Early ads followed the classical advertising model which stated that products should be promoted on the basis of their competitive advantages in a way that consumers would understand the believe (Rago, 1989). The difficulty in accepting this philosophy has become more apparent over time as many products have spawned "me too" imitators which have all but eliminated tangible elements of product differentiation. Therefore, it has become increasingly important for individual brands to build relationships with consumers through their advertising. Mantineau (1957) explains that while competing products may be standardized, brands are emotion-laden entities formed by both the manufacturer and consumer through a variety of means such as pricing, packaging, distribution and advertising.
Observers (Rago, 1989; Martineau, 1957) have noted that consumers buy products to fulfill both functional and emotional needs. Therefore, ads should incorporate both rational and emotional approaches to insure success. It today's high-tech communications environment, consumers can "zap" ads so quickly that advertisers must now entice and engage viewers. In 1963, Marshall McLuhan summarized advertisers' need to draw the consumer in by stating,
"...the need is to make the ad include the audience (in the) experience." (Rago, 1989)
In addition to theories that all brands are built upon emotional relationships with the consumer, Edell and Burke (1987) go one step further, proclaiming that all ads convey emotion, regardless of their intent to do so or not. By applying emotional appeals in their advertising, brands communicate their messages, influence consumer attitudes and (in some cases) allow the emotion to serve as the product benefit (Zeitlin and Westwood, 1986).
The study of consumer response towards emotional advertising allows advertisers to understand consumer decision-making processes, which can be difficult to explain. In many cases, consumers are consciously unaware of the real motivations behind their purchase decisions. Simply asking them to explain their behavior may not yield complete answers, as many revert to the "safety" of logical explanations for what are largely decisions/reactions often based upon emotions. Stout and Rust (1993) emphasized the importance of studying emotions in advertising by concluding that the feelings consumers experience as the result of viewing ads correlate to such evaluative and action-oriented behaviors as ad liking, brand affect and purchase intention.
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