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Evaluation

Initially this brief was very intimidating, I was struggling to find an idea which I was passionate about which was suitable for my dissertation. My first instinct was to try a business idea I had in the summer but I felt it didn't really suit dissertation format. So, I broke down all my interests and marketing was the subject which stood out, I saw real opportunity in this area.

This project has come a long way since this initial decision, my interest in advertisement sparked a full blown debate into manipulative advertising and  marketing campaigns, then moving on to how people manipulate emotions. Eventually developing into the question of ‘what responsibility do we have as designers to educate consumers on these issues’. 

The trip to the Tate Museum was an interesting form of primary research to start with. I feel it was a very different way of looking at emotional manipulation from how I initially begun looking at it. It opened my eyes at how to look at manipulative marketing, there are many similarities which transfer between artists and marketers, these are similarities such as purpose, good art and good marketing are both designed in a certain way to make people feel a certain way. The main difference between these is that manipulating peoples feelings in art is more acceptable in comparison to marketing and advertising.

I researched various different avenues from this subject area such as the ethics behind manipulation and the differences between persuasion & manipulation, this created a basic. I’ve researched things from Dark UX to AI systems to Public awareness campaigns, so many areas which I never would've related to my initial subject. I’d say that understanding basic psychology on manipulation and persuasion was a key aspect in my project it really laid a solid platform to work on and understand what im going to be teaching people.

My second piece of primary research was also very Important in my eyes, It was also an areas which I thoroughly enjoyed. Finding the right content and the layout the questionnaire was essential in receiving quality content. I had an interesting idea of the results I would receive but many were similar but there was multiple twists I wasn't expecting. I love looking at the graphs and stats, they really interested me and seeing peoples opinions gave me a much greater insight into manipulative marketing than I initially expected. Definitely a success in my opinion.

If I was to change anything about this project it would be more primary research delving into peoples knowledge on manipulation and emotional manipulation. I feel that I focused on examples and rating too much, I should have asked more about the subject area and collect peoples opinions, more qualitative data was needed. Other than that I have no other changes or developments.

I’m very much looking forwards to next year’s dissertation, I feel ive succeeded in finding an interesting subject area which I have the motivation and passion to complete to the best of my ability. I massively enjoyed this project and ive learnt a lot.

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Obstacles section

Costs

The only applicable area I felt was an obstacle would be cost if it was a live project. I didn’t know whether to include cost in this section because it wasn’t live so I decided to anyways and change it later due to my feedback.

To evaluate a brief cost of my project I decided to read around website cost, advertising costs, campaign cost and advertising costs.

Some research links here

https://uk.godaddy.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-website-uk/

https://www.isitwp.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-website-expert-answer/

https://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-marketing/what-should-a-social-media-marketing-campaign-cost/

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/02/22/how-much-does-it-cost-advertise-uk-tv-heres-what-channel-4-itv-and-more-charge-slots

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/07/05/online-advertising-costs

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/777996/Plum_DCMS_Online_Advertising_in_the_UK.pdf

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Public Awareness Campaign’s

I begun this research by reading around the basic areas of the subject, such as what are PAC’s and how can you create them. I then followed this up by looking how effective awareness campaigns are and begun looking at examples

http://rasmussen.libanswers.com/academics/faq/248422

https://www.pursuant.com/blog/7-strategies-for-starting-an-effective-awareness-campaign/

https://www.curetoday.com/publications/cure/2008/spring2008/are-public-awareness-campaigns-effective

https://omni-productions.co.uk/blog/our-top-5-public-awareness-campaigns/

This example in particular stood out and I feel its helped my quit smoking. I'd seen it before but rewatching it really hit home.

https://youtu.be/7ctaMwtHwUo

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AI systems

As I have previously spoken about in my blog, a future development of my idea would be to use the rating database for creating an AI system to regulate marketing and media adverts. So I decided to do a little reading around to see how AI already uses databases and the general future of AI.

