Chp 6 Source, Message, Channel Factors

Question 1

source

Answer 1

person involved in communicating a marketing message, either directly or indirectly

direct source = spokesperson who delivers a message and/or endorses a product

indirect source = e.g. model who doesn’t actually deliver a message but draws attention to the ad

may use neither a direct nor indirect source when source is the organisation itself

choice of source affects message influence so characteristics of the source must appeal to target audience - 3 source attributes of credibility, attractiveness and power

Question 2

source credibility

Answer 2

extent to which recipient sees source as having relevant knowledge, skill or experienc and trusts the source to give unbiased, objective information

has two dimensions: expertise and trustworthiness

Question 3

explain the two dimensions of source credibility

Answer 3

source with expertise is more persuasive than one without, but must also be trustworthy because influence will be lessened if audience thinks they are biased/have underlying motives like payment for endorsement

Question 4

internalisation

Answer 4

the process through which information from a credible source influences beliefs, opinions, attitudes or behaviour, which occurs when receiver adopts opinion of the credible communicator due to believing this info is accurate

once the receiver internalises an opinion or attitude, it becomes integrated into their belief system and may be maintained even after the source of the info is forgotten

Question 5

role of credibility when audience has negative attitude towards product

Answer 5

likely to inhibit counterarguments!

Question 6

applying/conveying source expertise

Answer 6

• sales personnel trained in product line
• marketers of highly technical products come from specialised backgrounds like engineering, CS
• individuals or groups recognised as experts in product field e.g. doctors or dentists used to endorse products (e.g. Dove, Sensodyne)
• perceived expertise of celeb endorsers more important than attractiveness or trustworthiness - studies show

Question 7

applying trustworthiness

Answer 7

• source must be believable
• hard to find trustworthy celebs/public figures and trustworthy ones often hesitate to endorse due to concerns about their image (making money by questionable means)
• may endorse products in countries other than their home one
• deal with source-trustworthiness issue by using other IMC tools like publicity - e.g. sources like newscasters are influential due to being seen as unbiased and credible
• celebs may appear on news programmes/talk shows to ptomote causes/events but consumers are growing wary of stealth marketing techniques like this
• FTC regulations - online endorsers and bloggers must disclose endorsement to battle fake/paid reviews on social media

Question 8

corporate leaders as spokespeople to enhance source credibility

Answer 8

• particularly prevalent amongst SMEs
• e.g. Richard Branson and the Virgin Line - zeal for life
• most effective when leader seen as authentic and genuine
• can project an image of trust and honesty: company not run by facelss monolith

BUT

1. if CEO becomes very popular, may get more attention than the ad message
2. firm’s image becomes closely tied to the leader - what if they leave or get involved in scandal? e.g. John Schnater (Papa Johns) and NFL
3. 2008 crisis eroded general confidence in CEOs
4. social media makes it easy to spread criticism about leaders and damage their image + source effectiveness

Question 9

limitations of credible sources

Answer 9

• high cred not always good, low cred not always bad
• high and low cred equally effective when arguing for a position opposing their best interest
• very credible source more effective when audience opposes messages being advocated, but less important when they are neutral
• high cred may be less effective than moderately cred when initial attitude is favourable
• low cred may be as effective as high cred due to sleeper effect - persuasiveness of message increases with time as negative associations with low-cred source diminish and receiver focuses more on favourable info in message (not as reliable as using credible source)

Question 10

Applying likeability using celebs

Answer 10

• they have stopping power - draw attention to ad messages in a culttered media environment because human brain recognises celebs similarly to how we recognise people we know
• this leads to greater recall/reocgnition of the company or brand
• celebs can bring about internalisation and/or identification effects and favourably influence attitudes and purchase behaviour since higher value placed on what celebs use/endorse
• BUT risks such as: overshadowing product, overexposure, receptivity of audience, risks to the advertiser and ROI

