In­form­a­tion overload in the era of mass media

In this current digital age, we have all been subject to a massive in­form­a­tion overload. This has a profound influence on our pur­chas­ing behaviour and for many consumers can make the buyer decision process much harder than it should be. It is mostly the mass media that is to blame for this. Tele­vi­sion provides us with countless doc­u­ment­ar­ies and news pro­grammes, as well as a seemingly infinite number of com­mer­cials. The internet also over­whelms users on a daily basis with unlimited offers and emails con­tain­ing adverts. On top of this, glob­al­isa­tion has meant that the market has arguably become saturated with the number of products available. You can see examples of this every time you walk into a store and see the choice available for so many products, i.e. fifty different types of garbage bags. How should a consumer come to decision if there is such a large choice available for even the most basic everyday product, as well as so much ac­com­pa­ny­ing in­form­a­tion to every product?

Consumers quickly feel over­whelmed by the vast amount of in­form­a­tion. This then leads to a so-called ‘in­form­a­tion overload.’ But what exactly is an in­form­a­tion overload and how can marketers react to this phe­nomen­on?

The term ‘in­form­a­tion overload’ refers to an excess of in­form­a­tion that a person is con­fron­ted by. Above all, two factors can be seen as the cause for the current excess of in­form­a­tion. These are the massive increase in the in­form­a­tion on offer as well as the use of vast amounts of in­form­a­tion at such a fast pace. However, it is not just in the typical ad­vert­ising channels where consumers are con­fron­ted with so much product in­form­a­tion, there are also large amounts that come from the likes of ad­vert­ising leaflets dis­trib­uted in shopping malls, flyers posted in letter boxes, or even the wide selection of products on display in every store. If it’s the case, as with most consumers, you are also a smart­phone user who is active online, you will also be bombarded by no­ti­fic­a­tions from various apps. It is this outright explosion of data that is the cause of the in­form­a­tion overload.

In­form­a­tion overloads lead to a situation where, due to an excess of in­form­a­tion, a person is no longer in a position to make a well-reasoned purchase decision. In this case, it is the amount of in­form­a­tion that is the decisive factor. In the mid-1970s it was dis­covered that an increase in the amount of in­form­a­tion improved the quality of the decision; however, if a specific amount of in­form­a­tion was exceeded, then this process will reverse. This shows that there is a natural limit for the human brain in regards to input.

An overload of in­form­a­tion can also be expressed in per­cent­ages. For example, if you flick through a magazine and read 10 out of say, 100 pages, then you are only taking in a maximum of 10 percent of the total in­form­a­tion. The rest, i.e. the excess in­form­a­tion, adds up to 90 percent.

An in­form­a­tion overload can put a serious strain on the human brain. In 2016 it was cal­cu­lated that a person alive at this moment in time will receive more in­form­a­tion in a single day than one living in 1900 would have received in an entire lifetime; ap­prox­im­ately the equi­val­ent of 174 issues of the New York Times (Sunday edition). The brain must then process and cat­egor­ise this in­form­a­tion, a lot of it ir­rel­ev­ant, in a very short amount of time. This then has a negative impact on con­cen­tra­tion. The exertion caused by the pro­cessing of in­form­a­tion can lead to issues like tiredness and for­get­ful­ness, and possibly even burnout; something which has become more and more wide­spread. For this reason, psy­cho­lo­gists and medical experts warn against the effects of ever in­creas­ing in­form­a­tion overload. It has been known to lead to an increase in everyday stress, and even things like severe migraines or even mental health issues. If consumers find them­selves besieged by too much in­form­a­tion, par­tic­u­larly from the mass media, then the brain may begin to seal itself off to protect itself against such a barrage of en­vir­on­ment­al stimuli. The larger the in­form­a­tion overload, the worse the quality of the decision-making process becomes. The excess of in­form­a­tion means that the consumer can no longer make an informed decision about whether they should buy a product or not. The result is the customer having a sort of blunted awareness – they un­con­sciously block out ad­vert­ising-related in­form­a­tion as they almost always have no use for it. A good example of this is the so-called banner blindness. This means that for marketers it is a sig­ni­fic­ant challenge to break through this barrier with their ad­vert­ising messages.

