Discussion Questions

Chapter 9

1. Explain the difference between feedback from interpersonal communication and feedback from impersonal communication. How can the marketer obtain and use each kind of feedback?

  • Feedback:Feedback is an essential component of both interpersonal and impersonal communications. Generally, it is easier to obtain feedback (both verbal and nonverbal) from interpersonal communications than impersonal communications. For example, a good salesperson usually is alert to nonverbal feedback provided by consumer prospects. Such feedback may take the form of facial expressions.

Feedback- the receiver’s response

It is essential for the sender to obtain feedback as promptly and as accurately as possible. Only though feedback can the sender determines whether and how well the message has been received. An important advantage of interpersonal communication is the ability to obtain immediate feedback through verbal as well as nonverbal cues. Experienced speakers are very attentive to feedback and constantly modify their messages based on what they see and hear from the audience. Immediate feedback is the factor that makes personal selling so effective.Obtaining feedback is an important in impersonal (mass) communications as it is in interpersonal communications. Indeed, because of the high costs of advertising space ad time in mass media, many marketers consider impersonal communication feedback to be even more essential. Unlike interpersonal communications feedback, mass communications feedback is rarely direct; instead, it is usually inferred. Senders infer how persuasive their messages are from the resulting action (or inaction) of the targeted audience. Receivers buy or do not buy the advertised product; they renew or do not renew their magazine subscriptions; they vote or do not vote for political candidate. Another type of feedback that companies seek from mass audiences is the degree of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product purchase. They try to discover and correct any problems with the product in order to retain their brand’s image of reliability. For example: many companies have established 24-hour hot lines to encourage comments from their consumers and they also solicit consumer feedback through online contact. In evaluating the impact of their advertising, marketers must measure the persuasion effects and sales effects of their advertising messages. Unlike the interpersonal communications between, say, a retailer salesperson and a customer in which the feedback (e.g the customer’s purchase or non purchase) is immediate, impersonal communications feedback are much less timely. Therefore, the sales effects of mass communication are difficult to asses.

A marketer who plans to use a survey to assess the effectiveness of a communications campaign must take a similar survey prior to the campaign, in order to obtain “benchmark” figures against which to compare the campaign’s results. As in interpersonal communications, unfavorable feedback indicates that the communication campaign should be revised.

2. List and discuss the effects of psychological noise on the communication process. What strategies can a marketer use to overcome psychological noise?

Various “barriers” to communication may affect the accuracy with which consumers interpret messages which are:

Just as telephone static can impair reception of a message, so too cans psychological noise (E.g: competing advertising messages or distracting thoughts). A viewer faced with the clutter of nine successive commercial messages during a program break may actually receive and retain almost nothing of what he has seen. For example: a student daydreaming about a Saturday night date may simple not hear a direct question by the professor.So there are various strategies that marketer’s use to overcome psychological noise:

-Repeated exposure to an advertising message (through repetition or redundancy of the advertising appeal) helps overcome psychological noise and facilitates message reception. Thus repeating an ad several times is a must. The principle of redundancy is seen in advertisements that use both illustrations and copy to emphasize the same points. To achieve more advertising redundancy, marketers place their messages in such places as video games, movie theaters, restrooms and so on.

-Copywriters often use contrast to break through the psychological noise ad advertising clutter. Contrast entails using features within the message itself to attract additional features. Such strategies include featuring unexpected outcome, increasing the amount of sensory input (such as color, sound).

-Broadcasters and marketers also use teasers to overcome noise. For example: Trivia quizzes show at the start of the commercial break to design the viewers in sticking with the channel in order to find out at the end of the break whether their own answers were right.

-Thanks to new technologies, marketers can place customized ads on such devices such as cell phones, they can get consumers to register for promotional messages and giveaways more easily, and engage consumers with the product before the sales pitch.

-The web provides marketers with more options. Online marketers can place ads that consumer’s PCs will automatically retrieve from the internet; in such formats as floater ads that sometimes replace the more commonly used pop-ads. For example: Pepsi have implemented campaign that run only online and that are more innovative and cheaper than TV advertisements.

The most effective way to ensure that a promotional message stands out and is received and decoded appropriately by the target audience is through effective positioning and a unique selling proposition.

