CHAPTER 7
Persuading Consumers
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
7.1 To understand the components of communications, source credibility, and barriers to
effective transmissions.
7.3 To understand the elements of message structure.
7.5 To understand how to measure the effectiveness of advertising messages.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Learning Objective 7.1: To understand the components of communications, source credibility,
and barriers to effective transmissions.
Communication is the transmission of a message (advertising) from a sender (marketer) to a
organization is trying to inform, influence, or persuade. The senders of interpersonal
communications may be either formal sources (e.g., a salesperson in a physical or virtual retail
location) or informal sources (e.g., peers with whom the consumer communicates face-to-face or
via electronic means).
The key factor underlying the persuasive impact of a personal or interpersonal message received
from either a formal or informal source is the source’s credibility—the extent to which the
Learning Objective 7.2: To understand the distinctions between broadcasted and addressable
messages.
Traditional media and communications models that have been used for decades are undergoing
fundamental changes. Advertisers are unhappy with the current broadcast media because they are
reaching increasingly smaller and more fragmented audiences and getting fewer eyeballs for the
1. Customized and based on data gathered from tracing consumers’ surfing and clicks online, in
2. Interactive action by consumers, such as clicks on links and banners, indicate that the message
sent has been received, and studies show that consumers favor interactive websites where they
Learning Objective 7.3: To understand the elements of message structure.
A message is the thought, idea, attitude, image, or other information that the sender wishes to
convey to the intended audience. The decisions that marketers must make in designing a message
include selecting images, creating advertising copy, using positive or negative message framing,
choosing between one-sided or two-sided messages, and deciding on the order of presentation.
Message framing can either stress the benefits of using the product (positive framing) or the
benefits to be lost by not using the product (negative framing).
Should a marketer pretend that its products are the only ones of their kind (that is, use a one-
sided message) or should the company acknowledge competing products and use a two-sided
Learning Objective 7.4: To understand the effectiveness and limitations of prominent
advertising appeals.
Marketers have many options to choose from when selecting promotional appeals, but the ones
most widely used are comparative advertising, humor, fear or sexual appeals, and well-timed
ads. Comparative advertising is a very common marketing strategy in which a marketer claims
product superiority for its brand over one or more explicitly named or implicitly identified
competitors, either on an overall basis or on selected product attributes. Although some critics of
Learning Objective 7.5: To understand how to measure the effectiveness of advertising
messages.
Marketers measure their communications’ persuasion effects (whether the message was received,
understood, and interpreted correctly) and their sales effects (whether the messages of a given
campaign have generated the sales level defined in the campaign objectives). Advertisers also
gauge the exposure and persuasion effects of their messages by buying data from firms that
CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
1. Communication is the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver via a medium
of transmission.
2. The five basic components of communications are: sender, receiver, medium, message and
communication feedback.
a) Senders encode their messages using words, pictures, symbols, spokespersons and
persuasive appeals.
*****Use Key Learning Term communication Here; Use Figure #7.1 Here*****
The Communication Process
1. Communications can be either impersonal or interpersonal.
a) The sources of impersonal communications are organizations that develop and
transmit appropriate messages through their marketing departments, advertising or
public relations agencies and spokespersons.
b) The sources of interpersonal communications can be either formal or informal.
i) A formal communications source represents either a for-profit or not-for-profit
organization (e.g. a salesperson).
*****Use Key Learning terms impersonal communications, interpersonal communications,
formal sources, informal sources Here; Use Learning Objective #7.1 Here*****
3. Perceive trustworthiness, expertise, and believability make the source more credible, which
makes the message more persuasive
4. Media are the channels for transmitting communications.
a) Traditional media are the original communications channels that advertisers have used
and are generally classified as print and broadcast.
b) New media are online channels, social networks and mobile electronic devices.
*****Use Key Learning terms source credibility, media, traditional media, new media Here;
Use Review and Discussion Question #7.3 Here*****
6. Differential decay suggests negative memories of low-credibility sources decay faster than
the content of the message.
