Band 6+: Research indicates that nowadays some consumers are much less influenced by advertising than in the past. What do you think are the reasons for this? Do you think this is a positive or negative development? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience

On the light of recent research, it is believed that advertising has made less contribution to customers’ decisions now than in the past. This essay will look at two reasons for this, including changes in customers’ purchase habit and companies’ main focus, and explain why I am of the view that this may bring about advantageous development.

Firstly, although advertisements nowadays seem to be in higher quality, changes in purchase habits are the primary reasons causing the number of costumers less affected to it. The captivating content of advertisements cannot attract people, as they have deep knowledge in financial management and money saving, and avoid wasting any money on unnecessary items. A telling example is the minimalism lifestyle – a latest trend encouraging individuals to make wise decisions in purchasing and owning items. Secondly, while in the past the companies made huge investment in advertisements (posters and videos), there is a tendency in which companies significantly focus on product and services quality. This is because they believe clients’ satisfaction should stem from real experiences, instead of advertisement itself. Thus, advertising is addressed with adequate piece of information and authentic review, instead of overbeautifying the products to deceive customers.

In my view, the fact that advertising has minor impact on customers’ choices is a positive sign, highlighting that people are less likely to change their minds due to commercials or end up buying inessential items. In the past, there are some advertising videos regarded as global phenomenon, leading thousands of people fighting to own the products; however, the major reason for customers was not the high quality of the product, but basically caused by the psychological crowd effect.

To conclude, changes in customers’ opinions towards advertisement and the decline in advertisements’ role in companies are two main reasons why people are much less contributed to it. If this trend continued, I believe that human’s living standard would increase in a positive way.