Further research: Harlow Gale

 As my continuation root is Media with Communication, I chose a project called ''The Psychological Influence of Advertisement''. In order to make my project as good as possible, I decided to do some research on different people who are related to the Marketing sphere and are or were successful in it. In this post, I would like to share some information about a person like Harlow Gale. 

Harlow Sterns Gale(June 29, 1862, Minneapolis) was a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota and a municipal officer for the city of Minneapolis. He is known for his advanced training in advertising from its psychological side. He studied consumer psychology and lectured on this subject. Harlow Sterns Gale was a leading thinker on the psychology of advertising. He was twice sacked, then re-employed at the university and finally forced to resign in 1903. Even after graduation, he continued to work as an independent researcher, teacher and lecturer, ran a private psychological laboratory and was affiliated with the Minnesota Academy of Sciences. 

Harlow Sterns Gale

In 1895, Harlow Gale became the first psychologist to investigate advertising (Eighmey & Sar, 2007). His interest in the influence of psychology in advertising led him to conduct research among 200 businesses across Minnesota. This helped him learn more about the advertising practices of these companies. ''In a cover letter that he sent along with the polls, he recognized the novelty and importance of his work, as well as his desire to reveal the processes that occur in the minds of consumers once they see the advertisement and once they really buy the advertised product'' (Benjamin, 2004, cited in 'Psychological Concepts in Advertising: Exploring the Uses of Psychology Through a Historical Overview and Empirical Study', Kelsey Will, 2014). 

His attention was focused on how different elements, such as font, color, size and design, work precisely in such a way that attracts the attention of the consumer and thus forces them to buy a particular thing or service as well as creating memories about the advertisement. Gale proposed that “the direct kinds of advertising might be characterized as any intentional means used to associate in the buyer’s mind any article or group of articles of commerce with a particular make of that article or with a particular seller of it”(Gale, cited in 'The Evolution of Psychology and Marketing, Chris Power, 2016). In other words, he assumed that advertising sought to associate the brand with certain consumer perceptions. Speaking about this concept, it is worth noting that it is often used in our modern world, because when creating advertising marketers create new associations with the product from the buyer to convey their message. 

In 1900, Gale conducted what some consider to be the first scientific research on advertising and consumer behavior. He sent a survey to advertising professionals asking them open-ended questions about effective advertising methods. The purpose of the survey was to gather practitioner opinions on how to attract attention and encourage purchases through advertising. After getting a low response rate of 10% from the survey, Gale conducted a series of experiments using the tachistoscope technique he learned from Wundt. His experiments focused on various factors that influence attention in advertising, including relevant versus irrelevant material, large versus small type styles, the side of the page attended to first, exposure levels, and color. Gale tried to correct for any potential issues that could affect his results as he moved from one study to another. He also found that gender had an impact on some of his findings, which might have been interesting at the time but is not surprising in modern times.

After searching for this person and her work, I realized that Harlow Gale was an interesting character in the history of advertising psychology, because he was the first person to study it seriously. This information will help me write my project, as it is one of the key people who created the term 'advertising psychology'.


References: 

https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6sb6ffw#biography

Psychological Concepts in Advertising: Exploring the Uses of Psychology Through a Historical Overview and Empirical Study, Kelsey Will, 2014

The Evolution of Psychology and Marketing, Chris Power, 2016

Handbook of Consumer Psychology, edited by Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Paul M. Herr, Frank R. Kardes


















Comments

  1. Milan Multimedia Marvel21 March 2023 at 01:52

    Good that you posted this and included references. Analyse some of Gale's work in detail. Explain what bits would you use in your project and why? Make the purpose of researching Gale clear. How will this help your project? What do critics say about Gale's work?

    ReplyDelete

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