Since the Industrial Revolution, use of the family in advertising has become a prominent practice in marketing campaigns to increase profits. Some sociologists say that these advertisements can influence behavior and attitudes; advertisers tend to portray family members in an era's traditional, socially-acceptable roles.
After the Industrial Revolution, advertising increased and the use of family images became prevalent. [1] [2] Advertising changed, from information about the availability of goods in 17th- and 18th-century Europe for an audience who lived and worked near the vendors (and their wares) to multi-million-dollar campaigns which attempted to connect and persuade people around the world. [3] [4] Large companies emerged as mass producers, products were branded, and customers began exhibiting brand loyalty. [3] [5]
Persuading consumers to purchase one brand instead of another became vital to advertising in competitive industrial markets. Advertising's size and scope changed as marketing strategies began to target specific audience, using symbols, representations, and stereotypes (including the family). Because family life stresses group benefits, preferences, and successes over those of the individual, collectivist societies tend to use more family symbols in advertising than individualist societies. [6] Collectivist South Korea has more success with family advertisements than the United States, which views itself as individualistic. [6]
Post-industrial advertising reaffirmed widely-held social values such as heterosexuality and those of the middle class, neglecting alternative values or lifestyles. Countries such as Japan continue to present the family stereotypically, especially in television advertisements. [7] Many advertising agencies, however, have begun to more accurately reflect consumer diversity in lifestyles and family types. [8]
The family, a popular symbol in commercial advertising, is used to increase profit and develop a positive reputation with consumers. [9] It functions on three levels of persuasion: social, psychological and personal. [10]
Social persuasion appeals to one's role in a group and one's corresponding expectations; it appeals to reference groups, social class, culture and subculture. [10] The family symbol is socially persuasive, appealing to one's role in the family and their corresponding expectations. [10] There is emotional pressure, due to psychological attachments in family relationships. Psychological persuasion in advertising appeals to motivation, attitudes, and personality. [10] A parent might want to purchase a product which limits harm for their child due to their emotional attachment to the child, and emotional and psychological persuasion are popular advertising strategies. [3] Family affects audiences at the psychological level, the level at which advertising is most effective. [9]
Personal persuasion appeals to one's demographic identity or consumer behaviors. The family is persuasive because although a family may make a purchase decision as a unit, one family member may make most of its buying decisions. [10] Targeting that person, noting their role in the family and the corresponding responsibility to make family purchase decisions, is more productive than targeting other family members. The McDonald's Corporation in India has successfully marketed itself as "McDonald's Family Restaurant". [11]
Advertising is used to attract customers to a business's products or services, making statements about race, social class, gender, values, and family. [3] [8] It describes these social categories and prescribes behavior according to social ideals or norms. [3] According to Belk and Pollay (cited in Burke's master's thesis), advertisements show the ideal life and instruct in how to live. [12] Targeting specific groups of people for products and services, advertisements reflect changes in social norms and acceptable behavior. Some argue that the image of a family only plays a symbolic role, reflecting contemporary cultural values. [8] Sociologists have challenged the public to study ads with family images as marketing messages and vehicles for behavior and attitudes towards society. [13]
Advertisements depicting families note the transition from modernity to postmodernity. [14] This transition is that of middle class nuclear families (where heterosexuality is the norm) to the recognition and acceptance of a variety of family types, embracing societal polysexuality and plurality, the transition from popular culture to sub-cultures and multiculturalism. [14] According to literary critic Fredric Jameson, "Our advertising ... is fed by postmodernism in all the arts, and is inconceivable without it." [14]
Throughout history, mothers have been portrayed as the primary physical caregivers of children. Physical caregiving includes tasks such as breastfeeding and changing diapers. [15] Some theorize that women have a natural instinct to provide care. [15] Fathers have been more likely to be portrayed as playing with their children, more with sons than daughters. [15] Similar to the decline in wives being portrayed solely as housekeepers, the portrayal of mothers as the primary physical caretakers of children has also declined; mothers are portrayed more in recreational activities with their offspring. [15]
Like fathers, other male family members (including sons and grandsons) are primarily portrayed in play activities with children. [16] Young female family members are more likely depicted in activities related to household chores and child care. [16] Grandparents are largely absent from advertising. [16]
Family images depend on their source and the audience the source intends to reach. [17] In a women's magazine, such as Good Housekeeping , women are portrayed primarily as housewives. [18]
As wives in advertising have reflected the general view of their appropriate role, husbands also reflect the cultural values surrounding their role; [19] images of the husband working outside the home and handling the family finances are common. [19] These roles were especially prevalent in 1920, 1936, and 1970. [19] Husbands have generally not been depicted in advertising doing household chores, except when they humorously perform them badly. [20] The portrayal of husbands and wives in an intimate, romantic relationship has increased. [19]
Advertising generally reflects popular contemporary attitudes toward gender roles. During the 1920s, when relatively few wives worked outside the home, [21] working wives were rarely portrayed in advertising. This changed during the Great Depression, when more wives entered the workforce. [22] Since then, as housekeeping becomes a less-important family role, [23] the number of advertisements depicting women performing household tasks has declined.