7. Selective exposure refers to consumers’ selectivity in paying attention to advertising
messages.
a) Technology provides consumers with greater ability to control their exposure to media.
b) Viewers can time shift by recording TV shows and may skip commercials when they
watch them at their leisure.
8. Psychological noise includes competing advertising messages or distracting thoughts that
can affect the reception of the promotional message.
a) Strategies to overcome or limit psychological noise include:
i) Repeated exposure to an advertising message (principle of redundancy)
ii) Using contrast: featuring an unexpected outcome, increasing sensory input,
identifying message appeals that attract more attention.
iii) Customizing messages via monitoring on digital technologies
audience.
*****Use Key Learning terms psychological noise, positioning, sensory input Here*****
Broadcasted versus Addressable Messages
2. The term traditional media is synonymous with broadcast media (or mass media) and
3. New media are channels of narrowcasting, defined as means that permit marketers to send
messages that are:
4. Addressable advertising consists of customized messages sent to particular consumers.
These messages are based mostly on the consumers’ prior shopping behavior, which
marketers have observed and analyzed.
Message Structure
1. The message (thought, idea, attitude, image, or other information that the sender wishes to
2. The sponsor, who may be an individual or an organization, must first establish the objectives
of the message, select an appropriate medium for sending it, and design (encode) the message
in a manner that is appropriate to each medium and to each audience.
a) The objectives of a persuasive message include creating awareness of a service,
promoting sales of a product, encouraging (or discouraging) certain practices, attracting
b) Marketers encode messages by using words, pictures, symbols, spokespersons, and
special channels.
*****Use Learning Objective #7.3 Here*****
3. Some of the decisions that marketers must make in designing the message include selecting
images, creating ad copy, positive or negative message framing, one-sided or two-sided
messages, and the order of presentation.
a) Messages that depict images are often more effective that those with text only.
Advertisements are visually complex when they contain dense perceptual features
and/or when they have elaborate creative designs.
i) A study found that feature complexity hurts attention to the brand and attitude
toward the ad, whereas design complexity enhances paying attention to the ad,
raises its comprehensibility, and improves attitude toward the ad
*****Use Key Terms positive and negative message framing Here; Use Table 7.1 Here; Use
Review and Discussion Question #7.6 Here; Use Hands-on Assignment #7.15 Here*****
c) One-sided messages tell consumers only the good points (benefits).
i) This is most effectively used if the audience is friendly, if it initially favors the
communicator’s position, or if it is not likely to hear an opposing argument.
ii) Two-sided messages tell consumers both good (benefits) and bad (disadvantages)
points of the product.
iii) These are most effectively used when the target audience is critical or unfriendly, if
it is well educated, or if it is likely to hear opposing claims.
d) Native advertising (branded content) blend in with editorial content.
e) Podcasts are audio stories that can be saved and played on a computer or smartphone
f) It also produces greater acceptance and better understanding of the total message.
*****Use Key Terms native advertising, podcasts Here*****
a) Order Effects—communications researchers have found that the order in which a
message is presented affects audience receptivity.
i) The television commercials shown first are recalled best, those in the middle the
least.
ii) Magazine publishers recognize the impact of order effects by charging more for
ads on the front, back, and inside covers of magazines than for the inside magazine
*****Use Key Terms primacy effect, recency effect Here*****
Persuasive Appeals
1. Several factors influence ad persuasiveness/appropriateness of different promotional appeals.
a) Informational appeals are more effective in high-consumer involvement situations;
emotional appeals did better in low-involvement situations.
