Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 16, Issue 4, 2018
Mithun S. Ullal (India), Iqbal Thonse Hawaldar (Bahrain)
BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES
LLC “СPС “Business Perspectives”
Hryhorii Skovoroda lane, 10, Sumy,
40022, Ukraine
www.businessperspectives.org
Received on: 14th of June, 2018
Accepted on: 20th of November, 2018
© Mithun S. Ullal, Iqbal Thonse
Hawaldar, 2018
Mithun S. Ullal, Assistant Professor,
Sahyadri College of Engineering and
Management, India.
Iqbal Thonse Hawaldar, Professor,
Department of Accounting and
Finance, College of Business
Administration, Kingdom University,
Bahrain.
This is an Open Access article,
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International license, which permits
unrestricted re-use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly
cited.
http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(4).2018.24
Influence of Advertisement
on Customers based on AIDA
model
Abstract
The paper is based on information which is a combination of store advertisement and
consumers’ path inside the store along with product information. With this infor-
mation, the authors find how advertisement affects the behavior of consumers when
making the decision. The findings suggest that advertisement has a small impact on
customers inside the stores. Null effect is determined, and one standard deviation in
advertising has an impact on store traffic by 1.2%. But the impact at a lower end of the
model is observed. One standard deviation in advertisement has impacted the store
sales by 8.4%. Based on further data mining, the research has found that there is no sig-
nificant improvement in the number of customers, but the increase in sales is because
of the higher quantity of purchases by the existing consumers. However, the effect of
advertisement on products placed in the same or nearby shelf is not found, the impact
on product varieties in the same segment is also not found. Based on these research
findings, the authors find the right approach towards advertisement.
The research is limited to consumers of retail industry in a Tier 3 Indian city of a devel-
oping geographic segment only.
Keywords advertising, AIDA model, path tracking
JEL Classification M31, M37
INTRODUCTION
Creativity without strategy is art, creativity with strategy is adver-
tising. The advertisement does not just inform, it develops desires
and dreams in the target consumer’s mind. The retail advertisement
has reached 14 billion dollars, which is roughly 1.6% of overall sales.
However, the stores across the world using leaflets and fliers account
for around 45% of total expenditure on advertisement. The amount of
expenditure demands that the advertisers should identify the impact
of feature advertising based on AIDA model.
1) Will advertisement increase the number of footfalls?
2) Is there the traffic towards specific parts of the store?
3) Most importantly, does advertisement have an impact on sales?
The decision makers should identify the level of AIDA model, which
absorbs the maximum impact of advertisement. The advertisement of
a product which attracts consumers to the store to buy that specific
product also results in having high probability of purchasing other
products as well.
The analysis of customer action through the AIDA model is ap-
plied in the practical world. Marketers believe that advertisements
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Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 16, Issue 4, 2018

increase the number of footfalls, but the proof of this is not available. This may also be due to lack
of reliable data on this subject. The knowledge of the marketers is mainly limited to effects of ad-
vertisement on products sold, but not on multiple levels of the AIDA model.

The article involves the in-depth observation of consumer behavior in stores across Tier 3 Indian
cities. Facts about the consumer behavior are obtained here due to manual tracking of consumers
at the stores. The path of various consumers that are divided based on demography and location of
each point of time, that is, over five minutes, 10 and 15 minutes, was tracked. Based on matching it
with store locations, we track at what time a consumer visited certain products located at various
locations inside the store. The consumers’ purchase along with the feature advertising was also
tracked. These observations help us to understand the effect of advertisements on various levels of
purchase decisions of the consumers.

The paper answers on the level of maximum impact of advertising based on AIDA model. It also
tries to find valid information on cross selling through advertisements.

The impact of advertisements on various levels of AIDA model could be answered by the number of
customers who visit a particular product in the store. Next analysis of advertisement on purchase
decision is found. The next question is answered by identifying and tracking the sales data of the
products stored next to the category under feature advertising.

The findings are related to the impact on the number of customers by advertisements to particu-
lar products. Analysis is done by finding the number of customers for product category, keeping
other aspects of product mix unaltered. The research finds that the number of customers does not
increase because of feature advertising. The null effect is estimated and it is found that one stand-
ard deviation results in an increase by a mere 1.2%, which shows that sales are driven by advertise-
ments only when a consumer visits the product category.

