Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
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Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
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Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#2Lots of theory here but surely there's some solid science that can address these ideas?
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#3Lots of theory here but surely there's some solid science that can address these ideas?
It's quite simple to suggest an experiment to prove the article's point (which I find very convincing).
Look at an ad for a product you own (e.g. iPhone) that you perceive as conveying some form of emotion. Now, go use that product.
Do you feel the emotion portrayed in the ad?
To make this more scientific, expand the above test to a few hundred people. Query their emotional state with a survey (or possibly by facial expressions, if that's considered an accurate means of evaluating emotional response). Do this for a number of products, ensuring that boring products (e.g. household cleaning products) are included to rule out emotion generated from the intrinsic properties of the product. Then check for the existence/non-existence of a correlation between the emotion felt and the emotion portrayed.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#4A comment to the author of the article:
I don't agree with your point about non-immunity. Cultural imprinting works because it leverages the desire that humans have to portray a certain image or belong to a certain group.
As rational humans, we can eliminate the pull of such ads by building our own understanding about the group the ad is appealing to, and how that ad appeals to the group. Equipped with this understanding, we can find far more effective ways than drinking Corona to portray the image of being chill and relaxed.
Alternatively, we can reconsider our willingness to be included in that group. Once we realize the only thing binding Corona drinkers together is their collective vision of some beach, we might realize that there's more interesting people to drink with.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#5Lots of theory here but surely there's some solid science that can address these ideas?
It's quite simple to suggest an experiment to prove the article's point (which I find very convincing). Look at an ad for a product you own (e.g. iPhone) that you perceive as conveying some form of emotion. Now, go use that product. Do you feel the emotion portrayed in the ad? To make this more scientific, expand the above test to a few hundred people. Query their emotional state with a survey (or possibly by facial…
That experiment would not accurately test the emotional inception theory. The theory states that given ads associating a product with a positive emotion, people will eventually feel that emotion when they see the product in the store, and be compelled to buy it. Your experiment tests whether people feel that emotion when they use the advertised product after having bought it. You might assume that these answers would match, but that is a dangerous and unnecessary assumption.
I have an idea for a more accurate experiment. Survey a number of people about what brands of some product they buy, if any. The product should be something that does not currently have many ads for it (like bedsheets), so that cultural imprinting is not a factor. Then send them a weekly email newsletter on some random topic. Each newsletter would also contains ads for a certain brand of that product.
The people would be split into two groups. For half of them, the ad for the product tries to associate the brand with a positive image. For the other half, the ad tries to associate the brand with a neutral image, while otherwise keeping the text the same. This splitting into groups ensures that “honest signaling” is not a confounding factor.
To ensure that the participant opens the newsletter and sees the ads, participants would be asked to search each newsletter for a piece of information and reply to the email with that information.
After three months of the newsletters, participants would be surveyed again about what brands of the product they buy, if any. If emotional imprinting theory is accurate, the participants who were shown the positive images should have increased their purchasing of that brand of product more than the neutral-image participants increased their purchasing.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#6Maybe I'm just less aware of what other people do than others, but I find this fundamentally unconvincing (the argument that this explains most of what's usually considered emotional inception, not the existence of the phenomenon in some cases).
> Beer, soft drinks, gum, every kind of food (think backyard barbecues). Restaurants, coffee shops, airlines. Cars, computers, clothing. Music, movies, and TV shows (think about the watercooler at work). Even household products send cultural signals, insofar as they'll be noticed when you invite friends over to your home. Any product enjoyed or discussed in the presence of your peers is ripe for cultural imprinting.
Your choice of coffee shop or fast food communicates something to your peers if you're seen there, which, as far as I know, is often fairly uncommon, depending on your situation. It's nice to be culturally aware, but that doesn't constrain your consumption of music, movies, and TV too much (especially music) unless you watch very little. Nobody notices what brand of sneakers you're wearing... at least, I rarely even look down that far, and I can't believe other people are that different. Household products? Maybe once in a year.
