Consumer Behavior -- the Impact of Advertising

Consumer Behavior -- the Impact of Advertising

"Brands should redouble their efforts in using advertising to grow brand advocacy through the integration of online and offline branded consumer contact points…[and moreover since] brand advertising stimulates website visits…" understanding the online and social media sites and applications can go a long ways to creating successful advertising campaigns… (Graham, et al.).

Purpose and Expectations

Advertising in the current global marketplace requires a great deal more than simply preparing entertaining, informative and attractive advertising campaigns. This paper points out that along with a good product or service, the marketing company needs to fully understand the dynamics and cultural realities of the targeted consumer. There are consumers that are worldly and others that are more parochial in their outlook, and still others that will resist buying anything made in a foreign country. Hence, the outlook and cultural make-up of the potential consumer ranks as high or higher on the list of priorities than even the quality of the product or service. It is a fascinating world now that globalization brings companies into the consciousness of consumers thousands of miles away, across deserts, across oceans, and across myriad cultures that are vastly different but all consume and buy. But indeed product marketing can backfire and cause wasted resources if the marketing strategy does not take into consideration all the pertinent aspects of the consumer and his or her location and cultural values. What is the impact of any advertisement on consumers at varying ends of the spectrum? That is the question to be approached and understood in this paper.

Discussion -- The Literature

The use of metaphors in advertising is the interesting and important subject of a peer-reviewed piece in the Journal of Advertising; and albeit the use of metaphors hasn't been researched a great deal in the literature, this is clearly an important component of many marketing campaigns. Typically, the metaphor used is something like, "…exercise lays the foundation for lasting fitness," the authors explain, and this use of rhetorical figures in this context is called "artful deviation from expectation" (Phillips et al., 2009, p. 49).

Moreover, the authors explain that the "essence of metaphor" is embracing a "cross-domain comparison"; that is, a metaphor compares two different objects through an analogy that suggests one of the objects is "figuratively like another" even though to the eye and the mind they seem very different (Phillips, 50). In the quote used above, the intension of the advertising is to give the impression that exercise builds a "foundation" for the body (muscles, heart, etc.) that is comparable to the sturdiness of the foundation below the house one is living in (Phillips, 50).

The authors conducted a study using 344 undergraduate students (and paid each of them $10 for their participation); the students were shown three different metaphors all regarding exercise and asked to "rate their degree of belief" in each one, using an 11-point scale. The three were: a) "exercise is a journey"; b) "exercise is work for pay"; and c) "exercise is heat" (Phillips, 54). The results of the study showed that under "moderately incidental advertising exposure" the three metaphors had "little power to shift belief" (i.e., make the respondent believe in the product or service) vis-a-vis the advertising approach. However, when the metaphor is "highly figurative" it can "shift beliefs" across a variety of participants -- especially when the metaphor is visual and not just verbal. Moreover, some individuals have a "high degree of ability to process metaphors" and that group will be very responsive when exposed to metaphors even in an incidental moment of exposure to the metaphor (Phillips 57).

Internet Marketing

The fastest growing form of advertising today is on the Internet, which the authors of an article in the Journal of Marketing Research assert will bring totals to an estimated $34 billion in 2014 (up from $23.4 billion in 2008). Roughly 40% of Internet advertising is placed on what the authors call "sponsored searches" -- typically these ads are positioned next to a Google search result, which is in fact a teaser, or a link, to an advertisement that often relates to the specific search the user has launched (Agarwal, et al. 2011, p. 1057). What is novel about this form of Internet advertising is that it the positioning of a company's ad is based on a bidding process.

That is, an advertiser doesn't merely put out cash to be placed in a pivotal spot; rather, there is an auction and the search engine company (Yahoo, MSN, and Google, for example) ranks the order the advertisements will be placed based on the "submitted bid and past click performance" (Agarwal 1057). A quote used by the authors asserts that being placed #1 at the top of the list of links to the right of the search result will bring "…3 1/2 times more traffic…as opposed to #2, and the numbers keep sliding from there" (Agarwal 1057).