Also, the effect of advertisement on a purchase is identified. The number of products that are
advertised has some impact on the outcome. SD increase in advertisement has 9.4% increase in
purchase quantity. The research finds that sales here are driven by consumer purchasing different
products under the same brand name that has advertised its products. However, the number of
brands in the consumer’s shopping cart along with the number of consumers remains unchanged.
The quantity of a product, though, remains unchanged by advertisements. Thus, the impact of the
advertisement is minimal at various levels of the AIDA model. The effect is mainly due to the same
number of customers purchasing different varieties of the product, which is advertised.

Also, the research is done on the impact of advertisement on the products in store place in close
vicinity. This is presented in the latter part of the paper by mapping the customer path with the
store layout. There is no conclusive evidence that advertising of the particular category leads to
sales of products placed next to it. Also, the impact on the rest of the related commodities remains
unchanged.

Finally, consumer behavior is mapped to the data obtained to conclusively tell that the effect of
advertisement is only on the last level, that is, active in the AIDA model. It may be because the con-
sumer may observe an ad without Interest, Desire and Action. Its impact is limited to the recall of
the product at the touch point with it. This is the lower end of the AIDA model and the effect of the
ad is found only here. It could also mean that consumers who have taken the decision to purchase
are only paying attention to the ads and not others. This behavior of the consumers minimizes the
effects of ads on the first three stages of the AIDA model.

286 http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(4).2018.24
 Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 16, Issue 4, 2018

1. LITERATURE REVIEW lated products exists in coupons provided with

discounts, as well as consumer purchase products
Advertising has an impact on quantity sold but at without discounts. However, the impact in stores
various stages is found to be ineffective (Seiler & across Tier 3 cities of a developing country mar-
Yao, 2017). Promotions and advertisements have ket like India is not found. This is due to intensive
long lasting impacts (Jedidi, Mela, & Gupta, 1999). consumer tracking, ads placing and mapping the
Advertisements further become important because same with the store layout.
of the long-lasting impacts it has on brand evalu-
ations (Keller, 1987) and it also has effects on con- This article is different from the existing literatures,
sumer brand choices (Mela, Gupta, & Lehmann, as it tracks the impact of ads on purchases and al-
1997). Business is a voluntary exchange that cre- so on consumer’s path inside the store. Also, the
ates value (Mackey, Sisodia, & George, 2014) and quantity purchased is the main issue along with
understanding the customer buying process is im- brands and products. The impact of various lev-
portant in business (Nancy, Goodstein, Grewal, & els of consumer decision making process are done
Price, 2009). This buying process could be affect- by Honka, Hortacsu, and Vitorino (2016) and
ed by advertisements and sales promotions by the Johnson, Lewis, and Nubbemeyer (2016), which
marketers (Neslin & Blattberg, 1990) and visuals is limited to financial products and ads on the
such as pricing also affect the customers minds Internet. This paper further adds to the research
(Raj, Suri, & Grewal, 2017). The visuals in the of Hui, Fader, and Bradlow (2009), which has ob-
form of dynamic presentation affects the custom- served the consumer track and its inconsisten-
ers (Roggeveen, Grewal, Townsend, & Krishnan, cies and, analysis of impulse buying behavior has
2015). Store ads also affects store choice as found by been researched here. Literature on monetary and
Srinivasan and Bodapati (2006). Digital displays non-monetary costs of search and its history has
also affect the sales (Roggevven & Grewal, 2016). been researched by Bronnenberg, Kim, and Mela
Effects of customers satisfaction built through loy- (2016) (2016). Shapiro (1984) has given spillover
alty programs affect the business (Magi & Anne, effects i n healthcare segments. Honka, Hortacsu,
2003). Advertisements however convert high and Vitorino (2016) have researched the advertise-
number of consumers to buy in a category (Seiler ment impact on different stages of decision mak-
& Yao, 2017). Store atmosphere is also connected ing process by consumers in financial b usiness.
to the psychology of the customer (Spence, Nancy, Johnson, Lewis, and Nubbemeyer (2016) have giv-
Puccinelli, Grewal, & Roggeveen, 2014). en the effect of advertisement on Internet advertis-
ing on the consumer process of decision making.
The article adds to the literature of Seiler and Pinna Measuring advertisement effects is important to
(2016) whose findings on price saving by searching marketers (Bagwell, 2007).
in the store are published. The multitude of arti-
cles referred do not track the consumer’s path in- The information obtained along with the statistics
side the store and match it with the position of the is provided here along with the effects of ads for
advertisement. Finding the effect of the marketing sales. The various tests follow and fi nally th e ef -
of a product on consumers based on AIDA model fect of ads on other products in close proximity
at various levels is the objective of this paper. is checked. The paper ends with various available
literature that agrees upon the findings.
There is a lot of literature on advertisement effects
on the selling of the products in close vicinity. The
online advertising spillovers are quantified by
Sahni (2016) and also evidence of the same could
be found in Lewis and Nguyen (2014) on the im-
pact of ads on other products close by. Simester
(2013) argues that the impact is limited to catego-
ries where customer has problems in changing to
other brands. Also, Sahni, Zou, and Chintagunta
(2016) have argued that the impact of ads on re-

