Effects Of Advertising Messages On Consumer Decision Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

ABSTRACT

The research discusses the use of messages and how individuals interpret messages in different ways through advertising. In this research, we focus on the way advertisers use messages in commercials, songs, movies, and their focus on gender behavior in buying products and services. The primary focus in message advertising is to reach the consumer through elements that do not directly tell them to purchase the item advertised. This research paper discusses the effects of message advertising on the consumer and the focus of advertisers to get the consumers aware of the products and services. Furthermore, the research focuses on the use of polysemy in advertising and how this affects the consumer thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and decision making. The research paper answers the following questions:

What are the effects of message advertising on the consumer?

What are the techniques that are utilized by advertisers in message advertising?

What messages are being used to intrigue interest in a product or service?

What gender specific techniques do advertisers use in message advertising?

How polysemy can impact consumers' feelings, attitudes, beliefs and decision making process?

Key Words: messaging, polysemy, message advertising, consumer thoughts, effects

INTRODUCTION

The research paper focuses on polysemy in advertising through a study of the effects of advertising messages on consumer decision making process. The word 'polysemy' is defined as the multiple meanings that occur for the same advertising message. All advertising has some form of message strategy to get the consumer to feel compelled to buy a product. Researchers continue to develop new ways to appeal to the consumer and have adapted advertising to do that through many forms of technology and communication. The messages that are portrayed for brands can directly affect the longevity and profit for a product. This is why most companies want to put together messaging to gain an advantage over the competition and earn brand loyalty from the consumer. The techniques that are used to produce the messages range from radio, print, television, or interactive/internet ads, and these have been effective and produce a lot of brand loyalty from customers. The only problem with these ads is that times are changing and advertisers have to develop new ways to reach the customers on a global scale. With the global market changing daily advertisers are using new resources like cell phones and the internet to reach a larger customer base.

Researchers put together large studies to find the effects of advertising on the consumer and what appeals them to buy (LaBarbera, Priscilla A. 1998). The studies involve the development of ideas to appeal to certain categories of people and how the people view advertising messages. Companies also study these effects to create the brand image that the company wants. The studies have not been able to show why consumers see different meanings for the same ads. Advertisers design ads with a specific meaning and purpose and sometimes the message is not conveyed to the audience the same way. A fundamental premise of modern marketing thought is that segmentation leads to targeting, which leads to positioning, which then leads to the development of advertising messages (Puntoni, Schroeder, and Ritson, 2010). These messages are designed for a specific market but have the ability to get the intentions of other consumers that the advertisement was not intended for.

This research discusses the imagery being used to get the consumers' attention and promote buying behavior. The ideas involve finding specific stimuli that will enhance the advertisement and get the customer thinking about a product. Every consumer will process the stimuli in a different manner and the advertisement can reach a larger spectrum of people. Even if the message is intended to be bad the message may still have a positive effect on some people. The messages can also be customized by the companies to formulate a brand pattern. This is one of many forms of advertising communication that are being used in the market today.

Advertisers also use sex appeal and gender specific messages to get the attention of the groups of people. These messages are viewed by some as vulgar and not appropriate for television or any other media form but the effects are worth the bad public relations to gain a larger profit and exposure. There are a few advertising messages that are so viral they are moved to other forms of media to be viewed, for example going from television to the Internet.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Clow, James, Kranenburg, and Berry (2009) used experimental designs of generic advertising messages to find out new strategies to reach a larger market. The model in Figure 1 (Clow et al. 2009) used techniques that involve illustrative, emotional, and a slice-of-life visual approach (Clow, James, Kranenburg, and Berry, 2009). The ads were the same but the images were changed. The ad was put to the test with college students involving things that would appeal to them like a backpack and car insurance. Since the results of the testing were hypothetical, the model is just a rough idea of what the purchasing behavior for the product would be after seeing the advertisements.

