Isn’t that kind of… I mean, I have to pick one of them, right? Even if I don’t give a rat’s ass how it’s packaged. And whichever one I choose then will necessarily mean I was affected by it’s advertising, whether I choose the plain packaging with the straightforward name, or the fancy one.
I became aware of this in two separate instances.
Many years ago I took a survey where I was asked which brands of cigarettes I would buy. I definitely had opinions. I liked the man’s man brands, and wouldn’t be caught dead with the girly-girl brands. The difference? The name only. They all had plain white wrappers with black sans-serif names. I was surprised that it made so much difference to me. Even though I knew that they were exactly the same, I still had preferences.
The other was a study done to compare Christian Brother’s brandy to E&J. It was a blind taste test. And they tasted nearly identical. Know which one tasted better? The one in the fancy bottle.
I wanted to vote “Yes, although I’m probably not aware of it”, and plumped for the first option. I’m afraid I’m in the “you’re deluding yourself if you think it doesn’t work” camp. I think the objectors are focusing too much on the conscious buying decisions they make and thinking “hell no, I made that decision with my own mind”. And probably if you know a product type and a market very well, you will make an informed decision.
But it’s all those other decisions you make when you’re not really bothered either way - you’re in a rush in the supermarket, and you know you must pick up some product that you rarely buy yourself… so which one to pick? They all look the same. Hmm, that one sounds familiar, I’ll take it.
It’s that kind of decision that advertising really affects, IMO.
I really, honestly don’t think it does affect what I buy. Of course, the media and advertising has some sort of effect on every person exposed to it - but I thought pretty hard about everything I’ve bought in the last week*. Last choice for me.
I never make impulse buys, and every (planned) purchase is made with the attempt to save me the most money while still meeting my standards of aesthetics and quality. Big purchases I research mostly by customer reviews. I almost never eat out, when I do it’s not a chain. And I really don’t buy many things that come in packaging meant to make it more attractive. I choose generics over brand name, unless I know for sure I prefer a brand name stongly (I always use Tide laundry detergent for example - because many laundry detergents make me rashy, and I like the scent of Tide, so don’t find it necessary to experiement to save a couple dollars every 6 months).
*food: which I try to save money on without sacrificing nutrition and taste
*clothing: my first purchase in some months, just a bunch of ‘basics’ - shirts and tights from Forever21 which is notoriously cheap, although for the price the quality is ok - and their size S fits!
*shoes: one pair of nice black flats which I’ve been on the lookout for for months, good brand marked down 75%
*cat litter: cheapest clumping unscented
*paper towels: cheapest generic
*Christmas present for BF: Cuisinart food processor, because that’s exactly what he wants and the machine gets great customer reviews
Yes it does. I won’t buy from a place that has annoying as fuck commercials.
I’m looking at you Geico and Target.
Yes, advertising affects my buying decisions. Usually negatively. For example, I make a note to never do business with any of the companies who spam my fax number.
It absolutely does! I like advertising; it keeps me informed about things I might want.
Just in the last few weeks, off the top of my head:
I saw the new Harry Potter movie, and I totally wouldn’t have if I hadn’t known when it was playing by seeing commercials.
I got a couple of emails advertising discounts and free shipping for companies I regularly buy from, so I checked out their sites to see if I was interested in any of their new lines (and came up with some stocking stuffers!).
I saw that Kohl’s was having a sale and went to look at clothes, buying some new jeans.
I saw an advertisement for a local wine bar, prompting me to restock my wine supplies, AND I made my decisions partially based on the packaging. (I tend to discount the ones with super flashy labels because the plainer ones tend to have better ratings. Not always, but I need some way to weed things out at Total Wine.)
I bought a CD advertised on amazon as something people with similar tastes to mine also bought. I’d never have checked it out otherwise.
There are at least a couple of TV shows I watch regularly that I only heard about through commercials.
I’m sure there are other examples. Advertising is everywhere, and it helps me think about what type of item I want to purchase and tells me about things I didn’t even know existed.
Also, it’s spelled “advertising”. With an s.
A lot of things inspired me to start this thread, and aluminum foil is one of them. I think I’ve always bought Reynold’s Wrap. I couldn’t even tell you what other brands exist. I’m sure that name recognition had a lot to do with it. But not long ago I had to buy some more, and the store I went to didn’t have that brand. I got some off brand instead.
Bad mistake. It was crap.
Reynold’s Wrap has my loyalty for life.
Ah, yes, I see. I have to think about this. I usually have a brand preference based on experience (like you, Reynold’s for life!).
