ADVERTISING AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

BY

M. S. BALAJI
ENROLMENT NO: 11C5250014

Signature of the Guide

 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work entitled,

“ADVERTISING AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS” submitted to the Madurai Kamarajar

University, Madurai, for the award of the degree of “Master Of Arts” is an original

work carried out by me during 2010 - 2012 under the guidance of Mr. HARISH

NARAYAN, M.B.A., Senior Sales Manager, TV Vision Ltd, Bangalore.

Place: Signature of Candidate

Date: (M.S. BALAJI)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is the most gratifying part of the whole project. First and foremost, I
would like to thank Madurai Kamaraj University for the opportunity to enjoy
student life once again. The whole experience of doing this course has been
fun-filled and full of life. My special thanks goes out to Mr. Joseph D’Souza,
our academic coordinator who was there for us whenever we needed help and
guidance.

I cannot thank my parents enough for all the support and encouragement they
have given me throughout my education and career – special thanks to Appa
for all his print-out marathons and late night chats and to Amma for her
amazing cooking and the never fading faith she has on me.

I would like to thank Mr. Harish Narayan MBA., TV Vision Ltd, Bangalore –
what a bindaas team they have there! Thanks for letting me do my project
during working hours, being cranky and for always saying I could do it.

I have no words to say to my long-distance loves, for all the conversations

and support. You guys keep me going, you know you do, but you pretend like
it is nothing. Love you all for that.

Thanks to Sushmita for the casual conversations which end up lighting a bulb in my
head.

Thanks to everyone who willingly filled up the survey and helped in getting it
filled – Matheesh, Vijay Kirangi and Srini especially for spreading the word.

A big high five to all my classmates who come from varied educational and
professional backgrounds but still manage to merge together as one unit.

M.S. Balaji

M.A. (Advertisement & Public Relations)

Roll No.: 11C5250014

 PREFACE

This report presents the research, findings and recommendations resulting from the project “HOW
ADVERTISEMENT EFFECT CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR”.

Advertising is arguably the most interesting of all business fields. It requires a range of human
skills that are both creative and practical and, when successful can have a strong effect on business
performance. How does advertising work? Despite its importance, this question get limited attention
in many textbooks of marketing communications, the choice of media, advertising case, business and
legal constraints etc, but the evidence for the effects of advertising and the processes involved in
producing these effects are usually given little space.

This is a pity explaining how advertising work is difficult but both students and practitioners
want to know about the methods of research, the debates and uncertainties, and the more solid
conclusion now available about the effects of advertising and we certainly have some findings to
report.
 CONTENTS
1- INTRODUCTION

2- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

3- ADVERTISMENT AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

4- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

5- DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION

6- CONCLUSION

7- RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

8- LIMITATIONS

9- ANNEXURE

- BIBLIOGRAPHY

- QUESTIONNAIRE

- RESPONDENT PROFILE
ADVERTISING AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS
 INTRODUCTION

The word ‘Advertising’ has its origin from a Latin word ‘Adventure’ which means to turn to. The
dictionary meaning of the word is ‘to announce publicity or to give public concerned to a specific
thing which has been announced by the advertiser publicity in order to inform and influence them
with the ideas which the advertisement carries. In business world the terms in mainly used with
reference to selling the product of the concern.

The advertising, as Jones defines it is "a sort of machine made mass production method of selling
which supplements the voice and personality of the individual salesman, such as manufacturing the
machine supplements the hands of the craftsman." It is thus a process of buying/sponsor/identified
media space or time in order to promote a product or an idea. From a careful scrutiny of the above
definition, the following points emerge:

Advertising is a paid form and hence commercial in nature. This any sponsored communication
designed to influence buyer behavior advertising.

Advertising is non-personal. Unlike personal selling, advertising is done in a non-personal manner

through intermediaries or media whatever the form of advertisement (Spoken, written or visual). It is
directed at a mass audience and not directed at the individual as in personal selling.

Advertising promotes idea, goods and services. Although most advertising is designed to help sell
goods, it is being used increasingly to further public interest goals.

Advertising is identifiable with its sponsoring authority and advertiser. It discloses or identifies the
source of opinions and ideas.

Advertising thus is:

1. Impersonal
2. A communication of ideas.
3. Aimed at mass audience
4. by a paying sponsor.
 WHAT IS ADVERTISING
Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or

listeners) to take some action. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or

service could benefit the consumer, to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume that

particular brand. Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and

early 20th centuries.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services

through branding, which involves the repetition of an

image or product name in an effort to associate

related qualities with the brand in the minds of

consumers. Different types of media can be used to

deliver these messages, including traditional media

such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio,

outdoor or direct mail; or new media such as

websites and text messages. Advertising may be

placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a

company or other organization.

Non-commercial advertisers that spend money to

advertise items other than a consumer product or

service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies.

Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service

announcement.

In 2007, spending on advertising was estimated at more than $150 billion in the United States and

$385 billion worldwide.

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of this project report can be described with following aspects:

 To study about the market potential and scope of advertisement

now a days.

 To study the preference of people towards various media of advertisement.

 To study the advantages of advertisement for people and their occupation.

 To know satisfaction level of people (customers).

 To study the effect of advertisement on consumer buying behaviour.

 To study influence of quality of prices over buying decision

 To study the reason for the delay between purchase decision and actual decision.

 One of the objective is to determine the effect of advertisement over the demand for the
product.
History

Edo period advertising flyer from 1806 for a traditional medicine called Kinseitan

Egyptians used Papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Commercial messages and political
campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia. Lost and found
advertising on papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Wall or rock painting for
commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient advertising form, which is present to
this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. The tradition of wall painting can be traced
back to Indian rock art paintings that date back to 4000 BC. History tells us that Out-of-home
advertising and billboards are the oldest forms of advertising.

As the towns and cities of the Middle Ages began to grow, and the general populace was unable to
read, signs that today would say cobbler, miller, tailor or blacksmith would use an image associated
with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a horse shoe, a candle or even a
bag of flour. Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city square from the backs of carts and wagons
and their proprietors used street callers (town criers) to announce their whereabouts for the
convenience of the customers.

As education became an apparent need and reading, as well as printing, developed advertising
expanded to include handbills. In the 17th century advertisements started to appear in weekly
newspapers in England. These early print advertisements were used mainly to promote books and
newspapers, which became increasingly affordable with advances in the printing press; and
medicines, which were increasingly sought after as disease ravaged Europe. However, false
advertising and so-called "quack" advertisements became a problem, which ushered in the regulation
of advertising content.

As the economy expanded during the 19th century, advertising grew alongside. In the United States,
the success of this advertising format eventually led to the growth of mail-order advertising.

In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages,
allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and the formula was
soon copied by all titles. Around 1840, Volney Palmer established a predecessor to advertising
agencies in Boston. Around the same time, in France, Charles-Louis Haves extended the services of
his news agency, Haves to include advertisement brokerage, making it the first French group to
organize. At first, agencies were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers. N. W. Ayer & Son
was the first full-service agency to assume responsibility for advertising content. N.W. Ayer opened in
1869, and was located in Philadelphia.

An 1895 advertisement for a weight gain product.

At the turn of the century, there were few career choices for women in business; however,
advertising was one of the few. Since women were responsible for most of the purchasing done in
their household, advertisers and agencies recognized the value of women's insight during the creative
process. In fact, the first American advertising to use a sexual sell was created by a woman – for a
soap product. Although tame by today's standards, the advertisement featured a couple with the
message "The skin you love to touch".

In the early 1920s, the first radio stations were established by radio equipment manufacturers and
retailers who offered programs in order to sell more radios to consumers. As time passed, many non-
profit organizations followed suit in setting up their own radio stations, and included: schools, clubs
and civic groups. When the practice of sponsoring programs was popularized, each individual radio
program was usually sponsored by a single business in exchange for a brief mention of the business'
name at the beginning and end of the sponsored shows. However, radio station owners soon realized
they could earn more money by selling sponsorship rights in small time allocations to multiple
businesses throughout their radio station's broadcasts, rather than selling the sponsorship rights to
single businesses per show.

A print advertisement for the 1913 issue of the Encyclopedia Britannica

This practice was carried over to television in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A fierce battle was
fought between those seeking to commercialize the radio and people who argued that the radio
spectrum should be considered a part of the commons – to be used only non-commercially and for the
public good. The United Kingdom pursued a public funding model for the BBC, originally a private
company, the British Broadcasting Company, but incorporated as a public body by Royal Charter in
1927. In Canada, advocates like Graham Spry were likewise able to persuade the federal government
to adopt a public funding model, creating the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. However, in the
United States, the capitalist model prevailed with the passage of the Communications Act of 1934
which created the Federal Communications Commission. To placate the socialists, the U.S. Congress
did require commercial broadcasters to operate in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity".
Public broadcasting now exists in the United States due to the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act which led
to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.

In the early 1950s, the Dumont Television Network began the modern practice of selling
advertisement time to multiple sponsors. Previously, Dumont had trouble finding sponsors for many of
their programs and compensated by selling smaller blocks of advertising time to several businesses.
This eventually became the standard for the commercial television industry in the United States.
However, it was still a common practice to have single sponsor shows, such as The United States Steel
Hour. In some instances the sponsors exercised great control over the content of the show—up to and
including having one's advertising agency actually writing the show. The single sponsor model is much
less prevalent now, a notable exception being the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

The 1960s saw advertising transform into a modern approach in which creativity was allowed to shine,
producing unexpected messages that made advertisements more tempting to consumers' eyes. The
Volkswagen ad campaign—featuring such headlines as "Think Small" and "Lemon" (which were used to
describe the appearance of the car)—ushered in the era of modern advertising by promoting a
"position" or "unique selling proposition" designed to associate each brand with a specific idea in the
reader or viewer's mind. This period of American advertising is called the Creative Revolution and its
archetype was William Bern Bach who helped create the revolutionary Volkswagen ads among others.
Some of the most creative and long-standing American advertising dates to this period.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV.
Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer
tunes in for the advertising message, rather than it being a by-product or afterthought. As cable and
satellite television became increasingly prevalent, specialty channels emerged, including channels
entirely devoted to advertising, such as QVC, Home Shopping Network, and Shop TV Canada.

Marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and contributed to the "dot-com"
boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything
from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, a number of websites including
the search engine Google, started a change in online advertising by emphasizing contextually
relevant, unobtrusive ads intended to help, rather than inundate, users. This has led to a plethora of
similar efforts and an increasing trend of interactive advertising.

The share of advertising spending relative to GDP has changed little across large changes in media.
For example, in the US in 1925, the main advertising media were newspapers, magazines, signs on
streetcars, and outdoor posters. Advertising spending as a share of GDP was about 2.9 percent. By
1998, television and radio had become major advertising media. Nonetheless, advertising spending as
a share of GDP was slightly lower—about 2.4 percent.

A recent advertising innovation is "guerrilla marketing", which involve unusual approaches such as
staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand
messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond to become part of the
advertising message. Guerrilla advertising is becoming increasing more popular with a lot of
companies. This type of advertising is unpredictable and innovative, which causes consumers to buy
the product or idea. This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via
product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing
social network services such as MySpace.

Public service advertising

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to
inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as HIV/AIDS, political
ideology, energy conservation and deforestation.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and
motivating large audiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest—it is
much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes." Attributed to Howard Goss age by
David Ogilvy.

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing,
and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and
marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of
non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives. In the United States, the granting of television
and radio licenses by the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public
service advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of
their required public service announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest
percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for
high-paying advertisers.

MEDIA OF ADVERTISEMENT

Paying people to hold signs is one of the oldest forms of advertising, as with this Human directional pictured
above

A bus with an advertisement for GAP in Singapore. Buses and other vehicles are popular mediums for
advertisers.
A DBAG Class 101 with UNICEF ads at Ingolstadt main railway station

Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can include wall
paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and
television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popup, skywriting,
bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners
attached to or sides of airplanes ("logo jets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or
overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows,
subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, doors of bathroom stalls, stickers
on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming
audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an
"identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

Television

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is
reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events.
The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising
event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached
US$3 million (as of 2009).

The majority of television commercials features a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the
product.

Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer
graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank backdrops or used to replace local billboards
that are not relevant to the remote broadcast audience. More controversially, virtual billboards may
be inserted into the background where none exist in real-life. This technique is especially used in
televised sporting events Virtual product placement is also possible.

Infomercials

An infomercial is a long-format television commercial, typically five minutes or longer. The word
"infomercial" is a portmanteau of the words "information" & "commercial". The main objective in an
infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then
immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number or website.
Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and their features, and commonly
have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.

Radio advertising

Radio advertising is a form of advertising via the medium of radio.

Radio advertisements are broadcasted as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and
a thus to a receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing the
commercials. While radio has the obvious limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio
advertising often cite this as an advantage.

Press advertising

Press advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper, magazine, or trade
journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very broad readership base, such as a major
national newspaper or magazine, to more narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and
trade journals on very specialized topics. A form of press advertising is classified advertising, which
allows private individuals or companies to purchase a small, narrowly targeted ad for a low fee
advertising a product or service.

Online advertising

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the
expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online
advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in text
ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks
and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

Billboard advertising

Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing
pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing
motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts of

viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and
in stadiums.

Mobile billboard advertising

The Redeye newspaper advertised to its target market at North Avenue Beach with a sailboat billboard on Lake Michigan.

Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens. These can be on
dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes preselected by clients, they
can also be specially-equipped cargo trucks or, in some cases, large banners strewn from planes. The
billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights. Some billboard
displays are static, while others change; for example, continuously or periodically rotating among a
set of advertisements.

Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world, including:

 Target advertising

 One-day, and long-term campaigns

 Conventions

 Sporting events

 Store openings and similar promotional events

 Big advertisements from smaller companies

 Others

In-store advertising

In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes placement of a product
in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near checkout counters,
eye-catching displays promoting a specific product, and advertisements in such places as shopping
carts and in-store video displays.

Covert advertising

Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or brand is embedded in
entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a
definite brand, as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderson owns a
phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgaria
logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where main character played by Will Smith
mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them "classics," because the film is set far in the
future. I, Robot and Space balls also showcase futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos
clearly displayed on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie The Matrix
Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were used. Similarly,
product placement for Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW and Aston Martin cars are featured in
recent James Bond films, most notably Casino Royale. In "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer",
the main transport vehicle shows a large Dodge logo on the front. Blade Runner includes some of the
most obvious product placement; the whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.
Celebrities

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain
recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often advertise
their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products or wear clothes by specific
brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print
adverts to advertise specific or general products.

The use of celebrities to endorse a brand can have its downsides, however. One mistake by a
celebrity can be detrimental to the public relations of a brand. For example, following his
performance of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, swimmer Michael
Phelps' contract with Kellogg's was terminated, as Kellogg's did not want to associate with him after
he was photographed smoking marijuana.

Media and advertising approaches

Increasingly, other media are overtaking many of the "traditional" media such as television, radio and
newspaper because of a shift toward consumer's usage of the Internet for news and music as well as
devices like digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo.

Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space
are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website
receives.

Digital signage is poised to become a major mass media because of its ability to reach larger
audiences for less money. Digital signage also offers the unique ability to see the target audience
where they are reached by the medium. Technology advances has also made it possible to control the
message on digital signage with much precision, enabling the messages to be relevant to the target
audience at any given time and location which in turn, gets more response from the advertising.
Digital signage is being successfully employed in supermarkets. Another successful use of digital
signage is in hospitality locations such as restaurants. and malls.

E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "e-
mail spam". Spam has been a problem for email users for many years.

Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets
and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising
(see mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).

Unpaid advertising (also called "publicity advertising"), can provide good exposure at minimal cost.
Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of
equating a brand with a common noun (in the United States, "Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" =
tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly, "Hoover" = vacuum cleaner, "Nintendo" (often used by those
exposed to many video games) = video games, and "Band-Aid" = adhesive bandage) — these can be
seen as the pinnacle of any advertising campaign. However, some companies oppose the use of their
brand name to label an object. Equating a brand with a common noun also risks turning that brand
into a genericized trademark - turning it into a generic term which means that its legal protection as
a trademark is lost.

