Advertising Can Persuade Customers to Change Their Attitudes, Beliefs and Behaviours - Essay Example

Advertising Can Persuade s to Change Their Attitudes, Beliefs and Behaviours Table of Contents Introduction 3 Persuasive Tactics Used in Advertising 7 Examples of Persuasive Advertisements 9 Conclusion 11 Introduction Advertising is a method used by marketers to convey their messages to the stakeholders and the customers. It is a paid form of informal communication. Advertising is a complicated process that needs time to be effective. The formulation of an effective advertisement involves a lot of effort to ensure that the message is conveyed clearly to the target audience. The advertising campaign should be integrated with every aspect of the marketing communication plan and the right advertising vehicle must be used. The response to the advertisement should be judged later to analyze its effectiveness. Advertising can occur in two ways. It can be either in the form of product advertising or institutional advertising. Product advertising creates awareness among consumers about a particular product or service and advertises the usefulness of the product in satisfying the customer needs and wants. Institutional advertising on the other hand creates awareness about a business. The primary intention of an advertisement is to inform customers about a product offering in order to remind them and persuade them to purchase the product. They help in developing the customer’s loyalty towards the product and help customers in decision making during purchase (Ogden & Rarick, 2009). It is almost essential for an advertisement to be persuasive in order to be effective. A symbolic process that tries to convince people and change their attitudes and beliefs regarding a particular issue by conveying a message is known as persuasion. Cut throat competition exists in the present business world and this competition can be tackled only through persuasive advertising (O’Shaughnessy & O’Shaughnessy, 2004). Advertising subtly influences us so that we do not even realize that we are being persuaded. The affect of advertising on our attitudes and beliefs are not reflected immediately rather it takes a long time to express overtly (Sutherland & Sylvester, 2009). The paper highlights some persuasive techniques of advertising used by marketers to influence customers to purchase their products. Persuasive advertising makes an effort to influence the choice of customers so that they perceive the product to be better than the competitors’ product. There are various persuasive tactics that are used by marketers in promoting their products. Persuasive Affects of Advertisement on the Attitudes Beliefs and Behaviours of Customers A marketer resorts to persuasive advertising to influence the preferences of the customers and make their products more preferable in comparison to the competitors’ product. This reveals the competitive nature of persuasive advertising (Berkeley, 2009). The attitude and belief of a customer towards a product may be positive or negative. The advertisers’ aim is to build upon the positive belief of the customer and remove the negative connotation associated with the product from the customer’s mind. A customer who had the perception that a particular product was not good enough may decide on purchasing the product based on the advertisement. The advertisement in this case has the ability to convince the customer to change his perception of the product. The purpose of an advertising campaign is to create product awareness and ensure repeat purchase. Companies need to decide on how their products should be advertised. Companies may either choose to inform customers about their product attributes or they may resort to uninformative advertisements. Uninformative advertisements give indirect information and try to have an affect on customers through persuasion. Often customers are unsure of the product quality and purchase the product based on their previous beliefs about the product quality. These beliefs may be based on word of mouth, the past experiences and the advertisements. Customers can either have positive recollections or negative recollections about the product. The company in such a case resorts to persuasive advertising to increase the number of positive recollections. The persuasive advertisements further reinforce the positive recollections of the customers about the product. The chances of the customers having a favourable opinion about the product increase if they are exposed to persuasive advertisements. However persuasive advertisements cannot guarantee higher quality of the products. There are certain customers who realize this fact. Companies rely on the sensibility of these kinds of customers and thus offer a high quality product at a high price and do not resort to advertisements. The positive signals from customers regarding these products is totally based on the intrinsic quality of the product and is not developed by any advertising campaign. Companies that opt for persuasive advertising for their products may be offering a medium quality, low quality or even a high quality product (Olie Lauga, 2010). Companies use advertising to achieve their purpose of influencing customers. Companies use advertisement to create awareness about a new product and reinforce the presence of their existing products through their advertisements. The