Marketing > How external factors can influence perception

The ad I picked came from Self magazine. It is, at least I think, a creative one, featuring the latest Haagen-Dazs ice cream flavor. It looks really appetizing too, especially for someone like me, crazy for ice cream. Ok, let’s see now what external factors can influence my perception when it comes to interpreting this ad.

The first factor that influences my perception would be part of culture, since what we eat part of who we are. The fact that ice cream is one of my favorite food items, this ad will definitely catch my attention. I want to find out more about it, see whether it is a new flavor, or a new location of a store, or some type of promotion. As a matter of fact, the ad is for a new product, which is a dulce de leche light, and as the ad states it, it has half the fat as other Haagen-Dazs flavors. I think they convinced me to try it. But I also know that the fat content is not everything, the number of calories in it might still be the same as in their other products.

Another external factor that might interfere with my perception is the clutter in the magazine. This ad successfully battles it by using a different kind of paper, and they also try to involve the reader in the ad by using a folding page that requires us to participate. As we know, participation is methods used by advertisers to make us better remember the ad. The type of paper is also not the same as the others used in the magazine, it is much thicker, so whenever the magazine opens up, there is a big chance that this ad is displayed. The simplicity of the ad could be attention getting too.

I think the placement of the ad is excellent too, since the readers of this magazine are mostly health conscious women such as myself, but many of us loves ice cream too. So the company does a good job by putting the ad in these type of magazines, because we readers are interested in the ads too. We want to know what other products are out there that support our healthy life style, so we are kind of interested in the ads. This external factor would be a marketing strategy that involves a general consumer trend, such as interest in healthy food, but also takes gender into account.

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