Advertising

Businesses need to advertise. If they did not advertise no one would even learn of the existence of their wares. In part, advertising is aimed at conveying information to potential customers and clients, but it is also used to persuade the public to buy. This is the area in which advertising is often criticised. Advertisements are sometimes misleading. Although it is illegal for advertisers to make untrue statements about their goods, services or prices, they still make their wares seen unduly attractive. They pander to our egos and our vanities. They create a demand which would not otherwise exist. It is easy to say, “I'm not influenced by the adverts!” Everyone is influenced to a certain extent. There was recently some research on subliminal advertising. The word “coffee” was flashed on to the television screen. It happened so quickly that no one was aware it had happened. For just a fraction of a second it registered on the viewers' subconscious. The result? A surprising number of people chose to make coffee at that precise moment. Of course it could have been a coincidence but it was highly unlikely. Yet, for the typical manufacturer advertising is a form of insurance. The nature and extent of consumers' needs have to be constantly assessed. If the needs are over-estimated it is possible, through advertising, to soak up the surplus goods which have been produced. As a demand for a product sags, it can be stimulated. There are all sorts of useful by-products. Without the possibility of advertising, workforces would have to be laid off when sales fell. The warehouses would become overfilled and the stocks would deteriorate, perhaps even becoming obsolete. An alternative to advertising would be to lower prices when sales fall. This would suit the purchasers but introduce an element of uncertainty for the manufacturers. They are always concerned to ensure that their revenue exceeds their costs, and where would they be if there were daily fluctuations in the prices of their products? Advertising goes far beyond television and hoardings, newspapers and magazines. The proprietress of a boutique is advertising when she goes into the window to drape dresses over her inanimate models. A bicycle manufacturer is advertising when he sends a new price-list through the post to his retailers. How could trading be carried on without such devices? Some would even go so far as to say that advertising actually enriches our lives. Commercial television is able to provide us with free programmes thanks to its advertising revenues. National newspapers derive much of their revenue from advertising. Look at a typical newspaper and you will discover the proportion of the pages devoted to advertisements. While we have advertisers to thank for the free colour supplements accompanying the Sunday newspapers.

Power of advertising

The art of advertising is to persuade people to buy your product or service. This requires a basic understanding of psychology, the needs of human beings and how those needs can be satisfied. An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, has suggested, those needs can be compartmentalized and arranged in the form of a hierarchy. At the lowest level people need food, shelter, warmth and sex. When these needs are eagerly satisfied, people begin to think about the safety of themselves and their personal possessions. Squirrels, when they have had their fill of nuts, begin to bury nuts in their winter larders, human beings have the same tendency, much to the relief of the insurance companies. Insurance appeals to those who would feel the loss of personal possessions, through burglary, flood and fire, and those who seek pensions and financial security generally. Even when a human being does not feel under threat at the safety level, a new need emerges according to Maslow. There is now a need to be approved by other people, a need for love and respect. The advertising industry finds this a very useful area for its machinations . «If you want people to look at you admiringly, or enviously, you have to wear Jay boy Jeans - no-one else’s will do! » That is the message, in effect. Or the advertiser might be trying to persuade you to buy a new car. «This is the tastiest and the best sports car in the market. It is faster, sleeker, more enviable, than anything else in the world. If you haven’t got one, or don’t get one pretty soon, the rest of the world is going to see you as a dead duck! » And when we are largely satisfied at this social level, according to Maslow we simply move on to egocentricity. We all have egos, but what is an ego? It is a love of self. We look into the mirror and hopefully like what we see. Of course, that is not only in physical terms. We hunger for self-respect now that our lower level needs have been largely satisfied. That is another happy hunting-ground for the advertising agencies, for example «Diamonds are forever», or «Use Real Results from Diana Cosmetics! It fights wrinkles fast! » According to Maslow the ultimate need is for fulfillment. This would no doubt come when we have all that the advertisers say we so desperately need. For most of us it seems that day will never come!