Acknowledgements We would like to express our gratitude to the following persons
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- Part three-reflection on our conclusions
- Bibliography
Part two-summarising the resultsIn this final part of the synthesis we will summarise our findings and draw some conclusions. Since a lot of different dimensions have surfaced when answering the research questions we will, in order to clarify, present the conclusions with the help of the following box.
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- Post-modern advertising Traditional advertising Fig 6.1 This figure summarises the advantages and drawbacks with the two different types of advertising as perceived by our focus groups. The figure shows our main findings in this study. The +/- stands for positive and negative expressions among the focus group participants. The post modern advertising/ traditional adverting refers to the type of ads shown. As seen in the figure above and concluded in our research questions, there is no clear picture in this study to say whether post-modern advertising is perceived as more trustworthy or cool. It seems as if it considered a bit more trustworthy and funny. But this is a truth with many dimensions. The post-modern ads has higher credibility seen from a branding perspective where the company name gain respect since it is not seen as symbol of power that is trying to manipulate the consumer. On the other hand, people perceived the post-modern ads as confusing and unconnected which made the understanding of the actual product harder. This damages credibility since the company is sometimes suspected of hiding product quality behind a cool image. Humour and a playful attitude in the ads was important to reduce the feeling of manipulation. It seems like this is the most powerful tool the brands can use to avoid being seen as symbols of power. But it has to be done in a natural way and not to obvious. People do not want to be told when to laugh. The post-modern ads are funny to watch and provocative to the mind. This makes the ad easier to remember, since the individual has to engage deeper than if the message was more like in the classical ads, which we already have seen so many of. The disadvantages in would likely be that the post-modern ads confront the audience with an often very unconnected and confusing message. It is not always so easy to understand what product the ad concerns. The product itself is very often loosely connected with the message in the ad. Our focus groups showed that many people who liked the post-modern ads also liked the classical ones. Mainly because of the easy concept and visibility of the product. It seems like the classical-/ modern kind of advertising has such a strong advantage in the comprehension stage, that it will continue to compete successfully with the post-modern kind. Even when it comes to advertising towards younger people. Part three-reflection on our conclusionsHaving summarised our results we would like to end our study with some reflection on our conclusions. The purpose of this study is to find out whether a special type of advertising called post-modern advertising is perceived differently than the traditional type of advertising. In this part we want to take a final look at the results and se how the results might add to our knowledge of how young " fashion" consumers are perceiving the messages of the so called post-modern adds, and what kind of an impact these ads have on the consumers. According to our results we can not state that the message of the so called post-modern ads are more impressive, and in the case of purchase decisions, more effective than traditional advertising. With a reference to our focus group studies we feel that we can make a statement of which ones of the post-modern conditions, presented in the theory, were supported and which ones were not supported. The focus groups showed that hyperreality do exist in the mind of the consumer. This is obvious to us, both when it comes to traditional advertising and to the kind that tries to address the typical post-modern consumer. The image of the brand is more important than quality or features of the product. Paying for the image means paying for the hyper real feeling, which is realised through the product. The consumer buys into a hyper reality when judging a brand simply by its image. For example, some of our participants felt that when choosing between two identical products in every aspect, except for the label on it, they would favour the more expensive one, simply because the liked the name on it. We can only interpret this as a willingness to buy into something that is hyper real. In order words the value is created within the mind of the consumer. The focus groups also showed that people will try to use different ways and means to reduce a feeling of manipulation and empower themselves as consumers. Finally the focus groups showed that paradoxical juxtapositioning of opposites was seen as exiting, new, intelligent and funny. The focus groups also showed that Chaos seemed to irritate the audience in most cases and was not perceived as being positive. Openness and tolerance was not as present as expected. People had difficulties in accepting very radical and provocative messages. We can see that even though some of the post-modern conditions were not supported by our focus groups it is still possible to make some exciting reflections on how companies can use our findings. We can se that the so called post-modern ads becomes trustworthy and entertaining as long as the message is understandable. By using the post-modern, not so obvious forms of communication, the companies risk that the message is not observed because of confusion. On the other hand, they gain the great advantage of empowering the consumer by making her or him believe that he or she is in charge of the purchase decision. This type of advertising is obviously seen as less manipulative by the consumers who gain some empowerment since the companies seem to be on the same level as the consumer, not only dictating the rules. When the message is not understandable, the post-modern ads becomes irritating and confusing. We can state that humour and irony do have a positive impact on how the message is perceived. Traditional ads were sometimes perceived as manipulative, when they were interpreted as a saga, to idealistic and harmonic in its message. This did not mean that these ads were seen as totally uninteresting or boring, but only as less fun and a bit to manipulative. We can see that willingness to escape manipulation is an important factor for accepting the message of an ad. Having conducted this study, we feel that the most powerful ingredient in the post-modern theory is the concept of empowerment. The post-modern theorists, like Fuat, Clifford and Shultz, that we refer to in this study, claim that the willingness to escape manipulation through empowerment is one of the most important characteristics of the post-modern consumer. W.F. van Raaij, another researcher included in this study, claims that the social classes are not present in the post-modern society. Here society is a para-class of cognitariat. Anyone can challenge the symbols of power. In the modern/ industrial society, the symbols of power was the nation state. Now the symbols of power are the multinational corporations that operates in the global economy. ( Kumar 1997) The figure below tries to illustrate how the symbols of power in society has changed from being the nation state in the modern era, to becoming the large corporation in the post- modern era. Therefore the manipulation in the post-modern society comes from the large corporations and not from the nation state, as in the modern era. 
