Friday, 9 March 2012

Why Good Advertising Works (Even When You Think It Doesn't)

Article Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/why-good-advertising-works-even-when-you-think-it-doesnt/244252/

Response Essay

Consumerism is the biggest factor determining the growth of industries in the 21st century. For an industry to be successful, it has to have a huge mass appeal. Thus combines spend million of dollars in advertisements. For centuries there has been debates on whether advertisements should be there and what makes advertisements good or bad. Good advertisements work because they do not provoke the viewer to act immediately, but plants the seed of memory in their mind and convinces them to buy the product after some time.

Good advertisements do not ask you to buy something, you automatically buy the product after viewing the advertisement. There are many advertisements in which the viewer is not asked to buy the product. The people automatically get attracted to the product. One of the best examples of this is the iPhone. Apple does not ask the people to buy an iPhone. It shows the features of an iPhone in an appealing way. It concludes by saying "I you don't have an iPhone, well you don't have an iPhone." The people are attracted by the product and run to buy it. Throughout history, many great companies advertise their products by just portraying its image in a very attractive way. Raymond, Reebok, Nike are a few of these companies. All of them are now multi national corporation, controlling a large part of the 21st centuries market.

Good advertisements have a lot of visual imagery and sounds which make it attractive. These make the advertisement attractive. The companies are not trying to advertise the song. But listening to the song helps create an attraction towards the product. Many advertisements in todays world, ranging from cosmetics to clothes, games to electronics, food to shoes, all have some music in the background which maybe loud or soft. In the end this music is enough to attract the audience and convince them to buy the product. Music is a universal attraction. People all over the world listen to it. Thus by using music in the advertisements, manufacturers are not only making it attractive, but also relating. A good advertisement has music and colorful, visual imagery.

Good advertisements convince the viewer that they need the product. Thus the viewer is tempted into buying the product. This is a very common phenomenon. Electronics is the biggest user of such types of advertisement. People, when looking at an add of a laptop or cell phone get immediately convinced that they need that thing and go and buy it immediately. It does not matter whether they have an iPhone 4, they feel that they need an iPhone 4S just by seeing its add. I once was watching an ad on the TV advertising a new macbook. I had bought a macbook last year, but by looking at the ad I got convinced that I need a new Mac and tried to convince my dad. Women are generally attracted to clothes and cosmetics while men are attracted to electronics and cars.

Simply put a good advertisement convinces you to buy the product it is advertising. It is not an immediate effect but a gradual one.



1 comment:

  1. Two good responses, with excellent evidence to support your opinion. What's missing, however, is an explicit mention of the original sources. Remember that this is a response essay, so you need to introduce your reason for writing: Author A claimed B. And then you need to explicitly respond: I agree for reasons X, Y, and Z.

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