Effect of Advertising on Consumer Buying Behavior

Every organization, or rather, Brand, invests a lot of capital on marketing, a major chunk of which is spent on making ads. Getting an iconic celeb like Amitabh Bachchan to speak about a product like Navratna Hair Oil, it seems like a piece of cake nowadays. But, to how much extent does these ads actually affect the consumers? Do they actually buy a product just because their favourite film-star is endorsing it? Is it possible that a product can change its image on the consumers overnight, just because of the flashy ad they just released?

If we go by theories, there are lot many factors that influence a customer to make a purchase, and advertising is just one small part of a parameter called Psychology. Some of the more influential factors are like:

Need of the Product – Considering the market scenario of today (I am talking about inflation), we consumers hardly buy anything when we don’t need it.

Affordability – It is not an uncommon sight when a man sighs looking at an expensive brand of shaving cream and goes for the cheaper brand.

Brand Image and Loyalty – Very few Surf Excel users would like to opt for a brand like Tide or Nirma just because it is cheaper.

Peer group – now this is one factor that does not affect buying as much as it affects buying behavior. Confused? Well, what I meant to say is, we buy a product when we need it, but sometimes, especially when we are buying that particular product for the first time, we need some help with what brand shall we choose. And this is where our peer group comes into picture. It helps us choose a brand when we need a product, but does not tell us when we need that product.

Advertising, it can be said, has a similar effect on our purchasing habits as our peer group does. Nobody jumps in to say “I need that thing” just because the ad that had just been aired on TV is extremely attractive, but yes, sometimes, we may say “let’s try this brand, the ad on TV looks good.”