Analysis of Consumer Behavior - Essay Example

Consumer Behavior An ad to illustrate value expressive group influence advertising appeal and compare with another one to illustrate informational group influence advertising appeal (2 ads in total) There are common approaches that are used in advertising so that consumer behavior can be influenced, they are: the value expressive influencing ads and the utilitarian functional appealing ads for consumers (Park, Jaworski, and MacInnis 1986; Snyder and DeBono 1985). Consumer behavior tends to change with the category of the people, with their levels of purchasing power, and also with how they value a particular brand. Consumer behavior also changes with where the consumer is residing, the cultural differences and all. Reference groups have a major impact on consumers while they select their products for purchasing (Kelly 1947). There are many changes taking place in the society structures and the family values are going down gradually (Giddens 1979, Giddens 1991; Miles 2000). At times advertisements can play an important role in bringing the family values together. There are some ads which treasure the family moments to the maximum and make you realize how important it is to give time to your loved ones. This is mostly shown through the chocolate or sweet ads. Value expressive influence advertising Celebrities have their own impact while they advertise for any ad (Atkin 1983) and mostly major companies want to take big celebrities to make an ad for them as this tends to generate more consumer response. Kodak camera films and cameras have their ads being portrayed as value expressive. They show that all the special moments in everyone’s life cannot be missed and it should be captured at the right time in the cameras. The digital cameras of Kodak also give the same message as the normal cameras that moments are special and cherishing for everyone and they should be given special treatment always. Value expressive influence of advertising may tend to create high emotional levels and also sensitive feeling for the consumers. They may become emotionally attached with the products as they would feel a strong sense of attachment while they use the product. Informational group influence advertising Nokia advertisement can be considered as an informational group influencing ad as it portrays in their ad that having Nokia develops a lifestyle, it develops it for oneself and for others too, the consumers passion and fashion can be immensely taken to success because of having Nokia. The ad shows that with the use of Nokia, one has a strong confident personality and they can achieve whatever they want. If one aims to have very high goals they can do it while having the Nokia cell phones, as Nokia has portrayed its image as strong, reliable, unbreakable, good quality , resistant to damages. Other aspect of Nokia is that their tag line is Connecting people which means that whoever uses Nokia they will always be in touch with their friends and family. Nokia in future may gain more popularity with its innovative ad campaigns. (b)Discontinuous Innovationâl to induce purchase (1 ad) Comfort Fabric Softener is one of the products that do not have much consistent innovation in their products. The product is used on its original production. Variations in the product have not occurred much since the inception of the product. This may be a sign that the product is a high quality product and it does not need any constant innovations as it may not have much competitors to line up with. Put consumers in a good mood to shape consumers positive processing of products (1 ad) The Lipton Tea brand advertisements are always uplifting the mood of everyone because tea is a beverage which is enjoyed by masses all around the world. Their ads give a refreshing feeling to everyone and all their ads are mostly enjoyable. The ad themes are very lively which makes the consumer watch the ad more and make them buy the product also. (d) An ad to illustrate classical conditioning (1 ad) Many theories that are relates to classical conditioning are linked to the classical model of Rescorla and Wagner (Rescorla et. al 1972). The Dew soft drink of the Coca Cola Company can be related to the classical conditioning advertisement. How this can be done is through the daring stunts that have been performed in the Ad. Whenever anyone thinks of performing any daring work they would relate it to the daring stunts performed in the Ad. What is stimulus generalisation? Stimulus generalization is the ability of having the conditioned stimulus to generate similar responses for the conditioned stimulus. For example, if there is some noise whenever the card door opens, then whenever the same sound is heard we may tend to relate it to the squeakiness of the car door that is fixed in our mind. Sometimes actions tend to speak louder than words. The image of any picture may retain in the minds of the consumers and they may purchase the brand always by keeping the image in their minds (Cooke et. al 2002). The youth of the country