Principles of Persuasion

It is estimated that consumers are exposed to over one-thousand commercial messages on a daily basis. The most effective strategy in the launching of a new product is persuasion. The goal of marketing is to capture the audience’s attention and to cause the audience to whole-heartedly believe that your service or product is the best.

There are several different mediums in which to use persuasion or advertisements. Businesses can advertise on television or radio or in magazines, billboards, newspapers or in public transportation ads. Persuasion is used in each of these advertising mediums mentioned above. There are seven main theories of persuasion to consider when choosing a successful advertising campaign.

One must take into consideration the cognitive-response. This means that the persuasion process begins to happen when an individual considers the content of the advertisement and the response to the message.

The dual-process is when the persuader uses more than one way to persuade a consumer. The persuader uses the peripheral and central route in order to persuade someone else. The central route is achieved when the persuasion is demonstrated in a conscious way. The peripheral route is reached when the audience is exposed to numerous messages throughout the day.

The resource matching theory says that in order for persuasion to be successful the demand for cognitive responses and the supply of these cognitive responses must be quite comparable. Many slogans are based upon the resource matching theory.

The last four theories are: influence of alternative types of elaboration, experimental bases of persuasion, accessibility and diagnostic as determinants of judgment and the content effects and attitude correction.

These last four theories revolve around how the consumer is going to think and react to the certain type of persuasion used. These theories judge the reaction of a particular individual or audience when choosing a specific product or service. There are several different things that influence the level of persuasion.

When marketing a product or service a business must consider who their target audience is. Next the business must consider how to best reach this target audience. If your company is selling a special bus pass then naturally this company would want to advertise on public transportation advertisements. If a company is targeting Moms then they want to advertise in parenting magazines. An effective advertisement effectively uses the powers of persuasion.