Definition of Advertising
“Any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor aimed to inform and/or persuade
target audiences about an organization, product, service idea.”
How did it start?
● Signs as old as ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome
● Industrial Revolution saw a huge increase in advertisement
Evolution of modern ads
● Print (newspapers, magazines)
o Still popular for consumer segments
● Television
o Highest volume of advertising
● Internet
o Will probably compliment existing media rather than replace it
Why advertise?
● Raise awareness
o You can’t buy what you don’t know exists
● Fuel desire
o Channel needs into wants for specific products
● Highlight differentiation
o Unique Selling Proposition (USP): what one brand offers that competitors
don’t
Different approaches Argument-based and effect-based appeals
● Informational or argument-based appeals (Subaru, why to buy this car based on
logic and argumetns)
o Hard-sell, reason-why approach
● Emotional or affect-based appeals (Audi, more emotional based arguments; how
other people will look at you when you drive this car)
o Soft-sell, more subtle approach
Functions of advertising – Societal level
● Communicate with consumers, spreading information about their brands
● Facilitate competition
● Fund mass media
● Create jobs
Functions of advertising – Individual level
● Inform consumers
o Create non-evaluative response (beliefs, knowledge)
● Persuade consumers
o Generate or change evaluative response (a more favorable view)
1
,Information appeals
What?
● Performance, availability, attributes, price, quality, special offers
Used more…
● In developed, industrialized countries (US, Canada)
● For durable goods (refrigerators, cars, furniture)
Stage in product life cycle
● Educate consumers
o Complex new products or services
▪ Explain the possibilities and why it’s actually a good product
● Deal with problems
o Corrections, recalls
▪ Help consumers learn about (problems of) products
● Limitations
o Informing consumers might sometimes be ineffective or even backfire
o McDonald’s case
▪ It was believed by consumers that burgers were made out of worms.
▪ By advertising the ‘real thing’, it is possible that rumours are even
believed more.
o Memory and associations
o Customer survey
Persuasion appeals
● Change consumer responses
● Mainly influence feelings, preferences, attitudes
● Alpha strategies
o Increase approach motivation
o Move towards advocated position
o Through arguments, incentives, scarcity
● Omega strategies
o Reduce avoidance motivation
o Reduce resistance towards advocated position
o Through counterarguments, distractions, attempts to make the message look
less like persuasion, negative emotions like fear or guilt
▪ What is the risk of not buying the product?
2
,The psychological perspective
● Effects of advertising at the individual level
o Relationships between ad stimuli and consumer responses
o Understanding the psychological processes behind these relationships
▪ What drives relationships, why is there a certain response?
● Other approaches
o Naïve, economic, media, creative
Consumer responses- 3 (ABC)
● Cognitive responses
o Beliefs and thoughts about brands or products
o Brand awareness, recognition, attitude, preference
● Affective responses
o Transient emotions and moods
o fear, pride, sadness, anger
● Behavioral responses
o Intention and actual behavior
o purchase, choice, product trial, brand switching
Assessing Consumer responses
● Correlational relationships
o A change in one variable is associated with a change in the other
o Positive, negative, zero
o Make predictions (once the values of one variable are known)
● Number of arguments in an ad message and attitude towards the advertised product
3
, ● Correlational relationships
o The third variable problem
▪ Something else explains the correlation
Causal relationships
● Three conditions:
o A must precedes B (temporal sequence of events, A🡪B)
o Changes in A must be associated with changes in B (correlation)
o The change in B should only be attributed to changes in A – no other
explanations should be plausible (third variable problem)
o Correlation: necessary but not sufficient condition for causality
Experiments: Establishing causality
● Manipulate A (wat je manipuleert is de onafhankelijke variabele, x-as)
● Independent variable (IV)
● Assess impact on B (wat je meet is de afhankelijke variabele, y-as)
o Dependent variable (DV)
● Random assignment
o No systematic differences before the IV
was manipulated
o Any effects on the DV can be attributed to
the IV
o Manipulate “Number of arguments” (IV)
▪ 2 arguments vs 5 arguments
▪ Random assignment
o Asses impact on “attitude towards product”
(DV)
Moderation
o The effect of A on B depends on C (moderator)
4
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