealing to the emotions is thought to be effective for a variety of reasons. To begin with, people of many different culture types nevertheless tend to interpret the primary characteristics of emotion types, their similarities and differences, along relatively consistent prototypical perspectives of categorical knowledge (Fehrman & Fehrman, 1991). However, this is only true for the basic emotions in terms of their information processing tasks of categorization. These include reasoning, identification and cognitive economy instead of actual physiological or biological responses. The study conducted by Ruth (2001) demonstrates that consumers do tend to perceive brands differently depending upon the categories of emotion they have associated with a specific brand. Those brands which demonstrate a close match between the product and the emotional categorization with which they’ve been linked are generally considered in a more favorable light than those brands that are associated with more negative emotions or that present a mismatch between the emotional appeal and the product delivery. The degree of success of an advertisement making an emotional claim is largely dependent, then, upon the degree to which the consumer feels the product lives up to the claims made as well as the hierarchical level of the emotion category with which it is linked. The degree to which emotional marketing actually has an effect on consumer decisions is difficult to measure. Although there have been studies that suggest elements such as background music and ad likeability serve to increase brand awareness (Biel, 1990), other studies have indicated that likeability is not enough to suppress cognitive intervention in product selection. In their study, Rothschild and Hyun (1990) show how recognition of television advertisements was increased when the right brain was employed, demonstrating emotional appeal, but that the left brain (cognitive function) took over after the first initial seconds. They did this using EEG technology as a means of bypassing the cognitive intervention of placing emotions into words when trying to study the effects advertising has on potential consumers. In a study conducted by Franzen (1994), it was also found that some cognitive awareness of the product features was necessary for an advertisement to be effective regardless of the degree of emotional appeal. Entertainment is often a quick means of engaging the consumer’s attention, but it is not always necessary in order to appeal to the emotions. The magazine ad for Garnier Nutritioniste Ultra-Lift Deep Wrinkle Treatment is targeted toward older women who are just beginning to show the signs of aging. This is made clear both because of the use of a female face to help sell the product as well as in the social understanding that it is mostly women who are concerned about showing their age. On one half of the ad is a picture of Sarah Jessica Parker with her hair pulled back in a white headband and looking straight out at the audience. Her lips are slightly parted and her eyes are clearly focused on the camera. The other half of the ad features a large picture of the product and three small close-ups of portions of Parker’s face on a black background and explained with a good deal of text. As a result, the ad is presented in a split vertical panel allowing one side to ‘speak’ to the consumer on an emotional level while the other side ‘speaks’ on a more scientific level to try to convince customers to purchase this product. This presentation makes it clear that the Elaboration Likelihood Model is being used to persuade customers to purchase the product. The Elaboration Likelihood Model consists of two routes of thinking. The first of these is the central route. The central route uses high elaboration to encourage extensive issue-relevant thinking. This route is taken on the right side of the advertisement in the black panel. Here, the consumer is shown close-up specific areas of the face that the product is intended to improve. While the text promises that with use of the product “skin looks dramatically younger”, the close-up pictures illustrate where it improves appearance by plumping the skin such as around the mouth area, how it improves appearance by filling in lines such as those usually found on the forehead and how it smoothes skin with a close-up of Parker smoothing the product over her cheek with a carefully manicured hand. The final piece of information provided in this panel is a circle divided into three equal parts, each of which is filled with a symbol or segment of a main ingredient used in the product. This suggests that the product is all-natural and thus presumably healthier than other products that are built with more chemicals. This high degree of information forces the intended consumer to consider the various issues involved in her choices for skin care products, promising desired results in a healthy, all-natural material. The second route of thinking used in the Elaboration Likelihood Model is the peripheral route. This route uses low elaboration allowing consumers to make simple decisions based more upon emotional reaction formed through cues other than explicit information. This is the approach used on the left side of the advertisement through the close-up of Sarah Jessica Parker’s face. Cacioppo’s Influence Principles are employed here offering social proof and liking. Parker is widely considered to be a very attractive women with an ageless quality about her primarily because she is older than her mid-20s, but no one knows how much older because she doesn’t show it. The close-ups of her face don’t seem to reveal a great number of wrinkles or other signs of age. At the same time, Parker is a celebrity and is well-liked by the demographic the advertisers are attempting to sell on the product. Although there is a series of progressive shots demonstrating the improvements in Parker’s appearance over time, supposedly as a result of using the product, the end result is simply that she is a beautiful woman. This association causes many women in the target group to desire results like Parker has experienced and thus persuades them to at least give the product a try. While entertaining the consumer is a good approach to effective advertising, as this study demonstrates, there are other approaches that can be effective as well. In focusing on entertainment, advertisers can frequently have unintended or intended effects on society, but these effects may backfire. Studies have demonstrated that the emotional appeal is most effective in a young market where not much is known about the product, but emotions can be engaged through more means than simply through entertainment. Other methods include appealing to innate desires to remain young, slim and beautiful such as is demonstrated through the Garnier ad. Thus, while entertainment is effective, there are several other means of creating effective advertising without necessarily resorting to entertainment. References “Bear Attack.” AdvertisementAve. November 22, 2008 Biel, Alexander L. (September 1990). “Love the Ad, Buy the Product? Why Liking the Advertisement and Preferring the Brand Aren’t Strange Bedfellows After All.” Admap. Vol. 26, pp. 21-25. Church, Roy. (November 2000). “Advertising Consumer Goods in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Reinterpretations.” The Economic History Review. Vol. 53, N. 4, pp. 621-645. Deighton, John. 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