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a specific good or service, but there are wide range of uses, the most common being the commercial advertisement.
Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours.
Sex appeal in advertising is a common tactic employed to promote products and services. Research indicates that sexually appealing content, including imagery, is often used to shape or alter the consumer's perception of a brand, even if it is not directly related to the product or service being advertised. This approach, known as "sex sells," has become more prevalent among companies, leading to controversies surrounding the use of sexual campaigns in advertising.
Mass marketing is a marketing strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and appeal the whole market with one offer or one strategy, which supports the idea of broadcasting a message that will reach the largest number of people possible. Traditionally, mass marketing has focused on radio, television and newspapers as the media used to reach this broad audience. By reaching the largest audience possible, exposure to the product is maximized, and in theory this would directly correlate with a larger number of sales or buys into the product.
Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services. Consumer behaviour consists of how the consumer's emotions, attitudes, and preferences affect buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940–1950s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, marketing, and economics.
Marketing communications refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination. Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate a message to its desired market, or the market in general. It is also in charge of the internal communications of the organization. Marketing communication tools include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, public relations, social media, customer journey and promotion.
The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion is a dual process theory describing the change of attitudes. The ELM was developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in 1980. The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change. The ELM proposes two major routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.
Cosmetic advertising is the promotion of cosmetics and beauty products by the cosmetics industry through a variety of media. The advertising campaigns are usually aimed at women wishing to improve their appearance, commonly to increase physical attractiveness and reduce the signs of ageing.
A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes. Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of making their products contribute to the definition of the consumer's way of life. As such, they are closely associated with the advertising and other promotions used to gain mind share in their target market. They often operate from an ideology, hoping to attract a relatively high number of people and ultimately become a recognised social phenomenon.
Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising campaign or marketing strategy which uses a celebrity's fame or social status to promote a product, brand or service, or to raise awareness about an issue. Marketers use celebrity endorsers in hopes that the positive image of the celebrity endorser will be passed on to the product's or brand's image. Non-profit organizations also use celebrities since a celebrity's frequent mass media coverage reaches a wider audience, thus making celebrities an effective ingredient in fundraising.
The target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to the previously intended audience. In marketing and advertising, the target audience is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message.
Sustainability advertising is communications geared towards promoting social, economic and environmental benefits (sustainability) of products, services or actions through paid advertising in media in order to encourage responsible behavior of consumers.
Advertising research is a systematic process of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising. Advertising research is a detailed study conducted to know how customers respond to a particular ad or advertising campaign.
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development during the 1990s and 2000s changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly used digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callbacks, and on-hold mobile ringtones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.
Copy testing is a specialized field of marketing research, that determines an advertisement's effectiveness based on consumer responses, feedback, and behavior. Also known as pre-testing, it might address all media channels including television, print, radio, outdoor signage, internet, and social media.
"Youth Marketing" is a term used in the marketing and advertising industry to describe activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 11 to 35. More specifically, there is teen marketing, targeting people age 11 to 17, college marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 24, and young adult marketing, targeting ages 25 to 34.
A touchpoint can be defined as any way consumers can interact with a business organization, whether person-to-person, through a website, an app or any form of communication. When consumers connect with these touchpoints they can consider their perceptions of the business and form an opinion.
The effects of advertising on body image have been studied by researchers, ranging from psychologists to marketing professionals. While many factors, such as "parenting, education, [and] intimate relationships" also affect body image, "the media and body image are closely related." This is because thousands of advertisements contain messages about physical attractiveness and beauty, examples of which include commercials for clothes, cosmetics, weight reduction, and physical fitness. Researchers have conducted studies in an attempt to see if such advertisements have effects on teenage body image, and what those effects might be.
Gender in advertising refers to the images and concepts in advertising that depict and reinforce stereotypical gender roles. Advertisements containing subliminal or direct messages about physical attractiveness and beauty have been of particular interest regarding their impact on men, women, and youth. Gendered advertisements have and continue to shape what is expected of a distinct gender, regarding physique and attitude.
Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
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