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Consumer perception of Advertisement
Introduction
Advertising is considered as one of the most arguable and most evident component of the
marketing mix available to the consuming public. On a given day, the typical the world
consumer is exposed to more than 3000 advertisements (Currim and Robert 210). Given the
pervasiveness of consumer advertising around the world, it is not amusing that researchers have
already theorized about concerns about the investigated consumer perceptions towards
advertising.
The prevalence of research on attitude towards marketing and its value has been focused on
advertising component. The paper will use personal and societal frameworks to compare
different views from researchers based on the article written. The paper will discuss the
perception of consumer advertising based on economic effects of advertising, the societal effects
of advertising and the personal use of advertising.
Economic effects of advertising and it role in consumer advertising perception
Research has indicated consumers perception of advertising impacts on the economy; the
findings have mixed views and reactions. For example, research has constantly indicated that
consumers believe that advertising is a necessary facet in the marketplace. Consumers believe
indicates that advertising is on average important on improving the living standards and good for
the economy. In addition, despite the fact that some finding indicate that advertising promotes

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competition, others are less favorable in such a regard. With limited exceptions, the majority
research or studies indicate that consumers do not believe that advertising is able to reduce or
lower prices of commodities or products. Consumers consider that the level of advertisement is
only important for companies and organization when they seek to increase their sales but it is not
related to price lowering or reduction. In such a case consumers perceive that the intention of
conducting an advertisement in mainly for specific reasons for the management and not for the
better good of the client. Research done in Australia indicate that more than 2 million cigarette
smokers consider it was as a result of advertisement of cigarette over the media that they are
today smoking. It can be concluded that consumers are somehow ambivalent about the effects or
impacts of advertising on the economy. Therefore, the perception that consumers have with
respect to the impacts of advertisement to the economy is valid rather it has other factors that
determine the perceptions.
Consumers perception on personal use of Advertising
The second approach of perception towards advertising research involves the personal
uses of advertising. These includes (1), advertising as a source of data and information about
social roles, products and lifestyle descriptions and (2) advertising a source of personal
refreshment or enjoyment. With respect to advertising as a source of product information, it
seems that the perceptions have become more favorable over the past 2 decades. According to
GARY, et al (1997, pp. 44), a considerable number of consumers do not have the idea that
advertisements are reliable sources of information pertaining to either product performance or
product quality. However, Tsang (2004, pp. 72), investigation on studies between 2012 and 2013
indicate that strong majority (80%); approve advertising as a source of information.
Contemporary studies have indicated that consumers use advertisement to determine their local

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sales and particular brands, as well as service and product availability. Both of the latter studies
have indicated that young consumers (generation Y) view advertising as a source of information
as compared to older consumers.
There exist mixed research findings regarding the usefulness of advertising as a source of
information concerning lifestyle descriptions and social roles. However, it is evident that this
diverse perception is because of consumer pools and different operationalization of constructs.
For example, female college students have the perception that it is from advertising that they can
get latest information about fashion and personal care cosmetics among other women related
issue.
According to Orth, Ulrich and Renata (2007, pp. 220) entertainment is considered as a
personal use of advertising. Young consumers indicate that advertising was more entertaining as
compared to the older consumers. The value of entertainment in advertising determines the level
of consumer perception. Although the world is changing towards real time advertisement, the
value of it has various determinants of advertisement.
Societal Effects of Advertising (Consumer Perception)
As documented in contemporary literature the societal effect of advertising comprise of
encouragement materialism, failure to represent an accurate image of the product or service to be
offered to the consumer or corruption of societal values. Findings indicate that consumers
perceive advertising as an encouraging unwanted promotional materialism and purchases and
promoting undesirable behavior. The values of promotional materialism in advertisement
contribute to how consumers perceive advertisement. This has made consumers to develop
negative perception to advertisement.

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In addition, advertising is viewed by consumers as misleading and less truthful as well as
insulting to consumers intelligence. Based on research it is evident that a larger percentage of
consumers are negative about social impacts of advertising. They do not find advertising as an
interesting platform for entertainment. Consumers perceive that entertainment is very personal
thus; advertising is of no interest in enforcing personal attitudes towards personal services.
Summary of Finding
To summarize, research has indicated both positive and negative perceptions about various
effects and functions of advertising. Consumer perception positivity is associated to the
information that advertisement offers as well as to its contribution to a healthy economy. The
negative perception includes belief that advertising fosters societal values and corrupts personal
values. Despite the fact that consumer perception to advertisement takes a positive dimension, it
can be deduced that consumers have negative perception towards advertisement. The negative of
the perception ranges from personal value to societal values of advertisement. However, scholars
have noted that the level of perception varies from one consumer to the other. This is because
different people have different views of an advert. Advertisement differs with age and attitude
towards the advertised service or product.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that consumers have varied levels of perception on advertisement depending
on age, location, value for advertisement, functions of advertisement and attitude of the
consumer. For advertising firms to meet their intended audience they ought to evaluate the level
of perception of the target market in regards to the over population.

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Works Cited
Currim, Imran S., and Robert W. Shoemaker. "Is television advertising being placed to reach
product users?. Marketing Letters 1.3 (1990): 209-220.
GAETH, GARY, et al. "Consumers' attitude change across sequences of successful and
unsuccessful product usage. Marketing Letters 8.1 (1997): 41-53.
Orth, Ulrich R., and Renata De Marchi. "Understanding the relationships between functional,
symbolic, and experiential brand beliefs, product experiential attributes, and product schema:
advertising-trial interactions revisited. The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 15.3
(2007): 219-233.
Tsang, Melody M., Shu-Chun Ho, and Ting-Peng Liang. "Consumer attitudes toward mobile
advertising: An empirical study. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 8.3 (2004): 6578.