2. Comparative advertising claims product superiority for its brand over one or more
explicitly named or implicitly identified competitors, either on an overall basis or on selected
product attributes.
a) Comparative advertising is useful in exerting positive effects on brand attitudes, purchase
intentions, and actual purchases.
b) A downside to comparative ads may be that they assist recall of the competitor’s brand at
the expense of the advertised brand.
ads generated greater levels of brand-evaluation involvement among men but not among
women. Among women, attention-getting comparative appeals produced inferences
regarding the ads’ manipulative intentions and reduced purchase likelihood.
f) Yet another study found that “promotion–focused” consumers (i.e., those focused on the
aspirational aspects and the likely positive consequences of a purchase) reacted to
comparative messages differently than “prevention–focused” consumers (i.e., those
focused on the presence or absence of negative outcomes such as safety). In comparative
*****Use Key Term comparative advertising Here; Use Figure 7.10 Here; Use Review and
Discussion Question #7.7 Here *****
3. Fear appeals are often used in marketing communications.
a) Some researchers have found a negative relationship between the intensity of fear appeals
and their ability to persuade, so strong fear appeals tend to be less effective than mild fear
appeals.
b) Issue familiarity affects the persuasiveness of fear appeals.
c) Fear appeals are unlikely to be effective among persons who score high on the
personality variable termed sensation seeking.
d) Males and females may have different responses to fear appeals.
e) Several studies showed that adding disgust to a fear appeal enhanced message persuasion
and compliance beyond that of appeals that elicited only fear.
f) Marketers should follow several guidelines:
4. A significant portion of ads use humor because marketers believe it increases the acceptance
and persuasiveness of the communication
a) Humor is the most widely used of all advertising appeals; by some estimates, it is used in
80 percent of all ads.
b) Humor attracts attention and enhances liking of the product advertised.
c) Humor does not harm the comprehension of ads, and, in some cases, it actually aids
comprehension.
d) Humor does not always increase an ad’s persuasive impact or a source’s credibility and
might actually distract from cognitive processing of the central benefits of the brand.
e) Humor that is relevant to the product is more effective than humor unrelated to the
product.
k) Another study discovered that ad recall was damaged when the humor was expected, and
this adverse effect was more pronounced in individuals with low need for humor.
*****Use Key Term need for humor Here; Use Figure #7.12 Here; Use Review and
Discussion Question #7.8 Here*****
5. Punning is wordplay, often consisting of a humorous “double meaning.”
6. Sex appeals have attention-getting value, but studies show that they rarely encourage actual
consumption behavior and are only effective with sex-related products.
a) Often, sexual advertising appeals detract consumers from the message content and tend to
interfere with message comprehension, particularly when there is substantial information
to be processed.
b) Nudity may negatively affect the product message.
c) Receptivity to sexual appeals varies among consumers.
i) “Sexual self–schema,” which is one’s cognitive view of the self with regard to
iii) Extroverted people may be more receptive to sexual appeals and that such appeals
should not be used in targeting consumers who are quiet, shy, and reserved.
***** Use Review and Discussion Question #7.10; Use Key Term sexual self-schema and Use
Hands-on Assignment #7.14 Here*****
7. Timeliness appeals: During and following the financial crisis of September 2008, many
marketers came up with advertising appeals designed specifically for tough economic times.
Feedback and Effectiveness
1. Communication feedback is an essential component of both interpersonal and impersonal
2. An important advantage of interpersonal communications is the ability to obtain immediate
feedback through verbal as well as nonverbal cues.
3. In evaluating the impact of their advertising messages, marketers must measure persuasion
effects (i.e., was the message received, understood, and interpreted correctly?), sales effects
(i.e., did the ad increase sales?), and media exposure effects (i.e., how many consumers
were exposed to the message?) of their advertising messages.
*****Use Key Terms persuasion effects, sales effects, media exposure effects Here; Use
Review and Discussion Question #7.1& #7.2 Here; Use Learning Objective 7.5 Here *****
a) Advertisers gauge the exposure and persuasion effects of their messages by buying data
from firms monitoring media audiences and conducting audience research to find out
which media are read, which television programs are viewed, and which advertisements
were remembered by their target audience(s).
b) Physiological measures track bodily responses to stimuli.
c) Attitudinal measures gauge consumers’ cognitive responses to messages
i) Researchers measure levels of engagement and involvement with messages tested.