242
ATTENTION,
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Marketing models
KEY DATES
1898 E. St. Elmo Lewis
describes the principle that
would become AIDA.
1925 US psychologist Edward
Kellogg Strong Jr. refers to
AIDA in The Psychology of
Selling and Advertising.
1949 US marketing executive
Arthur F. Peterson expresses
AIDA as a sales funnel, in
Pharmaceutical Selling,
Detailing and Sales Training.
1967 US professors Charles
Sanclage and Vernon
Fryburger propose the EPIA
model: Exposure, Perception,
Integration, Action.
1979 US academics Robert
L. Anderson and Thomas
E. Barry propose adding
brand loyalty to the various
hierarchy of effects models
based on AIDA.
INTEREST,
DESIRE, ACTION
THE AIDA MODEL
T
he AIDA model is the
foundation of modern
marketing and advertising
practice. It outlines the four basic
steps that can be used to persuade
potential customers to make a
purchase. The first three steps lie
in creating attention (A), developing
interest (I), and building desire (D)
for the product, before the fourth
step—the “call to action” (A)—tells
them exactly how and where to buy.
AIDA is often expressed as
a funnel, because it channels the
customer’s feelings through each
stage of the communication process
toward reaching a sale.
AIDA in practice
Attracting the customer’s attention
is the first challenge, and this may
be achieved by using an arresting
catchphrase, offering a discount or
something for free, or demonstrating
how a problem can be solved. Once
someone’s attention has been
seized, it must be turned into
genuine interest. This is best done
by providing a succinct assessment
of the product’s benefits to the
consumer, rather than simply
listing the product’s main features.
Problem-solving claims, results-
based advice, or testimonials can
be used to create desire, before
finally laying out a simple way for
that desire to be met—the means
to buy. On website advertising, this
might be a direct link; on TV, print,
or billboards it may be a website,
store name, or telephone number.
Commercial potential
In the movie industry, the stages of
AIDA are used to great effect. Movie
studios often begin their marketing
campaigns months in advance with
giant billboard posters to attract
attention to the new movie. Short
“teaser” trailers follow, which provoke
interest by offering a tantalizing
glimpse of the movie without
giving too much away. Desire is
instilled by the release of the full
trailer, which is carefully crafted to
show the highlights of the movie,
from big explosions and special
effects to witty lines of dialogue.
On the opening weekend,
advertisements in newspapers and
on television spotlight the movie’s
release, provoking action by
inviting the consumer to go and
buy a ticket.
One of the movie hits of 1999,
The Blair Witch Project, had an
innovative approach to AIDA that
made use of new viral marketing
 SUCCESSFUL SELLING 243
See also: Stand out in the market 28–31 ■ Creating a brand 258–63 ■
Promotions and incentives 271 ■ Why advertise? 272–73 ■ Generating buzz 274–75
Who invented AIDA?
Management expert Philip
Kotler references Edward
techniques. Before the movie’s first moviegoers were urged to buy
Kellogg Strong Jr.’s book The
showing, the filmmakers created a tickets before those few showings Psychology of Selling and
website that offered an intriguing sold out. The movie cost just $35,000 Advertising (1925) as the
insight into the background to the to make, but generated revenues of source of AIDA. However,
movie. It presented snippets of more than $280 million worldwide. Strong’s book gives credit for
movie as “found film footage,” and the idea to advertising pioneer
left viewers wondering whether E-marketing and AIDA Elias St. Elmo Lewis (1872–
the story of the movie was fiction The advent of e-commerce prompted 1948), maintaining that Lewis
or reality. The website grabbed award-winning UK copywriter Ian formulated the slogan “Attract
attention, and continued to gain Moore to suggest NEWAIDA as a attention, maintain interest,
interest as more video clips and more relevant model for e-marketing: create desire” in 1898 and
audio files were added. The buzz AIDA preceded by navigation, ease, that he later added the fourth
around the “myth” of the Blair Witch and wording. It seems that as term “get action.”
grew, creating further desire to see markets have become more complex, The first use of the AIDA
acronym is commonly
the movie. The call to action came marketers require ever-clearer ways
attributed to C. P. Russell’s
in the form of a very limited release; of perceiving the customer journey. ■
article “How to Write a
Sales-Marketing Letter,”
published in the US advertising
The AIDA model trade magazine Printers’ Ink in
1921—Russell was also one of
its editorial staff. He outlined
ATTENTION the basis of the four-step
Make the customer aware of the product or service using an process and pointed out that
eye-catching advertisement or an arresting offer. “reading downward, the first
letters of these words spell the
opera Aida.” He advised,
INTEREST “When you start a letter ... say
Hold the customer’s interest by providing infomation
‘AIDA’ to yourself and you
about the advantages of the product or service and
its benefits to the customer. won’t go far wrong ...”

DESIRE
Generate the customer’s desire to buy
by convincing them that the service
or product will meet their needs.

ACTION
Make it as easy as In practice, few messages
possible for the take the consumer all the way
customer to make from awareness to purchase,
the purchase. but the AIDA framework
suggests the qualities of
a good message.
Philip Kotler
US marketing guru (1931–)

SALE