may perceive ads on their own knowledge and wisdom (Klein 2000). Sometimes this may lead to resistance in the acceptance of some productive ads being displayed in the product. Find 5 pairs of examples of advertisements or pictures of me-too brands/products and their original brands/products. Explain for each how stimulus generalization is successfully used in these cases HERSHEYS TAKE 5 VS. TWISTED The twisted candy, a brand of Premier Nutrition Company had a similar packaging to that of Hershey’s Take 5. This confuses the consumer when buying the candy, some consumers may be in a hurry and may just see the color and buy the product assuming that it was the product that they had intended to buy. Careful observation may tend to be realized at a later period that the product that was bought was a similar brand to that of Hershey’s Take 5. This is a case of stimulus generalization as consumers tends to mistake the brand names because of excessive similarities of the product. PROCTER & GAMBLE VS. VI-JON Vi-Jon industries had imitated the packaging of the mouth wash of P&G and also made the ad similar to them. Vi-Jon had imitated the oral rinse bottle shape of the brand Crest Pro health of P&G. The imitation impact is so strong that high brand image companies start to face losses if the consumer mistakes some other product as theirs. Me-too brands are increasing a lot in the market so consumer needs to be careful while buying the branded products. Vi-Jon had to remove their oral rinse bottles from the market since P&G had charged them for this product packaging. This problem is usually faced by a lot of branded companies when new emerging companies come into the market, because mostly many of them emerge as the me too brands. RC Cola and Pepsi Cola These two soft drinks are very similar in the way they look. RC Colas has used the same color codes as the Pepsi cola company. There are some of the people who may not read well or cannot read for that matter. They may just have the idea of the color and they may pick up RC Cola from the shop shelves instead of what they actually wanted and that was Pespsi. The me-too brands gain a lot of profit in the beginning of their product life cycle because it takes time for the consumer to adjust to make out what the exact difference is between the original product and the new product which has come up as the imitation of an already existing product. VITAMINWATER VS. SOBE Vitaminwater company had charged the Sobe brand for imitating the design of their water bottle and the product color. Having water may just be a necessity for some people but for others may be a very strong issue of having the best and purified water always. Some consumers are very conscious that they should have the proper mineral water. Hence with similar designs and colors of other products, the original brand may face losses as the customer may not pick up the right product from the shelf. They may just go for the design and buy the product. As we see that stimulus generalization is again observed in this case because the design and shape are similar plus in some cases typical secret ingredients of the product may be copied too. TIDE & BRITE Detergents The Tide detergent has created its brand image in the minds of the consumers. Tide claims that its trademark and design has been copied by Brite, the color and design of the product. Color is a very important aspect when the company has to decide on the color and layout of the product. The packaging and design of the product plays an important role of distinguishing the product from its competitors. Tide has charged many other companies for having their design copied or imitated in one way or the other. What is the danger of overexposure? How can this danger be reduced? (5 marks) Illustrate with examples of advertisements (attach at least 4 examples) (10 marks) The danger of overexposure of ads may cause harm to a lot of consumers because the viewers watching the ad are of all age groups. Some ads are not of that category that they should be watched by all viewers as it may cause a negative influence on the consumers. If children have an over exposure of ads that are not suitable for them then they may have to face the consequences. Some ads have very dangerous stunts in them which should not be practiced by normal individuals under any circumstance (Hanby 1999). The teenagers and the children have a very fast effect of the economic and physical happenings that are taking place in the surroundings of the country. The availability and the access to the alcohol beverages at a reasonable price have major influences on the young people of the society (Babor et al., 2003; Academy of Medical Sciences, 2004). Benson & Hedges Cigarette Ad Having tobacco is not healthy for consumers at all. The consequences and side effects of having tobacco are a lot, but still we observe that in many countries the tobacco advertisements generate a lot of money for the commercials channels and no TV channel wants to stop the running of the tobacco ads. In the brands of the Tobacco