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Swaying The Masses And Individuals:An understanding of persuasion and it's use in advertising.By Eric Pastorek Persuasion is a large part of every person's daily life whether he or she knows it or not. The goal of this paper is to persuade the reader to view the importance of persuasion. Each and every day people are confronted with some form of persuasion. It may come in the form of a relationship with family member, friend, or stranger who wants something done or wants to do something. Persuasion may take the form of mentally going towards the view of belief, such as a religious or political cause. One form that many in this day and age are bombarded with is the force of advertising persuasion. Advertising persuasion is the means of communicating to a massive amount of people the message of an idea, product, or service. Persuasion is the key to effectively advertising and creating loyalty among consumers in society by influencing decision making and beliefs. There are many techniques that one may use to persuade another, but the first thing to realize is what persuasion is not. Persuasion is not manipulation. Manipulation is 'the act of guiding another towards something that is not in their best interest by subverting their thought processes. Persuasion is meant to benefit one or more parties in the end' (Wikipedia). It's easy to confuse the two because they are similar, but in the end they have different goals in mind. Ethical advertising, or that which is based on decent and right communication, should be the standard for those seeking to transfer a message to a consumer. According to The International Charter, an organization dedicated to the promotion of business through the establishment of best practice and policy, all advertising 'should be legal, decent, honest and truthful' (iCharter). Therefore the use of persuasion in advertising should be used in the best interest of consumers. Usually persuasion is used in two scenarios, personal and general. An 'one-on-one' approach is best when trying to persuade an individual to view something the way another views it. Pastorek 2 This again should be used only with the other person's best interest in mind. General persuasion is the endeavor of spreading a message or idea across a broad media such as TV, radio, newspaper or internet. Both type use two methods to appeal to the mind of people, emotions and reason. Emotional persuasion taps into the feelings of people. In advertising it shows them the benefit of a product by catching the interest of a person by means of a story or actor that identifies with a viewer, thus hitting an emotional chord. A good example of the use of emotions in advertising is Hallmark Cards. Hallmark uses this strategy to promote a card that will bring others together or create help with a situation that many people may relate with. Hallmark uses commercials to promote their cards by using dramatic stories played by characters where the greeting card acts as the main point in the story that resolves dramatic tension (aef). What is the effect? Hallmark has maintained it's spot as the leader in greeting cards for over 85 years and has become a one of the most recognized and admired brands (aef). The use of reason in advertising important because people are not dumb and gullible. Most of the time people can see through schemes and ill-conceived ideas. A great example of a company that uses reason in advertising is Procter & Gamble (P& G). From all their case studies they found that over-all, women view their hair in certain ways. In 1990 they decided to launch their Pantene Shampoo with the idea that '[1.] Women believed the ideal standard for hair is "healthy". [2.] Women considered their own hair damaged. [3.] Women believed that shine signaled health. [4.] Pro-vitamin formulation provided real support for claims.' (aef). Plus it's affordable because there is a 2 in one shampoo/conditioner. The persuasion used in this advertising was developed around health and beauty using the tag line, "Hair So Healthy It Shines." (aef). Just like anything else, the ability to properly persuade lies in honesty. Honest advertising will help give a product, service or idea true perspective, loyalty among consumers, and credibility. This will happen not only in the item being sold but also in the company that is trying to persuade. There are many 'watchdog agencies' in existence that investigate the ethical standards of Pastorek 3 companies. Throughout the years, and still today, many companies have tried, and try to sell something that looks good, and may work okay, but really doesn't live up to the standard that it advertises. This false advertising is a way in which a company will have a product that looks good and may look as if it will serve a good purpose. The company will advertise how great it is with many info-commercials, but as everyone must find out the hard way, the product usually is not as good as it seems. The commercial doesn't tell people about how the metal rusts after a couple uses, or how the cutting devise doesn't cut as well as it did on the TV. Many companies will leave out all the bad parts of a product and only emphasize the good. According to the A.E.F. '80 to 90 percent of new products launched FAIL' (aef). Every company needs to use persuasion to sell something. In the consumer driven market of America there is much competition and millions of things trying to be sold. It's important to take a look at how a company would use persuasion to sell an idea, product, or service, sometimes all together. The first thing that a company would do is find a need that consumers might have and research that target audience. For example, millions of people travel to the Great Smoky Mountains each year to vacation. The target audience would be the millions of people and the need would be that they might be looking for something to do while vacationing. The company would research the target audience and try to appeal to it. For example, The Comedy Barn Theatre claims it is the funniest show in the Smokies. They are appealing to the audience by offering a good fun time that will not be forgotten. Next, on their brochure they give a reason to believe that by providing proof that they have won the Funniest Show Award four years in a row. This creates credibility in the mind of the potential customer. As an incentive, the Comedy Barn would offer a %10 percent off offer on each member or even free popcorn. The last thing that they would do to try to persuade someone to spend time and money on their product is by using advertising media as means of communication. The tone and manner of the show is set to display how funny it is and how much fun people have by seeing them laugh on TV commercials. The more the company shows the Pastorek 4 commercials, distributes their brochure, and hangs billboards promoting the show, the more potential costumers, out of the million that travel there, will understand the message. Therefore repetition is utilized to drive the message across. When the consumer views the show and if he or she is satisfied, the next time that person travels to the Smokies again there is a likelihood of a repeat costumer, thus creating consumer loyalty. The main goal of persuasion is to change attitudes and behaviors. Whether it's persuading a friend to buy cosmetics or selling a service to millions of people, it's interesting to ponder what happens in the mind of a person when he or she is persuaded? What's amazing is that a person can mentally move from being strongly for something one moment and opposing the same thing the next. Blaise Pascal, in his classical work The Art of Persuasion reveals that 'persuasion has a necessary relation to the manner in which men are led to consent to that which is proposed to them, and to the conditions of things which it is sought to make them believe' (Pascal). There are, therefore, different degrees of persuasion and how strongly the argument is presented to a person will affect the outcome of the argument. Basically something has to look very good, very bad, or have some benefit in-order to change the attitude or behavior of a person. Politics are a good example of how an idea can be promoted to try to persuade people if something is right or wrong. Take for example the current war in Iraq. Great efforts have been taken from all political parties to persuade Americans, and the World for that matter, that their solution on the conflict is the best. Republicans are shouting slogans and catchy phrases against their political opponents, calling them the 'Cut and Run' party, while democrats are calling the Republicans the 'Stay and Pay' party. All of this is done with the intent to simplify the message of who is best suited to solve the problem, thus persuading the voters to choose the correct party. Usually fear and anxiety are key motivators in persuasive arguments, especially in politics. What is the result of a society engulfed in the art of persuasion? The answer is that it's a society that's motivated to move forward and advance. Every idea, no matter what it may be, has Pastorek 5 potential to create good. If 80% of products fail to persuade people than there is 20% that succeed and are actually useful. Any idea, product, or service that is being offered to people may or may not work, but the good thing is that those things that do fail spawn a need to create something better, thus people will have a better reason to be persuaded to invest in it at some point. In conclusion, persuasion will always be a major part of society. In advertising there will always be the need to research what needs there are among people and market whatever they are trying to sell in a way that is ethical, honest, and beneficial by properly persuading. It's a good thing to be able to persuade others and to be persuaded. But like anything else, it's important to be aware of persuasive techniques that people use on others so that deception is detected whenever it's present. As there have been many bad examples in the past of how persuasion has hurt many or caused much grief in the world, there are also many good examples of people using persuasion to do good. Works Cited
Advertising Educational Foundation. 'Persuasion.' 7 December 2006. 2005.
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