http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(4).2018.24 287
 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-8 Issue-5, January 2020

Aida Model – A Panacea for Promoting Products

C. Naga Ganesh

At present, basically the promotional activities embrace

Abstract: Promotion is a key element in putting across the
benefits of your product or service to the customers. Well-
every action on the part of marketer to communicate their
designed marketing and promotional strategies ensure long-term
product, place, price and promotion activities to their
success, bring in more customers and ensure profitability for
customers economically and effectively to bring desired
businesses. The study is conducted to identify the most effective
result namely increased sales, profit and customer
promotional offers of Maruti Suzuki and to evaluate the affect of
satisfaction. The promotional strategies are studied taking
promotional offers on purchasing decision of Maruti Suzuki
AIDAS model into consideration.
customers. The study is based on AIDA model and the primary
data is collected through a questionnaire from the sampleThe AIDA model is an advertising effect model. It describes
population of 81 people chosen by random sampling method. The
the effect of advertising media. The sales process should be
data collected is analyzed using pie charts, percentage bar graphs
sustainably optimized on the basis of this model. It was
and chi-square. According to the study most of the respondents
developed by an American businessman and has been in use
agree that effective advertisements influence their purchase
since the late 19th century. It has been reviewed and modified
decision and their attitude towards a brand. Every promotional
multiple times over the years, both in marketing and public
strategy whether it is an advertisement, discount offer or
hoardings usually aims for the increase in sales and profitability
relations. The acronym AIDA stands for the terms Attention,
of the organization. Promotion is a key element in putting across
Interest, Desire and Action.
the benefits of your product or service to the customers. Well-
ATTENTION: Attract the attention of the visitor with an
designed marketing and promotional strategies ensure long-term
appealing design and intuitive copy.
success; bring in more customers and ensure profitability for
businesses. This proposed research is to identify the most
INTEREST: Increase the interest of the visitor by strategically
effective promotional offers of Maruti Suzuki and to evaluate the
introducing benefits and advantages rather than focusing on
effect of promotional offers on purchasing decision of Maruti
self-praise as done in traditional marketing.
Suzuki customers. Promotional strategies and marketing go hand
DESIRE: Create a desire for the goal that you want your
in hand. Well-designed marketing and promotional strategies
ensure long-term success, bring in more customers and ensure
visitors to accomplish through well-knit information
profitability for businesses. Without marketing promotions, your
architecture.
brand or service would not be able to garner the attention of the
pre-occupied customers. ACTION: Include elements that facilitate visitors in
completing their intended task and lead your visitors to the
Key Words: Promotion Offers, AIDA Model, Marketing, conversion funnel.
Purchase Intention, Profitability, Maruti Suzuki

I. INTRODUCTION
A promotion strategy is an activity that is designed to
help boost the marketing of a product or service. It is very
important as it not only helps to boost sales but it also helps
a business to draw new customers while at the same time
retaining older ones. It can be done through an advertising
campaign, public relation activities, a free sampling
campaign, a free gift campaign, a trading stamp campaign,
through demonstrations and exhibitions, through prize
giving competitions, through temporary price cuts, and
through door-to-door sales, telemarketing, personal sales
letters, and e-mails. Promotion is a reward making activity
that influences people to buy and consume the products of a
marketer. The methods and means of the small scale
industrial units are traditional, simple, involve less cost. To
be successful such a promotional measure to influence
customers, must be effective and adequate to bring desired
action from the customers.

