Role of advertisements in changing/using consumer beliefs in reinforcing/repositioning strategies: A study in the Indian context

Abstract

With new advertisement campaigns being launched every day, to enhance brand value and maintain consumer loyalty, it becomes a challenge for marketers and advertisers to avoid consumer sensory adaption. Also with numerous brands entering the market in every other category, brands have been repositioning themselves such that they are able to cater to new segments along with the existing ones they have been dominating in. Due to technological advancements, like internet, social networking etc. contemporary consumers, are being equipped with lots of information about product quality, features etc. They are also able to compare the performance of many products with the help their current users through online forums etc. Hence it becomes all the more challenging for marketers to convince the consumers to buy their products. In such a scenario, convincing consumers by proposing something that has been unconventional to their existing beliefs, that are often deep-rooted due to the influence of culture is a risky attempt. But in the recent years, many brands have attempted this, while repositioning themselves in-terms of segment-based, value-based, upmarket stretch based repositioning etc. and are successful in convincing consumers against their entrenched beliefs. As students of marketing, learning this aspect in changing consumers’ perception and attitude towards product categories becomes very important for us, as the Indian consumers are often driven by emotions and cultural beliefs while choosing a product. In the recent scenario, as most categories are often saturated by several products, learning the marketing and consumer behavior strategies that these advertisers and marketers employ while dealing with influencing the affective component of the consumer becomes extremely crucial for aspiring marketers like us.