Psychology of Advertising - Term Paper Example

Psychology of Advertising Psychology of Advertising Psychology of Advertising 2 Introduction Advertising is one of the essential parts of marketing strategies. A good product can be a failure in the market if its entry is not supported with proper advertising strategies. Same way a poor product can be a big success if it is supported with good ads. Based on the advancement of technology, the advertising methodologies also changed a lot. The medium of advertising also has changed. Print media and audio visual media are the two main mediums widely used for advertising activities. “The only method of advertising known to the ancients was the word of mouth. The merchant who had wares to offer brought them to the gate of a city and there cried aloud, making the worth of his goods known to those who were entering the city, and who might be induced to turn aside and purchase them.”“As soon as printed symbols were invented the advertising man made use of them to give publicity to his merchandise. We find advertisements engraved on walls and tombs, written on parchment and papyrus, and printed by the first printing presses. Although these various forms of advertising were employed, but little thought and care seem to have been expended upon them. (Walter D. Scott.) The older version of advertisement usually associated with Posters, painted signs, street-car placards, booklets, calendars, almanacs, handbills, magazine and newspapers etc. The most modern methodologies are making use of the wide prospects of internet technology and cell phones to reach their targets. The older Psychology of Advertising 3 version of advertisements was not targeted to a particular segment of people. But now, the advertisers realized the importance of reaching target people in order to achieve the objectives of the ads. “It is not true that more and more advertising will produce more and more return: there is likely to be a saturation point”. (Erik Du Plessis- Page 11) The success of a product largely depends on the quality rather than the quantity of the advertisements. The advertising should be eye catching, thought provoking and interesting. It doesn’t mean that the advertising should include only the specialties of the product. It can be anything related to the product or its category. The only condition is that it should attract the people whom it is designed for. Literature Review “An ad’s chances of achieving mental reach can be increased by a better understanding of the underlying psychology” (Max Sutherland , Alice K. Sylvester - Page 251) Irrespective of which media you are using, the advertisement should be prepared based on the psychology of the target people to whom the particular advertisement is addressing for. The preparation of the advertisement requires lot of researches about the behavior of the target people. The requirement and the interested areas of the target people should be evaluated properly before the preparation of the ads. "The time is not far away when the advertising writer will find out the inestimable benefits of a knowledge of psychology. The preparation of copy has Psychology of Advertising 4 usually followed the instincts rather than the analytical functions. An advertisement has been written to describe the articles which it was wished to place before the reader; a bit of cleverness, an attractive cut, or some other catchy device has been used, with the hope that the hit or miss ratio could be made as favorable as possible. The mere mention of psychological terms, habit, self, conception, discrimination, association, memory, imagination and perception, reason, emotion, instinct and will, should create a flood of new thought that should appeal to every advanced consumer of advertising space." (Walter D. Scott.) The visualizers and copy writers of ad agencies, earlier spent lot of times to study the features of the product in order to design successful ads for the product. But as per the modern trends they are spending more time on studying the customer psychology rather than the features of the product. Most of the ads nowadays are supported with beautiful ladies in different costumes to attract the people. The advertisers know very well that the beauty and the presentation skills of beautiful ladies can promote their products more than anything else. Even a poor quality product may be a success if it is advertised with the support of a celebrity. The advertisers spend millions of dollars for the promotion of their products through celebrities. They know very well that some people were crazy about some celebrities who were the idols for them. In India, Sachin Tendulkar is regarded as the God of cricket crazy public and every product came out with Sachin’s backing will be Psychology of Advertising 5 sold out immensely. The advertisers know the value of celebrities like, Tendulkar, Shah Ruk Khan, Michael Jackson, Brad Pit, Aiswarya Rai, Jennifer Lopez, Naomi Campbell etc in order to sell out their products. Methodology Recently when I visited a hyper market for a bit of shopping I have seen a girl standing at one side of the curry powder section in a small cabin, promoting their curry powder brand. The cabin was decorated with eye catching brand colors and a lot of decorations