But the fact remains that, as a student of advertising, I must have an opinion about how the whole thing works. I cannot sit in classes day after day for three semesters and NOT have thought about this. Unless I was daydreaming big time.
So this web page is dedicated to how I, Kimberly Smith, think advertising works. As with most disciplines, we all know there are hundreds of theories floating around about how things work. For instance, in child rearing, everybody -parents, psychologists, teachers, nuns- has a theory about how kids should be raised. Some think when children misbehave, they should be punished physically, some think they should not be punished, some think they should use gentle tactics to persuade the children to behave. Who is right? I have my own very definite opinions about this topic, even though I am not currently a parent. But am I right? Is the psychologist?
The truth is, there is no one completely right theory about how to punish (or not punish) children. Dr. Spock may disagree. But each child is different, each situation is different, each parent is different, and ultimately, different theories may work at different times. There is no magic formula to help parents.
This same principle applies to advertising. Many theories have been put forward to help us understand how an advertisement can motivate people to make a purchase. But in reality, there's no magic formula. Case histories of a hundred companies would reveal a hundred different ways they used advertising, but no one theory to show HOW the advertising worked. Or didn't. As is sometimes the case.