Revised Manuscript Received on January 15, 2020.

C. Naga Ganesh, Assistant Professor, G. Pullaiah College of Engineering
and Technology, Kurnool-518001, Andhra Pradesh

Retrieval Number: D7346118419 /2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI:10.35940/ijrte.D7346.018520 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
1572 & Sciences Publication
 The USV Annals Volume 13,
of Economics and Issue 1(17),
Public Administration 2013

THE AIDA MODEL FOR ADVERGAMES

Ph.D. Student Alina Irina GHIRVU

Faculty of Economical Sciences and Business Administration Babeş‐Bolyai University, Cluj – Napoca, Romania
alina.ghirvu@ubbcluj.ro

Abstract:
Marketers are continuously searching for new ways to communicate better with their public and to understand
consumers’ purchasing behavior. They tried to define and explain the consumer’s purchase process by using different
models and applying various strategies for improving brand communication. One of the paths followed was the use of
hierarchy of effects models. This paper describes the consumer’s purchase process by interpreting the AIDA Model in
the context of online advergames. The stages of the process are explained based on the interaction established between
a consumer and a brand during a game session when the player is exposed to advertising messages embedded in the
advergame content. The general setup for the model interpretation is given by the online environment and the specific
virtual interactivity of the Internet. Previous studies concerning advergames showed that this new communication tool
can increase brand awareness, creates positive feelings toward brand and a general positive attitude which can lead to
purchase intention and actual sales. This paper can help advertisers to better understand how advergames work and
presents, for each stage of the AIDA model, a series of elements which could be used for driving consumers through
the communication funnel and to reach the final stage of the acquisition process.

Key words: advertising models, advergaming, hierarchy of effects, AIDA Model

JEL classification: M37

1. INTRODUCTION

The new economic field pushed firm into becoming more efficient in communicating with
their actual and potential customers. The promotional efforts that a company employs for reaching
its public depend on the general strategy chose.
For understanding how advertising works and to reach better their public, advertisers tried to
define and explain the consumer’s purchase process by using different models. The purchasing
funnel is a marketing model which focuses on consumer and explains theoretical how consumer
“travels” through the communication channel and gets to purchase a certain product or service.
The use of theoretical models for measuring advertising effects on potential consumers help
in setting the goals, structure the objectives and analyze the impact of the delivered message. A
class of models used for measuring the advertising efforts is the so called hierarchy of effects
models.
The hierarchy of effects models represents a process with multiple stages that describe the
way that consumers gets from the total unaware of a brand, to awareness, manifests particular
preferences, purchases the product, and potentially, develops loyalty for the brand. In this process it
is very important for a marketer to clearly identify these hierarchic stages and observe for each case
in which stage he managed to bring its consumers. An important hierarchy model is the AIDA
model which describes four stages that the advertising drives the consumer into, starting with
awareness, interest, desire and finally action.
A very important aspect in the hierarchy models is the consumer involvement. The
involvement represents the amount of time, energy, thought and different resources used by people
in the process of purchasing a product or service, or devoted in obtaining a particular thing or result.
This characteristic is often combined with personal motivation, which can be emotional or rational.
Psychologically, the consumers’ involvement in acquisition of a product has different
degrees, which could be included in two big categories: low and high.
The low involvement implies that the consumer buys on habit, without thinking to much and
analyzing its choice. This aspect has important implication in the communication process: the

