LECTURE 2: BREAKING THROUGH THE ADVERTISING CLUTTER
Attention is (1) limited, (2)selective, (3) voluntary or involuntary, (4) a precondition for further processing.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING:
More attention = more cognitive capacity = more comprehension = more elaboration on the message.
LEVELS OF PROCESSING / INVOLVEMENT (GREENWARD & LEAVITT, 1984):
Pre-attention: little or no capacity required (automatic processing) see an apple
Focal attention: little capacity required (as seen as important) just an apple
Comprehension: modest level of capacity required meaning: logo of the brand
apple
Elaboration: substantial levels of capacity required expensive & fast computers
Example: see an apple better look at the apple I like the apple, giving a meaning to the apple what do
we know about apple, apple not sustainable.
INCREASING INVOLUNTARY ATTENTION
Increasing involuntary attention various communication cues that can increase an automatic orienting
response (attractors). Oftentimes unconcious and unintended and associated with bottom-up processing
(outside world to top of our memory).
ASSOCIATED WITH BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING.
Salient, original, and novel stimuli Saliency
Centrally located stimuli Horizontal Centricity
Stimuli presented first Primacy
Pictures Picture Superiority
Arousal explains the relationship between saliency, focal attention and elaboration Yerkes-Dodson law.
When the level of arousal is too low / high effect aleboration and not efficient.
1. Saliency (e.g. pringles)
Perceptually prominent (size, colour, contrast, etc)
, Novel, unexpected, and original stimuli (e.g.Duracell Bunny, every time it is a different team = more
attention)
Stimuli related to life and death (e.g. bob, big spider)
These stimuli:
Stick out and are hard to ignore
Lead to mild psychological arousal
Result in focal attention to the source of stimulation
2. Horizontal Centricity
Stimuli in the centre receive more attention (and are more likely to be chosen).
e.g. product which is centered of the shelf, magazine.
3. Primacy
Consumers are more attentive to items that are presented first in a list.
A learning effect the ones which are presented first are the most important ones (e.g. commercial break on
tv, website advertising (eye-tracking), google searching).
4. Picture Superiority
Pictorial information receives more information than textual information.
Pictures: attract attention, regardless of size
Text: the bigger the text, the more attention
Brand: the bigger the brand name, the more attention
(Take-away: when developing an advertisement, use pictures, but also ensure that the text and brand name are
big enough to track attention).
INCREASING VOLUNTARY ATTENTION
To increase voluntary attention (1) magnetizers): (2) oftentimes concious and intended and (3)
Associated with top-down processing.
Increase self-relevance personal interest avoids inattentional blindness,
self-referencing (e.g. bob)
proximity
Curiosity unfinished ads
mysterious ads
1. Personal interest and inattentional blindness
Consumers allocate more attention to information that is consistent with their goals.
Information that is not relevant will be ignored and lead to inattentional blindness.
Implications for SEA and SEO:
- Organic results generate more attention and traffic because they are immediately relevant.
- Sponsored results will often suffer from inattentional blindness.
2. Self-Referencing (Burnkrant & Unnava, 1995):Attention increases when personalized information is used
(“You” second person wording, names, “it” third person wording etc. from research: second & names gets
more attention & memorized then third person wording).
3. Proximity & EWOM
- Consumers pay more attention to information that is ‘close’ to them.
- The more proximate, the more relevant, the more attention.
Sensory proximity: closeness in experience (e.g. close friend)
, Spatial proximity: closeness in physical space (e.g. things that happened in our own city, country)
Temporal proximity: closeness in time (e.g. citytrip planned next month vs over 2 years)
Probabilistic proximity: closeness in likelihood of happening
A variety of applications:
- E(WOM): comes from people close to us (spatial and sensory proximity).
- Viral marketing: emotionally vivid and shared via friends (sensory proximity).
- Blogs: written by influencers that feel close (sensory proximity).
- Billboards and Abri’s: prominent and often close in space (.
- Storytelling: probability of an event happening can be made salient.
- Buzz/viral: campaigns stimulate EWOM.
4. Curiosity
Unfinished tasks (Zeigarnick effect): people pay more attention to unfinished tasks (ads, narratives,
information, etc).
INCREASING EASE OF PROCESSING
Increasing Processing fluency, the easier to process:
less resources are needed for comprehension and elaboration
More likely that information is stored and retrieved
Existing knowledge structures
Linking your appeal to what customers already know makes it easier for them to comprehend
Concrete information helps to link to existing knowledge structures
o Visual (vs. verbal) information
o Concrete (vs. abstract) words
o Narrative (vs. statistical) information
Associative Network Theory memory traces
- Dual Coding Theory: stronger memory traces Visualization and imagination
Visual and verbal modalities lead to different encoding strategies.
Words are stored in verbal codes
Images are stored in visual codes
The net result is more and distinct memory traces
Non-pictorial information, such as imagination, are also stored
in visual codes
Images are stored in visual codes (via pictures of imagery)
Takeaway: Imagery leads to a higher recall, pictures also, but
better don’t use them together.
- Encoding Variability: variability in ads are preferred to attract attention (e.g. Duracel bunny example)
