Advertising: The Truth and the Lies


In a highly competitive marketplace that delivers products and services, the advertising plays along within and beyond the competition. Advertising will color the competition by interpreting the consumer’s needs and wants and bringing out the message through out the other parts of the country and then, leave an influence. Advertising and promotion is a market strategy that is available for all, in whatever type of industry or product they belong.


The basic promotional message of an advertisement is composed of one, sometimes two, or all of the factors of informing, entertaining, educating, persuading, and reminding. Meanwhile, the promotional objectives will dictate the nature and form of the promotional message’s type of appeal. 


The promotional objectives can be determined by variety of factors such as the competitive situation, the position of the brand or service, life cycle stage of the service offered, and the organizational and marketing objectives. An advertisement completed its ingredients by creating an appeal to the public eye that is essential in presenting the promotional message. And a mixture of or more appeal is not restricted.


Rational Appeal – This kind of appeal presents information and facts about the certain products they endorsed. The message is sometimes logically that explains and compares against the competing brand, so that the decision of the buyer will rely upon the detailed information.


Emotional Appeal – Advertisers based their advertisement through the emotions or feelings of the audience. It is said that this kind of appeal enhances the message. One example is the British Airways’ efforts to differentiate itself on service and friendliness and a promotional campaign bringing the British Airways as “the world’s favorites’ airline”.


Fear Appeal – This is not entirely about threatening but yet tends to work best when the presentation is based on the current issue. An example is about an automobile that ensures the safety of every driver, because of their advanced technology that can save their lives when they are in great peril.


Humor Appeal – We always love to laugh and humorous messages are used successfully in many advertising campaigns. This kind of appeal attracts the audience’s interest, attention, and even imagination. This mood-enhancing tactic effectively convinces the consumers to buy their product in many various ways as possible and sometimes casting the fear of the potential consumers.


Advertising


Advertising as a basic definition is a paid publicity that was transmitted in different kind of media such as television, radio, internet, magazines, newspaper, or posters and billboards. It is expensive but promises additional profit because of its effective control over the audience. Although advertising is a non-personal communication, it can still reach the different parts of the world through the use of the technology. That is why, advertising also plays in between the wars of the giant businesses or industries, and they can promote all the good about the product or services the business can offer. 


 


The Persuasion Knowledge Model and Consumer Behavior Model


Persuasion knowledge model (PKM) in advertising is the structure within the individual’s personal experience and gained information throughout his life span. This is the target of the advertising to be fulfilled. The PKM processes the factors that can affect the formulation of the presentation which are based through the consumer behavior and social influences. 


Meanwhile, the consumer behavior is one of the popular method in determining the tastes and preferences of the consumers that can be projected to the presentation. As an advertisement based on the consumer’s behavior, the tendency to attract the customers is strong. Which is in the other way of distorting the facts about the product, like introducing a soft drink that is now sugar but in truth, a little sugar is added because of the gross taste.


Assessing the Advertising


Advertisements are very powerful that sometimes controls the decisions of the audience about their buying preferences. Through advertisements, the firms can gain additional income and the consumers can realize the fulfillment of one of their agenda. That is the power of advertising, they creates stories or short skit about the things that an individual needs although he can live without it.


Here are some interesting answers of the consumers about their idea about advertising


Consumer 1: My complexion is not this dull when I was young. It only happened because I joined the swimmer’s club and when I watched the commercial about the whitening products, I was inspired that there’s still hope in my skin. And so I tried it. But then I realized that I am an active swimmer and so this won’t work for me no matter how many boxes I buy.


Consumer 2: I just spotted this memory enhancer while I’m heading back to my dorm. I thought that this will help me improve my studies. After I took one capsule, I felt something different. I can’t sleep at night and many headaches disturbed me. That is why I trashed it out.


Consumer 3: As a busy working mom, I always want the best for my family. And when my officemate told me about this dishwasher, I was suddenly dazed because it will cut the time washing the dishes. I was just like hypnotized with their stories, and so me and my husband decided to buy it. It’s great because now, I can focus on my children and on other things.


But no matter how powerful they are, advertising has limitations and one of these is that they can’t extend the campaign overseas. It is because of the cultural differences that limit the recognition of the brand and its values that they deliver. And in contrast, when there is too much competition the businesses applies all their marketing strategies in its standard and advertising capability to increase efficiency (2003).


Conclusion


In advertising, the distortion of truths is not new to the public but it still effective in terms of selling the products. Distortion of the truth is a strategy for the companies to develop better effectiveness or les costly products. And if the short run gain from a distortion of the truth were large, then the temptation to lie would be strong that can result into danger for the consumers ( 1978). But there is a legal action imposed by the government to avoid the fabricated truth behind every product promotions and advertisements.


All of the ideas about the products are mixed with the different appeals to persuade or convince the audience that the product is important or part of the basic needs even though it is truly not. An added factor of this is the use of influential people like celebrities that leaving promises to the consumers. 



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
Top