How Advertising Uses Psychology

If you live In Toronto or Tokyo, you need a warm coat in the winter. But you want a coat that is short, or black, or has a designer brand. The aim of advertising is to change our ideas about thing we want and need.

Many ads use peoples emotions like fear or love to persuade us that we need the product. Think of a TV commercial that shows a woman out driving in a car on a rainy day, with her two small children. Suddenly, another car turns in front of her. The mother quickly hits the brakes, and her car comes to a stop. The children are still smiling and laughing. The message is this car will keep you safe. Advertisements like this one use to fear to sell products. Other examples are slogans that tell you to “take vitamins to prevent heart disease,” or “buy insurance to protect your family.”

Commercials for soft drinks often show people having a party, playing sports, or enjoying a day at the beach. Everyone in the ad is having a good time. The message is: If you buy this Drink, you will have a good time too. Many ads like this are based on peoples desire for fun and enjoyment.

Advertising for designer products use peoples vanity to sell the product. The ad tries to create a personality for each brand. For Example, one brand of watches is for people who like adventure, with ads featuring an auto racer or a pilot wearing them. Another brand of watches is for elegant and fashionable people, and the ads show wealthy travelers on a cruise trips. The watches look almost the same only their images are different. When you buy that brand of watch, you are buying the image. This is the reason that people spend much more money for a product with a famous designer brand.

After an ad is prepared, advertisers use psychology to make it more effective. Psychologists have found that people have positive feelings about things they see more often, so the same ad is used for a long time before it is replaced with a new ad. Other studies found that people react better to an ad when it is fresh in their memory, so TV ads are repeated very often.

Knowing about psychology in advertising lets us make better decisions about the things we buy. It helps us understand the difference between the things we want and things we really need.