Consumer Psychology
Persuasion lies at the heart of successful advertising and marketing campaigns. In attempting to persuade individuals and groups, advertising agencies and social psychologists face the enormous difficulty of changing attitudes. The following technique achieves attitude change by manipulating the underlying beliefs.
Changing Beliefs.
Although consumer attitudes are notoriously resistant to change, this technique achieves it through switching the focus of its attack away from the attitudes themselves and onto the underlying beliefs. This can be done in a variety of ways. The most difficult approach is attempting to change currently held beliefs, as human psychology dictates that even if our beliefs are inaccurate or inconsistent they are always strongly held and resistant to change. In order to influence beliefs, advertisers use images and statistics that appeal either to emotions, such as fear, humor, or guilt, or to the consumer's intellect, through factual evidence and examples. In this way, the technique is able to present the audience with an alternative view of reality - one that is not supported by their currently held beliefs. Many consumers will remain suspicious of these new concepts and will reject the advertiser's information, many others however will amend their beliefs in order to understand and 'fit in with' their new perception of the world.
Another approach adopted by this technique is to change the importance of beliefs, rather than the beliefs themselves. It is easier to strengthen or weaken an existing belief than it is to change it. The most successful method of using this strategy is to strengthen beliefs with which the consumer already agrees, either by supporting them with factual evidence, or by using everyday examples with which the audience can identify. Many advertisers take this technique one stage further and reinforce additional beliefs, which are unlikely to meet with consumer resistance as they do not conflict with existing beliefs. The strategy of manipulating current beliefs, either through reinforcement or undermining, is far easier and more likely to succeed than attempting a wholesale change of basic beliefs, and is therefore the preferred option of advertisers.
The difficulties involved in attempting to change existing beliefs are evidenced by the failure of such apparently sensible and factually supported campaigns as those designed to deter smoking, or to discourage drink driving. Even consumers who are aware of the inaccuracy or incorrectness of their beliefs will tend to become defensive about them if they sense that they are being attacked or criticized.
The techniques used by advertisers are designed to avoid this conflict; either by reinforcing the beliefs of those consumers who already hold a positive view about their product, or by the subtle offering of an alternative set of beliefs to those whom they wish to convert. For example, advertisers of food and drink are aware of the existing consumer belief in the importance of a healthy, balanced diet. They can reinforce this belief, and gain an advantage over their rivals, by emphasizing that their brand contains vitamin x, y, or z, or is sugar free, or any other health related benefit that will build upon the audiences currently held beliefs. This is also an area that is useful for demonstrating how advertisers can change a consumer's beliefs without causing a negative, defensive reaction. For instance, rather than blatantly stating that milk is a healthier option than soda, the advertiser may present images and factual examples of the potential health risks posed by soda, and compare that with equally graphic and persuasive evidence for the health benefits of milk. In this manner, the advertiser avoids a head on conflict with consumers' existing beliefs, and offers them an alternative reality with the opportunity to feel as if they have made up their own minds on the issue. The last point is of vital importance, irrespective of the technique used. However they go about it, and whichever attitudes or beliefs they wish to change, the advertiser must always present their ideas in such a way that the consumer is unaware of any influence or persuasion. The audience must be left thinking that they have made their own decision.
The primary means of ensuring that the consumer remains ignorant of the advertiser's persuasion is to remove the need for cognitive thinking. The following technique achieves this by dividing products into those that require a lot of cognitive thought, and those that require very little.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM).
In describing their Elaboration Likelihood Model, Petty and Cacioppo (Communication and persuasion: The central and peripheral routes to attitude change, 1986) suggest that there are two routes to attitude change: the central...
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