The Cognitive Facet: Think/Understand
Cognition refers to how consumers search for and make sense of information, as
well as learn and understand something. It’s a rational response to a message.
Some call this a left-brain approach, based on the left-right brain ways of thinking
that evolved from brain hemisphere research. Right-brain thinking is presumed to
be more emotional and creative.
The opposite of understanding is confusion and misunderstanding, which is
equally of concern to brand communicators. Sometimes the information is too
complex, and sometimes there is brand confusion because too many messages
from too many marcom functions are not consistent with one another.
Factors That Drive the Cognition
Information processing – thinking things through – leads to a cognitive response.
A consumer may need to know something in order to make a decision, and the
information gathered in response to that need leads to understanding. The
information has to be perceived and then filed in memory but can be recalled
when needed. Advertising and other marketing communication often provide
information about products, usually facts about product performance and features,
such as size, price, construction, and design.
Principle: Information processing leads to a cognitive response such as
understanding – the information is filed in memory and can be recalled when
needed.
The informative nature of advertising is particularly important for products that
are complex (appliances, cars, insurance, computers and computer software) or
that involve a high price or high risk (motorboats, vacations, medical procedures).
The key drivers of a consumer’s responses are need, cognitive learning,
comprehension, differentiation, and recall.
• Need. Generally, needs are basic biological motivations but they are also
something you think about, while wantstend to be based more on feelings and
desires. When we refer to needs, we are usually talking about a message that
describes something lacking in consumers’ lives and that often stimulates a
cognitive response. Advertisers address consumer needs through informational
ads that explain how a product works and what it can do for the user, that is, the
benefits it offers to the user.
• Cognitive Learning. Consumers learn about products and brands through two
primary routes: cognitive learning and conditioned learning. Cognitive learning
occurs when a presentation of facts, information, and explanations leads to
understanding. Consumers who are trying to find information about a product
before they buy it are taking the cognitive learning route.
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•Comprehensionis the process by which people understand, make sense of things,
and acquire knowledge.Confusion, on the other hand, is the absence of
understanding and is usually the result of logic problems.
• Differentiation. Differentiationis the consumer’s ability toseparate one brand
from another in a product category. Distinguishing between competing brands is
what happens when consumers understand the explanation of a competitive
advantage.
• Recall.This is a measure of learning or understanding. When you recall the ad
message, you not only remember seeing the ad and hopefully the brand, you also
remember the copy points, which is the information provided about the brand. To
recall information presented in an ad, you must have concentrated on it and
thought about it as the information was being presented or afterward.
•Thinking and Feeling. Even though this section is on cognitive processing, note
that feeling and thinking always work together. A frequent question asked by
researchers is this: Which is more important in brand communication – thinking or
feeling? This is discussed by a professor at Boston College in this chapter’s A
Matter of Principle.
Principle: In all actions of perception and communication, emotion comes
first and thought comes second. Although researchers now recognize the
significance of emotion in effective brand communication, it is important to
note that the two responses of think and feel also work together.
Principle: Communication that makes consumers both think and feel provides
better support for a brand image; thought without emotion or emotion without
thought makes it difficult to anchor the brand in memory.
The Association Facet: Connect
Association is the technique of communicating through symbolism – we might
say that symbolic meanings are transferred through the process of association.
Association is the primary tool used in brand communication and guides the
process of making symbolic connections between a brand and desirable
characteristics and qualities, as well as people, situations, and lifestyles that cue
the brand’s image and personality.
The idea is to associate the brand with things that resonate positively with the
customer. It’s a three-way process: 1) the brand relates to 2) a quality that 3)
customers value. Brands take on symbolic meaning through this association
process. Professor Ivan Preston in his Association Model of advertising believes
that you can explain how advertising works by understanding how association
works.
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Sometimes association can be powerful because they are unexpected, and
sometimes association can backfire.
Factors That Drive the Association
The goal of association is to use symbolic connections to define the brand and
make it distinctive. Brand linkage reflects the degree to which the associations
presented in the message, as well as the consumer’s interest, are connected to the
brand.
The association drivers are symbolism, conditioned learning, and transformation.
