An advertisement is a message printed in a newspaper, or broadcast to individuals, that attempts to persuade consumers to buy a specific product, or agree with a particular idea. 1. The average American is exposed to 247 commercial messages each day. Many Americans are affected by advertising, and often are persuaded to buy products they dont need or are unhealthy. These Americans are seen as every advertisers target. Advertising messages are spread through numerous and varied channels of media.
In descending order of amount, the major media are newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines, business publications, outdoor advertising, and farm publications. 2. In addition, a significant amount of all advertising is invested in miscellaneous media, such as window displays, free shopping-news publications, calendars, blimps, sky writing by airplanes, and even sandwich boards carried by people walking the streets. Advertising supports the mass communication media. Daily news shows, soap operas, and the 7 p. . specials are all paid for by advertisers. Because newspapers and television shows are very expensive to generate, producers hold space for commercials or article space. Seventy-five percent of the cost of newspapers and magazines are paid for by advertisements. In the year 1900 the amount of money spent on advertising averaged about 450 million dollars. In 1995 the average had raised 357. 6% to $160,920,000,000. Because the mass media depend on advertising, many people question whether advertisers control media.
Generally media do not allow advertisers to influence their programming or editorial content, but many broadcasters and publishers do not hesitate to run favorable information about there sponsors, and sometimes refuse to run unfavorable or negative content about host advertisers. 2. Many times bad news about an advertiser is ignored, but not to the extremes. In short time a news reporter can shape Americas opinion from anger to understanding. Tuesday evening news reports a man drinking and driving swerved off the road and killed a family of three.
Later on an update the driver was having a hard time with a divorce and he had been fired earlier that day. America will except this, and America will try to understand the drunk driver. Some of America may even forget that a family of three died. In between broadcast the station may be even showing beer commercials. Thats a fiction story, but it is not hard to believe. Some argue that advertising and media desensitizes consumers. These people argue that children learn to play with guns before even knowing how to spell their name. Not all advertising hinders America.
Advertising sometimes helps lower prices by creating what is called mass- demand. The more a manufacture can produce the less they will charge per unit. In a perfect supply and demand world, the higher the price the less the demand. Living in a non-perfect world the advertisers and suppliers know that America is nave. Most consumers believe that if an object is more expensive then it is more valuable. This is how advertisers can sell two cars, though exactly the same except for a different company name on each, for two diverse prices.
Americas consumers desire to fit in the crowd or become accepted drives them to have what everyone else have but better. The question of what motivates a consumer to buy challenges the seller and presses research specialists to investigate. Some research attempts to probe the unconscious impulses that drive buying decisions. Advertising agencies then utilize these findings to influence the consumer and to attempt to break down sales resistance.
Many observers outside the advertising industry have fought against this type of indirect selling. Many researchers, however, regard motivational inquiry as only a means to dig deeper. Through careful questioning and investigation it is often possible for an advertiser to trace a sale and learn what actually motivated the consumer to buy a product. Advertisers play on consumers emotions of guilt and anxiety or fears of inferiority. The new cool thing is what everyone has so why should the consumer not go out and get it right now.
Many cigarette and beer advertisers have been accused of targeting their products directly towards children, who even if they did want to buy, would not be able to because they are underage, even though 90 percent of smokers, who become life long smokers, started when they were just teens. Because of addictions to nicotine and alcohol it is easier to profit from starting a life long purchaser at a younger age. This form of selling is a trend is believed to have started in the 1980s and has brought many advertisers to courtrooms.
From courtrooms advertising has been accused of ruining everything from the environment to the English language. Advertisers claim, the public is very tolerant of mass persuasion, and consumers are well able to make up their own mind. Advertisers also declare the consumer buys what they want or like, and that any particular advertisement is meant to spread awareness of a product. Most advertisers are, only trying to better circulate their particular product, but some advertisements have almost nothing to do with the product. When an advertisement appears to only mention the product incidentally, it is called image advertisement.
Image advertisement is directed to build prestige or public respect and is not directed at selling the product but the company name. Image advertisements are intended to set a pattern in a consumer, so that the next time the consumer sees a logo or hears a jingle they will remember that particular company and advertisement. Patterns help people to narrow our thinking down and put thoughts into categories that they can identify with. Patterns allow people to store information in blocks so that they do not have to relearn information that has already been learned.
Some patterns are universal and most people have some of the same categories or patterns that other people have. An example of a universal human pattern is using language to communicate. Other patterns that people have might be gained from their own experience and unlike those of others. Patterns are useful in advertising because advertisers can target their reader by tapping into specific categories. Most advertisements use stereo-type patterns. An advertisement with a clean, nicely groomed child and parent is often targeted so that the consumer will perceive the product to make their family ideal.
This marketing extends the consumers desire to be accepted and uses a consumers fear of not fitting in to persuade them to buy the product. Most consumers cannot blame advertisers for the actions they take to achieve high sales because the advertisers themselves are humans that have the same reactions. Peoples daily decisions are highly affected by what they see and hear. Most consumers do not care what is selling the product but rather what the product is, and as long as there is a demand for things then advertisers will stay in business.