attitudes and beliefs of customers determine their product purchase to a large extent. Persuasive advertisements facilitate their decision making process during a purchase by making an influence on their beliefs and attitudes. Persuasive Tactics Used in Advertising Promotional tactics are used by advertisers to persuade customers to purchase a product. Various sorts of appeals are used by advertisers to influence the customer’s decision making process. Emotive appeals strike on consumer’s emotions. These kinds of advertisements generate different emotions of love, sadness and happiness in people. Advertisements involving babies appeal to caring and loving instincts. Color is also an important appeal resorted to by advertisers. Different colors have different connotations. Red rose is a symbol of love. Pink is associated with girls and blue with boys. Red signifies danger and blue signifies calmness. Generally washing powder manufacturers and banks use the blue color in their advertisements. It is for this reason that the packaging of surf is in blue color and the meaning of the product name is ‘sea’. Another persuasive appeal is promises. Advertisers may either make subtle promises or exaggerated promises. Cosmetics endorsed by beautiful models give a subtle promise that using the product will help one to become as beautiful as the model. On the other hand there are times when advertisements give a bold statement of a benefit of the product which we know is not possible. “Remove wrinkles in just seven days” is an example of an exaggerated promise. Reminders are a form of advertisement which ensures recollection so that customers always remember to buy the product. “Hurry! Stocks won’t last” is an example of a reminder. There are certain advertisements that stress on product benefits. They reveal the gains from using the product. Marketers also use the persuasive tactics of making a product purchase easier. The purchase is made easier by providing some added value as for example various payment modes. Repetition is a very important persuasive tactics (Marsh & O’Connor, n.d.). Repetition of the advertisements ensures the reach of the advertisers to the target audience. Testimonial by a famous personality is a persuasive advertising technique that is frequently used by the marketers. This involves product endorsement by an eminent personality. Plain- folks pitch is an advertising strategy that associates simplicity with the product. The snob appeal approach advertises on how using the product will raise their social status. This appeal is generally used by individuals who sell high end products. The bandwagon affect makes boisterous claims that every one uses the product. The hidden fear appeal strikes on the insecurities of the customers. This kind of persuasive appeal is used in advertisements for mouth washes, deodorants and dandruff shampoos. They highlight on how the product can save themselves from embarrassments by solving their problems related to personal hygiene. An important persuasive technique generally used is the association principle. These types of advertisements associate the product with a particular image or culture that creates a positive implication for the product. For example the 1980s’ catch line of Chevrolet was “the heart beat of America” which created a national image for the product. Many products are often associated with nature. Most automobile advertisements show their automobiles in the natural background of winding roads and rugged hilly areas. This kind of association completely changes the image of the product. An example of a brand that has associated nature with the advertisement is that of Marlboro. Marlboro advertisements have shown a cowboy riding through a scenic landscape. Another persuasive technique is disassociation. This technique is adopted by large conglomerates who wish to develop a distinct and entirely different image from the image of the entire corporation, for a new brand in the product line (ATSWEB, n.d.). Examples of Persuasive Advertisements Cadbury, a very popular chocolate brand is known for its emotional advertisements. ‘Thank You’ is an emotional advertisement of chocolate digestives offered by Cadbury. The advertisement shows the immense joy people experience on seeing chocolate digestives of Cadbury. The Cadbury Gorilla advertisement also evoked strong emotional appeal (Marketing Week, 2011). The advertisement of Renault Clio had focused on emotional aspects rather than the utility of the car and such promotion was extremely successful (Brand Republic, 2006). ‘Proactiv’, a product on acne treatment, uses persuasive advertising with endorsement by famous personalities for example Jessica Simpson, Vanessa Williams, P Diddy and Lindsay Lohan. The fact that such prominent celebrities claim the usefulness of the product compels customers to purchase it. Jack Lallane’s endorsement of power juicer influences customers to purchase the product because of his reputation of being committed to fitness. Slendertone Systems is an ad that makes an exaggerated promise of flat abs. The Clapper advertisement makes a benefit appeal. This is because the product promises time saving because it is an automatic unit used to switch on all appliances at one go. The product is targeted towards invalids and the aged (Straub, 2011). The Crest toothpaste advertisement says that a survey had revealed