Persuasive messages & advertising

1. Persuasive
Messages
Designing

2. HEADLINE
SUBHEAD
BODY COPY
SUBHEAD/SLOGAN

3. The Body Copy:

5. The Body Copy:

6. largely depends on accurate assessment
of audience needs & self-interests
Successful persuasion

7. Appeals to Self-Interest
• Make money
• Save money
• Save time
• Avoid effort
• More comfort
• Better health
• Escape pain
• Gain praise
• Be popular
• Be loved
• Be accepted
• Protect family
• Be stylish
• Be like others
• Avoid trouble
• Avoid criticism
• More joy
• Be safe
• Be secure
• Be like others
• Be an individual
• Protect your
reputation
• Make work
easier
• Satisfy curiosity
• Keep your
possessions

8. Basic Appeals
1. power
2. respect
3. well-being
4. affection
5. wealth
6. skill
7. enlightenment
8. physical & mental vitality
8
Harold Lasswell

9. Appeals that work
• Positive appeals more effective than negative ones for message
retention and compliance
• Strong emotional appeals & fear appeals best for audiences with
minimal concern about topic
• High fear appeals only effective when there is a readily available
option to eliminate threat
• Logical appeals better than emotional appeals for highly educated,
sophisticated audiences
• Print better for message comprehension if message is complex

10. Methods for presenting evidence
= Least persuasive
= Best if public knows source
= Best if public doesn’t know source
= good if public considers source qualified
• A + E + S
• A + E
• A + E + S + Q
• A + F
A = Assertion
E = Evidence
S = Source
Q = Qualifications
F= First-hand experience

11. Fear Appeals

12. Another Fear Appeal

13. Fear
• Do not exaggerate
• Do:
• Show severity of
consequences
• Show likelihood of
consequences
• Explain how to avoid
consequences
When using Appeals
to

14. Address to the Nation about the Financial Crisis | Sept. 24, 2008
Strong emotional appeals best for audiences with minimal concern about topic

15. Elaboration
How are persuasive messages perceived and processed?
Likelihood Model
Petty & Cacioppo, 1986

16. the issue-relevant arguments contained in a message.
Depends on motivation and ability to process.
Elaboration: the extent to which a person thinks about
Very little thinking Lots of thinking
Ability:
- distraction level
- message repetition
- person’s knowledge abou
issue

17. taking effect next semester!
Involvement
How do you feel about moving to a plus/minus grading system?

18. Personal
relevance
High Low
High involvement Low involvement
involvement = motivational component

19. Persuasive Message
Central route to processing
Peripheral route to processing
Involvement:
High
Involvement:
Low
Ability to process:
Yes
Persuasion:
Temporary
Comprehension:
Shallow Thoughts
Persuasion:
Lasting
Comprehension:
Deep Thoughts
Ability to process:
No
Slightly Simplified Model

20. Question:
Who should be more persuaded by:
3 strong arguments
9 weak arguments
people with high involvment
people with low involvment

21. Actual Model

22. High Involvement:
Low Involvement:
focus on simple cues that are peripheral to
the message (message cues vs. source cues)
leads to issue-relevant thinking

23. Importance
of appeals to self-interest
in order to persuade effectively

24. Need to:
• present well supported logic & evidence
• present both sides (but yours is better)
critical public; motivated to examine arguments
Once persuaded:
• resistant to counter-persuasion
• persistent over time
• predicitve future behavior
Central Route Publics:

25. Peripheral Route:
Need to:
• use catchy visuals
• narratives
• personal experiences
• immediacy behaviors
• organize message using rhymes or
acronyms
less interested in logic and evidence

26. study menu, reviews,
ask social network
Picking a BBQ place
if other people think
it’s good, then it is
bandwagon heuristic