.

Early theories about advertising suggested that advertising only works by people responding to advertising in a logical, rational and cognitive manner.

It also suggests that people only take out a utilitarian aspect from advertising messages (cleans better, smells fresher).

Image courtesy of Procter & Gamble

This is obviously not true and there is certainly a strong case for the use of emotion in advertising in order to influence and change attitudes through the affective component of the attitudinal construct. 

 In practice. An emotional Marks and Spencer revival 

 Most advertised brands are not normally new to consumers as they have some experience of the brand, whether that be through use or just through communications. This experience affects their interpretation of advertising as memories have already been formed.

The role of feelings in the way ads work suggests a consumerist interpretation of how advertising works rather than the rational, which is much more a researchers’ interpretation (Ambler, 1998).

Consumers view advertising in the context of their experience of the category and memories of the brand.

Aligned with this approach is the concept of likeability, where the feelings evoked by advertising trigger and shape attitudes to the brand and attitudes to the advertisement (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999).

Feelings and emotions play an important role in advertising especially when advertising is used to build awareness levels and brand strength.

Most of the models presented later in this chapter are developed on the principle that individuals are cognitive processors and that ads are understood as a result of information processing.

The best examples of these are the hierarchy of effects or sequential models where information is processed step by step.

This view is not universally accepted. Researchers such as Krugman (1971), Ehrenberg (1974), Corke and Heath (2004) and Heath and Feldwick (2007) dispute the importance of information processing, denying that attention is necessary for people to understand ads and that the creativity within an ad is more important in many circumstances, than the rational message the ad purports to deliver.

References to this section

Compare an emotional approach to a rational approach

What is the dominant emotion in your campaign?