P.35
Customers buy a promise. Cosmetics sell hope, not lanolin. Oranges sell vitality. Cars sell prestige.
P.37-38
Advertising Age once claimed: "In very few instances do people really know what they want, even when say they do". One cannot assume that people know what they want or will tell the truth about it even if they do. Consumers will more likely give answers that protect them to sound insensible, stupid or irrational. Accepting what a costumers say they want is, in the words of a consulting firm, "the least reliable index the manufacturer can have on what he ought to do to win customers".
P.39-40
The Color Research Institute carried out a series of tests to see if irrational decisions could be controlled through packaging. They gave housewives three different boxes of detergent and these women were asked to try them for a few weeks. They needed to report which one was the best for delicate clothing. The boxes were very different, but the detergent was the same.
The first box was designed using yellow as it was a colour that could stand out at the store shelves. The second box was predominantly blue, without any yellow. The third box had splashes of yellow on a blue background.
The women reported that the detergent in the yellow box was too strong and even ruined some clothes. The one in the blue box seemed to be quite weak. The third box, which had an ideal balance of colour, received the most favourable responses. They used words like "wonderful" and "fine" to describe the performance of the detergent.
P.43
Packard (1957) assures that people do not seem to be reasonable. But this does not mean they do not have a purpose. They do, and their behaviour makes sense in terms of their goals, needs and motives.
P.47
There are different levels of human consciousness. The first level is the conscious, the rational level. It is the level where an individual knows what is going on and he or she is able to tell why. The second and lower level is the subconscious, where the awareness of a situation is more vague and it is more related to attitudes, feelings and sensations but an explanation of these reactions cannot be easily found. Here is where assumptions, prejudices or fears live. The third and final level is where an individual is not aware of true attitudes and feelings, features that are preferably not discussed if possible. Exploring these unconscious attitudes towards brands formed the science of motivational analysis or research, which allow designers to apply psychoanalytic techniques to market research.
P.48
In 1941, Dr. Dichter encouraged ad agencies to organise themselves as what they really were, "one of the most advanced laboratories in psychology". He claimed that for an ad agency to be successful it needs to manipulate human emotions and desires to develop a need for something that a personn was once unfamiliar with or even undesirous of.
P. 65
Research director of a New York advertising agency once claimed: "People have a terrific loyalty to their brand of cigarette and yet in tests cannot tell it from other brands. They are smoking an image completely."
In a talk in 1956 in Philadelphia, Pierre Marineau said that advertising is no longer what it was once: a presentation of a product's merits. The intention is to create an illogical situation where the customer falls in love with the product that is being advertised and have a profound brand loyalty even if the product is very similar to many others. In order to do this, Marineau said the first task is to create a differentiation in the mind of the prospect, an individualisation from the rest.
----LINK THIS WITH POSITIONING----
P.70
Packard (1957) points out a study made by Social Research, Inc. A team of social scientists used different probing techniques on 352 car owners in the Chicago area and they found out that a minority of the population have any real interest in the technical side of cars. In fact, what the investigation reflected was that automobiles are heavily loaded with social meanings and they "provide avenues for the expression of the character, temperament and self concept of the owner and driver. The buying process is an interaction between the personality of the car and the personality of the individual".
The report pointed out the personality of a specific sort of owner of different major makes of car. These are some profiles of the owners that were defined with single words:
- Cadillac: Proud, Flashy, salesman, middle-aged, social mobility, good income level, responsible.
- Ford: Speed demon, good income, young man, proud, upper lower class, drives to work, practical.
- Pontiac: Stable class outlook, middle of road, married woman, mother, sincere, conventional, busy.
The investigators claimed "people buy the cars they think are especially appropriate for them".
P.74-77
In the conflict between pleasure and guilt, brands give moral permission to have fun without guilt. A group of investigators wanted to find an answer of why people keep smoking despite their guilt feelings. They found out that smokers like to have a cigarette between their fingers when they enter in a room full of people, so they look less nervous and more sophisticated. Many see smoking as a symbol of heir vigour, potency and virile maturity. It is a psychological satisfaction that overcomes health fears, hides ridicule and also the obvious weakness of 'enslavement to habit'.
