Marketing Communication

Marketing Communication

External Flow Internal Flow

Target Audience Target Audience

Customers Company
- Past Department
- Current
- Potential

Channel Members
- Whole Sales Employees
- Retailers

Companies
- Competing Stock Holders
- Non
Competing

Others
- Govt. agencies
- Private
- Experts
 When we are watching our fewow programme on television and a problem occurs
in the signal transmission it interfaces with reception and lesser the impact of any
commercial.

3 Factors may play a vital role in the perception and transmission of message
received by the audience - Selective attention
- Selective distortion
- Selective recall

According will be schnamar, the likelihood that the receiver will attend any
message can be explained by an equation:-

Likelihood of attention = Perceived Reward Strength - Punishment Strength

Perceived expenditure of effort

Different types of Communication Systems

Different communication systems vary in complexity, level of communicator and

receiver contact, feedback time and adjusting to feedback

The communication types can be basically under two broad heads-interpersonal

communication and impersonal communication. The impact and influence of each differs
significantly.

Interpersonal Communication

Communication occurring at a personal level between two or more people is

termed as interpersonal communication. This communication may be face to face
between two people, on the telephone, or through mail.

“Informal communication” concerning products or services is more likely

between two friends. Such “word-of-mouth” communication is likely to be highly
persuasive because one friend apparently has nothing to gain from the other friend’s
future reactions. In many situations of high-involvement purchases of before buying
services, consumer often rely more on informal communication.

Characteristics of different types of communication systems

Types of Characteristics
Communication Complexity Contact Feedback Adjustments
Mass communication High Low Long Low
Interpersonal Low High Short High
Organizational Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate
Public High Low Long Moderate
communication
 “Formal interpersonal communication” takes place between a sales person and a
potential customer. The sales person is the sender of the message and the customer is the
receiver. This communication, when face-to-face, tends to be more effective because the
sales person can immediately notice the customer’s reaction, verbal or non-verbal,
indicating whether the intended message is received.

Marketers are increasingly realising that non-verbal messages are sometimes

more important than verbal messages particularly in personal selling and advertising.

“Feedback,” both verbal and non-verbal, in interpersonal communication enables

the message initiator to have some indication concerning acceptance of message.
Marketing communication are generally quite attentive to feedback and modify messages
based on what they see or hear from the audience.

Impersonal Communication

Communication directed at a large and scattered audience is called impersonal

communication. There is no direct contact between the sender and the receiver. Large
organizations, both profit and non-profit, are usually the source of mass communication.
They develop and transmit suitable message through specific departments or
spokespersons. These messages are usually meant to reach the targeted audience or
audiences to inform, influence, or persuade them. The objective of marketing
communications is to induce purchase of a product, to create a positive attitude towards
product, to impart the product a symbolic meaning, or to convince consumers that it can
satisfy their needs or wants in a better way than the competitive products.

The typical mass media used are newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio,
television and transit media, etc. Mass communication is used both by profit and non-
profit organization.

Communication initiating organisatins must develop some reasonably reliable

method to determine whether the sent messages are reaching the intended audience, are
understood in a proper manner and successful in achieving the set objectives. Generally,
such inferences are drawn based or indirect methods. How the audiences respond toward
an advertised product or service is inferred from the results. If the results are positive, it is
concluded that the message has been persuasive.

Marketing companies often try to measure the effectiveness of their messages by

conducting audience research.

Consumers associate varying degree of credibility with different information

sources. It is believed that the more credible the source, the more persuasive the endorser
is likely to be in influencing the acceptance of ad message by the audience. Endorsers in
ads are viewed as a “source” of information and influence audience’s acceptance of
message content because of their credibility and attractiveness.
 While companies are investing huge sums of money into the concept that sports
people of today and yesterday ar good endorsers, they are also recongnising that choosing
a celebrity endorser is no longer a matter of personal taste.

For a number of companies using sports people as endorsers, risk management

has become a major consideration. Some companies are moving away from controversial
sports personalities and are putting their money on those who would attract attention to
enhance the product or company image.

Brand managers should know how the decisions about each independent variable
could influence the stages of response hierarchy. There are examples of ads that used sex
appeal, humour, or celebrities as endorsers to attract the consumers attention. These ads
were quite successful in attracting audience attention but proved ineffective in brand
name or brand message recall.

