Business Communication Chapter 10 Homework Teenagers are naturally eager to explore and experiment, not least as they begin to discover their sexuality. They like adventure and playful fun with people their age

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Solution and Answer Guide

Guffey/Loewy, Business Communication: Process & Product, 10e, 2022, 9780357129234;

Chapter 10: Persuasive and Sales Messages

Table of Contents

Zooming In—Critical Thinking Answers …………………………………………………………………………… 1

Juul—Suspicions Unlikely to Evaporate ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 1

Zooming In—Your Turn Solution ……………………………………………………………………………………. 2

Applying Your Skills Against Vaping …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Ethics Check Answers …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

The Perils of Automatic Influence ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease? ………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

Playing to Fear, Guilt, and Other Emotions ………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

Critical Thinking Answers ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

Activities Solutions …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Zooming In—Critical Thinking Answers

Juul—Suspicions Unlikely to Evaporate

• Why might teenagers and young adults be susceptible to Juul, and what type of appeal

was the e-cigarette startup using?

Solution

Teenagers are naturally eager to explore and experiment, not least as they begin to discover

their sexuality. They like adventure and playful fun with people their age. The penchant for

belonging to in-groups may make them open to emotional appeals and lifestyle ads,

• What could explain the huge success of Juul, the startup that burst onto a crowded

e-cigarette scene in 2015 and within three years grabbed a 75-percent share of the

vaping market?

Solution

Although no easy answers exist and the FDA and FTC are investigating, many public health

advocates believe that Juul deliberately hooked the next generation of nicotine addicts with

its advertising on social media, using influencers and peers, and by introducing fruit flavors.

Critics cite the Vaporized campaign in particular, a multichannel media extravaganza that

• The marketing agency Cult Collective has removed the Juul case study from its

website, and it’s available only in the Internet Archive. Why may Cult have pulled the

case from its e-portfolio?

Solution

It’s a safe bet that the agency responsible for the wildly successful but also highly

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Zooming In—Your Turn Solution

Applying Your Skills Against Vaping

• The CDC has awarded a discretionary grant to your college. Participating in your

school’s service–learning option, you are competing with several teams to create an

antivaping campaign. Create a persuasive strategy to counter the youth appeal of

Juul. Tailor your campaign, and consider the most effective channels to use. Your

instructor may ask you to summarize your strategy in an e-mail or memo. You may

also be tasked with devising actual messages to raise awareness and make teens and

young adults stop vaping.

Solution

Answers will vary. The topic will likely generate a lively discussion.

What about appeals to fear? The FDA requires that conspicuous health warnings be

displayed on packaging. Can scare tactics reduce smoking and vaping? Effective 2021, the

FDA has mandated that cigarette packaging must show health warnings with large color

photos that will include graphic images of diseased lungs, for example. The warnings and

images will highlight lesser known smoking risks, including impacts on fetal growth, heart

disease, and diabetes. Will scary, even disgusting images lower smoking rates? Consider, too,

that in the past smoking was prevalent even in countries without cigarette advertising,

e.g., in China before it established trade relations with the West.

Appealing to young people’s vanity and the desire to be attractive might be effective. The

writer of the article titled “Ew! Yellow Teeth, Premature Wrinkles and Hair Loss: These Are

the Grossest Side Effects of Vaping” in Parade magazine is onto something. She lists

undesirable side effects of vaping such as a hacking cough, jitters, bad skin, hair loss, yellow

Ethics Check Answers

The Perils of Automatic Influence

• Professional persuaders try to generate “a distinct kind of automatic, mindless

compliance” in people, a “willingness to say yes without thinking first,” believes

psychologist Robert B. Cialdini. The best-selling author of Influence cautions: “The ever–

accelerating pace and informational crush of modern life will make… unthinking

compliance more and more prevalent in the future. It will be increasingly important

for the society, therefore, to understand the how and why of automatic influence.”

What does this mean for you as a consumer and social media user?

Solution

Best-selling author Robert B. Cialdini was on to something when he published his

blockbuster book Influence more than a decade ago. We now know that targeted

disinformation campaigns waged from cyberfarms in Russia and China aim to destabilize

One conclusion students may take away from Cialdini’s work is that they need to become

aware of the strategies visited upon them by “compliance professionals,” as Cialdini calls

marketers and other persuaders. Perhaps because people today are subjected to a barrage

of advertising and other persuasive messages, they have become numb to unsophisticated

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease?

