Relationship between Consumers and Advertisement - Coursework Example

Consumers and Advertising Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Introduction The aim of the essay is to establish a relationship between consumers and advertisement. Advertising is one of the very creative means of communicating with the customers and requires magnificent convincing power and excellent communication skills (Krugman, 2013). Consumers are individuals or group of persons such as households that typically become the final users of services or products. The product is not improved at the point of the consumer hence consumer's use is final and completes the chain of distribution (Turow, 2009). Producers are motivated to produce in the event of effective consumer demand. The consumer also forms part of the. Survival of many businesses today needs to promote and advertize to attract customers (Morales & Scarpaci, 2012). On the other hand, consumers receive news and product information through advertising and promotion since through ads, they learn new services and products available just like the way they learn of events in the news (Close, 2012). Information function becomes the intermediary between consumers and advertising companies (Ewen, 2008). Advertising provides facts with or without approval from consumers while customer behavior encompasses expressions of curiosity at this stage (Hovland & Wolburg, 2008). Therefore, advertising influences the decision of the consumers while the consumers’ mind has an effect on the way advertising develops. Discussion Advertisers persuade customers to act in a way that they want. Targeted customers are motivated when convinced how the service or product best improves their life or helps them resolves a problem in some way (Page & Fearn, 2005). A number of specific techniques are used to affect consumers in certain ways. To affect consumers, advertisers common sex and love. For the targeted consumers, effective advertising resonates with a feeling or emotional experience. Spenner and Freeman (2012) suggest that advertising successfully generate promising leads in return for the money customers spend. Advertisers offer a message that hits on target customers and showcases value offered. Advertisers present a problem or scenario potentially or commonly experienced by the audience (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1995). For example, Insurance providers sell auto policies and home by presenting stories of people facing financial troubles and stress coming with little coverage. This effective strategy invokes anxiety and feelings of fear in customers. On the other hand, audience develops a high-value proposition on advertising that shapes its long-term success. Consumer behavior is affected by repeated advertising messages which serve as reminders to consumers. While shopping and making a decision to buy, customers develop a ‘to-do’ list guided by suddenly thinking of a product and behavior stemming from reminders. Close (2012) affirms that customers become emotionally involved with the promotion and advertising as they weigh benefits. To obtain the product, this irrational consumer response can lead to competition and impulse buying. Advertising taps into alienation and loyalty part of consumer behavior by advertising on how well the product will benefit (Winters, 1986). On the contrary, corporate behavior like charity or work scandals may affect loyalty and alienation responses but once the consumer makes this choice, promotion and advertising are not probable to reverse the decision (Close et al. 2006). But why have people embraced by advertising? Weilbacher (2003) argues that in most consumer research, rather than pure stimuli, advertisements are often snapshots taken from a broader perspective notwithstanding the dominant experimental paradigm. According to Hovland and Worlburg (2009), the trustworthiness or credibility of the information source of the context effect has onward attracted the most attention in social psychology. In the area of consumer marketing, its importance has been demonstrated with respect to the source credibility of the advertising company (Kruglanski et al., 2005). It shows that when a reputation of the company is high, it likely influences consumer's purchase intentions and overall attitude toward the brand. Companies review operations to ponder about the expenses they incur in order to bring added shoppers in terms of money or time (Close et al. 2006). They start to think of how and where to put resources for better decision-making. Advertising is one way to increase the number of customers and market share. According to Sugars (2014) that advertising is crucial for new business owners because they not only register until the fifth of sixth purchase less profit from a new customer, but also have limited means. Debasish and Muralidhar (2013) opine that promotion and advertising is one of the 4Ps in the marketing mix designed to create a favourable climate for future sales, create a competitive advantage, educate and inform the market, improve or create brand recognition, improve or maintain market share and increase sales. The study undertaken by Debasish and Muralidhar (2013) in Odisha state, India on the effectiveness of print advertisings in consumer behaviour of the telecom sector established that purchase intention had a positive correlation to attitudes to the communication tools. The main objectives if companies undertaking advertisement are; brand switch, switching, continuity and trial (Anand & Sternthal, 1990). However, Adorno and Horkheimer (2009) argue that in advertising, the intention is to overpower the customer who is seen as resistant or absent-minded. On the other hand, cultural differences among consumers influence how they make decisions and judgments and respond to information (Beauchamp, Bowie & Arnold, 2009). For example, Asian consumers when it comes to decision making use logical assessments while American consumers rely on feelings. Advertising to Americans and Asians is developed based on understanding of cultural differences. The goal of a marketer is to help customers feel confident about their choice by providing more information for customers to weigh and identify the most relevant product features (Morales & Scarpaci, 2012). Krugman (2013) opines that when customers look at the features of a service or product, they develop a rational response to advertising. The response focuses on all the functional aspects of the offering on a logical listing and is not an emotional response rather than an intellectual one (Spenner & Freeman, 2012). For example, De Beers uses ‘4 Cs’ of (carat clarity color and cut) to frame the often vexing and complex comparison of diamonds. The 4-Cs give consumers confidence and simplify the buying decision by simply making an informed choice through weighing the essential features of the diamonds. On the contrary, Loda and Coleman (2005) showed in their study that a free publicity had a greater influence on purchase intent and perceived credibility than advertising. Moreover, the results of their study suggest that when it is followed by advertising, the effect of publicity can be significantly enhanced. They agree on the fact that publicity is less under the control of the marketers despite being potentially more persuasive (Loda & Coleman, 2005). Page and Fearn (2005) asserted that when it comes to purchasing decisions consumers do care about corporate reputation. Advertisements and the news exert an intertwined or an independent influence on corporate reputation. Negative news on the organization may lower consumer purchase intentions as well as the effectiveness of advertisements while positive news bolsters advertising effects (Morales & Scarpaci, 2012; Winters, 1986). Over the past fifty years, the world has experienced and witnessed a marked impact on consumers’ lives through succession of rapid changes in IT development. Bal and Campbell (2012) assert that the communication through the mobile telephony, internet, and sophisticated computers have become the integral part of people’s lives from infancy to advanced age. People in the present day are increasingly using the internet over long periods as compared to the length of time spent TV set and reading newspapers or magazines (Cronin, 2005; Hovland & Wolburg, 2008). TV and radio have been the dominant and unchallenged traditional medium to attract attention of consumers among the multitude of various media. Debasish and Muralidhar (2013) contend that print advertising has been complimented by the internet owing to propensity and spending increased time in such communication. Consumers and consumption are shaped by the impact of localization and globalization given the expanded relations and actions, social and cultural links as well as local culture and values (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1995). Social media advertising has grown due to intensive interconnectedness, interdependence of globalization and tight bonds. Localization in the contemporary environment has influenced consumers on how they select, seek, assess, buy and use services and products from various producers by changing, maintaining and forming attitudes, opinions and behaviour (Turow, 2009). Conclusion The aim of the essay was to establish a relationship between consumers and advertisement. It obtained that advertising influences the decision of the consumers while the consumers’ mind has an effect on the way advertising develops. Consumers identify ways on how the service or product will give them pleasure, improve their lives or even make them happier (Hovland & Wolburg, 2008). Advertising maintains a stable of customers through repeat purchases and optimizes the limited resources. However, people who create the ads have been perceived as manipulators with excellent skills of brainwashing consumers (Cronin, 2005). Compatibility between the decision-making environment and how the decisions are made increases consumer willingness to pay, overall satisfaction level and their purchase intention (Ewen, 2008). Since consumers are the decision makers, advertisers in preventing the reduced power of their advertisements will wait for a storm of negative news to subside. It shows that consumers’ mind have an effect on the way advertising develops as well as advertising affects the decision-making process of consumer. References Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. (2009). The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception, Hubert Press. pp. 56. Anand, P., & Sternthal, B. (1990). Ease of Message Processing as a Moderator of Repetition Effects in Advertising. Journal of Marketing Research 27, 3: 345-53. Bal, A.S., & Campbell C.L. (2012). Section III Online Advertising and Online Search Behavior. In A.G.Close (Eds), online consumer behaviour (pp. 183-266). Beauchamp, L. T., Bowie, E. N., & Arnold, G. D. (2009). 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