Why Do Advertisers Use Ethnographic Methods

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

Coming from commercials, newspapers, movies, and magazines, advertisements are one of the most prominent things that we get bombarded with on a daily basis. The problem with a lot of people including myself is that we fall victim to the manipulation of the advertising sharks and their devious tricks. In the article ‘Advertising’s 15 Basic Appeals’ by Jib Fowles, the author describes how advertisers will use 15 basic emotional appeals in order to get you to say ‘I want and need that!’ In National Geographic, a historical, anthropological, discovery-based magazine, advertisers focus their energy on the middle-aged, middle-class, educated audience, who want to improve not only their intellectual integrity, but also improve their families lives if the readers can help it. National Geographic advertisers can do this by appealing to the readers’ basic needs for achievement, nurture, and guidance.

The use of ethos, pathos, and logos is evident throughout our advertising campaign for Savidge Tea Kettles. We used these strategies to appeal to our target market- young, middle class couples with families. The commercial follows a young couple as they use the kettle in many different ways as their daughter grows up, which our target market will identify with. In the commercial, we made an appeal to ethos by showing a note that says, “From Grandma,” when the tea kettle is left on the doorstep. Based on what we perceived as a common view of elderly people being knowledgeable, especially in the eyes of their grandchildren, we implied that the kettle must be of high quality in order for a grandmother to feel that it is a good gift for her newlywed grandchild. Ethos is located on the poster through the phrase, “#1 brand of tea kettles”, showing the buyer that other consumers highly recommend this brand, solidifying the credibility of the kettle, and causing the buyer to follow their peers and purchase

As the article “what we are to Advertisers” by James B Twitchell informs that Advertisers use the strategy of positioning to attract consumers to their product. Positioning is a marketing strategy that exerts a brand to get the attention of customers. The product itself doesn’t even have to attract the consumer, the advertiser just needs to make an ad that creates a spark into people's minds. Although a product might be similar to its competitors, an ad can make a difference with how they are interpreted. Twitchell makes to understand that even though all of us are put into a category, we somehow all connect.

In this reading, I will be discussing the different categories in which advertisers have placed consumers to distinguish them from one another using their values, attitudes, and life-style. According to the writer of American culture and advertisement James B. Twitchell, “the object of much consumer research is not to try to twist their feathers so that they will flock to your product, but to position your product in such a place that they will have to fly by it and perhaps stop to roost. After roosting, they will eventually think that this is part of their flyway and return to it again and again” (p. 178). The proposition of stereotyping consumer lifestyles is a very effective way of marketing goods and services. The VALS2 strategy of marketing segment, target, and position used by advertisers is based on research; which means, marketers know more about consumer behaviors than what we think. This is an important issue because it’s necessary to raise awareness in society about the advantages and disadvantages that this can bring. After having evaluated all given points; this article is an eye opener for those who have any doubts about what consumers mean to large companies and advertisers.

My understanding of the ad’s audience impacted my analysis/explanation of the ad by helping me pinpoint the techniques used to indirectly persuade the consumer to buy the product. Knowing who the ad was aimed for allowed me to build a stronger connection between the advertising agencies and how they manipulated the consumer. For example, if their audience was first class people, then the techniques used were no eye contact, fancy backgrounds, and the absence of prices. Whereas if the ad’s audience were middle class Americans, then discounts were mentioned, additional adjectives, smiling, and eye contact. Therefore, recognizing the audience made it easier to figure out which techniques that appeal to the consumer were used.

