Creativity in Advertising

To establish the topic of creativity in advertising, it is important to define what it is and where it comes from. Advertising creativity is defined as the process in which advertising ideas are produced and developed (El-Murad and West 2004). [example needed?] However, the concept of creativity itself needs to be examined in a deeper context. Many researchers have meticulously explored the subject and have looked at it from a theoretical perspective and used empirical techniques to deepen knowledge. Extensive in-depth research has focused majorly on creativity theory and the constructs on it. Creativity is a complex idea and is multidimensional in its framework. Runco & Charles (1992) define that the creativity model is tested by two variables known as 'originality' and 'appropriateness'. Originality is defined as how original an idea is, and tends to be associated with creative individuals who produce unique fairly original ideas. Appropriateness (in a marketing context) refers to the suitability or strategic fit to an idea. It is necessary to distinguish the originality-appropriateness model separately in order to relate it with convergent and divergent thinking. Kilgour and Koslow (2009) state that it is vital to split creativity into its components as most traditional creative techniques promote divergent, or original thinking, as opposed to convergent, or appropriate thinking.

Divergent and convergent thinking influences people in different ways. Mumford et al. (1997a) distinguishes the concepts of thinking in two distinct forms. Divergent thinking is where a new creative idea is developed through originality, and is generated by unlocking unusual parts of the memory. Convergent thinking is where an idea is created through forming new connections between existing ideas, and restructuring and reforming the existing idea to come up with a new solution. By merging the two forms of thinking, it creates a creative thinking process that produces both an original and appropriate solution (Coney and Serna cited in Kilgour and Koslow 2009). Research has found that when comes to traditional thinking techniques, people think dominantly in either divergent or convergent thinking. People who think divergently tend to be more original, but their appropriateness suffers. Convergent thinkers are less likely to be original, but have increased appropriateness (Kilgour and Koslow 2009).