Psychology of advertising

I

At the turn of the 19^th century when psychological theory and method were applied to everyday life problems, Walter Dill Scott applied the scientific psychology to the study of business practices. Scott's book The Psychology of Advertising, of 1908, gave birth to advertising psychology as asubdiscipline in its own right. At that time, advertising executives were divided on the most effective approach to advertising design. The majority thought that consumers were rational: when informed about the product and reasons why it should be bought, they would respond appropriately. The minority view held that consumer response to advertising was non-rational. Scott supported the minority view. Suggestion was the dominant theoretical concept in the analysis of social influence. Every normal person, Scott thought, was subject to the influence of suggestion; and suggestion, not reason, was the primary determinant of human action.

Effective advertising must implant the thought of purchasing the product in the mind of the consumer without raising interfering thoughts. To help advertisers achieve this goal, Scott assessed the relevance of what was then known about basic psychological functions, including memory, feeling, sympathy, instinctive action, volition, habit, and attention, to the design of advertisements that would maximize the power of suggestion and minimize interference.

II

Scott emphasized that four principles: repetition, intensity (e.g., use of vivid colors, placement in the initial or final position in the publication, request for action such as filling out a postcard), association value (especially with the reader's personal interests and motives), and ingenuity (e.g., choice of names reflective of the nature of the product) increase the memorability of an advertisement.

Feeling was discussed in terms of pleasure and pain and their effects on suggestibility: 'In pleasure our minds expand. We become extremely suggestible, and are likely to see everything in a favorable light. In pain we refuse to receive suggestions, are not easily influenced, and are in a suspicious attitude toward everything which is proposed. To be successful, therefore, advertising must be designed to elicit pleasure in the reader'; and, in this regard, Scott discussed 'the significance of such simple laws as that of proportion and symmetry in accomplishing the desired result.'

Sympathy, for Scott, was 'a mental attitude which is induced by the realization of the fact that someone else is going through that particular form of experience. In general, the greater the perceived similarity between the reader and those seen pictured in an advertisement, the greater the degree of sympathy elicited by an advertisement; and the greater the sympathy, the higher the likelihood that the advertisement would influence the reader through the power of suggestion.

In analyzing the relevance of instinctive action to advertising, Scott introduced the issue of motivation. Effective advertising, according to him, had to appeal to individual interests or motives. These included interest in property, food, clothing, constructing, and enhancement of the social, moral, intellectual, or aesthetic self.

III

Examining the nature of volition Scott argued that advertisers wishing to ensure that decision making favored purchase of their product should bring the product 'before the public in such a manner that the idea of it will be clear and distinct in the minds of potential purchasers'. They should inform the public of exactly what is necessary to secure the product; and they should present the product in such a manner that its value seems great and its purchase desirable.

Scott emphasized the importance for the advertiser of inducing 'the public to get the habit of using his particular line of goods. When the habit is once formed it acts as a great drive-wheel and makes further action easy in the same direction. To establish a habit, advertising must be extensive; to maintain the habit, it must be continued'.

In discussing attention, Scott claimed that 'the power of any object to compel attention depends upon the absence of counter attraction', especially of the attention value of large versus small advertisements, concluding that, all other things being equal, attention value varies with the size of the advertisement (e.g., a full page advertisement elicited more attention than two half-page advertisements).

Discussing basic mental functions in relation to advertising effectiveness, Scott paid attention to the impact of street railway advertising, the use of the questionnaire method, and the applicability of laws of progressive thinking to advertisers. These topics covered virtually everything that was then known about the application of psychology to advertising. Scott's work was influential; within only a few years, the non-rational approach to advertising, which had been a minority view when Scott entered the field, had become the mainstream perspective.

AFTER-READING TASKS 1. Match the following words:

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