Women and Advertisements

Women and Advertisements

Introduction

Advertisement is a way of making a product, service, job vacancy among others known by the public. Such announcements are through mediums such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers or public notices. According to Kumar & Raju (2013), the use of such mediums is effective because they are a vital part of everyone’s day to day life, and society is has become highly dependent on them. Advertisement keeps the public informed, build public opinions as well as formulating agendas.

There is very little, close to non differentiation in the roles that men and women play in advertisements. In the views of Hemmamalini & Kurup (2014), women take up certain roles while men take up others as well, according to the product being advertised. However, when a man takes up an advertising role which is considered feminine, he is assumed to be really desperate for any kind of job. The vice versa also applies to women. It was rampant for women to be asked whether they took up their husbands’ jobs, a question that is really obscure Ha, et al., (2011). This simply meant that men rendered themselves incapable of doing house chores and it was primarily a woman’s area of expertise. The tables have however turned. These days, men and women alike perform the same roles without raising eyebrows and unnecessary questions.

Desires that are subconscious as well as subliminal brought a strong female presence in around the 1900’s. Sometimes the women used in the advertisements are not even relevant to the product or service being advertised (Bordo, 2011). This is just a way to objectify and use women to sell their products and services. For instance, in alcohol and especially beer advertisements, what exactly do women have to do with such products? In essence, more men than women really love alcohol that much. The women in such advertisements are literally objectified and used as a way of attracting the male species and drawing their attention to their products or services.

To add cream onto the cake, women are not only used to attract the male species, they are asked to put emphasis on certain body parts when posing for the advertisement pictures. According to Bordo (2011), they are asked to dress provocatively for such images so as to increase the chances of making high sales on their product. More often than not, fetishism is involved in such images. Women’s bodies are broken down into parts that men are thought to love in order to give room for their imagination to go wild on what could be in the entire body, (Mulvey, 2010). Women are also used to attract other females. For instance, models create certain images which when other females see her in the advertisement, they purchase the product hoping to attain such a body.

One of the effects of using women in advertisements is that it makes women insecure about themselves. Advertisers will therefore find a woman who is considered to have the features that qualify her to be an ideal woman in society (Mulvey, 2012). This helps attract more people in one way or another. This can easily be interpreted as a way of manipulating potential customers into buying their product. Advertisements can be said to be a map that gives definition to a certain territory. For example, in Bordo’s (2011), point of view, through advertisements, people are shown what they can potentially become if they purchase and use the products being advertised.

Abstract

In the popular culture and especially in the advertising industry, the role of women has been domesticated. Many women are featured in advertisements such as cooking, babysitting, house maids as well as sex objects for instance condoms. According to Peden (2013), advertisements were mainly for selling products but as time went by, mediums started objectifying women and using them to sell products. Britton (2012), asserts that the mediums stopped advertising products on literal terms or rather based on what the product contains, and started concentrating on the objects that they use to sell the object. In this situation, a gap is created and it raises the question whether advertising agencies will stop using women in such domesticating roles or they will cease being the subjects of products?

Literature Review

Familiarity

Ballester, Navarro & Sicilia (2012), define familiarity as the number of experiences that have been felt by the consumer, be it product or service related. Such experiences could arise from either the advertisements, one on one with salespersons, trying and consuming the products among others. Peden (2010) is of the opinion that familiarity is almost the same as being knowledgeable about the product. Literature review led to learning that knowledge and familiarity are intertwined and that both of them are brewed when the consumers have personal experiences with the product, service or brand.

            When a consumer is familiar with a certain brand or product, and equally has had a good experience with it, there is a high likelihood that they will create a very positive impression of the same. He or she will exude a certain level of excitement when confronted about a particular product and will say good things about the product, (Bordo, 2003).  Other consumers usually believe it easily when someone who has used a product gives a good review about it. This way, trustworthiness is created between consumers, sellers and other consumers as well.

Social Imaging

Advertising obviously has a way of influencing the way in which people look at things around them. It kind of alters their perception of things. For instance, advertisements that feature how an ideal woman should look like in today’s society makes women think that they should also be like that and have the same features, Ha, et al., (2011). This is in the case of beauty products, fitness, dressing code among others. According to Kumar & Raju (2013), one of the most spread ideas that the media influences is that of beauty and attractiveness especially for women. Thin women are perceived to have the ideal body for a beautiful woman.