Figure 1: Advertisement reaction towards a hypothetical product (Clow, James, Kranenburg, and Berry, 2009)

The model shows the measures for attitude towards the written copy and attitude towards the visual were hypothesized to impact both attitude towards the brand and attitude towards the ad (Clow, James, Kranenburg, Berry, 2009).

Puntoni, Schroeder, and Ritson (2010), put together the model in Figure 2 and used the framework to discuss the different kinds of polysemy in advertising. The model illustrates how advertisers will use a specific message intended design that is than sent through a medium and sent out to the consumers to than be decoded into their individual messages. The study shows the four types of polysemy and how the outcomes are all different.

Figure 2: An Advertising Polysemy Framework (Puntoni, Schroeder, and Ritson, 2010)

The model in Figure 2 gives the breakdown of the communication factors involved in the interpretation of advertising messages. The idea projected is to look at alternative perspectives to distinguish between different levels of influence on consumer interpretation processes (Puntoni, Schroeder, and Ritson, 2010). The breakdown goes even further with the nature of the settings the advertisers are using to administer the test and the feelings of the consumer watching the advertisement.

There are other forms of research that involve gender specific and age advertising. Bakir and Palan (2010) have done studies on the affects of advertising on various age brackets of children to see if they could find a common response. The responses from the children were exactly the same except when the children were put into the same room with one another to watch the same advertisement. The children would only come up with different conclusions when isolated or with their parents. There were also ads that were shown to the parents alone as well to see what kinds of reaction they had towards violence in the ads. The age groups that were tested proved that as the children age the more, they started stereotyping the opposite gender.

Figure 3: Conceptual Model for Understanding Children's Attitudes Towards Ads with Gender- Related Content

Figure 3 (Bakir and Palan, 2010) shows the various factors involved with the children's reactions towards the advertisements. Bakir and Palan's (2010) study highlights the reactions from the children when shown gender specific advertisements and the attitudes expressed. The last is a timeline of what the ad was about and the designation of the ad to gender. The model proposes children's flexibility toward gender stereotypes is a key variable in determining children's attitudes toward both ads and brands (Bakir and Palan, 2010).

III. ADVERTISING POLYSEMY: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Figure 4 illustrates the conceptualized model of advertising polysemy. The model in Figure 4 shows the development of messages for advertising and how the consumer interprets those messages.

Ad 3

Ad 2

Ad 1

Advertiser

Intended

Message

Media format

Consumer 3

Consumer 2

Consumer 1

Unintended

Message

Intended

Message

Intended

Message

End Message

Figure 4: Advertising Polysemy Framework: Conceptualized Model

The idea behind Figure 4 is to show that advertisers will put out multiple ads and use similar messages for the same idea. After the message is processed and put into a selected format, the consumer has the chance to interpret the message. Not all the messages sent out to the consumers will have the intended interpretation and the customer may not purchase the product being offered. Other consumers will get the intended message and either remember the ad or will purchase the product.

IV. CONCLUSION

Advertisers have the ability to use any number of variables to try and get a reaction out of a consumer to buy a product or service. The goal is to either set a brand image or to sell a specific product using different methods of visual techniques and word phrases. The advertiser wants to influence the purchase of products through the messages sent through ads that the consumer can visually interpret. These messages can be sent for brand awareness or to make the consumer purchase a product. If the message is clear and interpreted in the right manner, the consumer will feel compelled to go make a purchase of the product.

Advertisers use many techniques to get a message through to the consumer. The messages portrayed can be good or bad and make the consumer think about what the ad means to them. A technique used to attract the male population involves sex/erotic advertising message appeal and utilizing the services of beautiful women to attract the attention of the male consumer to a product. The techniques used to get the attention of women involve a great price or deal to make them feel like they are saving money. Humor and warmth advertising appeals are very popular in women than men. The techniques used to get the eyes of children are set to be gender specific so that the ads have a greater impact.

The research provides a conceptual framework which needs to be investigated empirically. Future research can focus on the area of advertising polysemy with respect to gender and cross cultural studies.