CHAPTER 6 – SOURCE, MESSAGE, AND CHANNEL FACTORS ADVERTISING AND INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Persuasion matrix

helps marketers see how each controllable element interacts with the consumer’s response process.

Independent variables

are the controllable components of the communication process.

Dependent variables

are the steps a receiver goes through in being persuaded.

Source

to mean the person involved in communicating a marketing message, either directly or indirectly.

Direct source

a spokesperson who delivers a message and/or endorses a product or service.

Indirect source

a model, doesn’t actually deliver a message but draws attention to and/or enhances the appearance of the ad.

Source Credibility

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

internalization

Information from a credible source influences beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and/or behavior through a process known as

Applying Expertise

marketers want to use communicators with high credibility.

Applying Trustworthiness

"While expertise is important, the target audience must also find the source believable. Finding celebrities or other figures with a trustworthy image is often difficult"

Using Corporate Leaders as Spokespeople

Another way of enhancing source credibility is to use the company president or chief executive officer as a spokesperson in the firm’s advertising.

Limitations of Credible Sources

Several studies have shown that a high credibility source is not always an asset, nor is a lowcredibility source always a liability.

Source Attractiveness

A source characteristic frequently used by advertisers is ____, which encompasses similarity, familiarity, and likability

Similarity

is a supposed resemblance between the source and the receiver of the message.

Familiarity

refers to knowledge of the source through exposure

Likability

is an affection for the source as a result of physical appearance, behavior, or other personal traits.

identification

Source attractiveness leads to persuasion through a process of ___, whereby the receiver is motivated to seek some type of relationship with the source and thus adopts similar beliefs, attitudes, preferences, or behavior

Overexposure

• Consumers are often skeptical of endorsements because they know the celebrities are being paid.

• This problem is particularly pronounced when a celebrity endorses too many products or companies and becomes overexposed.

Target Audiences' Receptivity

One of the most important considerations in choosing a celebrity endorser is how well the individual matches with and is received by the advertiser's target audience.

Risk to Advertiser

A celebrity's behavior may pose a risk to a company.

Applying Similarity

• Marketers recognize that people are more likely to be influenced by a message coming from someone with whom they feel a sense of similarity.

• If the communicator and receiver have similar needs, goals, interests, and lifestyles, the position advocated by the source is better understood and received.

Applying Likability: Using Celebrities

• Advertisers recognize the value of using spokespeople who are admired: TV and movie stars, athletes, musicians, and other popular public figures.

• A number of factors must be considered when a company decides to use a celebrity spokesperson, including the dangers of overshadowing the product and being overexposed, and the target audience's receptivity.

Understanding the Meaning of Celebrity Endorsers

• Advertisers must try to match the product or company's image, the characteristics of the target market, and the personality of the celebrity.

• The image celebrities project to consumers can be just as important as their ability to attract attention.

Meaning Transfer Model

• According to this model, a celebrity's effectiveness as an endorser depends on the culturally acquired meanings, he or she brings to the endorsement process.

• Each celebrity contains many meanings, including status, class, gender, and age as well as personality and lifestyle.

Applying Likability Decorative Models

Advertisers often draw attention to their ads by featuring a physically attractive person who serves as a passive or decorative model rather than as an active communicator.

Source Power

It is the final characteristic in Kelman's classification scheme. Source has power when he or she can actually administer rewards and punishments to the receiver.

As a result of this power, the source may be able to induce another person(s) to respond to the request or position he or she is advocating. The power of the source depends on several factors.

Perceived Control

The source must be perceived as being able to administer positive or negative sanctions to the receiver.

Perceived Concern

The receiver must think the source cares about whether or not the receiver conforms.

Perceived Scrutiny

The receiver’s estimate of the source’s ability to observe conformity is also important.

Compliance

• When a receiver perceives a source as having power, the influence process occurs through a process.

• The receiver accepts the persuasive influence of the source and acquiesces to his or her position in hopes of obtaining a favorable reaction or avoiding punishment.

Message Factors

• Marketers must consider not only the content of their persuasive messages but also how this information will be structured for presentation and what type of message appeal will be used.

• This section examines the structure of messages and considers the effects of different types of appeals used in advertising.

Message Structure

• Marketing communications usually consist of a number of message points that the communicator wants to get across.

• The structure of a persuasive message can influence its effectiveness, including order of presentation, conclusion drawing, message sidedness, refutation, and verbal versus visual message characteristics.

