Discuss one or more explanations for the effectiveness of TV advertising. (4+6)

Question 1

McGuire

Answer 1

HY - based on the processes of the HY model, argued that a successful advert passes through several stages: exposure, attention, comprehension, yielding, retention and decision to buy. The advertisers job is to maximise the chance of the advert getting got the next stage

Question 2

High elaboration

Answer 2

Hard sell: factual information such as product features, comparisons with other brands or competitive pricing - central route

Question 3

Low elaboration

Answer 3

Soft sell: highlight peripheral cues which do not require thought (music, visual appeal or a catchy slogan) Attractiveness, popularity of presenter is also a peripheral cue

Question 4

Tailoring advert to product

Answer 4

carefully scrutinising an advert involves cognitive effort, so is more likely if the person is motivated to think carefully - for some products there may be few real differences between rival brands - no point trying to convince via central route

Question 5

Tailoring advert to audience

Answer 5

some people are better ablate elaborate than others, dependent on need for cognition, interest, background knowledge and personal relevance - if the advert is targeted at a market that is less likely to elaborate, the advert should emphasise contextual content; it should target the peripheral route - however, the advertisers will not know how likely the audience is to elaborate, or they may want to appeal to a diverse audience - many include a mixture

Question 6

Haugtvedt

Answer 6

found that attitudes of high NC people based more on product attributes; Low NC on peripheral cues - high NC supports central route and low NC supports peripheral route - TV ads can be carefully targeted so ELM can explain their effectiveness

Question 7

Individual Differences

Answer 7

ELM’s explanation of individual differences is more profound - ELM is more sophisticated and suggests a very different type of advert for different people

Question 8

Permanent and temporary persuasion

Answer 8

ELM is more sophisticated in distinguishing between permanent and temporary persuasion - permanent persuasion = more likely on central route / ad repetition more important for soft sell

Question 9

Attention and Understanding

Answer 9

HY - attention and understanding = persuasion is too simplistic, ELM is more sophisticated in considering meaning and relevance of message to the reciever

Question 10

Agnostinella and Grube

Answer 10

found that most successful anti-drinking campaigns in USA have used celebrities. But drinkers have little interest in anti-drinking messages - problem drinkers are more likely to deny their problem, hence relevance of ad to them. They are not motivated to elaborate highly.

Question 11

Snyder and de Bono

Answer 11

found people high in self monitoring to be more persuaded by soft sell adverts and vice versa - Just as self monitoring people are aware of their social situations, so they are more likely to be influenced by the image of a product and peripheral cues in an advert - advertisers could use the self-monitoring scale in focus groups of typical target market