As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable content
appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile advertising followed,
also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2
billion and providers such as Ad mob delivered billions of mobile ads.

More advanced mobile ads include banner ads, coupons, Multimedia Messaging Service picture and
video messages, averages and various engagement marketing campaigns. A particular feature driving
mobile ads is the 2D Barcode, which replaces the need to do any typing of web addresses, and uses
the camera feature of modern phones to gain immediate access to web content. 83 percent of
Japanese mobile phone users already are active users of 2D barcodes.

A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It is online advertising
with a focus on social networking sites. This is a relatively immature market, but it has shown a lot of
promises as advertisers are able to take advantage of the demographic information the user has
provided to the social networking site. Friendertising is a more precise advertising term in which
people are able to direct advertisements toward others directly using social network service.

From time to time, The CW Television Network airs short programming breaks called "Content Wraps,"
to advertise one company's product during an entire commercial break. The CW pioneered "content
wraps" and some products featured were Herbal Essences, Crest, Guitar Hero II, Cover Girl, and
recently Toyota.

Criticism of advertising

While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs.
Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent as to have become
a major nuisance to users of these services, as well as being a financial burden on internet service
providers.[19] Advertising is increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics
argue is a form of child exploitation.[20] In addition, advertising frequently uses psychological pressure
(for example, appealing to feelings of inadequacy) on the intended consumer, which may be harmful.

Hyper-commercialism and the commercial tidal wave

Criticism of advertising is closely linked with criticism of media and often interchangeable. They can
refer to its audio-visual aspects (e. g. cluttering of public spaces and airwaves), environmental
aspects (e. g. pollution, oversize packaging, increasing consumption), political aspects (e. g. media
dependency, free speech, censorship), financial aspects (costs), ethical/moral/social aspects (e. g.
sub-conscious influencing, invasion of privacy, increasing consumption and waste, target groups,
certain products, honesty) and, of course, a mix thereof. Some aspects can be subdivided further and
some can cover more than one category.

As advertising has become increasingly prevalent in modern Western societies, it is also increasingly
being criticized. A person can hardly move in the public sphere or use a medium without being
subject to advertising. Advertising occupies public space and more and more invades the private
sphere of people, many of which consider it a nuisance. “It is becoming harder to escape from
advertising and the media. … Public space is increasingly turning into a gigantic billboard for products
of all kind. The aesthetical and political consequences cannot yet be foreseen.” Hanno Rauterberg in
the German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ calls advertising a new kind of dictatorship that cannot be escaped.

Ad creep: "There are ads in schools, airport lounges, doctors’ offices, movie theaters, hospitals, gas
stations, elevators, convenience stores, on the Internet, on fruit, on ATMs, on garbage cans and
countless other places. There are ads on beach sand and restroom walls.”. “One of the ironies of
advertising in our times is that as commercialism increases, it makes it that much more difficult for
any particular advertiser to succeed, hence pushing the advertiser to even greater efforts.” Within a
decade advertising in radios climbed to nearly 18 or 19 minutes per hour; on prime-time television
the standard until 1982 was no more than 9.5 minutes of advertising per hour, today it’s between 14
and 17 minutes. With the introduction of the shorter 15-second-spot the total amount of ads
increased even more dramatically. Ads are not only placed in breaks but e. g. also into baseball
telecasts during the game itself. They flood the internet, a market growing in leaps and bounds.

Other growing markets are ‘’product placements’’ in entertainment programming and in movies
where it has become standard practice and ‘’virtual advertising’’ where products get placed
retroactively into rerun shows. Product billboards are virtually inserted into Major League Baseball
broadcasts and in the same manner, virtual street banners or logos are projected on an entry canopy
or sidewalks, for example during the arrival of celebrities at the 2001 Grammy Awards. Advertising
precedes the showing of films at cinemas including lavish ‘film shorts’ produced by companies such as
Microsoft or DaimlerChrysler. “The largest advertising agencies have begun working aggressively to
co-produce programming in conjunction with the largest media firms” creating Infomercials
resembling entertainment programming.

Opponents equate the growing amount of advertising with a “tidal wave” and restrictions with
“damming” the flood. Kalle Lasn, one of the most outspoken critics of advertising on the
international stage, considers advertising “the most prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants.
From the moment your radio alarm sounds in the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV micro
jolts of commercial pollution flood into your brain at the rate of around 3,000 marketing messages
per day. Every day an estimated twelve billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials and more
than 200,000 television commercials are dumped into North America’s collective unconscious In the
course of his life the average American watches three years of advertising on television.

More recent developments are video games incorporating products into their content, special
commercial patient channels in hospitals and public figures sporting temporary tattoos. A method
unrecognisable as advertising is so-called ‘’guerrilla marketing’’ which is spreading ‘buzz’ about a
new product in target audiences. Cash-strapped U.S. cities do not shrink back from offering police
cars for advertising. A trend, especially in Germany, is companies buying the names of sports
stadiums. The Hamburg soccer Volkspark stadium first became the AOL Arena and then the HSH
Nordbank Arena. The Stuttgart Neckarstadion became the Mercedes-Benz Arena, the Dortmund
Westfalenstadion now is the Signal Iduna Park. The former SkyDome in Toronto was renamed Rogers
Centre. Other recent developments are, for example, that whole subway stations in Berlin are
redesigned into product halls and exclusively leased to a company. Düsseldorf even has ‘multi-
sensorial’ adventure transit stops equipped with loudspeakers and systems that spread the smell of a
detergent. Swatch used beamers to project messages on the Berlin TV-tower and Victory column,
which was fined because it was done without a permit. The illegality was part of the scheme and
added promotion. It’s standard business management knowledge that advertising is a pillar, if not
“the” pillar of the growth-orientated free capitalist economy. “Advertising is part of the bone
marrow of corporate capitalism.”

“Contemporary capitalism could not function and global production networks could not exist as they
do without advertising.”

For communication scientist and media economist Manfred Knoche at the University of Salzburg,
Austria, advertising isn’t just simply a ‘necessary evil’ but a ‘necessary elixir of life’ for the media
business, the economy and capitalism as a whole. Advertising and mass media economic interests
create ideology. Knoche describes advertising for products and brands as ‘the producer’s weapons in
the competition for customers’ and trade advertising, e. g. by the automotive industry, as a means to
collectively represent their interests against other groups, such as the train companies. In his view
editorial articles and programmes in the media, promoting consumption in general, provide a ‘cost
free’ service to producers and sponsoring for a ‘much used means of payment’ in advertising.
Christopher Lasch argues that advertising leads to an overall increase in consumption in society;
"Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life."

Advertising and constitutional rights

Advertising is equated with constitutionally guaranteed freedom of opinion and speech. Therefore
criticizing advertising or any attempt to restrict or ban advertising is almost always considered to be
an attack on fundamental rights (First Amendment in the US) and meets the combined and
concentrated resistance of the business and especially the advertising community. “Currently or in
the near future, any number of cases are and will be working their way through the court system that
would seek to prohibit any government regulation of ... commercial speech (e.g. advertising or food
labelling) on the grounds that such regulation would violate citizens’ and corporations’ First
Amendment rights to free speech or free press.” An example for this debate is advertising for tobacco
or alcohol but also advertising by mail or fliers (clogged mail boxes), advertising on the phone, in the
internet and advertising for children. Various legal restrictions concerning spamming, advertising on
mobile phones, addressing children, tobacco, alcohol have been introduced by the US, the EU and
various other countries. Not only the business community resists restrictions of advertising.
Advertising as a means of free expression has firmly established itself in western society .McChesney
argues, that the government deserves constant vigilance when it comes to such regulations, but that
it is certainly not “the only antidemocratic force in our society. ...corporations and the wealthy enjoy
a power every bit as immense as that enjoyed by the lords and royalty of feudal times” and “markets
are not value-free or neutral; they not only tend to work to the advantage of those with the most
money, but they also by their very nature emphasize profit over all else….Hence, today the debate is
over whether advertising or food labeling, or campaign contributions are speech...if the rights to be
protected by the First Amendment can only be effectively employed by a fraction of the citizenry,
and their exercise of these rights gives them undue political power and undermines the ability of the
balance of the citizenry to exercise the same rights and/or constitutional rights, then it is not
necessarily legitimately protected by the First Amendment.” In addition, “those with the capacity to
engage in free press are in a position to determine who can speak to the great mass of citizens and
who cannot”. Critics in turn argue, that advertising invades privacy which is a constitutional right.
For, on the one hand, advertising physically invades privacy, on the other, it increasingly uses
relevant, information-based communication with private data assembled without the knowledge or
consent of consumers or target groups.

For Georg Franck at Vienna University of Technology advertising is part of what he calls “mental
capitalism”, taking up a term (mental) which has been used by groups concerned with the mental
environment, such as Adbusters. Franck blends the “Economy of Attention” with Christopher Lasch’s
culture of narcissm into the mental capitalism: In his essay „Advertising at the Edge of the
Apocalypse“, Sut Jhally writes: “20. century advertising is the most powerful and sustained system of
propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural effects, unless quickly checked, will be
responsible for destroying the world as we know it.

The price of attention and hidden costs

Advertising has developed into a billion-dollar business on which many depend. In 2006 391 billion US
dollars were spent worldwide for advertising. In Germany, for example, the advertising industry
contributes 1.5% of the gross national income; the figures for other developed countries are similar.
Thus, advertising and growth are directly and causally linked. As far as a growth based economy can
be blamed for the harmful human lifestyle (affluent society) advertising has to be considered in this
aspect concerning its negative impact, because its main purpose is to raise consumption. “The
industry is accused of being one of the engines powering a convoluted economic mass production
system which promotes consumption.”

Attention and attentiveness have become a new commodity for which a market developed. “The
amount of attention that is absorbed by the media and redistributed in the competition for quotas
and reach is not identical with the amount of attention that is available in society. The total amount
circulating in society is made up of the attention exchanged among the people themselves and the
attention given to media information. Only the latter is homogenized by quantitative measuring and
only the latter takes on the character of an anonymous currency.” According to Franck, any surface
of presentation that can guarantee a certain degree of attentiveness works as magnet for attention,
e. g. media which are actually meant for information and entertainment, culture and the arts, public
space etc. It is this attraction which is sold to the advertising business. The German Advertising
Association stated that in 2007 30.78 billion Euros were spent on advertising in Germany, 26% in
newspapers, 21% on television, 15% by mail and 15% in magazines. In 2002 there were 360.000 people
employed in the advertising business. The internet revenues for advertising doubled to almost 1
billion Euros from 2006 to 2007, giving it the highest growth rates.

Spiegel-Online reported that in the US in 2008 for the first time more money was spent for advertising
on internet (105.3 billion US dollars) than on television (98.5 billion US dollars). The largest amount in
2008 was still spent in the print media (147 billion US dollars). For that same year, Welt-Online
reported that the US pharmaceutical industry spent almost double the amount on advertising (57.7
billion dollars) than it did on research (31.5 billion dollars). But Marc-André Gagnon und Joel Lexchin
of York University, Toronto, estimate that the actual expenses for advertising are higher yet, because
not all entries are recorded by the research institutions. Not included are indirect advertising
campaigns such as sales, rebates and price reductions. Few consumers are aware of the fact that they
are the ones paying for every cent spent for public relations, advertisements, rebates, packaging etc.
since they ordinarily get included in the price calculation.

Influencing and conditioning

Advertising for McDonald's on the Via di Propaganda, Rome, Italy

The most important element of advertising is not information but suggestion more or less making use
of associations, emotions (appeal to emotion) and drives dormant in the sub-conscience of people,
such as sex drive, herd instinct, of desires, such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance, self-
esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction, reward, of fears
(appeal to fear), such as illness, weaknesses, loneliness, need, uncertainty, security or of prejudices,
learned opinions and comforts. “All human needs, relationships, and fears – the deepest recesses of
the human psyche – become mere means for the expansion of the commodity universe under the
force of modern marketing. With the rise to prominence of modern marketing, commercialism – the
translation of human relations into commodity relations – although a phenomenon intrinsic to
capitalism, has expanded exponentially.”.Cause-related marketing’ in which advertisers link their
product to some worthy social cause has boomed over the past decade.
Advertising exploits the model role of celebrities or popular figures and makes deliberate use of
humour as well as of associations with colour, tunes, certain names and terms. Altogether, these are
factors of how one perceives himself and one’s self-worth. In his description of ‘mental capitalism’
Franck says, “the promise of consumption making someone irresistible is the ideal way of objects and
symbols into a person’s subjective experience. Evidently, in a society in which revenue of attention
moves to the fore, consumption is drawn by one’s self-esteem. As a result, consumption becomes
‘work’ on a person’s attraction. From the subjective point of view, this ‘work’ opens fields of
unexpected dimensions for advertising. Advertising takes on the role of a life councillor in matters of
attraction. (…) The cult around one’s own attraction is what Christopher Lasch described as ‘Culture
of Narcissism’.”

For advertising critics another serious problem is that “the long standing notion of separation
between advertising and editorial/creative sides of media is rapidly crumbling” and advertising is
increasingly hard to tell apart from news, information or entertainment. The boundaries between
advertising and programming are becoming blurred. According to the media firms all this commercial
involvement has no influence over actual media content, but, as McChesney puts it, “this claim fails
to pass even the most basic giggle test, it is so preposterous.”

Advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories about how to create subjects, enabling
advertising and marketing to take on a ‘more clearly psychological tinge’ (Miller and Rose, 1997,
cited in Thrift, 1999, p. 67). Increasingly, the emphasis in advertising has switched from providing
‘factual’ information to the symbolic connotations of commodities, since the crucial cultural premise
of advertising is that the material object being sold is never in itself enough. Even those commodities
providing for the most mundane necessities of daily life must be imbued with symbolic qualities and
culturally endowed meanings via the ‘magic system (Williams, 1980) of advertising. In this way and by
altering the context in which advertisements appear, things ‘can be made to mean "just about
anything"’ (McFall, 2002, p.162) and the ‘same’ things can be endowed with different intended
meanings for different individuals and groups of people, thereby offering mass produced visions of
individualism.”

Before advertising is done, market research institutions need to know and describe the target group
to exactly plan and implement the advertising campaign and to achieve the best possible results. A
whole array of sciences directly deal with advertising and marketing or is used to improve its effects.
Focus groups, psychologists and cultural anthropologists are ‘’’de rigueur’’’ in marketing research”.
Vast amounts of data on persons and their shopping habits are collected, accumulated, aggregated
and analysed with the aid of credit cards, bonus cards, raffles and internet surveying. With increasing
accuracy this supplies a picture of behaviour, wishes and weaknesses of certain sections of a
population with which advertisement can be employed more selectively and effectively. The
efficiency of advertising is improved through advertising research. Universities, of course supported
by business and in co-operation with other disciplines (s. above), mainly Psychiatry, Anthropology,
Neurology and behavioural sciences, are constantly in search for ever more refined, sophisticated,
subtle and crafty methods to make advertising more effective. “Neuromarketing is a controversial
new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI) -- not to heal, but to sell products. Advertising and marketing firms have long used the
insights and research methods of psychology in order to sell products, of course. But today these
practices are reaching epidemic levels, and with a complicity on the part of the psychological
profession that exceeds that of the past. The result is an enormous advertising and marketing
onslaught that comprises, arguably, the largest single psychological project ever undertaken. Yet,
this great undertaking remains largely ignored by the American Psychological Association.”. Robert
McChesney calls it "the greatest concerted attempt at psychological manipulation in all of human
history."

Dependency of the media and corporate censorship

Almost all mass media are advertising media and many of them are exclusively advertising media and,
with the exception of public service broadcasting are privately owned. Their income is predominantly
generated through advertising; in the case of newspapers and magazines from 50 to 80%. Public
service broadcasting in some countries can also heavily depend on advertising as a source of income
(up to 40%). In the view of critics no media that spreads advertisements can be independent and the
higher the proportion of advertising, the higher the dependency. This dependency has “distinct
implications for the nature of media content…. In the business press, the media are often referred to
in exactly the way they present themselves in their candid moments: as a branch of the advertising
industry.”