were there to attract the consumers. ” Bright colors impress us more than dull ones” (Walter Dill Scott - Page 14). I was not in need of any curry powders at that time, but still I walked towards the cabin just to see the things around there and to watch the success of the promotion. I have seen that even the dresses of the girl were matching the brand colors. I asked her about the product first. She told me that they are selling 3 different curry powder packets, at the cost of two only. I just stood at the corner of the cabin and watched the promotion going on. I have seen lot of people who were reluctant earlier, approached her, attracted by the kind of words she delivered about the product. She has supplied them with small pieces of some cooked items like fried chicken which were cooked with their curry powder. Most of the consumers, after tasting the cooked items, purchased the curry powder. I asked her about the logic and profitability of such a marketing campaign. She told me that though their margin of profit will be less, because of the large volume of Psychology of Advertising 6 selling they were able to counter it. I asked her about the expenses of the campaign. She told me even after meeting the expenses of the campaign, the promotion will be a success. Moreover she told me that such a promotion will help them in identifying the customer needs directly as they were asking the suppliers to fill up a customer opinion survey about their product. The publicity of the product through this campaign will help even the future movement of the product. Again I asked about the colorful decorations both in and around the cabin. She has explained the importance of color in advertising to me. “BLACK suggests authority, power, boldness, seriousness. BLUE suggests security, authority, faithfulness and dignity. BROWN suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and effectiveness. GRAY suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and creativity. GREEN suggests health, fertility, freedom, freshness, healing, tranquility and jealousy ORANGE suggests pleasure, cool, excitement, cheer, endurance, strength and ambition. PINK suggests femininity, gentleness, well being and innocence. PURPLE suggests spirituality, royalty, luxury, wealth, sophistication, authority and mournfulness. RED suggests excitement, strength, sex, passion, vitality, aggressiveness and commands attention. WHITE suggests refined, purity, devotion, contemporary and truthfulness. YELLOW suggests warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness, jealousy deceit and cowardice”. (Kurt Geer). She has given me a piece of chicken which was fried with their curry powder. That was so tasty and I decided to purchase their curry powder though I was not intended to purchase it earlier. I have realized the psychological effect of the campaign as I have purchased half a dozen packets of the curry powder. Psychology of Advertising 7 Discussion “The successful advertiser must study psychology and that he must do it at once.” (Walter Dill Scott - Page 5). Even before developing the product the manufacturer should be clear in his views about which segment of people he is targeting and what type of advertising activities needed for the success of the product movement. The budget for the advertisement also decided as early as possible before the introduction of the product. The consumer psychology must be analyzed thoroughly through researches and surveys before adding features to the product. The manufacturer must recognize that it cannot be all things to all people and that it must focus on what will distinguish it in the market place. The success of a product often related to the influence of the advertisement performed. In order to influence a customer the theme of the advertisement should be carefully designed. Sometimes the lack of advertisement will kill the product. So the planning of different types of advertising activities through Medias such as Television, Print media, internet, etc is very important. Consumers respond to new products in different ways. “An understanding of why people buy is gained by a willingness to acquire proved and tested principles of commercial psychology to selling”. (Drew Eric Whitman - Page20). It is important to study why a particular product moves faster than a similar product of same quality. We can see that mobile phones with blue tooth technology and video streaming facilities moved faster than other kinds of cell phones especially among Psychology of Advertising 8 the youths. But in the case of older ones, such phones may not be that much popular. So while preparing ads for such phones the advertisers know very well that they have to target the youth segment of the society. They will make use of popular celebrities among the youths for the advertising campaign of that particular product. Recently I have witnessed an ad with some old guys acting in it. I was surprised to see such old guys in an ad which are usually dominated by youths. But after a careful examination, I found that this particular ad is targeting the older people who were retired. The ad was regarding an insurance scheme which is usually the interesting topics of the retired people. It is always better to utilize older people on such ads as the psychology