Introductory section: Include hypothesis and a review of the literature.Method section: Include subsections on Participants, Apparatus/Materials/Instruments, Procedure, and Design.Results section: Inc

Running head: PERSUASION OF THE CONSUMER 0

Persuasion of the Consumer

Vivian Medrano

Grand Canyon University

Introduction

Advertisers focus on the cognitive process of its viewers by utilizing pathos, logos, and ethos to its product. Each one of these categories has a cognitive influence on its viewers. Advertisements using pathos will bring an emotional response to its consumers, whether that is a positive or negative one. Advertisements using logos provide direct facts of the product providing logic and reason to its viewers. Lastly, advertisements applying ethos will focus more on the character providing the information as a means to enhance credibility. Advertisements are everywhere from televisions, to e-mails, and every social media platform that exists. So the question stands, what type of techniques do advertisement agencies utilize to persuade consumers? Are specific persuasive techniques used for a certain type of advertisement?

Analyze and Compare

Consider commercial advertisements, telephone salespeople, health campaigns on the radio, or even help-desk employees; they all work to persuade by voice. “In the process of behavior change, intonation of speech is an important aspect that may influence persuasion when auditory messages are used,” (Elbert and Dijkstra, 2014). This article helps readers understand the way a message is delivered can have quite an impact on others. This study tested different levels of intonation on recipients to determine if persuasion can play a factor on their health behavior. It was determined that the level of intonation made a difference depending on each group’s own self perception of their health. Knowing how intonation plays a role in persuasion, can help to facilitate the way a message is delivered through commercial, campaigns, radios, front desks, and over the phone. Persuasion occurs by voice more often than most people imagine. Kemp, et al. shed light on the use of logos when it comes to certain healthcare advertisements. “Consumers with serious illnesses may be especially attentive to, and susceptible to, the marketing communications of health care providers who offer hope and solutions,” (Kemp, et a., 2015). This article encompasses hope as the tool for persuasion in health care advertising. The purpose of this study is to examine how emotions can impact decision making in consumer health. In this research, the writers include testimonials which also have a considerable influence in health care advertising. Advertisements that allow consumers to emotionally attach themselves to the message are more likely to be persuaded. This data in this study can allow me to understand the different techniques emotional persuasion can have on its consumers. In their article, Yeh and Jewell provide some information on how pathos is conveyed in advertisements but primarily focus on the logos of health care messages. The writers of this article provided informative results on the topic of myth and facts regarding persuasion in advertising. This study discusses an impactful way to design a persuasive message on a variety of health issues that can evoke positive change in beliefs and attitudes. The study found that less is more, and many times consumers prefer to know the direct facts rather than to hear societal myths. “The persuasiveness of public health messages, however, can be increased by altering the frame by eliminating the myth component of the message’s structure, creating a fact-only frame that is demonstrated to induce higher levels of elaboration,” (Yeh & Jewell, 2015). Ultimately, the goal is to reach consumers with accurate information. The article titled, ‘You could get sick, disgusting’: an analysis of alcohol counter-advertisements created by children empowers the use of logos within its message. “In the context of alcohol advertising, children and adolescents are frequently exposed to media messages that can have a harmful impact upon their health-related attitudes and behaviors,” (2018). This study conveyed a different message in advertising. In this research, children in upper-elementary school were asked to do a counter-advertisement. These children were asked to interpret their views of alcohol. Sensory appeal was most frequently used as a persuasion strategy followed by object and symbols. Undeniably so, this form of persuasion also has an emotional impact on consumers since it involved children sharing their impact on the product. For younger consumers, social influence has an enormous impact on what their choices. Zarouali et al. explains the different roles social influence has on persuasion. “Recently, the idea of social proof has also found its way to marketing on SNS, revealing a new popular advertising tactic: social advertising. Social advertising refers to ads that are targeted to individuals based on their social networks,” (Zarouali, et al., 2018). Social ads and television networks targeting younger crowds are the best platforms to send a message to the youth. The article explains how peer communication on social platforms can alter one’s attitude towards an advertisement. Peer chat is a great platform for teens and young adults to discuss their views on any given topic. For this reason, is why television networks offer a phone number, link, and website following their ad. Each article contained different viewpoints and helpful data on the topic of persuasion in advertisement. There are different tools these agencies utilize to target consumers, including: emotional appeal, facts and evidence, and social influence.

