Psychology of Advertisements

In today’s world, advertising has grown to be a persuasive tool in communicating different products and services to consumers. As a multi-billion industry, the goal of companies is to make their brands popular and persuade potential consumers into purchasing their goods. Advertising companies have increasingly understood the benefits of applying psychology to attract, and sometimes even deceive people. There are several psychological tactics used in advertisements. Some of these include:

1. The emotional road:

Over the years, the most impactful advertisements have been those that appeal to us emotionally. Often brands that promote a psychological component generally outsell feature and function appeals. They tend to develop a strong brand connect by resonating with their consumers and tapping into emotions such as happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise etc. These ads are successful in creating an emotional branding that triggers behavioural responses. Some of the famous advertisements with emotional appeals include Coca Cola’s “Open happiness”, Fortune Oil’s “Ghar ka Khana”, Dabur Vatika’s “Brave and Beautiful campaign” amongst several others.

2. “Only a few left in stock” -promoting exclusivity or scarcity

Over the years it has been ingrained in our minds that scarce items tend to be exclusive and more valuable in the society. It leads to a feeling of power, that we have access to something that others don’t. It also suggests that other people like the product and that our freedom of choice to buy or to not buy the product will be soon gone. Exclusivity of a product makes people feel important, like they are a part of an exclusive group not openly available to others Some examples include exclusive club membership offered by Sephora and the “only 1 left in stock’ technique used by Amazon.

3. Promoting fear, uncertainty and doubt ?

Fear, in itself, is a very powerful emotion. Therefore, several brands employ fear, doubt and uncertainty to force consumers to take action and even to avoid dangerous consequences. These advertisements hit individual’s insecurities and at times create an impression that the product/service is the solution to their fear. A famous example is the anti-smoking campaign used by the government of India with which negative images are used to urge citizens to not smoke.

4. The right hand rule of advertising

In an interesting study conducted by Elder and Krishna (2012), participants were shown an ad for a coffee mug. It was observed that people were more likely to purchase the mug when the handle was facing right (toward the dominant hand of most people). The researchers attributed that finding to heightened simulation. When the handles were facing the right, participants mentally interacted with the product to a greater degree.

The dominance of the right hand makes us naturally drawn towards the right side of things. Advertising uses this knowledge, putting the items it wants us to buy in the right hand of the models, thereby encouraging mental interaction.

5. “Everyone’s buying this”- Social approval and appeal

Among the most effective tactics advertisers can use is tapping into our social insecurities. The more people who approve of something, the more likely we are to like it, too.Humans are more likely to buy products and services when people we know and admire approve of them. This social appeal is represented in several ways for example, people coming together for family dinners, major sports events, or celebrations.

6. Enlarge EMOTIONAL words

Images trigger emotion in accordance with their size (De Cesarei & Codispoti, 2006). The larger the image, the stronger the emotion. By increasing the surface size of our text especially emotional words we can enhance the emotional impact of words. These enlarged words also capture attention more easily.

7. Using Colour

Colours play a significant role in attracting attention and highlighting several elements of advertisements. Different colours have different characteristics which are associated with them. A classic example of using colour to influence consumer’s emotional behaviours is Coca Cola’s “open happiness”. Here the use of the colour red is associated with happiness and excitement.

Psychology can be a powerful tool to attract a consumer’s attention, leave a lasting impression and manipulate consumption of products one might not need. In order to survive the new world of abundance, one must learn to keep an eye out for compelling ads that might be subliminally influencing our purchases.

Tanya Bakshi

Psychologist

Chetana Counselling Centre