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effectiveness of the advertising message does not depend on the content and the intensity of the
message, but on the frequency of exposure.
High involvement implies that the consumer makes an acquisition as a result of an
emotional and cognitive thinking. In this case, the consumer is looking for information related to
the product he is interested in. For a good communication process with this type of consumer, the
firm has to implement complex advertising, with more information.
Combining advertising purposes with entertainment factors proved to be an efficient way of
gaining consumers’ attention, enhancing interest, create desire and encourage action, which are in
fact the four stages of the AIDA model, which can be used for illustrating a series of consecutive
reactions that a consumers have while he is exposed to advertising messages.
An innovative way of transmitting a branded message that was used in the latest years is
advergaming. Advergames are a category of online video games constructed around a particular
brand or product with the main purpose of promoting them. This kind of branded entertainment is
usually free and is available on specialized online sites or on the official website of a brand. When
marketers chose to use advergames for their promotional campaigns, they have to understand the
particular elements of a video game and how to use them for dealing with high or low involvement
from consumers.
To overcome low involvement, marketers can increase for instance the number of billboards
that appear in a game, rather than making the advertising insertion more interactive, using for
example direct links to the official web page of the brand or explaining different characteristics of
the product during the game session. In this case, a firm should allocate media budget toward high
frequency of the advertising spots, as the message is absorbed in a long time memory by the
targeted audience through repetition.
In high involvement cases, a brand can improve the intensive characteristics of an
advergames by selecting the most adequate insertions that can provide relevant and explanatory
information about the product they advertise within the video game.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 THE EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING

The existing literature explains different methods that could be used for measuring the
effects of advertising. This include awareness (Hansen et.al, 2006), purchase likelihood (Aaker
et.al, 1986), brand choice (Cobb-Walgren et.al, 1995), brand perceptions (MacKenzie and Lutz
1989), viewing time (Olney et.al, 1991), memory-based tests (Brennan et.al, 1999; Russell 1998) or
purchase intentions (Bellman et.al, 2009; Gotlieb and Sarel 1991; Kamins 1990).
In many situations, determining how efficient an advergames is can be difficult. Tracking
the effectiveness of offline advergames is even more challenging. For online advergames, which are
the main focus of this paper, the efficiency can be measured, at the very basic level, by gathering
the login numbers or the user accounts. Analyzing only these numbers could be insufficient for a
good perspective on the matter, so advertisers could measure different aspect through the runtime to
obtain the best response. Using special developed tracking tools for online advergames, marketers
can record the players’ behavior during a game session.
The most popular hierarchy of effects models are the AIDA Model and it’s descendent, the
DAGMAR Model. The beginnings of the hierarchy of effects models dates back to 1898, when St
Elmo Lewis realized that a consumer has to be driven through a series of acquisition stages, not
only to setting up a deal. His idea of hierarchy was later made available for the large public in 1910
when it was published in the editorial of the printed paper The Printer’s Ink. The article explained 4
stages of effects, attention, interest, conviction and action, known later as the AIDA Model, and
indicated that it can be used for advertising campaigns as a model of persuasion.

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In 1961 the Journal of Marketing publishes a seminal paper by Robert Lavidge and Gary
Steiner (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961) that explained, besides how the AIDA model works, that
consumers take use of cognitive and affective processes when deciding to purchase a product.
Since this first publication, multiple variations of this model were published, discussing the
stages of the acquisition process. One of these models, which become more popular than the rest, is
the DAGMAR Model, an acronym for Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Results. Colley
(1984) argued that an advertiser can identify the communication process current stage and set up
specific advertising objectives.