. Thus, marketers must effectively position their products by communicating to consumers how these offerings meet their needs better than their competition. Many ads show how particular brands are related to particular lifestyles while trying to establish lasting brand images, which stand out within the advertising clutter and lead to brand loyalty on the part of consumers.

3. List and discuss the factors that affect the credibility of formal communication sources of product information. What factors influence the perceived credibility of an informal communications source?

The credibility of the source affects the decoding of the message. The sponsors of the communication – and his or her perceived honesty and objectivity – have an enormous influence on how the communication is accepted by the receiver(s). When the source is well respected and highly thought by the intended audience, the message is likely to be believed. On the other hand, a message from a source is considered unreliable or untrustworthy is likely to be received with uncertainty and may be rejected. Credibility is built on a number of factors, of which the most important are the perceived intentions of the source.

Credibility of informal sources

One of the major reasons that informal sources such as friends, neighbors, and relatives have a strong influence on a receiver’s behavior is simply that they are perceived as having nothing to gain from a product transaction that they recommend. That is why word-of-mouth communication is so effective. Interestingly enough, informal communications sources, called opinion leaders, often do profit psychologically, if not tangibly, by providing product information to others. For example: A person may obtain a great deal of ego satisfaction by providing solicited as well as unsolicited information and advice to friends. This ego gratification may improve the quality of the information provided, because the opinion leader often seeks the latest detailed information in order to enhance his or her position as expert in a product category. The fact that the opinion leader does not receive material gain from the recommended action increases the possibility that the advice will be seriously considered. Marketers consider the word of mouth campaigns. Many firms sign up consumers to service as buzz agents, who agree to bring products they are promoting to gatherings of family and friend. These agents do not receive direct payment from the companies they represent, although they receive free samples. Marketers who initiate bad publicity online are called determined detractors. For example: The individual who ate nothing but McDonald’s food for thirty days and produced an extremely critical documentary about this company entitled Super SizeMe.

Credibility of Formal Sources

Not-for-profit sources generally have more credibility than for profit (commercial) sources. Formal sources that are perceived to be “neutral” – such as Consumer Reports or newspaper articles – have greater credibility than commercial sources because of the perception that they are more objective in their product assessments. Because consumer recognize that the intentions of commercial sources (E.g: manufacturers, service companies, financial institutions, retailers) are clearly profit oriented, they judge commercial source credibility on such factors as past performance, reputation, the kind and quality of service they are known to render, the quality and image of other products they manufacture. The ability of a quality image to invoke credibility is one of the reasons for the growth of family brands. Recognizing that a manufacture with a good reputation generally has high credibility among consumers, many companies spend a sizable part of their advertising budget on institutionaladvertising, which is designed to promote a favorable company image rather than to promote specific products. Also, many companies try to distinguish themselves and increase their credibility by being good corporate citizens. These firms often engage in cause-related marketing, where they contribute a portion of the revenues they receive from selling certain products to such causes as helping people inflicted with incurable diseases. For example: fashion designers such as Armani have donated a selected portion of their sales to AIDS research and other charities. To acknowledge National Brest Cancer Awareness, many cosmetic companies assigned a portion of the selling price of their pink ribbon products to breast cancer charities.

Credibility of Spokespersons and Endorsers

Consumers sometimes regard the spokesperson who gives the product message as the source (or initiator) of the message. Many studies have investigated the relationship between the effectiveness of the message and the spokesperson or endorser employed (that is male or female, a person who appear in a commercial that is why there are celebrities in the ads to promote the product). Here are some of the key findings of this body of research:

-The effectiveness of the spokesperson is related to the message itself.For example: when message comprehension is low, receivers rely on spokesperson’s credibility in forming attitudes toward the product, but when comprehension is high, the expertise of the spokesperson has less impact on a receiver’s attitudes.

-The synergy between the endorser and the type of product or service advertised is an important factor.For example: A study showed that attractiveness-related products such as cosmetics, an attractive celebrity spokesperson enhanced credibility and attitude toward the ad. However for attractiveness unrelated product such as a camera, an attractive endorser had little or no effect.

-Endorsers who have demographic characteristics (E.g.: age, social class, ad ethnicity) that are similar to those of the target audience are viewed as more credible and persuasive than those that do not.

-The endorser’s credibility is not a substitute for corporate credibility; one study discovered that although the endorser’s credibility strongly impacted the audience’s attitudes toward the ad, the perceived corporate credibility had a strong impact on attitudes toward the advertised brand.

