Marketing Communication Lecture 1
Hidden persuasion
Ads can influence 3 things:
- Thinking (the mind)
- Feeling (the heart)
- Acting (behave)
Valence: De sterkte
Advertising: Any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor aimed to inform and/or
persuade target audiences about an organization, product, service or idea. All kind of forms.
Distinction between ads:
- Argument-based
- Emotional-based (emotional appeals)
Both are effective, but it differs per circumstances. In principle, every product can be advertised in
both ways.
Distinction between the function of advertising:
- Inform: Change nonevaluative consumer responses (beliefs / knowledge)
- Persuade: Change evaluative consumer responses (attitudes/preferences) = more important
Both argument-based and emotional appeals can inform and/or persuade!
Two basic strategies:
- Alpha strategies: Promoting an approach motivation. Making something more attractive.
- Omega strategies: Reducing an avoidance motivation. i.e. reducing resistance. (belastingaangifte)
,Hurdle 1 – How consumers acquire and process information from advertising
Four basic stages from low effort, unconscious and automatic to high effort, conscious and
deliberative
1. Preattentive analysis
2. Focal attention
3. Comprehension
4. Elaborative reasoning
Typically, consumers are not that involved, they don’t really care. So consumer involvement is very
rare. So not only focus on high involved consumers. It is a feature of the consumer, not a product.
Preattentive analysis
Low involved. Automatic noticing what is going on around us. General, non-goal directed surveillance
of the environment. Incidental exposure to advertising. Unconscious
This is relevant for ad placement strategies.
How the brain works:
Both halfs of the brain complement each
other, they communicate with each other.
Both are specialized in different areas.
Remember, when we connect brain to the
eyes, the sides switch.
Left eyes feeds to the right hemisphere
and vice versa.
So: Janiszewski
- A pictorial ad benefits from being processed by right hemisphere – so place it left
- A textual ad benefits from being processed by left hemisphere – So place it right
Focal attention
When involvement turns from low to moderate.
Process by which information is brought into short term, working memory where it becomes
the object of conscious attention. So when we actively focus on things and start noticing
them…
It’s not per se out of free will. There is voluntary and involuntary attention.
Factors that promote involuntary focal attention:
- Salience: Extent to which variable is noticeably different from its environment: extent of
experienced contrast.
- Vividness: Extent to which information is emotionally interesting, concrete/image provoking
and proximate (proximate = het gevoel hebben dat jij erbij bent)
- Novelty: Extent of ‘frequently a function of extent to which information disconfirms
preexisting consumer expectations. (vertaling novelty is nieuwigheid)
Comprehension
More involvement needed.
It starts with either believing (accepting) or not believing (not accepting) incoming information.
This is an initial, unconscious, spontaneous response
If we see things for the first time, our first gut response is that we tend to believe it. A truth effect.
This effect becomes stronger when the information is repeated, and the consumer is not on full alert.
At second response we choose (= conscious) to unbelieve it. This requires more involvement.
So to believe it costs less effort, that’s why we believe stuff at first = The truth effect.
, Elaborative reasoning
Moderate to high involvement. This is rare, but it happens.
This is about active, conscious inference making.
When you hear/see a ad, you are linking what you learned about a brand through an ad to what you
already know about the brand in your memory, and so creating new ideas, beliefs, attitudes etc (or
updating old ones).
Advertisers estimate that this happends more than it actually does. Consumers have to find it really
relevant to be high involved.
Hidden persuasion
Ads can influence 3 things:
- Thinking (the mind)
- Feeling (the heart)
- Acting (behave)
Valence: De sterkte
Advertising: Any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor aimed to inform and/or
persuade target audiences about an organization, product, service or idea. All kind of forms.
Distinction between ads:
- Argument-based
- Emotional-based (emotional appeals)
Both are effective, but it differs per circumstances. In principle, every product can be advertised in
both ways.
Distinction between the function of advertising:
- Inform: Change nonevaluative consumer responses (beliefs / knowledge)
- Persuade: Change evaluative consumer responses (attitudes/preferences) = more important
Both argument-based and emotional appeals can inform and/or persuade!
Two basic strategies:
- Alpha strategies: Promoting an approach motivation. Making something more attractive.
- Omega strategies: Reducing an avoidance motivation. i.e. reducing resistance. (belastingaangifte)
,Hurdle 1 – How consumers acquire and process information from advertising
Four basic stages from low effort, unconscious and automatic to high effort, conscious and
deliberative
1. Preattentive analysis
2. Focal attention
3. Comprehension
4. Elaborative reasoning
Typically, consumers are not that involved, they don’t really care. So consumer involvement is very
rare. So not only focus on high involved consumers. It is a feature of the consumer, not a product.
Preattentive analysis
Low involved. Automatic noticing what is going on around us. General, non-goal directed surveillance
of the environment. Incidental exposure to advertising. Unconscious
This is relevant for ad placement strategies.
How the brain works:
Both halfs of the brain complement each
other, they communicate with each other.
Both are specialized in different areas.
Remember, when we connect brain to the
eyes, the sides switch.
Left eyes feeds to the right hemisphere
and vice versa.
So: Janiszewski
- A pictorial ad benefits from being processed by right hemisphere – so place it left
- A textual ad benefits from being processed by left hemisphere – So place it right
Focal attention
When involvement turns from low to moderate.
Process by which information is brought into short term, working memory where it becomes
the object of conscious attention. So when we actively focus on things and start noticing
them…
It’s not per se out of free will. There is voluntary and involuntary attention.
Factors that promote involuntary focal attention:
- Salience: Extent to which variable is noticeably different from its environment: extent of
experienced contrast.
- Vividness: Extent to which information is emotionally interesting, concrete/image provoking
and proximate (proximate = het gevoel hebben dat jij erbij bent)
- Novelty: Extent of ‘frequently a function of extent to which information disconfirms
preexisting consumer expectations. (vertaling novelty is nieuwigheid)
Comprehension
More involvement needed.
It starts with either believing (accepting) or not believing (not accepting) incoming information.
This is an initial, unconscious, spontaneous response
If we see things for the first time, our first gut response is that we tend to believe it. A truth effect.
This effect becomes stronger when the information is repeated, and the consumer is not on full alert.
At second response we choose (= conscious) to unbelieve it. This requires more involvement.
So to believe it costs less effort, that’s why we believe stuff at first = The truth effect.
, Elaborative reasoning
Moderate to high involvement. This is rare, but it happens.
This is about active, conscious inference making.
When you hear/see a ad, you are linking what you learned about a brand through an ad to what you
already know about the brand in your memory, and so creating new ideas, beliefs, attitudes etc (or
updating old ones).
Advertisers estimate that this happends more than it actually does. Consumers have to find it really
relevant to be high involved.