world, Benson & Hedges have a strong brand name and it is one of the most widely used brands by the consumers. Some of the Benson & Hedges ads show that to smoke their cigarette is a very cool act to perform. Captain Morgan Alcohol Ad The negative consequences of the alcohol advertisements are the same as those of tobacco, in fact alcohol may tend to cause more damage to the health of consumers. It has been discovered in a longitudinal research at New Zealand that the relationship of beer with the youngsters tend to develop at a very young age , like at the age of 18 and then they turn out to be heavy drinkers by the age of 25 with aggression in their behavior (Casswell and Zhang (1998). Red Bull Energy Drink The concept of having energy drinks have is gaining wide popularity with time and with the advertisement campaigns that are running around the country. Having overexposure of these types of energy drinks may cause massive addiction to consumers who are of a young age, because they want to have an energetic feeling all the time. These types of drinks may not be suitable for especially children and teenagers of all age. In the international ad of Red Bull, we can see that the slogan of the ad is “it gives you wings”, the concept that they are trying to show is that as soon as you drink the red bull energy drink you feel extremely light weighted and energetic too. The degree of being light weight is such that it can make you fly. Energy drinks contains hormone stimulants which is not suitable for teenagers at all, and having overexposure of these ads may cause an urge to the consumers to have the drink and feel energetic and light weight all the time. Energy drinks should never be used on a regular basis from the health point of view. If the drink gives instant energy then its obvious that some fast giving energy drug may be added which changes the energy level of the person very fast and they start feeling light weighted. Sprite Ad The sprite ad shows that whatever thing or object is thrown at anyone, then that object turns into water. They are showing the impact that the thirst can be quenched in the best way by having sprite. The negative aspect that can be picked by the children in this ad is that they may start drinking sprite and then throw objects at others thinking that the object will turn into water as they are having the sprite. This is a very dangerous act to be done by children. As companies should make sure while making their ads is they should not show any extreme acts which may result in a negative influence. Also while in the preparation of ads, too many unrealistic things should not be portrayed as this may result into unrealistic behavior by the children. References: 1. Academy of Medical Sciences (2004) Calling Time: The Nations Drinking as a Major Health Issue. Academy of Medical Sciences, London. Available at: http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/p_callingtime.pdf 2. Atkin, C. and Block, M. (1983) Effectiveness of celebrity endorsers. Journal of Advertising Research 23, 57–61. 3. Babor, T., Caetano, R., Casswell, S. et al. (2003) Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity–Research and Public Policy. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 4. Casswell, S. and Zhang, J.-F. (1998) Impact of liking for advertising and brand allegiance on drinking and alcohol-related aggression: A longitudinal study. Addiction 93, 1209–1217. 5. Cooke, E., Hastings, G. and Anderson, S. (2002) Actions speak louder than words. Globe 2, 11–16. 6. Elliott, R. and Wattanasuwan, K. (1998) Brands as symbolic resources for the construction of identity. International Journal of Advertising 17, 131–144. 7. Giddens, A. (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory : Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Macmillan, London. 8. Giddens, A. (1991) The Consequences of Modernity. Polity Press in association with Blackwells, Cambridge. 9. Hanby, T. (1999) Brands–dead or alive. Journal of the Market Research Society 41, 7–18. 10. Kelley, Harold H. (1947), “two Functions of Reference Groups in Readings in Social Psychology, eds Guy E. Swanson, Theodore M. Newcomb, and E.L. Hartley, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 410-414. 11. Klein, N. (2000) No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Picador, New York. 12. Miles, S. (2000) Youth Lifestyles in a Changing World. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK. 13. Park, C. Whan, Bernard J. Jaworski and Deborah J. MacInnis (1986), "Strategic Brand Concept-Image Management," Journal of Marketing, 50 (October), 135-145. 14. Snyder, Mark and Kenneth G. DeBono (1985), "Appeals to Image and Claims About Quality: Understanding the Psychology of Advertising," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49 (3), 586-597. 15. Rescorla, R. A. and Wagner, A. R.( 1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement. In A. H. Black and W. F. Prokasy, editors, Classical Conditioning II. Appleton-Century-Crofts. 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