You work for an advertising agency that has just acquired the account for a new software product

Question

Your goal, of course, is to design a television and print campaign to persuade your audience to hold positive attitudes toward the product—and to purchase the product. What factors would you think about in designing your persuasive ads?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: First, you would hope that the people view the product as relevant to their lives. If not, you are in trouble. Assuming that the product is relevant, you would be wise first to consider the basis of people's attitudes toward such products. Are their attitudes based primarily on emotions or on cognitions? If their attitudes are based primarily on emotions, you would want to design an ad that makes them feel good about the product; you might use upbeat music or interesting images, or appeal to their feelings or values. If their attitudes are based primarily on cognitions, then you should consider whether the product is likely to be personally relevant to the viewers. If the product is likely to be personally relevant (e.g., you are advertising a new organic brand of baby food in a magazine for new mothers), you would be wise to focus more on the contents of the message itself. You might provide "logical" information about how your product is better than other products (e.g., less expensive, higher quality, etc.). If the product is not likely to be personally relevant to many viewers (e.g., treatment for bad breath), you should attempt to make it relevant (e.g., by creating ads in which people lose out on love because of their breath) and then play to people's feelings.