Impact of Emotional Advertising and Branding on Consumer Purchase Decision Process - Research Proposal Example

Impact of emotional advertising and branding on consumer purchase decision process in the online sphere Introduction Consumers are constantly faced with choices when making a purchase. The buying decision process of consumers therefore involves the search and collection of information so as to aid the selection of the right product. Nelson has adequately explained the impact of ‘information’ on consumer behavior as well as the likelihood of an increase in monopolistic power if the possessed information is limited to a few brands or products (311). The most basic information centered about a product purchase includes pricing, product specifications and quality, and its possible alternatives in the market. Economists have generally assumed a perfect flow of information in a perfectly competitive market however consumers are susceptible to constraints on the ground which prevents them from having perfect information about any product or service. Such ignorance by consumers impacts advertising heavily thereby strengthening advertising as a tool for information dissemination. The findings from the article by Mela, Gupta, and Lehmann suggest that advertising undoubtedly affects consumer brand choice in profound ways however as promotions increases and advertising reduces, consumers become more price sensitive (248). Normally, price sensitization occurs whenever there is little differentiating factors between several brands causing customers to base their judgments upon price differences, which inevitably leads to a price war. However, in the new digital age and after the emergence of Web 2.0 technology, buyers have access to a lot more information than before and that too through easily identifiable channels. Blogs, social media websites, and other review sites offer a great way of disseminating information and informing customers online about different brands. In a way, communication and information dissemination has been greatly enhanced by the presence of such social media outlets in the cyberspace. A lot of businesses are exploiting the area as a useful yet cheap way of engaging large audiences by expanding their reach to the digital world. This has helped change consumer perceptions about brands and has inevitably impacted consumer purchase decisions online. Advertising is a key driver of consumer behavior as it reaches the consumers by spreading awareness and affecting their attitudes towards products. Effective advertising goes a long way reaching out potential consumer markets and influencing consumer choices and buying decisions. The relationship between a consumer’s emotional center and buying behavior is well-founded as shown by a research conducted by Abideen and Saleem where the emotional response by consumers yielded a stronger connection with their purchase behavior (55). Although situational variables are also important determinants of consumer behavior and actions as explained by Belk, advertising may employ the use of emotional appeals and other messages that are relatively easier to control unlike situational factors (157). But while the literature presents a great amount of work on the communication aspect of advertising, it somewhat eludes the relatively new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology where the emotional processes occurring within the brain have major influences on the behavior of consumers. Hansen and Christensen have examined the role of consumer psychology and the use of emotions in advertising as it affects the buying behavior of consumers, particularly their product choices (14). Emotional appeals used in advertising, as shown by research, are perhaps a powerful way of influencing the audiences. So far the available literature has concentrated on broader consumer behavior variables so as to answer their questions relating to the behavioral psychology of consumers. A great deal of work has been done to explore the impact of advertising on the whole touching relatively less upon topics such as emotions and other cognitive appeals that directly influence brain functioning in order to produce profitable responses for businesses and brands. This paper seeks to examine the question of how emotional advertising used by brands impacts the consumer buying decision process. It has been previously been established that advertising on the whole influences the consumer choices however the increase in the incorporation of and use of emotional appeal (Holbrook and OShaughnessy, 45) necessitates a study into the processes behind its impact on the behavior. Advertising has been employed as a useful tool by marketers in order to communicate certain messages about a brand so as to generate an intended response, usually a purchase by the consumer. With the arrival of new digital media and technology, advertising has take a new turn with promotional campaigns also utilizing the cyberspace with web-based banners, pictures, pages, hashtags, and so on. Emotional appeals in such a case focus on the content creation and the use of imagery and rich graphics in order to appeal to the customers. Some aspects of color psychology also apply with such branding efforts where the target audience feels more engaged in order to respond in lucrative ways for the businesses. Literature Review Emotional appeals can be used in various ways in order to influence the neurological centers of the audiences. Consumer decisions as well as choices are determined from their cognitive capacities and the use of emotions in advertising is meant to tap just that. However, there are variations in the extent to which emotions have lasting impacts on the consumers and thus, they differ temporally. In order to analyze the time-specific impact of the emotions, Bulbul, Mather, and Menon have categorized the effects under concrete and abstract so as to consider how they affect behavior in the short and long term (169). The findings from their research showed that the short term behavioral process of consumers was determined more strongly by concrete affective appeals while the long term behavioral process was determined strongly by abstract affective appeals. On the whole such appeals are creatively used by marketers in order to build customer loyalty and drive such loyalty into productive sales conversions. As advertisements use emotional appeals, the consumers feel psychologically drawn thereby developing a relationship with the products. However, Heath, Nairn and Bottomley have found out that the use of emotive content in advertising may not be as helpful in retaining the attentions of the potential customer thereby resulting in a less effective appeal (450). The findings are consistent with the digital strategy employed by businesses having a presence online in order to develop creative and engaging content so that their audiences feel more involved. When advertisements are created, a number of different considerations are taken into account, such as the tone of the message, content, repetition, and its length. The way in which any particular message is received by the target audience differs according to their involvement with the brand. Such involvement includes their motivation in searching for information about the brand as well as their purchase decision process (Laurent and Kapferer, 41). Active consumers are more likely to receive the advertising communication differently and hence are more likely to conduct an information search about it. Such an involvement is harnessed by advertising that uses emotional appeals to create a certain form of hedonic value due to its monetarily impactful ability. Most brands today mention their social media links so that their customers know where to look for them in the digital sphere. Consumers who