Advertising and Trust - Research Paper Example

Advertising and Trust Introduction: Competition at the market level is the core reason for the evolution of advertising. Companies advertise to create publicity for their services and products so that they can effectively reach their target consumers or clients. Consequently, through advertisement, products and services of any given company or organization get market, thus generating revenue for the company (Green, p 56, 2012). Competitive advantage is crucial for success in the industry; a factor that most organizations and companies in the market seek to achieve. Thus, advertisement gives companies the platform and channel to reach the intended buyers and convince them to prefer and purchase their products over rival company products (Green, p 34, 2012). However, the main issue that advertisers face in trying to reach their target market is trust. Do customers trust advertisements or not? The concept of fair competition necessitates the incorporation of ethics and regulations in the practice of advertising to ensure fair, accurate and decent delivery of information advertising. Nonetheless, winning consumer trust still remains a big challenge for advertisers despite the advent of technology and other platforms for advertising. This paper explores the issue of trust in advertisement and seeks to identify whether or not consumers trust advertisements. Consumer Trust and Advertisement Persuasion plays a crucial role in advertising. Advertising exclusively focuses on improving sales of a given product. Consequently, advertisers must work hard to win the trust of their intended audience by trying to craft advertisements that reflect social values rather than those that appear to shape societal values. Historically, advertisement word has been perceived as dirty and often aimed at creating superfluous needs and usually twists the truth. Many people advertisements as ill-fated, usually aimed at capitalizing on people’s vulnerabilities. As such, one cannot avoid asking the question: are advertisements evil as portrayed? According to Moriarty et al (2014), advertising critics argue that it strongly and constantly influence the choices of vulnerable groups like teenagers and the entire youth world. Consumers often display lack of trust for illogical and irrational promises and ideas propagated in adverts. It is evident that from past establishments, about 85% of all new products launched into the market do fail (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 256, 2014). This is a clear show that consumers do not trust advertisements. Smart advertisers tirelessly work to win over the trust of their segment markets. For instance, smart marketers through their strategic approaches deliver the product of good quality and apply honest means of advertising. Observing from this evidence, it is notable the sense of how difficult it is for the advertising to persuade the intended consumer or customer. The advertisers’ challenge is to reach to the intended customer successfully. However, trust usually stands between advertisers and their target market. The community is so fortunate in the market to have a proliferation of services and products at their disposal such that wading through the millions of products cramming the retail shelves to that one product of interest becomes a challenge (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 258, 2014). Therefore, the thousands of marketing messages from each of the service or product suppliers all seek to capture the attention of the buyer. It is observable that the commercial messages appear all over, as advertisements and brand messages are printed all over the products, television, magazines, billboards, radio, phone booth, sport arena, and the internet. Thus, an average person in developed world will have contact with over 3000 adverts in a day (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 259, 2014). However, amidst intense competition among competing products, advertisers often find it challenging to keep their products on top of others. Consequently, they often tilt the truth by including false information to woo their target market into buying their products instead of those of competitors. Thus, the advertising job is remarkably difficult with respect to establishing a lasting trust with customers. Therefore, the key to establishing a successful advertisement that engenders persuasion of the consumers is to establish a focused advertising strategy (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 261, 2014). A persuasive advert in all its presentation should have a clear emotional delivery, which has the capacity to convince the listeners or viewers, but still remain accurate and honest. The advertising strategy facilitates a clear identification of the prospective target and defines all the needs, wants and desires of that target (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 262, 2014). Consequently, through gathering this meaningful information on the subject, then engage a clear and creative translation of the gathered information into a persuasive message, which will capture the intent of the target audience. Advertisers can employ the use of persuasive language to woo the trust of their target market. Accurate means of creating persuasive message for the advertisement then follows through the written strategy of establishing the objective (Green, p 87, 2012). The objective is whether the advertisement message will convince the consumers to feel that this single service or product is the most useful in the marketplace. Honest delivery of information on advertisement, taking consideration on the audience’s age, gender and many other pertinent and demographics is pertinent to winning the trust of potential buyers of the advertised product (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 266, 2014). The advert must go beyond the outward immediate experience and give a categorical brand feeling that overcomes the worries and needs of the consumer. Therefore, overcoming the issue of trust demands that the advertiser gives the consumer reasons to believe in the product and its attributes (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 268, 2014). The advertiser must provide the