The answer is not simple and depends on a number of circumstances - the nature of the product, the competition in the market, the target consumer group and the reputation of the manufacturer. This is demonstrated by the fact that out of the thousands of advertising messages we are bombarded with every day, only around ten to fifteen are usually successful according to international estimates. On the one hand, this shows that effective or well-targeted advertising can be very important. On the other hand, it also indicates that most advertising efforts come up dry.
The complexity of advertising lies, among other things, in the fact that people do not need or are not aware of the need for a large part of the products it offers. In this connection, there is a famous statement by one of the most successful American businessmen of all time, Henry Ford. In the early days of his business he said: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
However, unsuccessful or even counterproductive advertisements are usually those whose authors do not understand the psychology of human purchasing decisions. They do not understand why and how people make decisions and what circumstances influence them. Moreover, they usually rely too much on emotions - and sometimes not the right ones.
Reason Vs. emotion
If we limit ourselves to advertising in print or in writing, its tools include images and words. Both have an effect on our minds and emotions, albeit to varying degrees. Words usually try to convey certain information, facts or arguments, thus having more of an effect on our reason. They inform us of the qualities that certain products have. However, sometimes they reveal less about why these features are important to us or whether we will actually use them. There are slogans of that type that have become memorable and made brands famous.
With their content, colour, size, but also the way they are placed, images are intended to evoke certain emotions. Mostly feelings of happiness, joy or satisfaction, which are associated with the products on offer. Their aim is to convince us that if we buy the product, we will be as happy as the people in the picture, and we may even resemble them.
The fundamental question of effective advertising is whether and to what extent it should appeal to our reason or our emotions. Another important question is which emotions and information to focus on when promoting products.
Appeals to reason
Rational arguments tend to be more compelling in two situations. First, when an ad tries to persuade consumers to buy a product that is new to them, that they are not yet too familiar with and that they have little information about.
Lack of knowledge about a product leads to interest in its features, often in their details, and increases the attention paid to them by the consumer. It is also helpful if the consumer has no misconceptions or even prejudices about the product offered by the ad. It can arouse interest unless consumers are discouraged or scared off by a poorly worded message.
The second situation in which rational arguments may be more important is where the advertisement is directed at consumers who are primarily interested in specific product features. Information that the product actually has a particular feature is often sufficient to capture their interest. It may not be appropriate to appeal to emotions in these situations as consumers may get unnecessarily distracted.
Advertising that appeals to reason should avoid three threats. The first is a message that is too assertive as it can cast doubt on its veracity. The second threat includes promotion of too many “beneficial” product features that consumers may not understand. In addition, consumers may get concerned that the product is too expensive as a result. The third threat is an ad that is too technical and therefore often boring.
Acting on emotions
Emotions play an important, usually crucial role in our decision-making. We are often not fully aware of their influence because they are largely unconscious.
This has been demonstrated by people who have lost their ability to perceive or experience emotions as a result of a certain disease. Their intelligence was not significantly altered but their ability to make decisions suffered substantially. Sometimes they were even unable to decide what to wear.
Advertising cannot do without appealing to emotions. One of the reasons is that emotional ads are easier to remember. Emotional appeals are particularly important in “legacy markets” with products that are already familiar to the consumer, or in highly competitive markets where the offer of individual producers does not differ much. What makes them distinct is not their features but the emotions they seek to evoke. Sometimes these may be emotions that are new or not previously associated with the product.
However, the emotions that an advert evokes may be counterproductive. This applies not only to situations where they are too strong but also to those where they are not necessary as the consumer is more concerned with the facts. They can also be counterproductive when they are inappropriate in respect of the product offered or its manufacturer.
Here are some examples. An airline notorious for its unreliability when refunding money for cancelled flights running an advertisement promoting early purchase of tickets for the new season. Or an ad for very unhealthy food products, such as greasy and over-salted chips, which tries to evoke feelings of health, activity or vitality, or, conversely, family well-being.
The emotions that advertising intends to evoke can also be negative. Most often, it is fear or feelings of vulnerability, trying to help the recipient become more aware of a problem and accept the solution offered by the ad.
The negative emotions evoked by the ad should not be too strong. This is especially true when it is not clear whether the offered solution to the problem will actually be effective. In this case, the ad may be more likely to discourage consumers.
The importance of rationalisation
The effectiveness of emotionally focused advertising (in terms of sales growth and profits) has been empirically proven. Nobel Prize winner in economics, Daniel Kahneman, stated years ago that the more emotionally a product was presented, the less reasonably (and the more strongly) consumers responded to its advertising.
The idea that emotions dominate purchasing decisions can sometimes be exaggerated. There are two main reasons for this statement.
Human emotions tend to be changeable, volatile and sometimes quite easily turn into one another as psychology shows. We thus cannot always rely upon them. Adverts trying to evoke positive emotions can cause anger, fear or even guilt after some time. Situations where ad promises have not been completely fulfilled may serve as an example.
The second reason why emotions can be tricky is that when they lead us to making a decision, such as buying a product, our minds try to rationalise the decision, i.e. find a “rational” reason for the decision.
The stronger the emotions that led to our decision, the more pronounced the tendency. With some exaggeration, we can conclude on human decision-making that although it is often not rational, it is almost always "rationalising". This means that we almost always seek reasons for a decision - albeit afterwards.
This fact does not diminish the importance of emotions for our decision-making. But it does point out that advertising that relies on emotions alone is rarely fully successful. In fact, customers who decide to buy a product usually have to gain some kind of ‘internal approval’ sooner or later. In other words, they will need some reasons to justify their decision.
Products to which their customers have developed a strong emotional attachment as a result of effective advertising may be easier to sell. Yet even for those products customers need some rational reasons to prefer them. And their producers usually have to ‘deliver’ the reasons to them. Sometimes, however, all they may need is just to survey consumers on the subject.
Source: idnes.cz
