Sex appeal is often used in advertising to help sell a particular product or service. According to research, sexually appealing content, such as imagery, used for marketing does not need to pertain directly to the product or service in question. Rather, such content is utilized as an attempt to shape or shift brand image held by the consumer. As more companies have adopted the strategy of "sex sells", the prevalence of sexual campaigns has led to controversy. Consumers in society have voiced concern over the techniques and content used to titillate audiences, often stemming from the fact that such ads challenge conventional morals and cultural standards.
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of this is done by loaning products, especially when expensive items, such as vehicles, are involved. In 2021, the agreements between brand owners and films and television programs were worth more than US$20 billion.
Mass marketing is a marketing strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and appeal the whole market with one offer or one strategy, which supports the idea of broadcasting a message that will reach the largest number of people possible. Traditionally, mass marketing has focused on radio, television and newspapers as the media used to reach this broad audience. By reaching the largest audience possible, exposure to the product is maximized, and in theory this would directly correlate with a larger number of sales or buys into the product.
Marketing Communications refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination. Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate a message to its desired market, or the market in general. It is also in charge of the internal communications of the organization. Marketing communication tools include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, public relations, social media, customer journey and promotion.
In marketing, promotion refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or issue, most of the time persuasive in nature. It helps marketers to create a distinctive place in customers' mind, it can be either a cognitive or emotional route. The aim of promotion is to increase brand awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. It is one of the basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four Ps, i.e., product, price, place, and promotion.
Cosmetic advertising is the promotion of cosmetics and beauty products by the cosmetics industry through a variety of media. The advertising campaigns are usually aimed at women wishing to improve their appearance, commonly to increase physical attractiveness and reduce the signs of ageing.
Interactive advertising uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with consumers and to promote products, brands, services, and public service announcements, corporate or political groups.
Visual pollution refers to the visible deterioration and negative aesthetic quality of the natural and human-made landscapes around people and to the study of secondary impacts of manmade interventions. It also refers to the impacts pollution has in impairing the quality of the landscape, formed from compounding sources of pollution to create the impairment. Visual pollution disturbs the functionality and enjoyment of a given area, limiting the ability for the wider ecological system, from humans to animals, to prosper and thrive within it due to the disruptions to their natural and human-made habitats. Although visual pollution can be caused by natural sources, the predominant cause comes from human sources.
Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising campaign or marketing strategy which uses a celebrity's fame or social status to promote a product, brand or service, or to raise awareness about an issue. Marketers use celebrity endorsers in hopes that the positive image of the celebrity endorser will be passed on to the product's or brand's image. Non-profit organizations also use celebrities since a celebrity's frequent mass media coverage reaches a wider audience, thus making celebrities an effective ingredient in fundraising.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are someone with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok or other online channels. Influencer marketing is when a brand enrolls influencers who have an established credibility and audience on social media platforms to discuss or mention the brand in a social media post. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising.
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development during the 1990s and 2000s changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.
Social network advertising, also social media targeting, is a group of terms that are used to describe forms of online advertising/digital marketing that focus on social networking services. One of the major benefits of this type of advertising is that advertisers can take advantage of the users' demographic information and target their ads appropriately.
Consumer socialization is the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace. It has been argued, however, that consumer socialization occurs in the adult years as well. This field of study is a subdivision of consumer behavior as its main focus is on how childhood and adolescent experiences affect future consumer behavior. It attempts to understand how factors such as peers, mass media, family, gender, race, and culture play an influence in developing customer behavior.
Word-of-mouth marketing differs from naturally occurring word of mouth, in that it is actively influenced or encouraged by organizations. While it is difficult to truly control WOM, research has shown that there are three generic avenues to 'manage' WOM for the purpose of WOMM:
Gender in advertising refers to the images and concepts in advertising that depict and reinforce stereotypical gender roles. Advertisements containing subliminal or direct messages about physical attractiveness and beauty have been of particular interest regarding their impact on men, women, and youth. Gendered advertisements have and continue to shape what is expected of a distinct gender, regarding physique and attitude. Not only are these types of stereotypes present in various forms of media, but they also hold significant weight in everyday life.
Lifestyle changes have been increasing slowly since the introduction of media. Media – films, television shows, magazines, and more recently, the Internet are the main sources of lifestyle influence around the world. Lifestyle changes include how people eat, dress, and communicate. Lifestyle trends have always been influenced by the wealthy and famous, whether they are spotted at leisure or in a paid advertisement. At the dawn of the media age, the newspaper, popular magazines like Life, and TV allowed the general public glimpse lifestyles that before were only available to the imagination. After its creation, the Internet became arguably the most powerful medium for spotting and influencing trends, not just by celebrities but by the average person. The computer era has changed the way people obtain their news, perspectives and communication. Magazines are still popular, but advertisers now often supply a web address where consumers can visit for more information than a print ad can provide. The average American household has two personal computers, making the Internet easily accessible. The rise of user-generated content is exemplified by the fact that anyone with Internet access can create a blog or an online journal, whether personal or commercial, which might detail someone's experience in a new restaurant, a purchased item of clothing or knickknack, or a review to a film. With the advent of the Android phone and its relative ease of uploading photos to social media sites such as Facebook, one can get an idea of how quickly an idea, pub review, or coveted object can be shared. Advertisers have always been privy to the strength of word-of-mouth and have tapped into social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to make their wares known. Douglas Kellner writes, "Radio, television, film, and the other products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge our very identities; our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male or female; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality; and of "us" and "them.""
Media context studies refers to the group of studies investigating “how and which media context variables influence the effects of the advertisements embedded in the context“. Media researchers found that media context affects ad recall, ad recognition, level and nature of ad processing, ad attitude and ad cognitions, brand attitude, and purchase intention.
The International Advertising Association (IAA) is a global association that represents marketers, ad agencies and mass media that carries advertisements. With headquarters in New York, United States, it has chapters in 77 countries. It was founded with the name Export Advertising Association on April 8, 1938 by Thomas Ashwell – a publisher of "Export Trade & Shipper" magazines, along with 12 other managers from the advertising industry in the Harvard Club of New York. Their goal was to exchange information about successful practices in international advertising. In 1954, it adopted its current name.
An annoyance factor, in advertising and brand management, is a variable used to measure consumers' perception level of annoyance in an ad, then analyzed to help evaluate the ad's effectiveness. The variable can be observed or inferred and is a type that might be used in factor analyses. An annoyance effect is a reference to the impact or result of an annoying stimulus, which can be a strategic aspect of an advertisement intended to help a message stick in the minds of consumers. References to annoyance effects have been referred to as annoyancedynamics. While the words "factor" and "effect," as used in the behavioral sciences, have different meanings, in casual vernacular, they have been used interchangeably as synonymous. A more general or umbrella term would simply be advertising annoyance.
Martin Eisend is a German chaired professor of marketing at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.