To deal with this guilt feeling, candies started to be made in bite-size pieces to appeal indulgence in moderation. The consumer can buy a bar and only eat a bite before putting it away. This shows understanding from manufacturers, like some kind of permission for eating it in moderation.
The guilt can come in another shape. When releasing products that make the life of consumers easier, there might be some resistance, as consumers sometimes view certain products as threats to what they expect from themselves. Instead of selling more freedom, companies need to convince consumers to buy their products so they can work harder on other things.
P.86-96
Packard (1957) assures that there are eight hidden needs human beings have that marketers can take advantage of when selling a product. These are some of them:
- Emotional security
One of the emotions that can be sold through a product is security. That is what freezers do. Economically, they do not make sense taking into account the intial cost, the electric bill and the leftovers that are eventually thrown away. The Weiss and Geller advertising agency made a study where probers found out that the popularity of freezers increased after World War II. Many families were anxious because of the uncertainties of the time. The freezer was, for many, a representation of the assurance that there is always food in the house, and the food represents warmth, security and safety.
- Reassurance of worth.
People need to hear that what they are doing has a value. A product that points out the worth of a consumer is a good candidate to be used in order to remind the user his or her importance in their environments. In the 50's The Chicago Tribune made a study about sales of soaps for housewives. The results proved that those advertisements that exalted the role of housekeeping as something to be proud of were much more successful than others, because housewives were very unappreciated by that time and marketers knew.
- Ego gratification
Similar to the reassurance of worth, the product should be an extension of the user and should not gain more importance than a human being in order to boost their ego.
- Sense of power
A car is a good example of how a product can represent an extension of a person's power.
- Sense of roots
When adverts use phrases like 'the good old days' or 'just how grandma used to make it' they are appealing to a sense of belonging and nostalgia that many people need to satisfy.
- Immortality
Life-insurances are a clear example of selling immortality. Everyone is aware that they are going to die, but no one stands the idea of being obliterated, so they try to remain immortal through other means.
------
"Infatuation with one's own body is an infantile trait that persists in many an adult's subconscious. The ethics of exploiting it to sell goods is something else". Fortune.
P.100
Cigars makers sold 6 million cigars only in 1955 because it is a potent symbol of masculinity for an affordable price. It is favoured by gangsters and big bankers. Young and Rubicam ad agency found out in a study that young men do not feel comfortable smoking cigars as it feels presumptuous. Although, Weiss and Geller found out that cigars appeal both to strong and weak men.
P.106-107
Freudian psychiatry pictures many adults as subconsciously searching for mouth satisfaction. Social Research found that many foods are loaded with hidden meanings, as depending on what someone eats it can be interpreted as a punishment or a reward. For people under stress or in situations of anxiety, new food can be a problem and it's easier to reinstate more comfortable feelings by serving them the food they feel familiar with.
P. 110
Social Research also found that oral gratifications are very important when explaining why many people continue smoking cigarettes. Smoking provides a repeated and continuous stimulation for the mouth while it allows the hand to do something well organised and familiar.
Something similar happens with a remedy and substitute of smoking, the chewing gum. A study carried out by Weiss and Geller says that chewing relieves tension. Sweetening the breath, aid digestion or freshen the mouth are just side effects of mitigating anxiety, providing oral comfort, releasing tension and aggressive feelings.
P.112
DuPont's investigators found out that many people do not make a list of the things they need to buy in the store. The reason is because they make the decision in the store, which means shoppers buy on impulse. James Vicary suspected that consumers might be under pressure when confronted with so many different choices that they were forced to quickly decide what to purchase. By hiding a camera that recorded the eye-blink rate of the shopper he could tell the inner tension that person was going through. It was found that his suspicions were right. Gerald Stahl, executive vice-president of the Package Designers Council, added to this: "Psychiatrists say that people have so much to choose from that they want help".
Sense of roots
Packard (1957) talked about the sense of roots, in which the intention is to pack a feeling that humans collectively associate to what they consider a better past time so they can relive it through a product.
No comments:
Post a Comment