Lecture 1 – Effective marketing communication: a game of hurdles
Marketing communication effectiveness
This course studies how advertising and marketing communication influence consumers,
often without them being aware of it. The course takes a scientific and psychological
perspective, not a creative or artistic one.
The main question is: when, why, and how does marketing communication work?
Advertising as a science
Many advertisers and agencies do not really know what works and why. This course argues
that:
• Advertising effectiveness should be evidence-based
• Psychology provides systematic knowledge about persuasion
• “If science is available, why use anything else?” (Cialdini, 2010)
The book used in this course is not a cookbook for an effective campaign, but a book filled
with attractive ingredients.
The “Game of hurdles”
Advertising effectiveness is described as a game of hurdles. Each hurdle is psychological
challenge advertisers must overcome.
There are 7 hurdles in total:
1) How consumers acquire and process information from advertising (chapter 2)
2) How advertising affects consumer memory (chapter 3)
3) How to target attitudes, the ‘forgotten’ effectiveness indicator (chapter 4)
4) How consumers yield to advertising (chapter 5)
5) How to bridge the intention-behavior gap (chapter 6)
6) How to nudge consumer behavior change (chapter 7)
7) How to persuade the online consumer (chapter 8)
Psychology of advertising: individual perspective
The course looks at:
• Specific ad variables
o Source variables: expertise, attractiveness, number, fame
o Message variables: argument quality, argument quantity, information density
• Specific consumer responses
Consumer responses
• Cognitive: beliefs, thoughts, awareness
• Affective: emotions, feelings
• Behavioral: buying, using, disposing
,Chapter 1: Advertising in context
Consumers are exposed to more than 1,000 commercial messages per day.
Advertising competes for very limited attention.
Advertising = any paid communication by an identified sponsor to inform or persuade a
target audience.
All communication tools: ads, sales promotion, PR, online marketing, personal selling
Two types of advertising
Argument-based: Emotional-based:
Two main functions of advertising
1) Informing
• Changes knowledge and beliefs
• Non-evaluative responses (awareness)
• Linked to early chapters
2) Persuading
• Changes attitudes and preferences
• Evaluative responses
• Linked to later chapters
Both argument-based and emotional-based ads can inform and persuade.
Two basic strategies (Knowles & Linn, 2004)
1) Alpha strategies = increase attraction by making the offer more appealing
2) Omega strategies = reduce resistance by lower fear, doubt, or avoidance
Hurdle 1: how consumers acquire and process advertising info
Consumers process advertising in four stages, from low effort to high effort:
1) Preattentive analysis
• Unconscious
• Incidental exposure
• Important for ad placement: because of hemispheric lateralization, text
works best on the left (right hemisphere) and pictures on the right (left
hemisphere).
, 2) Focal attention
• Involvement increase
• Information enters working memory
• Can be voluntary or involuntary
• Triggered by:
o Salience = extent of experienced contract from environment
This is both salient and vivid
Times square is not salient,
although very expensive
o Vividness = extent of interesting, and concrete/image provoking
This is emotionally provoking, but this it’s so
personal that it should not be used for
advertising. The attention is probably hijacked
by the emotions
o Novelty = extent of ‘newness’ compared to expectations
This is a two-sided ad because it’s both negative (“only
2nd place”) and positive (“but you should still choose
us), therefore it’s novel.
3) Comprehension
• Making sense of the message
• At first, people believe information automatically (“seeing is believing”),
because believing is less effortful than disbelieving (= truth effect).
• Repetition strengthens belief
4) Elaborative reasoning
• High involvement
• Active thinking and linking to memory
• Often overestimated by advertisers → even loyal customers
don’t always use elaborative reasoning.
Involvement is a consumer characteristic, not a product characteristic.
Final takeaway
• Advertising effectiveness depends on the interaction between the ad and the
consumer.
• Lecture 1 focuses on information processing, not yet persuasion.
• Understanding how people notice, understand, and think about ads is the first step
to effective marketing communication.
, Book
Chapter 1 – Setting the stage: what advertising is and how it works
1. What is advertising?
Advertising = is any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor. Its goal is to
inform and/or persuade a target audience about an organization, product, service, or idea.
This definition helps us understand advertising as a strategic communication tool, not just
creative messages.
2. The historical roots of advertising
Advertising is not new. Its origins go back to ancient civilizations such as Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.
Early advertising used signs, symbols, and spoken messages to inform people about
goods and services.
The Industrial Revolution strongly accelerated advertising because:
• Production increased massively
• Producers and consumers became separated
• Consumers needed information about available products
This period also led to the rise of brands, which helped consumers identify and distinguish
products.
Key advertising media developed over time: print (newspapers, magazines), audio-visual
media (radio, television), and digital media (Internet).
Importantly, these media do not replace each other but are mostly complementary.
3. Functions of advertising
Advertising has both societal and individual functions.
Societal functions:
• Facilitates competition between firms
• Finances mass media (TV, newspapers, online platforms)
• Creates many jobs worldwide
Individual functions:
• Informing consumers (about price, quality, availability)
• Persuading consumers (changing attitudes, preferences, choices)
4. Psychological perspective on advertising effects
This book mainly uses a psychological approach, focusing on how advertising affects
individuals.