Artificial intelligence uses intelligent databases (IDB) systems which integrate the resources of both RDBMS's and KB's to offer a natural way to deal with information, making it easy to store, access and apply. Relational databases are also called as SQL databases. It usually works with structured data.

https://www.ijcsmc.com/docs/papers/March2016/V5I3201617.pdf

Reading materials surrounding AI systems and databases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_next_generation_of_artificial_intelligence

https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-the-world/

Key finding

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/02/28/google-confirms-new-ai-tool-scans-300-billion-gmail-attachments-every-week/#83754ca3edd1

Google currently already have dozens of AI systems/scanners working in a variety of different industries such as medicine and agriculture. They then obviously use their AI systems in their main focus area, the internet. this web link will explain about how google use AI systems and “deep learning” technology to sift through online content, comparing it to a set of regulations set by google, it then deletes items which don't meet the regulations or pose harm to consumers therefore protecting them. The document speaks of how it is used to protect peoples gmail attachments, but there is also stories on them using it for google images.

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Key Finding

The following results highlight that the two more charitable adverts (MND Awareness and St Johns WA) were the most manipulative and most effective but one wasn't viewed as acceptable as the other. This is due to St.Johns AW being slightly less charitable, they're looking for life insurance payments for protection of your children. MND wasn't aiming to sell you anything, it was an advert to raise awareness of the disease and to draw potential support to the charity fighting it. 

It’s seen as acceptable for these adverts to use manipulation in marketing in comparison to any advert looking for sales and profit. St Johns WA was looking for a payment and therefore 59% of people didn't think it was acceptable. Second least acceptable was Subaru’s 4x4 ad, this was for profit and was 3rd most manipulative. 

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Findings 3

Section 3- Final round-up questions

The round up section was an extremely good idea because by the end of the questionnaire people are able to compare all they've seen. I feel this data is very valuable. Peoples opinions and rating scale change depending on what things are compared to. Starting with a very mild one before all the slightly more manipulative ones caused a change in peoples opinion from Example 1 to the round up. people not clearly believe that it was much less manipulative than previously thought, they also feel it was much more acceptable.

As you can see from the results MND awareness was the most manipulative but was also classed as second most acceptable whilst also being the most effective. Similar results to this was the St Johns WA advert. these were both public awareness campaigns which makes them more acceptable. Although the St Johns WA was actually asking for payment for child insurance so in my opinion isn't as acceptable as MND campaign which people did pick up on.

Nationwide and Subaru were viewed as most unacceptable, manipulative and actually ineffective adverts following the public awareness campaigns.

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Findings 2

Section 2- Examples

Ikea Ad

As you can see the Ikea ad had mixed opinions but was mainly viewed as mildly manipulative and fairly ineffective.

Subaru Ad

Subaru’s advert which aimed to manipulate the older consumers, ones with families in particular, also had mixed views but was mainly thought to be quite manipulative. People thought it was very ineffective and also quite unacceptable, the manipulations clearly used for the wrong reasons and consumers aren’t buying into it.

MND - Sarah’s story 

Sarah’s story was very manipulative but because it was for a good cause people deemed it much more acceptable in comparison to Subaru for example.

St. Johns WA Ad

People were all agreed in how manipulative this was, they felt it was very manipulative although they were fairly split between how effective it was. The intent was borderline because it could be argued either way, although at the end it’s asking for monthly payment which is why more people voted it to be less acceptable.

Duracell Ad

Duracell was a very wide spread opinion on how manipulative it was, this must just come down to life experiences and people personalities. Although everyone mainly agreed it was ineffective and it wouldn’t affect buying patterns. They also agreed that it’s mainly devious intent, looking for profit.

Nationwide

Finally, the nationwide advert was seen to be a mixture of manipulative strength, this may be because it’s the last advert, taking into account there were much stronger manipulative practices before it. People mainly agreed it was ineffective and that it was more devious that charitable intent wise.

