Affectively based attitudes- these are attitudes without any logical backing. They are neither derived from any thoughts nor are they products of a learning experience. These attitudes are mostly from people’s values and feelings. It is very hard to change them.
Cognitively based attitudes- attitudes based on a logical evaluation of the attitude object. People perceive the object depending on its specific qualities and properties. They analyze the different characteristics of the object before making the decision. They rely on facts.
The likelihood Elaboration model explains two distinct ways that can be used to change one’s attitudes. This can occur either centrally or peripherally. In a case where people are actively paying attention to obtain the details, then an attitude change can occur. This is the central route. In the peripheral one, people make a decision based on the surface properties as they do not pay the necessary attention. To change cognitively based attitudes, then either of the two alternatives of this model are used.
Persuasive communication is that communication aimed at bringing a change in people’s attitudes. To achieve this, there must be a lot of semblance between the content of the communication and the attitude to be changed. Where attention is given, then the audience can be convinced by strong arguments with supporting facts. However, when people are not motivated to listen, then the surface elements of the communication must be convincing. This ensures that the information being communicated will reach and impact on the audience. In the case of affectively based attitudes, the best method to use is to try appealing to the people’s emotions.
The first advertisement about the homes in the picture is using the central route of persuasion. It is expected when people are being informed about such information as buying a house, then they pay attention. This is because it requires a heavy commitment in terms of finances. Again, given that one is going to stay in that house for long, then they must have valid reasons why they are buying it.
The advert in question presents to us a number of houses, each with various characteristics. It is the specific properties of each house that will convince a potential buyer to buy it. Various specifications are used for each of them to help in convincing the customer. The advert uses facts about the houses to help shape customers attitudes towards buying them. The decision to be made will be based on the facts given. For this reason, the people to whom it is intended must make a deliberate effort to obtain all the relevant information. The model of the house, number of bedrooms, the styles within the house, and the price charged are some of the facts considered.
The second advertisement uses the persuasion method through the peripheral route. The advertisement is for Snickers, a special type of peanut butter. It uses four sharks, which are invited to a human beings taste-testing event. They comment that between the man and the woman they had eaten, the man was sweeter. This is because he had taken the snickers peanut butter before they ate him. They encourage their next victim to eat the same as well. In this advert, no serious information is being communicated. This can therefore allow the audience not to pay so much attention. Even if they are not paying much attention, they can benefit from the advert. This is because there are no details needed from the advert.
There are no facts offered in the advert. For this reason, we cannot say that the decision to purchase the product will be based on logical evaluation. The fact that the advert employs humor helps put it in this category.
The last advert shows the use of emotional appeals to change people’s attitude towards a product. In this case, the Givenchy perfume advert features good-looking female and male models making love. Givenchy advertises its products by featuring celebrities and models in their adverts. The ones featured in this case are a female and male. The purpose of such an advert is to appeal to people’s emotions rather than to logic. Use of celebrities and models helps to draw people to the product they would otherwise not buy. Like in this case, young couples and those married who are still in love have a high likelihood of identifying themselves with the Givenchy perfume that features a male and female model making love. This is not because the product is superior to others, but because it reflects the stage and situation, in which the young couples who are both engaged and married are in at that particular time, that is madly in love.
When adverts are produced featuring such people, others think that the celebrities and models also use the same product. In order to be more like them, they tend to respond by purchasing the same product. In most of the cases, decisions which are influenced by such adverts are not very critical in life. Most of such adverts are for clothes or electronics.
When it comes to advertising, advertisers try to figure out the basis of their audience’s attitude. However, majority of them do not know the basis, and end up using more than one method. If expected results are to be achieved, then the content of the advert must be correlated with the attitude to be changed. For people with the ability to pay attention, facts and other logical information is given. Where it is expected that they won’t pay much attention, then the advert must contain very strong surface cues. These are what will convince the audience and change their attitude.