Advertising can influence different consumer responses:
• Cognitive (thinking, beliefs, awareness)
• Affective (feelings, emotions, attitudes)
• Conative / behavioural (intentions, buying behaviour)
Marketing communication effectiveness
This course studies how advertising and marketing communication influence consumers,
often without them being aware of it. The course takes a scientific and psychological
perspective, not a creative or artistic one.
The main question is: when, why, and how does marketing communication work?
Advertising as a science
Many advertisers and agencies do not really know what works and why. This course argues
that:
• Advertising effectiveness should be evidence-based
• Psychology provides systematic knowledge about persuasion
• “If science is available, why use anything else?” (Cialdini, 2010)
The book used in this course is not a cookbook for an effective campaign, but a book filled
with attractive ingredients.
The “Game of hurdles”
Advertising effectiveness is described as a game of hurdles. Each hurdle is psychological
challenge advertisers must overcome.
There are 7 hurdles in total:
1) How consumers acquire and process information from advertising (chapter 2)
2) How advertising affects consumer memory (chapter 3)
3) How to target attitudes, the ‘forgotten’ effectiveness indicator (chapter 4)
4) How consumers yield to advertising (chapter 5)
5) How to bridge the intention-behavior gap (chapter 6)
6) How to nudge consumer behavior change (chapter 7)
7) How to persuade the online consumer (chapter 8)
Psychology of advertising: individual perspective
The course looks at:
• Specific ad variables
o Source variables: expertise, attractiveness, number, fame
o Message variables: argument quality, argument quantity, information density
• Specific consumer responses
Consumer responses
• Cognitive: beliefs, thoughts, awareness
• Affective: emotions, feelings
• Behavioral: buying, using, disposing
,Chapter 1: Advertising in context
Consumers are exposed to more than 1,000 commercial messages per day.
Advertising competes for very limited attention.
Advertising = any paid communication by an identified sponsor to inform or persuade a
target audience.
All communication tools: ads, sales promotion, PR, online marketing, personal selling
Two types of advertising
Argument-based: Emotional-based:
Two main functions of advertising
1) Informing
• Changes knowledge and beliefs
• Non-evaluative responses (awareness)
• Linked to early chapters
2) Persuading
• Changes attitudes and preferences
• Evaluative responses
• Linked to later chapters
Both argument-based and emotional-based ads can inform and persuade.
Two basic strategies (Knowles & Linn, 2004)
1) Alpha strategies = increase attraction by making the offer more appealing
2) Omega strategies = reduce resistance by lower fear, doubt, or avoidance
Hurdle 1: how consumers acquire and process advertising info
Consumers process advertising in four stages, from low effort to high effort:
1) Preattentive analysis
• Unconscious
• Incidental exposure
• Important for ad placement: because of hemispheric lateralization, text
works best on the left (right hemisphere) and pictures on the right (left
hemisphere).
, 2) Focal attention
• Involvement increase
• Information enters working memory
• Can be voluntary or involuntary
• Triggered by:
o Salience = extent of experienced contract from environment
This is both salient and vivid
Times square is not salient,
although very expensive
o Vividness = extent of interesting, and concrete/image provoking
This is emotionally provoking, but this it’s so
personal that it should not be used for
advertising. The attention is probably hijacked
by the emotions
o Novelty = extent of ‘newness’ compared to expectations
This is a two-sided ad because it’s both negative (“only
2nd place”) and positive (“but you should still choose
us), therefore it’s novel.
3) Comprehension
• Making sense of the message
• At first, people believe information automatically (“seeing is believing”),
because believing is less effortful than disbelieving (= truth effect).
• Repetition strengthens belief
4) Elaborative reasoning
• High involvement
• Active thinking and linking to memory
• Often overestimated by advertisers → even loyal customers
don’t always use elaborative reasoning.
Involvement is a consumer characteristic, not a product characteristic.
Final takeaway
• Advertising effectiveness depends on the interaction between the ad and the
consumer.
• Lecture 1 focuses on information processing, not yet persuasion.
• Understanding how people notice, understand, and think about ads is the first step
to effective marketing communication.
, Book
Chapter 1 – Setting the stage: what advertising is and how it works
1. What is advertising?
Advertising = is any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor. Its goal is to
inform and/or persuade a target audience about an organization, product, service, or idea.
This definition helps us understand advertising as a strategic communication tool, not just
creative messages.
2. The historical roots of advertising
Advertising is not new. Its origins go back to ancient civilizations such as Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.
Early advertising used signs, symbols, and spoken messages to inform people about
goods and services.
The Industrial Revolution strongly accelerated advertising because:
• Production increased massively
• Producers and consumers became separated
• Consumers needed information about available products
This period also led to the rise of brands, which helped consumers identify and distinguish
products.
Key advertising media developed over time: print (newspapers, magazines), audio-visual
media (radio, television), and digital media (Internet).
Importantly, these media do not replace each other but are mostly complementary.
3. Functions of advertising
Advertising has both societal and individual functions.
Societal functions:
• Facilitates competition between firms
• Finances mass media (TV, newspapers, online platforms)
• Creates many jobs worldwide
Individual functions:
• Informing consumers (about price, quality, availability)
• Persuading consumers (changing attitudes, preferences, choices)
4. Psychological perspective on advertising effects
This book mainly uses a psychological approach, focusing on how advertising affects
individuals.
Advertising can influence different consumer responses:
• Cognitive (thinking, beliefs, awareness)
• Affective (feelings, emotions, attitudes)
• Conative / behavioural (intentions, buying behaviour)
