Among the dubious achievements of civilization, which could well be abandoned, the first place, most likely, belongs to advertising. The most diverse advertising products from a means of informing consumers have long turned into a means of fooling them to impose goods and services.
The advertising business has become a huge industry with thousands of employees. And it's not just copywriters and artists. Psychologists work on advertising products. Knowledge of the weaknesses of human psychology and the possibilities of influencing them allows you to create advertising that actively manipulates human behavior. Among them, there are already discussions about where the boundaries of this manipulation are and whether such manipulation is ethical at all.
The good old days, when it was possible to find out from a rectangular advertisement in the newspaper that in such and such a store at such and such address it was possible to buy a certain necessary product at such and such a price, have long sunk into oblivion. Now an individual must independently search for a product, not knowing the price, but knowing that this product is simply necessary for him. Of course, the necessity is absolutely fictional, imposed on the individual by means of advertising. After making a purchase, he will emphasize his masculinity / femininity, significantly improve his health (as long as fools use chemistry), improve attractiveness among people of the opposite sex, increase his social status and at the same time save a lot of money.
No, no, of course, personally, each of us is not stupid enough to believe in advertising fables. Here are just serious uncles spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on advertising. It is possible, of course, that it is they who are stupid, but the probability of such a possibility, most likely, tends to zero. To manage billions, you need to study well human psychology.
1. In theory, the two main psychological techniques used in advertising are persuasion and suggestion. In the course of persuasion, a person is supplied with information, after processing which he must make a certain decision. Suggestion is a purely manipulative technique. An opinion or decision is immediately imposed on a person, and the motivation for such a decision may be insignificant or even absent. In practice, modern advertising creators hardly use persuasion. Advertising must quickly and firmly instill the necessary postulates, and the more rigidly the suggestion is made, the more effective advertising will be from the point of view of its creators. The famous series of "historical" commercials of Bank Imperial can be considered a typical example of overt suggestion. The videos did not carry any information about the bank, except for the name.
2. The two targets that the ad hits target are memory and attention. First, the attention of the consumer is attracted, while it is not at all necessary that the method or object of attracting attention should be associated with advertising. Then, by the most frequent and simple repetition, a message is introduced into the human mind. Attention-grabbing technologies are so deeply developed that even advertisers themselves often cannot categorize or even list them.
3. According to the dogmas of the advertising industry, video sequences, articulated and printed text, as well as music, which are simultaneously sounding and shown in a television commercial, are not overkill, but the so-called excessive influence on the psychology of a potential consumer. The notorious “25th frame” was an attempt to increase the redundancy of this influence.
4. "Doctors Mengele" from psychology established a simple, but very unpleasant truth for ordinary people: everything that a person remembered as a result of repeated repetition is perfectly remembered, no matter how the person relates to what is repeated. Anyone who had in his head for at least half an hour “Districts, neighborhoods, residential areas ...” or “The wind was blowing from the sea, the wind was blowing from the sea, catching up with trouble, catching up with trouble…” will understand what this point is about. In advertising, this rarely happens, but after the word “always” pronounced loudly in a female voice, many will automatically add “Coca-Cola”.
5. The main purpose of the advertising product is the psychological infection of the consumer. Such infection allows direct transmission of not only information to the human brain, but also patterns of behavior or emotional state. It is characteristic that producers of goods of the same group compete fiercely with each other in the market for real goods and at the same time work for a common cause in the advertising market. Mass use of advertising teaches a person to it, forming a mass of consumers.
6. Psychological studies have shown that the majority of consumers when viewing ads, so-called. “Enlightenment” - the moment when the need for the advertised product is realized - occurs not as a result of analysis, but simultaneously, with a combination of perception of interrelated factors: image, text, sound. After the onset of such enlightenment, you do not even need to show the entire commercial: the brain will supplement it on its own.
7. Insufficient information content of an advertising product affects a person much worse than an excess of information. According to special psychological studies, lack of agreement in an advertising video causes discomfort in 4/5 of the audience.
8. In 1998, Russia conducted a fairly large-scale study of the impact of television commercials on the viewer. We compared the effect of videos in which the advertising message was directed directly to the viewer (“You can right now ...”) and advertising stories in which information was presented indirectly, in the form of dialogues or answers to questions. 70% of viewers gave a positive rating to the advertisement presented in the form of dialogue. Nevertheless, “one-way” advertising dominates and will continue to dominate: the advertiser does not need to evaluate the video, but to sell the product.
