How Media Advertisements Influence Consumers Subconscious Mind - Research Paper Example

English 26 October Media Advertisements Influence Consumers’ Subconscious Mind and Control their Purchasing Decisions Advertisements serve as the medium of communication between products or services and their consumers. These are the primary sources of information about the products or services that help create awareness about them in the consumers. As such, media ads play a crucial role in enabling customers to know the values and use of a product or service. Based on this information, they can decide whether to purchase a particular product or avail a specific service. Besides, product awareness through ads informs the consumers as to whether the specific features of a product or service match their needs. Therefore, firms use this media extensively to promote their products and services. Users also rely heavily on media ads to determine the suitability of the products or services to their requirements. In the modern day, companies rather become forced to engage in active advertising campaigns due to the prevalence of fierce competition. This, in turn, entails unprecedented increase in the volume of ads in the media. Thus, the modern consumers remain bombarded with influxes of media ads, which exercise subtle but significant influence on their subconscious and, thereby, control their buying habits. Purchasing decisions of modern consumers, therefore, do not derive from informed choices but because of the influence of media ads, which control their subconscious mind and make the choices for them, through the deft deployment of strategies such as projecting brand images and celebrity endorsements. Purchasing decision of an individual depends on a lot of aspects of the product such as the perceived quality, easy availability, price, packaging and promotion. Normally, a consumer purchases a product based on its ability to satisfy his or her needs and wants. However, when different brands of a same product are available in the market, customers use their perception of the quality to take an informed decision as to which among these brands to buy. Consumers’ perception of quality derives from their awareness of a product and its significant features that distinguish it from similar products of competing brands. Hence, the most significant influence in purchasing behavior, in a majority of cases, is product promotion because when producers promote their products effectively, the consumers become aware of the features of these items and will remember them. Naturally, when they shop, their subconscious mind will induce them to pick it up from the display rack. This behavior indicates that human minds, as a consequence of frequent exposure to advertising, remain influenced and guided by that information which encourages them to select the product, whose ads they have seen most. In addition, a customer is most likely to purchase a product that is promoted through “marketing campaigns that appeal to their senses, touch their hearts, and stimulate their minds” (Variawa 36). In the present day, when several competing firms offer a same product, consumers receive a wide variety to choose from. This is where brand image comes into play as one of the determinants of consumer’s choice, and they become influenced by “brand related stimuli” like color schemes, “shapes, background design elements, slogans, mascots and brand characters” (36). Companies, therefore, focus on this response and attempt to enhance the appeal of their brand image by using celebrities to promote it. A study conducted by Dr Giridhar K V on the “Effects of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behavior and Branding of a Brand” finds that 62% of consumers believe that the “celebrities create desire (to purchase) in the minds of the viewers after having seen the advertisement in different media” while 18% has remained neutral and 20% disagrees (99). This tends to suggest that when consumers walk into a store to buy a product, their subconscious mind harbors certain notions about the celebrity and, thus, they will buy the product that the particular celebrity has endorsed. As can be seen from the evidences discussed earlier, to sustain the stiff competition in the marketplace, business firms actively engage in marketing campaigns, using a variety of strategies, to attract and retain customers. One significant strategy is the projection of brand image through which companies attempt to create the awareness of their brand. Besides, they further glorify their brand image by the strategic use of a celebrity, who matches the features of the product or brand, to endorse it. Hero worship has always remained a dominant characteristic of human culture right from ancient times, due to which the epics in all civilizations have been able to exercise a crucial influence on people’s lives. This is one main reason for the effective integration of values and ethics in human lives. It is a historically proven concept that role models create significant impacts in people, guide them and influence many of their decisions. It is on this basic premise of human nature that companies rely while promoting their products through celebrity endorsement. Thus, when Jennifer Lopez endorses a perfume, most of the females who know her are likely to develop a fascination for that product. The research by Amos et al (2008) rightly confirms this view through its finding that when companies deploy “positive celebrity images” it impacts the consumers through value “transfer to the product/brand” (Amos et al. 224). The above study further that nearly “25% of US advertisements” exploit the appeal of celebrity endorsements to tap the benefits of their impact on the buying behavior of consumers (Amos et al. 209). The authors refer to “substantial research” already done on this subject, which proves that the strategy of controlling consumers’ buying behavior through the use of celebrity endorsement considerably enhances the “financial returns” of firms (209). The article further contends that this tactics by companies do not merely increase their profitability but also render them value by way of facilitating “meaning transfer” (210). This ‘meaning’ evolves into a brand image and the consumers, who want to identify themselves with the celebrity, hope to attain some of these “transferred meanings for their own lives” through using those products that the celebrities, whom they idolize, endorse (210). This transferred meaning