In addition, the private media are increasingly subject to mergers and concentration with property
situations often becoming entangled and opaque. This development, which Henry A. Giroux calls an
“ongoing threat to democratic culture”, by itself should suffice to sound all alarms in a democracy.
Five or six advertising agencies dominate this 400 billion U.S. dollar global industry.

“Journalists have long faced pressure to shape stories to suit advertisers and owners …. the vast
majority of TV station executives found their news departments ‘cooperative’ in shaping the news to
assist in ‘non-traditional revenue development.” Negative and undesired reporting can be prevented
or influenced when advertisers threaten to cancel orders or simply when there is a danger of such a
cancellation. Media dependency and such a threat becomes very real when there is only one
dominant or very few large advertisers. The influence of advertisers is not only in regard to news or
information on their own products or services but expands to articles or shows not directly linked to
them. In order to secure their advertising revenues the media has to create the best possible
‘advertising environment’. Another problem considered censorship by critics is the refusal of media
to accept advertisements that are not in their interest. A striking example of this is the refusal of TV
stations to broadcast ads by Adbusters. Groups try to place advertisements and are refused by
networks.

It is principally the viewing rates which decide upon the programme in the private radio and
television business. “Their business is to absorb as much attention as possible. The viewing rate
measures the attention the media trades for the information offered. The service of this attraction is
sold to the advertising business” and the viewing rates determine the price that can be demanded for
advertising.

“Advertising companies determining the contents of shows has been part of daily life in the USA since
1933. Procter & Gamble (P&G) …. offered a radio station a history-making trade (today know as
“bartering”): the company would produce an own show for “free” and save the radio station the high
expenses for producing contents. Therefore the company would want its commercials spread and, of
course, its products placed in the show. Thus, the series ‘Ma Perkins’ was created, which P&G
skilfully used to promote Oxydol, the leading detergent brand in those years and the Soap opera was
born …

While critics basically worry about the subtle influence of the economy on the media, there are also
examples of blunt exertion of influence. The US company Chrysler, before it merged with Daimler
Benz had its agency, PentaCom, send out a letter to numerous magazines, demanding them to send,
an overview of all the topics before the next issue is published to “avoid potential conflict”. Chrysler
most of all wanted to know, if there would be articles with “sexual, political or social” content or
which could be seen as “provocative or offensive”. PentaCom executive David Martin said: “Our
reasoning is, that anyone looking at a 22.000 $ product would want it surrounded by positive things.
There is nothing positive about an article on child pornography.” In another example, the USA
Network held top-level‚ off-the-record meetings with advertisers in 2000 to let them tell the network
what type of programming content they wanted in order for USA to get their advertising.Television
shows are created to accommodate the needs for advertising, e.g. splitting them up in suitable
sections. Their dramaturgy is typically designed to end in suspense or leave an unanswered question
in order to keep the viewer attached.

The movie system, at one time outside the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is now
fully integrated into it through the strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements. The prime
function of many Hollywood films today is to aid in the selling of the immense collection of
commodities.The press called the 2002 Bond film ‘Die Another Day’ featuring 24 major promotional
partners an ‘ad-venture’ and noted that James Bond “now has been ‘licensed to sell’” As it has
become standard practise to place products in motion pictures, it “has self-evident implications for
what types of films will attract product placements and what types of films will therefore be more
likely to get made”.

Advertising and information are increasingly hard to distinguish from each other. “The borders
between advertising and media …. become more and more blurred…. What August Fischer, chairman
of the board of Axel Springer publishing company considers to be a ‘proven partnership between the
media and advertising business’ critics regard as nothing but the infiltration of journalistic duties and
freedoms”. According to RTL Group former executive Helmut Thoma “private stations shall not and
cannot serve any mission but only the goal of the company which is the ‘acceptance by the
advertising business and the viewer’. The setting of priorities in this order actually says everything
about the ‘design of the programmes’ by private television.” Patrick Le Lay, former managing
director of TF1, a private French television channel with a market share of 25 to 35%, said: "There are
many ways to talk about television. But from the business point of view, let’s be realistic: basically,
the job of TF1 is, e. g. to help Coca Cola sell its product. (…) For an advertising message to be
perceived the brain of the viewer must be at our disposal. The job of our programmes is to make it
available, that is to say, to distract it, to relax it and get it ready between two messages. It is
disposable human brain time that we sell to Coca Cola.”

Because of these dependencies a widespread and fundamental public debate about advertising and its
influence on information and freedom of speech is difficult to obtain, at least through the usual
media channels; otherwise these would saw off the branch they are sitting on. “The notion that the
commercial basis of media, journalism, and communication could have troubling implications for
democracy is excluded from the range of legitimate debate” just as “capitalism is off-limits as a topic
of legitimate debate in US political culture”.

An early critic of the structural basis of US journalism was Upton Sinclair with his novel The Brass
Check in which he stresses the influence of owners, advertisers, public relations, and economic
interests on the media. In his book “Our Master's Voice – Advertising” the social ecologist James Rorty
(1890–1973) wrote: "The gargoyle’s mouth is a loudspeaker, powered by the vested interest of a two-
billion dollar industry, and back of that the vested interests of business as a whole, of industry, of
finance. It is never silent, it drowns out all other voices, and it suffers no rebuke, for it is not the
voice of America? That is its claim and to some extent it is a just claim...”

It has taught us how to live, what to be afraid of, what to be proud of, how to be beautiful, how to
be loved, how to be envied, how to be successful.. Is it any wonder that the American population
tends increasingly to speak, think, feel in terms of this jabberwocky? That the stimuli of art, science,
religion are progressively expelled to the periphery of American life to become marginal values,
cultivated by marginal people on marginal time?

The commercialisation of culture and sports

Performances, exhibitions, shows, concerts, conventions and most other events can hardly take place
without sponsoring The increasing lack arts and culture they buy the service of attraction. Artists are
graded and paid according to their art’s value for commercial purposes. Corporations promote
renown artists, therefore getting exclusive rights in global advertising campaigns. Broadway shows,
like ‘La Bohème’ featured commercial props in its set.

Advertising itself is extensively considered to be a contribution to culture. Advertising is integrated

into fashion. On many pieces of clothing the company logo is the only design or is an important part
of it. There is only little room left outside the consumption economy, in which culture and art can
develop independently and where alternative values can be expressed. A last important sphere, the
universities, is under strong pressure to open up for business and its interests.
 Inflatable billboard in front of a sports stadium

Competitive sports have become unthinkable without sponsoring and there is a mutual dependency.
High income with advertising is only possible with a comparable number of spectators or viewers. On
the other hand, the poor performance of a team or a sportsman results in less advertising revenues.
Jürgen Hüther and Hans-Jörg Stiehler talk about a ‘Sports/Media Complex which is a complicated mix
of media, agencies, managers, sports promoters, advertising etc. with partially common and partially
diverging interests but in any case with common commercial interests. The media presumably is at
centre stage because it can supply the other parties involved with a rare commodity, namely
(potential) public attention. In sports “the media are able to generate enormous sales in both
circulation and advertising.’

“Sports sponsorship is acknowledged by the tobacco industry to be valuable advertising. A Tobacco

Industry journal in 1994 described the Formula One car as ‘The most powerful advertising space in
the world’. …. In a cohort study carried out in 22 secondary schools in England in 1994 and 1995 boys
whose favorite television sport was motor racing had a 12.8% risk of becoming regular smokers
compared to 7.0% of boys who did not follow motor racing.”

Not the sale of tickets but transmission rights, sponsoring and merchandising in the meantime make
up the largest part of sports association’s and sports club’s revenues with the IOC (International
Olympic Committee) taking the lead. The influence of the media brought many changes in sports
including the admittance of new ‘trend sports’ into the Olympic Games, the alteration of competition
distances, changes of rules, animation of spectators, changes of sports facilities, the cult of sports
heroes who quickly establish themselves in the advertising and entertaining business because of their
media value and last but not least, the naming and renaming of sport stadiums after big companies.
“In sports adjustment into the logic of the media can contribute to the erosion of values such as
equal chances or fairness, to excessive demands on athletes through public pressure and multiple
exploitation or to deceit (doping, manipulation of results …). It is in the very interest of the media
and sports to counter this danger because media sports can only work as long as sport exists.

Occupation and commercialization of public space

Every visually perceptible place has potential for advertising. Especially urban areas with their
structures but also landscapes in sight of through fares are more and more turning into media for
advertisements. Signs, posters, billboards, flags have become decisive factors in the urban
appearance and their numbers are still on the increase. “Outdoor advertising has become
unavoidable. Traditional billboards and transit shelters have cleared the way for more pervasive
methods such as wrapped vehicles, sides of buildings, electronic signs, kiosks, taxis, posters, sides of
buses, and more. Digital technologies are used on buildings to sport ‘urban wall displays’. In urban
areas commercial content is placed in our sight and into our consciousness every moment we are in
public space. The German Newspaper ‘Zeit’ called it a new kind of ‘dictatorship that one cannot
escape’. Over time, this domination of the surroundings has become the “natural” state. Through
long-term commercial saturation, it has become implicitly understood by the public that advertising
has the right to own, occupy and control every inch of available space. The steady normalization of
invasive advertising dulls the public’s perception of their surroundings, re-enforcing a general
attitude of powerlessness toward creativity and change, thus a cycle develops enabling advertisers to
slowly and consistently increase the saturation of advertising with little or no public outcry.”

The massive optical orientation toward advertising changes the function of public spaces which are
utilised by brands. Urban landmarks are turned into trademarks. The highest pressure is exerted on
renown and highly frequented public spaces which are also important for the identity of a city (e.g.
Piccadilly Circus, Times Square, Alexanderplatz). Urban spaces are public commodities and in this
capacity they are subject to “aesthetical environment protection”, mainly through building
regulations, heritage protection and landscape protection. “It is in this capacity that these spaces are
now being privatised. They are peppered with billboards and signs, they are remodelled into media
for advertising.”

Socio-cultural aspects: sexism, discrimination and stereotyping

“Advertising has an “agenda setting function” which is the ability, with huge sums of money, to put
consumption as the only item on the agenda. In the battle for a share of the public conscience this
amounts to non-treatment (ignorance) of whatever is not commercial and whatever is not advertised
for. Advertising should be reflection of society norms and give clear picture of target market. Spheres
without commerce and advertising serving the muses and relaxation remain without respect. With
increasing force advertising makes itself comfortable in the private sphere so that the voice of
commerce becomes the dominant way of expression in society.” Advertising critics see advertising as
the leading light in our culture. Sut Jhally and James Twitchell go beyond considering advertising as
kind of religion and that advertising even replaces religion as a key institution.

"Corporate advertising (or commercial media) is the largest single psychological project ever
undertaken by the human race. Yet for all of that, its impact on us remains unknown and largely
ignored. When I think of the media’s influence over years, over decades, I think of those
brainwashing experiments conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron in a Montreal psychiatric hospital in the
1950s (see MKULTRA). The idea of the CIA-sponsored "depatterning" experiments was to outfit
conscious, unconscious or semiconscious subjects with headphones, and flood their brains with
thousands of repetitive "driving" messages that would alter their behaviour over time….Advertising
aims to do the same thing."[
Advertising is especially aimed at young people and children and it increasingly reduces young people
to consumers. For Sut Jhally it is not “surprising that something this central and with so much being
expended on it should become an important presence in social life. Indeed, commercial interests
intent on maximizing the consumption of the immense collection of commodities have colonized more
and more of the spaces of our culture. For instance, almost the entire media system (television and
print) has been developed as a delivery system for marketers its prime function is to produce
audiences for sale to advertisers. Both the advertisements it carries, as well as the editorial matter
that acts as a support for it, celebrate the consumer society. The movie system, at one time outside
the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is now fully integrated into it through the
strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements. The prime function of many Hollywood films
today is to aid in the selling of the immense collection of commodities. As public funds are drained
from the non-commercial cultural sector, art galleries, museums and symphonies bid for corporate
sponsorship.” In the same way effected is the education system and advertising is increasingly
penetrating schools and universities. Cities, such as New York, accept sponsors for public
playgrounds. “Even the pope has been commercialized … The pope’s 4-day visit to Mexico in …1999
was sponsored by Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. The industry is accused of being one of the engines powering
a convoluted economic mass production system which promotes consumption. As far as social effects
are concerned it does not matter whether advertising fuels consumption but which values, patterns
of behaviour and assignments of meaning it propagates. Advertising is accused of hijacking the
language and means of pop culture, of protest movements and even of subversive criticism and does
not shy away from scandalizing and breaking taboos (e.g. Benneton). This in turn incites counter
action, what Kalle Lasn in 2001 called ‘’Jamming the Jam of the Jammers’’. Anything goes. “It is a
central social-scientific question what people can be made to do by suitable design of conditions and
of great practical importance. For example, from a great number of experimental psychological
experiments it can be assumed, that people can be made to do anything they are capable of, when
the according social condition can be created.”

Advertising often uses stereotype gender specific roles of men and women reinforcing existing clichés
and it has been criticized as “inadvertently or even intentionally promoting sexism, racism, and
ageism… At very least, advertising often reinforces stereotypes by drawing on recognizable "types" in
order to tell stories in a single image or 30 second time frame.” Activities are depicted as typical
male or female (stereotyping). In addition people are reduced to their sexuality or equated with
commodities and gender specific qualities are exaggerated. Sexualized female bodies, but
increasingly also males, serve as eye-catchers. In advertising it is usually a woman being depicted as

 servants of men and children that react to the demands and complaints of their loved ones
with a bad conscience and the promise for immediate improvement (wash, food)

 a sexual or emotional play toy for the self-affirmation of men

 a technically totally clueless being (almost always male) that can only manage a childproof
operation
  Female expert, but stereotype from the fields of fashion, cosmetics, food or at the most,
medicine

 As ultra thin, slim, and very skinny.

 doing ground-work for others, e.g. serving coffee while a journalist interviews a politician

A large portion of advertising deals with promotion of products that pertain to the "ideal body image."
This is mainly targeted toward women, and, in the past, this type of advertising was aimed nearly
exclusively at women. Women in advertisements are generally portrayed as good-looking women who
are in good health. This, however, is not the case of the average woman. Consequently, they give a
negative message of body image to the average woman. Because of the media, girls and women who
are overweight, and otherwise "normal" feel almost obligated to take care of themselves and stay fit.
They feel under high pressure to maintain an acceptable bodyweight and take care of their health.
Consequences of this are low self-esteem, eating disorders, self mutilations, and beauty operations
for those women that just cannot bring themselves eat right or get the motivation to go to the gym.
The EU parliament passed a resolution in 2008 that advertising may not be discriminating and
degrading. This shows that politicians are increasingly concerned about the negative impacts of
advertising. However, the benefits of promoting overall health and fitness are often overlooked. Men
are also negatively portrayed as incompetent and the butt of every joke in advertising.

Children and adolescents as target groups

The children’s market, where resistance to advertising is weakest, is the “pioneer for ad creep”.
“Kids are among the most sophisticated observers of ads. They can sing the jingles and identify the
logos, and they often have strong feelings about products. What they generally don't understand,
however, are the issues that underlie how advertising works. Mass media are used not only to sell
goods but also ideas: how we should behave, what rules are important, who we should respect and
what we should value.”[73] Youth is increasingly reduced to the role of a consumer. Not only the
makers of toys, sweets, ice cream, breakfast food and sport articles prefer to aim their promotion at
children and adolescents. For example, an ad for a breakfast cereal on a channel aimed at adults will
have music that is a soft ballad, whereas on a channel aimed at children, the same ad will use a
catchy rock jingle of the same song to aim at kids. Advertising for other products preferably uses
media with which they can also reach the next generation of consumers. “Key advertising messages
exploit the emerging independence of young people”. Cigarettes, for example, “are used as a fashion
accessory and appeal to young women. Other influences on young people include the linking of
sporting heroes and smoking through sports sponsorship, the use of cigarettes by popular characters
in television programmes and cigarette promotions. Research suggests that young people are aware of
the most heavily advertised cigarette brands.”