However, there is a good bit of controversy as to the success an advertiser may achieve vis-a-vis the positioning on search sites; indeed, and because there is a lack of empirical evidence on this issue, the authors engaged in research to come up with data they can support. They used experimental keywords across several positions on the search results pages; their data set consisted of 3,187 observations of "…daily impressions, clicks, and orders for 68 keywords over a 45-day period from June 2009 to July 2009" (Agarwal 1061). As to the strategies employed, the article offers numerous pages of complicated algebraic equations and formulae -- that would require a math major to fully understand -- but their narrative leaves little doubt that advertisers engaged in "…intense bidding wars to secure the top positions" are basing their bids on "faulty assumptions" (Agarwal 1070).

In fact, Agarwal concludes, being at the top of the list of ad links on search result pages for Google does not always "maximize revenues" (1070). Further, the advertiser seeking to get good results on these search results pages may be "better off in the short run placing less weight on obtaining top positions" (Agarwal 1070). Also, selecting the most effective keywords can mean greater success luring online consumers than being at the top of the list, Agarwal contends (1070).

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is among the most sought after components of the entire marketing and advertising field. An article published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business (Abbasi 2011) emphasizes that the very "substance of advertising" lies in the fact that it has likeability, it has persuasiveness, and that it has "brand personality" (Abbasi 2). The authors of this article review a number of other articles on brand loyalty, calling the their own literature review of the available resources a "…mishmash of studies that pull glimmer on the atrociousness of advertising and its prominence on consumer buying power" (Abbasi 2).

The article asserts that advertising can be boring and in fact many advertisements appear to be "a squander of time and effort" by most people. Hence, the need to create advertising that has "likeability" otherwise consumers are not going to buy, and will never become loyal to that brand (Abbasi 3). One point-of-view in the literature suggests that in order to get the consumer to like the advertising that a given company puts out, the advertising must have a cognitive viewpoint that can stimulate consumer behavior. Another position states that merely getting the consumer to like the advertising is the key and still another suggestion from the literature the authors revealed concludes that getting consumers to like it depends on "…the element of entertainment and information that is provided" by the advertising (Abbasi, 3). Sometimes it is just a matter of impacting the potential customer's mind in a positive way, to get that person to buy the product.

One key hypothesis put forward by the authors suggests that the brand should actually have "personality" -- brand personality offers the consumer time to assess the message in terms of the personality put forward by the image, the message, and the theme. Among the most frequent ways of inducing a sense of personality in advertising is to get a celebrity to endorse the product, Abbasi explains (4). In that case, there is a strong need that the celebrity is a likeable person, and that he or she appeals to a broad range of potential customers.

Whether or not the advertising actually uses a celebrity, or otherwise comes up with a formula to appeal to consumers, first comes the "brand image" -- which should be a definable and memorable image because the image "ultimately" creates an awareness in the target consumer market. And if the brand image is successful in making the consumer aware, then the consumer will have a sense a "brand equity" in the product -- which ultimately leads to brand loyalty (Abbasi 5). .

In the case of brand loyalty that means the customer will come back over and over again to purchase that product or service. It is in the company's best interest to not only lure new customers into its fold, and get them to be loyal to the brand, it is imperative that the advertising message put out by the company or its marketing component to "…retain the old ones through advertising and fulfilling of promises" (Abbasi 6).

Health-Related Advertising

Jeremy Kees and colleagues point out that the various differences in consumers' "temporal orientation" to advertising must be understood in order to understand the risk perceptions, the attitudes, and the behavior intentions of that consumer (Kees, et al., 2010). This particular study us aimed at understanding the most effective way to reach people that are overweight in America. The article asserts that 33% of Americans are not just overweight, but in fact they are obese, and despite the federal government spending $500 million annually on nutrition education, and another $500 million is sent to states to promote healthy nutritional habits, more work needs to be done to get to people with good information (Kees 19).

Moreover, the cost to the government in terms of the medical expenses associated with obesity -- the results of obesity lead to diabetes and a number of other maladies which cost billions over a year's time just dealing with these maladies -- is enormous. Hence there is a great need to create appeals in advertising that brings a strong and cogent message to Americans that are obese. It isn't going to be easy to do however, because as Kees explains, persuading consumers to make healthier decisions in terms of what they eat is a "complex" problem. One suggestion for an advertising campaign is to understand that it takes self-discipline on the part of the individual to change eating habits, so advertising has to reach the person with a dramatic message in order to alter the self-discipline.

