Saturday, November 23

Advertisements and influence and power relation with the consumers.

For this post I decided to do a research on how advertisements started reflecting the power of the consumer,  starting right after  WWII with women  as main targets in advertisements and see the evolution until today.  The female population started working in factories having male roles like for example welders  in them during the war, this gave women the feeling that they could achieve something more than just be a housewife. When the war ended there was this need to return to the roots of the role of mothers and housekeepers, but with a different emphasis. The media granted power to them, and made them their main target. Housewife’s where the ones responsible for handling the budget of the entire family. The idea of the woman as servants to their husbands and families was gone, and replaced with advertisement of the new domestic gadgets, the latest electronic appliances designs and interior decoration .



The 1950´s changed the perception of design to last forever. The concept of obsolesce was introduced engaging it with the personalization of design. The importance of the housewife in those years lead to developments in design surrounding the kitchen area and electronic appliances.

In the beginning in the 1960’s the women had reveal themselves and made society respect them, this revolution lead at the same type other types of revolution. Young people started  stating their own independence, they wanted to express the un-need of heritage , the detachment to objects , and the world of design was invaded advertisements with influences of the pop movement like the advertisement of the Campbell soup bag that reflected the work of Andy Warhol, also the Hippie movement was part of advertisement with icons like the volkswagen van  stating  freedom, no frontiers, and the possibility to leave on the road without attachments, Honda also made some advertisements of motorcycles representing the psychedelic movement  , and also even carpet advertisements reflected the spirit of the target of the moment Young people, following what they wanted to communicate to society, independence and personal opinion, so they would feel identified by those brands.

After this the role of the consumer was more than established and the world of design had to care about consumer demands portability and communication was the topic of advertisement a few years after in the 1980´s  , the need of freedom was fully present by this time freedom to express yourself and bring your personal world everywhere taking their  design objects that where part of the costumers identity with them, so they could show it to the world .Bring your personal music was reflected  in objects such as Walkman’s  a huge icon of the 80s and later on iPod´s advertisements.




Later on the need to take everything with you because the track of time would becoming faster , needs like having a personal laptop to work and to have the ability of bringing it wherever you need would  come up along with cellphones.
As the years passed by , the need of forming a unique identity was created and this is the main purpose today : Personal identity, is no longer following the trends that where reflected in advertisements but to create a personal trend combining  elements from those advertisements. This is when brands  started taking care of designing their own identity so customers could relate and identify with them, this was achieved by companies creating their own targets and making them their costumers reflection. By doing this people instead of creating their own identity are actually trying to be those costumers and this is only achieved by  a great branding design that makes people want to be the people that they see in advertisements, and by this I mean the audience that was specifically design by the company , a target that they feel reflects who they want as targets.
A great example of this is what Tommy Hillfiger made for their latest campaign  The hillfigers In which they show their ideal costumers, reflecting a certain life style, look, even the interior design of their houses.

Even after knowing the brands are designing their targets, the customer choice is still there, there is the final choice of choosing which brand do you want to represent you, how you want to be seen by everyone. A power that was granted in the 1950s thanks to advertisement and that today is reflected by small phrases that represent their identity, phrases that catches possible costumers and that reflect the lifestyle and identity they have or want to reflect.

Great examples of this are adds made by Nike, Starbucks,  Apple, Roxy and others,  using small simple and direct phrases that motivates their costumers and makes them want to live their identity.




There are so much trends and movements experienced from where to  choose in matters of design, so many possibilities,  that each day we see less specific targets, and by these I mean people in advertisements for spaces or objects of design, is more a matter of which designer or brand represents you the most or which brand or designer represents who you want to be , although  there is never just one brand or designer, today is the mix of them that reflect personal taste.

 The design world needs to take care from environmental issues,  having a distinct identity, be functional and reflect the ideals of their public. The power of the consumers was started by women’s, but today even children’s have a decision in matters of what they want. We live in a society that demands for quality and ideals, yes the obsolesce is still there ,as mass production also, but slowly we as a society are starting to take care of the issues that this two topics do to our life and to our planet.


F!

Sources:






  usa.tommy.com




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