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The product selected for analysis is a popular perfume, Hypnosis by Lancôme. This is a unique female product based on a unique combination of Eastern wooded and vanilla timber. The promotion campaign was based on sexual images and passion aimed to attract attention to this product and appeal to customer’s minds. This fermium is sold in beautiful round-shaped bottles. A key aspect of this promotion is to link the brand with the capacity to provide the consumer with an experience that is different from the consumption experience that would normally be expected to occur without exposure to the promotion.
Using the gestalt principles, it is possible to say that Lancôme uses two of them: a principle of closure and a principle of figure-ground. A principle of closure is evident in the male’s figure. Potential buyers perceive an incomplete picture as complete imagining a handsome man hypnotized by unique perfumes. The information dimension applies to the promotion’s ability to provide consumers with factual, relevant brand data in a clear and logical manner in such a way that they have greater confidence in their ability to assess the merits of buying the brand after having seen the advertisement. the main problem is that this ad can be differently perceived by global consumers.
For instance, in Asian countries with strict religious and moral norms, women buyers can ignore this message and pay no attention to the male figure. On the other hand, sensitivity to details may lead to insensitivity to understanding the total picture. All perceptions are culturally based. However, such systems are more than just rational tools; they contain elements of symbolism and rituals, and particularly so in high-contextual cultures, of course. Symbols are much developed in the Arab world, and Western buyers find themselves negotiating symbolic systems which define quite different realities from those existing in the West. This image will be positively perceived by Western and American buyers used to sexual images and extreme passion in promotion campaigns. They will easily reconstruct the total picture and ‘fill in the blanks’ (Solomon et al 2006, p. 51).
Another principle evident in this ad is the principle of figure-ground. This richness of symbols may seem like ‘an invisible wall’ to the outsider, because, like many aspects of culture and its manifestations, symbolic systems exist at an unconscious rather than a conscious level of awareness. When this information changes the experience the consumer has in using (buying/ owning/consuming) the brand, it becomes transformational. Transformation of experience may be a fundamental aspect of human behaviour, one which can be used to explain, among other things, the basic forces at work when consumers are exposed to advertising messages. Thus, transformation is proposed to be a process whereby past experience with a brand causes a unique set of psychological characteristics to become associated with that brand and influences subsequent experience with it (Fill 1999). This experience can be in the form of education, observation, word of mouth, trial, or an advertisement. According to the figure-ground principle, the stimulus is perceived as a separate form: the figure of a woman is central in this ad (Solomon et al 2006).
Thus, this stimulus can be negatively perceived by Arab and religious consumers influenced by strong religious dogmas and prejudices. This principle will not work in those cultures which deny the role of women in society and see it as secondary citizens. For instance, Arab consumers live in a collectivistically oriented culture. It means that individuality is a negligible value. Care is more important than individual freedom. It means also that social relations are predetermined and people think in terms of ingroups and outgroups. When this change in experience results from exposure to an advertisement or an advertising campaign, the ad is said to have transformed the consumer’s experience with the brand. It is important to note that it is not necessary for the consumer consciously to connect the effect with the advertisement or even to be aware of having been exposed to the advertisement. Certainly, conscious awareness does not preclude. the transformation effect — indeed, it may enhance it — but there is ample evidence to suggest that considerable processing occurs below the level of conscious awareness (de Mooij 2003).
The analysis shows that the gestalt principles can be differently perceived by different cultures influenced by cultural and religious traditions and norms. It is possible to say that the ability of a person (buyer) perceive an incomplete picture as complete depends upon his/her social and religious experience and cultural norms. If a buyer has never seen a situation like this (depicted in the ad), he/she cannot reconstruct the complete picture and understand the message of this ad. The cognitive-interpretive system does not reside wholly within consciousness, and thus it is not subject to introspection (Hollensen, 2007). The consumer is capable of expressing cognitions relative to the consumption experience; he or she just may not be capable of reliably tracking the source of those cognitions to the advertisement. This proposition states that “thinking” ads can produce a rapid transformation effect while “feeling” ads usually will require multiple exposures over time before producing a transformation effect. This differential effect is attributable to the interaction of the advertisements and the environment in which they are processed. Specifically, the environment contains many different stimuli, all of which compete for the consumer’s limited attention capacity (Kotabe & Helsen 2006).
In sum, the gestalt principles can be effectively used by advertisers, but they should take into account the cultural values and experiences of potential buyers. Wrong messages and strategies will not alter the individual’s psychological response to the object or behaviour. Hypnosis by Lancôme shows that the company uses two main principles of the gestalt: a principle of closure and a principle of figure-ground. These principles will be perceived and message reconstructed by European and American buyers, thus they can be misunderstood by Asian and religious consumers.
Bibliography
Fill, C. 1999. Marketing Communication: Contexts, Contents, and Strategies 2 edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hollensen, S. 2007, Global Marketing: A Decision-Oriented Approach. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 4 edition.
Kotabe, M., Helsen, K. 2006, Global Marketing Management. Wiley.
de Mooij, M. 2003, Consumer Behavior and Culture. Sage Publications, Inc.
Solomon, M. R., Bamossy, G. Askegaard. A. 2006, Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
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