Question 11

explain overshadowing the product

Answer 11

• attention goes to celeb rather than product - vampire effect
• must chose someone who will attract attention while also enhancing sales message - having someone TOO famous may be a problem (Angelina Jolie and St John)
• particularly an issue when consumers have low attachement to or interest in the celeb

Question 12

overexposure

Answer 12

celeb endorses too many products, which increases consumer skepticism of how genuine the endorsement is knowing that they are paid for each one

Virat Kohli - Tissot, Vicks, Boost, tyre brands

exclusivity clauses are possible but expensive

Question 13

receptivity of audience

Answer 13

• consider reputation and image of endorsers and how well they match the image of the company, ad message and target audience
• consider whether your target market is influenced by celebrities at all - high knowledge about a product or stong attitudes may be less influenced than little knowledge or netural attitudes; younger Gen Z and Millenials more influenced than older one due to higher trust in celebs
• teen and young adult receptivity exploited using social media communities of celebs - promote on their personal pages, e.g. Selena Gomez and Puma, Coach, Louis Vuitton
• older celebs may be as if not more influential due to having more exposure to different consumer subsets and higher familiarity and trustworthiness - The Rock
• concerns about growing skepticism and cynicism over endorsements across all segments - may respond better to humour and unvarnished truth

Question 14

risk to advertisers

Answer 14

• celeb behaviour! e.g. Lori Loughlin - Sephora and Tresemme cut ties
• very expensive and high risk strategy as endorsers private life is out of their control and can reflect poorly on bran
• often research background before choosing (e.g. Q Scores) instead of using just intuition and may use a morals clause in contract (but does not prevent issues from happening)
• may prefer upright people who still have an edge or irreverence to connect with consumers, esp. younger ones

Question 15

ROI

Answer 15

• celebs may increase awareness of brand, develop strong associations between celeb and brand and increase purchase intentions, thus sales and/or market share
• however, long-term value of endorsements is questionable - bulk of sales increase seen at start
• ways to increase long term value of endorsement deals - make celebs more involved with brand, e.g. product design (Selena and Coach); brand ambassador (Beyonce and PepsiCo); equity stake (Tom Brady and Under Armour) –> all these increase celeb investment in company’s LT success

Question 16

meaning transfer model - culturally acquired meanings determining effectiveness of endorser

Answer 16

• celebs draw meaning from the roles they assume in their careers by establishing certain associations between themselves and other objects/contexts
• these can then add value to any endorsements they are involved in, e.g. Jennifer Aniston as Rachel - attractive, funny, relatable —> Emirates Airlines
• Tina Fey - cultural meaning as successful, multitasking businesswoman –> American Express uses this to position their cards as matching well with lifestyles of busy people
• meanings celeb has is attempted to be transferred to consumer
• must first decide the image you want, then the celeb who can represent this
• can pretest ads to see effectiveness incl. over time

Question 17

aspects of message structure

Answer 17

1. order of presentation - primacy/recency effect
2. conclusion drawing
3. message sidedness
4. refutation
5. verbal vs visual messages

Question 18

order of presentation

Answer 18

• primacy and recency effects - strongest arguments either at start or end
• which end depends on:

1. if opposed to message, start can reduce counterarguing and increase receptivity of following ‘weaker’ arguments
2. start if audience is not interested in topic to get their attention; opposite if highly predisposed as this may improve opinion and retention
3. for long, detailed messages with many points, sandwich weaker points in between strongest ones at start and end
4. for short ads with low-interest and involvement consumers, brand name and key USPs at start, and repeat at tend for recall
5. in written marcom, pyramid style may be used since editors cut from the end of articles

Question 19

conclusion drawing

Answer 19

• highly educated consumers prefer to draw their own conclusions - annoyance if not
• level of involvement - for personal or ego-involving issues, recipients may want to make their own (open ended ads were more effective ONLY for involved audiences)
• level of specialised knowledge may call for explicit conclusion even for educated audiences
• conclude for immediate action, otherwise repeated exposure to open-ended ads can allow own conclusions
• drawing a conclusion helps to avoid incorrect inferences, but letting consumers conclude may reinforce the message - e.g. Montana Meth Project found more initiated calls when asking teens to reflect