• Symbolism. Through association a brand takes on a symbolic meaning, which
means the brand stands for certain qualities. It represents something, usually
something abstract. For instance, Bisquick pancakes shaped like hearts convey the
heart healthy message symbolically.
• Conditioned Learning.Although advertisements sometimes use a cognitive
strategy, they are frequently designed to elicit non-cognitive associations through
conditioned learning, the process by which a group of thoughts and feelings
become linked to the brand through repetition of the message. For example, beer
advertising directed at a young male audience often uses images of sporting
events, beach parties, and good looking young women. People also learn by
watching others, which is called social learning.
• Transformation. The result of the brand association process is transformation.
This is what happens when a product takes on meaning and is transformed from a
mere product into something special. It is differentiated from other products in the
category by virtue of its brand image symbolismand personality cues. For
example, Bisquick HeartSmart is more than just flour; it rises above the average
product in the category and stands out as something unique and healthy. That
transformation in a consumer’s mind is a perceptual shift, one that is created by
the associations cued through advertising messages.
Association Networks
The association process is built on a network of associations, called a
knowledge structure. Solomon in his book on consumer behavior describes these
networks as spider webs, where one thought cues other thoughts. Researchers
seeking to determine the meaning of a brand will ask people to talk about their
associations with a brand and to recreate these association networks in order to
understand how a brand’s meaning comes together as an impression in people’s
minds.
The Persuasion Facet: Believe
Persuasion is the conscious intent on the part of the source to influence or
motivate the receiver of a message to believe or do something. Persuasive
communication—creating/changing attitudes and creating conviction—are
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important goals of most marketing communication. An attitude is a state of mind,
tendency, propensity, inclination, or mental readiness to react to a situation in a
given way. Since advertising rarely delivers immediate action, surrogate effects,
such as changing an attitude that leads to a behavior, are often the goal of
advertising. Many scholars see attitudes as the most central factor in persuasion.
Attitudes can be positive, negative, or neutral. Both positive and negative
attitudes, particularly those that are embedded in strong emotions, can motivate
people to action—or away from action.
Attitudes are both rational and emotional. Rational information processing is
important for certain types of ads. When people are convinced of something, their
attitudes are expressed as beliefs.Some attitude change strategies attempt to
extinguish beliefs. Attitude change strategies often use the tools of logic and
reasoning, as well as arguments and counterarguments, to intensify the feeling on
which beliefs are built.
Persuasion, in other words, is an area in which cognitive and affective factors are
interrelated. Persuasion works both through rational arguments and by touching
emotions in such a way that they create a compulsion to act. Persuasive strategies
can be used to touch both the head and the heart. Negative advertising, or attack
ads, are good examples of how people form opinions at the same time they
process information that is presented within an emotional frame.
Principle: Brand communication employs both rational arguments and
compelling emotions to create persuasive messages.
Factors That Drive Persuasion
There are many dimensions to persuasion, but advertisers identify the following factors to
explain how persuasion affects consumers:
• Motivation.A factor in creating a persuasive message is motivation. Underlying
motivation is the idea that something, such as hunger or a desire to be beautiful or
rich, prompts a person to act in a certain way. This sets up a state of tension, and
the product becomes a tool in achieving that goal and thus reducing the tension.
• Influence.If you think you need to lose weight or stop smoking, how much of that
decision is based on your own motivations and how much of your motivation
results from messages from others? Some people, known as opinion leaders, may
be able to influence other peoples’ attitudes and convince them of the “right”
decision. The idea is that other people—friends, family, teachers, experts such as
doctors—may affect your decision making. Testimonies—from real people,
celebrities, in addition to experts—are often used to change attitudes. Bandwagon
appeals—messages that suggest that everyone is doing it—are also used to
influence people’s decisions. Word-of-mouth communication has always been
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recognized as the most powerful form of persuasion, and that’s why strategies that
engage influencers are so important.