Mass media’s found­a­tion was the printing press. It became possible to reproduce content quickly for the first time and dis­trib­ute it across the country. The first printing press was developed by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15^th century, however, at this point, we are not yet speaking about a mass media. This term only really took its modern form in the 20^th century, when news­pa­pers began to be mass produced and reach hundreds of thousands of readers. Radio and later tele­vi­sion would make it possible to have an audience of millions.

It didn’t take long for the newspaper to become the most important medium when it came to the dis­tri­bu­tion of in­form­a­tion. At the start, the few news­pa­pers there were could only publish a few thousand copies.  These days, suc­cess­ful news­pa­pers are published by the millions and sold around the world. These kinds of increases can also be seen in other forms of media. In 1906 the first ever radio programme was broadcast in the US. In the 1920s the tele­vi­sion was invented but this would have to wait until after the Second World War to establish itself as a mass medium. The arrival of the internet in the 1990s would then signal the beginning of the digital media era.

The amount of in­form­a­tion being dis­trib­uted is growing and growing – and so too is the in­form­a­tion overload. The various media branches are con­stantly expanding, leading to new extremes. Nowadays there are more newspaper pub­lic­a­tions, TV channels, radio pro­grammes, and websites than ever before. This has led to the problem of there being more media and in­form­a­tion on offer is in­creas­ing so much faster than the demand for it is.

Sensory memory is the first filter point for all in­form­a­tion consumed, hence why it has the name that it does. This is where all in­form­a­tion is filtered and sub­con­sciously stored in a temporary fashion. This ultra-short memory can take in a huge amount of in­form­a­tion but at the same time only offers a very short period of time for this in­form­a­tion to be stored. In­form­a­tion in the sensory memory is only kept for a period of somewhere between mil­li­seconds and seconds. If the in­form­a­tion is then deemed to be relevant, then it moves onto the next stage. All other in­form­a­tion is filtered out.

Short-term memory, sometimes also referred to as ‘working memory’ is the second filter station. This is where the in­form­a­tion is processed con­sciously. Here, the storage of in­form­a­tion lasts somewhere between 20 and 45 seconds. During this time the relevance of the in­form­a­tion on hand is actively and con­sciously de­term­ined. If for example, the in­form­a­tion is not very important, then the relevance will be deemed to not be very high, this will almost im­me­di­ately lead to it being deleted (this is why it is much more likely that you will remember the birthday of a love interest than that of a casual ac­quaint­ance). If the in­form­a­tion is deemed to be important but not yet in the long term memory, then it will be forwarded directly to the short term memory. More complex in­form­a­tion, as well as some motor skills like swimming and cycling, are examples of activ­it­ies that need to be repeated multiple times before they are able to remain in the memory long term.

The long-term memory is the last stop in the multi-storage model. The in­form­a­tion is stored over a long period of time – at least for several years, if not for a whole life time. Here, the defining criterion is relevance. The in­form­a­tion that is deemed to be important creates a knowledge-network of ex­per­i­ences and im­pres­sions. The complex data set that is long-term memory can be extended and enlarged in­def­in­itely. A person can call on these memories both con­sciously and sub­con­sciously. Opinions are divided as to whether the in­form­a­tion is actually deleted from memory. The majority of sci­ent­ists and experts nowadays agree that for­get­ting is the un­avail­ab­il­ity, i.e. the de­ac­tiv­a­tion of data.

If in­form­a­tion is stored per­man­ently, marketers will try their very best to get their product in­form­a­tion into the long term memory of their customers. With highly emotional and striking methods of ad­vert­ising, the product aims to cement a place in the minds of customers. To get into people’s long-term memory, ad­vert­ising messages need to make it past the preceding levels of memory.

The first hurdle that marketers need to overcome is getting product in­form­a­tion through a person’s so-called ‘per­cep­tion threshold’. At the end of the day, it’s only logical that a product that isn’t noticed will not be bought. The per­cep­tion process works in the following way: people take in stimuli from the en­vir­on­ment around them via their sensory organs. In order for this to be trans­lated into relevant in­form­a­tion in the brain, they ideally need to trigger a feeling or sensation. It’s only after a certain critical mass of the feeling or sensation that a person becomes aware that it might be relevant to him or her.