1. Receiver/Comprehension: Comprehension of ad message by the consumer is

an important prerequisite in precipitating desired behaviour. The advertiser
must know the important characteristics of the target market to develop a
message that would be clear and under-standable. Less educated audience may
experience difficulty in interpreting complicated message.
2. Medium/message presentation: Various media are available to communicate
an ad message. Femina magazine reaches a large number of educated urban,
upper class and fashion conscious women. India Today is a very respected
popular magazine, while a different segment patronises times. Then, there are
special interest magazines. There are more than 50 satellite TV channels,
besides radio and other media. The marketer must know which the appropriate
medium is to reach the target market to ensure that the message is presented to
the right audience. A wrong choice my mean considerable loss of money and
no message impact.
3. Message/feeling, conviction: The advertiser would like to choose the type of
message that will create favourable attitudes and feelings most likely to
precipitate the desired action message content can focus on a rational or
emotional approach. Humorous messages attract consumer attention and put
her/him in a pleasant mood. Music can add emotion and make the consumers
more inclined towards the message
4. Source/attention: which source will be most effective in getting consumer
attention? In the present advertising scenario, it is a formidable challenge for
advertisers to break through this clutter. Advertiser use well-known
personalities from sports, film and other fields to attract the target audience’s
attention. If at all a product or service is to be presented to consumers, then
there must be a message that catches the consumers attention. Without a
message, there is no advertising, and without consumers attention no amount
of advertising can succeed.
Source

The source here means the person involved directly or indirectly in

communicating the advertising message. Companies take due care in selecting the source.
They are quite aware of the fact that source characteristics effect on the advertising
message and select individuals whose trains will maximize the ad message influence on
the audience. The source may be perceived a knowledgeable, physically attractive, or just
a typical consumer.

Source Credibility

Source credibility means the extent to which the audience perceive the source as
having relevant knowledge, expertise, or experience and believe that the source will
provide unbiased and objective information about the product the service. The element of
credibility has two important dimensions-expertise and trustworthiness.

A person with more expertise in any field is considered more credible than the one
with less expertise. For any reason if the audience thinks that a particular source, in spite
of being knowledgeable, lacks honesty or may be biased, then the source would be less
effective. The source’s knowledge, reputation and prestige are considered as the cognitive
dimension of credibility and the attractiveness and popularity as the affective (feeling)
aspect of trustworthiness. This means that the consumer’s approach to source credibility
can be rational as well as emotional.

A source that is portrayed as being similar to the audience in terms of background,

social status, lifestyle, opinions, activities and attitudes could be liked and identified with.

A source may be considered as high on one dimension of credibility, such as

competence, but low on another. In today’s political scenario, many of the politicians are
considered as experts of the game but biased in their viewpoints.

Expertise

Research findings show that expert and trustworthy endorsers are more persuasive
than others who are considered less knowledgeable or trustworthy. A credible source’s
message influences beliefs, opinions, attitudes and behaviour because the audience
believes that the information coming from such a source is accurate and this becomes
integrated in the belief system of individuals and may be maintained even a after the
message source is forgotten.

Advertisers use a number of approaches to communicate source expertise.

Trustworthiness
 Expertise is fine, but consumers must also be convinced about the expert’s
trustworthiness. Finding endorsers with an image of being trustworthy is at times
difficult. Such figures hesitate to endorse a brand because of the potential effect on their
reputation and image. It often helps if trustworthy individuals say things that are not only
favourable to the brand but also talk about some insignificant limitation of the product, as
no product can be thought to be one hundred per cent perfect.

Another approach to enhancing credibility is to use the company chairman or

chief executive officer as the spokesperson in the firm’s advertising.

Typical Satisfied Consumer

Advertisers use a typical satisfied consumer (Lalitaji in Surf ad), which often is
the best choice when consumers strongly identify with the role involved. A typical
satisfied consumer is considered as sincere and trustworthy. In case of some personal care
products, the ad depicts two friends involved in a conversation about how a particular
product or brand brought about the most desirable but unbelievable change. To add an
element of maximum naturalness in the situation, it is useful to use a hidden camera and
capture the natural reactions of the endorsers with which the audience can identify.

Limitations of Credible Sources

A number of research studies have shown that a high credibility source is not
always an asset, and a low credibility source is not necessarily a liability. Both types of
sources can be equally effective when they argue for a position opposed to their own best
interest. A highly credible source is particularly influential when the audience is not in
favour of the ad message.