“Product placements show up everywhere, and children aren't exempt. Far from it. The animated
film, Foodfight, had ‘thousands of products and character icons from the familiar (items) in a grocery
store.’ Children's books also feature branded items and characters, and millions of them have snack
foods as lead characters.“ Business is interested in children and adolescents because of their buying
power and because of their influence on the shopping habits of their parents. As they are easier to
influence they are especially targeted by the advertising business. “The marketing industry is facing
increased pressure over claimed links between exposure to food advertising and a range of social
problems, especially growing obesity levels.”. In 2001, children’s programming accounted for over
20% of all US television watching. The global market for children’s licensed products was some 132
billion US dollars in 2002. Advertisers target children because, e.g. in Canada, they “represent three
distinct markets:

1. Primary Purchasers ($2.9 billion annually)

2. Future Consumers (Brand-loyal adults)

3. Purchase Influencers ($20 billion annually)

Kids will carry forward brand expectations, whether positive, negative, or indifferent. Kids are
already accustomed to being catered to as consumers. The long term prize: Loyalty of the kid
translates into a brand loyal adult customer”

The average Canadian child sees 350,000 TV commercials before graduating from high school, spends
nearly as much time watching TV as attending classes. In 1980 the Canadian province of Québec
banned advertising for children under age 13. “In upholding the constitutional validity of the Quebec
Consumer Protection Act restrictions on advertising to children under age 13 (in the case of a
challenge by a toy company) the Court held: ‘...advertising directed at young children is per se
manipulative. Such advertising aims to promote products by convincing those who will always
believe.’ Norway (ads directed at children under age 12), and Sweden (television ads aimed at
children under age 12) also have legislated broad bans on advertising to children, during child
programmes any kind of advertising is forbidden in Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Flemish Belgium. In
Greece there is no advertising for kids products from 7 to 22 h. An attempt to restrict advertising
directed at children in the US failed with reference to the First Amendment. In Spain bans are also
considered undemocratic.
 OPPOSITION AND CAMPAIGNS AGAINST ADVERTISING

Billboard in Lund, Sweden, saying "One Night Stand?" (2005)

According to critics, the total commercialization of all fields of society, the privatization of public
space, the acceleration of consumption and waste of resources including the negative influence on
lifestyles and on the environment has not been noticed to the necessary extent. The “hyper-
commercialization of the culture is recognized and roundly detested by the citizenry, although the
topic scarcely receives a whiff of attention in the media or political culture”. “The greatest damage
done by advertising is precisely that it incessantly demonstrates the prostitution of men and women
who lend their intellects, their voices, their artistic skills to purposes in which they themselves do not
believe, and …. that it helps to shatter and ultimately destroy our most precious non-material
possessions: the confidence in the existence of meaningful purposes of human activity and respect for
the integrity of man.” “The struggle against advertising is therefore essential if we are to overcome
the pervasive alienation from all genuine human needs that currently plays such a corrosive role in
our society. But in resisting this type of hyper-commercialism we should not be under any illusions.
Advertising may seem at times to be an almost trivial of omnipresent aspect of our economic system.
Yet, as economist A. C. Pigou pointed out, it could only be ‘removed altogether’ if ‘conditions of
monopolistic competition’ inherent to corporate capitalism were removed. To resist it is to resist the
inner logic of capitalism itself, of which it is the pure expression.”

“Visual pollution, much of it in the form of advertising, is an issue in all the world's large cities. But
what is pollution to some is a vibrant part of a city's fabric to others. New York City without Times
Square's huge digital billboards or Tokyo without the Ginza's commercial panorama is unthinkable.
Piccadilly Circus would be just a London roundabout without its signage. Still, other cities, like
Moscow, have reached their limit and have begun to crack down on over-the-top outdoor
advertising.”. “Many communities have chosen to regulate billboards to protect and enhance their
scenic character. The following is by no means a complete list of such communities, but it does give a
good idea of the geographic diversity of cities, counties and states that prohibit new construction of
billboards. Scenic America estimates the nationwide total of cities and communities prohibiting the
construction of new billboards to be at least 1500. A number of States in the US prohibit all
billboards:

 Vermont - Removed all billboards in 1970s

 Hawaii - Removed all billboards in 1920s

 Maine - Removed all billboards in 1970s and early 80s

 Alaska - State referendum passed in 1998 prohibits billboards

 Almost two years ago the city of São Paulo, Brazil, ordered the downsizing or removal of all
billboards and most other forms of commercial advertising in the city.”

Technical appliances, such as Spam filters, TV-Zappers, Ad-Blockers for TVs and stickers on mail
boxes: “No Advertising” and an increasing number of court cases indicate a growing interest of people
to restrict or rid themselves of unwelcome advertising.

Consumer protection associations, environment protection groups, globalization opponents,

consumption critics, sociologists, media critics, scientists and many others deal with the negative
aspects of advertising. “Antipub” in France, “subvertising”, culture jamming and adbusting have
become established terms in the anti-advertising community. On the international level globalization
critics such as Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky are also renowned media and advertising critics. These
groups criticize the complete occupation of public spaces, surfaces, the airwaves, the media, schools
etc. and the constant exposure of almost all senses to advertising messages, the invasion of privacy,
and that only few consumers are aware that they themselves are bearing the costs for this to the very
last penny. Some of these groups, such as the ‘The Billboard Liberation Front Creative Group’ in San
Francisco or Adbusters in Vancouver, Canada, have manifestos. Grassroots organizations campaign
against advertising or certain aspects of it in various forms and strategies and quite often have
different roots. Adbusters, for example contests and challenges the intended meanings of advertising
by subverting them and creating unintended meanings instead. Other groups, like ‘Illegal Signs
Canada’ try to stem the flood of billboards by detecting and reporting ones that have been put up
without permit. Examples for various groups and organizations in different countries are ‘L'association
Résistance à l'Agression Publicitaire’ in France, where also media critic Jean Baudrillard is a
renowned author. The ‘Anti Advertising Agency’ works with parody and humour to raise awareness
about advertising. and ‘Commercial Alert’ campaigns for the protection of children, family values,
community, environmental integrity and democracy. Media literacy organisations aim at training
people, especially children in the workings of the media and advertising in their programmes. In the
US, for example, the ‘Media Education Foundation’ produces and distributes documentary films and
other educational resources ‘MediaWatch’, a Canadian non-profit women's organization works to
educate consumers about how they can register their concerns with advertisers and regulators. The
Canadian ‘Media Awareness Network/Réseau éducation médias’ offers one of the world’s most
comprehensive collections of media education and Internet literacy resources. Its member
organizations represent the public, non-profit but also private sectors. Although it stresses its
independence it accepts financial support from Bell Canada, CTVGlobeMedia, CanWest, TELUS and S-
VOX.

To counter the increasing criticism of advertising aiming at children media literacy organizations are
also initiated and funded by corporations and the advertising business themselves. In the US ‘The
Advertising Educational Foundation’ was created in 1983 supported by ad agencies, advertisers and
media companies. It is the “advertising industry's provider and distributor of educational content to
enrich the understanding of advertising and its role in culture, society and the economy” sponsored
for example by American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive,
Walt Disney, Ford, General Foods, General Mills, Gillette, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Kraft,
Nestle, Philip Morris, Quaker Oats, Nabisco, Schering, Sterling, Unilever, Warner Lambert, advertising
agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi Compton and media companies like American Broadcasting
Companies, CBS, Capital Cities Communications, Cox Enterprises, Forbes, Hearst, Meredith, The New
York Times, RCA/NBC, Reader’s Digest, Time, Washington Post, just to mention a few. Canadian
businesses established ‘Concerned Children's Advertisers’ in 1990 “to instill confidence in all relevant
publics by actively demonstrating our commitment, concern, responsibility and respect for children”.
Members are CanWest, Corus, CTV, General Mills, Hasbro, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s, Loblaw, Kraft,
Mattel, McDonald’s, Nestle, Pepsi, Walt Disney, Weston as well as almost 50 private broadcast
partners and others. Concerned Children's Advertisers was example for similar organizations in other
countries like ‘Media smart’ in the United Kingdom with offspring in Germany, France, the
Netherlands and Sweden. New Zealand has a similar business-funded programme called ‘Willie
Munchright’. “While such interventions are claimed to be designed to encourage children to be
critical of commercial messages in general, critics of the marketing industry suggest that the
motivation is simply to be seen to address a problem created by the industry itself, that is, the
negative social impacts to which marketing activity has contributed…. By contributing media literacy
education resources, the marketing industry is positioning itself as being part of the solution to these
problems, thereby seeking to avoid wide restrictions or outright bans on marketing communication,
particularly for food products deemed to have little nutritional value directed at children…. The need
to be seen to be taking positive action primarily to avert potential restrictions on advertising is
openly acknowledged by some sectors of the industry itself…. Furthermore, Hobbs (1998) suggests
that such programs are also in the interest of media organizations that support the interventions to
reduce criticism of the potential negative effects of the media themselves.”

Taxation as revenue and control

Public interest groups suggest that “access to the mental space targeted by advertisers should be
taxed, in that at the present moment that space is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers
with no compensation paid to the members of the public who are thus being intruded upon. This kind
of tax would be a Pigovian tax in that it would act to reduce what is now increasingly seen as a public
nuisance. Efforts to that end are gathering more momentum, with Arkansas and Maine considering
bills to implement such a taxation. Florida enacted such a tax in 1987 but was forced to repeal it
after six months, as a result of a concerted effort by national commercial interests, which withdrew
planned conventions, causing major losses to the tourism industry, and cancelled advertising, causing
a loss of 12 million dollars to the broadcast industry alone”.

In the US, for example, advertising is tax deductible and suggestions for possible limits to the
advertising tax deduction are met with fierce opposition from the business sector, not to mention
suggestions for a special taxation. In other countries, advertising at least is taxed in the same manner
services are taxed and in some advertising is subject to special taxation although on a very low level.
In many cases the taxation refers especially to media with advertising (e.g. Austria, Italy, Greece,
Netherlands, Turkey, Estonia). Tax on advertising in European countries

 Belgium: Advertising or billboard tax (taxe d'affichage or aanplakkingstaks) on public posters

depending on size and kind of paper as well as on neon signs

 France: Tax on television commercials (taxe sur la publicité télévisée) based on the cost of
the advertising unit

 Italy: Municipal tax on acoustic and visual kinds of advertisements within the municipality
(imposta communale sulla publicità) and municipal tax on signs, posters and other kinds of
advertisements (diritti sulle pubbliche offisioni), the tariffs of which are under the
jurisdiction of the municipalities

 Netherlands: Advertising tax (reclamebelastingen) with varying tariffs on certain advertising

measures (excluding ads in newspapers and magazines) which can be levied by municipalities
depending on the kind of advertising (billboards, neon signs etc.)

 Austria: Municipal announcement levies on advertising through writing, pictures or lights in

public areas or publicly accessible areas with varying tariffs depending on the fee, the
surface or the duration of the advertising measure as well as advertising tariffs on paid ads in
printed media of usually 10% of the fee.

 Sweden: Advertising tax (reklamskatt) on ads and other kinds of advertising (billboards, film,
television, advertising at fairs and exhibitions, flyers) in the range of 4% for ads in
newspapers and 11% in all other cases. In the case of flyers the tariffs are based on the
production costs, else on the fee

 Spain: Municipalities can tax advertising measures in their territory with a rather unimportant
taxes and fees of various kinds.

In his book “When Corporations Rule the World” US author and globalization critic David Korten even
advocates a 50% tax on advertising to counterattack what he calls "an active propaganda machinery
controlled by the world's largest corporations” which “constantly reassures us that consumerism is the
path to happiness, governmental restraint of market excess is the cause of our distress, and economic
globalization is both a historical inevitability and a boon to the human species."

Regulation
In the US many communities believe that many forms of outdoor advertising blight the public realm.
As long ago as the 1960s in the US there were attempts to ban billboard advertising in the open
countryside. Cities such as São Paulo have introduced an outright ban with London also having
specific legislation to control unlawful displays.

There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the content and the
influence of advertising. Some examples are: the ban on television tobacco advertising imposed in
many countries, and the total ban of advertising to children under 12 imposed by the Swedish
government in 1991. Though that regulation continues in effect for broadcasts originating within the
country, it has been weakened by the European Court of Justice, which had found that Sweden was
obliged to accept foreign programming, including those from neighboring countries or via satellite.

In Europe and elsewhere, there is a vigorous debate on whether (or how much) advertising to children
should be regulated. This debate was exacerbated by a report released by the Kaiser Family
Foundation in February 2004 which suggested fast food advertising that targets children was an
important factor in the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States.

In New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and many European countries, the advertising industry
operates a system of self-regulation. Advertisers, advertising agencies and the media agree on a code
of advertising standards that they attempt to uphold. The general aim of such codes is to ensure that
any advertising is 'legal, decent, honest and truthful'. Some self-regulatory organizations are funded
by the industry, but remain independent, with the intent of upholding the standards or codes like the
Advertising Standards Authority in the UK.

In the UK most forms of outdoor advertising such as the display of billboards is regulated by the UK
Town and County Planning system. Currently the display of an advertisement without consent from
the Planning Authority is a criminal offense liable to a fine of £2,500 per offence. All of the major
outdoor billboard companies in the UK have convictions of this nature.

Naturally, many advertisers view governmental regulation or even self-regulation as intrusion of their
freedom of speech or a necessary evil. Therefore, they employ a wide-variety of linguistic devices to
bypass regulatory laws (e.g. printing English words in bold and French translations in fine print to
deal with the Article 120 of the 1994 Toubon Law limiting the use of English in French advertising).
The advertisement of controversial products such as cigarettes and condoms are subject to
government regulation in many countries. For instance, the tobacco industry is required by law in
most countries to display warnings cautioning consumers about the health hazards of their products.
Linguistic variation is often used by advertisers as a creative device to reduce the impact of such
requirements.

Future

Global advertising

Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international,
multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially competing, business
objectives that must be balanced when developing worldwide advertising: building a brand while
speaking with one voice, developing economies of scale in the creative process, maximising local
effectiveness of ads, and increasing the company’s speed of implementation. Born from the
evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different
approaches to the development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing
local executions, and importing ideas that travel.

Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region. The ability to
identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its success is how economies of
scale are maximised. Once one knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any
other market. Market research measures, such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding
moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in any country or region because the measures
are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.

Trends

With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner,
Popunder, advergaming, and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) are now
commonplace.

In the last three quarters of 2009 mobile and internet advertising grew by 18.1% and 9.2%
respectively. Older media advertising saw declines: -10.1% (TV), -11.7% (radio), -14.8% (magazines)
and -18.7% (newspapers ).

The ability to record shows on digital video recorders (such as TiVo) allow users to record the
programs for later viewing, enabling them to fast forward through commercials. Additionally, as more
seasons of pre-recorded box sets are offered for sale of television programs; fewer people watch the
shows on TV. However, the fact that these sets are sold, means the company will receive additional
profits from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for product
placement on TV shows like Survivor.

Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an advertisement
enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend. In general, the advertising community has not yet
made this easy, although some have used the Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing
to see or hear them.

Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of the niche
market using niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the theory of The Long
Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach specific audiences. In the past, the most
efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible.
However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought
about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers with audiences that are
smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective
for companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing
this method in their video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group
and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about a particular business or practice at any
time, right from their home. This causes the viewer to become proactive and actually choose what
advertisements they want to view.

In the realm of advertising agencies, continued industry diversification has seen observers note that
“big global clients don't need big global agencies any more”. This trend is reflected by the growth of
non-traditional agencies in various global markets, such as Canadian business TAXI and SMART in
Australia and has been referred to as "a revolution in the ad world".

In freelance advertising, companies hold public competitions to create ads for their product, the best
one of which is chosen for widespread distribution with a prize given to the winner(s). During the
2007 Super Bowl, PepsiCo held such a contest for the creation of a 30-second television ad for the
Doritos brand of chips, offering a cash prize to the winner. Chevrolet held a similar competition for
their Tahoe line of SUVs. This type of advertising, however, is still in its infancy. It may ultimately
decrease the importance of advertising agencies by creating a niche for independent freelancers.

Advertising education has become widely popular with bachelor, master and doctorate degrees
becoming available in the emphasis. A surge in advertising interest is typically attributed to the
strong relationship advertising plays in cultural and technological changes, such as the advance of
online social networking. A unique model for teaching advertising is the student-run advertising
agency, where advertising students create campaigns for real companies. Organizations such as
American Advertising Federation and AdU Network partner established companies with students to
create these campaigns.

