Liking Advertising

YA FANG

Faced with competition，the firms have come to realise the importance of advertising.The extent of advertising can be seen in numerous poster，TV and newspaper campaigns of companies as diverse as pet food manufacturers and merchant bankers.Over the years， advertising has been defined many ways.Currently， it is defined that advertising is a paid nonpersonal communication from an identified sponsor，using mass media to persuade or influence an audience.Therefore，advertising is a method to help the organisation to achieve communication objectives.

‘Liking advertising is important for helping to achieve its communication objectives，whether liking advertising is necessarily more successful or not.The argument is based on how a company measures advertising effectiveness will be looked by discussing two aspects that liked advertising is necessarily more successful and liking the advertising is not necessary.The example will be applied through the essay to support arguments.

There is a growing interest in an area of advertising likeability，as it has been suggested that for advertising to be effective it must be ‘liked by its consumers （Waller，2004）.The three main points will be made as following.Firstly，the ‘liking advertising is helpful for an organisation to make consumers to pay more attention on its brand and products.Consumers like an advertisement may because the advertisement is humoured；colourful or meaningful and so on.Secondly，the liking advertising could change or influence attitudes.Its aim is to persuade people to buy product x instead of product y.Thus attitude is an important factor for consumers to make purchasing decision.Thirdly，sales performance could be easily influenced by liking advertising，as liking advertising could change or influence attitudes.Hence it is concluded that advertising likeability results in brand liking， which in turn leads to sales.Therefore，liking advertising may lead to brand liking and preference，this subsequently translates into sales.

Rossiter and Percy （1997） argued that liking may or may not be important，depending on the position occupied by the product in a complex matrix of consumer needs，motives for purchase，and financial or psycho-social risks.Many opposing points provide grounds upon which to doubt about the ‘chicken and egg nature of contentious relationship between liking and brand attitude.But there is no doubt to be taken into consideration，subsequently exerting an influence over the final decision （Waller，2004）.

Here example is to provide a Chinese advertisement of Pantene Pro-V product of Smooth and Sleek Shampoo and interview 6 housemates of mine about attitudes of this advertising.First of all，Ziyi Zhang need to be introduced，she was invited to act in this advertisement.It is well known that she once played a role in a film，which called Crouching Tiger，Hidden Dragon.Secondly，my interview questions are：do you like this advertisement？If you like，give the reason.Are you going to buy the product？Give the reason.Six respondents are all from China.That means we have the same culture background.There are 2females and 4males in the house.Two people do not like the advertising at all because they are not interested in this kind of advertising.The rest of them think it is attractive.The reasons are one of them likes ZiyiZhang more than the brand；one likes the product because this product is suitable for her hair.Two originally prefer this brand.However， only two of them will buy and try the product.Three of males thought Pantene Pro-V product is better and suitable for female using.One is more interested in an actress of the advertising but not product，so he might buy this product.It can be seen that 6 people prefer originality or an actor/actress of this advertising rather than products.This is uncertain for them to buy products.So advertising which is liked does not mean the product which is liked.

As discussed above，liking advertising is an important factor，which can not be ignored for helping the organisation to achieve its communication objectives.But advertising which is liked is not meant necessarily more successful.Liking advertising helps an organization to gain more attention on its brand and products.Though liking advertising can easily change consumer attitudes and possibly increase sales，the successful advertising is measured by lots of factors not only by sale amount or liking factors.Therefore，advertising is one of the most visible components of the marketing communication mix.Whatever liking or disliking advertising，they influence consumer undoubtedly than uncared.Both the liking and disliking attitude，the customer reflected to the message of advertising，the liking attitude may lead to brand awareness，brand loyalty，and sale increase，on the other hand，disliking attitude may affect sale performance.

References：

[1]Fill，C.Marketing Communications：Frameworks，Theories and Applications[J].Prentice Hall，London，1995.

[2]Biel，A.and Bridgwater，C.Attributes of likable television commercials[J].Journal of Advertising Research，Vol.30，No.3，June/July， 1990：38–44.

【作者簡介】YA FANG， School of Foreign Languages， Northwest University.