This document provides an overview of how attitudes are formed and influenced when consumer effort is low. It discusses that low-effort processing is more likely to involve peripheral routes to persuasion using cues like music and visuals rather than central message arguments. It also outlines how unconscious influences, simple inferences, heuristics, affect, classical conditioning, source effects and message elements can shape low-effort cognitive and affective attitudes. Repetition, familiarity, mood, and dual mediation processes are also noted as influential on low-effort attitudes.

1. Attitudes Based on Low Effort

2. 2
Exhibit 6.1:
Chapter Overview:
Attitude Formation
and Change: Low
Consumer Effort

3. Chapter Overview
3
 High-Effort Versus Low-Effort Routes to Persuasion
 Unconscious Influences on Attitudes When Consumer Effort is
Low
 Cognitive Bases of Attitudes When Consumer Effort is Low
 How Cognitive Attitudes Are Influenced
 Affective Bases of Attitudes When Consumer Effort Is Low
 How Affective Attitudes Are Influenced

4. High-Effort Versus Low-Effort Routes to
Persuasion
4
Low-Effort is more likely to involve:
 Peripheral Route to Persuasion
 Less use of main message arguments
 Peripheral Cues
 Easily-processed “non-central” aspects of a message, e.g.,
music, visuals

5. 5
Usage of Central vs. Peripheral Routes in the same
category

6. 6
Exhibit 5.1: General Approaches to
Attitude Formation and Change
.

7. Unconscious Influences on Attitudes When
Consumer Effort is Low
7
Occurs below conscious awareness
 Thin-Slice Judgments
 Evaluations made after very brief observations
 Often accurate
 Body Feedback
 E.g. nodding vs. shaking head

8. Cognitive Bases of Attitudes When
Consumer Effort Is Low
8
 Simple Inferences
 Belief based on a simple association, e.g. categorization, country of
origin, price
 Heuristics
 Rules-of-thumb that are easy to invoke and require little thought
 Frequency Heuristic
 (http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/none/worlds-greatest-city-hong-kong-576599)
 More arguments = Stronger claim
 Truth Effect
 Many repetitions = Likely to believe

9. How Low-Effort Cognitive Attitudes Are
Influenced
9
 Communication Source (e.g. credibility, expertise)
 The Message
 Category- and Schema-Consistent Information (e.g. “lite”)
 Many Message Arguments: frequency heuristics
 Simple Messages: focus on one or two key benefits
 Involving Messages: self-referencing
 Message Context and Repetition
 Repetition: Incidental Learning

10. 10
Exhibit 5.1: General Approaches to
Attitude Formation and Change
.

11. The Mere Exposure Effect
11
 Familiarity  Liking, but
 Wearout: Implication  multiple executions

12. Affective Bases of Attitudes When
Consumer Effort Is Low
12
 Classical Conditioning
 Producing a response to a stimulus by associating it with another
stimulus that produces the desired response
 Pavlov’s experiment

13. Pavlov’s experiment
13

14. 14
Exhibit 6.4: Classical and Evaluative
Conditioning

15. Affective Bases of Attitudes When
Consumer Effort Is Low
15
 Classical Conditioning
 Producing a response to a stimulus by associating it with another
stimulus that produces the desired response
 Conditions:
 No existing association between CS and UCS
 Forward conditioning: CS  UCS
 Repetition to increase strength of association
 Awareness of link between CS and UCS
 Logical fit between CS and UCS

16. Affective Bases of Attitudes When
Consumer Effort Is Low
16
 Attitude Toward the Ad (Aad)
 May be more important in predicting overall attitudes when
effort is low
 Dual-Mediation Hypothesis: explain how Aad influences brand
attitudes
 If you like an ad, you may
 Be more likely to believe it  indirect influence on brand attitudes
 Be more likely to like the brand  direct influence on brand attitudes

17. 17
Exhibit 6.5: The Dual-Mediation
Hypothesis

18. Affective Bases of Attitudes When
Consumer Effort Is Low
18
 Mood
 Existing moods can influence evaluations
 Positive mood  Ignore negative information
 Categories of affective responses
 SEVA: Upbeat and happy
 Deactivation feelings: Quiet and calmed
 Social affection: Warm and friendly
 Effects of color and lighting

19. How Affective Attitudes Are Influenced
19
 The Source
 Attractive
 Likeable
 Celebrity: both attractive and likable

20. How Affective Attitudes Are Influenced
20
 The Message
 Pleasant Pictures (error on p171 – “visual stimuli can serve…”)
 Music (same error on p171 – “music can be…”)
 Humor
 Sex
 Emotional Content
 Transformational advertising
 Dramas
 Message Context
 Ad after news? Ad after a happy program?

21. König Pilsener is using a sex
appeal in this ad for its Lemon
beer to influence the attitudes of
its target market.

22. 22
Norwegian Cruise Uses Transformational Advertising

23. 23
Norwegian Cruise Uses Transformational Advertising

24. 24
 Quiz 2 on March 27 (7pm to 8:10pm, LTJ)
 Same format as Quiz 1
 Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6
 No class on that day