Source Attractiveness

Attractiveness of a source refers to similarity, familiarity and likeability.

Similarity is an assumed resemblance between the source and the members of the
audience and familiarity means the knowledge of the source through exposure.
Likeability is the affection developed for the message source as a result of physical
appearance and behavioural aspects. The audience develops a need to search for some
type of resemblance with the source.

Identification with source helps in developing similar beliefs, attitudes,

preferences, or behaviour.

Advertisers use celebrities as endorsers to breakthrough the advertising clutter.

They believe that celebrities have stopping power and draw attention to advertising
messages.
Likeability

Advertisers often use physically attractive persons in their ads as a passive or

decorative model to attract attention. Attractiveness generates positive influence and can
lead to favourable evaluations of products as well as ads. The relevance and suitability of
the model depends n the nature of the product.

Celebrity endorsements are less likely to influence knowledgeable consumers

about a product or service or those holding strong attitudes compared to consumers with
little knowledge or neural attitudes.

Image and Meaning of Celebrity

The image projected by a celebrity can be just as important as his/her ability to

capture attention. It is very important for advertisers to match the personality of the
celebrity with the product or company’s image, and the characteristics of the target
market. The effectiveness of the celebrity endorser depends on culturally acquired
meanings that a consumer brings to the endorsement process.

It is necessary for advertisers to first decide on the image or symbolic meanings

that are important to the target consumers for a certain product, service, or company.

Overexposure

According to Valerie Folkes, consumers are often skeptical of endorsers because

they known that endorsers are paid to appear in an ad. This problem is relatively more
serious when the same endorser appears in ads by different companies, leading to
overexposure. When a celebrity appears in many different ads, the credibility of the
endorser goes down

Message

The message is often considered as the most vital component in the

communication process. The “message is the thought, idea, attitude, image, or other
information that the advertiser wishes to convey to the targeted audience”. How an
advertising message is presented is critically important in determining its effectiveness.

Message Sidedness

A message can be either one-sided or two-sided message mentions only benefits

or positive attributes of the product or service. If the audience is favourably predisposed,
or if it is not likely to hear an opposing argument, then a one-sided message is most
effective.
 If the audience is critical, unfriendly or hostile, well educated, or if it is likely to
hear opposing claims about the product or service, then a two-sided message is most
likely to be more effective.

One –sided message tend to confirm what the audiences already believe about the
brand and therefore consumers generate cognitive response in the form of support
arguments, which reinforce their initial position.

Refutation

Refutational appeals in an advertising message are considered as a special type of

two-sided message. The advertiser first presents both strong and weak points about the
product or service and then refutes the views concerning the weaknesses.

This approach is particularly useful when the advertiser wishes to inculcate

favourable consumer attitudes towards the product or the firm. The ad is aimed at
building resistance in the consumers mind against competitor attacks or criticism.

Order of Presentation

Order of presentation of message arguments is an important consideration in the

design of the advertising message. Important message arguments can be presented in the
beginning of the message, in the middle, or at the end. Research shows that items
presented in the beginning or the end of the message are remembered better and stand a
much better chance of recall than those presented in the middle.

Climax versus Anticlimax Order

When the strongest message arguments are presented at the end of the message, it
is called climax order. But when the most important message points are presented at the
beginning of the message, it is referred to as anticlimax order.

The main message points when presented in the middle are called pyramidal
order. Based on research findings, the following guidelines can help in deciding the
message order.

• When the audience is likely to have low-involvement in a product category, an

anticlimax order tends to be most effective.
• In case of audiences having high level of interest in the product category, a
climax order tends to be most effective.
• The least effective order of presentation is believed to be the pyramidal order.
 Strong Strong Strong

Strength of Strength of Strength of

argument argument argument

Weak Weak Weak

Time Time Time

a. Climax order b. Anticilimax c. Pyramidal order

In the first situation, where the consumer’s involvement is likely to be low, the
stronger, more interesting points in a message have the greatest chance of attracting
audiences attention.

Recency and Primacy Effects

When may competing advertising messages are involved, as is the case in print on
TV ads, then in a two-sided message or ad placement “Primacy Effect” and “Recency
Effect” are often considered by different advertisers. The primacy effect occurs when the
message presented first creates greater opinion or attitude change. But if the message
arguments presented last produce greater opinion or attitude change, it is recency effect.