• Involvement.Advertisers distinguish between products, messages, and media on
the basis of the level of involvement they require from the buyer. Involvement
refers to the degree to which you are engaged in attending to an ad and the
process you go through in responding to a message and making a product
decision. Some products call for a more involved process than others, such as
cosmetics as compared to toothpaste. High involvement products are considered
purchases that generate a more intense level of engagement, such as buying a
computer or deciding which university to attend. Low involvement products are
such things as aspirin, paper napkins, envelopes, paper clips, milk, and lettuce.
Engagement: The idea of engagement is that a consumer is more than just
interested in something. Rather, they are “turned on.” Engagement cultivates
passion.
• Conviction.Effective persuasion results in conviction, which means consumers
agree with a persuasive message and achieve a state of certainty—a belief—about
a brand. A factor in conviction is the power of the argument, which uses logic,
reason, and proof to make a point and build conviction. Understanding an
argument is a complex cognitive process that demands the audience “follow
through” with the reasoning to understand the point and reach a conclusion.
• Preference and Intention.When consumers marry belief with a preference for or
an intention to try or buy a product, they are motivated by conviction. Intention
can be heightened with reward strategies, such as good deals, sale pricing, and
gifts. Good intentions are the motivations behind cause marketing and social
responsibility.
• Loyalty.When we talk about a “favorite” brand, we are discussing preference, but
also brandloyalty, which is both an attitude (liking, respect, preference) and an
action (repeat purchases). It is a response to brand communication that crosses
over between thinking, feeling, and doing. It is a response that is built on
customersatisfaction. Providing information about warranties, customer service,
and technical support for technology products is an important part of brand
loyalty strategies. The idea is to reduce risk and put the customer’s mind at ease.
Incentives are also used in loyalty programs, such as frequent flyer or frequent
buyer programs.
• An important issue in persuasion is believability, which refers to thecredibility of
the arguments in a message.Related to believability is credibility, which isan
indication of the trustworthiness of the source. Source credibility means the
person delivering the message, such as an expert, is respected, trusted, and
believable.
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• Credibility is one of the big advantages of public relations because publicity
stories delivered through a supposedly unbiased news medium have higher
credibility than advertising, which is seen as self-serving. Advertising can use a
credibility strategy to intensify the believability of its message. Using data to
support or prove a claim, for example, gives consumers a reason to believethe
advertising.
• The A Matter of Practice feature in this chapter explains how Chuck Young,
president of Amertest, analyzes the impact of a brand message and identifies key
drivers of a persuasive message.
The Behavior Facet: Act/Do
Behavior can involve different types of action in addition to trying or buying the
product – for example to visit a store, return an inquiry card, call a toll-free
number, join an organization, donate to a good cause, or click on a website.
We must distinguish, however, between direct action, which represents an
immediate response, and indirectaction, which is a delayed response to
advertising.Advertising almost by definition is characterized by indirect action.
Principle: Advertising has delayed effects in that a consumer may see or hear an
advertisement but not act on that message until later when in a store.
There is also purposeless action, which became a fad during the 2000s when viral
e-mail messages were used to generate a sudden and conspicuous gathering of
people. Called flash mobs, these public spectacles included a worldwide day of
pillow fights in public places in 2008. Flash mobs demonstrate the power of the
Internet and buzz to engage people and drive them to action, even if the action is
largely meaningless.
In terms of media, one behavior that worries marketers is the tendency to avoid
brand messages. Ad skipping is available through a number of technologies and
millions of television viewers do it.
Factors That Drive Behavioral Response
The behavioral response involving action of some kind is often the most important goal
of marketing communication, particularly for tools such as sales promotion and direct
marketing. Factors that drive a behavioral response include:
Mental Rehearsal. The mental rehearsal of behaviors is made possible by
showing visuals of people doing things. Visualization is an imagined action, but
one that is the predecessor to the behavior with which the advertiser hopes the
consumer will feel comfortable and familiar.
• Trial.The first step in making a purchase is often to try the product. Trial is
important for new products and expensive products because it lets a customer use
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the product without committing initially to a purchase. In other words, the risk is
lessened. Sales promotion is particularly good at driving trial through special
price deals, sampling, and incentive programs that motivate.
