PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION

(PRA 110)
Asst. Prof. Dr. Zeynep Aksoy
LECTURE 8: PERSUASION IN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND
ADVERTISING
Outline
üPsychoanalytic psychology

üApplying psychoanalytic psychology to Public Relations

üPsychoanalytic psychology and Marketing

üAdvertising appeals
Psychoanalytic psychology
üSigmund Freud (1856-1939)

üAustrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis

üFreud questioned the motives lying behind actions

üHe argued that people hide their real motives.

üFor Freud, our unconscious motivators are the most basic

motivators, and cannot be manipulated by rewards and
punishments.
Psychoanalytic psychology
üThree systems of the mind causes behavior
üId (the primitive one)
üSuperego (social constraints/conscience)
üEgo (the public and consciously known self)
üThe job of the ego is to reconcile the competing demands of the id and the
superego.
üin Freudian theory, an unconscious motive is the one forbidden by the
superego and not acknowledged by the conscious self.
Psychoanalytic psychology
üFreud claims we can access the unconscious via slips of the tongue, depth
interviewing and, the analysis of dreams.
üIn these ways, the relevant beliefs and desires can be discovered
üSo that they can be confronted and exposed through rational argument,
üThen, they lose their power over us.
üDreams are the places where socially unacceptable thoughts are most likely to
occur, in a coded form.
Invenion of Public Relations
üEdward L. Bernays (1891-1995)

üFather of PR (1920s)

üApplying psychoanalytic psychology to Public Relations

üWorked for the Committee on Public Information (US Creel

Committee) during First World War.

üBernays developed propaganda ideas after the war.

“Crystallising Public Opinon, 1923”
Invenion of Public Relations
ü Bernays took Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses.
ü He showed American corporations how they could make people want things
they didn't need.
ü By systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
ü It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner
irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and
thus docile.
Invenion of Public Relations
ü Bernays developed the ways of persuasive communication.
ü He founded the first methods of public relations. (celebrity endorsement,
press pieces, outrageous PR stunts, eroticising the product)
ü He worked on understanding of the attitudes and behavior of targeted
publics.
ü He emphasized the power of research and planning.
Smoking women on Fifth Avenue (Campaign of Bernays)
Invenion of Public Relations
Lucky Strike Cigarettes
Cigarettes were considered as «torches of
freedom» for women.
Organized campaigns to change attitudes for
women smoking in public.
Psychoanalytic psychology and Marketing
üFor Freudian psychology; actions and things (like goods and services) can
symbolize other things and, as a consequence, attract to themselves the
emotions attached to what they symbolize.
üThe focus in Marketing has been on identifying the unconscious meanings of a
product
üIt reveals people’s deepest motivations.
üThe advertiser can develop appeals that tap the buyer’s deepest motivations.
Psychoanalytic psychology and Marketing
üErnest Dichter (1907-1991)
üAmerican psychologist and marketing expert
ü“father of motivational research”
üPioneered the application of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts and
techniques to business
üThe study of consumer behavior in the marketplace
Psychoanalytic psychology and Marketing
üInstead of a rational account of buying, motivation research seeks to reveal the ‘real’
buying drives and feelings lying behind buying behavior.

üFocus groups using projective techniques

üDichter introduced the idea of products and brands having personalities and the
importance of fantasy in consumer behavior.

üDavid Ogilvy claimed that it is not product differences but the total personality of a
brand that matters. (a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name)
Advertising appeals
üAdvertising uses appeals for persuading people to purchase products/services

üThe message strategy

üAn attempt at creativity that inspires consumers’ motives for purchase and affects
consumers’ attitude towards a specific product or service (Berkman and Gilson, 1987).

§ Rational appeals

§ Emotional appeals
Advertising appeals
üRational appeal is based on logic.

üProducts are being sold by highlighting their attributes, quality, its problem solving capacity and
its performance (Kotler, 2003).

§ Physical attributes

§ Incentive offer

§ Evidence
Advertising appeals
ü Emotional appeals involve generating either positive or negative feelings to create a positive
emotional association with a product (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999).
§ Adventure
§ Fear (danger, personal embarrassment)
§ Happiness
§ Family (protection)
§ Love (affection, romance)
§ Humour
§ Sexual
§ Nostalgia
Advertising appeals
Advertising appeals
Advertising appeals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtO8FVI3uDY
Critics
For many, Freud’s writings were full of untestable theories and conceptual
confusion, ignoring counterexamples.

They claim that the propositions of psychoanalytic psychology are not testable,

Psychoanalysis itself remains controversial, however, the idea of unconscious

forces affecting behaviour (buyer behaviour) has universal appeal.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION