Theories on Advertising

Advertising has numerous objectives which includes communicating with potential customers as well as pursuading them to adopt a particular product or develop a preference towards the product for repeat purchase which ultimately results in brand loyalty. Advertising Theory or theories therefore try to explain how and why advertising is effective in influencing behaviors and accomplishing its objectives.

There are numerous theories on advertising. Most theories of advertising generally propose that the effectiveness of advertising is dependent on the main practices being carried out including more exposure towards the brand or repetitive advertising. In other words, most theories sugest that if you want a consumer to like a product or a brand continously then simply expost the consumer to a product or brands advertising such that there are certain feelings and expectations attached towards the rand itself. Advertising theories also make use of content specification, Specific message and media characteristics, consumer characteristics, product/service characteristics, and competitive actions.

As it is often said that ‘half of all advertising doesn’t work,’ aiming to understand and apply the many general and specific principles forming advertising theory may potentially do much to increase the likelihood that any particular advertising campaign or advertising strategy will be effective and accomplish its intended objectives. Marketers must therefore seek to understand the factors that influence advertising’s effectiveness and ineffectiveness relative to intended objectives and particular contexts to be able to judiciously apply such knowledge. Even experi-enced firms can make advertising missteps, such as allowing the firm’s ad agency to create an advertisement that is memorable and consistent with some elements of advertising theory (e.g. persuading with emotion for a low-involvement purchase) but not fully realizing until after it has aired that the ad runs counter to other principles associated with advertising theory (e.g. emphasizing those emotions that are desired to be positively associated with the brand).


The Language of Advertising

By: Peter Sells and Sierra Gonzales