Me As a Consumer

Ads always have a target audience. If I see an ad that interests me, chances are that the demographic for that ad is the 20-something year old male, tech-savvy, college student. That means that some things that would catch my attention would be "manly" things, like fast cars or something sexually driven, the latest and greatest tech gadgets, all budgeted towards the broke college student.

That would mean something like this would excite me:



 Here is a beautiful car being represented by Eminem, a rapper I like. Without doing any prior research about cars, I would be pretty excited about owning one. Unfortunately for Chrysler and other companies, I like to make informed purchases. This is partially because I have limited funds as a student and that I want to make the best of the money I spend, especially on what I consider major purchases.

Here is an example of an ad that would make an informed consumer roll their eyes:



 This is Apple introducing their "Retina Display" on their iPhone 4. They boast that a Retina Display is the sharpest display on the market. At the time this was true, but just barely edging out the already aging Galaxy S2 by a few pixels per inch (ppi). The current flagship Apple phone, the iPhone 5S still boasts the same Retina display with runs at a resolution of 640×1136. Even a non-flagship Android phone boasts a higher resolution. For instance, the middle of the road Moto X has a screen running at a resolution of 1280x720. By those numbers, even the Moto X would qualify as having "Retina Display". In all honesty, the current iPhone is a great looking phone with a beautiful display. They are also backed with a brilliant marketing team that make the standard seem like an extraordinary feat.

As an informed consumer, I do my best to try to filter out all the marketing jargon and cut straight to the nitty gritty. I will scour the internet for specifications, reviews, and pictures that aren't pre-rendered. This however doesn't mean that an ad doesn't have an effect on me.  If I see a product that catches my eye, I will do further research on it. More often than not, a great product is standing behind a great ad.