encourages brand loyalty in the consumers as they identify the brand with the celebrity, their role model, and when they shop, their subconscious mind will guide them to choose the products of that particular brand. The findings of another stud also substantiate the hypothesis that brand awareness enhances “current purchase intention of that brand” (Asadollahi & Hanzaee 2018). Moreover, Amos et al. (2008) propose certain “key predictors,” such as the celebrity’s performance, credibility, expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, familiarity, likeability, and fitness to the product, as the main components to create impact in consumer behavior (213). On the other hand, they also argue that “negative celebrity information,” as occurred in the case of Michael Jackson, due to the allegation of child molestation, will have negated his “endorsement effectiveness for Pepsi” (Amos et al. 213 – 214). Similarly, for alluring the consumers into buying their products, companies ensure that they use the right celebrity, fitting the product’s image and purported utility to the prospective buyer. This is why a slimming product will not use a sumo wrestler champion to promote its sale. On the other hand, if a company uses a slim and agile model for that product in their ad, the audience will immediately connect the product to the model’s slim and agile figure and believe that if they use the product, they can also acquire the physical traits of the model. Similarly, when Ronaldinho endorses Nike, the viewers will attempt to identify with their idol and, in the hope of translating his preferences into their life, will purchase it when they shop, rather than going for a brand that no celebrity has endorsed. However, the article by Amos et al points out that while previous researchers have been able to produce several empirical investigations to establish the effect of celebrity advertisements on consumers’ buying behavior, there is the conspicuous absence of an “effort to quantitatively integrate” evidence (210). Therefore, their study seeks to “address this gap” through evaluating the “results derived from a meta analysis” of literature that validate the belief that celebrity endorsement is an effective tool in influencing the purchasing decision of consumers (Amos et al. 210). A critical examination of this source, as well as the evidence emerging from other literature integrated in it by the researchers, reveals that celebrity endorsement and projection of brand images control the consumers’ decision to purchase. Another relevant premise of this study is that most people spend a lot of time on watching TV, and companies use this media as a valuable means of promoting their products or services. Besides, with the availability of an array of channels on entertainment, information, business, education, cookery, sports etc that cater to regional, national and international flavors, firms can target different segments of consumers according to their tastes and preferences through these platforms. A recent research conducted by Soofi Anwar contends that consumers find TV ads adequately informative and a majority of them are of the opinion that “TV ads help them make good purchase decision” (206). When one considers the consumers’ concept of “good purchase decision” in the light of the previous findings that celebrity endorsement exercises significant influence over their buying behavior, it transpires that what they believe as a good purchasing decision is the influence of their favorite celebrity. This view is further substantiated through the study by O’Cass (2000), which contends that consumer involvement with the product is the “key to activating consumer motivation” and, therefore, generating an interest in the product is crucial (551). Ads, where celebrities endorse the product, amply address this requirement due to which they become capable of controlling the buying decisions of consumers. Media advertisements serve the primary purpose of informing the customers about various products, their utility and specific features. This information enables the customer to take an informed decision whether to purchase a product or not and hence ads have a significant influence in the promotion of a product and its success in the market. Business organizations, in recognition of this aspect, engage in active media advertising due to which people in the present day are fed with an enormous amount of ads through a variety of sources. With a view to influence consumers’ buying behavior, firms use celebrity endorsement and brand image projection. This nurtures a notion of transfer of value and meaning through the celebrity, into their lives. This notion exercises control over their subconscious mind when they make purchases. Thus, they do not attempt to use their informed choices to make purchasing decisions and, instead, are led by the fact that a certain celebrity, who is their role model, has endorsed that product and they decide to buy it. This phenomenon, while helping companies to escalate their profits, also enables the consumers to cherish a sense of having attained certain values by emulating their role models. Works Cited Amos, Clinton et al. “Exploring the Relationship between Celebrity Endorser Effects and Advertising Effectiveness.” International Journal of Advertising, Issue 27, Vol.2. 2008. Web. 23 October 2012. Anwar, Soofi. “Young Consumers’ Attitude towards Television Advertisements in the Internet Age”. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. Vol. 2. Issue 4. 2012. Web. 26 October 2012. Asadollahi, Amin & Hanzaee, Kambiz Heidarzadeh. “Investigating the Effect of Brand Knowledge and Brand Elationships on Purchase Behavior of Customers”. World Applied Science Journal 13 (9). IDOSI Publications. 2011. Web. 26 October 2012. Dr. K.V. Giridhar. “Effects of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behavior and Branding of a Brand”. ZENITH International Journal of Business Economics & Management Research. Issue 7, Vol. 2. 2012. Web. 26 October 2012. O’Cass, A. “An Assessment of Consumers Product, Purchase Decision, Advertising and Consumption Involvement in Fashion Clothing”. Journal of Economic Psychology 21. 2000. Web. 26 October 2012. Variawa, Ebrahim. “Buying Behavior and Decision-Making Criteria of Base of the Pyramid Consumers: The Influence of Packaging on Fast Moving Consumer Goods Customers’ Brand Experience”. Gordon Institute of Business Science. University of Pretoria. 2010. Web. 26 October 2012. Read More