Level5_Lesson20

Lesson Structure:

Part 1:Advertising essentials to grab people's attention

Part 2:How advertising manipulates our choices and what to do about it?

【Part 1】

Advertising agencies:highly skilled at developing modern, stylish advertisements that grab people's attention

Key departments:media and creative

1.The media departments is in charge of buying media for the advertisements.

2.The creative department is responsible for making the content of the advertisements.

What are the strategies and tricks advertisers use?

1.1 Using Emotions

The combination of images and words creates a message that may trigger a reaction and affect people's emotional state.

When people get into an emotion state and associate it with a brand, they are very likely to remember that brand.

emotion #1 happiness

Don Draper from Mad Men(美剧《广告狂人》)

Brands often want their ads to make people smile,laugh,and feel positive.

e.g.jewelry store advertisements: a man giving jewelry to a woman,who is thrilled to receive it.

emotion #2 nostalgia

When an ad connects the viewer to their pleasant memories, it makes a good connection between the pleasant memories and the brand.

The Kodak Camera company wanted to call their new picture projector machine "the wheel",because it spins as it shows the pictures.

Don Draper takes the machine and fills it with pictures of his own children,with sweet memories of them growing up.

Don tells the company it should be called "the carousel(旋转木马)".

"This device isn't a spaceship.It's a time machine."

A catharsis(情感宣泄) is when a person releases strong emotions they have kept hidden deep down,and feel relief afterwards.

e.g. MetLife Hong Kong(香港人寿保险公司)

It shows a father reading his daughter's letter describing how she loves him so much,but she knows that he always lies.She says that her dad lies about having lots of money and lies about not being tired after work.

The underlying message of the ad is that parents love their children more than anything.

Caring for your children includes buying life insurance,so they will be taken care of in any situation.

emotion #4 fear

a natural instinct found in the wild,which helps us to react to threats,in order to increase our chance of survival

1.2 Using Repetition

Larger companies use their marketing budget to buy much more media space.

1.3 Simple Ads without Text

people's expectations:

a statement,a picture,lots of information about the product,the company name,and the logo.

When advertisements defy people's expectations and show simple ads without text,it feels refreshing and pleasant.

【Part 2:How advertising manipulates our choices and what to do about it?】

2.1 Psychological strategies

strategy #1 creating a panic

Take notice when a business says that there is a limited supply,or limited time to buy their products.

"Steam Sale"

Steam* occasionally advertises huge discounts for a very limited amount of time.

*美国电子游戏商威尔福于2003年9月12日推出的数字发行平台

"fear of missing out"

strategy #2 social proof

People are convinced to follow the crowd buying something

hustler = 骗子

This lowers people's defenses and makes it seem like a really good deal.

strategy #3 sell you a problem

The product sells itself as the obvious solution to the problem.

Without the advertisement people would not be aware of the problem.

e.g beauty creams==>get rid of wrinkles

before:undesirable

after:happy and desirable

However,if the viewer never saw this advertisement,they wouldn't likely be very worried about wrinkles.

strategy #4 association

The viewer associates themselves with the model.

The viewer then associates this pleasant feeling with the cream they just saw.

-Look at all the money

companies pay for models in advertising.

-You mean the use of beautiful or strange-looking people?

-Exactly.It's all around us,because it works.People notice it.

-《懂你英语》

reason #1 Humans show empathy.

reason #2 People naturally look for a character to identify with in a story.

strategy #5 product placement

a company pays money to show their product in the movie or television show.

All of the cars that transform into robots are built by the company "General Motors"

With product placement,the product becomes part of the actual content,so it is much more likely to draw the audience's attention.

The Truman Show

This movie takes the idea of product placement to the extreme,because in this reality show,all of the products are for sale in the real world.

This makes us consider how product placement can take away the realism of movies and television,when actors play their roles and advertise products at the same time.

2.2 What to do about it

How can we protect ourselves from falling for the advertisers' tricks?

tip #1 Look at the ad from the marketer's perspective as well as yours.

tip #2 Think about the subtle details of the ad that are directed at your subconscious mind.

tip #3 Protect yourself from the allure(诱惑) of advertising: avoid exposing yourself to ads when you are tired or stressed.

tip #4 Consider the negative aspects of the products that aren't being shown to you.

tip #5 If you think you really need to buy something, wait 48 hours to see if you still feel the same way later.

Target Market

A target market is the people most likely to buy a company's product.

A target market allows advertisers to save money when buying media space.

The price of media space is determined by how many people will potentially look at that space.

e.g.billboards in the metro

These metro ads will be viewed by people of various ages,education levels,income level,family sizes,and interests.

However, this media space would be inefficient for a product with a specific target market.

e.g.dairy replacement products for lactose intolerant people.       lactose intolerant(乳糖不耐)

If a company can find media space that will be seen by their target market,they will get better value for their money.

As a result of people using cell phones and social media,marketers have an enormous amount of data at their disposal,which they use to find their target market.

at one's disposal = 任某人使用

Since cell phones have GPS systems,marketers have access to location data of potential customers.