Advertising and Consumer Decisions
Objectives:
Describe the different types of advertising
Explain the difference between deceptive advertising and puffery
Types of Advertising
 Brand Advertising
 Informative Advertising
 Comparative Advertising
 Defensive Advertising
 Persuasive Advertising
Brand Advertising
 The purpose of the advertisement is to cause you to
remember a particular brand name.
 If you remember, you buy
Jingles and Slogans
Benefits – consistency
Costs – Increase to pay for Ads
-Brand name vs. Generic
Informative Advertising
 Purchasing by learning
and Safety features)
 Consumer needs to be informed
before a decision can be made
 Still, the purpose is to sell you
something
 You will never hear downsides,
or alternatives
(Cars
Comparative Advertising
 Comparing one product with a direct competitor
 Advertisers make their product more appealing once
again without mentioning any of the downside
 Typically tell you a competitors weakness
Defensive Advertising
 Typically used to counter attacks from Comparative ads
 When are these types of ads most prominent?
 Cell phone commercials (focus groups)
Persuasive Advertising
 Try to appeal to consumers emotions
 Try to create a desire in the consumer to buy
 Often use attractive people who appear happy because
of the product they are using.
 What are these ads
trying to sell?
Why Advertise?
• Businesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars every
year on advertising
• We as consumers ultimately pay for the ads
• Advertising costs are built into the prices we pay
• Businesses feel advertising increases sales which in
turn increases profits for that business
Cost of a 30 second commercial
SOURCE:
http://adage.com/
2013 Cost of a 30 Second Advertisement
10. Two and a Half Men…………………………… $247,261
9. Two Broke Girls……………………………………. $269,235
8. The Big Bang Theory………………………………$275,543
7. Family Guy………………………………………….$276,690
6. Simpsons…………………………………………….$286,131
5. American Idol Thursday…………………………. $296,062
4. New Girl……………………………………………..$320,940
3. Modern Family……………………………………..$330,908
2. American Idol Wednesday…………………….. $340,825
1. Sunday night football…………………………….$545,142
30 second super bowl ad…........ $3,800,000
SOURCE: ADAGE.COM
Deceptive Ads vs. Puffery
 Puffery - Innocent exaggerations used to sell products
 Deceptive Ads - Contain factually wrong statements
 Government has power to stop false advertising