particularly arrive by following the links are also likely to perceive the content in a different way. The construction of content is of vital importance here as it directly affects the brand image an individual has of a product or business. Emotional appeals used in advertising are greatly enhanced by knowledge of the target market or consumers’ attitudes and beliefs. Consumer segments inherently hold certain attitudes and beliefs. Advertising that appeals to such consumers based on their values and beliefs are more engaging and lucrative. On the internet, this is very important as the content needs to be carefully designed not to evoke negative sentiments or to spark a wrong meaning. Pickett-Baker and Ozaki analyzed the market for environmental products for those market segments that hold pro-environmentalist values. The result showed a correlation between the customer belief and their preference over environmental products demonstrating a tendency to engage in consumer actions that are backed up by their beliefs (Pickett-Baer and Ozaki, 281). Marketing efforts such as communication via advertising or branding using emotive creativity can therefore be utilized as they seem to have positive impact among consumers that hold certain sets of beliefs and values. When examining the role of emotional advertising in appealing to and impacting consumer behavior, the traditional models of consumer decision making agree with the relationship however makes some assumptions. Emotions are assumed to be sequential in nature and multiple emotions are thought not to be existing simultaneously. The essence of such models is rationality where the actors make rational decisions. Bell talks about the traditional consumer buying decision making process where a consumer identifies a need, collects information for alternatives – in which case advertising is also an important tool, evaluates alternatives, makes a decision and is faced by a post-purchase evaluation. However, such a model is essentially cognitive according to Bell (12). With this, Bell discusses the role of emotional intelligence in consumer decision making process which is transformed from positive as well as negative post-purchase experiences. In the traditional model, however, the scope of negative emotions is considered to be bad and worthy of being overcome. Emotional intelligence is a key attribute that must be promoted, particularly in one’s digital strategy so that consumers online are handled in an appropriate manner so as to prevent the spread of negative electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM) on the internet regarding brands. Since advertising provides a great tool for disseminating marketing stimuli to its target audiences, they are followed by behavioral responses that are a result of appeals. Many variables including personal, psychological, and environmental come into play when a consumer is exposed to any marketing or communication efforts. A central feature of an individual consumer’s personal characteristics includes motivation and emotion is just a sense of feeling that drives motivation to a particular decision for choice or selection. That said, any particular advertisement may be interpreted in different ways and will be susceptible to the environmental, personal, and inherent characteristics of the consumer (Chaudhuri, 1). So, the messages embedded in advertising may produce a set of varied responses from the consumers based on their individual and situational characteristics. Aaker and Williams have explained how the emotional appeals used in advertising works differently across cultures. Since culture is an environmental factor, it moulds every individual that is exposed to it. As such, consumers belonging to different parts of the world may differ in their tastes and preferences and also in their interpretation of messages within advertising. However, emotional appeals tend to impact individuals similarly cross-culturally despite differences in their cultural conditioning (241). Folkes mentions consumer activities being influenced by emotions (560). A paper by Cho and Tout reveals that certain emotional advertisements have a greater impact affectively than cognitively (692). Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer have studied the role of emotions as affecting marketing behavior beyond consumer behavior to see how the mental state of willingness impacts managers and other marketers (184). Emotions are seminal to consumer actions as they determine the way information is processed and behavioral decisions are made. But the article mentions their importance to managerial behavior as well. Moreover, the paper also looks at the various scales that have been used in the past in order to categorize emotional responses to advertising. The literature concerning consumer behavior cognitive processes behind emotional appeals on advertising and their impact on customer buying process has rarely been dealt with although its effect on consumer choices has been done extensively. Thus, this paper seeks to address the question of how emotional advertising impacts the buying decision process of existing and potential consumers in the market. Methodology The chosen approach for answering the research question, a qualitative research needs to be conducted whereby the data collected would arrive from case studies of various advertisements or branding efforts such as social media campaigns, hashtags, social accounts, etc., that make use of emotional appeals. The responsiveness of consumers can be studied in order to reveal how the receiver of emotive messages receives and responds to the message. Perhaps a scale as that suggested by Holbrook and Batra could be used (npag.). A range of branding efforts along with non-emotive ones will be used in order to determine the consumer responsiveness to the different advertisements. More importantly, the impact on the buying decision model should be considered as many marketing efforts are aimed at touching the emotional centers of consumers may not necessarily be needs-oriented but rather want-centered. In addition to his a survey could be conducted studying the quantitative aspects of consumer actions such as purchase or sales online. In this case conversion rates could demonstrate useful insights pertaining to the behavior of consumers affect being informed or made aware of a product or service via advertisements. The interpretation of the findings could be done by producing graphical visualizations as to customer segments with varying levels of responses or actions. However, doing so would incorporate some assumptions such as the tastes and preferences of the consumers stay constant over time. Also, some other limitations include the difficulty in quantifying responsiveness based on qualitative observations. The resulting data can identify the impact of emotions in advertising on consumer behavior and buying decisions as they stimulate a desired action by the target audience. Reach, engagement ratio, following, and conversions can provide useful metrics for an insightful finding regarding the consumer response, in terms of purchases. Works Cited Aaker, Jennifer L, and Patti Williams. Empathy Versus Pride: The Influence Of Emotional Appeals Across Cultures. Journal of Consumer Research 25.3 (1998): 241--261. Print. Abideen, Zain-Ul, and Salman Saleem. Effective Advertising And Its Influence On Consumer Buying Behavior. European Journal of Business and Management 3.3 (2011): 55--65. Print. Bagozzi, Richard P, Mahesh Gopinath, and Prashanth U Nyer. The Role Of Emotions In Marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 27.2 (1999): 184--206. Print. Belk, Russell W. Situational Variables And Consumer Behavior. Journal of Consumer research (1975): 157--164. Print. 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