Consumer Behavior in Advertising: Insights & Analysis
Consumer Behavior in Advertising: A Deep Dive
Selling stocks that were the fabric of advertising in newspapers and magazines for women gave rise to three basic ads:
The Consumer is a Woman
“Women are emotional; the ads have to stir the emotions.” Texts are to be intimate, with contemporary typography. Transnational television flow is characterized by fragmentation, *publicitarismo*, and a constant appeal to women.
Advertising and Consumer IQ
The advertising directed at the consumer often refers to their IQ. The assumption is: “People are stupid; movies are too, the majority is stupid.”
This is directly related to the idea that a higher mind rejects effort. Most people just read the headlines or notes. Unless in an extreme situation, a person will not go beyond the law of least effort. The average citizen refuses invitations to go outside the rules. Their schematic view of the world admits no subtleties and does not react to anything but sensational stimuli.
The older man is, first and foremost, a woman and then stupid, extremely conservative, and retarded.
Melodrama in Advertising
Melodrama attends to emotions; raw feeling is one of its components. Characters are good or evil, depending on conformity and sentimentality. The basic order flow that defines family television broadcasting is banned by the advertising discourse, which is interlinked with the enunciation of popular media and entertainment narrative forms, which tend to operate under the paradigm of what is melodramatic.
The 1930s: A Turning Point
The 1930s saw an overcrowded advertising landscape and confrontation between organized consumer groups, to defend their interests and negotiate with the government, in creating and implementing sanctions against misleading advertising.
Williams and the Advertising Flow
Williams refers to the flow generated by the continuity and self-reference of the inexhaustible advertising discourse.
In television, advertising is not limited to commercial speech but also includes aspects of production: the decision to mass produce, when to transmit, where, changing rooms, etc.
Series and telenovelas have the receipt of private discourse; the discourse of advertising is efficient because it is repetitive to the fragmentation of the program.
The TV Stream and its Ideologies
The TV stream is crystallized by the flow of values and ideologies that define the nature of the dominant socio-political systems in the “free world.”
The homogeneity of televised speech is a product of fragmentation. Fragmented, heterogeneous flow occurs as each program loses autonomy, being fragmented with ads. This joins the program to make way for a break (the viewer wants to look for conflict resolution in fictional television and consumption of a product or service).
Television: A Self-Referential Medium
Television is:
- Self-referential: It constantly announces the schedule to ensure audience.
- Inter-legitimizing: It promotes uniformity in the way of life that it presents.
- Intertextual: The spot becomes continuous for two reasons: explicit intertextuality and being inexorably part of the televisual flow.
Television is meant to provoke a desire to consume products, and dramatic conflict resolution is achieved through the narrative generated by the course. TV flow thrives on fragmented packets, encapsulated (usually 30 seconds) called spots.
It promotes interpersonal distance and a decline in collective reception.
Televised speech is a macro-discourse that contains various combinations. It never ends, either in kind or in time.
Changing channels is not access to a different flow but the same one, fragmented differently.
Speech and Program Analysis
A full analysis includes three objects: what, who, and how you say it.
The motive is to satisfy the viewer audiovisually in order to sell. The sponsor “buys” the viewer as a potential consumer, once absorbed as the average viewer.
Ellen McCracken: Two Types of Approval
Ellen McCracken identifies two types of approval in the relationship between advertising and reporting:
- Fluid: Prescribes uniformity of appearance of women, makeup, fashion, and relationships between men and women; it is automatic.
- Deliberate: Planned continuity.
Televisual discourse does not disqualify or conclude as code; it is a constant offer where the viewer decides what to do. It is a process because all speech is, and they do not know clauses.