Conclusion Drawing

It is an important issue for advertisers to decide whether the message should allow
the audience to draw their own conclusions about the product or service or the message
should draw a firm conclusion for the audience. Research shows that drawing a firm
conclusion or leaving the conclusion drawing to the audience largely depends on the
nature of the target audience, the type of product or service, and the nature of advertising
situation.

Message Appeals

Marketing is all about satisfying consumer needs and wants at a profit and, at the
same time, protecting the larger and long run interests of the society. One of the most
critical decisions about creative strategy in advertising involves the choice of an
appropriate appeal. Some ads are designed with the intent of appealing to the rational and
logical aspect of the consumers decision making process, and others attempt to stimulate
consumers feelings with the intent of evoking some desired emotional response.
 Advertising appeals are often classified as “rational appeals, emotional appeals,
and moral appeals.” Rational appeals are those that focus on the audience’s self-interest
and are directed at the thinking aspect of the decision-making process. Such appeals
attempt to show that the product or service will produce the desired benefits. Emotional
appeals are put under two categories: positive emotional appeals.

Moral appeals attempt to draw audience attention to what is “right.” Moral

appeals are generally used to urge people to support social causes such as environmental
concerns, population explosion, donating money to help victims of some natural calamity,
or equal status for women etc.

Fear Appeals

Fear is an emotional response to some actual or perceived threat or danger.

Advertisers use fear appeals in some situations to evoke the desired emotional response
and motivate the audience to take steps to remove the threat.

Humour Appeals

Humour generates feelings of amusement and pleasure and, for this reason, it has
a potential for the feelings to become associated with the brand and affect consumer
attitudes towards the brand and probably its image. Humour can also affect information
processing by attracting attention, improving brand name recall, creating a pleasant
mood, and reducing the chances of counter arguing.

• Humour attracts attention

• Humour can help increase and message retention.
• Source credibility can be enhanced with humour.
• Audience attitude towards the ad can be enhanced with the use of humour.
• Humour may diminish the chances of counter arguments because it distracts
audience from making cognitive responses.

“Advertisements do more than inform or persuade. They eloquently translate feelings and
opinions. Through advertising and the media we receive an enormous amount of silent
information: bow to act in relation to people, property and ourselves. And that
information is a barometer, attuned to social change.

Roland Burman, “Advertising and Social Change” Advertising Age, April 30, 1980, p.18

Understanding the response process that the consumers may go through in

moving or eliciting certain behaviour, as a result of exposure to advertising, is perhaps
the most important aspect in developing an effective advertising programme.

Exposure and Familiarity Model

 Many ads are just repetitive and have very little information content but manage
to be effective in changing consumer’s attitudes, more so with increased repetition.

RB Zajonc proposed that simple repeated exposure, with no associated cognitive

activity could a preference in the audience. The results of research conducted to
understand this effect imply that exposure effect occurs at some preconscious level. Some
aspects of ads such as domination by pictures, text, or colour can create feelings of like or
dislike among us at a preattentive level without any awareness of these effects. According
to Ehrenberg, Tellis and others, advertising serves mostly to reinforce brand preference
rather than create brand preference in case of most mature brands. When competitive
advertising is intense, high levels of reminder advertising, with frequent repetitions, can
perform the reinforcing function. This is often referred to as creating ‘top-of-mind
awareness or recall’

Another view suggests that repeated exposure can lead to familiarity with the
advertised brand and, subsequently, liking for it.

Amna Kirmani and Peter Wright suggest that consumers perceived amount of
advertising, as judged by advertising frequency and the size of print ad, etc., is sometimes
used by them as an indicator of the brand’s quality