2.2 THE HIERARCHY OF EFFECTS MODELS

The basic hierarchy of effects model represents a mental process that a consumer is
supposed to experience through an advertisements communication campaign. To fully understand
how this type of models work, advertisers have to focus on each individual step of the process, as
well as on the concept as a whole.
Previous literature revealed several hierarchies of effects’ models (Barry, 1987). Numerous
of these models were adopted for analyzing advertising as a long time investment and adopted by
many practitioners and researchers.
The first hierarchy of effects model was proposed in 1897 (Strong, 1925) and included
initially 3 steps that a sales person should lead his client: to gain attention, maintain the interest and
create desire. Latter he added a new step in the process – action. This first model become known in
advertising literature as AIDA and was developed from its initial form by Strong (1925).
From the initial model, there have been many changes in the stages of the hierarchy of
effects model, presenting multiple phases of communication, starting from total unawareness up to
the final purchase (Jones, 1986).
Variation from this model included alternate steps in the process as satisfaction (Sheldon,
1911) and conviction (Strong, 1938). A more complex model was proposed in 1961 (Lavidge and
Steiner, 1961) and included six more explicit steps: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference,
conviction and purchase. They also introduced the concepts of cognition, conation and affect to
explain the response to advertising.
The term of “hierarchy of effects” appeared concrete with Palda (1966) who suggested that
each step of the model represent a necessary but insufficient condition for the sequence of stages.
In advertising literature cognition is considered the rational and mental process which
involves exposure to advertising information (Hughes and Guerrero, 1971). This sum of effects
reflects the learning process, thoughts and the intellectual state (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961) of the
consumer. These effects include awareness, attention, knowledge, comprehension, recognition,
perception and beliefs, or in other words, all the steps approached in these models which involve
learning and understanding the features, use and benefits of a product or service advertised.
In psychology, cognition is the central research interest and analyses the complexity of the
behavior and the thought process, the way that people process information ( Zajonc, 1980), the
different skills they use when decoding the information ( Wright, 1973, 1975). The differences in
the way human process the information they deal with makes the cognitive response modeling be a
difficult task for marketers (Hughes and Guerrero, 1971).
The affective dimension deals with the effects of feelings that consumers involve in the
acquisition process. This group of effects associates effects from multiple hierarchy models and
explains the way a potential consumer feels about a particular product or the relationship
established with the brand. This group on feelings include: acceptance, liking, interest,
legitimization, satisfaction, evaluation, yielding, preference, emotion, attitude and desire.
The literature (Batra, 1986) gives notice about the different meaning of this feelings and the
correct use of them when interpreting the consumer response. The attitude concept appeared in
1920 and started to be studied as a way of understanding the connections between the perception of
the external stimuli and the manifested behavior (Smith and Swinyar, 1983).

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In some points of view, attitude reveals a behavior prediction and a high willingness. In
literature, attitude is defines as an evaluative judgment, and is different from affect which refers to a
valence feeling state (Cohen and Areni, 1991). In some opinions, attitude shows that consumers’
previous experience makes them more predisposed to react in a particular ways on the basis of
perceptions (Boyd et al, 1972). Other definition was proposed in 1993 (Eacly and Chaiken, 1993),
and states that attitude is a psychological tendency that is revealed when a consumer evaluates a
particular product or service in terms of favorable or unfavorable.
Previous works focused on desire, defined it as the feeling that follows an inclination for
wanting certain things and some times accompanies a state of unpleasantness. Desire appears also
as the state of mind on a person which has a personal interest and motivation to act in a certain way
or to achieve a goal (Indeed et al, 2004). Accordingly (Gollwitze, 1990) considers that desire as a
goal determines advertisers to create a goal intention which would lead the consumers in achieving
that particular goal. Previous empirical work (Bagozzi, 2000) showed that desire mediated and
changes the purpose of motives and reasons in action, and influences the consumer’s intention.
Using hierarchy of effects models, a company can follow how far a consumer advanced into
the purchasing process and how many of them finalized the process with an actual buying. When
the customer remains blocked in one of the stages, the advertisers can learn about the weaknesses of
the tools used in certain stages, improve them and find how to better drive the consumer through the
purchasing process and the next acquisitions. This also implies modification of the advertising
campaign approach and requires improvements in the communication process.

3. HIERARCHY OF EFFECTS MODELS

3.1 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

First suggestions of consumers’ response (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961) were formulated in
terms of hierarchy of effects as a progression of stages that a potential buyer gets through from
awareness to final action.
These models are based on learning process and consider that consumer goes through a
sequence of pre-determined functions in finishing an acquisition process. They are initially built on
the general assumption that a consumer will pass through all the stages in the hierarchy, and the
purchase will be made after he completes all the previous steps. This premise was debated, as the
assumption could not be valid and the consumers could skip steps in the process (Hansen, 1972).
The variety of hierarchy of effects models was determined by the basic consideration that
first people learn about product from advertising; next they develop certain feeling about them, and
finally take action. This sequence of steps, as proposed by Bovee (Bovee et al, 1995) is often not
applicable in the real market, as in some practical situations, the stages do not occur necessarily in
this precise order and buyers do not pass through every step of the process.
Previous literature agreed on the importance of three most relevant hierarchy of effects
models: the dissonance-attribution, learning and low-involvement hierarchy.
From these types, the learning hierarchy models are the most intuitive (Floyd, 1999) and
become highly predictive when a consumer is involved. The thinking model is a model which led
people to rationalize and perceive, next to develop certain attitudes, and in the end, to act and
behave accordingly.
In the classical cognition-affective-conation model (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961), the various
stages of the process differ in dimension and distance in time. In some cases, the distance from
preference to purchase could be very large, even if the distance from awareness to preference could
be small. An important study (Aaker and Day, 1974) revealed that not all the individuals pass
through each step of the process, and they could move up several steps at once. Nevertheless, the
most powerful model in personal selling remains the hierarchy which assumes a rational willing
person which faces a potential decision (Floyd, 1999).