of the retired ones mostly associated with what other older people are saying rather than the youth’s. “The principles of advertising are largely based on cognitive psychology and the psychological processes of attention, perception, association and memory to bring out the complete impact or uses of a product or brand. Any advertisement will have to first focus on the attention that it is able to capture of the consumers. Strong messages, strong visuals and glaring colors are sometimes used on hoardings and billboards. For commercials, attention catching clothes and attractive models are sometimes used” (Saberi Roy). For each and every media, the methodology advertising should be different. In television, more visual effects are added to attract the consumers while in radio, the strengths of sound should be used to attain the objectives of the advertisement. In news papers and other print media the writing ability of the advertiser Psychology of Advertising 9 will be tested. The uniqueness of the advertisement also influences the consumers. For that innovative ideas must be developed by the advertisers to segregate their advertisement from the competitors advertising strategies. The timing of the advertisement is also important to influence the customers. A good advertisement at a wrong time can make negative impacts rather than the positive. Most of the business groups utilize the sports events and stadiums for promoting the product. People in a relaxing mood will always notice the advertisements than the people in a tensed situation. A person who is busy with some engagements will never notice even the best advertisements. Famous sports events like football world cup, cricket world cup and other sports competitions often sponsored by famous business organizations to market their product. “Young people are more skeptical than they were in the past and today they are more likely to discount advertising’s persuasive power”. (Lynn R. Kahle; Chris Riley Page 110) The modern people are intelligent enough to identify the good and poor products in the market. Advertising alone cannot lead them to a decision. They will compare the features against the value of the product before buying the product. Most of the youths in the earlier centuries were influenced much by the advertising campaigns compared to the present youths. Psychology of Advertising 10 Conclusion The advertising methodologies have changed a lot in accordance with the changing attitudes and trends of the customers. Scientific approaches are vastly implemented in this field as well. Psychology plays an important role in developing advertising for a product or service. The consumer trends and behavior have studied extensively before making an advertisement. The consumers are more interested in the quality rather than the quantity of the advertisements. Each and every color has different meanings in advertising. Irrespective of the nature of the consumer rich or poor, younger or older, male or female, advertisements can influence the public a lot while taking decisions in buying a product or service. Psychology of Advertising 11 References 1. Drew Eric Whitman- CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone- Page20 - Publisher: Career Press; 1 edition (November 3, 2008) Retrieved on 23/12/2008 http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1601630328/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link 2. Erik Du Plessis - The Advertised Mind: Groundbreaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising -Page 11 - Publisher: Kogan Page (August 28, 2008) Retrieved on 23/12/2008 http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/074945024X/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link 3. Kurt Geer - The Psychology of Colors in Advertising and Marketing Retrieved on 23/12/2008 - http://www.bharatbhasha.com/psychology.php/22036 4. Lynn R. Kahle; Chris Riley-Sports Marketing and the Psychology of Marketing Communication (Advertising & Consumer Psychology) Page 99, 110- Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1 edition (July 2005) Retrieved on 23/12/2008 http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0805857907/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link 5. Max Sutherland , Alice K. Sylvester - Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesnt, and Why- Page - Publisher: Allen & Unwin; 2 edition (October 1, 2000) Retrieved on 23/12/2008 http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1865082317/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link 6. Saberi Roy - The Psychology of Advertising Retrieved on 23/12/2008 http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Psychology-of-Advertising&id=1393622 7. Walter Dill Scott - The Psychology Of Advertising: A Simple Exposition Of The Principles Of Psychology In Their Relation To Successful Advertising Page 5, 14- Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (May 5, 2006) Retrieved on 23/12/2008 http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1425484573/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link 8. Walter D. Scott - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADVERTISING.- Retrieved on 23/12/2008- http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/190401/scott Read More