• As any salesperson will tell you, some customers seem to believe that if they vent

their anger and make a scene at the store, bullying and intimidating a fearful sales

representative, they are more likely to get their way. Indeed, some sales staff may

cave in, wishing to defuse the ruckus. Is it fair to resort to such tactics to get what one

wants? Does the end justify the means?

Solution

Some students may say yes, that anything is fair to obtain the desired result. However, they

should be reminded that the saying “You catch more flies with honey” applies no less in

business. When a bad-tempered customer gets his or her way, the business complies

Playing to Fear, Guilt, and Other Emotions

• Direct marketers sometimes resort to scare tactics—for example, to make us

purchase alarm systems or subscribe to monitoring services. They may also appeal to

our compassion and guilt before the holidays in soliciting money for the less

fortunate. Are such emotional appeals ethical?

Solution

Perceptive students will realize that such appeals are not unethical, as long as they are

executed truthfully and do not intend to deceive. It is not wrong to invoke recent burglary

Critical Thinking Answers

1. Sit back in your first-class seat and sip a freshly stirred drink while letting 12 channels of

superb audio wash over you—or snooze is an example of what type of persuasive

appeal? How does it compare to the following: Take one of four daily direct flights to

South America on our modern Airbus aircraft, and enjoy the most legroom of any airline. If

we’re ever late, you will receive coupons for free trips.

Solution

The first promotional statement focuses on creature comforts and conjures up feelings of

2. The word persuasion turns some people off. Why? What negative connotations can it

have?

Solution

Many people subconsciously equate persuasion with coercion or force. In fact, both

persuasion and coercion share the same continuum of strategies that seek compliance.

3. How are direct-mail sales letters and e-mail sales messages similar, and how are they

different?

Solution

Direct-mail sales letters and e-mail sales messages are similar in that both use persuasion to

4. Why are magazine and newspaper editors or TV producers wary of press (news)

releases from businesses and reluctant to turn them into articles?

Solution

Traditionally, most self-respecting journalists fiercely guard their objectivity and

independence from corporate, political, and other interests as the highest good that has lent

5. Microtargeting is controversial. Advertisers are trying to sweettalk Internet users into

allowing them to harvest their location information, browser history, and other

personal behavior data. They argue it’s to users’ advantage to see ads tailored to their

lifestyles and preferences. An even bigger problem than threats to privacy are

narrowly focused political ads. Critics worry that misleading information cannot be

rebutted if it’s narrowly targeted. Although Facebook has been criticized not only for

allowing political ads but also for not vetting them for disinformation or suspicious

origin, the company is sticking to its guns. In the meantime, Google and Twitter are

limiting or banning political ads outright. What are the risks of microtargeted political

ads on social media?

Solution

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), for example, doesn’t believe that Facebook should

be expected to fact-check political ads to weed out misinformation that could sway U.S.

Microtargeting is achieved with the help of sophisticated data mining which then helps the

data-collecting entity to assemble a profile of a very narrow target audience, a small subset

of individuals. If aspects of the truth (or untruth) are fragmented to such an extent,

establishing common ground or even basic facts is very difficult if not impossible.

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Activities Solutions

10.1 Document for Analysis: A Poor Invitation to a Chef to Speak

Solution

Weaknesses:

• Fails to impress the reader or gain positive attention in the opening.

• Begins bluntly and directly by revealing the favor request in the first paragraph.

• Does not build interest with emotional or rational appeals.

• Shows a lack of interest and perfunctory attitude by not knowing the exact title of Ms.

Revision:

Current date

Ms. Cassidee Dabney

Executive Chef, The Barn

Blackberry Farm

1471 West Millers Cove Road

Walland, TN 37886-2649

Dear Ms. Dabney:

News of the excellent presentation you made at your local chapter of the National

Restaurant Association has reached us here in Atlanta, and we are very impressed.

Can we count on you to join us for dinner at 7 p.m. on June 10 at the Carnegie Room of the

St. Regis Atlanta? Just call me at (404) 351-1220 before March 1 so that I can let our members

know you will be joining us.

Sincerely,

Enclosure

10.2 Document for Analysis: Persuasive Message Flowing Upward: Sourcing Shirts in

El Salvador

Solution

Weaknesses:

• Fails to provide a descriptive subject line.

• Opening paragraphs sound whining, negative, and critical.

• Fails to begin with an engaging statement or a description of the existing problem.

Revision:

To: Janelle Edwards<bryanna@ultrafit-international.com>

From: Anton Sheppard<anton@ultrafit-international.com>

Subject: Possible Chance for Saving Money

At your suggestion, I’ve been searching for ways to reduce our trade show exhibition costs.

