Impact of Advertisements on Consumers Choice Essay

Bovee and Arens (1994) define advertising as the non-personal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature (about products and services) or ideas by identified sponsor through various media. An advertising medium is the means or conveyance by which sales message is carried to prospective customers. Advertising is many things to people. It promotes and affects our daily lives. At times people view it positively that they might find it entertaining while other advertisements are cursed, insults and deceives it. There are also times where advertisements can mislead consumers buying behaviour. Advertisers work on consumer’s attitude to achieve their goal. Influencing and affecting their buying behaviour. Perhaps advertising is the most obvious venue where the concepts of attitude formation change can be seen in application. Persuasive communications (advertisements) can be transmitted through various media print, (newspapers, magazine, books) audio (radio and telephone) audio visual (television and movies) and electronic (internet and e-mail). Consumerism is here to stay. Tomorrows consumers will be better educated, more affluent and more critical. They will probably be less concerned with status and symbols and be more anxious to get information about the product. Background of the Study Most people may not realize it, but advertising has become pervasive if only by the sheer number of advertisement people are exposed to everyday. While advertisements are generally thought as a way to sell things an underlying element can at times be missed. It is that advertising can influence and change people attitudes and can be a potent form of influence. In fact many people blamed advertisements for encouraging materialism on people because advertisers present their products as a â€Å"must have†. Those who acquire them are depicted as more confident or more popular and this gets people to buy more products. The expression that â€Å"today we live in age of advertising† is so common to hear that it has in fact become almost trite so much that the average man has not bothered to pause even briefly and bring to mind the innumerable benefits it bring to society. The rising level in the standard of living would not have been possible in the absence of advertising. For an individual to make effort to examine an advertisement. It should first and foremost capture the individuals attention. According to Fiske (1995), attention involves the process of encoding where by people take information that is outside of them and represent in their heads. It is interesting to know that while watching the favourite shows in T.V., advertisements seem to be a part of it. Sometimes they even consume more hours than the shoe itself. Nowadays, advertisement seems to rule television and radio being a sponsor on shows because of different advertisements being shown the consumers was being confused about what product to select and use because of how the advertisers promote their product. Advertising can influence buying behaviour patterns. There are also some deep rooted attitudes, practices and values that cannot be changed by advertisements. Advertising is claimed to accomplish the four basic task of: informing, persuading, reminding and changing behaviour. Statement of the Problem 1. What are the different forms of medium used by advertisements? 2. What are the factors that affect buying behaviour of the consumers? 3. How can you measure the effectiveness of an advertisement ? 4. What are the level of effectiveness in the following medium? : a. Radio b. Television c. Print ad(newspapers and magazines) 5. What are the attitudes of the following consumers towards different forms of advertisements? : a. Children (8-12) b. Teenagers(13-19) c. Adults (20-onwards) 6. Are there differences in people attitudes towards advertisements considering the following : a. Educational attainment b. Socio- economic status Significance of the Study Everyone will benefit from this study because everyone is considered as a consumer. There is hardly any person who has no personal idea concerning advertising because it is everywhere. Advertisements have become not only a source of entertainment but also of information. These touch our way of life in infinite variety of forms, some subtle, others obvious and there are those that are even blatant.