These are three assignments that are interrelated.Please read the requirements of the three jobs below.I finally need to complete these three assignments.

Extra Credit Project 10 - Student-Created

LOW (Cognitive) Involvement Ad & Related Discussion

Find a video ad that you believe epitomizes a firm’s attempt to tap Low (Cognitive) Involvement. Include the link so that I can watch it. [Note: In the original student-created project, she included a link to a discussion of how NASCAR provides an “impassioned fan base that leads the sports industry in brand loyalty.” Her project is appended to this assignment – following page. However, it would be easier to just find a presumably Low (Cognitive) Involvement ad and discuss it.]

A. Discuss the Low (Cognitive) Involvement Model. List the sequential steps in the process.

B. Discuss effort involved in the purchase related to the ad and product which you chose.

C. Discuss cognitive processing done of the ad’s arguments, both initially and, perhaps, following product use. (In the example which follows, one could consider beer, energy drinks, or just attending/watching NASCAR to be “product use.”)

D. Discuss aspects of the source which could facilitate acceptance of the message arguments.

E. Discuss the “type of appeal” used. Refer to your text. If you are still a bit unsure of various appeal types in advertising, there is a Power Point by N. Nijax entitled “Types of Advertising Appeals” at http://www.slideshare.net/sanah08/different-types-of-advertising-appeals-25855442?related=2 . His slide 16-25 discuss some of the more common types of appeals. This is not an Integrated Marketing Communications (i.e., Promotional Strategy) class. I don’t expect a highly detailed discussion of the theory behind use of such an appeal. Just discuss the type, and a credible reason for its choice by this firm in the ad you found.

I have inserted (next page) the project done by a previous student, who “created” this extra credit project. It often helps in answering posed questions to see a concrete example.

Consumer Behavior

Extra Credit Project 9 - Low (Cognitive) Involvement Ad & Related Discussion

The picture is from a Sprint ad, “The Monsters of Nascar,” and was added by O’Malley. While it is probably Low Cognitive Involvement, it is associating Nascar with Sprint (i.e., the Sprint Cup Series) to make it High Affective Involvement. The ad can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAq-iLLha_Y.

Chapter 6 (closest in the Solomon text is Ch. 8) covers the concept on low effort attitudes and how firms use peripheral cues to appeal to the consumer’s subconscious attitude and attention and have them make “thin-sliced judgments. The goal is to catch the consumer’s attention and persuade with little thinking and effort on the consumer’s part, i.e. familiar brands jingle will persuade consumers without the consumer really realizing it.

In an American Marketing Association article by Mollie Soat (https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/fast-track-loyalty.aspx), she talks about how the sport reaches out to our affective bases on fans’ attitudes and their brand loyalty. 40% of NASCAR fans can easily identify familiar brands, while 79% of the fans are more likely to use that brand. NASCAR appeals to our affects bases of attitudes when the consumer effort is low.

First, with the mere exposure effect, all the top racers have top name brands. Dale Earnhardt Jr. used to race for Anheuser-Busch (more specifically Budweiser) and now Amp Energy Drinks, Jimmie Johnson for Lowe’s, Tony Stewart for Home Depot, etc. all big names that we are already aware of, yet are enforced by the top racers of NASCAR. Even the competitors that aren’t within the top ten usually have big name brands that we know, like Alex Bowman for Windows, or Danica Patrick for Go Daddy.com.

Second, NASCAR enforces classical conditioning by associating these drivers with these brands. When NASCAR fans see Jimmie Johnson, they think the number 48, the blue and white car and uniform and the Lowe’s name brand. Since they are placed together every single time you see Jimmie Johnson, you become conditioned to think of the brand name Lowe’s. NASCAR conditions fans to think of the brand, and its colors, every time you think of the driver, without even realizing it.

Third, attitude toward the driver (instead of the ad) can affect how you feel about the brand. This links to how likable sources influence attitudes. If you like the driver, you are more prone to be loyal to his sponsor. If you dislike the driver, you are more prone to be dissident toward that sponsor. My cousin hated Tony Stewart, and refused to shop at Home Depot, but he loves Dale Earnhardt Jr. and to this day will prefer Budweiser over other beers. Along with this, NASCAR only airs commercials of brands that are sponsoring drivers, so if a driver with the Tide sponsor crashes and takes your favorite driver out of the race, you may be in a foul mood, and will ignore the Tide ad that may come on during the commercials, or develop a negative attitude toward Tide.

Finally, NASCAR uses repetition to get the brand/sponsors heard. Drivers are trained from the beginning that they wouldn’t be there if they didn’t have a sponsor, so the first thing they do after a race and especially after a win is thank their sponsor. It’s on their car, it’s on their uniform, and it’s on their lips. NASCAR increases brand awareness which is why fans are more loyal.

NASCAR is currently expanding ethnically, and geographically, which means brand names are going to be even more exposed to the NASCAR fan base. The brands that sponsor diverse cultures and geographic areas are going to get the most attention and will gain the most advantage over other brands in the race. For example, when we do get an African American racer, the African American ethnicity groups will automatically develop positive feelings toward the main sponsoring brand subconsciously because they are in support of the driver breaking new ground.

Overall, firms will gain advantage by supporting NASCAR drivers due to the low effort attitudes the sport creates for the firm. The firm barely has to do anything, except sponsor a good driver, and one with a good reputation. NASCAR exposes the brand to people’s moods, based on their sources (the drivers) and advertisements throughout the race and does so very well.

O’Malley comment to student: You did a really nice job with this assignment. Obviously, you found something you could relate to, and applied the concepts well. The first time I heard/thought about affect transfer from a sporting situation to a brand or product was once when I was chatting with Meryl Gardner. She had thought about/done research on sports participants (not viewers). She postulated that the + affect from endorphins should make one temporarily view products & brands more favorably. That was way back in the 1980’s, when both of us were presenting papers at the American Psychological Assoc. Conference (Division 23 – Consumer Psychology). She was always way ahead of her time.