What this means for marketers is that stimuli caused by the product need to reach a certain level of intensity before they can register with the consumer. Only then can in­form­a­tion can be further processed in the brain. But only a fraction of the absorbed stimuli gets anywhere close to the per­cep­tion threshold. Ad­vert­isers aim to use an intensity of stimuli that catches and keeps the attention of consumers.

The in­form­a­tion overload in the media these days means that many marketers are adopting ad­vert­ising campaigns that are es­pe­cially stimuli-intense. Through ag­gress­ive ad­vert­ising they attempt to draw consumer’s attention to their product. The general motto is: be noticed at any price – the more colorful, the more shrill, the louder; the better. In many ways, this method shares sim­il­ar­it­ies with guerrilla ad­vert­ising. One company that certainly embodies this approach is Paddy Power. They have become famous for their use of con­tro­ver­sial, and in some cases, very ag­gress­ive marketing campaigns. In 2005 they launched a billboard depicting Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic ‘Last Supper’ painting, however, the image showed Jesus and the Apostles playing cards and gambling. Ul­ti­mately the ad­vert­ise­ment did not last long, as hundreds of com­plaints made both to Paddy Power and the Ad­vert­ising Standards Authority ensured that it was withdrawn. However, the campaign did get people talking and reading about Paddy Power. In any case, this is also only one example of their campaigns that have some con­tro­ver­sial aspects to them. What these ads all manage to guarantee is exposure for the Paddy Power brand. The whole ‘be noticed at any price’ approach has been well and truly embraced, as is demon­strated by the multiple lawsuits that have been taken against the company.

The in­creas­ing in­form­a­tion overload and the ever-growing per­cep­tion threshold means that marketers are con­stantly looking for new marketing strategies. On one hand this means in­creas­ing the stimuli intensity so that potential customers might even become aware of your product (however, this also con­trib­utes to a ‘sensory overload’). Ad­vert­ising messages that tend to remain in the heads of consumers are those that are emo­tion­ally provoking. A good example of this is the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ from Dove. Instead of using models to advertise their products, the skincare company used images of women of all ages and all body types, who were from different walks of life. Ideally marketing should not only be noticed, it should also have con­nota­tions that are user ori­ent­ated and also target specific. By getting the consumer to make positive as­so­ci­ations with your product as well as meeting their con­sump­tion-related needs, the product becomes much more relevant to them and much more likely that they will buy it.

Without a doubt in the past few years the internet has become the most important platform for ad­vert­ising, however, it is getting more and more difficult to get the attention of customers online. The average amount of time spent on an internet page is less than 40 seconds. In fact, some studies have shown that this figure can be as low as between 8 and 12 seconds. This makes it clear that online ad­vert­ising ap­proaches need to be able to reach the user as quickly as possible. Images and pictures are perfect for this as they can be processed by the brain in just a fraction of a second. It is generally accepted that the shorter and more intense an ad­vert­ising message is, the greater its chances of success are. Another po­ten­tially effective solution could be some sort of in­volve­ment strategy approach to marketing. This is where you integrate current events into the marketing of a product. Marketing a product under the general umbrella of a specific theme that is of great interest to a large target group appeals to something slightly different in a consumer’s mind. With the right target audience, this strategy can generate extremely positive as­so­ci­ations with a brand. Major sporting events are a prime example of this. The likes of Coca-Cola, Mas­ter­Card, Samsung, etc. have spent billions of dollars to sponsor events like the World Cup, Olympics, etc. This has allowed these brands to get within the per­cep­tion threshold of the billions of people across the world who have an interest in these sports. By as­so­ci­at­ing them­selves with so many people’s favourite sports, the company then manages to portray itself in a positive light. Highly involved fans seem to become more receptive and open to the spon­sor­ship, which in turn can often lead to more con­ver­sions for the brand. A very recent example of this is from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Samsung was one of the main sponsors, and without any doubt deemed the endeavour to be a re­sound­ing success, achieving over 1.6 billion social im­pres­sions and engaging close to 121 million fans.