Nor do I find all of the anecdotes convincing.
Bed sheets - sheets themselves may not be the hottest product category, but I've seen many mattress and mattress store commercials. Tempur-pedic, Sleepy's (I have heard that jingle so many times I doubt I will ever forget it), etc.
Gas stations - don't advertise because usually you don't have multiple stations right next to each other. Since the service is a commodity, everyone goes to the closest station.
Why not two-faced - because it's easier to remember something if it's clear, well-defined, and repeated often, and that includes unconscious associations. No need to bring in cultural factors.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#7Maybe I'm just less aware of what other people do than others, but I find this fundamentally unconvincing (the argument that this explains most of what's usually considered emotional inception, not the existence of the phenomenon in some cases). > Beer, soft drinks, gum, every kind of food (think backyard barbecues). Restaurants, coffee shops, airlines. Cars, computers, clothing. Music, movies, and TV shows (think ab…
Gas stations do advertise. Fill in the blank '___ with Techron'. You also see a list of gas stations at an interstate exit sign. http://www.kentucky.com/2011/09/05/1869947/ads-at-interstate... (third immage bottom right.)
Anyway, there are lot's of forms of advertizing. From informative "talk to your doctor about ED" to simply memorable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVcbasIb8lQ
However, the cultural inception idea is not about some sort of Pavlovian response. You don't actually get to taste what's for sale in a supermarket, so it's an abstract choice. And with little to no information to work off of you make a split second decision after split second decision which is draining. In that situation simple familiarity is worth a lot. Similarly, your not actually going to test drive every car in your price range on the market.
That said, signaling is a big part of advertising. If nobody knows you just spent 20k on a watch it's harder to justify the purchase.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#8This article Is based on an incorrect assumption of the utility and function of branding ads. they don't change perception...they don't make a new impression...they support a pre existing perception and reinforce it.
Brand perceptions and this cultural imprinting he refers to are driven by word of mouth, media coverage, and third party validation... Once we have a perception- ads reminds us of it.
Yes, ego and peer pressure are strong emotional drivers of purchase behavior but so are dozens of other emotions we satisfy with various purchases.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#9Maybe I'm just less aware of what other people do than others, but I find this fundamentally unconvincing (the argument that this explains most of what's usually considered emotional inception, not the existence of the phenomenon in some cases). > Beer, soft drinks, gum, every kind of food (think backyard barbecues). Restaurants, coffee shops, airlines. Cars, computers, clothing. Music, movies, and TV shows (think ab…
> insofar as they'll be noticed when you invite friends over to your home. Any product enjoyed or discussed in the presence of your peers is ripe for cultural imprinting.
While I disagree with the article for other reasons, your post is missing a fundamental point. Your behavior is based on what YOU think these products say about you socially, not whether they actually do say those things.
Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception
#10I agree that the primary mechanism of ads is to affect the "landscape of cultural meanings" so that a product is associated with a broader meaning or image, but I don't think this is so different from the Mad Men philosophy, or that making purchasing decisions to feed your external image is so much more rational, and more relevant, than feeding your self-image.
Maybe you choose your household cleaners just to impress your guests. You wear Axe Body Spray because of what it communicates about you ("Hey girl, I'm wearing Axe Body Spray right now"). I don't need bystanders while I drink Corona in order to feel like I'm the kind of guy who'd rather be chilling on a beach far from the daily grind. I'm making a statement to myself about the kind of person I am, one who endorses those values or that fantasy.
There's got to be a way to take the bystander out of the equation. If we want to maintain the idea that we are all rational thinkers -- only "culture" is irrational, or other people's subconsciouses! -- how about: the advertiser is selling us a bit of meaning, thereby increasing the value of the product. Meaning is hard to obtain, and making purchasing decisions based on advertisements is one way for rational individuals to obtain this scarce resource.