SALES PROMOTION

According to the American Marketing Association, Sales Promotion consists of those marketing
activities other than personal advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer purchasing and
dealer effectiveness, such as displays shows and expositions, demonstration and various non-
recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine.

Sales promotion activities are impersonal and usually non-recurring and are directed at the ultimate
consumers, industrial consumers and middlemen. These activities tend to supplement the advertising
and personal selling efforts. Examples of sales promotion are free product samples, trading stamps,
store displays, premiums, coupons and trade shows. For many organisations, including the marketers
of food, toys and clothing, store displays are an important sales promotion device. Display exposes
the promotion messages to consumers at the time and place of purchase. Such exposure is especially
important for items that are bought on impulse. Numerous consumers products are purchased in
stores that use self-service selling method's. Marketers of such items need effective display in order
to distinguish their products from those of their rivals.

PUBLICITY

Publicity is a means of promoting the mass market and is similar to advertising, except that it is free,
is found in the editorial portion of news media and pertains to newsworthy events. The most common
type of publicity are news release (also know as press release), photographs and feature stories.
Marketers have less control over the nature of the publicity that their organisation and products
receive than they have over their advertising, personal selling and sales promotions messages. Upon
receiving a news release, for instance, the editor or broadcast station programme director may
choose to throw the release in the waste paper basket, change the hording, or print or broadcast it in
the original form. The disposition of the news release is entirely in the hands of the media and cannot
be dictated by the marketer. Publicity may be negative as well as positive. Some products and brands
have received bad publicity; for example cigarettes, wings, artificial sweeteners have been branded
unsafe or unhealthy in the publicity which they would rather have done without. Many a companies
and trade association officials attempt to develop favourable working relationships, with the media in
order to minimise bad publicity. They realize that such communications to the public may have every
adverse impact upon the image of the organisation.

PERSONAL SELLING

Personal selling consists of persons to communication between the sales persons and their prospects.
Unlike advertising, it involves personal interactions between the sources and the destination.
Advertising aims at grouping the shotgun approach, while personal selling aims at individuals the right
approach. Sales persons are in the position to tailor their messages according to the unique
characteristics of each prospect. Further, by observing and listening, sales persons receive immediate
feedback on the extent to which their messages are getting across. If feedback indicates that the
message is not getting across, the sales person may quickly adjust it or the method of its
presentation.

Personal selling may be a very intense means of promotion. Consumers can easily leave the room-
during a TV commercial, ignore a store display. The most effective method of promotion probably is
to have sales person provided that the organisation has sufficient funds. The most effective method
of promotion probably is to have sales person call upon every target consumers, for many institutions,
especially those that appeal to the mass market, this would be terribly inefficient. As a result, they
employ mass marketing techniques such as advertising, personal selling is very important in industrial
marketing.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Marketers engage in public relations in order to develop a favourable image of their organisation and
products join the eyes of the public. They direct this activity to parties other than target consumers.
These "other" include the public at large labour unions, the press and environmental groups. Public
relations activities include sponsoring, lobbying and using promotion message to persuade members
of the public to take up a desired position. The term public relations refers to a firm's communication
and relationships with the various sections of the public. These sections include the organisation
customers, suppliers, share holders, employees, the government, the general public and the society
in which the organisation operates. Public relations programme may higher be formal or informal.
The critical point is that every organisation, whether or not it has a formalized (organised,
programme, should be concerned about its public relations.

INTRODUCTION TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Today’s companies are facing their toughest competition ever. These companies can outdo
their competition if they can move from product and sales philosophy to a marketing philosophy. We
spell out in detail how companies can go about winning customers and outperforming competitors.
The answer lies in doing a better job of meeting and satisfying customers needs. Only customer-
centered companies are adept at building customers, not just building product. They are skilled in
market engineering, not just product engineering.

Too many companies think that it is the marketing/sales department’s job to procure
customers. If that department cannot, the company draws the conclusion that its marketing people
aren’t very good . but in fact, marketing is only one factor in attracting and keeping customers. The
best marketing department in the world cannot spell products that are poorly made or fail to meet
anyone’s need. The marketing department can be effective only in companies whose various
departments and employees have designed and implemented a competitively superior customer
value-delivery system.

Although the customer oriented firms seek to create high customer satisfaction, its main goal
is to maximize customer satisfaction ,first the company can increase customer satisfaction by
lowering its prices, but results may be lower profits second the company might be able to increase
prices. Third the company has many stake-holders including employees, dealers, suppliers and stock
holders spending more to increase customer satisfaction might divert funds from increasing the
satisfaction of other partner. Estimate the company must operate on the philosophy that it is trying
to deliver a high level of satisfaction to the other stake-holder within the constrains of its resources.
From the past studies of last three decades we observed that the company’s first task is to create and
satisfy customers. But today’s customers face a vast array of product and brand choice prices and
suppliers.

It is generally believed that customers estimate which offer will deliver the most value
customers are like value maximizes, within the bounds of search costs and limited knowledge,
mobility income, they form an expectation of value and act on it, whether or not the offer lives up to
the value expectations affects customer’s satisfaction and their repurchase probability.

CUSTOMER VALUE

Customer delivered value is the difference between the total customer value and total
consumer cost. Consumer value is the bundle of benefits customers expect from a given product or
service. Total consumer cost it the bundle of costs consumer expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining
and using the product.

That two customers can report being “highly satisfied” for different reasons. one may be easily
satisfied most of the time and other might be hard to please but was pleased on this occasion.
Companies should also note that managers and salespeople can manipulate their ratings on customer
satisfaction. They can be especially nice just before the survey. They can also try to exclude unhappy
customers from the survey. Another danger is that if customers will know that the company will go
out of its way to please customers, some customers may express high dissatisfaction (even if
satisfied) in order to receive more concession.

DELIVERING CUSTOMER VALUE AND SATISFACTION:

The value chain is a tool for identifying ways to create more customer value. Every firm is a
collection of activities that are performed to design, produce, and market, deliver and support its
product. The value chain identifies nine strategically relevant activities that create value and cost in
a specific business. These nine value-creating activities consist of five primary activities and four
support activities.

INTERNAL RECORD SYSTEM

Marketing managers rely on internal reports on orders, sales, prices, cost, inventory levels,
receivables, payables, and so on. By analyzing this information, they can spot important opportunities
and problems.

THE MARKETING INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM

A marketing intelligence system is a set of procedures and sources used by managers to obtain
everyday information about developments in the marketing environment. Marketing managers collect
marketing intelligence by reading books, newspapers and trade publications; talking to customers,
suppliers and distributors; meeting with other company mangers.

First, it can train and motivate the sales force to spot and report new developments. Sales
representatives are positioned to pick up information missed by other means.

Second, the company can motivate the distributors, retailers, and other intermediaries to pass
along important intelligence.

Third, companies can collect competitive intelligence by purchasing competitors’ products;

attending open houses and trade shows; reading competitors’ publishing reports; attending
stockholders’ meeting; talking to employees, dealers, distributors, suppliers, and freight agents;
collecting competitors’ ads; and looking up news stories about competitors on the internet.
SOURCES OF INTERNAL DATA

Sources of internal data are of two types:

1. Internal or primary data

2. External or secondary data.

Internal Sources

Company profit-loss statements, balance sheets, sales figures, sales call reports, invoices,
inventory reports and prior research reports.

External Sources

A) Government publications B) Periodicals and books

C) Commercial data

Consumer Behaviour

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by
understanding issues such as how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different
alternatives (e.g., brands, products);

The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family,
signs, media);

The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions;

Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and

marketing outcome;

How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of
importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and how marketers can adapt and improve
their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

Understanding these issues helps in adapting strategies by taking the consumer into consideration.
For example, by understanding that a number of different messages compete for our potential
customers’ attention, one learns that to be effective, advertisements must usually be repeated
extensively. It is also learnt that consumers will sometimes be persuaded more by logical arguments,
but at other times will be persuaded more by emotional or symbolic appeals. By understanding the
consumer, the company will be able to make a more informed decision as to which strategy to
employ.
The "official" definition of consumer behavior given in the text is "The study of individuals, groups, or
organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and
society.

Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends influence what
kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the job make decisions as to which
products the firm should use).

Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of how they are
purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a
product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. Since many
environmental problems result from product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems
to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest.

Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.

The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For example, aggressive marketing
of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy credit, may have serious repercussions for the
national health and economy.

There are four main applications of consumer behavior:

The most obvious is for marketing strategy—i.e., for making better marketing campaigns. For
example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when they are
hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon. By understanding that new
products are usually initially adopted by a few consumers and only spread later, and then only
gradually, to the rest of the population, we learn that (1) companies that introduce new products
must be well financed so that they can stay afloat until their products become a commercial success
and (2) it is important to please initial customers, since they will in turn influence many subsequent
customers’ brand choices.

As a final benefit, studying consumer behavior should make us better consumers. Common sense
suggests, for example, that if you buy a 64 liquid ounce bottle of laundry detergent, you should pay
less per ounce than if you bought two 32 ounce bottles. In practice, however, you often pay a size
premium by buying the larger quantity. In other words, in this case, knowing this fact will sensitize
you to the need to check the unit cost labels to determine if you are really getting a bargain. There
are several units in the market that can be analyzed.
 CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION

Understanding the buying behavior of the target market for its company products is the essential task
for the marketing dep’t. The job of the marketers is to “think customer and to guide the company
into developing offers, which are meaningful and attractive to target customers and creating
solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to customer and benefits to the
stakeholders.The job of marketer is to meet and satisfy target customers needs and wants but
“knowing customer" is not a simple task. Marketers must study the customer taste, preferences,
wants, shopping and buying behavior because such study provides the clues for developing the new
products, price, product changes, messages and other marketing mix elements. In understand the
concept of buying we have the some of the key questions. They are: -

 Why does the market buying? Objective

 Who does the market buying? Organization

 What does the market buying? Objects

 When does the market buying? Occasions

 Where does the market buying? Outlets

 How does the market buying? Operations

Along with that there are two more questions that are also related with above. They are: -

 How do the buyer’s characteristics influence the buying behavior?

 How does the buyer make purchasing decisions?

These are some of questions that solutions help to predict the buying behaviour.
 WAYS OF BUYING BEHAVIOUR

The computer processor company divides its buying behavior in both way i.e. Consumer and Business.
The both of term have same meaning as to define in the chapter of buying behavior. The both
consumer and business are divided further as SMB —Small Medium Big - to identify the type of client
according to their sales and SMB have their own group of clients.

1. CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR:-

It includes all those person who are the direct user of the computers and their processors or for their
employees and family member use. They are not indulging in the sale activity of the computer and
other Products. i.e. home users, companies for their employees.

2. BUSINESS BUYING BEHAVIOR: -

It includes all those person who are not the direct user of the computers and their processors or for
their employees and family member use. They are indulging in the sale activity of the computer and
other Products. They can also be authorized from companies i.e. Intel. i.e. hp, HCL, Assemlers.

ROLES IN BUYING BEHAVIOUR

In the buying behavior there are different roles played in each of consumer and business.

* CONSUMER BUYING ROLES

In the consumer buying there are different buying roles; i.e.

 Initiator: -- A Person who first suggest the idea of buying.

 Influencer: - A Person who influence the buying decision.

 Decider: - A Person who takes decisions regarding buying

 Buyer: - A Person who actually buys the products.

 User: - A Person who is the user of the product.

* BUSINESS BUYING ROLES

In the business buying there are different buying roles; i.e.

 Approver: -- A Person who approves the idea of buying.

 Influencer: -- A Person who influence the buying decision.

 Decider: -- A Person who takes decisions regarding buying

 Buyer: -- A Person who actually buys the products.

 User: -- A Person who is the user of the product.

 TYPES OF BUYING BEHAVIOUR

There is a great difference between the purchasing of a computer and a car. Buying decisions making
varies with the type of buying decision. The types of buying behavior divided are separately divided
as per of consumer and business buying.

TYPES OF CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

This is to be extensively divided in four types: -

1. Complex Buying Behavior: -- when the consumer are highly involved in the purchase and
aware of significant differences among brands.

2. Dissonance Reducing Buying Behavior: -- when the consumer are highly involved in the
purchase but sees little differences among brands.

3. Habitual Buying Behavior: -- when the consumer are low involved in the purchase but sees
absence of aware of differences among brands.

4. Variety Seeking Buying Behavior: -- when the consumer are low involved in the purchase but
sees significant of differences among brands.

TYPES OF BUSINESS BUYING BEHAVIOUR

This is to be extensively divided in four types: -

1. Straight Rebuy: -- In this buyer approves the purchasing on the basis of the past buying records
and satisfaction with suppliers.

2. Modified Rebuy: -- where the buyer wants to modify product specifications. Prices, delivery
requirements.

3. New Task: -- when the buyer approves the purchasing of product for the first time by consisting
of the good and efficient salesperson.

So, that it’s the types of the buying behavior of consumer as well as business buyer.

FACTOR AFFECTING THE BUYING BEHAVIOR

There are various factors that affect the buying behavior on both consumer as well as business
buying.
 FACTOR AFFECTING CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

Cultural Factors

Culture Personal factors

Age Social Factors

Sub Culture Occupation References Group Psychological

Life Styles Motivation

Social Class Personality Family

Perception BUYER

Roles and Statues

Learning

FACTOR AFFECTING BUSINESS BUYING BEHAVIOR

Environmental

Economic Organizational

Political Objective Inter – Personal

Cost of Money Policies Authority Individual

Competition Procedures Status Age

Technological Structure Empathy Education BUSINESS

Income BUYER

So, these are the factors that affect the consumer as well as business buying behaviour.

BUYING DECISION MAKING

Consumers make the decision on the different brands available in the market. They will give the
choice over the different brands. So there is a model that describes how the consumers make the
choice and preferences over the different brands.

The Following is the model of buying decision-making: -

1. Total Set: - In this they used to maintain the list of the all-leading brand to those particular
products, that are available in the market.

2. Awareness Set: - After that they used to make the list of those selected brands with that they
are something knows and aware about their products.

3. Consideration Set: - After that they used to make the list from the list of known brands, about
those they know something better than other brands.

4. Choice Set: - After the consideration of some brands, a list of choice brands those having the
greater chances of acceptance over others.

5. Decision Set: - After the all of the process in last most preferred, most acceptable during the
buying decision process.

So that it’s a process, which defines that, how a buying decisions are made among the number of
brands available In the market.

So that it’s all about the general buying behavior of cons, and business buying according to marketing
concept, because to understand and making study over buying behavior first its necessary to aware

with concept of buying behaviour.

BUYING BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION

Understanding the buying behavior of the target market for its company products is the essential task
for the marketing dep’t. The job of the marketers is to “think customer and to guide the company
into developing offers, which are meaningful and attractive to target customers and creating
solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to customer and benefits to the
stakeholders.

The computer processor company divides its buying behavior in both way i.e. Consumer and Business.
The both of term have same meaning as to define in the chapter of buying behavior. The both
consumer and business are divided further as SMB —Small Medium Big - to identify the type of client
according to their sales and SMB have their own group of clients.

CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR:-

It includes all those person who are the direct user of the computers and their processors or for their
employees and family member use. They are not indulging in the sale activity of the computer and
other Products. i.e. home users, companies for their employees.
BUSINESS BUYING BEHAVIOR: -

It includes all those person who are not the direct user of the computers and their processors or for
their employees and family member use. They are indulging in the sale activity of the computer and
other Products. They can also be authorized from companies i.e. Intel. i.e. hp, HCL, Assemblers.

There is model of the both of behavior as suggested by companies with the dividing in the SMB, the
both of the buying behavior. The models are below for both behaviors: -

CONSUMER BUYING

S–M–B

SMALL MEDIUM BIG

Home PC users Departmental Stores Banks, Insurance

Doctors Small Industries Laptop Users

Chemists Small Software Companies Big Industries

Shop Keepers Software Comp.

