CHAPTER 3: HOW MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WORK
HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECT MODELS
Hierarchy-of-effect models: things have to happen in a certain order, implying that the earlier effects
form necessary conditions in order for the later effects to occur. Three different stages in responding
to marketing communications: cognitive affective conative.
- Cognitive stage: consumers engage in mental (thinking) processes which lead to awareness
and knowledge of the brand
- Affective stage: emotional or evaluative responses occur which are associated with the
advertised brand and attitudes towards the brands are formed
- Conative/behavioral stage: undertaking actions with respect to the advertised brand
The advantage of hierarchy-of-effects models and related frameworks is that they provide a
framework for communications objectives and campaign effectiveness measurement. They also
incorporate an important contribution: recognition of the importance of brand awareness.
Top-of-mind awareness (TOMA): which brand is most salient within a product category. Reflects the
first brand that comes to mind when thinking of a particular product category.
Low-involvement hierarchy-of-effects model: cognitive conative affective (after frequent
exposure to marketing messages, consumers might buy the product, and decide afterwards how they
feel about it).
Experiential hierarchy-of-effects model: affective conative cognitive (consumers’ affective
responses towards a product lead them to buy it and they reflect on it later).
Foote-Coone-Belding (FCB) grid: four different situations are distinguised, based on two dimensions
(high-low involvement and think-feel dimension).
- Involvement: the importance people attach to a product or a buying decision, the extent to
which one has to think it over and the level of perceived risk associated with an inadequate
brand choice
- Think-feel dimension: continuum reflecting the extent to which a decision is made on a
cognitive or affective basis
Rossiter-Percy grid: alternative to or modification of the FCG grid, based on the dimension of high-
low involvement and fulfilling a transformational or informational buying motive.
- Transformational buying motives: positive motivations (sensory gratification, social approval)
- Informational buying motives: reducing or reversing negative motivations (solving problems)
Limitations of hierarchy-of-effect models:
- Empirical support for the fact that consumers go through each stage is lacking
- No significant relations between recall and attitudes no hierarchy of cognitive, affective
and conative effects can be observed
- Hierarchy models do not allow interactions between different stages
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,ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE
Attitude: a person’s overall evaluation of an object, product, person, organization, ad, etc.
Different communications models regarding attitude formation and attitude change can be classified
along two dimensions:
- Attitude formation: primarily cognitive, affective or behavioral
- Attitude change: the level of elaboration of a message (central-route vs. peripheral-route)
MAO: the involvement dimension of the FCB grid is extended to motivation, ability and opportunity.
- Motivation: willingness to engage in behavior, make decisions, pay attention and process
information influenced by consumer needs and goals
o Functional needs: solving consumer problems (informational buying motives)
o Symbolic needs: how we see ourselves and how we would like to be perceived
o Hedonic needs: consumers’ desires for sensory pleasure
o Can be classified as approach/promotion goals or avoidance/prevention goals
- Ability: resources needed to achieve a particular goal
- Opportunity: extent to which the situation enables a person to obtain the goal set
Elaboration Likelihood model (ELM): the effects of the MAO factors on attitude formation and
marketing communications processing are presented in the ELM.
- Central-route processing: high MAO and high ELM consumers are willing to elaborate on
information, evaluate arguments and find out what the information has to offer
o Depending on the quality and credibility of the arguments, consumers will react by
producing counter-, support, or neutral arguments (negative, positive, no attitude
change)
- Peripheral-route processing: if one or more of the MAO factors are low no real
information processing, but evaluation based on simple, peripheral cues
o Give rise to affective attitude formation
Six types of attitude formation and change
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, HIGH ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD, COGNITIVE ATTITUDE FORMATION
Multiple attribute models
Fishbein model: brand attitudes are made up of three elements and is represented by the weighted
sum of the products of brand beliefs and attribute evaluations (= Expectancy-Value model).
- Theory of reasoned action (TORA): provide a link between attitude and behavioral intention
o Subjective norm: comprises the belief one holds regarding what different reference
groups consider as socially desirable behavior, weighted by the consumer’s need or
willingness to behave according to the norms of the particular reference group (=
social sensitivity)
- Theory of planned behavior (TPB): to be able to deal with behaviors over which people have
incomplete volitional control
o Perceived behavioral control: the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the
behavior, assumed to reflect past experience as well as anticipated obstacles
Based on the TPB model, marketing communicators can try to change consumers’ attitudes and
influence their behavior in several ways:
1. Add attributes
2. Change attribute evaluations
3. Change control beliefs
4. Change perceived power
5. Change subjective norm
6. Change social sensitivity
7. Change brand beliefs
Self-generated persuasion
Consumers are persuaded by own thoughts, arguments or imagined consequences. Consumers
combine information in the message with previous experience and knowledge and try to imagine
himself consuming the product and the consequences thereof.
LOW ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD, COGNITIVUDE ATTITUDE FORMATION
Heuristic evaluation: peripheral cues in the ad are used as a heuristic cue to evaluate the quality of
the message and to form a general evaluation of the brand advertised (= satisficing choice process).
(When consumers do not have time to compare all available brands on relevant attributes, they may
infer from a high price that the brand is a high-quality brand and therefore form a positive attitude
towards it).
HIGH ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD, AFFECTIVE ATTITUDE FORMATION
Affect-as-Information: consumers may use feelings as a source of information to form an overall
evaluation of a product or brand, through a controlled inferential process. Consumers evaluate
brands by imagining the brand in their minds and asking themselves ‘How do I feel about this brand?’
Next they infer (dis)like or (dis)satisfaction from the valence of their feelings.
Prerequisite: when people inspect their feelings to judge a brand, they do not inspect their mood
states at that moment, but their feelings in response to the brand.
LOW ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD, AFFECTIVE ATTTIUDE FORMATION
Attitude towards the ad transfer (Aad): the evaluation of the ad has not only an immediate impact
on the evaluation of the brand, but also an indirect effect on brand attitude via brand cognitions (=
dual meditation model).
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