How People Use Advertising — And How to Understand it

Abstract

The key question is what people do with advertising rather than the more traditional ‘what does advertising do to people’. Advertising transforms products into brands. What a brand is to people is culturally determined. It differs with cultures. Research which looks at how people use advertising must examine what they expect from a product field, what conventions they associate with it and what evaluative judgements they make.

Brands have functional messages. But they also communicate messages about the user, about the manufacturer, about the role of the brand. Today's consumers are more creative and sophisticated. They need more creative research techniques which will also best suit the needs of creative people.

Defining the precise rote of advertising helps link the brief with the evaluation.