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Findings 1

Section One- Demographic and Subject Info

For my questionnaire I wasn't aiming for a certain demographic, I needed a wide range of opinions and I feel that's exactly what I received. I shared it on several platforms and used other peoples networks I could to share it.

I ended up with 39 responses which was more than I expected. I had people of all ages, mainly 16-20 and 51-60. Both genders but mainly Females. Majority of people either knew little about manipulative Marketing or nothing at all, the majority also couldn't remember any. The ones who did then provided some very interesting examples. The best and most relevant was the lynx advert. I also remember that advert, very manipulative, it uses lust as the manipulative emotion. 

I feel this section proved to be very much a success, demographic was quite spread out. but if I was to carry this out again, I would ask more specific questions surrounding peoples backgrounds such as:

-Are you a parent?

-Do you know anyone who's been injured in a road or pool accident?

-Do you know or are related to anyone affected with MND?

I would include these questions at the end of the questionnaire to prevent people from having an insight into the questions before I had asked them.

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Questionnaire creation

I made a plan in my book with I followed when creating it. I was constantly tweaking as I went along, I tweaked the words and phrasing of questions along with the method the data was collected.

This is how I narrowed down and chose the video examples for the questionnaire using the other research I carried out.

Here I was putting together the questionnaire.

Then here is how I shared it and the first response!

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Here is my finished public questionnaire which I shared via social media and email. I also asked my mum to share it via Facebook to gather some older data.

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Primary Research

Time for my family to judge 10 manipulative marketing adverts. I’ve tried to keep a range of different emotions and strength of manipulation used in the ads!

I don’t want my questionnaire to bee too long also, so I’m aiming to narrow them down from 10 videos to either 5/6 examples. People will be more likely to fill it out if it takes less time. I’m more likely to get better results too, the most important section is the end section of my questionnaire so I don’t want people rushing that part. I need to therefore shorten it down.

So I thought this was quite a fun method of primary research. Even though I wasn’t interacting and doing it with them, it was still fun to see there answers and opinions. They all seemed to enjoy it too which was good!

Setting Up

Dad

(Don’t ask why he put 6 there😆)

Sister

Mum

Me

Feel free to ask for the videos, I’ve got them saved to my computer. The videos are 10-15 mins long and won’t upload to tumblr. They also didn’t want to be on YouTube.

I did two angles, I filmed there reactions to each video through the laptop camera and then filmed them answering with my phone.

Results

The results were very interesting, both my mum and dad got a bit confused at parts with the rating system but the results were still valuable. The overall running of it was very smooth, most of the answers were as expected and I’ll be able to narrow the ads down from these replies.

In fact having my parents do it in comparison to me and my sister was very good because it showed me the difference in answers due to age and having children. My mother’s reaction to the manipulative child ones, she wasn’t happy and felt very manipulated.

If I was to do this again I would maybe add another graph or I would adapt my current graph so that they recorded their feelings when watchcing them. That would be an interesting piece of data to collect.

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I’ve narrowed it down to these ten adverts which I’m doing to ask my family to take part in!

Subaru -https://youtu.be/HPO5gktgPJc

Chevy -https://youtu.be/3t6bLugtJkQ

Nationwide -https://youtu.be/F77RBUBlZ80

St. John’s WA -https://youtu.be/tCbcCBKO8dA

St. John A -https://youtu.be/YQNXJpuLKwU

Ikea -https://youtu.be/AfERQ-Riy2E

Renault -https://youtu.be/MrNCVAqbCD0

Sarah’s story -https://youtu.be/-PjKeN12Pls

Duracell -https://youtu.be/viQYAFA6oIw

Extra Gum -https://youtu.be/NemtQx0m0Ss

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Primary Research

After working out that a questionnaire would offer the most valuable data while also being the more efficient option! I began thinking about what I would include in the questionnaire and started thinking of ways I could make it more interesting for people to do!

