Marketing Motivators

THE EXTREME MOTIVATORS – Nenad Apostoloski

The purpose of advertising is to get consumers to think about or react to the product or company in a certain way. People will react only if they believe they will benefit from doing so. Thus, developing an effective message strategy begins with identifying customer benefits that can be used as advertising appeals.

The advertiser also must choose a tone for the ad. The marketer has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce the desired response. There are three types of appeals: rational, emotional, and moral. Emotional appeals attempt to stir up either negative or positive emotions that can motivate purchase. Communicators may use emotional appeals ranging from love, joy, and humor to fear and guilt. Advocates of emotional messages claim that they attract more attention and create more belief in the sponsor and the brand.

The idea is that consumers often feel before they think, and persuasion is emotional in nature.

1. Shock (things that frightens you: bugs, death, fire blood etc)

When a consumer is presented with a shock advertisement, no matter the medium of the delivery, the content due to its striking nature manages to break through advertising clutter and grab their attention. According to the selective exposure theory formulated by Joseph Klapper (1960), a person tends to remember only information that he / she found to be interesting, thus automatically removing all the rest. Whilst it has been proven that shock advertisements are more easily remembered, it must also been said that, due to selective exposure theory, certain individuals may decide to filter out the offensive or shocking content of an advert.

Whilst shockvertising creates an immediate viral marketing effect, it has to be noted that, the prolonged association of a brand with a controversial message, may end up damaging the brand itself. Shock certainly helps build awareness, especially with the resultant PR, so it could be used as a...