Limitations

Although the articles provided great insight on advertisement influence, there were some limitations to consider. The first article by Elbert and Dijkstra describing the use of intonation faced difficulty with some of its respondents. “A high level of intonation seems to induce self-regulatory defenses in people who do not see the necessity to change their health behavior, whereas people with poor perceived health might perceive potential to change,” (Elbert & Dijsktra, 2014). In other words, high intonation among respondents who believe to be in good health dropped significantly. It was determined that consumers had better response to normal levels of intonation regarding health. In the article, Selling Hope, the authors discuss how providing hope to its consumers can enhance decision making among these individuals. The studies themselves were compelling but they did have limitations of their own. For example, in the study participants were not able to compare treatment center in order to better assess their options. Another limitation included limiting biases. “more sampling of individuals who actually need to make health care-related decisions for the service being targeted in the advertising appeal might occur,” (Kemp, et al., 2015). Advertisement in healthcare is more delicate than other ads because of the sensitivity behind the message so it is crucial to limit bias when possible. Yeh and Jewell face setbacks in their article as well due to lack of trust from its respondents. “We did not capture variables in our study that may also be of interest in other social problem settings, such as recall of the message content,” (Yeh & Jewell, 2015). A longitudinal design would be better equipped to assess if any knowledge was obtained over time. It is unclear if participants in the study would attain any of the information provided or if they would take away something from the evidence provided. The article, ‘You could get sick, disgusting’: an analysis of alcohol counter-advertisements created by children, carries a few limitations in its study. The student had to use the materials from the existing advertisement making it difficult to change setting or light in their message. Also, many of the students were limited in software knowledge delaying their final product. “The students may have needed more explanation and scaffolding on how to incorporate the persuasive techniques of celebrity (un)endorsement, (un)popularity and competitions in their counter ads,” (2018). Due to maintaining participants’ anonymity, obtaining gender involvement in the experiment was not conducted. This could have helped explore the ad creations compared to gender differences. Zarouali and his colleagues provided insightful information on social and peer influence among advertisements but nonetheless carried some restrictions. One major limitation was that the study itself was conducted online. However, the majority of adolescents are primarily online through smartphones, tablets, laptops and so on. The experimental data itself was conducted in computer classrooms. “Although this is a very practical environment to conduct studies among young individuals, it may have a disadvantage as well: it is a highly familiar setting for adolescents,” (Zarouali, et al., 2018). Familiarity could have a negative social influence on the experiment. Undoubtedly, there were limitations in the studies obtained which is crucial to understand in order to get the most accurate information.

In recent years, there has been an incredible amount of light shed on the topic of mental health, overall health, and consumer substance. Awareness of these topics has been shared worldwide through different forms of advertisement. In addition to school and doctors’ offices, television, social media, and radios are also educating consumers. Society can have a high impact on the choices people make, therefore it has become necessary for every person to educate themselves on these topics. A majority of doctor’s offices now provide a mental health questionnaire to their patients before seeing their physician, apps are now offered as a way for people to keep track of their health goals making them more accountable, and popular television networks are airing the negative impacts drugs can have on the youth. These have been only a few of the more notable impactful changes that advertisement has provided to its consumers. Similarly, advertisements trying to sell consumer substances will also target their viewers in the same way by depicting an emotional appeal, true facts, or social persuasion. Understanding which type of cognitive processes are utilized can help better clarify how persuasion is used within advertisements and how their consumers are targeted.

References

Elbert, S. P., & Dijkstra, A. (2014). An experimental test of the relationship between voice

intonation and persuasion in the domain of health. Psychology & Health, 29(9), 1014–

1031. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/08870446.2014.903482

Kemp, E., Min, K. S., & Joint, E. (2015). Selling Hope: The Role of Affect-Laden Health Care

Advertising in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Marketing Theory &

Practice, 23(4), 434–454. https://doi.org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/10696679.2015.1049688

Yeh, M. A., & Jewell, R. D. (2015). The Myth/Fact Message Frame and Persuasion in

Advertising: Enhancing Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill. Journal of Advertising, 44(2),

161–172. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/00913367.2015.1018466

‘You could get sick, disgusting’: an analysis of alcohol counter-advertisements created by

children. (2018). Health Education Research, 33(5), 337–350. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/her/cyy022

Zarouali, B., Poels, K., Walrave, M., & Ponnet, K. (2018). ‘You talking to me?’ The influence of

peer communication on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge and attitude towards social

advertisements. Behaviour & Information Technology, 37(5), 502–516. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/0144929X.2018.1458903