Is Advertising for Fools - Essay Example

This "Is Advertising for Fools?" essay describes the different techniques that ad uses to attract customers and how it impact on our preferences and consumers' behavior. Communication What is communication? Understanding consumer behaviour and the buying decision-making process is easy if the process of communication is mastered. Communication is the process of sending a message passing through a channel or medium to a receiver from whom a response is elicited. This definition can be summarized in a diagram as in Figure 2 (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004).

Communication has five components: The first is the sender, who formulates or begins the message, identifies the receiver and specifies the reaction that is expected, and then specifies the channel that will be used. Using a boy who wants to attract a girl’s attention as an example, his simple message (the second component of the communication process) can be: “Are you free for lunch?” The message is intended for the girl. The expected reaction, which is the fifth component, we can assume, would be “Yes!

” It can also be assumed that the boy is willing to spend for the girl’s lunch. Later, once he becomes better at marketing, he can get the girl to pay for the lunch. Going back to the example, the boy can then choose any of several channels, the third component of the process: a mobile phone call, text messaging, an e-mail, a live channel (a friend who knows the girl), or an old-fashioned communication channel: a folded, scented, coloured sheet of paper with the message written on it.