What role does Advertising play in modern society?

Is consumerism relevant to consumers’ happiness?

This essay will explore how advertisers persuades us to consume and how they convince us that consumerism and purchasing goods will equal a happier lifestyle.

How does Advertising persuade us to consume?

Almost all ‘effective’ advertising is intended to persuade. It is becoming more of an important factor in the advertising industry due to the competitiveness between brands. Persuasion is the process of trying to alter or change the views, beliefs or actions of others. Although, many advertisers still continue to concentrate on repeated exposure and attention grabbing as their primary focus following a linear method of advertising such as AIDA (O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy 2004). Consumers often believe their mind cannot be swayed by advertisements but there is methodology behind persuasion.

Over the last 50 to 60 years advertising has progressed into more of a science. Advertising agencies have developed several approaches in which they use to persuade consumers to consume and purchase goods (Suggett 2017).

One tactic they use is associating positive imagery and emotions with brands. Brands often use celebrities to endorse their product or service, and by them featuring in their campaign they have gained access to millions of their fans and admirers. By attaching a celebrity’s name to a brand, that alone is enough for some people to purchase from them simply due to association and the authenticity of the individual (Suggett 2017). Furthermore, this method corresponds with Aristotle’s theory of persuasion, ethos. Ethos is often seen as the most influential persuasion method out of pathos and logos by scholars. Ethos is about the speaker or the face of the brand that is recognisable and that one can trust. Their goal is for the consumer to believe in the speaker by their perception of them based of their body language, authority, tone of voice, gestures and several other indicators. Ethos is very commonly used in advertising by having a figurehead to represent the brand that one can associate with (Kast 2017).

An example of this is the several Virgin Media campaigns brand ambassador Usain Bolt has featuring in. In a recent Virgin Media campaign, they showed a virtual representation of Usain Bolt running around London’s iconic landmarks to celebrate his last 100-meter final. The collaboration between Bolt and Virgin is very symbolic as the fastest man in the world has partnered with the fastest broadband provider. This as a result has portrayed positive associations of the brand, sending message of speed, the fastest and the best to the consumer (Ellison 2017).

Alongside celebrity endorsements, product placement in the last thirty years has become more refined. Branded products aren’t just placed into adverts they’ve now began integrating an entertainment element into them, creating stronger engagement with the consumer. Product placement is a promotional strategy advertisers have been using since the beginning of motion pictures in the 1890s and in recent years become a very effective marketing approach seeing considerable growth being featured in television, movies and magazines. The primary objective of product placement is to gain the brand exposure and develop a positive attitude towards the product by being publicised on a global scale to increase company sales (Hudson and Hudson 2006).

The United States is the largest and fastest growing paid product placement market, generating 3.7 Billion dollars in 2008 and doubling that figure in 2009. As such success has been achieved by products featuring in different media, brands are willing to pay a premium for the opportunity. For a brief mention of a product placement during a movie costs on average $22,000 per placement. The investment is well worth the expense though. Etch-A-Sketch’s product placement in the Toy Story film increased their sales by 4500% and Mr. Potato Head dolls saw a 800% increase also (Gaille 2017).

Another tactic used to persuade are brands producing a limited number of units of a product which creates exclusivity, thus significantly increasing the value of the item due to the high demand. Despite the regular version of the product being available to the masses with several variations, there’s consistently an increased demand for the limited version because of the additional branding, when in reality the product is a luxury consumers want, but is not a necessity (Suggett 2017).

To give an example of a brand creating artificial scarcity is the trainer collaboration between Nike and Off-White. Journalists are calling the collaboration “the biggest sneaker release of the past decade.” The two brands released nine pairs of shoes and had A-list celebrities Drake, Travis Scott & Michael Jordan to list a few ensure the collaboration was the most talked about release of the year. The release generated so much attention that all nine pairs sold out in minutes and the tenth pair was placed on hold due to “unpredicted levels of demand” forcing Nike to issue a formal apology. Despite being labelled the release of the year nobody from the public where able to purchase a pair, only celebrities and those with status had the privilege to own them. Due to the exclusivity of the product and as consumers always want what they can’t have, the resale value for the shoes on the secondary market is over $1000 (Welty 2017).

Figure 1: Off-White x Nike Trainer Collaboration (Interpixel 2017)

Does consuming goods make us happier?

Advertising enforces the notion that consumers will have an improved quality of life if they consume more goods. This is achieved by advertisers promising happiness in their ads if you buy into whatever they’re selling.

Walt Disney World Resort (WDWR) is a prime example of a brand that promises happiness. Disney World prides themselves in calling their resort “the Happiest Place on Earth” (HPOE). Consumers are driven by their emotions and react based how things make them feel. Disney has a deep understanding on people emotions and what drives happiness. According to Newell (2012) emotion theory: an understanding of happiness, happiness is a positive emotion and it is a state involving positive feelings or judgement about something. For WDWR to be called the HPOE they would have to ensure that the emotions experience by their guests and cast members inside the park is greater than outside. WDWR implicates positive emotions by the use of vibrant colours, having a clean environment, maximising positive energy through use of certain shapes and objects, always using curved lines never straight, playing upbeat lively music and creating pleasant aromas just to list a few (Newell 2012). Disney go through extreme lengths to ensure their resort lives up to its name and in return have developed a multi-billion dollar enterprise from it.

