Chapter Ten

1
Chapter Ten

• Advertising Selling the Product

2
Promise and Identification Advertisements

• Promise advertisements promise to satisfy desires
  or allay fears. All you have to do is by the
  product advertised. Most promise ads provide
  reason why the product will do the job or do it
  better than competitors.
• Identification advertisements sell the product by
  getting us to identify with the product. They are
  a kind of promise ad, since they promise that
  somehow or other you will be better off using
  this product. But the promise is made indirectly
  though identification with respected institution
  or individuals.
• When people shop, say, in a supermarket, they
  tend to purchase products whose brand names are
  familiar to them.

3
Things to Watch Out for in Advertisements

• One way is to become familiar with the
  advertising devices and gimmicks used to appeal
  to our weaknesses, prejudices, and emotions
  unguided by intelligence. Not doubt well still
  get taken now and then, but perhaps less often
  and with less seriously harmful consequences.

4
Ads Invite Us to Reason Fallaciously

• Tiger Woods has dominated the golf scene, many
  professional golfers stand in awe of his
  accomplishments at the game, and he is often said
  to be the greatest golfer in the history of the
  sport.
• So his endorsement of Nikes Tour Accuracy golf
  balls carries great weight with golf duffers
  intent on improving their scores.
• In fact, Woods doesnt use these ordinary golf
  balls in tournaments, instead he hits
  custom-made balls not available to the general
  public (as do, but the way, some other pro
  golfers who endorse other brands).

5
Ads Play on Weaknesses, Emotions, Prejudices, and
Fears

• Particular kinds of advertisements sell some
  products more easily than they do others. Those
  that play on weaknesses or fears are a case in
  point, one reason so many TV commercials are of
  this nature.
• Ring around the collar, roach motels etc.

6
Ads Employ Sneaky Rhetoric

• Watch our for sneaky uses of comparative and
  evaluative terms, like good, better, and (best of
  all) best.
• The term best translates into tied for first
  with all other leading brands.

7
Ads Play to Patriotism and Loyalty

• If appeals to fears and prejudices can sell the
  product, why not patriotism an loyalty to ones
  country.

8
New Marketing Wrinkles

• There is an immense amount of research behind
  every successful advertising campaign. One way
  for consumers to defend themselves against the ad
  campaigns that result from sophisticated market
  research is to become familiar with some of the
  recent developments in the field.
• Research can be divided into qualitative
  research- getting into peoples head to find out
  their thoughts and feelings- quantitative
  research- gathering information by observation,
  experimentation, and surveys.
• Personalized marketing is much more likely to
  appeal to consumers than is mass marketing,
  making it harder to resist. A Tennessee
  department store has a database identified 1400
  customers who purchased clothes by high-fashion
  designers such as Anne Klein and Liz Claiborne
  only when they were on sale and then notified
  these customers when designer clothes went on
  sale, increasing two-day sales receipts on these
  items by 97.

9
The Shape of Things to Come

• As explained on 60 minutes, advertising networks
  now use tracking devices that allow them to
  record, without our knowledge, where we surf the
  Net, collecting data concerning our interests,
  shopping tastes, and even our medical concerns.
• With this information they develop a profile of
  us that enables them to personalize ads that come
  up on our screen.

10
Political Advertising

• In the final weeks of a close election, negative
  ads have become the staple of campaigns.
• Gerald Ford states, When I was in the White
  House, I said I was a Ford, not a Lincoln. Today,
  what we have in the White House is neither a Ford
  or a Lincoln. We have a Dodge.

11
Noncampaign Campaign Rhetoric

• Politicians dont just campaign via
  advertisements or after they have thrown their
  hats into the ring. Image building is a day-in,
  day-out task- indeed, in terms of time spent
  perhaps a successful politicians principal task.
• Presidents are coached beforehand so that they
  have ready-made answers to all likely questions,
  and they rarely are forced into on-the-spot
  improvisations.
• Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, resigned from
  three private clubs, two of which had no black
  members, it wasnt because of a change of heart
  on the issue of restricted clubs. It was just
  insincere gesture. After losing the election, he
  promptly rejoined all three clubs.
• No serious candidates for high office these days
  would open their mouths without having first
  tested the wind via polls.

12
Recent Developments

• Issue advertising entered the scene, and during
  the past few years it has become an extremely
  important kind of political advertising because
  voters in many states and localities now are
  regularly asked to decide all kinds of
  controversial issues.
• Another big change in political advertising stems
  from the increased ability of media experts to
  target specific audiences. This has enabled
  special interests to influence legislators
  indirectly by generating floods of letters and
  calls to their elected representatives.
• The interactive viewer opinion poll is another
  recent development, which hints perhaps at what
  the future may be like. For example, a CNN
  phone-in poll instructed viewers that If you
  think the economy is getting better, press one,
  then the pound sign. If you think the economy is
  getting weaker, press two and the pound sign,
  and so on. Not exactly what could be considered a
  scientifically designed poll.