Response Hierarchy Models

• The AIDA Model: Developed in the 1920s (E.K. Strong), this model suggests
that an effective sales presentation should attract attention, gain interest, stimulate
desire and precipitate action (purchase). Ideally, an ad would prove to be really
effective if it takes this route, however, in the real world of advertising, rarely ads
the consumer all the way from awareness through purchase.
• Hierarchy-of-effects Model: Hierarchy-of-effects Model, developed by Lavidge
and Steiner, is the best known. This model helps in setting advertising objectives
and provides a basis for measuring results. This model also suggests that
advertising produces its effects by moving the consumer through a series of steps
in a sequence from initial awareness to ultimate purchase of product or service.
• Innovation-adoption Model: According to Everett M Rogers, this model
evolved from work on diffusion of innovations. The model depicts various
sequential steps and stages that a consumer moves through in adopting a new
product or service. Marketers face the challenge of creating awareness and
interest in the product or service among the target audience and evaluate it
favourably. The best way to persuade consumers to evaluate a brand is by
inducting product trial or, sometimes, product-in-use demonstration.
• Information Processing Model: William McGuire developed this model which
assumes that the advertising audience are information processors and problem
solves. The first three stages in the model-Presentation, attention, and
comprehension- are similar to awareness and knowledge, and yielding means the
same liking. Up to this point there is a similarity with Lavidge and Steiner’s
 model. The next stage, retention, is unique to this model and is not present in any
other model. Retention refers to the ability of the consumer to accept and stone in
memory the relevant information about the product or service. Retention of
information is important because most advertising is designed to motivate and
precipitate action not just immediately and the retained is used at a later time to
make the purchase decision.

Implications for Managers

All the four models, presented depict that in each case the staring stage is
cognitive, leading to affective stage and finally to conative or behavioural stage. This
progression shows the following sequence

Learn Feel Do

(Cognitive) (Affective) (Conative)

These hierarchy-of-effects models are sometimes referred to as ‘standard learning

models.’

Low-involvement Learning Model

Herbert E Krugman was advertising manager with General Electric. He observed

that commercials on television cannot be slowed down or stopped as per the consumers
convenience and hence consumers have little opportunity to think deeply about them. He
hypothesized that TV is basically a low-involvement medium and the audience’s
perceptual defences are low or even absent during commercials.

Michael L Ray and colleagues at Stanford University have conducted much work
on low-involvement learning. They say that when the products concerned are of low-
involvement category (low risk, inexpensive or low interest) for the summer, and ads are
shown on TV, advertising does not lead to information based change in consumer’s
attitude to induce product trial. Instead, the ads are successful in inducing trial because of
top-of-mind recall the awareness. The low-involvement sequence of advertising effect is
different from Lavidge and Steiner’s standard learning model.

Learn Do Feel

(Cognitive) (Conative) (Affective)

Instead of active learning, the customer engages in passive learning and random
information catching under low-involvement situations.

Implications for Managers

 Michael L Ray has proposed another response sequence where consumers first
behave; the behaviour develops attitudes or feelings, and then the consumers learn and
gains knowledge that supports the behaviour. The sequence in this situation is

Do Feel Learn

(Conative) (Affective) (Cognitive)

Typical situations of this nature are when the consumer faces a choice between
alternatives (high-involvement) that appear to be similar in quality but are complex and
some attributes may not be visible. Consumers are likely to experience post-purchase
anxiety. Ray has suggested that such situations require advertising that would reinforce
the wisdom of choosing a product or service and help reduce the dissonance.

Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB) Model

Thinking Feeling
Richard Vaughn of1.FCB Informative
advertising(thinker)
agency and his2.colleagues
Affective (feeler) a useful
developed
Car, house, furnishings, Jewellery, cosmetics,
advertising planning model. They built this model based on response hierarchy theories
new products designer clothing,
and degree of involvement. They also incorporated two important dimensions-thinking
motorcycles
and feeling (split brain theory)- to both high and low-involvement levels. According to
the split brain theory, the left Model: Learn-feel-do
side of the Model:
brain is more capable of Feel-learn-do
rational and cognitive
thinking and (rational) (emotional)
the right side of the brain is more emotional, intuitive, visual and involved
High
Possible implications:
Involvement
in feeling or affective aspects. This model separates four basic advertising planning
Possible implications:
approaches: informative, affective, habit formation, and self-satisfaction.
Test: Attitude change
Test: Recall Diagnostics Emotional arousal
Media:impress
The advertising should Long copy
uponformat Media:and
the psychological Large space aspects,
emotional
Reflective vehicles Image specials
such as self-image, ego, status, etc. De Beers ad “A diamond is forever” is one such
Creative: Specific infor – Creative: Executional
example.
mation Demonstration Impact

3. Habit formation (doer) 4. Self-satisfaction (reactor)

Food, household items Cigarettes, liquor, candy

Model: Do-learn-feel Model: Do-feel-learn

(responsive) (social)
Low
Involvement Possible implications: Possible implications:

Test: Sales Test: Sales

Media: Small space ads 10 Media: Billboards Newspapers
sec. Spots Radio, POP POP
Creative: Reminder Creative: Attention
Cognitive Response Model

When ads change consumer attitudes in high-involvement situations, it is quite

natural to assume that this occurs because the consumers learn from the advertising
message and this change in attitude towards the brand is the result of learning. The
response hierarchy models fail to explain what causes the resulting reactions. Such
concerns led researchers to try to understand the nature of cognitive reactions to
advertising messages.