Ethnography (in­home studies) were effective at providing insight into the world of the consumer. TerraNova Market Strategies Inc. understood that the consumer purchase goes beyond purchasing the product at the store. Post­purchase behavior is important to maintain and grow the cookie­customer base. This open ended type of research allowed administrators to observe, rather than interview consumers as they used the product. These type of two hour in­home studies allow for a more intimate understanding of consumer personal motivations and actions that a traditional structured research model could not measure. By understanding the “big picture” the team is able to better understand how

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Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience to continue or take some new action. But when advertisers produce an ad, they have many different variables that come into play if they want to successfully persuade consumers. The first most important step they have to figure out is, what type of audience they are trying to target. They then create images and intend to appeal specifically to the values, hopes, and desires of that particular audience. This is why someone would rather pick the well-known Malboro cowboy ads over the new female cigarettes of Virginia Slims. Each of these ads targets a specific audience;

During this very typical, day in the life, I never realized how much effort it would take to process the copious amounts of advertising that is present in my surroundings. This effort that includes: noticing an ad, processing the ad in my brain, and taking note of its existence was, at some moments, very hard to keep up. Not to mention, while I was conducting this ethnography I had the constant debate of, “does this count as an ad?” For instance, when I was riding public transportation, if a person was wearing a Nike sweatshirt, I initially questioned, “does that count as a form of advertising?” Furthermore, during my crowded commute on public transportation, I felt that even when I was merely looking out the window, the influx of advertisements

Kilbourne demonstrates three major main criticisms of advertising. First, advertising objectifies people and objects for the purpose of sales. This critique promotes products as more important than people and exploits human deeds and desires. Kilbourne offers ample evidence to support her first criticism of advertising. For example, Kilbourne examines advertisement such as the Thule car-rack - which humorously places more value on sports equipment been a child's life - is evidence of the trend that advertising is “objectif[ing] people…trivializ[ing and exploiting] our most heartfelt moments and relationships. Every emotion [,person, animal, and natural phenomenon] is used to sell us something” (Kilbourne, 2006, 369). Second - according to Kilbourne - advertising promotes and perpetuates the unnatural passion for products rather than personal relationship. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers us products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need” (Kilbourne, 2006, 370). Within this concept, advertising also commits ‘cultural rape’ by manipulating sacred symbols for their utilization as emotional leverage in advertising. Third, advertisements damage the personality and structure of culture. For example the Giwch’in tribe’s traditional culture was almost erased by the introduction of advertising through television. “As multinational chains replace local character, we end up in a world in which everyone is Gapped and Starbucked…[Thus] rampant commercialism undermines our physical and psychological health, our environments and our civic life, and creates a toxic society” (Kilbourne, 2006, 371), which robs individuals of cultural and personal diversity. Based on the evidence presented by Kilbourne, I strongly agree with all three of these

The theory of semiotics, as proposed by Roland Barthes, has been used to analyze advertisements and the effectiveness of advertisements on viewers. In the articles that I researched that used semiotics to analyze particular advertisements, I found four common and related themes. First, the articles mentioned that the viewer determines the meaning of the advertisement or the viewer interprets the advertisement. Second, this meaning that the viewer assigns to the advertisement is largely determined by context, both social and cultural. Third, advertisers use culture and predominant cultural beliefs in their advertisements in efforts to reach their audience more effectively. Finally, these advertisements actually end up supporting the

The main purpose of commercials and advertisements is to persuade the viewer to purchase the product that is advertised, but not all commercials are successful in this endeavor. Companies, such as Budweiser and Kleenex, appeal to the viewers’ ethos, logos, and pathos in order to influence them to buy the advertised product(s). In order to appeal to each of the categories, companies use different tactics to catch viewers’ attention. The use of ethos, logos, and pathos can make or break an advertisement based on how it is being used.

The modern human being’s life is continuously flooded by advertising. Ads surround society in everything a person does, from watching television to listening to the radio, or even walking down the street. These advertisements range from celebrity promotions to home goods products and everything in between, all for the sake of convincing people to pick their product over another competitors product.When a deeper look is taken at these advertisements, one will find that they are not merely just selling a car or a box of cereal. In actuality, companies along with their product, are trying subtlely to sell cultural stereotypes, beliefs and trends. Within their advertisement, Hyundai effectively uses graphics, language and argument to