-Marketers who use celebrities to give testimonials or endorse products must be sure that the specific wording of the endorsement lies within the recognized competence of the spokesperson.For example: A tennis star can endorse a brand of analgesic with comments about how it relieves sore muscle pain; however, a recitation of medical evidence supporting the brand’s superiority over other brands is beyond his or her expected knowledge, and thus may reduce message credibility.

4. What are the implications of the sleeper effect for the selection of spokespersons and the scheduling of advertising messages?

High credibility source is more powerful than low credibility source; however both positive and negative credibility effect that tends to disappear after six weeks or so. This has been termed the sleeper effect. Consumers forget the source of the message faster than they forget the message itself. The sleeper effect is caused by disassociation (the consumer disassociates the message from its source) over time, leaving just the message content. The theory differential decay suggests that the memory of a negative cue (for example: a low credibility source) decays faster than the message itself, leaving behind the primary message content. Howeve4r, the reintroduction of the similar message by the source serves to jog the audience’s memory, and the original effect remanifests itself, that is the high credibility source remains more persuasive than the low credibility source. The implication for marketers who use high credibility spokespersons is that they must repeat the same serious of ads in order to maintain high level of persuasiveness. The sleeper effect supports the use of negative attack advertising in political campaigns. The results of applying the sleeper effect to political advertising showed the effectiveness of the attack ad increases considerably over a period of weeks, while the audience’s initial negative perception of the political assailant as having low credibility fades and has only a temporary negative impact on the ad. However, the logic must not be extended to advertising and marketers must not assume that consumers who become aware of a brand through a loud and invasive ad campaign will continue to remember the brand favorably and forget the negative experience of watching ads that made them aware of the brand.

6. For what kinds of audiences would you consider using comparative advertising? WHY?

  • Comparative advertising

Comparative advertising is a widely used marketing strategy in which a marketer claims product superiority for its brand over one or more explicitly named or implicitly identified competitors, either on an overall basis or on selected product attributed. Comparative advertising is useful for product positioning, for target market selection, and for brand positioning strategies.Comparative advertising, which occurs when a "company directly or indirectly compares its brand with one or more other brands. An example of comparative advertising is this T-Mobile commercial. Although it does not make many comparisons with its competitors, it does tells customers that they can have a cell phone plan that is half the price of AT&T and Verizon. The company singled out its competitors and explicitly stated that T-Mobile is less expensive.

Although this type of advertising can be beneficial because it provides an opportunity for companies to tell customers why their products or services are superior, it also must be used with caution. As many of us have seen with the countless commercials that AT&T and Verizon have created to take stabs at the other company, it is clear that choosing this tactic may open a can of worms, leading to the competitor fighting back even harder to prove its superiority.

Fear

Fear is an effective appeal used in marketing communications. Some researchers have found a negative relationship between the intensity of fear appeals and their ability to persuade, so that strong fear appeals tend to be less effective than mild fear appeals. Strong fear appeals concerning a highly relevant topic (such as cigarette smoking) cause the individual to experience cognitive dissonance, which is resolved either by rejecting the practice or by rejecting the unwelcome information. Marketers must also consider that the mention of possible detrimental effects of using a product while proclaiming its benefits may result in negative attitudes towards the product itself.

Humor

Many marketers use humorous appeals in the belief that humor will increase the acceptance and persuasiveness of their advertising communications.

Impact of Humor on Advertising:

-Humor attracts attention.

-Humor does not harm comprehension.

-Humor is not more effective at increasing persuasion.

-Humor does not enhance source credibility.

-Humor enhances liking.

-Humor that is relevant to the product is superior to humor that is unrelated to the product.

-Audience demographic factors affect the response to humorous advertising appeals.

-The nature of the product affects the appropriateness of a humorous treatment.

-Humor is more effective with existing products than with new products.

-Humor is more appropriate for low-involvement products and feeling-oriented products than for high-involvement products.

Abrasive Advertising

Studies of the sleeper effect, suggest that that memory of an unpleasant commercial that antagonizes listeners or viewers may dissipate over time, leaving only the brand name in the minds of consumers. All of us have at one time or another been repelled by so-called agony commercials. The Sleeper Affect  The idea that both positive and negative credibility effects tend to disappear after a period of time.