Order of Presentation

• Research on learning and memory generally indicates that items presented first and last are remembered better than those presented in the middle.

• This suggests that a communicator's strongest arguments should be presented early or late in the message but never in the middle.

Primary Effect

• Presenting the strongest arguments at the beginning of the message assumes that information presented first is the most effective.

• Early arguments shape initial impressions and reduce later counter-arguments.

Recency Effect

Putting the strong points at the end assumes that the last arguments presented are the most persuasive.

Conclusion Drawing

Marketing communicators must decide whether their messages should explicitly draw a firm conclusion or allow receivers to draw their own conclusions.

Explicit Conclusion

Directly states the intended message or takeaway

Implicit Conclusion

Allows the audience to interpret and draw their own conclusion

Less educated

To prevent misunderstandings.

Uninvolved or indifferent

To grab attention quickly.

New to the topic

To provide clear guidance.

Immediate action

To encourage fast decision-making.

Information Retention

Ensuring they remember key points.

Highly educated

Prefers to form their own opinions.

Emotionally involved

Engages better with open-ended messages.

Skeptica l

Resist direct persuasion and prefer subtlety.

Long-term attitude change

Encourages reflection and independent thought

Brand Engagement

Creates curiosity and invites exploration

Message Sidedness

Refers to whether a message presents only positive attributes (one-sided message) or both good and bad points (two-sided message).

One Sided Message

Focuses only on positive attributes or benefits

Two Sided Message

Acknowledge both positive and negative aspects

Refutation

In a special type of two-sided message known as a refutational appeal, the communicator presents both sides of an issue and then refutes the opposing viewpoint.

Verbal

Information communicated through words in an advertisement (e.g., slogans, product descriptions).

Visual

Information conveyed through images, graphics, and design in advertising (photographs, illustrations, videos, etc.)

Message Appeals

One of the advertiser’s most important creative strategy decisions involves the choice of an appropriate appeal.

Comparative Advertising

is the practice of either directly naming competitors in an ad and comparing one or more specific attributes.

Fear Appeals

Ads sometimes use ___ to evoke this emotional response and arouse individuals to take steps to remove the threat.

Humor Appeals

are often the best known and best remembered of all advertising messages. Many advertisers use ___ effectively. ____ is usually presented primarily through TV commercials and online videos.

Medium

the final controllable variable. Used to deliver a message to the target audience. Classified into two broad categories, personal and nonpersonal medias.

Personal Channels

generally more persuasive than information received in mass media. Sales messages are oftentimes more flexible, personal, and powerful than that of an advertisement.

Non-personal Channels

normally prepared by people that have minimal contact with their customers. The message is designed to appeal to a larger number of people.

Good Sales Presentation

is not determined in advance. Has salespeople who have utmost knowledge about their products or services. Salespeople can adapt to what the customer thinks and wants at the time of the sales call.

word-of mouth communications

which is becoming more common due to the growth of social media.

Sales programs

still use traditional personal communications that are implemented to the retail sales personnel on the point of purchase by the company’s sales force.

Advertising and promotion programs

still rely on traditional media advertising as well digital and social media.

Self-Paced

are information from ads in print media, such as newspapers, magazines, or direct mail, as well as online through websites and other forms of owned media.

Externally Paced

information from the broadcast media of radio and television.

Self-paced print media

make it easier for the message recipient to process a long, complex message. Advertisers often use print ads when they want to present a detailed message with a lot of information.

Externally-paced broadcast media

more effective for presenting shorter messages or, in the case of TV, presenting images along with words.

Qualitative Media Effect

the influence the medium has on a message. The image of the media vehicle can affect reactions to the message.

Media environment

• can also be created by the nature of the program in which a commercial appears.

• Andrew Aylesworth and Scott MacKenzie found that commercials placed in programs that induce negative moods are processed less systematically than ads placed in programs that put viewers in positive moods.

Clutter

Defined as the amount of advertising in medium.

Can be seen in commercials, promotional messages for shows, public service announcements (PSAs), and the like in televisions.

Broadcast Networks

average just over 14 minutes per hour of commercials time.

Cable Networks

• average 15 and a half minutes, some going up to 18 minutes per hour.

• On average, around a quarter of a broadcast hour on TV is devoted to commercials, while most radio stations carry an average of 10 to 20 minutes of commercial time per hour.

• The average length of a commercial break during prime time on the major networks is just over three minutes.