Central versus peripheral routes to persuasion and the elaboration likehood model
The central versus peripheral routes to persuasion and the elaboration likelihood model are important concepts in advertising management that help explain how advertising messages influence consumer behavior.
The central route to persuasion involves a conscious and deliberate process of evaluating advertising messages based on their relevance, credibility, and logic. Consumers who take the central route to persuasion are motivated to think deeply and critically about the message and are likely to be influenced by rational and logical arguments.
The peripheral route to persuasion, on the other hand, involves a more automatic and superficial process of evaluating advertising messages based on cues such as celebrity endorsements, emotional appeals, and visual aesthetics. Consumers who take the peripheral route to persuasion are less motivated to think deeply and critically about the message and are more likely to be influenced by surface-level cues.
The elaboration likelihood model is a framework that explains how consumers process and respond to persuasive messages. According to the model, the level of elaboration or cognitive processing that consumers engage in depends on their motivation and ability to process the message.
When consumers are motivated and able to process the message, they are more likely to take the central route to persuasion and engage in deep and critical thinking. On the other hand, when consumers are less motivated and less able to process the message, they are more likely to take the peripheral route to persuasion and rely on superficial cues.
Effective advertising messages should consider both the central and peripheral routes to persuasion and should be tailored to the specific needs, motivations, and cognitive processing abilities of the target audience.
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
Psychologists Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo developed the ELM model which explains the significance of message in changing the attitude of consumers towards the brand. The degree of information processing by a consumer is determined by the level of involvement in the product which gives us two elaboration situations. When the individual is involved deeply and rationally analyses and scrutinizes the persuasive message, it is called the situation of high elaboration. Whereas in low elaboration situation, there is low involvement and no conscious or rational analysis of the persuasive message and the opinion is formed on the basis of the negative or positive cues in the message.
When consumer is highly involved in processing the information and analysis and scrutiny of message arguments leads to formation or change of attitude towards a brand, then it is called central route to persuasion.
In Peripheral Route to persuasion, there is lack of motivation and ability to process and the individual is unlikely to be engaged in cognitive processing. In this situation, the individual does not involve himself deeply in evaluation and usually takes cognitive shortcuts to decide if a particular brand is superior or inferior.
The two factors that influence which route an individual will take in a persuasive situation are motivation and ability. The route to be taken is determined by the extent of elaboration. Both motivational and ability factors determine elaboration. Motivational factors include the relevance, accountability, involvement, consumers innate desire to enjoy thinking and level of arousal .Ability factors include the individual’s intellectual capabilities, knowledge, availability of cognitive resources, presence or absence of time pressure or other distractions. Distractions such as noise can affect the ability for one to process a message. An example of noise would be a persuader trying to share his message in a room full of crying babies; this would make it extremely difficult for listeners to concentrate on the message being given. Noise that you can’t physically control like when the individual’s mind is occupied by certain thoughts or they have something else on their mind which was more important than the message like a death in the family, or problems they’re having in their relationship.
The ELM model helps the marketing communications manager to design the message on the basis of the route of persuasion that the consumer follows. Usually central processing can predict behavior better than attitudes formed by peripheral processing.
When both motivation and ability to process information is high, then consumers are most likely to engage in central processing. When either of the two is low, there is peripheral processing. Since in peripheral processing not much heed is given to the arguments presented in the message, therefore the marketers should work on the peripheral cues like putting the consumer in good mood, or using catchy stories and celebrities and repetitive advertising.
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