Movie Analysis Essay on The Persuaders

Introduction

The Persuader is a documentary that explores the different cultures in marketing and how they have influenced what people buy and how it has changed their view about the world around them. It further examines how marketing practices are influencing American politics. The documentary is organized in two parts where the first one looks at ways advertisers have broken the barriers in trying to look for new ways to reach the prospective buyers (Goodman, Goodman, Soenens, Rushkoff, Ark Media, 2004). It addresses the changes in the advertisement from a time when there was an observable difference between products, where the main aim of the advertisement was to stress the use of the product. To a period when an advertisement has become a means through which business stress on the image of their product due to the similarity that exist in the current products that are produced. The Persuaders is a documentary that opens up a new perspective of advertisement and how firms can structure their adverts in ways that can persuade their customers, which can be best understood through an analysis of the documentary.

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The documentary tries to unravel the reasons why the advertisement methods have become complicated consumers have never been resistant to the advertisement. Advertisements are now days everywhere because each company is fighting for space in the market (Goodman et al.,2004). There are many players in a given industry, and every player is trying to have a share of the market by designing products that can be appealing to potential consumers. Firms are moving away from past aspects of advertisements such as the use of televisions especially during specific programs to advertise products they would like to sale. The FRONTLINE follows the trend to evaluate the reasons from for its preference among advertisers. It helps in understanding the reason behind the prevalence in advertisements that are blended with entertainment.

According to the documentary, advertisements are increasingly incorporating elements that enhance emotional attachment to be able to attract customers. Emotional attachments play a significant role in the success of an ad. Emotions control consumers purchase behaviors, and as such, most consumers tend to develop an emotional attachment to specific product guided by the advertisement that is designed for marketing the products (Sung, Vanman, Hartley & Phau, 2016). Thus, advertisers are looking for ways to makes their audience feel they are part of them by ensuring that adverts are in line with individuals' interest and passion. According to Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi advertisement, emotional attachment can enhance loyalty and win over new customers. The FRONTLINE shows late shifts being adopted in advertisement known as the branded entertainment, which is a shift from the old act of marketing products in a given television show to the fusion between advertisement and entertainment.

One part of the documentary that I find confusing is that advertisements are majoring on the promotion of the brand image and not the product. In the example provided of the whiskey by Ogilvy, he stresses on the brand image as the driver of advertisement and fails to recognize that the example he gives does not include feet in all scenarios. Although consumers might be guided by the brand image of the products they would like to buy, test and preferences also play a significant role in guiding consumers purchase decisions (Zhang, 2015). The success of the products and advertisement also depends on the type of product. Some adverts are stressing on the brand image is the primary key driver of the success of the advertisement, while there are others which emphasis on the contents of the products as the reason behind the success of the adverts.

The previous advertisements were mainly involved in the creation of advertisements myths to help create a brand image for the products. The current advertisement only realizes success following a critical study of the market to understand the consumers' purchase behavior (Sung et al.,2016). The advertisements that major on the differences in the products require more research through studying the reasons behind consumers' purchases. Therefore, even the previous advertisements involved researching the market to ascertain the key drivers of that particular market so that, before the adverts are conducted to strengthen its awareness, it is produced in line with customers' tastes and preferences. Once the products meet consumer demands, then it becomes easier for the advertisements to succeed.

The most useful thing captured in the documentary is that it creates and shares the experience of the most influential persons in the business world. It also helps in understanding how advertisement has evolved and how an organization should structure their advertisements in orders to be persuasive to the potential customers. The other important aspect about the documentary is that it creates a clear connection between advertisement and emotions through providing accounts of how emotion has used as the primary driver of most ads that are currently being conducted. For instance, to effectively fuse emotion in advertisements, then it should be blended with entertainment through studying the target market and coming up with ways through which an advertisement can be designed in a way that it can capture the potential person's emotions towards the product.

The article does not extensively touch on the differences that might exist between advertisements. Advertisement depends on several things, and as such, the documentary fails to touch on the differences that might exist and what informs the reason behind the differences. Therefore, although most firms are moving towards emotional advertising, some products can be well advertised through stressing on the contents of the products, for instance, food products can be bought if the contents of the product sole are used as the main component in the advertisement. Most consumers purchase food products depending on their nutritional contents. Downplaying the content of the products means that organizations are longer tailoring the products to meet the consumers' tastes and preferences which is not the case.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the persuaders offer new information that helps advertisers structure their messages in ways that can persuade customers. Considering the role that emotions play in consumers purchase behavior, advertisements need to major on emotions to be able to win customers trust on the products. The shift in an ad from ones that major on the products to ones that focus on what the products mean is the reason behind stressing on advertisements on brand image. Through the accounts of some of the major's players in the industry, the documentary is informative and can help advertisers in carrying out adverts that are persuasive and can help business win more customers, as well as, retain the old ones.

References

Sung, B., Vanman, E. J., Hartley, N., & Phau, I. (2016). The emotion of interest and its relevance to consumer psychology and behaviour. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 24(4), 337-343. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1441358216302130

Zhang, Y. (2015). The impact of brand image on consumer behavior: a literature review. Open journal of business and management, 3(1). Retrieved from http://m.scirp.org/papers/53297

Goodman, B., Goodman, R. D., Soenens, M., Rushkoff, D., Ark Media (Firm), WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.), & PBS Home Video. (2004). The persuaders. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video. Retrieved from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16kgyk