  
               
Humour / Irony The Nation state The corporation The modern era The post-modern era Fig. 8.1 shows how humour is used as a weapon to escape manipulation by the citizen/ consumer. Humour and irony has always been one of the most popular weapon against the symbols of power. Kings, dictators and other rulers of the nation states have always been subject to satire and sarcasm from the people they govern. The weapon of humour is nowadays directed toward the new symbols of power - the multinational corporations. This is an attempt by the consumer to escape manipulation and empower him- or herself, by not buying into the messages dictated by the symbols of power. We think that companies like Diesel try to avoid this by using humour and self irony in their advertising, simply to avoid being seen as a manipulative symbol of power. If the advertising is obviously already self ironic this reduces the sense of being manipulated, instead the consumers feels they have been given the opportunity of a free choice. By being self ironic, the company risk something by lowering their guard, thereby empowering the consumer and gaining their confidence in the market. Thus, companies can gain credibility by having the courage to risk some of the power they posses toward the consumer. This can be done by being ironic about themselves as symbols of power. It can also be done by communicating in an open an honest way, no matter the short time effects on sales. The consumer expect the companies to produce a false fairytale. If the company instead is being honest, it might not be such a great story, but at least it is more likely to be believed by the audience. Consumers today feel targeted by advertising, and information all in all. This means companies have an option to limit their advertising, at least through mass media, in order to give the consumer a feeling of freedom of choice. Still, the companies can use different and more subliminal forms of advertising, like providing celebrities with their products, providing sponsorships for clubs and parties. . BibliographyAaker, Kumar, Day (1995) Marketing research Prentice-Hall Andersson Sten (1979) Positivism kontra hermeneutik MINAB, Surte 1979 Bauman Zygmunt (1997) Postmodernity and its discontents Great Britain: Tj Press Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Branthwaite A. & Swindels A. (1997) Capturing the complexity of advertising perceptions Marketing and research today, May 1997 Brown S. (1993) Postmodern marketing? European journal of marketing vol 27 no: 4 Davis Fred ( 1992) Fashion, Culture and identity Chicago USA: University of Chicago Press Engdahl Horace, Ola Holmberg, Roland Tysen, Arne Melberg & Anders Olsson (1977) Hermeneutik Rabén & Sjögren Fuat, F & Clifford J. Shultz II (1997) From segmentation to fragmentation European Journal of Marketing no. 3/4 1997 Fuller K. & Thygsen F. (1998:20) Complacency kills - protecting Levi's cool mindshare Journal of consumer research Gillepsie Marie (1995) Television ethnicity and cultural change first published in London: Routledge 1995 Gorz A. ( 1989) Critique of economic reason Verso 1989 Green. P, Tull D., Albaum G, (1988) Research for marketing desisions Prentice-Hall Hamilton Jack (1989) Vad du behöver veta om marknadsundersökningar E.S.O.M.A.R Hebdige D. (1988) Hiding in the light: on images and things. Routledge Hollis Martin ( 1994) The philosophy of science Great Britain: Cambridge University Press Kotler Philip (1997) Marketing management Prentice Hall Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, Wong (1996) Principles of marketing Prentice Hall K. Kumar (1997) From post-industrial to post modern society Blackwell and Publichers inc. Lampugiani Vittorio Magnano, 20th century architecture, Thames and Hudson Lantz Annika (1993) Intervjumetodik Studenlitteratur Lucie-Smith Edward (1984), Art Terms, Thames and Hudson Mackay, Edward.S (1994) The marketing Mystique: Ama Com Mowen John C.& Minor Michael (1998) Consumer Behaviour Prentice-Hall International inc. Patel Runa & Tebelius Ulla (1987) Grundbok i forskningsmetodik Lund: Studentlitteratur Starrin Bengt & Svensson Per-Gunnar (1994) Kvalitativ metod och vetenskapsteori Lund: Studentlitteratur W. Fred van Raaij (1993) Postmodern consumption, Journal of Economic Psychology 14(1993). Yakhlef, Ali ( 1998) Mapping the consumer - subject in Advertising, working paper School of Business, Stockholm University 1 We do not refer to empowerment in the wider sense that it is often used in social science such as political science and economics. Download 201.4 Kb. Share with your friends:
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