This simply shows that the media through advertisements is a very powerful tool that spreads all these socio-cultural ideologies. Hemamalini & Kurup (2014) assert that, the more the advertisements, the more the likelihood of people purchasing the product especially because they want to enhance the way they look. Similarly, the more the influence of the media increases, the more the consumers want to hold onto these socio-cultural ideologies, all of which subsequently boosts the consumer’s urge and willingness to purchase. This is according to Britton (2012). In addition, the fact that the media emphasizes on these women to advertise, other women begin to get feelings of insecurity and obsession which in turn also stimulates their urge to purchase.

Spending

Advertising spending is also a strategy to make people spend money on a certain product. When an advertising media spends money on the quality of advertisements, consumers mostly equate that to good quality of their products as Mulvey (2009) asserts. The frequency of the advertisement also plays a big role in creating a lasting impression in the eyes of the consumer. Bordo (2003) says that it just shows that the creators of the brand, product or service providers are investing in their product because they know its worth. Ultimately, the purchasers’ decision sometimes lies in the marketers spending in advertising their brand.

Hypothesis

There are three variables in the above research. Two of which are dependent and one independent. The dependent variable depends on the two independent variables, which means that any adjustments in the independent variables will subsequently lead to a change in the one dependent variable. Familiarity is the dependent variable. It literally depends on social image and spending to thrive.

Methodology

To complete this study, there was need for identification of several variables as well as testing the hypotheses. In that case, the research was carried out using a formal method or rather a formal research design. The techniques used for data collection involved having a one on one up close and personal conversation with some of the consumers who have been exposed to advertisements that feature women. The plan was to come up with a review poll that arbitrarily targeted the consumers, and the data to be from a relatively large population. The research was therefore carried out on 300 people.

The research came up with two independent variables and one dependent variable. Any kind of change, shift or adjustment in the independent variables will subsequently cause a change in the dependant variable, Peden (2010). The main focus of this study is to identify and discuss the role of women in advertisements as well as bringing clarity in the relationship between dependent and independent variables. It can therefore be said to be an explanatory research.

The method for sampling in this research is said to be a random sampling method. This is due to the fact that random people were involved in the conversations regardless of age, race, gender, professionals or students, et cetera, et cetera. The respondents were given a closed survey that comprised of several question, and whenever need arose, the questions were translated into languages they could understand for better understanding. A total of 400 consumers were interviewed but for this study, only 300 were used.

Data Analysis

            Descriptive analysis

For this study, there were 400 random respondents involved but only 300 were used. Among the 300, 71.7% which is a total of 215 participants were female, while the remaining 28.3% a total of 85 were male. 100 respondents (33.3%) were aged between 18-30 years and 200 participants (66.6%) were above the age of 30 years. The relationship and connection between the dependent and independent variables were determined using a test called The Pearson Test.

Conclusion

The above research was mainly a study on the role that women play in advertisements, as well as the impacts or consequences. For this reason, three variables were used in the study. The variables are familiarity, social imaging and spending. From the analysis, it can be concluded that women play a greater role in reaching out to more people and attracting them to buy advertised products which breeds familiarity, and spending all of which are meant to enhance social image. The study can be helpful to marketers to understand what pushes a consumer to purchase a certain product.

References

Bordo, S. (2003), “Hunger as Ideology.” Unbearable Weight; Feminism, Western Culture, and     the Body.

Mulvey, L. (2009) “Visual Pleasure and Narrative.” Visual and Other Pleasures.

Peden, L. (2010), “Advertising Semiotics Lecture.” University of Toronto. CCT 1080 Lecture       Hall, Mississauga.

Ballester, E., Navarro, A., & Sicillia, M., (2012), “Revitalizing Brands Through Communication   Messages; The Role of Brand Familiarity. European Journal of Marketing.

Hemamalini, K., & Kurup, S., (2014) “Effectiveness of Television Advertisements on Purchase    Intention; International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and               Technology, 3(2).

Ha, Y.H., John, J., Janda, S. & Muthaly, S. (2011). “The effects of advertising spending on brand            loyalty in services.” European Journal of Marketing, 45(4), 673-691.

Britton, A.M. (2012). The beauty industry’s influence on women in society. Honors theses and       capstones, University of New Hampshire Scholars’ Repository.

Kumar, D.P. & Raju, K.V. (2013). The role of advertising in concumer decision making. Journal of Business Management,