four out of five dentists use the crest toothpaste. There are many advertisers who claim their product to be number one and hence appeal to customers to use their product. Zippo cigarette lighter claims that customers must buy the product since everybody uses it. These advertisements are a form of bandwagon in which the customers are being asked to use the product just because everybody else uses it and not on the basis of rationality (Kennesaw, 2002). Antivirus software manufacturer, Webroot use humor in their advertisements. This is in contrast to other players in the computer security category who focus on the fear appeal (New York Times, 2010). Celebrity endorsement of products is an important form of persuasive advertising. Products that are endorsed by celebrities gain immense popularity among the customers. Celebrities have the capability to enhance recall value and people have an intrinsic motivation to believe what is being told. They help in creating a positive outlook towards the brand and help in the brand recognition. The products that are endorsed by celebrities have a greater chance of purchase by customers. Companies spend large amount of money on celebrity endorsements. Coca Cola has spent 25 million dollar in an ad campaign with Bill Cosby (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995). David Beckham’s promotion of Gillette is expected to further enhancing the positive image of the brand. It has always been observed that products that are endorsed by celebrities experience remarkable increase in sales. In 1983 when Hollywood actor, Tom Cruise sported Ray Ban ‘Way Farers’ in the movie ‘Risky Business’, the product increased massive increase in sales. Ray Ban ‘aviators’ also experienced enhanced sales when it was worn by the actor in the movie ‘Top Gun’. The celebrity endorsements had largely helped in establishing the brand in its initial days. Gary Linekar has been the brand ambassador for Walker Crisps for 10 years and even has a brand in his name known as ‘Salt n Linekar’. He helped the company in increasing its sales to a large extent. Jamie Oliver, the brand ambassador of Sainsbury’s helped the supermarket chain to earn additional 1 billion pounds in sales during the first two years. Salton’s grilling machine would hardly have been successful unless it was endorsed by the well known boxer George Foreman (Celebrity Endorsements, 2007). Celebrity endorsements are without any doubt the most effective form of persuasive advertising. Conclusion The purpose of an effective advertisement is to influence the purchasing decision of customers. It is essential for an effective advertisement to use persuasive tactics. The main intention behind the persuasive tactics of advertisers is to influence the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of customers. Customers have certain beliefs about a product based on their past encounters or word of mouth. These beliefs may be positive or negative. The customer’s subconscious mind holds the image of the product as it was depicted in the advertisements. Thus persuasive advertisements can influence the attitude, beliefs and behaviour of individuals. There are various persuasive tactics used by advertisers. Emotive appeal strikes the emotional chord of customers. They evoke emotions of happiness, sadness, joy and ecstasy among the customers. Advertisers also use colour to convey their message because different colours have different significances. Promises are used by advertisers to influence customer purchase. The promise may be subtle or exaggerated. Reminders are a form of persuasive advertising that ensures repurchase of the product by the customer. There are certain persuasive advertisements that promise an easy purchase of the product by facilitating the purchase. Repetitions of advertisement are done to ensure that customers remember the product and continue purchasing it. Brand endorsements are a very effective method of advertisement. Snob appeal is used to portray the high class image of the product. Bandwagon appeal tries to influence customers to use the product because everybody uses it and the association principle connects the product with a preferred image. These advertising tactics have been successfully used by marketers to enhance the popularity of their products and increase their sales. A company has to resort to persuasive advertising tactics if it wants to succeed in the competitive business world. References Agrawal, J. & Kamakura, W. A., (1995). The Economic Worth of Celebrity Endorsers: An Event Study Analysis. Journal of Marketing. Retrieved Online on January 5, 2011 from http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~kamakura/My%20Reprints/the%20economic%20worth%20of%20celebrity%20endorsements.pdf ATSWEB, (No Date). Conventional Persuasive Strategies. Persuasive Techniques in Contemporary Advertising. Retrieved Online on January 5, 2011 from http://www.atsweb.neu.edu/vrocchio/220/ad_rhetoric.html Berkeley, (2009). Introduction. Is Persuasive Advertising Always Combative in a Distribution Channel? Retrieved Online on January 5, 2011 from http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~chen/paper/M1_090628c.pdf Brand Republic, (2006). Raymond Snoddy on Media: Ads Must Aim for Heart Not the Head. Connecting Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR. 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