Nevertheless, happiness is not tangible and cannot be bought or sold. It is an emotion that we feel and is to do with our character rather than a commodity. We can become happy, but happiness cannot be acquired. One could argue that consumers are being sold false hope (Makant 2010).

On the other hand, Coca Cola is a brand that promised happiness every time you opened a can of Coke. However, they have now changed their company tag line from “Opening Happiness” to “Taste the feeling”. They first began using the ‘Opening Happiness’ tagline in 2009 and have now decided to steer away from the concept of happiness as it is no longer proprietary to Coca-Cola, the emotion has now become overused by several brands using it as their creative concept (Ghosh 2016).

People consume goods for different reasons and it depends on the product or service being purchased. One thing most purchases have in common is that they’re not bought for practicality purposes, but instead to express the person’s personality, to gain social status and in hope to become happy (McCracken 1990; Dittmar and Beatty 1998; Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Campbell 2004 cited by Jansson-Boyd 2010).

Marketers use happiness as a way to sell products and services to consumers. They’re aware that people are always looking for things that will make them happy or to fill a void in their lives and constantly remind them that ‘this’ product will. They use either a direct or indirect approach to do this. The direct approach will straightforwardly tell the consumer that purchasing this product or service will make them happier (Jansson-Boyd 2010).

An example of a brand using the direct approach is seen in McDonald’s popular kids’ meal, the ‘Happy Meal’. Their adverts and the product indicate that happiness is found in every box, meaning if you buy product you will become happy. The brand uses vivid colours, playful images, various shapes and includes a toy so that the product appeals to children and parents (Tan 2014).

Figure 2: McDonald’s Happy Meal, Happiness in a box print advert (Tan 2014).

When indirectly persuading, consumers are led to believe that buying a certain product will give them benefits they think will lead them to having a happier or better life. Perfume brands often use this approach in their ads. The ad will usually portray the male or female actor being attractive to the other sex implying that if bought they will achieve the same effect (Jansson-Boyd 2010).

Retail therapy is often regarding as the act of cheering oneself up through the purchase of goods and treats. Individuals treat themselves by purchasing small indulgences to better their mood. The results of the study conducted by Atalay and Meloy (2011) show there is clear evidence that individuals purchasing self-treats to increase their mood is unplanned. In the second study they conducted, additional evidence is shown that unplanned consumption will increase your mood if it does not conflict with a restraint goal. In addition, the results of the third experiment showed that retail therapy is still feasible as there is very little consequence of partaking in unplanned purchases; Participants of the experiment did not experience any buyer’s remorse. Despite the examiners not addressing the question, “how much of an indulgence is sufficient to repair a bad mood?” the question was answered indirectly during the third experiment, individuals never overindulge themselves with treats in attempt to better their mood. The assumption could be made that individuals were aware of the amount of consumption they need to fulfil themselves with happiness.

Retail therapy is one of the many methods Americans use in solving a bad mood but in collectivist cultures the method is viewed negativity as it is deemed as a selfish act. Brands that target consumers with slogans that endorse buying themselves a small treat have great success, as there is evidence that proves there are positive results from buying oneself a small treat (Atalay and Meloy 2011).

Snickers incorporate this method very well into their products. In 2010 Snickers launched their “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign. Their campaigns revolve around using individual characteristics and personality instead of gender stereotypes. The focus of their adverts is “you’re not yourself” when you’re hungry, all their ads show an individual acting out of character and once they eat a Snickers bar they return to their normal selves (Chocolate Class 2015a). Linking back to Atalay and Meloy’s (2011) study, essentially what Snickers are stating is that if you’re hungry, purchase a Snickers bar and you’ll feel better/happier again. This is a great example of a brand using a slogan to persuade the consumer a purchase a treat.

Figure 3: Snickers “You’re not you when you’re hungry” Print advert (Chocolate Class 2015b).

Conclusion:

Yes, consumerism does have a big impact on consumers happiness. Several studies have proven that the act of purchasing goods, services or experiences does increase consumers happiness, however it is only a short term lasting gratification as there is a constant desire for satisfaction. As one continues consuming their expectation and need for more indulgent is likely to increase as their pervious dose of consumption is now not enough to make them feel content. This is what advertisers want to occur, for individuals to be in continuous need for consumption and retail therapy. Consumption and retail therapy will make you feel happier in the present but in the long-term cause you to feel escalating negative emotions, such as guilt and anxiety (Atalay and Meloy 2011). Consumers are led to believe that if your purchase a certain product it will grant you happiness, although, happiness cannot be bought it is the emotion you feel about the product.

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