Introduction
Let me suggest that if you were told to buy a product that you do not need, you would say that you would not do it. Moreover, you would probably feel repulsed by such a notion. Yet, I would like to state that not only is it possible, but there are also techniques for tricking you into wanting to spend money. It is accomplished by advertising, and exposure to it has become so constant that the mind no longer registers it as a marketing ploy. Nevertheless, subconsciously, the brain notices it, and when deciding to make a purchase, people refer to the advertisements stored in their memories without them realizing it. However, if the human mind can process and adopt marketing information, it can also protect itself from the influence of advertising.
Main body
It is impossible to imagine the modern world without promotion. It permeates every sphere of life, from consumer products to politics, influencing people’s behavior, whether they realize it or not. The reason why advertising has such a profound impact is psychological. All advertisements are processed and sorted out by the brain, which stores the promoted information and references it in future decision-making. The purpose of this speech is to inform the audience about the effect that advertising has on people’s minds. The presentation will also include examples of advertisements that had a direct impact on customers. Primarily, advertising takes visual form, therefore, the majority of the content that promotes products are either videos or images. Discovering the link between visual clues and the desire to buy products is essential in understanding how advertisements create the demand for brands and products.
The speech itself will be divided into three major parts. The first part addresses the physiological explanation of the effect of advertising on the human mind, as well as the classical advertisements. The second part covers product packaging and illustrates how convenient brand placement can manipulate consumer behavior. The third part reviews the use of social media in advertising and the means of actively motivating customers to perform certain actions. With that in mind, let us look at the next slide.
Advertisers rely on visual experiences to stimulate consumer interest in their products. Lebanon’s scientists published an article in the American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Business titled “Economic effects of product packaging on consumer shopping behavior: The case of Lebanon” (2018). The goal of this study was to ascertain what causes customers to pay attention to a particular product. The findings indicated that package design played a decisive role in influencing consumers to make a purchase.
Product packaging is effective because it operates based on a visual clue. As Hamdar and his colleagues put it, “people are visual creatures by nature” (Hamdar et al., 2018, p. 44). The graph on the slide illustrates how advertising invokes the urge to consume a product. When a person sees the advertisement, the mind reacts with a sense of anticipation. It creates the desire to reinforce the image with physical experience, whether it is eating food, watching a movie, or making a purchase. Subsequently, a person who initially had no intention of buying a product is tricked by a visual advertisement to consider it.
Moving on to the next slide, a popular form of advertising is product placement in movies. It is a technique employed by filmmakers and advertisers to promote brands in a subtle, not explicitly imposing manner. Unlike traditional advertisements, which are easily recognizable and sometimes negatively associated, product placement can cause positive reactions in the audience. Having fictional characters interact with well-known brands makes the audience relate to the narrative better. Therefore, many companies try to highlight their logos in popular movies.
The images on the slide illustrate well-known actors wearing branded goods. Tom Cruise has Aviator sunglasses, while Daniel Craig is pictured with an Omega watch in his hand. Notice how appropriate both objects are for the context of the scenes. These examples were discussed in a study on the effectiveness of product placement titled “When James Bond shows off his Omega: Does product placement affect its media host?”. The authors pointed to the drastic increase in sales of both Aviator sunglasses and Omega watch after the premiere of the respected movies (Marchand et al., 2015). Overall, it is evident that advertisements that do not directly compel consumers to purchase their products but instead influence them by creating associations with powerful personalities from movies are much more effective.
A different approach to attracting consumer attention is via promising free indulgencies. It works in an opposite to product placement way as it openly motivates clients to engage in a particular behavior. An example of such tactics is reviewed by the article “A study on the use of social media to understand consumer preference: The case of Starbucks”. The authors refer to the 2008’s presidential elections during which “Starbucks published a 60-second advertisement promising each voter a free cup of coffee” (Sam & Cai, 2015). It is unsurprising that following the video’s publication, Starbucks coffeehouses experienced an influx of customers.
Another reason why this promotion method generated results lies in social networks. Not only did Starbucks use its website to raise awareness of its offer, but it also relied on Facebook and Twitter to increase the viewership. Digital media are especially productive in gaining popularity, which is reflected in the number of retweets Starbucks commercials gathered. As a result, it can be summarised that using social networks as advertising platforms is also effective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, visualization is the primary technique employed by advertisers to attract attention. The human mind is designed to react to visual clues, which invoke the feeling of anticipation. Subsequently, it fuels the desire to fulfill the image propagated by the advertisements. As a result, consumers start buying products and services because they had received sufficient visual stimulation. Besides, the modern world allows for new ways of broadcasting the awareness of products. Brand placement in movies is a proven method of increasing consumer demand. Apart from that, companies can use social media to draw attention, which also results in a higher customer influx. Overall, the knowledge of advertisers’ use of visualization to trick the mind can help control the consumption urges.
As a final note, I would like to add that advertising capitalizes on human inattention. Advertisements have been present for so long, that it is challenging to distinguish between the goods and services that are essential from those that are simply promoted. However, the skill of consumer awareness can and should be practiced. This way it is possible to prevent excessive buying that is not justified by personal needs.
References
Hamdar, B. C., Al Dana, M., & Al Chawa, G. (2018). Economic effects of product packaging on consumer shopping behavior: The case of Lebanon. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Business, 4(2), 44-47. Web.
Marchand, A., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Best, S. (2015). When James Bond shows off his Omega: Does product placement affect its media host?. European Journal of Marketing. 9(10), 1-21. Web.
Sam, C.Y., & Cai, Y. (2015). A study on the use of social media to understand consumer preference: The case of Starbucks. International Journal of Management and Business Research, 5(3), 207-214.