And Self-Employed Scientists

MODEL OF CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

BUSINESS BUYING

S–M–B

SMALL MEDIUM BIG

Retailers Whole — Sellers Auth. Assemblers

Small Traders Big Assemblers e.g. HP, HCL, ACER

Small Assemblers Intel Agents Super Store Retailers

MODEL OF BUSINESS BUYING BEHAVIOUR

So that’s all about the category of computer processors buying behavior as to each divided in SMB as
to their use and sales point. Now we will be discuss with the concept of the from the point our study
and discuss how these companies make it possible.
 PROBLEM FORMULATION

In this report we are making a study report for the buying behavior of Processors in order to know the
position of different sets Processors brands of different companies in the market. So that we divide
the problem in sub parts to make the good and result oriented study report.

Problem defined as: -

 What is the Position of the computer processors all companies in the Indian market?

 Different players in the processor market.

 Perception of dealers and consumer about these companies.

 Physical distribution of these companies competing with others.

 Taste and preferences of dealer and consumer towards computer.

 Price effect over consumer and dealer between competitions. Marketing and sales promotion
activity of these companies.

 Competition in terms of price, technology and after sale service.

 Find out the consumer and business target groups.

So as to study the buying behavior we divide the problem overstated parts, so that it can be
easily formulate and solved.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROBLEM

Everyone knows the time of manual working and now we have different set of machines for the
different work, it makes our work very easy and fast. In these machines computer is one and buying
of a computes is not a simple task. In that buying behavior for the computer processors has Its own
significance. For that we divide the problem as stated in above sect and each problem has its own
significance to answer the following questions: -

 Why, When, How, What, where and who is buying the Computer?

 Why, When, How, What, where and who is buying processors and which one?

 Why, When, How, What, where and who is buying only INTEL processors?

 Why, When, How, What, where and who is buying other than INTEL processors?
CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR PROCESS

What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The Consumer Buying process is a
complex matter as many internal and external factors have an impact on the buying decisions of the
consumer.

When purchasing a product there several processes, which consumers go through. These will be
discussed below.

1. Problem/Need Recognition

How do you decide you want to buy a particular product or service? It could be that your DVD player
stops working and you now have to look for a new one, all those DVD films you purchased you can no
longer play! So you have a problem or a new need. For high value items like a DVD player or a car or
other low frequency purchased products this is the process we would take. However, for impulse low
frequency purchases e.g. confectionery the process is different.

2. Information search

So we have a problem, our DVD player no longer works and we need to buy a new one. What’s the
solution? Yes go out and purchase a new one, but which brand? Shall we buy the same brand as the
one that blew up? Or stay clear of that? Consumer often go on some form of information search to
help them through their purchase decision. Sources of information could be family, friends,
neighbours who may have the product you have in mind, alternatively you may ask the sales people,
or dealers, or read specialist magazines like What DVD? to help with their purchase decision. You may
even actually examine the product before you decide to purchase it.

3. Evaluation of different purchase options.

So what DVD player do we purchase? Shall it be Sony, Toshiba or Bush? Consumers allocate attribute
factors to certain products, almost like a point scoring system which they work out in their mind over
which brand to purchase. This means that consumers know what features from the rivals will benefit
them and they attach different degrees of importance to each attribute. For example sound maybe
better on the Sony product and picture on the Toshiba , but picture clarity is more important to you
then sound. Consumers usually have some sort of brand preference with companies as they may have
had a good history with a particular brand or their friends may have had a reliable history with one,
but if the decision falls between the Sony DVD or Toshiba then which one shall it be? It could be that
the a review the consumer reads on the particular Toshiba product may have tipped the balance and
that they will purchase that brand.

4. Purchase decision

Through the evaluation process discussed above consumers will reach their final purchase decision
and they reach the final process of going through the purchase action e.g. The process of going to the
shop to buy the product, which for some consumers can be as just as rewarding as actually purchasing
the product. Purchase of the product can either be through the store, the web, or over the phone.
Post Purchase behaviour

Ever have doubts about the product after you purchased it? This simply is post purchase behaviour
and research shows that it is a common trait amongst purchasers of products. Manufacturers of
products clearly want recent consumers to feel proud of their purchase, it is therefore just as
important for manufacturers to advertise for the sake of their recent purchaser so consumers feel
comfortable that they own a product from a strong and reputable organisation. This limits post
purchase. behaviour i.e. You feel reassured that you own the latest advertised product.

Factors influencing the behaviour of buyers.

Consumer behaviour is affected by many uncontrollable factors. Just think, what influences you
before you buy a product or service? Your friends, your upbringing, your culture, the media, a role
model or influences from certain groups?

Culture is one factor that influences behaviour. Simply culture is defined as our attitudes s. But how
are these attitudes and beliefs developed? As an individual growing up, a child is influenced by their
parents, brothers, sister and other family member who may teach them what is wrong or right. They
learn about their religion and culture, which helps them develop these opinions, attitudes and beliefs
(AIO) . These factors will influence their purchase. Behaviour however other factors like groups of
friends, or people they look up to may influence their choices of purchasing a particular product or
service. Reference groups are particular groups of people some people may look up towards to that
have an impact on Consumer behaviour. So they can be simply a band like the Spice Girls or your
immediate family members. Opinion leaders are those people that you look up to because your
respect their views and judgements and these views may influence Consumer decisions. So it maybe a
friend who works with the IT trade who may influence your decision on what computer to buy. The
economical environment also has an impact on Consumer behaviour; do consumers have a secure job
and a regular income to spend on goods? Marketing and advertising obviously influence consumers in
trying to evoke them to purchase a particular product or service.

Peoples social status will also impact their behaviour. What is their role within society? Are they
Actors? Doctors? Office worker? and mothers and fathers also? Clearly being parents affects your
buying habits depending on the age of the children, the type of job may mean you need to purchase
formal clothes, the income which is earned has an impact. The lifestyle of someone who earns
Rs.250000 would clearly be different from someone who earns Rs.25000. Also characters have an
influence on buying decision. Whether the person is extrovert (out going and spends on
entertainment) or introvert (keeps to themselves and purchases via online or mail order) again has an
impact on the types of purchases made.
Types of buying Behaviour

There are four typical types of buying Behaviour based on the type of products that intends to be
purchased.

 Complex buying Behaviour is where the individual purchases a high value brand and seeks a lot of
information before the purchase is made.

 Habitual buying Behaviour is where the individual buys a product out of habit e.g. a daily
newspaper, sugar or salt.

 Variety seeking buying Behaviour is where the individual likes to shop around and experiment
with different products. So an individual may shop around for different breakfast cereals because
he/she wants variety in the mornings!

 Dissonance reducing buying Behaviour is when buyer are highly involved with the purchase of the
product, because the purchase is expensive or infrequent.

There is little difference between existing brands an example would be buying a diamond ring,
there is perceived little difference between existing diamond brand manufacturers.

ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

Advertising is an art not a science. Effectiveness of which cannot be measured with a mathematical
or empirical formula some advertisers argue that advertising efforts go to waste, but every advertiser
is keenly interested in measuring or in evaluation of ad. effectiveness. Testing for the effectiveness
of ad. will lead advertisement testing must be done either before or after the ad has done in the
media. It is of two types, pretesting which is done before the ad. has been launched and one is
referred to as cost testing which is done before the ad. has been launched and one is referred to as
cost testing which is done after launching the advertising campaign. The basic purpose of advertising
effectiveness is to avoid costly mistakes, to predict the relative strength of alternative strength of
alternative advertising strategies and to increase their efficiency. In measurement of ad.
effectiveness feed back is always useful even if it costs some extra expenditure to the advertiser.

Sales-Effect :

Communication-effect advertising research helps advertisers assess advertising's communication

effects but reveals little about its sales impact. What sales are generated by an ad that increases
brand awareness by 20% and brand preference by 10%?

Advertising's sales effect is generally harder to measure than its communication effect. Sales are
influenced by many factors besides advertising, such as the product's features, price, availability and
competitors' actions. The fewer or more controllable these other factors are, the easier it is to
measure advertising's effect on sales. The sales impact is easiest to measure in direct-marketing's
effect on sales. The sales impact is easiest it is to measure in direct-marketing situations and hardest
measure in brand or corporate-image-building advertising.
PROGRESS TESTS

These assess the various stages of buyer awareness, preference, buying intention and the actual
purchase in relation to ad. effort. They are called sales effect tests.

Measuring Sales Response to Advertising :

Though increase in sales in the true measure of advertising effectiveness, in reality it is difficult to
measure the increase that is due to a particular advertisement. It is rather difficult to correlate the
response in sales with the advertising programme. However, a few methods have ben discalled in the
following paragraphs which are generally used to measure the sales response to advertising.

The Netapps Method :

The term Netapps has been framed from the term net-ad-produce-purchases. This method, which has
been developed by Daniel Starch and Staff company, requires the measurement of both readers and
non-readers who purchased and who did not purchase the brand under investigation. The netapps
method is useful in the relative measurement of the sales-effectiveness of various advertising
approaches. But the method is subject to a high level of false reporting and open to interviewer bias.
Moreover, we have considered advertising influence as the only factor which results in a purchase.
There may be, and often are, other variables which affect purchases.

Sales Results Tests :

The additional sales generated by the ads are recorded, taking several routes.

Past Sales before the ad and sales after the ad are noted. The difference is attributed to ad impact.

Controlled Experiment : In experimental market, any one element of marketing mix is changed. It is
compared with the sales of another similar market. The element's presence observance is a reason for
difference in sales.

Instead of two markets, the experiment can be carried on the two groups of consumers.

The inventory audit is dealers inventory before and after the ad is run.

Attitude Tests

This is an indirect measurement of the post-testing effects of ads on attitudes towards the advertised
product or brands. The change in attitude as a result of advertising is assessed. The assumption is
that favourable attitude towards the product may lead to purchases.

Most ads are designed to either reinforce or change existing attitudes. An attitude is a favourable or
unfavourable feeling about a product.
Influencing people: Myths and Mechanisms

Why is it so difficult to introspect on advertising and how it influences us? Because we look for major
effects, that’s why! Too often, we look for the ability of an ad to persuade us. We look for a major
effect rather than more subtle, minor effects. Big and immediate effects of advertising do occur
when the advertiser has something new to say. Then it is easy for us to introspect on its effect.

But most effects of advertising fall well short of persuasion. These minor effects are not obvious but
they are more characteristic of the way advertising works. To understand advertising we have to
understand and measure these effects. When our kids are growing up we don’t notice their physical
growth each day but from time to time we become aware that they have grown. Determining how
much a child has grown in the last 24 hours is like evaluating the effect of being exposed to a single
commercial. In both cases, the changes are too small for us to notice. But even small effects of
advertising can influence which brand we choose especially when all other factors are equal and
when alternative brands are much the same.

Weighing the alternatives: Evaluation

It is easiest to understand this with low-involvement buying

situations. The situation is like a ‘beam-balance’ in which
each brand weighs the same. With one brand on each side, the
scale is balanced. However, it takes only a feather added to
one side of the balance to tip it in favor of the brand on that
side. The brands consumers have to choose from are often
very similar. Which one will the buying balance tip towards?
When we look for advertising effects we are looking for Low involvement:
feathers rather than heavy weights. Deciding between 2 virtually

The buying of cars, appliances, vacations and other high-

identical alternatives.

priced items are examples of high-involvement decision-

making. This high level of involvement contrasts with the low level brought to bear on the purchase
of products like shampoo or soft drink or margarine. For most of us, the buying of these smaller items
is no big deal. We have better things to do with our time than agonize over which brand to choose
every time we buy something.

The fact is that in many low-involvement product categories, the alternative brands are extremely
similar and in some cases almost identical. Most consumers don't really care which one they buy and
could substitute easily if their brand ceased to exist. It is in these low-involvement categories that
the effects of advertising can be greatest and yet hardest to introspect upon.

Even with high involvement products the beam balance analogy

is relevant because very different alternatives can weigh-up
equal. We often have to weigh up complex things like ‘average
quality at a moderate price’ against ‘premium quality at a
higher price’. Often we find ourselves in a state of indecision
between the alternatives. When the choice weighs equal in our
mind, whether it be low involvement products or high
High involvement decisions: involvement products, it can take just a feather to swing that
Very different alternatives balance.
can weigh equal.
With high involvement decisions we are more concerned about
the outcome of the weighing up process, so we think more
about how much weight to give to each feature (quality, size or power)? How many extra dollars is it
worth paying for a feature? Automotive writers for example can reach very different opinions. The
more complex a product’s features the more complex this assessment because there are usually both
positive and negative perspectives. For example, a compact car is positive in regard to both fuel
economy and maneuverability but negative in regard to leg-room and comfort.

So which way should we see it? What weight should we give to a particular feature in our minds?
When, advertising emphasizes points that favor a brand, it doesn’t have to persuade us - merely raise
our awareness of the positive perspectives. Chances are we will notice confirmatory evidence more
easily as a result. When we subsequently read a newspaper or consumer report or talk with friends,
research shows that we are prone to interpret such information slightly more favorably. This effect is
a long way from heavyweight persuasion. Rather it is a gentle, mental biasing of our subsequent
perceptions, and we see in Chapter 2 how perspective can influence our interpretation. It is not so
much persuasion as a shifting of the mental spotlight...playing the focal beam of attention on one
perspective rather than another.
 Repetition

As with the amount by which our kids grow in a day,

we are just not aware of the small differences
advertising can make. Even though these
imperceptibly small changes in time add up to
significant effects, individual increments are too
small for us to notice. They are just below the just
noticeable difference (JND).

Through the process of repetition these small

Small cumulative increments:
increments can produce major perceived differences
We don’t notice a child’s
between brands, but we are rarely aware of the
growth in 24 hours. process taking place.

The cumulative effects of changes in brand image become starkly noticeable only in rare cases: for
instance, when we return home after a long absence and find that an old brand is now seen by people
in a different light — that in the intervening period the brand has acquired a different image.

Registering a claim in our minds (e.g. ‘taste the difference’ or ‘good to the last drop’) does not
necessarily mean we believe it. However, it makes us aware that there are claimed differences
between brands. This is a proposition (a ‘feather’, if you will) that, when everything else is equal
may tip the balance of brand selection, even if only to prompt us to find out if it is true.

Repetition increases our familiarity with a claim. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, a
feeling of greater likelihood that the claim is true begins to accompany the growing familiarity. This
effect of repetition is known as ‘the truth effect.

We tend to think that if something is not true somehow it would somehow be challenged. If it is
repeated constantly and not challenged, our minds seem to regard this as prima facie evidence that
perhaps it is true. The effect of repetition is to produce small but cumulative increments in this
‘truth’ inference. It is hardly rational but we don’t really think about it. We don’t go out of our way
to think about it because low involvement, by definition means we don’t care much anyway. Such
claims are ‘feathers’.

In summary, the reasons we are unable to introspect on advertising’s effects — especially in low-
involvement situations are:

o the effect of each single ad exposure is small;

o with repetition, even imperceptibly small effects can build into larger perceived differences
between brands;

o if something gets repeated constantly without challenge, our minds seem to regard this as
prima facie evidence that maybe, just maybe, it is true (the ‘truth’ effect);

o often it is no big deal to us which of the alternative brands we choose, anyway.

If you have ever wondered why advertisers seem to persist in repeating the same ad — if you have
ever wondered why they think this could possibly influence sane people like us — then here is the
answer. Much of advertising creates only marginal differences, but small differences can build into
larger differences. Even small differences can tip the balance in favor of the advertised brand. This is
especially true of ‘image advertising’.

Image advertising

The effect of image advertising is easier to see in relation to high-involvement products, so let us
start with a high-involvement example — Volvo cars.

Between 1970 and 1990, Volvo focused its image advertising on safety. Through repetition, it built up
a strong image for the Volvo as a safe car. On a scale of 1 to 10 for safety, most people would rate
Volvo higher than almost any other car. Safety is now an integral part of our perception of this brand.
(The fact that the car actually delivers on this promise has of course been a very important ingredient
in the success of the safety campaign -but that is another story.)

One effect of image advertising, then, is to produce gradual shifts in our perceptions of a brand with
regard to a particular attribute — in Volvo’s case, safety (in other words, to effect marginal changes
in our mental rating of the brand on that attribute). This is often not perceptible after just one
exposure because the change, if it occurs, is too small for us to notice.