Question 20

message sidedness

Answer 20

• only positive or both positive and negative attributes
• acknowledging limitations can enhance credibility - better for opposing and educated audiences
• one sided better when audience already has poisitve opinion and with less educated audiences
• use of two sided is risky but can work very well - Domino’s ‘Oh Yes We Did’ campaign addressing issues with taste of pizza and changing recipe put it back on the map

Question 21

Refutation

Answer 21

• present both sides and then refute opposing viewpoint
• more effective than one sided when making consumers resistant to opposing viewpoints
• market leaders are often the target of comparative messages and using this can help build resistant attitudes and customer loyalty - SeaWorld and PETA

Question 22

visual vs verbal messages

Answer 22

• visual portion of ad may reduced persuasiveness as processing stimulated by pic may be less controlled and thus less favourable than those stimulated by words
• when pics accompany copy: if copy has low imagery value, using pics of examples will increase both immediate and delayed recall (and the opposite for high imagery value)
• e.g. ads for bottled water tend to use images of mountains, rain, streams to convey purity

Question 23

message appeals

Answer 23

• comparative advertising
• fear appeal
• humour appeal

Question 24

comparative ads

Answer 24

directly or indirectly naming competitors in ads to compare specific attributes

initially, these drew greater attention but are now so common that they have limited value
for compar than non-compar, recall tends to be higher but not other response variables like attitudes or purchase decision
may affect credibility - e.g. users of the band being attacked will be skeptical
typically used by new brands to position itself directly against incumbents and promote distinctive advantages; hopes of creating an association and tapping into leader’s market

e.g. BodyArmor and Gatorade; Samsung and Apple, Coke and Pepsi, political advertising (can lead to negative perceptions of both candidates! voters weigh negative info more heaviliy)

Question 25

fear appeals

Answer 25

evokes the emotional response of fear to a threat of danger to arouse individuals to act to remove the threat

e.g. dandruff or mouthwash - disapproval or social rejection

govt campaigns for drunk driving or smoking - legal consequences or health issues

Question 26

curvilinear relationship between fear and persuasion

Answer 26

• message acceptance increases with amount of fear until a point, beyond which it decreases as the level of fear rises
• due to fear appeals having both facilitating and inhibiting effects - low fear level can facilitate interest in message and motivate to resolve threat, so increasing fear can enhance this effect
• however very high levels produce inhibiting effects - receiver emotionally blocks message and denies message
• must not be too low or too high
• another explanation is protection motivation model - four cognitive appraisal processes mediate the individual’s response to threat: info available about severity of threat; perceived probability of threat occurring; perceived ability of coping behaviour to remove threat; perceived ability to carry out coping behaviour
• this model suggests ads using fear appeals should give info on these 4 factors - e.g. Seagate Technology’s Replica product

Question 27

humour appeals

Answer 27

• e.g. Listerine and preacher bad breath
• attracts and holds attention
• more effective as it puts them in a positive mood, increasing liking of ad and feelings toward product
• ditracts from counterarguing
• peripheral processing of humourous messages is dominant and effort to process the affective elements replaces attention to brand beliefs and benefits

BUT

1. can distract from brand
2. difficult to produce and may be too subtle for mass audiences
3. may wear out faster than serious appeals when seen or heard repeatedly - once the joke is gotten,becomes boring (POOL-OUTS CAN BE THE SOLUTION)

depends on:

1. low-involvement, feeling products > high-involvement, thinking products
2. when products are not intrinsically humourous, use of hhumour is more effective when involvement is low rather than high

Question 28

clutter

Answer 28

• amount of advertising in a medium which competes for the consumer’s attention. makes it difficult to communicate effectively.
• increased clutter caused by TV networks inserting more frequent, shorter commercials to offet revenue declines due to consumers sepnding more time online and marketers shifting to digital advertising
• ways to break through clutter: humour; celeb endorsements; novel creative approaches (storytelling; colour; catchy copy; controversial or unexpected)