Chapter A. The starting point

Advertising = any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor, aimed to inform and/or persuade target audiences about an organization, product, service or idea.

The origins of modern day advertising

Advertising doesn’t create needs, but channels  needs by reshaping them into wants. A side effect is the growing importance of a brand = the label with which to designate an individual product and differentiate it from competitors. Unique Selling Proposition (USP) = a summary statement used to meaningfully differentiate the brand from the competition. This is the key challenge in building brands.

Newspapers and magazines are among the main advertising media. Advertisers reach about a billion people per day through display and classified ads. Market shares have decreased due to television and internet, but magazines are still popular when targeting audiences with special interests; consumer segments that share common interests, values, or lifestyles.

Informational/argument-based appeal = straightforwardly informing consumers about the product, its price, and where it can be bought. This approach is also called the ‘reason-why approach’. A less aggressive approach, emotional/affect-based appeal = aiming to influence the consumer’s feelings/emotions rather than his thoughts. These appeals coexist.

The functions of advertising

Advertising had a place in society on an aggregate level:

• It facilitates competition among firms for consumer attention, preferences, choice, and consumer resources.
• It is the prime means companies have to inform consumers about products.
• It is a key source of funding for major mass media.
• It creates many jobs.

On an individual level, advertising can inform and persuade the individual consumer. With informing, the emphasis is on creating/influencing non-evaluative consumer responses like knowledge or beliefs. When persuading, the focus is on generating/changing an evaluative (valenced) response, in which the advertised brand is viewed as more favourable than before compared to competitors.

Motive for an informational appeal: to communicate something new and potentially relevant about a product, service or idea. Used more frequently for durable goods (products that can be used repeatedly, e.g. a freezer), than for non-durable goods (e.g. food). They are also more often used in developed countries than in developing ones. The most frequent communications are about performance, availability, components/attributes, price, quality and special offers.

The product life cycle (PLC) has four stages:

1. Introduction stage à create brand awareness and induce product trial.
2. Growth stage à build market

MC-questions

Question 1

Fill in the blanks: Memory interference for advertisements and brands is mainly caused by ... and ...

1. similar products; different contexts
2. different products; similar contexts
3. different products; different contexts
4. similar products; similar contexts

Question 2

When you hear the slogan, “I’m lovin’ it”, you immediately think of McDonald’s. You remember that the McDonald’s logo is made up of two “golden arches”. What kind of memory are you retrieving?

1. Episodic memory
2. Semantic memory
3. Procedural memory
4. Brand memory

Question 3

Fear-arousing appeals are most effective when....

1. The threat is sufficiently attention-grabbing
2. There is a recommended action to address the threat
3. Individuals perceive the threat as highly likely to occur
4. Individuals are primed with an approach-oriented goal

Question 4

Both the information processing model of McGuire (1968) and the Cognitive Response Model (Greenwald, 1968) have a problem that the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) and Heuristic Systematic Model (Chaiken, 1980) solve. What is that problem?

1. That peripheral/heuristic processing is required for behavior change
2. That cognition is centrally important for behavior change
3. That central/systematic processing is required for behavior change
4. That affect is centrally important for behavior change

Question 5

When product information in advertising is congruent with one’s self-schema:

1. Persuasion depends on strong arguments
2. This motivates the consumer to process information more fully
3. Answers a. and b. are both true
4. Answers a. and b. are both untrue

Question 6

Which of the following statements is true about explicit and implicit attitudes?

1. Attitudes revealed with an explicit measure and attitudes revealed with an implicit measure can sometimes differ
2. Implicit attitudes can influence an individual’s actions outside of conscious control
3. Implicit attitudes can be seen as your true attitudes
4. Both a. and b. are true

Question 7

Of which principle of Power Brands is the above schema an example?

1. Principle of massclusivity
2. Principle of incompatible worlds
3. Principle of conflict
4. Principle of the magical mission

Question 8

Using nice scents during a demonstration of a new product, is an example of

1. Affect-as-information
2. Evaluative conditioning
3. Fluency
4. Familiarity effect

Question 9

Imagine that, as an advertiser, you want to broadcast a commercial for Nike on Times Square in New York. What are, according to Fennis and Stroebe (2016), three potential ways to draw involuntary attention of consumers?