What We Learned

Through our ten weeks of blogging, we have learned how marketing occurs, the way that it affects and influences people, and why exactly it’s so successful. Businesses market themselves to make larger profits and to make people aware of their products, but it does much more than that. Its success is made possible through marketing strategies and advertising techniques designed to catch our attention cognitively, and appeal to us emotionally. Marketing impacts the choices we make, our social culture, and how we live our lives.

Marketing occurs in various ways, fluctuating based on the product or business being marketed. A restaurant will not be marketed the same way as a retail store, because different things are necessary for each of them to gain your attention. For an example of how marketing occurs in a specific industry, this post follows the steps of how a movie is marketed: ( goo.gl/O87cKK ). Marketing is necessary for any business to be successful. How would anybody know about a product or company if it wasn’t advertised to the public?

Every day we see hundreds of examples of advertisements out in the world, and whether we realize it or not, they have a huge effect on us. Exposure to an ad that we like makes us much more likely to pay for that product next time we see it at the store, even if we didn’t intentionally decide we wanted it when first seeing the ad. Statistically, the most successful advertisements are the ones that don’t feel like a company is actually trying to sell you something, but rather they just associate their product with other positive things (sunshine, attractive people, puppies, etc.)  Subconsciously, we begin to feel a connection, and associate the product with the positive aspects of the ad. This is called affective conditioning, and is discussed more in this post: (goo.gl/qsZAon). Companies strive to create a positive space for their ad, with the intention that people will subconsciously associate their product with happiness. Another aspect of affective conditioning is that it allows a company to create brand recognition by using a familiar theme. An easily recognizable pattern of this is used by Carl’s Jr., whose advertisements often feature an attractive model eating their food. One popular advertisement has the ability to completely dominate the market and create wildly popular trends that sweep the nation.

The thousands of advertisements that we see every day are hand chosen by marketers worldwide. We are exposed to these publications everywhere we look: Twitter, billboards, commercials, and radio. Have you ever noticed items you’ve recently searched for appearing on your favorite websites? Companies use this strategy to put the product in your mind, subtly enticing you to purchase it. It may seem like we’re aware of this type of advertising and not falling victim to it, but in reality, it influences us immensely, more than we realize.

Advertising has the ability to change and define our social culture. The consumerism surrounding holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter is largely due to marketing and advertising playing on our emotions, and turning these days into a money making opportunity. Marketing presents us with a picture of what a happy life should look like (and what products we would need for that) and causes us all to strive to emulate this. Clever marketing has changed these holidays from their original purpose to days centered around shopping, making it seem as if getting the perfect gifts or Easter basket is all that matters. The rise in consumerism relating to holidays just goes to show what a huge impact marketing has on our social culture.

Marketing is influential in the choices we make, our social culture, and how we live our lives. It’s important to understand how marketing companies are able to achieve success and why consumerism is impacting our society as a whole. By making ourselves aware of the psychology behind advertising and learning to recognize clever techniques, we learn the science of marketing, and how it’s impacting our lives every single day.

Sources:
https://www.google.com/search?q=advertising&espv=2&biw=1117&bih=644&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0wOiF-ZbMAhWhyIMKHU3_DOUQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=xJdVDo8RHY8CBM%3A
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