supporting proof that the product is indeed what the advert says it is. This way, the use of tone and manner of presentation is another aspect of creating persuasion (Waiguny, Nelson & Terlutter, p 272, 2014). Once these factors are in observation, the role of persuasion in winning the trust of consumer is achieved in the context of the advertising expedition. The product placed in the market with successful persuasion has higher chances of success in the market. The facilitation of the supporting parameters for the advert such as the supply of the product in the market gives the product the demand expected, hence a successful work for the advertising team (Green, p 166, 2012). Persuasion is a key element of the advertising job is notably the most challenging to achieve as it can easily dilute the concept of trust in the advert. However, persuasion remains one of the most crucial tools that advertisers can use to win over the trust of their customers. Ethics and regulation also play a crucial role in boosting trust between advertisers and consumers. In most cases, advertisements are plagued with ethical concerns as advertisers focus on bringing the best out of their work at all costs. As such, the advertising fraternity operates under strict federal guidelines and regulations that foster ethics in all advertisements. The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for monitoring the advertising industry and its engagements. The ethics gives the governing factors for the truth-in-advertising laws to ensure that the advertisers do not get a leeway to violate the established ethical standards or violate the consumer confidence (Stafford & Faber, p 45, 2005). Therefore, it is the responsibility of the advertisers as they pursue their job to ensure they act in ethical practices at all times, always taking the extra care in advertising with respect to given guidelines in the industry. Having the ethical and legal issuance can help in creating a successful and responsible message for the advertisement, thus fosters trust among consumers. Some of the key considerations in ethics and regulations for the advertising process in the industry include the following. The most significant regulation as well as ethical consideration is that of maintaining truth in advertising. The Federal Trade Commission Act responsible for overseeing the established advertisement messages set the requirements for ensuring truth in advertising. The legal fraternity is responsible for enforcing this established Act, which aims at protecting the unsuspecting consumers from the negative exploration o f the advertisers (Stafford & Faber 2005 p. 54). The act does clearly state that all advertisements ought to be truthful and devoid of any deceptive, unfair or misleading information. The advertisers must present the evidence of the claims they make in the given advertisement message. Therefore, using deceitful statements such as those that may mislead the consumer to make purchase decisions is a punishable crime (Green 2012 p. 201). The unfair advertisements may give unfair advantage to the product, which in effect may not produce the outcome insinuated from the message of advert. Thus, it is essential for all advertising fraternity to ensure and facilitate fair and accurate information in the message of the advert (Stafford & Faber, p 65, 2005). Truthfulness is critical to having a successful persuasive advertisement. Although the current legal guidelines and ethical expectations do define the need for truthful advertising, it is notable that when children are considered, the law allows greater room for unethical behavior. Children may not profoundly understand the concepts of hooked messages, which have exaggerations. Therefore, the law is non-responsive to the needs of children protection from the advertisements that may exploit their vulnerabilities. Further, the law in place ignores completely the ramifications of unethical approach to the legal advertising such as building brand loyalty in children (Stafford & Faber, p 87, 2005). Children need to understand the brand and establish what it entails thus, the advertisement ethics define that the most appropriate mode of addressing this challenge is to advertise to the parents rather than children. Most advertisements convey deceitful messages to children owing to the fact that they cannot deeply understand the messages. Consequently, critics of advertisement often lay bare the untrustworthiness of advertisers, compounding to the already existing mistrust between advertisers and their target audience. Therefore, it is unethical and illegal to advertise to children. In different countries, advertising control looks at the products and services being offered and strives to strike a balance of responsibility among the citizens by defining what the citizens can legally indulge (Stafford & Faber, p 85, 2005). The regulations in place prohibit the advertising of illegal and harmful substances. The regulation also allows the advertising of some of the harmful substances but demands the placing of a warning statement on the product to ensure the consumers have a clear understanding of the product and the consequences of its consumption. For instance, the advertising of cigarette is only permitted in some media and excludes other media such as television and radio, whereas alcohol advertising is permitted in all media (Stafford & Faber, p 99, 2005). Thus, such considerations are important in regulating the advertising industry. Companies need to look at the products they produce and establish their nature before engaging the advertiser as the advertising industry holds a high respect of ethical expectations. Another illustration is that of pharmaceuticals where the advertisers have the obligation to warn the consumer of the side effects of these products (Stafford & Faber, p 103, 2005). Thus, such considerations facilitate the industry of advertising. The advertising tactics gives the ethical challenges entailed in presenting the advertisement (Nyilasy, Gangadharbatla & Paladino, p 704, 2014). The advertiser’s body has a vast range of tools at their disposal for use. For instance, they can employ subliminal advertising, emotional appeals or taking advantage of the illiterate individuals and spreading