Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why

Citation

Schneider, P.A. (2001), "Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 276-288. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2001.18.3.276.3

In The Positioning Era as well as in numerous other books and articles, Jack Trout and Al Ries stated that the battle between marketers takes place in the mind of the consumer. Max Sutherland and Alice Sylvester would not disagree with that conclusion. What they have done, however, is provided the reader with a better insight into the workings of the human mind, thereby giving a better theoretical foundation than Trout and Ries did. For example, they constantly make references to cognitive learning and psychological theories whenever they discuss why a particular advertisement does or does not work. Furthermore, much of the evidence provided by Trout and Ries was anecdotal. Sutherland and Sylvester, however, have marshaled far more empirical evidence and organized that evidence systematically to support their conclusions.

In the first part of the book, Sutherland and Sylvester take a step back and examine why advertising is so mysterious to those outside the profession despite its pervasiveness and the enormous amount spent on advertising. According to the authors, this lack of understanding can be attributed to critics like Vance Packard who made advertisers seem like witchdoctors. I would add that the media has contributed to the misunderstanding. Who can forget that memorable scene from The Hucksters where Lionel Barrymore tells Clark Gable that irritating people by repeating the same annoying message over and over is the way to sell products? The misunderstanding may even be the fault of those in the industry who exaggerated what they could do. The great “adman” Rosser Reeves and the unique selling proposition come to mind.

The widespread belief in the power of subliminal advertising is an indication of the general lack of understanding about advertising. I have had students who didn’t know who was president during the 1950s, but can tell me all about the owner of a theater who convinced people to buy more soda and popcorn just by flashing messages below the level of consciousness. In the third chapter, Sutherland and Sylvester demolish the myth of subliminal advertising. I suspect, however, that we have not heard the last about claims of people being manipulated by subliminal advertising.

In the remainder of the first part, the authors describe the nature of the decision‐making process and under what circumstances external information (i.e. the various elements that make up an advertisement) enter and affect that process. They also discuss how written and symbolic differ in their effects. My only concern is that in their efforts to be analytic about communications and cognition, the authors neglect the value of creativity in the advertisement itself, something not easily analyzed. The section concludes with a discussion on the limits of advertising’s power in terms of what the advertiser can do and what the human mind can absorb.

Whereas the first part of the book was aimed at anyone interested in advertising, the second part is aimed at those who are actually involved in the profession. In general, no one advertisement will sell a product. Therefore, the authors spend the second part making key points about advertising campaigns rather than discussing single advertisements. The first point they make is that the marketplace must be constantly monitored through the sophisticated techniques of marketing research. Unfortunately, I believe that they weakened their arguments by trying to extend their observations to politics. I am not yet convinced that a political candidate and his or her ideology is just another product to be packaged and sold. The authors are at their best when they discuss the timing of advertising from the initial launching of a new product to the point when it can be considered mature. One of the worst things a firm can do is to view advertising as a cost of doing business rather than an investment and then cease advertising altogether due to budgetary pressures. That kind of tactic is a surefire way to destroy a brand. Although the authors did not intend to write a “how‐to” book, the second section contains a number of other valuable insights into what works and what does not and under what circumstances (e.g. the effectiveness of humor, using 15‐second TV commercials, improving radio commercials, etc.), which should make it useful to someone looking for that kind of book.

The best feature of this book is its easy‐to‐read style that informs as well as entertains the reader. This book is not going to replace the advertising textbooks used in college classrooms. However, it will serve as a nice complement to those textbooks in between classes. What the book allows the reader to do is integrate the advertising and selling crafts with theoretical concepts from consumer behavior in a fresh and rewarding way. Both academicians and practitioners who are constantly trying to understand why and how advertising succeeds or fails will find this book to be of great value.