Advertising: Strong/ Weak Theory

“I am a part of that school, which believes, that a good advertisement is the one that sells the products without attracting the attention to oneself. It should attract the attention of the reader to the product. Instead of saying “what a smart advertisement”, the reader should say “I didn’t know this before. I must try this product”.

David Ogilvy 

“Confessions of an advertising man”

The common debate today is how advertising works. Fill (1999) suggested two views regarding the subject
Strong Theory
The strong theory states that advertisement influences people strongly because it is able to persuade the customer to purchase the advertised brand. It is the view that consumers are passive and that advertising can persuade and generate repeat purchase behaviour. This theory holds that advertising can persuade someone to buy a product they have never bought before.


Weak Theory 

The weak theory of advertising views consumers as active problem solvers, driven by habit to make a purchase. Advertising will therefore, act as a reminder of being brand loyal to a certain product and only reinforce consumer decisions about products or brands from 4 different sources: 

• Primary-- Product experience 
• Secondary -- Marketing Communications
• Tertiary-- Shops, dealers, exhibitions

The weak theory holds the view that advertising is not as effective as public relations when delivering a message as advertising is seen as only a way of earning money and selling products and is not interested in the customers' satisfaction or experience.  It is mainly the number of customers that distinguishes a brand rather than customer loyalty.
Ehrenberg suggested a framework which is the awareness-trial-reinforcement (ATR) framework. Awareness is necessary before any buying made and the period between the awareness and the action will be very short or very long term (Fill 2003) After this a very few people convinced to try the product and this can be effected by retail availability, advertising, word of mouth or personal selling. And the following stage of this framework is reinforcement which follows to provide awareness and reassurance to help the audience to repeat the thinking and behavior and placed the product for the occasional buying. In this framework advertising’s role is to cause brand familiarity and provide identification (Ehrenberg, 1997)

I would probably say that for the Nero Tour, the strong theory is used as they are trying to influence people to buy the tickets for their tour that people may not have been necessarily aware of beforehand. With the use of music videos, articles, music download links etc. they are aiming to persuade their audience to come to one or more of the dates on their tour.
It could be said however, the weak theory also ties into this as those already existing fans maybe have been to a show before and are dedicated Nero fans therefore the advertising/marketing may act as a reminder for them to buy the tickets rather than persuading them to buy them therefore it could be said to be reinforcing decisions by all the promotion that has been going on during/before the tour.

For Crufts i'd say that again, it is hard to pinpoint it definitely down to one theory although...
It does seem to be targeting those who have never actually been before more so due to the fact that their slogan is 'tail wagging fun for all the family!' shows that they are really trying to bring in not just the dog owners but their families too, suggesting that there is something for everyone. Throughout the website they are using emotive lexis such as 'thrills', 'wonderful', 'exciting' etc. which acts as a persuasive element. I would put this into the strong theory category as what with the extensive marketing they seem to have done, it seems to be about persuading perhaps new, potential attendees to come as they most likely have a loyal following already who will go regardless.

Reference:
issuesinimc.Strong and Weak Theory of Advertising. Available: http://issuesinimc.wikispaces.com/Strong+and+Weak+Theory+of+Advertising. Last accessed 06 March 2012.