One of our major expenses is the booth gift that we present to visitors.

Please take a look at the T-shirt sample I recently sent to you. You might expect a cheaper

shirt to be less acceptable, but as you can see, this shirt is quite presentable. What’s more, it

advertises our name just as well as the more expensive silk-screened T-shirts. We expect

folks to wear this shirt when they work out, and the cheaper shirt serves the purpose just as

well as the more expensive one.

Anton

[Full contact information]

10.3 Document for Analysis: LinkedIn Favor Request

Solution

Weaknesses:

• May have chosen the wrong channel to communicate with a professor to request an

urgent favor.

• Rambles and buries the desired action request.

• Does not provide relevant information to help the reader comply even if he were

inclined to do so.

Revision:

Possible LinkedIn Version:

Dear Professor Winter:

I hope you will see this message soon; I’ve noticed you are very active on LinkedIn. You

always discussed technology with us in the Business Writing 201 class in fall 2019 and often

told us how the Internet has changed business communication.

Franco Argento

Possible E-Mail Version:

To: mwinter@mentone-college.edu

From: fargento@student.mentone-college.edu

Subject: Letter of Recommendation

Dear Professor Winter:

Your Business Writing 201 course in fall 2019 has really improved my communication skills,

although I got a B, not an A. It was a tough class, but I use what I learned from you in my job

and in school every day. Imagine, I will finally graduate next May.

Best regards,

Franco Argento

fargento@student.mentone-college.edu

10.4 Analyzing Tweets: Finding Persuasive Techniques in Micromessages

Solution

Students will find that calls for action and attention getters are the types of persuasive

tweets used most often, followed by testimonials and appeals that create urgency. As for

effectiveness, it is worth noting that in the social media, individuals seek out the products,

Persuasive Techniques:

a. Call for action

b. Emotional appeal

c. Attention getter

10.5 The Art of Persuasion—As Old as Aristotle’s Rhetoric

Solution

Some students may be familiar with the three elements of Aristotelian rhetoric from

freshman composition and other expository writing courses. Being able to recognize

Students may cull less controversial examples from advertising and blog entries. TV car

commercials in particular tend to be high on pathos, showing pristine landscapes and

successful, beautiful people, signaling a lifestyle—not so much a practical vehicle with

specific features and benefits (logos). Ethos may be represented by a reputable automobile

marque, glowing testimonials, and appealing spokespeople.

10.6 Persuasive Strategies—Applying Hugh Rank’s Model

Solution

As a marketing expert points out, the tactics described in Hugh Rank’s model can be used by

appealing to emotion as well as logic. They can be found in traditional as well as new media

[Larson, C. U. (2013). Persuasion: Reception and responsibility. 13th ed. Boston: Wadsworth,

One way to test Rank’s model is to examine any current controversy and compare both

sides. Often, the rival parties are not talking about the same things. Opponents of the death

penalty may argue (i.e., intensify) that it’s a barbaric punishment and point out the high cost

and length of the appeals process. Opponents may downplay the victims’ suffering.

Proponents of the death penalty may emphasize (i.e., intensify) the heinous nature of the

10.7 Persuasive Request: Suitable Suits for Interviews

Solution

Current date

Dean Bruno H. Davis

College of Business Administration

Point West College

78 State Street

East Haven, MA 02106

Dear Dean Davis:

Our students receive a good education, are smart, and have spotless résumés. However,

they may not fare well on the job market if they aren’t dressed properly.

I don’t have all the answers, but I think it’s a topic that deserves investigation. May I see you

during the week of November 8 to discuss the possibility of developing a Suitable Suits

program for Point West? Please call me at (617) 455-9802 or send a message to me at

kjlanser@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

10.8 Persuasive Request: Requesting a Letter of Recommendation

Solution

To: [Professor’s e-mail address]

From: [Student’s e-mail address]

Subject: Letter of Recommendation Request

Dear Professor [last name]:

Your credentials have always been intriguing to me. In particular, your position as the head

of the campus Diversity Matters club demonstrates your commitment to supporting

minorities. Also, your experience and knowledge of how to communicate clearly and

concisely make you my obvious choice for a letter of recommendation. I know that a letter

from you commenting on my character and performance in your classroom would be

perceived positively by any admissions committee. This is the sort of competitive advantage I

am seeking.

The submission deadline of November 1 is a month away, and I’m getting an early start to

give you enough time. Please let me know when we can meet. If I don’t hear from you, I will

stop by during your office hours, or let’s connect by e-mail, if you prefer. I look forward to

seeing you next week.

Sincerely,

[Student name and contact information]