9. Sexuality in modern advertising is almost entirely based on psychoanalysis. It is the teachings of Sigmund Freud and his followers that dictate to the creators of advertising images that cause pleasure, release libido, turning it into a desire to consume. As a result of the demonstration of such images in advertising, the promoted products are attributed even those properties that they do not possess. A classic example is the use of a cigar in car advertising in the 1950s in the United States. The cigar is a classic symbol of male sexual power. The advertisement shifted this symbolism to the automobile. As a result, sales increased by 40%, with the overwhelming majority of buyers, of course, being men. Sexuality in advertising has become much more direct now. Psychology, especially in mass-product advertising, gave way to lust - munching on chips - caught the attention of pretty girls. It’s hard to say whether changes in the psychology of the consumer masses or a change in the psychology of advertising creators are to blame.
10. The use of sexuality in advertising is very effective for ... the memorability of such advertising, nothing more. On the one hand, psychologists confirm that out of several advertising products of similar content, the one that contains a sexual element is best remembered. But marketing research does not find such a correlation. That is, it cannot be unequivocally asserted that out of several approximately similar products, the buyer will choose exactly the one in the advertisement of which there are sexual notes.
In general, this is an advertisement for a line of men's clothing ...
11. Smell acts on the psyche faster than sight or hearing - olfactory impulses reach the brain faster. At the same time, the aromas of rose, carnation, mint (!) And coffee have an exciting effect, citrus aromas scatter attention, the scent of lemon invigorates the central nervous system, and the aromas of chamomile and lavender relax. Alan Hirsch, an American neuropathologist and psychologist, was the first to investigate the possibilities of odors in advertising at the end of the 20th century. He found that the presence of a pleasant smell in retail outlets had a positive effect on sales.
12. When in the late 1980s detergents of leading world brands began to penetrate into the USSR en masse, their sales were initially very small. Moreover, any foreign product was in great demand in the USSR. It was only after a deep marketing research that the reason for such a slow promotion of the products of world famous manufacturers was established. Soviet detergents always smelled distinctly of chlorine. For generations, a psychological association has been developed - an effective detergent must smell like bleach. Therefore, the first products from the West, which had a pleasant smell, were perceived as something frivolous, self-indulgence. Companies had to develop special, harmless "fragrances" that added the smell of bleach to the fragrance of detergents. Sales for the year have grown by hundreds of percent.
Harsh Soviet washing powders
13. Humor is least commonly used in advertising large high-value consumer goods (cars, jewelry, expensive clothing). Most often they joke when promoting "little everyday joys" - beer, snacks, cigarettes, strong alcoholic drinks. People often consider expensive goods to be an extension of their own "I", so joking when advertising such goods is fraught. In addition, large purchases are often caused not only by the desire to purchase a product, but also are forced: you need to confirm your business or social status. Alcohol and cigarettes are relatively inexpensive, a person usually already has the motivation to buy a product, and humorous advertising quite effectively draws his attention to one or another brand.
14. It is known that different colors awaken different emotions in a person. But the psychological perception of colors differs from culture to culture. White in America is associated with peace and purity, and in China with meanness and danger. For Indians, yellow is splendor, and for Brazilians, despair. In China, the black color, mourning for most peoples, symbolizes honesty. And the comparability of words and visual sensations is called synesthesia.
15. Sometimes it may seem that ads are created by people who are not distinguished by a special intelligence, or it is aimed at people with a low level of intelligence. Both assumptions are wrong. On the one hand, there are not so many tools in the hands of advertisers to create effective products. In the most extended lists, their number barely reaches one and a half dozen. Sex, the desire to stand out, the desire to be the first, healthy, beautiful, patriotism, the tendency to follow the advice of experts, or vice versa, the desire to rely on their own opinion ... On the other hand, their products - advertising - should be as memorable and effective as possible. And efficiency is most easily achieved by appealing to not the best human qualities: vanity, pride, one's own underestimation, the desire to seem better than it is, etc. a dull frontal proposal to quickly and inexpensively become at least somehow better than others. They advertise the way we perceive.
