Message Processing, Attention, and Emotion in Marketing Communications
Message Processing
Message processing refers to the short-term attention paid to marketing communication and the subsequent cognitive processes that occur in the brain. It occurs with each exposure to a message from a brand.
Attention
Attention can be either unconscious or conscious:
- Unconscious processing is automatic and deals with signals from our senses without conscious awareness. Most unconscious attention will not lead to full processing of a message.
- Conscious processing draws upon associations stored in explicit memory to help interpret sensory signals.
Emotion
Emotion plays a fundamental role in message processing and can influence how marketing communications are perceived and remembered.
Types of Emotion
Emotion operates in two fundamental ways:
- Emotional associations are linked to every object and experience in life. They can be activated by text and images used in marketing executions.
- Interpersonal emotions are the emotions expressed by people shown in an execution, which can stimulate corresponding emotions in the audience.
Emotional Associations in Memory
No objects or experiences are emotionally neutral. Everything we experience has an emotional component. Marketing communications for a brand activate both conscious cognitive associations and unconscious emotional associations with the brand.
Conscious associations are stored in the neocortex, while unconscious emotional memories are stored in the limbic system.
Emotional Associations and IMC
- When processing begins, the emotional memories associated with the ad and the brand are activated and enter conscious working memory.
- Positive emotional associations can make a person aware that they are emotionally excited.
- It is important to ensure that the same emotional memories are activated in the processing of all messages within a campaign or brand.
This is essential for IMC to ensure a consistent look and feel among all executions in different media. Using common executional elements within IMC campaigns enhances marketing communications effectiveness.
Interpersonal Emotions
The emotions of others can influence our own emotions by transmitting information. Sensing fear in someone can convey a potential threat or danger.
When people are shown in marketing communications, the perceived emotions will influence emotional responses in the target audience. This is known as embodiment.
Embodiment refers to the body states that arise, such as posture, during the perception of an emotional stimulus from other people and the subsequent use of that emotional information.
Emotions exhibited by people in ads will be felt by those impacted by it, and the emotion will become part of the processing of that message in working memory. It will be available for later use when processing other messages about the brand.
The most important component in assessing someone else’s emotional state is their facial expression. People have a very efficient system for recognizing and processing the emotional content of facial expressions.
Facilitating Attention
Online Banner Ads
- Animation in banner ads can draw user attention away from the message.
- Static banner ads are more likely to be attended to but less likely to be remembered.
- Only human faces (with averted gaze) can enhance advertising effectiveness.
- Many internet users pay very little attention to banner ads.
- Size does not affect attention.
Format
- For informationally driven commercials: Use a two-peaked pattern. Present the category need (first peak), the brand identification in between, and finally the benefit (second peak).
- For transformationally driven commercials: Use a teasing pattern. Begin with brand identification, followed by building positive emotion, and ending with a closing kick.
Low High Trans Infor
- Low + trans: One simple benefit on message is enough. Must get a positive emotional response, and the brand benefit is in the execution itself. Benefit focus is the feeling you will get using the brand.
- High + infor: Must accept the message. The benefit must be expressed in terms of objective characteristics, must be credible, and seen as expert.
- High + trans: Emotionally authentic. Benefit claim should be expressed in the extreme. The benefit focus is the feeling that… Similar to target audience in their perceived emotional state.
Impact of Demand Elasticity
The concept of demand elasticity refers to the consumer response to the interaction between advertising and promotion.
Understanding the relationship between a brand’s and its competitor brands’ demand elasticities is an important part of IMC planning. This includes not only the overall price elasticity of a brand but also the relationship between advertising and promotion in effecting sales.
Demand for a brand will be triggered by”upsid” and”downsid” elasticities:
- Upside elasticity: Refers to the sales increases resulting from a price cut or promotion.
- Downside elasticity: Refers to the sales decline resulting from a price increase.
A brand’s competitors’ pricing strategy will directly affect the demand elasticity of the brand, both upside and downside.
- Competitors’ price increases effectively cut the price of those brands that do not modify their price.
- Competitors’ aggressive price-cutting or promotion effectively raises the price of brands that do not modify their price.