Chapter 8 Attitude Change and Interactive Communications By

Chapter 8 Attitude Change and Interactive Communications By Michael R. Solomon Consumer Behavior Buying, Having, and Being Sixth Edition 8 -1

Changing Attitudes Through Communication • Persuasion: – An active attempt to change attitudes – Basic psychological principles that influence people to change their minds or comply with a request 8 -3

Basic psychological principles that influence people to change their minds or comply with a request: • Reciprocity—people are more likely to give if they receive. • Scarcity—items are more attractive if they are less available. • Authority—we believe an authoritative source much more readily. • Consistency—people try not to contradict themselves in terms of what they say and do about an issue. • Liking—we tend to agree with those we like or admire. • Consensus—we often take into account what others are doing before we decide what to do. 8 -4

Decisions, Decisions: Tactical Communications Options • Who will be the source of the message? – Man, woman, child, celebrity, athlete? • How should message be constructed? – Emphasize negative consequences? – Direct comparison with competition? – Present a fantasy? • What media will transmit the message? – Print ad, television, door-to-door, Web site? • What are the characteristics of the target market? – Young, old, frustrated, status-oriented? 8 -5

The Elements of Communication • Communications Model: – Specifies that a number of elements are necessary for communication to be achieved. • • Source: Where the communication originates Message: Content of the message itself Receivers: Interpret the message Feedback: Must be received by the source 8 -6

The Traditional Communications Model Figure 8. 1 8 -7

An Updated View: Interactive Communications • Permission Marketing: – Based on the idea that a marketer will be more successful in persuading consumers who have agreed to let him or her try. • Uses and Gratifications Theory: – Argues that consumers are an active, goal-directed audience that draws on mass media as a resource to satisfy needs. • Who’s In Charge of the Remote? – Technological and social developments are turning the passive consumer into interactive “partners. ” • Levels of Interactive Response – First-order response: A product offer that directly yields a transaction. – Second-order response: Customer feedback in response to a marketing message that is not in the form of a transaction. 8 -9

The Source • Source effects: A message will have different effects if communicated by a different source. • Two important source characteristics: – Credibility and Attractiveness 8 - 11

The Source (cont. ) • Building Credibility: Credibility can be enhanced if the source’s qualifications are relevant to the product. • Source Biases: – Knowledge bias: Implies a source’s knowledge is not accurate. – Reporting bias: When a source has the required knowledge, but the willingness to convey it is compromised • Hype versus Buzz: The Corporate Paradox – Corporate Paradox: The more involved a company appears to be in the dissemination of news about its products, the less credible it becomes. • Buzz: Word of mouth, viewed as authentic • Hype: Corporate propaganda, viewed as inauthentic 8 - 12

Source credibility: A source’s perceived expertise, objectivity, or trustworthiness. The belief that a communicator is competent is important to most consumers. Credibility can be enhanced if the source’s qualifications are perceived as somehow relevant to the product being endorsed. This linkage can overcome many objections. 8 - 13

Source credibility… • A consumer’s beliefs about a product’s attributes can be weakened if the source is perceived to be the victim of bias in presenting information. • (a) Knowledge bias implies that a source’s knowledge about a topic is not accurate. • (b) Reporting bias occurs where a source has the required knowledge, but his or her willingness to convey it accurately is compromised. 8 - 14

Hype Versus Buzz 8 - 15

Using Web Sites for Hype 8 - 16

Source Attractiveness • Source Attractiveness: – Refers to the source’s perceived social value • “What is Beautiful Is Good”: – A physically attractive source tends to facilitate attitude change. Beauty serves as a source of information. – social adaptation perspective 8 - 17

Socialites. . • The social adaptation perspective assumes that information seen to be instrumental in forming an attitude will be more heavily weighted by the perceiver. • Matching credibility and attractiveness is a strong match. The choice between the two often depends on the product or the product situation. • Experts are effective for products that have high performance risk. • Celebrities are effective for products that have high social risk. • The match-up hypothesis says that celebrities that match the product are the most successful endorsers. 8 - 18

Exceptions. . • Exceptions do occur. This is called the sleeper effect. Explanations include: • (a) The dissociative cue hypothesis – over time the message and the source become disassociated in the consumer’s mind. • (b) The availability-valence hypothesis – emphasizes the selectivity of memory owing to the limited capacity. 8 - 19

Source Attractiveness in Ads • To stimulate demand for milk, an industry trade group tapped a huge range of celebrities to show off their milk mustaches. 8 - 20

Celebrity Endorsers • Omega uses tennis star Anna Kournikova as a celebrity endorser 8 - 22

Avatars • A Swedish firm called No. DNA offers its own stable of cyber models such as Tyra, who is shown here. 8 - 24

Endorser Credibility • Endorser credibility is important when message comprehension is low • Match must exist between product attributes and endorser attributes • Credibility is higher when endorser’s demographic characteristics are similar to those of target audience • Endorser credibility is not a substitute for corporate credibility 8 - 25

Send me a message. . . • Are commercials effective? Research indicates that those that have a brand differentiating message are consistently the most effective. 8 - 26

Characteristics of the message itself have an impact on attitudes. Issues facing marketers include: (1) Should the message be conveyed in words or pictures? (2) How often should the message be repeated? (3) Should a conclusion be drawn, or should this be left up to the listener? (4) Should both sides of an argument be presented? (5) Is it effective to explicitly compare one’s product to competitors? (6) Should blatant sexual appeals be used? (7) Should negative emotions, such as fear, ever be aroused? (8) How concrete or vivid should the arguments and imagery be? (9) Should the ad be funny? 8 - 27

Memories are made of this. . . • Great emphasis is placed on sending visual messages. • However, words may be necessary to communicate factual information. Both elements used together are especially strong. (1) Verbal messages are stronger in highinvolvement situations. (2) Visual messages result in a stronger memory trace that aids retrieval over time. 8 - 28

The Message • Sending The Message: – Framed: Message in the picture is strongly related to the copy – Chunk: Visual images allow the receiver to group information at the time of encoding • Vividness: – Pictures and words can differ in vividness – Powerful descriptions or graphics command attention and are more strongly embedded in memory 8 - 29

Positive and Negative Effects of Elements in TV Commercials 8 - 30

Dual Component Model of Brand Attitudes Figure 8. 3 8 - 31

Sending the Message • Repetition: – Mere Exposure: People tend to like things that are more familiar to them, even if they are not keen on them initially. – Habituation: Consumer no longer pays attention to the stimulus because of boredom or fatigue – Two-factor Theory: Explains the fine line between familiarity and boredom. • Positive affect: Increases familiarity, reduces uncertainty • Negative affect: Boredom increases with each exposure 8 - 32

Two-Factor Theory Figure 8. 4 8 - 33

I have come to the conclusion that. . . • Another factor that may influence the persuasive potential of a message is syntactic complexity. For example, the statement, ‘Trident gum is sugarless’ is less complex than the statement, ‘Trident gum does not contain sugar’. These alternatives can make a difference, especially when motivation to process the statement is relatively low. • (2) Drawing Conclusions. The question arises as to whether the advertiser should draw conclusions or leave it to the consumer to decide. 8 - 34

Monitoring Ads 8 - 36

Types of Message Appeals • Emotional Versus Rational Appeals: – Choice depends on the nature of the product and the type of relationship that consumers have with it – Recall of ad content tends to be better for “thinking” rather than “feeling” ads • Sexual Appeals: – Sex draws attention to the ad but may be counterproductive unless the product itself is related to sex • Humorous Appeals: – Distraction: Humorous ads inhibit the consumer from counterarguing (thinking of reasons not to agree with the message), increasing the likelihood of message acceptance 8 - 37

Impact of Humor on Advertising • • • Humor attracts attention. Humor does not harm comprehension. Humor is not more effective at increasing persuasion. Humor does not enhance source credibility. Humor enhances liking. Humor that is relevant to the product is superior to humor that is unrelated to the product. Audience demographic factors affect the response to humorous advertising appeals. The nature of the product affects the appropriateness of a humorous treatment. Humor is more effective with existing products than with new products. Humor is more appropriate for low-involvement products and feeling-oriented products than for high-involvement products. 8 - 38

Music Appeals • Has intrusive value. • Gains attention and increases the retention of visual information. • Can increase persuasiveness of an advertisement. 8 - 39

Don’t get emotional. . . • Emotional appeals try to bond the consumer with the product. • However, ads that make you think are easier to recall. • Effects of emotional ads are very hard to gauge. 8 - 40

Emotional vs. Rational • These ads demonstrate rational versus emotional message appeals. At the time of the initial ad campaign for the new Infiniti automobiles, the ads for rival Lexus (top) emphasized design and engineering, while the ads for Infiniti (bottom) did not even show the car. 8 - 41

Rational Appeals • Based on ELM and Hierarchy of Effects model (SEE BELOW). • Print media is well-suited for rational appeals. • Used by business-to-business advertisers. • Well-suited for complex and high involvement products. 8 - 42

Sexual Appeals • An ad employing a sexual appeal. 8 - 43

Are Sex Appeals Effective? v. Sex and nudity do increase attention. v. Rated as being more interesting. v. Often leads to strong feelings about the advertisement. v. Brand recall is lower. v. Often interferes with message comprehension What about the issue of decorative models? Does sexually-oriented advertising perpetuate dissatisfaction with one’s body? 8 - 44

Factors to Consider Before Using Decorative Models • The presence of a decorative model influences emotional and objective evaluations of the product among both males and female audiences • The presence of female (or male) decorative models improves ad recognition, but not brand recognition. • The presence of an attractive model produces higher purchase intentions when the product is sexually relevant than if it was not sexually relevant. • Attractive models produce a higher level of attention to ads than less attractive models. 8 - 45

Sexual Appeal 8 - 46

Using Sex Appeals Effectively • Be aware of differences in the international arena. • Should be an integral part of the product. • Should utilize a variety of models in terms of age, size, ethnicity and gender. • Should consider using “regular person” models. • Be careful sex does not overpower advertisement. • Consider shifting to more sensuality. 8 - 47

Humor Appeals • This ad relies upon humor to communicate the message that skiers and snowboarders should wear helmets. 8 - 48

Types of Message Appeals (cont. ) • Fear Appeals: – Emphasize the negative consequences that can occur unless the consumer changes a behavior or an attitude – Used mostly in social marketing contexts – Effective only when the threat is moderate and a solution is presented – Threat: The literal content of the message – Fear: An emotional response to the message 8 - 49

Fear Appeals • Life insurance companies often use a fear appeal to motivate consumers to buy policies. • Research on the effectiveness of fear appeals has yielded mixed results. One reason may be due to the assumption that a specific type of message will uniformly generate a high level of fear among all consumers. 8 - 50

Discussion Question • In this advertisement for Big Red chewing gum, what type of advertising appeal is being used? • Is this an effective use of this type of appeal? 8 - 51

Personification • Many products are personified by make-believe characters. 8 - 53

Advertising Metaphors • This Chinese detergent ad uses a handcuff metaphor as it urges the viewer, “Free yourself from the burden of handwash. ” A metaphor involves the use of an explicit comparison. Metaphors allow the marketer to activate meaningful images and apply them to everyday events. 8 - 54

Elm trees. . . • Variations in a consumer’s level of involvement result in the activation of very different cognitive processes when a message is received. • The ELM assumes that once a consumer receives a message, he or she begins to process it. • Depending on the personal relevance of this information, one of two routes to persuasion will be followed. The routes are as follows: • (1) Under conditions of high involvement, the consumer takes the central route to persuasion. • (2) Under conditions of low involvement, a peripheral route is taken. 8 - 55

Get straight to the point. . . • In the central route to processing, the consumer will determine if the message is relevant. • The person will actively think about the arguments presented and generate either positive (cognitive responses) or negative (counter arguments) responses. This route usually involves the traditional hierarchy of effects. 8 - 58

Round and round we go. . . • In the peripheral route to persuasion, the consumers are (sometimes) not motivated to think about the argument, and use other cues in deciding on the suitability of the message (such as looking at the package). • The ELM model has received a lot of research support. Crucial variables to this model are as follows: • (1) Message-processing involvement – high or low. • (2) Argument strength – use strong or weak arguments in ads. • (3) Source characteristics – viewed as positive or negative by receivers. 8 - 59

Are we involved. . . – Findings: • High involvement subjects had more cognitions • High involvement subjects swayed by powerful arguments • Low involvement subjects influenced by attractive sources • When a consumer is more motivated to process an ad because it is relevant to his or her goals, the impact of central processing on brand attitudes is increased and that of peripheral cues is decreased 8 - 60

Distractions. . attract • During a persuasive message, advertisers may attempt to provide distractions (humor for instance) to reduce the amount of counterarguing a person is able to do. This strategy is effective when the argument for choosing the product is fairly weak. 8 - 61

Advertisement for The Socoh Group 8 - 64