Persuasion

Consumers do not need extensive information , creating awareness and a

frequent repetition appears to be enough

Psychology plays an important role in adverting.

It helps to understand the target audience and accordingly plan the ad

campaigns.

Major areas of psychology that affect consumer behavior are

Involvement theory

In this theory , advertising affects consumers in two ways .

Buying situation differ considerably in terms of the energy devoted to purchase

decisions

For low involvement persuasion strategy would have visually oriented messages
with little information content .

Routes to Persuasion

Low
Low ability Weak or Ephemeral
motivation
to process Attitude toward product
to process
information
information

Peripheral route to persuasion

Central route to persuasion

Information
High ability
about a High
to process Enduring Attitude
product motivation
information toward product
to process
information

• Factual versus emotional appeals is a decision involving whether the tone of a

message or the way in which the message appeals to consumers should be
either factual or emotional.

Enduring
Attitude toward
product
 A factual tone appeals to the consumer's thinking processes, whereas an emo-
tional tone appeals to feelings.

This is the central route to attitude change—attitudes change as a direct

response to the physical attributes or benefits of the products as processed
through the consumer's cognitive faculties.

In contrast, emotional appeals take a peripheral route to attitude change.

The consumer does not respond to the pros and cons of the product by making a
cognitive decision but responds instead to the feelings the message arouses.

ELM model - The elaboration likelihood model above illustrates the two routes
to message persuasion.

Given central route processing, factual messages are likely to be effective

Given peripheral route processing, emotional appeals may make a positive

impact—by making the consumer feel good for e.g Property ads , Fairness
creams

However, the impression they make is temporary and can be easily forgotten or
changed by competitive messages

Central route: is reflective, requires mental effort, relies on cognitive elaboration,

thinking about, reflecting on a message

Motivation (willingness) to process a message

Ability to process (understand) a message

Example: Tina is car shopping. She looks up information comparing safety,

reliability, performance, customer satisfaction, mileage, and depreciation for three
makes of sporty cars.

The Peripheral route: is reflexive, based on mental shortcuts, credibility,

appearance cues, quantity of arguments

– heuristic cues (decision rules): rules for simplifying the thought

process

– “Experts can be trusted,” “As seen on TV”) Salman khan revital

– Source attractiveness (celebrity endorsements) “Brad Pitt is in the
movie, so it has to be good.”
– Perceived similarity: “I’ll study with her, she’s a Christian too.”
 Motivation to process the message depends upon the following three factors

Message Relevance

Need for Cognition

Purchase Responsibility

Message Relevance

What is the message relevance to the consumer?

Suppose an engineer who uses various kinds of computer software in her work
sees an advertisement for a new software package.

Because it might help her advance in her career, this consumer is likely to be
motivated to process a factual message about the product.

Contrast the homemaker who uses the computer for little more than paying bills
and personal correspondence.

If persuaded to buy the product at all, this consumer is more likely to respond to
an emotional rather than a factual appeal

Need for Cognition ( intellect)

Does the consumer have a high need for cognition?

Continuing the previous example, the homemaker may be motivated to process a

factual message if she is the type of person who is curious about computers in
general and, therefore, has a high need to know and understand

Purchase Responsibility

Who has purchase responsibility?

Does the consumer feel that he or she is ultimately responsible for making an
effective decision?

Suppose an organization decides to purchase new computer software to

automate its outdated accounting system.

• An employee assigned to evaluate different programs will obviously feel

responsible for the decision and will, therefore, examine relevant information
very closely and respond well to factual appeals.

• If the responsibility is diffused among several employees or to a committee,

motivation to process factual messages weakens.

The lack of personal responsibility leads to peripheral processing, through which

emotional appeals are likely to be more effective
 • Three other factors influence the ability to process messages

• Distraction

• Message Pace –

• Product Familiarity or Experience

Distraction

A distraction is anything that pulls the consumer^ attention away from the content of
a factual message and lessens the message's ability to communicate effectively.

Loud background music in a television commercial, for example, can distract viewers
from processing the finer details of the argument made in the message.

Message Pace

It takes time for consumers to process detailed factual messages accurately.

Media channels such as television and radio are typically less effective than print
simply because they do not always provide the consumer with ample time to
process factual messages.

The message pace or speed of such messages is often too great

Product Familiarity or Experience

Consumers who already have product familiarity with the product advertised are
more likely to be able to process factual messages about it than those who are not.

Therefore, emotional appeals work better than factual appeals with new products or
with new consumer segments

Board Question paper ( 2009 – 2013)

Explain the central and peripheral route to persuasion

Prepare a message using both the routes to persuade your target audience to
purchase a laptop.