• Buying.The objective of most marketing programs is sales. In advertising, sales
are sometimes stimulated by the call-to-action at the end of the ad, along with
information on where to purchase the product. From a customer perspective, a
sale means making a purchase. In customer-focused marketing programs, the goal
is to motivate people to try or buy a certain brand. But in some marketing
programs, such as those for nonprofits, the marketing program may be designed to
encourage the audience to sign up, volunteer, or donate.
Sales, however, for many managers, is the gold standard for effective advertising.
They feel that, even if they are funny, memorable, or entertaining, ads are failures
if they don’t help sell the brand. The problem is that it may be difficult to prove
that a marketing communication message is the singular factor in the marketing
mix that delivered the sales. They could have been induced by price, distribution,
or product design and performance.
• Contacting.Responding by making contact with the advertiser can be an
important sign of effectiveness. Initiating contact is also valuable, particularly in
IMC programs that are designed to maintain brand relationships by creating
opportunities for customer-initiated dialogue, such as encouraging customers with
a complaint, compliment, suggestion, or referral to contact the company.
• Advocating and Referrals.One of the behavioral dimensions of brand loyalty is
advocacy, i.e., speaking out on a brand’s behalf and referring to it when someone
asks for a recommendation. Contacting other people is a valuable response,
particularly when a satisfied customer brings in more business for the brand by
providing testimonials to friends, family, and colleagues on behalf of the brand.
Referrals, which occur when a satisfied customer recommends a favorite brand,
is a form of word-of-mouththat can be incredibly more persuasive than
advertising, which is viewed as self-serving. A recommendation to buy a specific
brand is the ultimate test of the bond between consumers and their favorite
brands.And the opposite, brand aversion, can be disastrous if the dissatisfied
customer shares his or her dislike with other people.
• Prevention. In some social action situations, advertising messages are designed to
deter behaviors, such as clean-air campaigns that hope to reduce car use. This is a
complicated process that involves counter-arguing by presenting negative
messages about an unwanted behavior and creating the proper incentives to
stimulate the desired behavior. Because the effects are so complicated, the impact
of such campaigns is not always clear.
THE POWER OF BRAND COMMUNICATION
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The six-factor Facets Model of Effects is our answer to the question of how
advertising works. These six factors, when working together, can create a
coherent brand perception. There are two important things to remember about
how this model works: (1) the effects are interdependent and (2) they are not all
equal for all marketing communication situations.
In terms of effects interaction, we have already suggested that cognitive and
emotional responses work together. Consider that memory is a function of both
attention (the perception facet) and emotion (the affective facet). The stronger the
emotional hook, the more likely we’ll attend to and remember the message.
Strong and Weak Effects
Some professionals believe that sales are the only true indication of message
effectiveness. The power of advertising, in other words, is determined by its
ability to motivate consumers to buy a brand. Some believe that advertising is so
powerful, it can motivate people to buy things they don’t need.
Others, including the authors of this textbook, believe communication effects
include a wide range of consumer responses to a message. Those responses may
be just as important as sales because they lead to the creation of such things as
brand liking and a long-term brand relationship. The debate over the power of
brand communication is analyzed in terms of strong and weak effects.
Principle: Effects other than sales are important because they lead to long term
brand relationships.
Those differences explain why some experts believe that communication effects,
such as emotion, knowledge and persuasion, are merely ‘surrogate’ effects –
communication effects that can be measured more easily than sales but are less
important to marketing managers. Others believe these communication effects are
important in and of themselves because of what they contribute to brand strength.
Complicating the issue is the recognition that the impact of traditional advertising
is seldom immediate. In other words, advertising is a victim of delayed effects.
Messages are seen at one point in time and may or may not come to mind at a
later date when you are in a purchase situation. Advertisers must keep the delayed
effects problem in mind when relying on consumer attention, interest, motivation,
and memory to bring the message to mind days or weeks later.
Principle:Effects other than sales are important because they lead to long-term
brand relationships.
The important conclusion to the big question about how brand messages work is
that we know that advertising and other marketing communication does work
when its carefully planned and executed, and it can work in a variety of ways. It
may not work in every situation, and every ad may not be equally effective, but if
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it is done right, then brand communication can have impact on consumer
responses.
END-OF-CHAPTER SUPPORT
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