Step 1

State the Problem

Often I find myself asking, “Why do people buy what they buy?” It is for this

reason I decided that I am going to research how advertising effects consumers. I think

this is important because society spends a lot of time either watching advertisements or

viewing advertisements on billboards or newspapers. I will be focusing on what people

are buying and how much advertisement is put out for what people are buying.

Step 2
Review of Literature

In reviewing literature for my topic, I found three articles that were relevant to

how advertisement effects how people buy. The first article I read was about how

banners on the internet will effect what people buy. They discussed in this that the more

people see an add, the higher the chance the consumer will buy the product that is being

advertised. This article said, “Advertising awareness increased from a low of 12 percent

(for the brand with the highest base of ad awareness) to a high of 200 percent for the

previously unadvertised men's apparel brand (Briggs, Rex, and Nigel Hollis). The second

article I read was about the product slogans and how that could effect how people buy. It

talked about all of the name changes that Coca-Cola went through in its past. In this

article the author quotes Charles Whittier. He says, “A slogan should be a statement of

such merit about a product or service that is worthy of continuous repetitive advertising;

is worthwhile for the public to remember; and is phrased in such a way that the public is

likely to remember it (On Slogans, Murray).” The third article that I read was about if

advertising really makes a difference. In this they did a study on consumers checking to
see how much they buy a targeted product in a three month period. In this study they

found that a producer that has a high advertising rate will do better then a producer that

depends on loyal consumers.

Bibliography
-Briggs, Rex, and Nigel Hollis. "Advertising on the Web: is there response before click-

through?(Special Issue: Research Untangles the World Wide Web)." Journal of Advertising

Research 37.n2 (March-April 1997): 33(13). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Mott

Community College. 29 Nov. 2006

- Raphel, Murray. "On slogans.(Influence of advertising slogans)." Art Business

News 32.1 (Jan 2005): 28(2). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Mott Community

College. 30 Nov. 2006

- WANSINK, BRIAN, and MICHAEL L. RAY. "ESTIMATING AN ADVERTISEMENT'S IMPACT ON ONE'S

CONSUMPTION OF A BRAND." Journal of Advertising Research 40.6 (Nov 2000): 106. Expanded
Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Mott Community College. 30 Nov. 2006

Steps 2 and 3
Hypothesis and Research
 In the course of my research I expect to find that products that are highly
advertised will be purchased by Mott students more than products that aren’t as
frequently advertised.
For my research, I plan on performing a survey on Mott Community College
students. This survey will be used to find out what people are buying and how people
may have encountered the products they are buying. This survey is going to be used to
see if particular brands are being bought more than other brands.

Survey:

Age:

Sex:

Annual income:
0 - 10000 10,000 – 20,000 20,000 – 30,000 30,000 – 40,000 40,000 – above

Brands in your home: (list ten)

Distance to school: