to ask if advertising makes you buy things?

[Fairyliz]

Just been watching a program about Virgin airlines and a load of pretentious marketing people are sitting around a table coming up with daft slogans to make us buy virgin flights.

Thinking back I can remember adverts from 30 years ago, the Smash robots come to mind, that always made me laugh when I saw it. However I have never bought Smash in my life, dried potatoes yuck!
So do you think you have ever been influenced to buy something by an advert?

[EastMidsMummy]

Of course. And anyone who believes otherwise is deceiving themselves.

[PuntasticUsername]

Of course advertising works. Why do you think companies spend so much money on it?

[NataliaBaker]

With some stuff, adverts are just meant to make you remember that company if/when you buy something of a certain type. Like maybe I decide I want the Internet, remember the adverts that sky did using Bruce Willis etc so just end up going for them to save faffing because they were the first name I remembered. Rather than putting the idea of getting the Internet into my head, they just are the ones I remember when I want it.

[avocadotoast]

I seem incredibly susceptible to food adverts since being pregnant. (Could be because I'm breastfeeding and it makes me hungrier than I've ever been in my entire life!)

[FernieB]

Not that I'm aware of! I do sometimes fill in a survey which asks if I've seen adverts by various companies in any kind of media and I can never recall any of them. I think I tune adverts out now and as I don't listen to commercial radio or watch much TV, I do avoid them.

Agree that the Smash advert was memorable. And I can still sing the Um Bongo song! Maybe the old ones were just better.

[Fairyliz]

Puntastic but how do companies know it works? How do they know it was the advert that made me buy that sort of yoghurt for instance? Could it have been the price, the first ones I came to, the only type stocked, the ones with the lowest calories etc?

[PerfectlyPosed]

I record most programmes I watch now and start them 15 minutes later just so I can skip the adverts

Current one that sticks in my mind, though, is the Trip Advisor one with the dog that barks "book". So irritating but I will always remember it.

[RealityCheque]

No I've never bought a product due to advertising alone. And I am NOT deceiving myself.

I may have seen something advertised that I was not aware of and then researched it, but the purchase would be based on its merits.

I have however regularly refused to buy certain products if the adverts piss me off (yes you fucking annoying gocompare man I AM looking at you).

[DoJo]

It depends what kind of advertising you are talking about - online ads are really easy to track so it's possible to trace someone's entire decision-making process pretty much, whereas with television ads, it will more likely be a case of looking at overall sales in response to ads being launched to ascertain the effectiveness of any given campaign.

[RealityCheque]

Edit: and hotel-bastard-trivargo. Wankers.

[CassieBearRawr]

We don't have tv but at the weekend we went to the inaws on our way to do our weekly shop. They always have the tv on and an advert for Krave cereal came on. Have never had it before and only vaguely heard of it (am not much of a cereal eater) but something in the description of it made me turn to my partner and said "Put that on the shopping list". So yes! Well done Kellogs marketing types. Except I bought the supermarket own brand version, so maybe not that effective...

[ApplesTheHare]

Of course! And believe you me the marketing peeps are some of the best at testing and monitoring the effectiveness of their work. I'm always bowled over at how much work goes into following up an as, whether online, TV, pos, etc.

[Fairyliz]

Apples so how do they test? How can you prove something was down to advertising?
It always seems like emperors new clothes to me and as other people say adverts are more likely to put me off than make me buy things. I certainly won't be flying virgin now if my fare goes towards paying for those pretentious cocky types!

[PuntasticUsername]

What Apples said - companies put a huge amount of money and effort into understanding their customer bases, different demographic groups, purchasing habits, the effect of other influences eg promotions, physical location in store, time of day, music played...

I wouldn't say that every single company can reliably do Derren Brown mind control and get you to buy anything they want, but most of them are pretty damn sneaky in general. And they happily exploit common cognitive biases that most of us possess to some degree or other eg the beliefs that we are less susceptible to advertising than most people, and make rational decisions most of the time.