Summary of De Pelsmacker, Marketing Communications: A European Perspective, 8th edition

Chapter 3 How marketing communications work

Hierarchy-of-effects models

Hierarchy of effects: this model outlines the stages a consumer goes through from
initial awareness to final purchase, emphasizing the sequential nature of consumer
decision-making -> consumers go through 3 stages: cognitive (awareness &
knowledge), affective (evaluation) and behavioral (taking actions)

There are some other models like AIDA , but there’s disagreement -> alternative
models:

- Low-involvement hierarchy-of-effects model: after exposure to marketing,
might buy and then feel (cognitive-behavioral-affective hierarchy)
- Experiential hierarchy-of-effects model: affective responses lead to buying and
afterwards reflecting (affective-behavioral-cognitive)

Involvement can be defined as the importance people attach to a product or a buying
decision, the extent to which one has to think it over and the level of perceived risk is
associated with an inadequate brand choice.
Think-feel dimension represents a continuum reflecting the extent to which a decision
is made on a cognitive or an affective basis.




The Rossiter-Percy grid is a modification of this; (involvement &..

Transformational buying motives consist of positive motivations, such as social
approval, while informational buying motives refer to reducing or reversing negative
motivations, such as solving a problem.

Advantage of the models is they provide a framework for communications objectives
and campaign effectiveness measurement and incorporate the importance of brand
awareness.

Shortcoming is that they don’t allow interactions or carryover effects, fail to capture
impact of information technology and often overlook post-purchase experiences.

,Attitude formation and change

Attitude is a person’s overall evaluation of an object, product, etc. In hierarchy-of-
effects models they are primarily defined as affective reactions in a hierarchical
setting.

Different communications models regarding attitude formation and change can be
classified:

1. How attitudes are formed: primarily cognitive, affective or behavioral
2. How is the message processed (dual-process theories): distinguish between
information processing that goes unconscious and doesn’t require much
cognitive capacity, and information processing that is conscious.
a. Not all theories rely on separate cognitive systems -> elaboration
likelihood model (ELM): distinguishes between central and peripheral
processing depending on how optimal processing conditions are –
defined by:
 Motivation; refers to consumers’ willingness to process brand or
product information -> influenced by needs (functional
(informational dimension), symbolic (how do we see ourselves
and how would we like to be perceived) or hedonic (desire for
sensory pleasure)) and goals
 Ability; refers to the presence and accessibility of competences
and knowledge structures needed to understand the message.
 Opportunity; deals with the extent to which the circumstances
and the message enable a person to process the message.
o If MAO are all high, the elaboration likelihood is high and consumers
are expected to engage in central-route processing (= willing to
elaborate on the information, evaluate and find out)
o If not, then a persuasive cue should be present and peripheral
processing is expected.

,How a message substance or affective responses are processed is likely to depend
on consumers’ elaboration likelihood:
High elaboration likelihood, cognitive attitude formation

MAO are high & cognitive elements are important

- Multi-attribute models
o Expectancy-value model (Fishbein model) -> brand attitudes have 3
elements:
 Relevant product attributes
 Belief the brand possesses these attributes
 Evaluation of these attributes
 -> weighted sum of the products of brand beliefs and attribute
evaluations (not all attributes are equally important)
o Extension of this model: theory of planned behavior (TPB) -> behavioral
intentions = function of 3 elements:
 Consumers’ attitude (expectancy-value model)
 Subjective norm/perceived social pressure = weighted
(willingness to behave according to norms/social sensitivity)
belief regarding what reference groups consider as socially
desirable behavior
 Perceived behavioral control (PBC) = perceived ease or difficulty
of performing the behavior and is assumed to reflect past
experience and anticipated impediments and obstacles ->
multiplying control beliefs i.e. beliefs about specific factors that
may facilitate or hinder the behaviour, such as the number of
trams or trains per hour running between two cities) by perceived
power of particular control belief to pose the behavior (i.e. the
perceived importance or impact each control factor has to
facilitate the behavior, such as how important is the number of
trams/trains per hour to adopt public transportation as a means
to commute)




o Further extension: theory of reasoned goal pursuit (TRGP)

,  Main difference is that this starts from the goals people want to
achieve instead of target behavior
 Procurement goals reflect outcomes a person is motivated to
attain (e.g. losing weight)
 Approval goals reflect approval one seeks from others
 Considers perceived behavioral control as a moderator




Assumes that people entertain several different goals and
consider multiple courses of actions to reach goals
 Goals active at decision moment are more impactful
 Goals aren’t stable
o Consumers’ attitudes and behavior can be changed by:




- Self-generated persuasion: consumer isn’t persuaded by strong brand
arguments, but by their own thoughts, arguments or imagined consequences -
> go beyond information of an ad.
o Previous experience and knowledge is used
o Persuasive process is imagery-based