Thursday, September 15, 2016

Psycolology of Advertisement - Nothing is Smart in SmartPhone



Close your eyes for a while an utter Christmas, what clicks you first? Jesus Christ? In most probable cases it would be Santa clause or Christmas tree with decorative lighting. try it once again with your eyes closed and thinking of Deepawali, the slide show running behing your eyelids will show you beautifully clothed people, Golden jwellery and eye catching fireworks and lamps, and not with Goddess Laxmi or Lord Rama.

Many researchers argue that advertising is the most powerful art form on Earth.
From its inception in mid 19th century, marketing is way to plot ideas into consumer's sub-concise. No one believe all of sudden that gold and silver are key ingredients of a Chyavanprash, it takes time to strike someone's intution,
Studies show that repeated exposure to a concept that is barely perceptible creates an “exposure effect,” which increases positive feelings toward the object.
For example, even though most people do not click banner ads while surfing on net, the ads still positively influence the way people feel about the product.

 We usually assume that advertising functions mostly to tell us about the properties of a product. A particular detergent might advertise that it gets stains out better than competitors, that it smells good, and that it leaves clothes feeling fresh. We believe that these properties are ones that will help us to choose the detergent we want to buy.For example, a detergent ad will juxtapose their brand with babies, sunshine, flowers, or other similar items. Repeatedly showing their brand with these items makes consumers feel good about the detergent too, though it has nothing to do with them.

Its not about just creating good feeling about their products in costumers sub-concise, advertisement can change one's overall perception of thinking like we have seen Christmas or Deepawali being marketed as festivals of buying and gifting things. In similar way a toothpaste, deodorant and electronic gadgets are targeted to sex appeal of an individual.

Walter Dill Scott(1869-1955, USA) published a book on advertising in 1903 called The Theory and Practice of Advertising. Interestingly, he asserted that people were highly suggestible and obedient.
Scott wrote “Man has been called the reasoning animal but he could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion. He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent suggestible” (Benjamin & Baker, p. 119-120).


There are basicaly 3 categories of products we purchase
  • Basic Needs - Food, Cloth, Shelter.
  • Utility - Fan, Chair, Bed, Toothpaste etc
  • Things We Want - Influenced 
 Things which comes in 3rd category are either a intuitive self-esteemed stuff (like some one has a dream to buy a Mercedes Car) in rare cases, or phycology forced things in most of the cases.Being economic by nature people want only to expend for first two categories of classification. The task of an advertise is to make of you believe that what they are endorsing actually(not really) comes in 2nd category (utility) or even 1st (Basic Need - children ages 12-17 will ask a parent for products they have seen on television an average of nine times until parents finally give in ) of classification.

Advertisers are legally required to tell the truth, but they often use misleading words such as “Part of . . .,” “The taste of real . . ,” “Because we care . . . “.
 They appeal to emotions that most humans experience, such as love, hate, and desire. Emotion is often the motivating factor for buying a product.

Advertisers appeal to several common psychological themes to motivate people to buy their products. Some of the most common psychological appeals are to self-preservation, sex, self-esteem, fear, authority, and imitation.

Once an emotional connection with an advertisement is established, irrelevant to real facts about the product, it starts to transfer advertisers idea to consumers thinking channel making the final decision of purchase.The world is a busy place. It is hard for us to feel confident that we have all of the objective facts about anything, whether it is products, people, or choices of things to do.

A TV commercial claims no one can fool you if you have Internet connectivity through their network, Did you ever searched before buying newly introduced liquid hand wash, if it is better than its precedent soap used for same purpose? 

It is not a matter of Rs.50-100 for a time, which would sum into large sum on long run. The problem is that we allow advertisers to have access to our mental world. They have paid for the opportunity to slip information to us about what feels good. That information ultimately affects the way we make choices, and our whether we know it or not. It also has a great impact on our daily life expenditure and self economics. (Money doesn't grow on trees: Manmohan Singh, Former PM, India ;-) 

Make sure it should be you who have to be smarter side while making a purchase, even a 5 year kid can do all you do with so called 'SmartPhones'.



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