English for Advertising

Week 2

Advertising is sales. In order to be successful in advertising we have to be good salesmen (whether or not we believe in the product.) But the ultimate salesmen, the people who rule the world of advertising (and in other fields) are those that take the time to understand the psychology of the market, then tailor their campaigns to target as many of those minds as possible.

Engineering of consent.

Sigmund Freud

Born: Austria, May 1856Died: September 1939

‘sexual and aggressive forces inside humans that can be controlled by others’ which are ‘remnants

of our animal past’

Edward Bernays

Born: Vienna, November 22, 1891 Died: New York, March 9, 1995

Nephew of Sigmund FreudGiven the title ‘Father of Public

Relations’

Bernays’ development of advertising from his uncle’s study of psychology-

Dangerous and irrational desires and fears that lie under the surface of man.These forces are naturally aggressive and sexual and define our subconscious.

Governors of society have to control these forces in order to guide the human mind towards good.

So the question is how to make the public want things they don’t need by linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires

The consumer market is encouraged to move from a question of NECESSITY to a question of DESIRE.

Anna Freud- daugher of Sigmund (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and his wife Martha. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father in the newly born field of psychoanalysis.

Anna Freud believed that if people were encouraged to conform to the accepted patterns of family and social life their ego’s will be strengthened leading to a society of more rational beings.

Marilyn Monroe and the psychoanalyst Ralph Greenson

Dorothy Burlingham and

her children.

Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907 – 21 November 1991) was an Austrian-American psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research."

Dichter pioneered the application of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts and techniques to business — in particular to the study of consumer behavior in the marketplace.

According to a New York Times article in 1998, he "was the first to coin the term focus group and to stress the importance of image and persuasion in advertising”

First client was Ivory soap. Using in-depth consumer interviews, he learned that when shoppers picked a particular brand,“it wasn’t exactly the smell or price or look or feel of the soap, but all that and something else besides—that is, the gestalt or ‘personality’ of the soap.

1947 Book ‘Psychology of Everyday Living’

"designed as an accessible self-help manual to help Americans 'accept the morality of the good life’…

Chapters such as "The Magic of Soap", "What Bread Means to You", "How to Be Happy While Cooking", and "The Psychology of Buying" purported to solve the psychological issues of everyday life, but largely encouraged a positive attitude to consumption by stressing the good feelings associated with a new purchase or the use of a specific commodity.

This was a big idea. Dichter understood that every product has an image, even a ‘soul’, and is bought not merely for the purpose it serves but for the values it seems to embody. Our possessions are extensions of our own personalities, which serve as a ‘kind of mirror which reflects our own image’. Dichter’s message to advertisers was: figure out the personality of a product, and you will understand how to market it” (The Economist).

The Betty Cake Mix Problem- market research had said housewives would embrace such an easy baking tool. But once launched, sales were much lower than expected. Approached Dichter- he believed wives had a guilt in using the product.

How can we overcome the ‘guilt’ of buying this conveniance food? What was the barrier to the consumption of product.

Participation of consumer-Dichter says that if we change the product so that it requires the input of an egg, housewives would overcome this guilt. It would be an unconscious symbol of a housewife mixing in her

own eggs for her husband and family.

Betty Crocker (post Dichter advert)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rd0AidAkpE&feature=related

Sales soared.

Modern man identifies himself with a product because it has a therapeutic value- improves self-image and allows him to become more confident.

Dichter believed this would improve society as a whole. And we can find out these desires through

focus groups.

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a

group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs,

and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement,

idea, or packaging

Activity-

How do you perceive this product? What is your opinion on it? Could we live without it? What service does it provide? What kind of customer are they targeting?What kind, if any, social status does it have?How does the product make you feel? Does it affect your life?How do you think this product has been sold to consumers?What are your views on the packaging, the name, the design?What would you change about the product/design/logo etc?How could this product be better?