This week in Consumer Behavior we covered motivation, personality, and emotions as they pertain to consumer decision making. More specifically, I was most interested in how motivation plays a role in consumer behavior and marketing strategy in the advertising industry.
Sex sells
This is a classic motto for advertising agencies, and why sexuality is used so often in product advertising, especially on television, and in magazines. Sexuality in advertising is the use of provocative images, phrases, sounds, or messages used to arouse interest in a particular subject. Society purchases products because they have sexually stimulating imagery, or the advertisement triggers attraction to the product or service. This could be a beautiful women or handsome man to attract the attention of the audience, even though it may have nothing to do with the product or service being advertised. But why is sexuality used so often in advertising? Because it is proven to sell. Human’s are cognitively wired to respond to primal urges, such as sex, and advertisers play off this fact to create brand awareness. Individuals are motivated to undergo the processes they do when they see advertisements, which cause people to behave a certain way.
Through a recent study, two major newspapers tested if “sex still sells?” using multiple different newspaper covers, with respondents giving their intent to purchase. Some used sexual images, and others did not. The overwhelming consensus was that sex appeals still work to persuade and increase sales. Although this concept is heavily debated and there have been studies refuting this, it is widely accepted that sex definitely draws attentions to a brand if nothing else. And there is no such thing as bad publicity, right?
I believe sexuality in advertising is creating a widespread negative cultural effect, yet the use of it is because of changing American values as discussed in my Consumer Behavior class. Closely tied to America’s traditional religious orientation was a belief in the virtue of abstinence. As American society became more secular over the years, sensual gratification became more acceptable. By the 1960s, sensual gratification was an important objective for many brands and advertisers. Sex was used to sell anything and everything from soap to cars. Consumers encouraged it as it went along with American values of masculinity, and youth. Now, sensual gratification is somewhat less acceptable than in the recent past. Ads based on sexual gratification appeals are generally well received, but can cause problems when they go too far. In print advertisements, photoshop and re-touching give an unrealistic expectation of how to attain society’s ideal of beauty and perfection. This gives Americans false perceptions about what the “perfect” body is, and not a reflection of what an actual human looks like. Some ads may be seen as degrading or even lewd, and these can even take away from what the brand ultimately wants to do, sell product.
The Motivation Process
But in seeing these advertisements, consumers are motivated to fill a need they may have. Once a need has been activated, a state of tension exists that drives the consumer to attempt to reduce or eliminate this need. There is a gap between their present state, and their ideal state. Take this advertisement by Axe for example. Axe is notorious for using sexuality in their advertisements to sell product. The motivation process that explains why people behave they way they do follows 3 steps: drive: degree of consumer arousal, goal: consumers desired end state, and want: ultimate end state. The drive of the ad is that a man doesn’t want to have body odour. The goal is to have a great smelling body using soap products. Lastly, the want is to have girls all over them in an intimate nature just from their musk. Advertisers can use motivation when done right to cultivate a need in the consumer, and then satisfy that need using sensually derived images in this case.
I believe there is still a future for sex in advertising, if done right. Brands who understand what their customer wants and needs, how they identify with a changing American culture, and how sex relates to their brand can definitely still turn heads, and push the envelope, but it must be done tastefully, or else backlash can occur from consumers.
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