Attitudes and Persuasive Communication in Marketing
How advertisers manipulate our attitude about products in order to sell.
Advertisers manipulate our attitudes with a number of different techniques. There are four functional theories about attitudes according to Michael R. Solomon.
The first of which is utilitarian, which relates to the basic principles of reward and punishment. A consumer will develop these feelings simply because they either provide pleasure or pain. Second, is value-expressive. This theory relates how a person views themselves and how buying a product can change the consumer's mood and or values. There is also the ego-defensive theory, and this is when a person feels threatened by external factors or internal feelings so they either buy a product to deflect the image that others have on them. Think of the kid in class who wants to fit in so they buy an expensive pair of Nike shoes because they were getting roasted about their Skechers, that is a classic ego-defensive theory. Lastly, Solomon defined knowledge as a functional theory about attitude. Knowledge is applied when there is a need for structure, order, or meaning. This attitude function may be applied when encountering a new product (Solomon).
All of these attitudes are important to know as marketers so you may tailor your ads in order to make consumers behave in certain ways. Yet, our college consumer behavior class is more concerned with sharing this information with consumers so that we may better understand how we are marketed to and how advertisements try and manipulate us. One advertising campaign I wanted to discuss in this blog post is that of Coke’s “Orange Vanilla Coke” ad roll-outs.
In a release from the Coca-Cola company on February 8th. Coke stated that Variety-seeking Coca-Cola fans will soon have a new fun-yet-familiar flavor to reach for. The article went on to state how brand director Kate Carpenter wanted to “combine all the Coke variants under a common visual identity and create a campaign that showcased the breadth of the brand.” She went on “What we realized is that we had a diamond in the rough when we looked at our flavors portfolio. The growth of Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke (and their zero calorie variants) has been really strong in recent years even with very limited marketing support (Coke).
Carpenter’s excerpt here suggests that their consumers have a positive utilitarian attitude about flavored coke products. Yet the article states later that despite this growth only 12% of Coke drinkers were reaching for their flavored products. Carpenter stated “This showed us that our fans want choice but are getting it outside the Coke trademark. We knew we had an opportunity to give fans the variety they crave without sacrificing the Coke taste they love” (Coke).
Enter Orange Vanilla Coke. They tested first in Canada and Australia before launching in the US. This launch included a high-speed chase commercial between an orange truck, a vanilla ice cream truck and a coke truck. Whimsical. The commercial is capped off by a soulful female singer belting out a powerful “ORANGE VINALLLAAA COKEE.” That of which has been repeatedly sung and mimicked by consumers all over the states already.
However, this commercial was far from the only way the advertised it, they are also a heavy advertiser for NCAA March Madness. A sporting event that lasts weeks and gages the attention of millions of consumers worldwide.
Coke has done a terrific job of rolling out their new drink by creating a positive persuasive argument as to why people should drink their new beverage, by shaping consumers attitude about the drink with advertisements, and clever well thought out marketing.
Another advertisement that caught my eye recently as attitude shaping and pervasive marketing was the Doritos “Nowitshot” commercial that aired during the Superbowl. The commercial included Chance the Rapper, the Backstreet Boys, and the new Flamin hot version of Doritos. This ad appeals to the utilitarian again (like most food and drink does) but it also focuses on manipulating a person who is value-expressive. Maybe a specific consumer loves Doritos but reaches for flamin-hot Cheetos when in the mood for a spicy snack (I think it is important to state here that Cheetos launched a diss track at Doritos stating that their hot snack was still the goat, way to represent Chester the cheetah.)
It also manipulates ego-defensive theory consumers of all different demographics. The co-lab of the Backstreet Boy’s and Chance the Rapper is sure to gauge the attention of a large number of consumers who like one of those artists if not both. This co-lab could have persuaded consumers who may not even like spicy snacks to trying to new flamin-hot Dorito chip on no other grounds than the quality ad (Chicago Sun-Times).
This is why quality well thought out advertising is essential to any good marketing plan. The ability of a company/brand to market their products, manipulate their consumers and position their product in such a way that consumer is interested well often times lead to commercial success for the product.
So, as consumers, we need to be aware of how we are being marketed too in order to ensure that we are thinking critically about the things we buy and the money we are spending on products
