Advertising Agencies as Analysts of Consumer Tastes Essay

Advertising is concerned with the persuasion of consumers, distribution of capitalistic ideals, and nurturing cultural changes. Nonetheless, less attention has been focussed on the role of advertising agencies, to be specific, mediating between producers and consumers of goods and services. Capitalist through advertising agencies analyses consumer tastes and preferences which plays a huge role in economics and social life. Furthermore, the new cultural intermediaries specialize in symbolic production. Therefore, they are involved in mediating between different groups of production and consumption. Moreover, they inform society about consumption and the social distinction of tastes.

Advertising practitioners are “need merchants” who manipulate consumers’ needs by improvising new subtle techniques of domination. Moreover, advertising firms are considered to be the vital commercial nexus that functions as intermediaries of institutions such as the media, producers of goods and services and consumers. Advertising nurtures cultural behaviours and grants access to available opportunities at the global markets.

The industry has its own values and norms that govern its conduct. For example, actors will need creativity to make it in the business. Furthermore, agencies are producers of advertisements as well as consumers of information. Therefore, they tend to use particular elements from other practitioners’ work to create their own context. However, they siphon new cultural ideas from fashion, talent, music and television. As a result, they use popular culture to meet clients’ needs but do not instill change. On the other hand, consumers tend to rely on past commercials to determine an excellent or appropriate advertisement for their consumption. Therefore, consumers have impacts in the production of new advertisements since they prefer common campaigns. Consequently, practitioners avoid pre-testing past advertisements that have been successful. However, consumers dislike creative advertisements that might translate into commercial risks. As a consequence, advertisement practitioners create common campaigns that meet clients’ criteria. Moreover, practitioners may act as consumers. For example, if brand managers are asked about a product they will be thinking from a consumer’s perspective. Therefore, brand managers’ tastes as well as other practitioners’ ideas have a significant impact on the mode of advertisement.

Practitioners disseminate capitalistic ideas. Thus, creativity acts as an ideological “smokescreen” that justifies their commercial practices and social roles. However, these justifications are not based on social corrosive forces, but rather on personal experiences. Advertising is concerned with selling to the audience and creativity helps in the achievement of client needs. Therefore, they usually negotiate the terms of advertisement with clients. However, brand managers are under constant pressure from their bosses to include many clients’ elements in an advertising context which ends up detracting from overall meaning. This not only shows how agencies mediate between the agency and client but also between clients’ criticism and creativity.

Practitioners also present their views on advertising by presenting consumers with an agenda of the day. Therefore, they mediate between industry presentation and self-identities. The contemporary practitioners constitute management consultants and branding consultants. As a result, it has increased competition and promotional services. Moreover, practitioners are concerned with clients’ management. Thus, clients are producers of goods and services while at the same time they are consumers of advertisements. Consequently, practitioners will influence their decisions on the design of the advertisement. Furthermore, producers cannot know cultural dynamics unless they research the competitive market to disseminate their products. For that reason, there is a relationship between culture and economy as they are interdependent.

The agencies also influence audiences to a certain extent by bringing social change in society. They act as intermediaries between social structures of the market for goods and services, audience and media. Thus, develops them into constructive communications that facilitate social change.