propaganda for campaigns in the advertisement. Consequently, advertisers need to employ ethical approaches and scrutinize their messages before feeding them to their target audience, if they are to win a pinch of trust from the customers. Trust is among the most common factors that advertisers seek to establish in their clients and the consumers. It is evident that to sell products and service, the consumer has to have trust that their interests and needs are serviced in this product. Thus, tapping trust in emotional advertisements is crucial. However, with the advent of technology and expansion of the markets, trust is issues in advertisements continue to be on the rise. Among the leading factors of consideration in trust are the ethical considerations as well as the legal confines of the advertisements. Building trust in consumers mind builds the expected perceptions, which engage a positive approach to the promises in the advertisement (Nyilasy, Gangadharbatla & Paladino, p 700, 2014). However, when the message entailed in the advert is inaccurate or untruthful, then building trust becomes a challenge. Thus, truthfulness and accuracy is among the leading factors that impact the establishment of trust in the advertisement industry. Another challenge to trust in the advertisement industry is the communication procedures entailed in the process. A brand will easily lose credibility when the social media simply spam the product adverts through mails and other social platforms for the consumers. Therefore, although the advent of technology has significantly improved the advertisement job and facilitated easy channels of reaching the consumer, it is essential to use the media thoughtfully (Stafford & Faber, p 176, 2005). Therefore, the technological advancement ad its application can impair the building of trust in the target consumers. Role of Trust in Brand Building Issues of transparency, accountability and social responsibility with respect to the advert and messages entailed in the advert can cause lose of trust by the consumers. Therefore, he advertising body seeks to maintain successful trust in the consumer through acting in transparency and accountability as well as being socially responsible (Nyilasy, Gangadharbatla & Paladino, p 697, 2014). Trust is significant in the advertisement process because it facilitates key factors that facilitate success of the advertisement. Notably, the establishment of trust gives the product a strong and reliable market base in the competitive platform, facilitating success for the product producers. Another aspect of significance of trust in advertising is that it helps build a superior user experience among the consumers as the product gains more marketability. Building trust gives the product a positive perception and this ensures the brand claim to be trustworthy. Therefore, trust in advertisement is key factor and as advertisers body, the factors of success is to ensure trust as it facilitates and covers all the ethical and legal guidelines of the industry. Trust is the corner stone to the relationship established between the advertiser and the target consumer; hence, an important component of the advertising job. Analysis of Trust Cases The front foot campaign for advertising entails a heavy and established network of advertisers and media owners and agencies that facilitate the recourses and guidance required in ensuring the advertiser has a say in matter about their job. The network facilitates the building of evidence and drive for engagement of each of the advertising beneficiaries; hence, building on the economy if the nation and giving services and products to the people (Nyilasy, Gangadharbatla & Paladino, p 694, 2014). The entity seeks to facilitate promotion of advertising and advocate its freedoms and laws. However, the subject of green washing remains crucial in evidencing the given challenges to the campaign of the front foot body. Greenwashing is where some advertisers convey false offerings of the products and services to the consumers (Hartmann, Apaolaza, D'Souza, Barrutia & Echebarria, p 743 2014). Thus, greenwashing is a socially and environmentally destructive form of some companies or institutions of attempting to expand their market power through posing as ‘friend’ to the market and consumers. An illustration is the case that happened to Shell Oil Products company in the U.S. where their presented a false advertisement that they would give a free lift ticket voucher to the customer buying ten gallons of fuel. However, the case was not true as the plaintiff presented the case and evidence at the district court of Oregon district. Another case of such occurrence of green washing is the case of Esso in Scarborough Ontario, Canada where the promotion of Pepsi drink saw the company give a false advert (Hartmann, Apaolaza, D'Souza, Barrutia & Echebarria, p 752 2014). Such false adverts create the room for escalated lack of trust in advertisements, and consequently cause the advertisement job to be remarkably difficult. Further, the companies that act in such unethical manner suffer the consequences as their products lose grounding on the market. Conclusion Advertising is aimed at increasing the popularity of companies and their products, thus increasing sales. However, the relationship between advertisers and consumers has not been a rosy one because consumers perceive advertisers as unethical people with exclusive motive of generating high product sales rather than working for the common good. Clearly, trust remains a major concern for advertisers, whether they are applying traditional advertising approaches or current technology driven adverts. Consumers basically do not trust adverts and advertisers must display a great deal of truthfulness and honesty in their adverts in order to win even a fraction of their trust. Bibliography Green, J. (2012). Advertising. New York, Rosen Central. 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Waiguny, M, Nelson, M, & Terlutter, R 2014, 'The Relationship of Persuasion Knowledge, Identification of Commercial Intent and Persuasion Outcomes in Advergames-the Role of Media Context and Presence', Journal Of Consumer Policy, 37, 2, pp. 257-277, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 March 2015. Read More