Now let’s take a low-involvement product category-hair spray — and examine its history of brand
image advertising.

The first brands of hair spray originally fought for market share on the basis of the attribute of ‘hair
holding’. That is, each brand claimed to hold hair. To the extent that they all claimed the same
thing, they were what we call ‘me-too’ brands.

To break out of this, one brand began to claim that it ‘holds hair longer’. Just as Volvo claimed that
it was safer, and thereby moved Volvo up higher up the perceived safety scale, so this brand of hair
spray made people aware that some brands of hair spray might hold hair longer than others. It then
attempted to shift perception of itself on this attribute and marginally increase the mental rating
consumers would give it on ‘length of hold’.

The next brand of hair spray to enter the market, instead of tackling
that brand head-on, cleverly avoided doing battle on ‘length of
hold’. The new brand claimed that it was ‘long holding’, but also
that it ‘brushes out easier’ — a dual benefit. In doing so it
successfully capitalized on the fact that hair sprays that hold longer
are harder to brush out (or were until then). Many years later, came
the attribute of ‘flexible hold’.

Vidal Sassoon Hairspray ad

claiming ‘flexible hold’
These examples of image advertising for hair spray and cars illustrate how one effect of advertising is
to alter our perceptions of a brand. Advertising can marginally change our image of a brand by
leading us to associate it with a particular attribute (like ‘longer holding’ or ‘brushes out easily’), and
to associate the brands in our minds with that attribute more than we associate it with any other
competitive brand.

Gauging the effects image advertising has on us is made even more complex because these effects
may not operate directly on the image of the brand itself. Image advertising may produce small,
incremental differences in the image of a brand, as in the case of Volvo — but sometimes it is aimed
at changing not so much the image of the brand itself but who we see in our mind’s eye as the typical
user of that brand.

User image

In advertising for Levi’s, Revlon, Coca-Cola, Calvin Klein, Dior or Gap, the focus is often on people
who use the brand. What changes is not so much our perception, or image, of the product as our
perception of the user-stereotype — the kind of person who typically uses the brand, or the situation
in which the brand is typically used.
 When these brands are advertised, the focus is very much on image
but often with this important, subtle difference. The advertising
aims to change not how we see the brand itself-the brand image-but
how we see:

o the stereotypical user of the brand -the user image;

o the stereotypical situation in which the brand is used.

If the user image of a brand resembles us, or the type of person we

aspire to be, what happens when we come to buy that product
category? The user image acts as a feather on one side of the beam
balance. If everything else is equal it can tip the scale (but note,
only if everything else is about equal).
Jim Beam ad reinforcing
the stereotypical user User, or situational, image changes usually fall short of the kinds of
image - young, single rational, heavyweight reasons that make perfect sense of any
choice. But they can nevertheless tilt the balance in favor of one
males.
brand. Minor effects such as these constitute much of the impact of
advertising. Yet they are usually much more difficult for us as consumers to analyze introspectively,
and we tend to discount them because they clearly fall well short of persuasion.

Persuasion is the exception

We have been told so often that the role of advertising is to persuade that we seem to have come to
believe it.

How often do we hear the comment, ‘It wouldn’t make me run out and buy it.’ This is common in
market research when participants are asked to analyze introspectively how they react to an ad -
especially if it is an image ad. It demonstrates the myth of how advertising is supposed to have its
influence. No-one really believes that any ad will make them run out and buy the advertised product.
Nothing has that kind of persuasive or coercive power. So why do people say, ‘It wouldn’t make me
run out and buy it’? Because they can’t think of any other way the ad could work. The effect of
advertising is not to make us ‘run out and buy’. This is especially true with low-involvement products
and especially true with image advertising. It is beam-balance stuff.

High involvement

High-involvement buying contrasts with low-involvement, low-cost purchases. When people are
parting with substantial sums of money to buy a TV, a car or a vacation, they do not take the decision
lightly. These are high-involvement decisions for most consumers. Before making them, we actively
hunt down information, talk with friends and generally find out all we can about our prospective
purchase.
 Furthermore, the alternative brands available will usually have many more differences. They are
unlikely to be almost identical, as is the case with many low-involvement products.

Advertising is one influence in high-involvement buying decisions, but it is only one among many.
Often it is a relatively weak influence, especially in comparison with other influences like word-of-
mouth, previous experience and recommendations by ‘experts’. In the case of high-involvement
products, much of advertising’s effect is not so much on the final decision as on whether a brand gets
considered — whether we include it in the set of alternatives that we are prepared to spend time
weighing up. This is one of the ways that advertising influences our thinking indirectly. For example,
there are hundreds of brands and types of cars, far too many for us to consider individually in the
same detail. We seriously consider only those that make it onto our short list. But what determines
which cars make it on to our short list? This is where advertising comes into play.

If we are unlikely to be in the market for a new car, refrigerator or wall unit for several years, the
advertising we see and hear for these products falls on low-involved ears. However, if our old car or
appliance unexpectedly breaks down today, we may find ourselves propelled into the market for a
new one. Suddenly, the ads we saw yesterday or last week or last month under low-involvement
conditions become more relevant. One test of their effectiveness will be whether they have left
enough impact to get their brand onto our short list.

A lot of advertising, even for high-priced items, thus has its effect in a low-involvement way. Again
we see that, in looking for the effects of advertising, we need to look for subtle effects. It is a case
of ‘feathers’ rather than persuasion — ‘feathers’ that influence what alternatives get weighed-up as
well as ‘feathers’ that add their weight to one side of the weighing-up process.

Two mental processes in decision-making

There are fundamentally different mental processes at work in choice decisions. We have already
considered the most obvious one, the weighing up of alternatives. But there is another process that
consumers and advertisers tend to be less conscious of. Weighing up the alternatives is one thing.
Which alternatives get weighed up is another!

Which alternatives get weighed up?

What determines the alternatives that are actually considered?

Think about a consumer decision that you probably make every day. It’s getting on for noon, you are
feeling hungry and you ask yourself, ‘What am I going to have for lunch today?’ Your mind starts to
generate alternatives and evaluate each alternative as you think of it. The process goes something
like this:

o ‘Will I have a salad?’ No, I had a salad yesterday.

o ‘A sandwich?’ ‘No, the sandwich store is too far away and besides, it’s raining.’

o ‘I could drive to McDonald’s.’ “Yes . . . I’ll do that.’

 There are two things to note here. First, what the mind does is produce alternatives, one at a time.
This ‘mental agenda’ of alternatives is ordered like this:

Second, the order in which the alternatives are arranged is the order in which they are elicited by the
mind. This order can influence your final choice. You may enjoy Pizza Hut more than McDonald’s. But
in the example, you didn’t go to Pizza Hut, you went to McDonald’s.

Had you continued your thought process instead of stopping at the third alternative (McDonald’s), you
would probably have gone to Pizza Hut. But if Pizza Hut is only fifth on your mental agenda of lunch
alternatives, it is unlikely to get much of your business. You didn’t get to Pizza Hut because you
didn’t think of it before you hit on a satisfactory solution — McDonald’s. You didn’t get there
physically because you never got there mentally. Even if we like or prefer something, if it is not
reasonably high on our mental agenda it is likely to miss out.

How many times have you found yourself doing something and realised too late that there was
something else you would rather have been doing but didn’t think about in time? The most preferred
alternatives are not necessarily the ones you think of first. (Anyone who has ever left an important
person off an invitation list will appreciate this.) Next time you go out for dinner and are trying to
decide which restaurant to go to, observe your thought pattern. There are two separate processes at
work. One is generation of alternatives. The other is evaluation of the alternatives.

To affect the outcome of buying decisions, advertisers can try to influence:

o the order in which the alternatives are evoked;

o the evaluation of a particular alternative; or

o both.

When we think of advertising’s effects we almost invariably think of how advertising influences our
evaluation of a brand. Yet much of advertising’s influence is not on our evaluations of a brand but on
the order in which alternative brands are evoked.

Agenda-setting effect

Influencing the order of alternatives has its basis in what is known as the agenda-setting theory of
mass communications. This says: The mass media don’t tell us what to think. But they do tell us what
to think about! They set the mental agenda.

The agenda-setting theory was originally developed to explain the influence of the mass media in
determining which political issues become important in elections. Adroit committee members and
politicians claim that if you can control the agenda you can control the meeting. It was not until 1981
that the relevance of this to advertising was recognized.

When we reach into our minds to generate any of these agendas, the items do not all come to mind
at once. They are elicited one at a time and in an order. The items on top of the mental agenda are
the most salient and the ones we are most likely to remember first. It’s the same with choosing which
restaurant to go to or which department store to visit or which supermarket to shop at this week. It is
the same with the decision about which cars or refrigerators to short-list and which dealers to visit.
The order in which we retrieve the items from our memories seems almost inconsequential to us but
may be critically important in determining the chances of our going to a McDonald’s versus Pizza Hut.

This effect also occurs if we have a list of the alternatives or a display of them such as in the
supermarket. Even here, where the brands are all set out in front of us, all of them do not get
noticed simultaneously. In fact they do not all get noticed.

Think about the process. We stand there at the display. We notice first one brand, then another and
then another. It happens rapidly, but in sequence. So despite the fact that the brands are all
displayed, they are not necessarily all equal in terms of the probability that they will come to mind
or be noticed. Supermarkets today carry more than 30,000 items, up from 17,500 a decade ago.[8]
This raises a question. At supermarket displays, what makes a brand stand out? To use the marketing
term, what makes it ‘break through the clutter’ of all the alternative packs and get noticed? What
makes one brand get noticed more quickly than others at the supermarket display?

This introduces the concept of salience, which is formally defined in the next section. In this context
we ask how a brand can be moved up from fifth, to fourth to third, to second, to become the first
one noticed. The higher up it is in this order, the better the chance it has of being considered, and
consequently, the better the chance of its being purchased.

The brand’s physical prominence, the amount of shelf space it occupies and its position in the display
are very important. But advertising can influence choice when other factors (like shelf space or
position) are otherwise equal. Advertising can help tip the balance.

Asking what makes one brand more salient — more likely to come to mind or get noticed — than
another is like asking what influences Pizza Hut’s position on our mental lunch agenda. In the
supermarket, instead of having to recall all the alternatives by ourselves, we are prompted by the
display. However, the brands we notice and the order in which we notice them can be influenced by
more than just the display.

Salience

We think much more often about people and things that are important to us than about those that
are not. The psychological term for this prominence in our thoughts is salience. Advertisers would like
us to think of their brands as ‘more important’ but they will settle for ‘more often’.[9] In other
words, they would like their brands to be more salient for us.

Our definition of salience is the probability that something will be in the conscious mind at any given
moment. One way advertising can increase this probability is through repetition. We have all had the
experience of being unable to rid our minds of a song we have heard a lot. The repetition of the song
has increased its salience; it has increased its probability of being in the conscious mind at any
 moment. Repetition of an advertisement, especially a jingle, can have a similar effect. Through
repetition of the ad, the salience of the brand - the star of the ad - is increased in our minds.

Another way that advertising influences what we think about and notice is through ‘cueing’. To
explain this, answer a few questions.

o What’s the first thing you think of when you see: "Just Do It."’

o What’s the first thing you think of when someone says: "Don't leave home without it."

o What comes to mind if you are asked: "Where do you want to go today?”

o What’s the first thing you think of when someone says: "Cross your heart”?

o When you see the word "Always ....”, what do you think of?

o What's the first thing you think of when someone asks "Where's the beef?” in America or
"Which bank?” in Australia?

Words or expressions such as these come up naturally in everyday conversation. When a brand is
linked to them through repetition, they become cues that help increase the salience of the brand.

An actor in a play takes his cue from a line or some other happening or event. The human mind takes
its cue from its intentions and its immediate environment. Such cues can influence what we think
about next. That’s how we go to sleep at night. We turn off the cues. We turn off the light and the
radio. We try to reduce distractions or cues so that things won’t keep popping into our minds.

One way advertising can use cues is by tying a brand to something that frequently recurs in the
ordinary environment. There are many common words, expressions, symbols or tunes that can be
developed by means of repetition into mnemonic devices that trigger recollection of the brand.
 FACTORS THAT HAVE AN IMPACT ON CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

* Culture

Culture is part of the external influences that impact the consumer. That is, culture represents
influences that are imposed on the consumer by other individuals.
The definition of culture offered in the text is "That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man person as a member of
society." From this definition, one can make the following observations:

Culture, as a "complex whole," is a system of interdependent components.

Knowledge and beliefs are important parts. Other issues are relevant. Art, for example, may be
reflected in the rather arbitrary practice of wearing ties in some countries and wearing turbans in
others.

Cultural rules can be categorized into three types. Formal rules carry relatively explicit standards as
to how one should behave, and violations often carry severe sanctions. Informal rules, on the other
hand, are less explicit and may not carry sanctions for violation. Finally, technical cultural rules
involve implicit standards as to what constitutes a good product.

Language is an important element of culture. It should be realized that regional differences may be
subtle.

Some cultures tend to adopt new products more quickly than others, based on several factors:

 Modernity: The extent to which the culture is receptive to new things. In some countries, such as
Britain and Saudi Arabia, tradition is greatly valued—thus, new products often don’t fare too well.
The United States, in contrast, tends to value progress.

 Homophily: The more similar to each other that members of a culture are, the more likely an
innovation is to spread—people are more likely to imitate similar than different models. The two most
rapidly adopting countries in the World are the U.S. and Japan. While the U.S. interestingly scores
very low, Japan scores high.

 Physical distance: The greater the distance between people, the less likely innovation is to
spread.

 Opinion leadership: The more opinion leaders are valued and respected, the more likely an
innovation is to spread. The style of opinion leaders moderates this influence, however. In less
innovative countries, opinion leaders tend to be more conservative, i.e., to reflect the local norms of
resistance.

* Family Decision Making

Individual members of families often serve different roles in decisions that ultimately draw on shared
family resources. Some individuals are information gatherers/holders, who seek out information
about products of relevance. These individuals often have a great deal of power because they may
selectively pass on information that favors their chosen alternatives. Influencers do not ultimately
have the power decide between alternatives, but they may make their wishes known by asking for
specific products or causing embarrassing situations if their demands are not met. The decision
maker(s) have the power to determine issues such as:

whether to buy;

which product to buy (pick-up or passenger car?);

which brand to buy;

where to buy it; and

when to buy.

One is bargaining—one member will give up something in return for someone else. strategy is
reasoning—trying to get the other person(s) to accept one’s view through logical argumentation.

* Group Influences

Humans are inherently social animals, and individuals greatly influence each other. A useful
framework of analysis of group influence on the individual is the so called reference group—the term
comes about because an individual uses a relevant group as a standard of reference against which
oneself is compared. Reference groups come in several different forms. The aspirational reference
group refers to those others against whom one would like to compare oneself. Associative reference
groups include people who more realistically represent the individuals’ current equals or near-equals
—e.g., coworkers, neighbors, or members of churches, clubs, and organizations. Finally, the
dissociative reference group includes people that the individual would not like to be like.

* Diffusion of Innovation

The diffusion of innovation refers to the tendency of new products, practices, or ideas to spread
among people. Usually, when new products or ideas come about, they are only adopted by a small
group of people initially; later, many innovations spread to other people. The saturation point is the
maximum proportion of consumers likely to adopt .

Several forces often work against innovation. One is risk, which can be either social or financial.
Another risk is being perceived by others as being weird for trying a "fringe" product or idea. Other
sources of resistance include the initial effort needed to learn to use new products (e.g., it takes
time to learn to meditate or to learn how to use a computer) and concerns about compatibility with
the existing culture or technology. Innovations come in different degrees. A continuous innovation
includes slight improvements over time. A dynamically continuous innovation involves some change in
technology, although the product is used much the same way that its predecessors were used—e.g.,
jet vs. propeller aircraft. A discontinous innovation involves a product that fundamentally changes
the way that things are done—e.g., the fax and photocopiers.
* Perception

Background. Our perception is an approximation of reality. Our brain attempts to make sense out of
the stimuli to which we are exposed.

