The power of advertising

Power of Advertising

In the hit television series Mad Men, clever, award-winning campaigns are the brainstorms of boozy account executives in smoke-filled rooms. They banter back and forth, drinks in hand, until someone proposes a tag line or roughs out a storyboard on the back of a cocktail napkin. The reality is that the eye-catching copy and artwork resulting in effective ads are rooted in solid market research and a deep understanding of the psychology of advertising. Every decision in building an ad campaign is a deliberate one, designed to elicit particular behavior from the target audience. Advertising in the era portrayed in Mad Men was simpler; considerable research has been done in psychology and consumer behavior in the last forty years. "Advertising, indeed communication in general, is a far more complex process than we used to think it was," (Heath & Hyder 467).

What makes advertising effective? Hollis et. al. (qtd. In Newstead and Romaniuk 72) found that an ad's likeability supported its effectiveness. Hailey and Baldinger (qtd. In Newstead and Romaniuk 72) found, in fact, that advertisement likeability was shown to be the single best intermediary variable at distinguishing between campaigns that were successful and unsuccessful in terms of sales results."

The effectiveness of advertising is increased when a brand name is mentioned early and often. "The frequency of brand mentions within an advertisement has been positively linked to advertising recall (Stewart and Furse, 1986; Stewart and Koslow, 1989; Walker and von Gonten, 1989, qtd. In Newstead and Romaniuk 75). This makes sense, given that "academic research has consistently demonstrated the difficulty that consumers have linking advertising messages to brand names," (Baker, Honea and Russell 77).

Effective advertising creates an emotional response in consumers. For example, Proctor and Gamble positioned Tide as a product that could "take care" of the laundry, so that consumers have more time to focus on the rest of their lives (Bulbul and Menon 169). The emotional relationship fosters long-term brand loyalty (Berner, 2006, qtd. In Bulbul and Menon 169).

Other companies besides Proctor and Gamble have created advertising with emotional appeal. Consider, for example, print ads for McDonald's restaurants that show a mother and her young daughter taking time together for lunch. Think of ads that show a sleek car speeding through empty city streets or a teary-eyed young woman surprised with the gift of an engagement ring. Recent research validates the wisdom of these creative decisions. "Emotions dominate cognition and need to be considered as the most crucial factor in the advertising process. Emotional reactions function as the gatekeeper for further cognitive and behavioral reactions" (Poels and Dewitte 18).