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About Face: The Secrets of Emotionally Effective Advertising

The Reviewers
Anubhav Anand Mishra, Doctoral Research Scholar, The ICFAI University Dehradun, Dehradun, India

RR2012/2 Review Subject:


About Face: The Secrets of Emotionally Effective Advertising

Dan Hill

Publisher Name:
Kogan Page

Place of Publication:
London

Publication Year2010 ISBN:


978-0-7494-5757-0

Price: US$29.95 Article type:


Review

Pages:

196 pp.

Keywords:

Advertising, Emotion, Customer engagement, Brand, Connectivity

Emerald Journal:

Journal of Consumer Marketing

Volume:

29

Number:

Year:

2012

pp.

164-165

Copyright:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

ISSN:

0736-3761

Advertising does not first get attention then create an emotion. Advertising creates an emotion which results in attention (p. 43). Building on this thought, Hill proposes three new people -centric Ps: passion, purpose, and personality, which are specific to the advertising domain apart from the existing four Ps of marketing. Being on-emotion and secondly, being on-message is what ensures the success of any advertsising campaign and results in product purchases. The bottom line is that emotions rule decision making. This is the essence of the whole book. Although the book is similar to Buyology by Martin Lindstrom in that both are based on the psychology of choice and explain the science and surprise behind how consumers react to ads. Yet, it is unique and has revealed quite specific and actionable take-aways that global blue-chip companies pay astronomical amounts to acquire. The endeavour is the outcome of the author's enormous research on facial coding, and is interspersed with detailed examples and statistical patterns as well as generous citations from other contemporary research. Furthermore, the book has supplemented its views by the use of hands-on, practical interviews from 20 people chosen from around the world. It must also be pointed out that Hill is not afraid of contradicting much prevalent existing theories on how to advertise. About Face is split into ten chapters that are ten commandments (although the author likes to call these rules) that will ensure the creation of interest and increase a brand's stopping power and, in turn, aid in establishing a powerful brand personality. Additionally, these rules will enable the advertisers to enhance brand recall and purchase consideration. Chapter 1: Get physical. Great advertising is something that you see and hear, and today you might also smell, taste and feel it (p. 9). The book starts with the basics of advertising and advises against following the bland status quo of only using the common senses of sight and sound. To achieve s topping power, surprise and connectivity have to be created to stimulate the entire sensory bandwidth. Chapter 2: Keep it simple. After ways of gaining the stopping power, the next advertising goal is, engagement so as to create a substantial and often prolonged emotional interest in an ad. What most often keeps engagement from happening is needles complexity leading to frustration (p. 42). Therefore, there is a need to apply the KISS principle.Chapter 3: Keep it close to home. The third step is to generate likeability and preference through familiarity. The operative emotion is assurance; and the operative term is comfort (p. 45). This chapter states that an advertisement that does not provide what is familiar in an emotional context faces a great risk of failing to resonate.Chapter 4: Focus on faces. In advertising, the human face represents a treasure trove of opportunity to engage the consumers and in turn compel consideration and persuasion. So selecting the right faces (and personalities ) for ads is crucial, and yet nobody to date has really got much of a handle on it (p. 55). Chapter 5: Make it memorable. This chapter explores the ways to make an advertisement memorable. Advertisers shouldn't forget that we encode, store and retrieve what fits most comfortably into an existing mental framework (p. 85). Memorable ads are created only when it is able to leverage emotions. Chapter 6: Relevancy drives connection. This chapter offers insights into the importance of addressing consumer's emotional needs along with utilitarian needs. A goal of advertising must, therefore, be to

make the problem vivid enough that we will be drawn in and ready to accept the offer's value (p. 87). The trick lies in always remembering to sell WIIFM (What's in it for me?) to consumers.Chapter 7: Always sell hope. This chapter convinces readers of the importance of selling hope and the promise of happiness to consumers. But to ensure revenue, the key is to invoke the advertised brand offer as the ultimate solution to our enduring desire for something big, new and positive (p. 103). The chapter makes use of the seven principles of behavioural economics to give insights for the achievement of this goal.Chapter 8: Don't lead with price. This chapter cautions readers against the strategy of advertising about a product having the same quality but with a lower price to imply a notion of greater value to the consumers since this strategy would lead to the perception that since price is falling therefore the quality is declining as well. A price-leading ad approach can prove to be harmful because it robs marketing of emotional hooks such as surprise, hope, engagement, pride and satisfaction (p. 135).Chapter 9: Mirror the target market's values. This chapter emphasizes the need for advertisers to have empathy towards the consumers. Advertising should mirror the values, beliefs and attitudes of the target market as much as possible (p. 151). This is so because values reflect beliefs that are the essence of selfhood.Chapter 10: Believability sticks. This chapter is about the persuasion and purchase intention that is created by advertisements. The answer to this lies in trust. Only trust can overcome either innate or learned skepticism and lead to persuasion (p. 169). Successful emotional advertisements tend to get the audience empathetically involved.This book is a lively and easy-to-read guideline on what to do and what to avoid so as to ensure the success of an advertisement. I liked this book and feel it is invaluable for advertising professionals. Academicians and students can also make extensive use of the book as it has a vast repository of well researched notes along with an index, photos, graphs, diagrams and charts as well as a summary at the end of each chapter to aid in quick comprehension. Simply said this book is what a marketing book should be!

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