Factors in percpetion. Several sequential factors influence our perception. Exposure involves the
extent to which we encounter a stimulus. Most of this exposure is random—we don’t plan to seek it
out. Exposure is not enough to significantly impact the individual—at least not based on a single trial
In order for stimuli to be consciously processed, attention is needed. Interpretation involves making
sense out of the stimulus. Weber’s Law suggests that consumers’ ability to detect changes in stimulus
intensity appear to be strongly related to the intensity of that stimulus to begin with.

Several factors influence the extent to which stimuli will be noticed. One obvious issue is relevance.
Consumers, when they have a choice, are also more likely to attend to pleasant stimuli (but when the
consumer can’t escape, very unpleasant stimuli are also likely to get attention—thus, many very
irritating advertisements are remarkably effective). Surprising stimuli are likely to get more attention
—survival instinct requires us to give more attention to something unknown that may require action.
A greater contrast (difference between the stimulus and its surroundings) as well as greater
prominence (e.g., greater size, center placement) also tend to increase likelihood of processing.

* Learning and Memory

Learning involves "a change in the content or organization of long term memory and/or behavior."
The first part of the definition focuses on what we know (and can thus put to use) while the second
focuses on concrete behavior.

Several factors influence the effectiveness of learning. In general, the closer in time the
consequences are to the behavior, the more effective the learning. However, it is not necessary to
reward a behavior every time for learning to occur. Even if a behavior is only rewarded some of the
time, the behavior may be learned.

Memory. There are two kinds of memory. When you see an ad on TV for a mail order product you
might like to buy, you only keep the phone number in memory until you have dialed it. This is known
as short term memory. In order for something to enter into long term memory, which is more
permanent, you must usually "rehearse" it several times. A special issue in memory are so called
"scripts," or procedures we remember for doing things. Scripts involve a series of steps for doing
various things (e.g., how to send a package).

* Motivation, Personality, and Emotion

Perspectives on Consumer Behavior and Motivation: People considered several perspectives on

behavior as a way to understand what motivates the consumer. Each of these perspectives suggests
different things as to what the marketer should do and what can (and cannot) be controlled.

The Hard Core Behavioral perspective suggest that consumers must learn from their own experiences
rather than merely observing other people who overeat and get sick.
The Social Learning Perspective, in contrast, allows for vicarious learning--i.e., learning obtained by
watching others getting good or bad consequences for behavior

The Cognitive approach emphasizes consumer thinking rather than mere behavior.Here, the emphasis
is on how people reason themselves to the consequences of their behavior.

The Biological approach suggests that most behavior is determined by genetics or other biological
bases. By this perspective, it is suggested that consumers eat the foods they eat in large part because
the body craves these foods. The main implication of biological determinism is that the marketer
must adapt--for example, food advertisements are more likely to be effective when people are
hungry, and thus they might better be run in the late afternoon rather than in the late morning.

The Rational Expectations perspective is based on an economic way of looking at the World.

* Attitudes

Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s (1) beliefs about, (2) feelings about, (3) and
behavioral intentions toward some object within the context of marketing, usually a brand or retail
store. These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together
represent forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object.

Beliefs. The first component is beliefs. A consumer may hold both positive beliefs toward an object
(e.g., coffee tastes good) as well as negative beliefs (e.g., coffee is easily spilled and stains papers).
In addition, some beliefs may be neutral.

Affect. Consumers also hold certain feelings toward brands or other objects. Sometimes these
feelings are based on the beliefs (e.g., a person feels nauseated when thinking about a hamburger
because of the tremendous amount of fat it contains), but there may also be feelings which are
relatively independent of beliefs.

Behavioral intention. The behavioral intention is what the consumer plans to do with respect to the
object (e.g., buy or not buy the brand). As with affect, this is sometimes a logical consequence of
beliefs (or affect), but may sometimes reflect other circumstances.

Changing affect. One approach is to try to change affect, which may or may not involve getting
consumers to change their beliefs. One strategy uses the approach of classical conditioning try to
"pair" the product with a liked stimulus. Finally, products which are better known, through the mere
exposure effect, tend to be better liked--that is, the more a product is advertised and seen in stores,
the more it will generally be liked, even if consumers to do not develop any specific beliefs about
the product.

Changing behavior. People like to believe that their behavior is rational; thus, once they use our
products, chances are that they will continue unless someone is able to get them to switch. ----One
way to get people to switch to one brand is to use temporary price discounts and coupons; however,
when consumers buy a product on deal, they may justify the purchase based on that deal (i.e., the
low price) and may then switch to other brands on deal later. A better way to get people to switch to
our brand is to at least temporarily obtain better shelf space so that the product is more convenient.
Consumers are less likely to use this availability as a rationale for their purchase and may continue to
buy the product even when the product is less conveniently located. (Notice, by the way, that this
represents a case of shaping).

Changing beliefs. Although attempting to change beliefs is the obvious way to attempt attitude
change, particularly when consumers hold unfavorable or inaccurate ones, this is often difficult to
achieve because consumers tend to resist. Several approaches to belief change exist:

 Change currently held beliefs. It is generally very difficult to attempt to change beliefs that
people hold, particularly those that are strongly held, even if they are inaccurate.

 Change the importance of beliefs.

 Add beliefs. Consumers are less likely to resist the addition of beliefs so long as they do not
conflict with existing beliefs.

 Change ideal. It usually difficult, and very risky, to attempt to change ideals, and only few firms
succeed.

* The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Celebrity

Endorsements. The ELM suggests that consumers will scrutinize claims more in important
situations than in unimportant ones.

The ELM suggests that for "unimportant" products, elaboration will be low. However, for products
which are either expensive or important for some other reason elaboration is likely to be more
extensive, and the endorser is expected to be "congruent," or compatible, with the product.

Appeal approaches. Several approaches to appeal may be used. The use of affect to induce empathy
with advertising characters may increase attraction to a product, but may backfire if consumers
believe that people’s feelings are being exploited. Fear appeals appear to work only if (1) an optimal
level of fear is evoked--not so much that people tune it out, but enough to scare people into action
and (2) a way to avoid the feared stimulus is explicitly indicated. Humor appears to be effective in
gaining attention, but does not appear to increase persuasion in practice. In addition, a more
favorable attitude toward the advertisement may be created by humorous advertising, which may in
turn result in increased sales. Comparative advertising, which is illegal in many countries, often
increases sales for the sponsoring brand, but may backfire in certain cultures.
Self-Concept, Situational Influences, and Lifestyle

The self-concept. The consumer faces several possible selves. The actual self reflects how the
individual actually is, although the consumer may not be aware of that reality In contrast, the ideal
self reflects a self that a person would like to have, but does not in fact have. The private self is one
that is not intentionally exposed to others. The key here is to keep in mind which kind of self one is
trying to reach in promotional messages.

Individuals will often seek to augment and enhance their self concepts, and it may be possible to
market products that help achieve this goal.

Lifestyles. Self-concept often translates into a person’s lifestyle, or the way that he or she lives his or
her life. Attempts have been made to classify consumers into various segments based on their
lifestyles. For example, both "Achievers" and "Strivers" want public recognition, but only the
Achievers have the resources to bring this about. A global analogue is the Global Scan.

Situational influences. Specific circumstances often influence consumer behavior. Consumers whose
attention is demanded elsewhere are likely to disregard commercial messages.

Advertising Research

Advertising research is a specialized form of research that works to improve the effectiveness and
efficiency of advertising. It entails numerous forms of research which employ different
methodologies. Advertising research includes pre-testing (also known as copy testing) and post-
testing of ads and/or campaigns—pre-testing is done before an ad airs to gauge how well it will
perform and post-testing is done after an ad airs to determine the in-market impact of the ad or
campaign on the consumer. Continuous ad tracking and the Communicus System are competing
examples of post-testing advertising research types.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

DEFINITION OF RESEARCH

The term research is also used to describe an entire collection of information about a
particular subject. Research is defined as human activity based on intellectual application in the
investigation of matter. The primary purpose for applied research is discovering, interpreting, and
the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety
of scientific matters of our world and the universe. Research can use the scientific method, but need
not do so.

Historical research is embodied in the historical method.

TYPES OF RESEARCH

Quantitative research:- Quantitative research is descriptive and provides hard data on the
numbers of people exhibiting certain behaviours, attitudes, etc. It provides information in breadth
and allows you to sample large numbers of the population.

Qualitative research:- Qualitative research allows you to explore perceptions, attitudes and
motivations and to understand how they are formed. It provides depth of information which can be
used in its own right or to determine what attributes will subsequently be measured in quantitative
studies. Verbatim quotes are used in reports to illustrate points and this brings the subject to life for
the reader.

Secondary or desk research:- The collating and analysis of secondary data is called desk
research. Secondary data is data that already exists and may be found within your own organisation
or is published by another party and readily available.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Plan outlining how information is to be gathered for an assessment or evaluation that includes
identifying the data gathering method(s) , the instruments to be used/created, how the instruments
will be administered, and how the information will be organized and analyzed.
TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN

1. Philosophical/discursive

This may cover a variety of approaches, but will draw primarily on existing literature, rather than
new empirical data. A discursive study could examine a particular issue, perhaps from an alternative
perspective (eg feminist). Alternatively, it might put forward a particular argument or examine a
methodological issue.

2. Literature review

This may be an attempt to summarise or comment on what is already known about a particular topic.
By collecting different sources together, synthesising and analysing critically, it essentially creates
new knowledge or perspectives. There are a number of different forms a literature review might
take.

3. Case study

This will involve collecting empirical data, generally from only one or a small number of cases. It
usually provides rich detail about those cases, of a predominantly qualitative nature. There are a
number of different approaches to case study work (eg ethnographic, hermeneutic, ethogenic, etc)
and the principles and methods followed should be made clear.

4. Survey

Where an empirical study involves collecting information from a larger number of cases, perhaps
using questionnaires, it is usually described as a survey. Alternatively, a survey might make use of
already available data, collected for another purpose. A survey may be cross-sectional (data
collected at one time) or longitudinal (collected over a period). Because of the larger number of
cases, a survey will generally involve some quantitative analysis.

5. Evaluation

This might be an evaluation of a curriculum innovation or organisational change. An evaluation can

be formative (designed to inform the process of development) or summative (to judge the effects).
Often an evaluation will have elements of both. If an evaluation relates to a situation in which the
researcher is also a participant it may be described as ‘action research’. Evaluations will often make
use of case study and survey methods and a summative evaluation will ideally also use experimental
methods.

6. Experiment

This involves the deliberate manipulation of an intervention in order to determine its effects. The
intervention might involve individual pupils, teachers, schools or some other unit. Again, if the
researcher is also a participant (e.g. a teacher) this could be described as ‘action research’.
DATA COLLECTION

Data collection is a term used to describe a process of preparing and collecting data - for
example as part of a process improvement or similar project. A method of data collection in which
the situation of interest is watched and the relevant facts, actions and behaviors are recorded.

PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION METHODS

In primary data collection, you collect the data yourself using methods such as interviews and
questionnaires. The key point here is that the data you collect is unique to you and your research
and, until you publish, no one else has access to it.

SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION METHODS

All methods of data collection can supply quantitative data (numbers, statistics or financial)
or qualitative data (usually words or text). Quantitative data may often be presented in tabular or
graphical form. Secondary data is data that has already been collected by someone else for a
different purpose to yours. For example, this could mean using:

HYPOTHESIS

When a prediction or a hyposthesis relationship is to be tested by scientific methods it is termed as

research hypothesis. The research hypothesis is a predicted statement that related to the
independent variable to a dependent variable, which are not to be adjective verified or the
relationship that are assumed but not to be tested are termed as research hypothesis.

Null Hypothesis

According to my research report, there is positive impact of advertisement on consumer buying

behaviour.

Alternative Hypothesis

According to my research report, there is negative impact of advertisement on consumer buying

behaviour.

Sample unit (customers)

Sample size (50)

Sample technique (random sampling)

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

 Quesstionaire
 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

1. Do you watch advertisement?

(a) Yes 45
(b) No 05

No. of Persons

2. Does advertisement affect your purchase decision?

(a) Yes 30
(b) No 20

No. of Persons
3. Are you brand loyal?
(a) Yes 35
(b) No 15

No. of Persons

4. Does advertisement shifts you from brand loyalty?

(a) Yes 40
(b) No 10

No. of Persons
5. From which source your buying decision is affected?
(a) T.V. 35
(b) Newspaper 10
(c) Hoardings 03
(d) By own choice 02

No. of Persons

6. Which type of advertisement you prefer?

(a) Traditional Advertisement 18

(b) Multimedia Advertisement 32

No. of Persons
7. Is there Influence of Price on purchase decision?
(a) Agree 42
(b) Disagree 08
No. of Persons

8. According to you, which media of advertisement is best:

(a) T.V. 30
(b) Newspaper 09
(c) Hoarding 06
(d) Magazine 05

No. of Persons
9. Does advertisement are effective in influencing consumers?
(a) Yes 39
(b) No 11

No. of Persons

10. Do you think advertisement convert non users into users?

(a) Yes 45
(b) No 05

No. of Persons
11. Do you think advertisement works as a catalyst to increase competition?
(a) Yes 50
(b) No 0

No. of Persons

12. Do you agree advertisement increases the demand for the product?
(a) Agree 30
(b) Disagree 06
(c) Strongly agree 10
(d) Can’t say 05

No. of Persons
13. Is there influence of quality on purchase decision?
(a) Agree 36
(b) Disagree 04
(c) Strongly agree 10
(d) Strongly disagree 0

No. of Persons

14. Do you think advertisement is an effective tool for sales performance?

(a) Yes 48
(b) No 02

No. of Persons
15. What you think the cost of advertisement increases the cost of product?
(a) Yes 33
(b) No 17

No. of Persons

16. What is the reason for the delay between purchase decision and the actual purchase?
(a) Financial Constraints 6
(b) Waiting for more innovative product 2
(c) Waiting for market response 42

No. of Persons
 FINDINGS
After the analysis of data collection in Moradabad city following conclusions were drawn:

 Customers are price sensitive

 50% customers are affected by advertisement.
 70% of the consumers are affected by T.V., 20% Newspaper,4% through their own choice &
wish,6% through hoardings.
 Traditional advertising is about to over now i.e. 64% people likes multimedia
advertisement and 36% traditional advertisement.
 Almost all the respondents said that advertisement increases the cost of product i.e. 70%.
 84% of people said that they wait for market responses and that is the reason for delay
between their purchase decision and actual purchase.
 RECOMMENDATIONS

 Ads should be such that the buyers must be satisfied for what they are paying after
influencing from these ads.
 More emphasis should be done on multimedia advertising.
 Most of the ads should be given on t.v as t.v is the popular media of advertising.
 Adevertisements should be eye catching so that customers(viewers)easily get attracted
towards advertisement.
 Advertisements should be of good taste and not of bad taste.

LIMITATIONS
This study might be suffering from limitation. Since it was a study for educational purpose
and time & resources were limited.

Sample size of 50 was small since it may not represent whole of India, the limitation of the
study are:-

 Lack of time – Now a days every person is so busy, that they do not spend their time in
providing information because the questionnaire was lengthy.
 Limitations of skills- There are so many respondents who don’t understand the sense of
the questions that is why inadequate information is observed.
 Restricted geographical area: Survey was conducted In Moradabad where awareness of
people is not too much. But this might not be the case in whole India covering metro
cities and Rural and urban areas.
 An error may have been due to sample taken not confirming to the actual population.
This is because the sample is random sample.
 There are some other limitations which affect the result like incorrect information is
provided by the consumer.
CONCLUSION
There are controversial views & use of soft drinks environmentally &healthcare
people may totally abject the use soft drink but it has become a kind of status symbol of
upper middle class particularly the boys & girls of teenage age groups, but this study is on the
impact of ad of soft drinks on the consumer. The study cannot be declared as a flawless one
but maximum care has been taken to minimize the error this may be used at least as
reference materials to those who venture to do further research on this field.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

I have referred the following books and website as the source of my information for completing this
report.

Books:

Research Methodology : Kothari C.R

Marketing Management : Philip Kotler

Consumer behavior : L.M Prasad

 WEBLIOGRAPGY

www.ask.com

www.scribd.com

www.yahoo.com

www.mbaguys.com