Week THREEa: Persuasion

Question 1

Explain the tricomponent model of attitudes

Answer 1

Cognitive (thinking) = person’s beliefs about an object or issue

Affective (feeling) = person’s feelings and evaluations

Conative (behaving) = person’s behavioural tendency towards an object

Question 2

What is persuasion and message-based persuasion?

Answer 2

= result of an active attempt to change attitudes/influence behaviour
- Dependent on the source, message, peripheral cues, channel cues and receiver’s involvement

Message-Based Persuasion

• Change beliefs about product/brand
• Influence importance of outcome
• Introduce new outcome strongly associated with the brand
• Messages can focus on functional, symbolic or experiential benefits

Question 3

Explain the elaboration likelihood model

Answer 3

Elaboration (thinking) = process where consumers extend their thinking about a message when they are highly involved in a product

Prospect that a message receiver will think about a message and react to it by comparing it with their pre-existing thoughts and beliefs regarding the product category -> advertising brand and competitive brands

Question 4

Compare the different processing routes - central and peripheral

Answer 4

Central processing route
= consumers focusing relatively more on the message arguments than peripheral cues
- More extensive processing of relevant attributes
- Characterised by active, conscious thought
- Strength of argument matter

• Audience Factors
• > high motivation and ability to thin kabout message
• Processing Approach
• > deep processing, focused on quality of message arguments
• Persuasion Outcome
• > lasting change that resists fading and counterattacks

Peripheral processing route
= consumers focus relatively more on peripheral cues than message arguments
- Less extensive processing of relevant attributes
- Peripheral cues produce persuasion

• Audience Factors
• > low motivation or ability to think about message
• Processing Approach
• > superifical processing, focussed on surface features (communicator attractiveness)
• Persuasion Outcome
• > low motivation or ability to think about message

Channel/context
- Face-to-face
- Presence of others
- Multiple sources
Source (communiactor)
- Trustworthiness (credibility)
- Expertise
- Attractiveness
- Respect (status and authority)
- Similarity
Message 
- Length = strength
- One vs two-sided
- Emotional appeal (fear, humour, sex)
- Visual vs verbal
- Repetition affects believability (truth effect)

Question 5

Outline the factors that determine which route

• audience factors
• arguments
• increasing elaboration

Answer 5

AUDIENCE FACTORS

• Ability
• > Cognitive ability to comprehend
• > Cognitive capacity to process
• Opportunity
• > Time, number of exposures
• Motivation
• > Involvement = level of perceived personal importance/interest evoked by a stimulus (product): (high v low) determines
• > Self-relevance
• > Consistent with needs, values, goals
• > Risk (financial, social, physical)

ARGUMENTS (central processing)

• Consumers thinlk about arguments carefully, systematically and effortfully
• To persuade via this route, must provide strong arguments
• > Facts
• > Evidence
• > Examples
• > Reason and logic
• Weak arguments can backfire and call for counter-arguments

INCREASING ELABORATION

• Increase involvement through motivation - personal risk, relevance
• Content in ads, explain in detail
• Expert spokesperson (explain features)
• No time pressure
• even in categories with high motivation, opportunity and ability might not translate to elaboration
• > People may have decided on a brand and thus can still opt not to elaborate
• > Highlights importance of brand equity

Question 6

Explain ELM and Message sources, their effects and attributes

Answer 6

Source
= person, group, organisation or label that delivers a message (eg. commercial, endorsement, friend)
Source effects
= same words by different people can have different meanings

Source Attributes => TEARS

• Trustworthiness = believable and credible
• Expertise = skills/knowledge related to product
• Attractiveness = pleasant to look at
• Respect = being admired due to accomplishments
• Similarity = similar to audience

Question 7

What is the role that emotion can play in persuasion appeals and some examples of these

Answer 7

• High involvement doesn’t mean emotion has little to no effect
• Emotional appeals have an effect with high involvement because
• > People vicariously put themselves into commercials
• > People relate to the product and people in the commercial
• > People empathetically experience positive emotions

Fear

• Motivates consumesr to process information and take action
• Most effective when a solution is presented and source is credible

Humour

• Attracts attention
• Dependent on brand/product
• Increases liking of ad and subsequently associated product/brand
• Doesn’t necessarily effect comprehension, source credibility or persuasion of the message

Guilt

• Motivates individuals to undertake responsible action
• Message tends to suggest an action that can be taken to relieve feelings of guilt

Sex

• Captures attention but potential for vampire effect => draws attention towards people in the advert and not brand/product
• Can increase/decrease liking of ad
• Evidence is mixed as to effectiveness - only effective when relevant

Question 8

Outline some of the ways to influence in persuasion

Answer 8

Reciprocity = free samples induce purchase
Authority = higher trust to those in authority
Liking = Halo effect (imprints association of product with person advertising it eg. celeb endorsement)
Scarcity = consumers line up for new products when supply is limited
Consistency = foot in the door technique
Consensus = social proof and norms