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The dissonance-attribution hierarchy models have their origins in the theories of dissonance
(Festinger, 1957), self-perception (Bem, 1972) and attribution (Heider, 1958). This model is usually
applied when consumers are the first to act, develop an attitude and assume a choice they make.
Consequently, consumers prospect for information, take decisions and support their choices,
ignoring the external influences that disagree whit them (Aaronson, 1969; Batra and Vanhonacker,
1986). In this process, consumers become more involved with their choice and are consequent in
attitude (Floyd, 1999). These kinds of models do not provide relevant information regarding the
product alternatives choice.
In the low-involvement hierarchy, people become aware about the existence of a product
and initiate the purchase. After purchasing, consuming and experiencing the product, they develop
an attitude towards it. This model implies that consumers like certain products because they had
bought and tested them (Smith and Swinyard, 1978). The consumer implication is low and the
disparities between the choices of alternative products are small.
The economic reality forced marketers to improve old methods and adapt models for the
new consumer. The hierarchy of effects models implies more stages than the traditional models,
such as new technologies, re-purchase and the changes in consumers’ behavior. This new approach
implies the use of the purchasing funnel concept, which was associated for the first time with AIDA
model in 1924 (Townsend, 1924) in the work Bond Salesmanship. The concept of purchase funnel
is applied in advertising as a way to direct promotional campaigns towards targeted audience.
When it is properly applied, and takes account of the principles of AIDA model, the purchasing
funnel should lead to raising the product awareness, produce interest, create desire and encourage
action.

3.2 THE AIDA MODEL IN ADVERGAMES CONTEXT

The AIDA Model (Strong, 1925) is in fact an acronym for attention, interest, desire and
action and describes a cognitive journey of a consumer that travels through four main stages. This
model can be approached as a tool to encourage action by stimulating the purchase of a certain
product or service. It is a good way for advertisers to create efficient promotional campaigns by
conducting the consumer through four psychological stages, from unawareness to concrete
acquisition.
To obtain the desired result, marketers have to use special measures in every of the four
stages of the process. These steps have the purpose of mapping the cognitive route that a consumer
gets through.
Further, we explain the four stages of acquisition, also graphically described in figure 1.

a) Attract the attention: The advertiser has to promote the product in such way so the
customer becomes aware of the existence of that particular service. The purchase process begins
from the moment when a consumer does not know about a certain brand, so he first has to find out
about the existence of the product or service. This first step in cognitive hierarchy focuses on ways
to catch and retain the consumer attention.
Advergames are a type of persuasive videogames, meaning they “mount procedural
rhetoric’s effectively" (Bogost, 2007). Procedural rhetoric is defined as the "way of creating,
explaining or understanding processes," and processes as the "methods, techniques and logics that
drive the operation of systems" (Bogost, 2007). So, procedural rhetoric refers to the power of
computational systems to make persuasive arguments.
These particular characteristics of advergames help in attracting and retain the players’
attention and make them become aware of a specific brand, in a way that traditional media is unable
to do.
Besides this, gaining attention through an advergames implies the use of special techniques
when inserting the billboards into the game environment. The use of strong imagery to market a
product has always been a powerful way to get a potential customer’s attention. Another well-

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known method of grabbing attention is the use of large headings, utilizing color and whitespace to
maximize their effect.
In a promotional campaign, the use of advergames can be a teasing approach for attract the
public’s attention over a new product. Measuring the impact of this can indicate the grade of
acceptance from consumers of new products or services before they are actually available on the
market.

