Persuasion Social Marketing

News: Proliferation of product placement Die another day  Buy another day?

Live and let buy— (and you thought spam was bad…) Ford paid $35 million to bounce BMW as the film’s car sponsor 1995’s Goldeneye’s cost of $50 million was offset by half by product placement Companies may pay up to $100 million in promotional support beyond what they paid to have it placed in the movie Bond as a global icon shaves with a Norelco Spectra, in the light of Schonbek Crystal Chandeliers, while Halle Barry wears Revlon makeup There are cameos of other products: Finlandia Vodka; Omega watches; Versace, Brioni, & gucci clothing; LaPerla bikinis; Tatteossian cufflinks, Philips electronics; Tiffany diamonds; Bollinger champagne; etc… Product Placement News

Why the shift? Trends predict an increase of 20% (19 million) of TV households will have some sort of personal video recorder (PVR) such as TIVO and Replay that eliminate the 30” commercial Movies and hot TV movies that position products have exceptionally high market rate 97% of children have products and toys based on TV or movie characters Advertising and entertainment is beginning to merge (even news stations) Diverse audiences need to be accessed by multiple channels– product placement everywhere!

The Persuasion Process

94% compliance 60% compliance 93% compliance The copier request study “Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because I’m late to class?” “Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine?” 94% compliance “Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make some copies?” 60% compliance 93% compliance

Which Group reported liking the task more? Participants complete Dissonance Tasks Group 1 Paid only $1 Paid $20 Group 2 Question: Which Group reported liking the task more? Participants complete a boring task

Cognitive Dissonance psychological discomfort caused by inconsistencies among a person’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions varies in intensity based on importance of issue and degree of inconsistency induces a “drive state” to avoid or reduce dissonance by changing beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors and thereby restore consistency Applications: Tendency to avoid information can be countered by eliciting interest, norm of fairness, or perceive usefulness of information Post-decision “buyer’s remorse” may be increased by importance or difficulty or irreversibility of decision Counter-attitudinal action, freely chosen with little incentive or justification, leads to attitude change (e.g., new product at special low price)

Persuasion Strategies: “Foot-in-the-Door” & “Door-in-the-Face” FITD: First request accepted, then target request Start with small favor Responder identifies with first condition & more likely to respond to second self-oriented appeal and performance incentives kill FITD Longer lasting DITF: First request refused, then target request Start with large favor to be rejected Second favor small, likely to compromise & be polite Delay and self-oriented appeal kills DITF Easier to do

The Persuasion Pitch Attention Getting Ad, promo, announcement physical, emotional, cognitive attention-getters Confidence Building (credibility & trust) expertise (authority figures) sincerity (smiles, gestures) benevolence (brand names, associations) Desire (need for change or product) praise the product (quality, efficiency, etc.) promise audience benefits (needs) Urgency (act quickly) elicit emotional response to rush without thinking deadlines, emergencies, sales Action (desired behavior) trigger words (“vote,” “buy.” etc.) devices: coupons, contests, sweepstakes, 800 #

Persuasion Tactics Reciprocation: Give & Take, gifts & prizes, free, samplers Commitment & consistency: careful decision & justify, bait & switch, FITD, 30-day trial period Comparison & contrast: everyone else does it, canned laughter, salting collection plate, audience ringers, presigned contributors, testimonials, my idea is better because… Likeability: attractiveness, similarity, compliment, nice, Tupperware parties, Mary Kay cosmetics, celebrities Authority: title, office, uniform, expert, degree, “I’m no doctor but I play one on TV…,” doctors agree… Card stacking: one-sided information, list, testimonials Scarcity: limited quantity makes it valuable, limited time only, first come first served Demonstration: See how easy, you can do it too, look how nice

