CHAPTER 3 : HOW MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WORK
Very important chapter -> a lot of questions are about this chapter! It makes the bridge between human behaviour
and how to use marketing communications.
This chapter tries to explain how marketing communications work. But there is no such thing how it works... You
will get some frameworks and models, but you have to keep in mind that all models are valid, but they are valid in
different circumstances. So depending on the type of product, the type of consumer and the type of circumstance,
some models are a better explanation than others.
Most of these models are models of consumer behaviour : models of how people react to stimuli and they are
applied to marketing communications. So they are not developed to explain marketing communications per se,
they are developed to explained consumer behaviour, but you can all apply them to how advertising and marketing
communications work.
Chapter objectives
- Get an idea of how hierarchy-of-effects models describe how communications work
- Understand the importance of attitude formation in the consumer persuasion process
- Distinguish the basic types of attitude formation and change processes and marketing communication models
- Learn about the importance of elaboration likelihood and cognitive, affective and behavioural processes for
marketing communications
Hierarchy of effects
Cognitive / think
↓
Affective / feel
↓
Behavioural / Conative / do
The model tries to explain how people come to a certain decision, or a certain behaviour. Before people buy
something (behavioural), they have to like it (affective) and to be able to like it, they have to know it (cognitive).
So first knowing, then liking, then buying. There is a strict hierarchy.
In marketing communications this means that first people have to know your brand, they have to develop deep
and broad brand awareness. Then people have to develop a positive attitude towards your brand, they should
make good associations. Afterwards you can activate them to buy it (again).
You guide people through these stages with your marketing communications plan.
But to what extent is this a good representation of real consumer behaviour? Do we really first know it, then like
it and then buy it? No! Imagine you buy toilet paper, it would be very surprisingly if you follow the steps, unless
you are a toilet paper freak. We are speaking of the low-involvement hierarchy-of-effects model : consumers, after
frequent exposure to marketing messages, might buy the product, and decide afterwards how to feel about it.
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,Suppose you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, you probably did not follow these stages : which boys are on the
market, which boys do I like, and action. Sometimes you even go to action immediately, or you have a crush on
someone. The example of the boyfriend / girlfriend would fit more in the experiential hierarchy-of-effects model
in which consumers’ affective responses towards a product lead them to buy it and, if necessary, they reflect on
it later.
So many consumer decisions do not take place in that order. If you buy the toilet paper, you mostly buy the toilet
paper you are used to. So in fact, toilet paper is not important enough to think of, you just buy it by routine. So
you do not need to say to people you have a new toilet paper.
For boy- and girlfriend we are going to “buy” it because of affective elements.
So the hierarchy-of-effects is only valid on certain occasions. It is a good model to describe consumer behaviour
and a marketing communication logic for a product that is both important to you and that is rational for you.
Hierarchy-of-effects models
The oldest hierarchy-of-effects model is the AIDA model (attention, interest, desire, action). This model was
developed to train sales people. If you come in with a customer, you have to give the product attention, then say
why this is a good product and by doing this people get to know your product and start to desire it and then action,
signing the contract.
ACCA model is especially developed for an advertising campaign. It gives you the four objectives / goals you have
to formulate in a marketing communications plan. People should be aware that your brand exists and they should
understand what it stands for (broad and deep awareness). People should have a conviction that they really need
it.
Lavidge and Steiner is almost the same as DAGMAR, but it gives you the stages in an advertising campaign (it is
developed for that reason).
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,AIETA is a bit special because it describes the stages in product adoption. So you launch a new product and the
AIETA model gives you the stages through which you have to go to become loyal.
People should evaluate it with your competitors, then try it and afterwards adoption. You should lead people
through these stages by means of your marketing communications efforts.
They all have the same logic of first knowing, then feeling and then doing.
The advantage of hierarchy-of-effects models and related frameworks is that they provide a framework for
communication objectives and campaign effectiveness measurement. They consider brand awareness as a
prerequisite for brand attitude formation. They correctly assume that affective responses cannot be formed or
that a purchase cannot take place without having an awareness of the brand. In this respect, it should be
mentioned that most companies strive to reach top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) in consumers. TOMA indicates
which brand is most salient within a product category. It reflects the first brand that comes to mind when thinking
of a particular product category.
Attention and interest
This is an advertisement that appeals on
focus and interest, the first stages of the
hierarchy-of-effects model. It is an
advertisement of a non-profit organisation
about the use of animals in fur coats. It is
an aggressive and confrontational, but it
raises awareness in the issue.
This does the same thing, it is a brilliant
campaign. It looks really simple, but it is
one of the most successful campaigns ever
made. It is a government campaign, a public awareness campaign
that tells people okay in summer time when you keep food out of
the refrigerator you have to cover is, for health reasons.
Before the campaign many people left their food outside when it
was really hot, but after the campaign almost nobody did anymore
(for a while).
It is a good campaign because it starts from a fundamental
consumer inside, something that is really important for people. In
this case food, you have to put it in your mouth, it can be tasty, but
also dangerous (it can make you sick). Also it has stopping power,
it draws attention, it makes people focus. If you read the first
sentence, everybody wants to read the rest of the text. The rest of
the text focuses on this fundamental element food : it can be nice, but also nasty and dangerous because of the
flies. It does not look as a creative campaign, but it is just because it translates the fundamental concern of people
in an involving text. This is again in the stages attention and interest.
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, Product types, buying moods and motives
- High-low involvement
See FCB grid.
- Think-feel
See FCB-grid.
- Avoidance-approach
- Avoidance decision : you buy something to avoid a certain problem. It brings you from minus to zero.
E.g. cleaning products, deodorants (it prevents that you smell bad).
We do not avoid the product, but we avoid the task we have to do with the product. It is usually
bought in a think-mode.
- Approach decision : it brings something meaningful to your life. It brings you from zero to positive.
E.g. a glass wine, nice food. This is usually bought in a feel-mode.
- Utilitarian-hedonic
- Utilitarian : you buy these products because they are functional. E.g. a shovel, you normally don’t
have feelings about your shovel. Most of these are bought in a think-mode.
- Hedonic : you buy these products because they are fun, pleasant, exciting... E.g. a glass of wine, nice
food, a car... Most of these are bought in a feel-mode.
- Informational-transformational (Rossiter-Percy)
Rossiter-Percy grid is an alternative to the FCB grid which again classifies products and buying decisions in
four categories, based on the dimension high-low involvement and fulfilling a transformational or
informational buying motive.
- Informational : you buy something because it solves a problem for you, or you are out of stock. E.g.
you don’t have salt anymore in your kitchen, so you go and buy salt. Often bought in a think-mode.
E.g. detergents, babies’ nappies, insurance products...
- Transformational : motivations that appeal to higher motivations, this could be intellectual. E.g. if
you like to solve a puzzle, this is a transformational motivation to buy it. If you like sophisticated food,
this is a transformational motivation. Often bought in a feel-mode. E.g. ice cream, cosmetics,
perfume...
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