Okay, so in my current location I buy 20 liters of water at a time in plastic carboys. There are two brands, and they’d probably not be happy with my declaring that I don’t know what either brand is. One is a blue carboy, the other is pinkish-peach. I initially bought the blue one, because, well, I’m a guy. But I started buying the pink one when I realized that one of grocery stores won’t take blue ones back (they’re exchanged, like CO2 tanks would be in the USA).
Actually, you’ve made me realize that this portion of your question is a very, very good one, because I’m in a country where almost none of the brands have any meaning to me!
Another example is bread. I don’t know the brand of multi-grain sandwhich bread I buy, except that I know that it’s not Wonder or Bimbo (Bimbo is like Mexican Wonder). For all I know, it could be made by one of them, but they’re branding isn’t present, which is good, because Wonder and Bimbo are good brands for me to avoid.
Most other “off the shelf” stuff I buy is imported, US brands (peanut butter, jam, ice cream, Gatorade). Ah, tuna fish in a can (no envelopes here to speak of). I’m not sure how I make my selection. Mostly looking for albacore in water, and so whichever can doesn’t say “aleta azul en aceite” first gets thrown into the cart.
Isn’t that a US english and British english variant?
I’d like to think advertising doesn’t affect me, but I suppose it does in small ways, like a candy, soft drink, soup that I’ve seen an ad for and that I think I might like. I have shockingly little brand loyalty and put things in my cart according to what’s the best price, most of the time. Store brands are fine with me, I can’t see paying $1.50 more for a package of butter. Whole grain bread, milk, soda - unless I get a specific request from the family, I buy what I usually buy. Not in the market for cars, jewelry, watches, athletic wear, boots. When it comes time to buy something, I like to read about whatever online first and get some basic information, no matter what advertisements say.
I checked off “no”, though of course it’s not absolute. Most of what I buy is generics, but I do respond to informative advertisement (as opposed to persuasive), and I’ve also been known to respond to targeted advertising (which is in some sense informative, also). For example, I’ve read a few books because of Amazon recommendations: Amazon provides me with the information that a lot of people who liked X, Y, and Z also like W, and I take it from there.
Yes, you are right, and I never thought of it that way!
I am highly advertising resistant.
Of course it does, if for no other reason than it puts the name in my head, so I’ll recognize the product. That doesn’t mean I’ll buy it, but it’s far more likely that I’ll notice it on the shelf, giving that manufacturer the advantage.
And of course what you read about a product is frequently a by-product of advertising, or, more accurately, marketing/PR. The company puts out press releases and chat up the journalists (who they know personally), who decide whether to discuss/review their products based on that info, often lifting comments directly from the press releases. It’s all advertising, just more subtle. Journalists are generally pretty lazy - they don’t go out hunting for new products, they more likely just sift through the press releases.
People who reject advertising as some great evil are really missing the point. Every company needs to promote their product in some way, whether it’s above-the-line TV commercials, artful packaging solutions, product placement, subtle PR campaigns, competitions, direct marketing or whatever. But there’s nothing wrong with that, if they didn’t promote their products, no one would know they existed.
I chose “Yes, and I’m very aware of it” - however, as several other people above have either alluded to or outright stated, sometimes an advertisement will cause me to be more aware of a product (and thus more likely to buy it), and sometimes a (bad) ad will make me aware of a product thereby ensuring that I will never buy it.
So – ad people? Remember that at least some of us can be negatively affected by yout ads.
I put “yes”, but that’s usually in the first few years that I’m buying a certain kind of product, when I don’t have any personal knowledge about which option is going to work best for me.
Once I have some experience I usually settle down on one brand that works the best for me, and am pretty well immune to further advertising on the subject.
I used to be susceptible to packaging glamour on things, but maybe it’s the wisdom that comes with age… I just don’t care much anymore. I know what I like and I use it.
Everyone is influenced by advertising, even those people who avoid it whenever possible. My favorite example is shaving. If you are a woman who shaves her armpits or a man who wouldn’t date a woman who doesn’t shave her armpits then you are impacted by advertising because society was impacted by advertising. Razor companies in 1910-1915 put out ads encouraging women to shave under their arms and now women who don’t shave are considered gross and unclean.
The brands of the different foods you eat while at restaurants and other people’s homes is impacted by advertising. The brand of dental floss your dentist uses when you go in for your cleaning is impacted by advertising. The gifts you’ve been given over the years have all been susceptible to the giver being impacted by advertising. The brand of lawnmower your landscaper uses is impacted by advertising. Even if you conciously avoid making any decisions for yourself based on advertising it still has a noticable impact on your life.