advertising midterm review (6 and essay questions)

Source credibility

• Applying expertise.
• Applying trustworthiness.
• Using corporate leaders as
spokespeople.

Limitations of credible sources:

High- and low-credibility sources are equally effective when arguing
for a position opposing their own best interest.

Sleeper effect:

The Persuasiveness of a message increases with
passage of time.

• Expertise:

Recipient sees source as having relevant knowledge, skill, or
experience.

Trustworthiness:

Recipient trusts source to give unbiased, objective
information.

Internalization:

Adopting the opinion of a credible communicator and
believing information from that source is accurate.
• May become internalized into receiver’s belief system.

Attractiveness:

Characteristic that encompasses similarity, familiarity,
and likability.

Identification:

Receiver is motivated to seek some type of
relationship with a source.

Adopts similar beliefs, attitudes, preferences, or behavior.
• If source changes position, receiver might also change

 

Source characteristics:

Applying similarity.

Communicator and receiver with similar needs, goals, interests, and
lifestyles.
• Consumer feels empathy for person in commercial.
• Using everyday people that customers can easily identify with.
• Applying likability: Using celebrities.
• Movie stars, athletes, musicians, public figures.

Applying likability:

Using celebrities.
• Movie stars, athletes, musicians, public figures.

• Stopping power:

Draw attention in cluttered media environment.
• Enhance customer’s view of product or service image or performance.

Limitations of using celebrities:

Overshadowing the product.
• Overexposure.
• Target audiences’ receptivity.
• Risk to the advertiser.
Return on investment must be
considered.

Understanding the meaning of celebrity endorsers.

Perspective on celebrity endorsement developed by Grant McCracken.
• Celebrities’ effectiveness as endorsers depends on culturally acquired
meanings they bring to endorsement.
• A celebrity brings their meaning and image into ad and transfers them
to the product.
• The meanings a celebrity gives to the product are transferred to the
consumer.
• Advertising industry refers to the cultural meaning that a celebrity
spokesperson brings as “borrowed equity.”

 

Celebrity Factors

• Match with audience and product/brand.
• Overall image.
• Cost.
• Trustworthiness.
• Risk of controversy.
• Familiarity and likability.
• Choice between celebrity or social media influencer.
• Companies use Q-scores and other research methods.

Why or why not use the celebrity endorser?

1.     The celebrity may overshadow
the product being endorsed

2.     The celebrity may be overexposed,
reducing his or her credibility

3.     The target audience may not be
receptive to celebrity endorsers

4.     The celebrity’s behavior may pose
a risk to the company

Applying Likability Decorative Models

Draw attention to ads with physically attractive people.
• Passive/decorative models rather than active communicators.
• Some products (for example, cosmetics) benefit since physical
appearance is relevant.
Might not draw attention to product or message.
Highly attractive models can have negative impact.
Some companies undermine traditional approach to beauty care:
you’re beautiful just the way you are.

Source Power

When a source can administer rewards and punishments to a receiver.
Depends on source’s perceived control, perceived concern, and
perceived scrutiny.

Compliance

To obtain favorable reaction or avoid punishment.Receiver accepts the source’s persuasive influence and acquiesces to
source’s position.
Difficult to apply in advertising; more likely in personal communication

Order of presentation:

Strongest arguments presented early or late in message but not in the
middle.

• Primacy effect:

Recency effect:

Conclusion drawing:
Message sidedness:

Refutation:

Primacy effect:

Information presented first is most effective.

Recency effect

Arguments presented last are most persuasive

Where to place depends on:
• Target audience’s receptivity to message.
• Length of message.
• Medium used to communicate message.

 Conclusion drawing:

• Messages should either explicitly draw a firm conclusion or allow receivers
to draw their own conclusions.
• Messages with explicit conclusions are more easily understood and
effective in influencing attitudes.
• Depends on:
• Target audience.
• Type of issue or topic.
• Nature of the situation.

Message sidedness:

• One-sided message: Mentions only positive attributes or benefits,
effective when target audience:
• Already holds a favorable opinion about the topic.
• Is less educated.
• Two-sided message: Presents both good and bad points, effective when
target audience:
• Holds an opposing opinion.
• Is highly educated.

Refutation:

Communicator presents both
sides of issue and then refutes
opposing viewpoint.

Verbal versus visual messages:

Pictures commonly used to
convey information or reinforce
copy or message claims.
This ad for Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water
uses a beautiful visual image of the mountains to
communicate the key product attribute of purity.

Comparative advertising:

Directly or indirectly naming competitors in an ad and comparing one or
more attributes.

 

BodyArmor uses comparative advertising to challenge
Gatorade in the sports drink market

 So common, their attention-getting value has declined.
• Consider how comparative messages affect credibility.
• Often used to:
• Position new brands against market leaders.
• Differentiate high-profile brands in a competitive marketplace.
• Show candidate differences in political advertising

 

fear appeals

Evoke emotional response to a
threat and arouse individuals to take
steps to remove threat.
• Stress physical danger.
• Threaten disapproval or social
rejection.
• Used to discourage unsafe
behaviors.

 

The Ad Council uses a fear appeal to
discourage buzzed driving

 • Has both facilitating and inhibiting effects.
• Protection motivation model: Four cognitive appraisal processes mediate
the individual’s response to the threat.
• Fear appeals are more effective when recipient is:
• Self-confident and prefers to cope with dangers.
• A nonuser.
• Monotonic and positive: Higher levels of fear result in greater persuasion.

humor appeals

Often best known and best remembered.
• Humor used for many reasons:
• Attract and hold consumers’ attention.
• Put consumers in a positive mood.
• Distract consumer from counterarguing against the message.

Distract from brand and its attributes.
• Difficult to produce and may be too subtle.
• May experience wearout:
• Tendency to lose effectiveness when seen or heard repeatedly.
• Counter by creating “pool-outs.”
Must consider type of product or service and audience characteristics.
• More effective when involvement is relatively low

This Volkswagen ad shows how humor can
be used effectively in a print message as the
porcupine is precisely parked to avoid
popping the goldfish bags

Channel factors: personal vs. nonpersonal

Information received from personal channels is more persuasive than
from mass media.

clutter

Amount of advertising in a medium.

TV: All the nonprogram material that appears in broadcast environment.
Major concern among television advertisers.
• Difficult for commercials to attract and hold viewers’ attention and to
communicate effectively.
• Overload theory used to explain why clutter reduces advertising
effectiveness.
• When an individual is overloaded with too many ads at one time, the
absorption of one ad will be at the expense of another.

Advertising disengagement
• Lack of excitement, interest, attention, or involvement intended to be
aroused by an advertisement or advertising campaign.
• May have negative impact on brand relationships, commitment, brand
loyalty, message recall and effectiveness, and consumer attitudes toward
an ad.
Trend toward shorter commercials.
• Several major networks announced they were also reducing the number of
commercials during prime time

 

Clutter in online advertising

• The online environment “audience” is known as “users.”
• Users have to pay attention to the computer.
• Both a captive medium and a self-paced medium.
• Can result in ad avoidance and disengagement.