Luckily marketing and advertisements are everywhere which means anyone can get involved in my research. Everyone’s opinion is valued information, people of all ages and origins. The more opinions the better.

Through my research I’m aiming to:

-Understand how much of an affect these ads can have on people.

-Understand what is acceptable and what isn’t.

-Look at how effective it’s purpose is and whether people are truely manipulated by them.

Since I’ve been researching for examples as secondary research, I’ve had an interesting idea for my questionnaire. To get the results I want I can ask people to watch a carefully selected handful of ads, rate them and share their opinions.

From my research I’ve found around 10 adverts which I could use. I can’t use them all as it would be much too long for a questionnaire. I don’t feel people will enjoy it as much if it’s long and I feel the data is most potent when it’s suits people.

I initially came up with a chart for people to fill in on the questionnaire but I won’t be able to use it as there’s no known platform I can do this on. Soooooo, I decided I could create a large version of the chart and record my family watching all ten videos and rating them on the chart. I will then using their answers hand pick 5-7 of them and use them in a public questionnaire which I will share online.

Here is me creating the charts! I made two copies by hand and then realised we had a photocopier😂😂👌🏽👌🏽

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New Dissertation Question

Since ive refined my idea I have been thinking about what question im going to pose for my dissertation, here it is:

“What is our responsibility as designers to support and educate consumers on manipulative marketing?”

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This is a 1 minute advert that Subaru created in 2008, it was selling cars from its 4x4 range to parents. It’s based on the life story of a family.

It’s very delicately composed this ad to make you feel comfortable with happy shots of the family developing. They have used a soothing voice to make you feel calm as they continue depict the life story of the family. They then hit you with a car crash which involves the whole family, no one is hurt but the crash looks bad.

Setting up someones life story followed by a car crash is a typical narrative set up for a tragedy. By doing this they're creating emotional investment to the story, the situation is very realistic and people can easily empathise with it.

They then flip the narrative with the family being unharmed, stating the only difference in the narrative which prevents harm is simply the car they were driving, a Subaru.

Following this up with the final touch of manipulation:

I feel this sentence is really what takes it over the line from pursuasion into emotional manipulation. It isn't strictly manipulation because their intent is to decrease the drivers danger via their car’s safety perks. However, they emotionally manipulate customers with the intent to increase their sales and profits. 

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Artefact ideas - Old/New

I’ve been thinking about what I am most comfortable in creating and which I think ill be able to excel. After taking that into account I feel like the app may be the best route for my dissertation.

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Research Findings & Idea Development

From my research I have found several aspects which have inspired a refinement of my dissertation idea. My research has shown that the current marketing situation is very vast and is almost like a mine field of marketers and companies manipulating consumers in a devious manner. They tend to get away with it due to consumers lacking awareness of the methods and techniques behind manipulation. Many customers don't know the difference between persuasion and manipulation, the key difference is intent; are these companies truly intending to help you? or are they looking to boost profits/sales?

In my research, I thought it may be an intriguing approach to put myself in marketers shoes by looking at emotional marketing from their point of view. I’ve been watching videos, reading articles and viewing different examples. What I have found is that its deeply encouraged online for marketers and designers to use emotions as a powerful tool in their work. They're constantly explaining how peoples buying patterns are massively affected by pulling on their emotions. But what these sites are missing is a guide of how not to step over the line from persuasion into manipulation. These are most likely young, new designers with goals of sales and profits for their company or manager, they are unaware of the impact they could be having. I feel the lack of knowledge and information for both designers and customers is something which needs development.

This discovery has lead me to refine my idea surrounding emotional marketing and instead I'm looking directly into educating consumers. Its unlikely there is going to be full transparency in designers work, if they were to declare that they're purposely manipulating you, it undoes the effectiveness of their marketing and their reputation. Instead there is an opportunity to educate consumers into understanding manipulative marketing, therefore helping to make more educated and informed decisions when buying from these companies. This will hopefully then have a knock on effect where designers are more conscious when creating marketing content.