Consumer Psychology: Persuasion Techniques in Advertising

Changing Beliefs

Persuasion lies at the heart of successful advertising and marketing campaigns. In attempting to persuade individuals and groups, advertising agencies and social psychologists face the enormous difficulty of changing attitudes. The techniques discussed below each achieve attitude change through different means, beginning with the manipulation of underlying beliefs.

Although consumer attitudes are notoriously resistant to change, one technique achieves it by switching the focus of attack away from the attitudes themselves and onto the underlying beliefs. This can be done in a variety of ways. The most difficult approach is attempting to change currently held beliefs, as human psychology dictates that even if our beliefs are inaccurate or inconsistent, they are always strongly held and resistant to change. In order to influence beliefs, advertisers use images and statistics that appeal either to emotions — such as fear, humor, or guilt — or to the consumer's intellect, through factual evidence and examples. In this way, the technique is able to present the audience with an alternative view of reality, one that is not supported by their currently held beliefs. Many consumers will remain suspicious of these new concepts and will reject the advertiser's information; however, many others will amend their beliefs in order to understand and "fit in with" their new perception of the world.

Another approach is to change the importance of beliefs, rather than the beliefs themselves. It is easier to strengthen or weaken an existing belief than it is to change it outright. The most successful method of using this strategy is to strengthen beliefs with which the consumer already agrees, either by supporting them with factual evidence or by using everyday examples with which the audience can identify. Many advertisers take this technique one stage further and reinforce additional beliefs that are unlikely to meet with consumer resistance, as they do not conflict with existing beliefs. The strategy of manipulating current beliefs — either through reinforcement or undermining — is far easier and more likely to succeed than attempting a wholesale change of basic beliefs, and is therefore the preferred option of advertisers.

The difficulties involved in attempting to change existing beliefs are evidenced by the failure of such apparently sensible and factually supported campaigns as those designed to deter smoking or to discourage drink driving. Even consumers who are aware of the inaccuracy of their beliefs will tend to become defensive about them if they sense those beliefs are being attacked or criticized.

The techniques used by advertisers are designed to avoid this conflict — either by reinforcing the beliefs of consumers who already hold a positive view of their product, or by subtly offering an alternative set of beliefs to those they wish to convert. For example, advertisers of food and drink are aware of the existing consumer belief in the importance of a healthy, balanced diet. They can reinforce this belief, and gain an advantage over rivals, by emphasizing that their brand contains certain vitamins, is sugar-free, or offers some other health-related benefit that builds upon the audience's currently held beliefs.

This is also a useful area for demonstrating how advertisers can change a consumer's beliefs without causing a negative, defensive reaction. Rather than bluntly stating that milk is a healthier option than soda, for instance, the advertiser may present images and factual examples of the potential health risks posed by soda, then compare these with equally graphic and persuasive evidence for the health benefits of milk. In this manner, the advertiser avoids a head-on conflict with consumers' existing beliefs and offers them an alternative reality, with the opportunity to feel as if they have made up their own minds on the issue. This last point is of vital importance, irrespective of the technique used. However they go about it, and whichever attitudes or beliefs they wish to change, advertisers must always present their ideas in such a way that the consumer is unaware of any influence or persuasion. The audience must be left thinking that they have made their own decision.

The primary means of ensuring that the consumer remains ignorant of the advertiser's persuasion is to remove the need for cognitive thinking. The following technique achieves this by dividing products into those that require a great deal of cognitive thought and those that require very little.

In describing their Elaboration Likelihood Model, Petty and Cacioppo (Communication and Persuasion: The Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change, 1986) suggest that there are two routes to attitude change: the central route and the peripheral route. The central route is concerned with a rational, cognitive approach to attitude change, while the peripheral route is concerned less with cognitive thought and more with the association of pleasant thoughts and positive images. ELM offers advertisers the possibility of changing attitudes through either method, depending on the type of product being marketed. The peripheral route encourages consumers — consciously or often unconsciously — to focus on superficial images and cues in order to influence their attitudes and decisions, without any serious consideration of the advertisement's message content. In contrast, the central route encourages the audience to employ cognitive activity and to consider the issues and arguments contained within the advertisement before reaching a decision or making a purchase.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

The importance of ELM to advertising agencies and social psychologists lies in the fact that consumers tend to employ a greater level of consideration and cognitive thought in important situations than in unimportant ones. Therefore, when marketing unimportant or trivial everyday products, advertisers can concentrate on using the peripheral route to persuasion. This often involves the use of colorful, pleasant images, humorous or popular subject matter, or celebrity sponsorship. However, for products that are either expensive or important for some other reason — such as family health — the advertiser must convince the consumer by means of factual evidence and persuasive argument.

ELM is also useful to advertising agencies for the information it provides about consumer motivation. Psychological studies have shown that a consumer's motivation tends to be higher when considering products of high personal relevance, either because of cost or importance. In these situations, where a wrong decision could have severe potential consequences — financial or emotional — the consumer is more likely to base their decisions and attitudes on central routes, carefully considering the arguments and analyzing all available facts. On the other hand, people are less motivated to process issues that have little or no impact on their lives, and tend to spend very little time or conscious effort examining the facts, relying instead on persuasive suggestions and imagery.

ELM also provides an explanation for why some attitudes persist throughout a consumer's lifetime while others are less stable and more prone to change. Research has found that attitudes based on central routes endure for a longer period of time, are more resistant to counter-persuasion, and show greater attitude-behavior consistency than attitudes induced by peripheral routes. When people engage in central route processing, they support their decisions with mental arguments and constantly seek to reinforce them, thus strengthening their attitude. These findings are easily observable in real life: people's attitudes on topics such as religion, politics, or abortion — which they have thought about and justified a great deal — are very persistent and resistant to change. At the same time, their attitudes toward the type of soap they use or the brands of cereal they eat are relatively indifferent and can be changed easily.

This model is therefore readily applicable to products and services of high personal importance as well as those that are relatively trivial. Agencies marketing important or expensive goods — such as cars, home improvements, or child safety equipment — are best served by an advertising campaign that focuses on providing factual evidence and well-founded arguments to convince the consumer that the product is the best and safest choice. In addition to gaining the consumer's custom on a particular occasion, the resistance and longevity of attitudes based on the central route can ensure that the consumer returns for future purchases. For example, a customer's relationship with Nike will likely be longer and more profitable to the company if the customer buys Nike shoes based on quality and reliability arguments rather than simply because a celebrity wears them.

Peripheral routes can still act as positive reinforcement for a message expressed centrally, although they are not the primary means through which the message is processed. A central message that a consumer agrees with will have a stronger impression if delivered by an individual regarded as credible and relevant. For example, a basketball player is likely to be effective in endorsing athletic shoes, but not in endorsing automobiles. Conversely, a nationally recognized automotive expert would be successful in endorsing cars but not athletic shoes. Either of them, however, could successfully be used to endorse fast food restaurants.

By using the peripheral route, advertisers rely on the effectiveness of what social psychologists term "cues." These cues are mental shortcuts that, if utilized correctly, can convey an advertisement's message without the need to engage the consumer in any form of cognitive thought. The following technique is based on the influence that can be exerted by using the right cue for the occasion.