Some studies have shown that people are either "prevention-oriented" or they are "promotion-oriented" and this means that people who have used "prevention-oriented" strategies must be reached with this approach and likewise those who respond to promotional ideas must be approached in that genre (Kees 20). Research also shows that a "regulatory fit can increase persuasive message effectiveness"; regulatory fit is seen as causing an intense motivational movement that happens when there is a good link between "the manner in which a person pursues a goal" and the orientation of that goal (Kees, 21). The paper poses a hypothesis that the attitude that the viewer has toward the advertisement will "be more positive" when the ad puts forward a "goal pursuit strategy" (GPS) (that is, when the person is goal-oriented, he or she will respond to this type of approach).

On the other hand, another hypothesis presented by Kees and colleagues posits that those more concerned about the "future consequences of their behaviors" can be reached with advertising that puts forward a "future risk" concept. The authors present studies they launched and in which they test their hypotheses; in the first hypothesis, the "eager goal pursuit strategy (GPS) ad" that was tested was "evaluated more positively than the ad that offered vigilant GPS" (Kees 26). The words, "eager" and "vigilant" are used to describe individuals' personalities and help the researcher to understand the way in which people respond to advertising.

In the second hypothesis, those respondents that responded more to "promotion-oriented" advertising were more positive about an ad that presented "…eager means to achieve a goal" than they were about an ad that urged vigilance (Kees 26). What it all means, and how it all breaks down in this review of strategies is that -- notwithstanding some of the esoteric narrative and the math and graphs employed by the authors -- is that there must be a workable "fit" between the consumers' focus and the goal pursuit strategy by the advertiser and the advertisement (Kees 31). Helping people to lose weight and to understand the negative aspects of life for a person that is obese needs exactly the right advertising tactics, and Kees and colleagues have presented a good review of how those needs can be met through advertising.

Product Positioning vis-a-vis World Mindedness

Edwin Nijssen and Susan Douglas examine positioning in advertising based on the fact that there are global, foreign, and local cultures to appeal to. The authors examine the aspect of advertising that zeros in on the "global consumer culture"; this is pertinent because there are today -- due to globalization -- consumers that are "world-minded." Other consumers are tuned in to local issues and still others that are part of a "foreign consumer culture" (Nijssen, et al. 2011). These differences in consumer patterns presents the need for advertising strategies to be geared to not just one consumer culture, and hence, therein lies the challenge in the world of globalization.

The bottom line in this article is simplistic, albeit the strategies the authors pursue are not simplistic at all. How do advertisers relate to consumers that reflect three different world-minded approaches to culture? After reviewing previous research, Nijssen and colleagues report that those consumers that advertisers hope to reach that are "world-minded" tend to be respectful of other cultures and in fact are eager to learn about other people's ideas and values. In other words world-minded consumers care about world events and are more progressive in that sense. Hence, these consumers are expected to respond positively to ads that reflect foreign consumer positioning.

On the other hand, consumers with more ethnocentric attitudes will hold "negative beliefs" about buying foreign-made products because they are not as open to ideas from other cultures than the world-minded consumer. And local-minded consumers are even more prone to avoid foreign-made items. So, given the parameters the writers have established in this article, it behooves advertising professionals to know what group of consumers they are reaching out to, so as not to waste time and money promoting to consumers that won't respond but rather they should invest efforts to go after those specific consumer groups that will respond to their messages.

Marketing Through Blogs Online

What are the most effective strategies for advertising on blogs? This question is answered in the article by I-Ping Chiang and colleague in the journal Social Behavior and Personality. There are relationships that are important in terms of learning what advertising works in blogs and what does not work. There are three phases in terms of the theory of purchasing: "pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase" (Chiang 2011, p. 1246). This article is mainly concerned with pre-purchase in blogs, and among the ways that consumers make decisions about ads place on blogs is through the posts that previous visitors have left, and whether those posts were positive or not.

Why do people browse through blogs? Sometimes it is just for entertainment, other times it is to seek information, and for still others they are just "following trends" (Chiang 1246). For those consumers that are seeking information, and for those that engage in the interactivity aspects of blogs, and if the blogs are popular and hit the right note, the consumer will click on the link to the product and will buy the product (Chiang 1247).