b) Raise interest: Consumer interest appears when he actively expresses it in connection to

a product or service that he knows about.
Advergames can produce interest by including special advertising insertions that allow the
players to interact with the brand and learn about special features and characteristics of a product. In
an advergames, the message is blend within the game action, so the player understands the use and
the particular elements of the advertised product by simply following the game rules or interacting
with the product during a game session.
Advergames are created with the purpose of transmitting certain messages related to a
brand. So, it is important for the brand to make the player understand the particular characteristics
of the product and the way it could be used. This implies the decoding of the message in the way it
was conceived. Marketers have to understand what elements are proper for the game message and
what elements should be excluded, knowing that " the game is supposed to be under the control of
the player who may produce a multiplicity of alternative, sometimes contradictory, game sessions"
(Frasca, 2007).
Videogames usually include certain elements as cut-scenes that could be analyzed separately
using general game elements and applying patterns of audio-visual structures studied previously by
scholars (Joost et al, 2008). There are also elements, such as background text, isolated images or
text including instructions which can help in making players to be interested in the product.

c) Create desire: Desire is considered the actual aspiration to a particular product, service or
brand. Marketers can take use of advergames for inducing desire for a certain product.
To do this efficiently, they have to carefully choose those characteristics that are the most
relevant for the product and could be adapted for the video game. The relevance of these insertions
creates positive feelings, flow and activates the ludic functions which will trigger desire. Marketers
have to concentrate on making the buyer to enter into a mental disposition to purchase the product.
When using advergames, desire could be raised through visual, audio and textual elements.
Authors (Barthes, 1986; Kennedy, 1982; Whittock, 1990; Forceville, 1996, 2007; Joost et al. 2008)
explained that elements that are originally used by other media such as television and movies can
also be applied for advergames.
Video game elements, such as the character design, interface design, or the design of other
elements present in the game, could contribute to increasing desire. Depending on the intentions of
the creators, audiovisual, visual and textual layers could play different roles in advergames. Ideally,
these three layers will work as complementary layers one to another, the most important layer being
the one that have more relevance in the persuasive structure of the game.

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Figure 1. The AIDA model in advergames context

Source: Realized by the author according to the stages of original AIDA Model (Strong, 1925)

d) Lead to action: Action represents the final step of the buying process. Taking action is
actually making the next step in purchasing the selected product or service. In this stage marketers
focuses on determining the consumer to finalize the entire cognitive process with an actual
acquisition, with the concrete action of buying the product or service.
The characteristics of the online environment put the consumer into an active position,
compared to the traditional media which is mostly passive.
Video games in particular create an environment where the player is in an active state of
mind where he could be easily influenced into getting from desire to action. In this environment
marketers can easily promote action, as the pleasurable benefit of controlling the game action and
experiencing the brand are usually transferred to the user.
When dealing with advergames, marketers can use different ways to motivate a consumer to
take action and purchase the product. The most popular methods are the use of promotions, price
discounts or vouchers which will invite the consumer to buy. This implies also different benefits for
those consumers who played the advergame when they will actually buy the product or the service
advertised into the game.
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CONCLUSIONS

Measuring the actual desire that has been transformed into action is a difficult task for
advertisers. Many consumers express interest and desire for a product, but they do not reach the
final stage of the acquisition process, the actual buying. From desire to action is in fact the longest
distance in the whole process. Advertisers have to understand the reasons that could block and
interfere in the finalization of the acquisition process, like financial reasons, conceptual reasons,
personal beliefs and lifestyle.
In the case of advergames, raising awareness and inducing interest takes use of special
promotional techniques such as direct download from the brand website, direct e-mail presenting
the advergame and informative commercial. An advergame which pleases consumers can generate
desire and positive reaction, as well as viral sharing of the game experience, which could lead to
actual acquisitions.
This article brings theoretical contribution to the study of advergames by identifying a series
of connections between game characteristics and the effects produced on consumer, underlining the
specific elements of a video game design which an advertiser can control through advertising
actions, and the effects on consumers. The reactions that a player has while he is exposed to an
advergame can be understood as a sequence of hierarchical stages that can be described using the
AIDA model.
The model proposed opens two paths for further research. The first path is theoretical;
researchers could focus on identifying different connections that could be generated through the
advergame-player interaction in the online environment, starting from the elements identified in the
model adapted for advergames. The second path is practical, and could focus on developing various
instruments for identifying and measuring the relations established between certain characteristics
of an advergame and the effects produced on consumers.

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