However, there are many different kinds of "wants", not all of them powerful motivators. For example, I want a super powerful computer but not badly enough to actually buy one.
"Needing" something is a much more powerful motivation. And the distance between a "want" and a "need" is very short. Part of an advertiser's job is to convince you that you need something, not just want it.
Once a need has been established, advertising nirvana is to make consumption a "habit" rather than a conscious choice.
"She knew that over the past decade, many companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors - habits - among consumers. These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking, often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues."
Advertisers are now trying to create that "need" by appealing to potential consumers as young as one year old.
"Is it right to advertise to children?" said Dave Siegel, president of WonderGroup, a Cincinnati-based youth marketing agency. "The parents we talk to feel it's very appropriate."
As Generation Xers became parents, attitudes towards advertising changed, Siegel said. Parents these days ask their kids what they want, rather than the other way around. Sixty-nine percent of mothers said it makes their shopping easier when their child knows what brand he or she likes, according to the 2003 Yankelovich Youth Monitor, a survey consisting of in-person interviews with 1,080 mothers.
"Mom's not lazy. Mom's smart. She doesn't want to waste time and money," Siegel said. "Mom will take the child to the store and the child will point. Given that's how parents are, I think it's appropriate for advertisers to market to children at a younger age."
People consume to establish who they are as individuals.
1) The products we use, the media we consume, even the ideas we hold establish who we are.
This Heineken ad makes this point and suggests that, in the future, ads will be beamed directly into the minds of consumers.
2) The product or the product's spokesperson can become a role model.
In the Breck ad on the right, the mother is the role model. However, it's the shampoo that defines her and her little girl.
In the ad campaign below, the fictional spokesperson is presented as a role model. Consuming this product establishes we're the same kind of individual.
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