Cognitive Attitudes Purchase

responses intention
 Product/message Brand attitudes
thoughts

Exposure to Purchase
Source-oriented
advertisement intention
thoughts

Attitudes towards
Ad execution advertisement
thoughts

The focus of this approach has been to determine the types of responses elicited
by an advertising message and how these responses associate with attitudes towards the
advertisement, the brand and purchase intention.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Psychologists Richard E Petty and John T Cacioppo developed the ELM model.
According to them, the depth of information processing is a key factor in persuasion by
influencing attitudes. The consumer may consciously and diligently consider the
information content in an ad message in developing or changing the existing attitude
towards the advertised brand. In this situation, the attitudes are formed or changed as a
result of careful consideration, anlysis, scrutiny of the message arguments and integration
of relevant information with regard to the advertised product or service.

The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

Exposure to advertisement
 Central route to persuasion Peripheral route to persuasion

Higher involvement with Low-involvement with

product or message product or message

Attention focus on “central” Attention focus on

product-related information “peripheral”
product-related information

Comprehension Comprehension
- Deeper thoughts about - Shallow thoughts about
product attributes and non-product information.
consequences - Low elaboration.
- More elaboration

Persuasion Persuasion
- Product beliefs - Non-product beliefs
- Brand attitude - Attitude towards as
- Purchase intention - Purchase intention
(Behavioural response) (Behavioural response)

Implications for Managers

David W Stewart and his colleagues have established that the consumer must be
able to recall the ad to comprehend the ad message. Message comprehension is a must for
persuasion.
 Persuasion also requires message content that distinguishes the brand as superior
to competition. This is particularly true for high-involvement situations where favourable
consumer reaction generates positive cognitive responses.

Elements of Ads that Attract Attention

An understanding of why people collect information can help advertisers in

designing ads that will gain increased attention of the target audience. In general, there
are four reasons for attending to different types of information.

• Information that may be highly useful for a person, such as advertising messages
about products or services that will help people make better purchase decisions.
• Information that supports the audience’s opinion about some tangible or
intangible thing. For example, consumers will tend to reduce cognitive dissonance
by exposing themselves to favourable information about a product or service.
• Information that is stimulating. For example, information about a new and
exciting product.
• Information that is interesting for the audience. No one would like to be exposed
to dull and boring information.

People are quite agreeable to expose themselves to information that really has
practical value for them, and product information is a practical need that advertisements
attempt to fulfil.

When consumers acquire information to be stored in memory for future reference,

this process is called “passive search”.

Consumers are selective about exposure for a number of reasons. They want to avoid
any information that is contrary to their strong beliefs. They would deliberately seek
information that is likely to support their position and reduce discomforting feelings.

David Ogilvy advised copywriters to inject news in their headlines. He said: the two
most powerful worlds you can use in a headline are free and new. You can seldom use
free but you can always use new-if you try hard enough”. With routine and familiarity,
people get bored and look for variety in their normal everyday life.

Ad Characteristics that Attract Attention: Large, full-page ads with colour attract
more attention than smaller black and white ads. This shows that size and intensity of ads
often more helpful in attracting attention. If two ads are of the same size then the one
using four colours will attract more attention than the one in black and white.
 The ad copy phrased in concrete and specific terms attracts more attention than the
one phrased in abstract terms.

Position of the ad is also important. Upper half of the left side page gets more
attention because of audience’s reading habits. Ads placed on the back of magazines,
front inside cover, and the inside of back cover, attract more reader attention.

Ads that are surprising or funny are more likely to be read. For instance, almost all
the ads of Kachuwa Mosquito Repellent are noticed and read because of their funny
content.

Creation of ads that grab audience attention is vitally important. It is equally

important that the ad must also communicate the brand message to the audience. There is
general agreement among most researchers that good comprehension of ad message by
the audience is extremely important for persuasion to occur. Research reveals that target
audience’s comprehension of the differentiating attributes of a brand is vital for the ad to
be persuasive.

Figure and Ground

Grouping

Closure