Advertising Effectiveness and Consumer Memory in Marketing

Introduction

The relationship between psychology and advertising is not a new one — in fact, it is fundamental to the birth of modern advertising in America. Edward Bernays, the father of marketing, was the nephew of none other than Sigmund Freud, and used Freud's sense that "man was motivated by passion" to manipulate the senses of consumers and plant seeds of desire within consumer memory (Jones, 2000, p. 283). Since the days of Bernays, all evidence indicates that marketers have utilized cognitive psychology in order to assist advertising effectiveness in relation to consumer memory. This paper discusses the evidence and research surrounding this association and critically analyzes it.

A Complex Relationship Between Branding and Consumer Memory

Developing brand awareness and brand loyalty are two of the biggest factors in successful marketing. Establishing either requires an effective campaign that essentially implants the brand in the mind of the consumer in a way that appeals to the consumer's emotions or passions, creating a strong need or desire to be a part of that brand — to be identified as someone who partakes of that brand, or to identify oneself as someone who would partake of it. This phenomenon is often complex and cannot simply be explained by brand trust or brand efficiency, for brand loyalty will in many cases overrule the loss of either or both, indicating that the consumer's loyalty is based on a deep psychological need into which the marketer has tapped (Bloemer & Kasper, 1995). The study by Bloemer and Kasper (1995) assesses the complexity of this relationship using quantitative and qualitative analysis and is helpful in appreciating the relationship between consumer memory and cognitive psychology.

Bloemer and Kasper (1995) show that "manifest satisfaction" is more important in the consumer–advertiser relationship than is "latent satisfaction," and that appealing to and/or vivifying a sense of "manifest satisfaction" within the consumer's mind depends on cultivating and/or exploiting the superficial or surface desires of the individual's memory in such a way that brand recognition and loyalty is the end result. Essentially, the marketer establishes a need within the consumer by appealing to some passion and then shows, through marketing, that the brand or product is the only thing that will satisfy this need. Thus, "manifest satisfaction" is the key rather than "latent satisfaction" because the marketer is only really working on a surface level where needs and wants are more easily established and satisfied. Latent desires are less easily identifiable because they are relatively unknown and unseen. The old maxim "out of sight, out of mind" applies in this context — because what is not known or seen cannot be acted upon, and if the desire is not appreciated in this sense there can be no expectation of fulfillment. Thus, Bloemer and Kasper (1995) show that advertisers want to appeal to and/or create manifest desires in the consumer because these can then be satisfied more easily, as the psychological need dictates.

Cognitive Dissonance and the Complementary Roles of Memory and Cognition

This psychological need was tested by Leon Festinger (1957) in his research on the theory of cognitive dissonance. Festinger discovered that individuals seek to maintain a balance in the mind and, in order to do so, will change their actions, change their perception, or change their perception of their own actions. The change in cognition helps to eliminate tension, discord, or dissonance and restore the mind to a state of equilibrium — harmony between action and thought. The basic idea behind Festinger's theory was already essentially illustrated a year earlier by a study conducted by Brehm, who showed that females would "enhance" the value of chosen alternative gifts and "diminish" the value of rejected alternative gifts in order to achieve a state of cognitive consonance (Mullen & Johnson, 2013, p. 104). In this example, the women were changing their perception in order to decrease dissonance stemming from a new set of choices regarding consumer products. The study indicated that there was indeed a positive correlation between cognitive psychology and consumerism.

The relationship between advertising effectiveness and consumer memory, however, would be developed and refined over a considerable amount of time. What Mullen and Johnson (2013) illustrate in their research is that there is a direct historical link between cognitive psychology and marketing — a finding that essentially supports the argument of Jones (2000), who highlights the integral role of Bernays and Freud in modern marketing and advertising. Mullen and Johnson (2013) provide a considerable overview of the different research that has gone into the subject of consumer memory and cognitive psychology. They discuss at length the processes involved in consumer memory and brand recognition, showing that "memory and cognition can be viewed as complementary facets of the processes by which consumers think about products" (Mullen & Johnson, 2013, p. 31). In other words, marketers are aware of the interaction between memory, thought, and action, and they use this knowledge to their advantage when devising marketing strategies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is ample evidence to indicate that market researchers have utilized cognitive psychology to tap into consumer memory in order to achieve their market objectives. This evidence is present from the very beginning of marketing, starting with Bernays, who followed in the footsteps of his uncle Sigmund Freud and viewed persons as primarily driven by passion. In order to exploit that understanding, Bernays set about using marketing as a tool to both plant desire and show the way to satisfying it within consumer memory. This approach has been utilized by marketers ever since, and researchers have shown that there is a direct relationship between consumer memory studies and the tendency of marketers to study cognitive psychology and its applications in advertising. Whether the goal is to develop brand loyalty or simply lure a consumer into clicking on a banner ad, memory and cognition are two aspects of human psychology that marketers are keenly aware of and take pains to approach in the most effective manner possible. For this reason, it can be stated without a doubt that advertising and psychology are fields that are intimately related in consumer cultures around the world.

References

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Bloemer, J., & Kasper, H. (1995). The complex relationship between consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Journal of Economic Psychology, 16(2), 311–329.

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.

Jones, E. M. (2000). Libido dominandi: Sexual liberation and political control. St. Augustine's Press.

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Mullen, B., & Johnson, C. (2013). The psychology of consumer behavior. Syracuse University Press.

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