Changes and Effects of Advertising on People and the Society - Literature review Example

Advertising Advertising is one of the most important technologies that the world is experiencing at present. Basically, the global market has had attempted to inform the customers of the products and /or services in the past few decades through the media both print and electronic, but the process was challenging and expensive at the time; hindering a large percentage of companies from advertising their products and/ or services. Apparently, the concept of advertising dates back to 3000s BC in the Babylonian Empire, and the first advertisement that was done in English was printed in 1472 for the purpose of selling a prayer book. Nevertheless, professional advertising is said to have begun in the United States around 1841. Since then, scholars and psychologists took the initiative to research on how advertising has gradually affected the human mentality and emotions as well. As a result, there has been a heated debate over the issue with the advertising companies bragging of having done the society a favor of providing detailed information on products and services. In contrast, members of the society such as parents and psychologists have argued that advertising has both negative and positive effects in the society. Nevertheless, advertising has gradually revolved to the most imperative process that is continually been utilised by most companies across the world. According to Green (6), advertising has been argued to be among the common approaches used by companies to communicate with their potential clients and consumers. On the other hand, advertising serves as an information tool that analyses the available brands in the market and their varieties as well. Importantly, advertising in the modern world has been prepared for everybody, a process that makes it worth. Furthermore, technology has made advertising a more dynamic and exciting process. Objectives of Advertising Jansson-Boyd (24) argues that what matters most in any advertisement is the convincing power and the ability to connect, and properly communicate with the target audience. As such, good advertisements are based on four main objectives namely: trial, continuity, brand switch and switching back. Firstly, the trial concept is used by a section of global companies to convince their target audience to buy the companies’ new products that have been introduced in the market. In most case, these advertisements are flashy and attractive so as to convince the customer to purchase for trial. Secondly, the continuity concept is used by already existing companies to ensure that they keep their existing customers stuck to their product and/ or services. The role of companies in this concept is ensuring that their products and/ or services are advanced continuously to please the target audience (Jansson-Boyd 25). Thirdly, the brand switch concept is used by some companies to convince customer o from their competitors to switch brands. In most cases, those companies who want target audience to switch from their current brand to new brand, tend to believe that their products are far much better as compared to those of their competitors. Finally, there is the concept of switching back that is used by companies who want their customers back after realizing that they have moved to their competitors. Such companies use unique advertising ways like discount sale, new packaging to try and win back their previous customers. In a general sense, advertising revolves around the four concepts in trying to get a larger share of customers in the market (Jansson-Boyd 26). Changes and effects of advertising on people and the society According to Berger (4), the world can no longer contend with the fact that advertising has literary become part of people’s life. It now ranges from the newspaper, televisions, radio, internet and so many other avenues. Moreover, advertising has gone to the extent of being part of daily conversations, thoughts and further giving suggestions on what foods, drinks, soaps and so forth people should consume. For instance, advertising has gone to the extent of being done by use of short message services (SMS) via mobile phones. Jansson-Boyd (26) articulates that, currently the world could psychologically be described as advertisement conscious in all aspects. Similarly, the corporate world has ensured that their advertising departments have the highest financial allocation to facilitate proper advertising, which further results to capturing a large target audience. At the same time, successful businesses have concentrated more on online advertising, which is growing faster than any other kind of advertising. In this regard, advertising has impacted the human life in a huge way. To begin with, advertising has been continuously important to customers since these are the people expected to purchase products and or / services in the market. As such, advertising has ensured that customers are aware of the products and services in the market. Notably, the global market consists of millions of products that are produced on daily basis. In case these products and services are not properly advertised, then it is obvious that the customers will not be aware of some of the products and services present in the market (Green 15). Additionally, advertising has impacted human life by giving customers the opportunity to make comparison on the countless products and/or services in the market. Basically, the global market has been characterized by competition and open market policy, which makes it possible for different companies to come up with similar products and services. In response to this, customers are at liberty to choose a certain brand in reference to quality, quantity, and cost among other factors. Thus, it is the responsibility of the advertiser to make the best offers in the market, in order to have a large percentage of target audience or win more customers (Green 30). In the modern world, advertising has been used by some companies to test and confirm the loyalty of their consumers. According to psychological experts, customers tend to stick to particular brand once they realize that the brand gives the right kind of products and /or services. It is worth noting that the consumer psychology revolves around what the consumers perceive as best among similar products in the market. Through this, companies are given a chance to estimate the percentage of the general target audience who are loyal to their brand (Jansson-Boyd 26) Interestingly, advertising has also played an extemporarily role in educating people and the society as a whole. In fact, quite a number of people can ascertain to the fact most of the new products and services have been known to them through advertisement where companies go an extra mile of not only making them aware, but also educating them on why certain products and /services are good for consumption and not others. As such, advertising has educated the society through adverts that revolved around societal issues such as child labor, consumption of alcohol, family planning education, and smoking among other issues that directly affects the society (Berger 20) Contrary to the fact that advertising has led to positive impact to human beings and the society as a whole, there are some negative impacts that have also been documented. To begin with, academicians have argued that there are numerous evils that are affiliated to advertising. Although global advertising has now come under heavy scrutiny and regulation, there still an element in advertising that is otherwise known to aid ‘lying’ to the public(Berger 24). For instance, during advertising preparations companies have the tendency of making customers believe that the products and /or services that appear in their screen are real. Moreover, the continuous appearance of advertisement on television, and other mediums makes people accustomed to their messages, thus making it difficult for people to see things in the proper mind. In this regard, advertising tends to replace the inner thoughts of human beings with what they think should be present. Having ascertained that advertising is found everywhere, it is worth noting that advertisements are expected to attract attention, change attitudes and command of behavior. Unfortunately, companies have taken advantage on using these concepts to present the information in a way that is capable of easily getting into the minds of the customers compelling them to purchase products and services that are not worth their money. Similarly, advertising has also been criticized of exaggerating some of the aspects that are used in advertisings such as the distortion of the natural human body to thinness and unnatural shape among others issues that leaves the consumer more confused ( Jansson-Boyd 26) In a general sense, the advertising world continues to advance and expand as technology advances. As a result, people must accept advertising as one aspect of life. If anything, the advertising companies should avoid overdoing their advertisement in order to make financial gains. On the other hand, the society should learn to appreciate advertising especially now that the daily life revolves around this concept. Just like any other concept in marketing and aspects of the business world, advertising has more positive impacts than the negatives, which makes it remain part of people’s life. Works Cited: Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Berger, Arthur A. Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture: Advertisings Impact on American Character and Society. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print. Green, Jen. Advertising. New York: Rosen Central, 2012. Print. Jansson-Boyd, Cathrine V. Consumer Psychology. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2010. Print. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More