Strongly Hostile Weakly Hostile No Opinion Audience Tactics they care about topic if you fail they will actively work against you scale back goal (won’t convince them) approach indirectly; don’t give away reasoning— make them think along with you Strongly Hostile adversely convinced but not actuated build appeal on logic appear objective Weakly Hostile Uninformed: time to inform, scale back goal Consciously neutral: self-restraint, use logic Apathetic: arouse feelings, provide support No Opinion because they know they may become bored may become insulted with basics persuade to follow specific course of action convince of the practicality of the action Favorable

Providing Argument & Evidence Reasoning avoid generalizing about what everyone knows have prepared examples, statistics, quotes sequence argument logically use sources that are credible to audience Emotion use language that arouses emotion focus emotional appeals on major points use vivid descriptions & explanations build credibility deliver evidence in a confident, convincing manner

Elaboration Likelihood Method (ELM) Of Persuasion Or, what you think is what you get…

Retain or Regain Initial Attitude Persuasive Communication Attitude Shift: short-lived susceptible to influence unpredictable personal relevance personal importance personal responsibility Motivated to Process? dissonance arousal need for cognition repetition Peripheral Cues Present? reciprocity (obligated, did a favor) consistency (way it’s done, similar to before) social proof (peer pressure, conformity) liking (attractiveness, friendliness) celebrity (identification, prestige) authority (expertise, experience, credibility) rapid speech, forceful presentation, charismatic style scarcity (limited time offer) tangible rewards appealing visuals & music (emotional arousal) fear appeal weak counter-arguments cognitive complexity critical thinking distraction free low arousal Ability to Process? appropriate schema message pace repetition issue familiarity Nature of Active Cognitive Processing: (initial attitude, argument quality, etc.) Favorable Thoughts Predominate Unfavorable Neither or Neutral Retain or Regain Initial Attitude Cognitive Structure Change: Are new cognitions adopted and stored in memory? Are different responses made salient than previously? greater persistence resistant to counterattacks & fading predictive of behavior > brand memory > elaboration >usage intention > attitude accessibility > attitude confidence > attitude-behavior consistency Enduring positive attitude change (persuasion) Enduring negative attitude change (boomerang)

Need for Cognition Scale                              back to Attitudes                back to 7670 Homepage   Write in the number that best fits your view:                                1                        2                      3                   4                         completely            mostly             mostly          completely                         false                      false                true              true _____1.   I would prefer complex to simple problems. _____2.   I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking. _____3.   Thinking is not my idea of fun. * _____4.   I would rather do something that requires little thought than something that is sure to                 challenge my thinking abilities. * _____5.   I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is likely chance I will have to think                 in depth about something. * _____6.   I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours. _____7.   I only think as hard as I have to. * _____8.   I prefer to think about small, daily projects to long-term ones. * _____9.   I like tasks that require little thought once I’ve learned them. * _____10. The idea of relying on thought to make my way to the top appeals to me. _____11. I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems. _____12. Learning new ways to think doesn’t excite me very much. * _____13. I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve. _____14. The notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me. _____15. I would prefer a task that is intellectual, difficult, and important to one that is somewhat                 important but does not require much thought. _____16. I feel relief rather than satisfaction after completing a task that required a lot of mental                 effort. * _____17. It’s enough for me that something gets the job done; I don’t care how or why it works. * _____18. I usually end up deliberating about issues even when they do not affect me personally. Need for Cognition Scale

Sleeper Effect: when secondary source becomes more credible than primary source over time persuasion may increase over time with a weak source forget the source but remember the message not if source is learned prior to the message (will ignore or boas processing) Example: Attack ads during political campaigns

Foot in the door… First make a small request, then when granted, make a larger (more desirable) request works best with prosocial/altruistic requests works best if no extra incentives are offered 10% improvement over simple request, 20% if no incentive works by cognitive dissonance & self esteem

Door in the face… Make a large request, then when it is refused, make a smaller (more desired) request more effective if prosocial/altruistic (do it for everybody) than selfish should be no delay between requests slight delay produces 10% improvement, no delay 20% works by reciprocal concessions