Sumbul Rizvi

Running Head: SOCIAL & POLITICAL MARKETING Relationship between Emotional Appeals and Persuasion in Social and Political Marketing [Name of Writer] [Name of Institution] Table of Contents Introduction3 Discussion3 Types of Emotional Appeals3 Social Marketing4 Types of Social Marketing Campaigns5 Emotional Appeals and Persuasion in Social Marketing5 Rossiter and Percy Motivational Model6 Elaboration Likelihood Model7 Political Marketing8 Emotional Appeals and Persuasion in Political Marketing9 Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM)10 Conclusion11 References13 Appendix16 Relationship between Emotional Appeals and Persuasion in Social and Political Marketing Introduction Marketing uses various techniques for selling a product or a service. The success of a marketing campaign is measured by how many users were reached and how many of them were affected i.e. they made a purchase after the marketing campaign. Different companies adopt different ways to market their products and/or services; however, marketing is not only done for raising profits of a business. Marketing can also be done for social causes, to help eradicate the bad aspects in a society and also to create awareness of an issue. This is known as social marketing. Marketing is also done for political gains. Political leaders and their parties utilize political marketing tactics when running their political campaign before and during elections. Both, social and political marketing, utilize emotional appeals and persuasion in order to create awareness. This paper will discuss the relationship between the two aspects in social as well as political marketing. Discussion Types of Emotional Appeals Emotional appeals evoke feelings within the targeted audience (Brennan & Binney, 2010). The role of emotional appeals in persuasion is to make sure that behaviours are influenced with respect to the message in social marketing campaign. Emotional appeals bring out the emotional responses in individuals. There are two major types of emotional appeals utilised in social marketing; positive and negative. Rational and humour appeals are a part of the positive emotional appeal, whereas fear and guilt appeals form a part of the negative emotional appeals. Rational appeal is the most common type of emotional appeal utilised in social marketing. It focuses on the logic and the rationale of the aspect that is being marketed (Donovan & Henley, 2003). This type of appeal is essential in social marketing as a number of health related programs and organisation adopt this aspect of emotional appeal. They provide information to the public related to the issue in their advertisements, and the statements in the messages of such advertisements tend to change the behaviour of the people. Humour appeals create an emotional link to the product with the consumers. A humorous advertisement points out why consumers need a specific product and without it what they are missing out in their lives. On the other hand, fear appeals or negative appeals focus on the adverse outcomes that may occur as a result of an action (Dillard & Peck, 2000). Fear appeals are used to change behaviour immediately. With instant reaction of individuals and change in their behaviour due to fear appeals, this is most commonly used in political marketing. Social Marketing Andreasen & Kotler (2008) define social marketing as ‘differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society’ (p. 22). Social marketing approach is used for developing activities that change or maintain people’s behaviour in order to benefit the society as a whole. Social marketing has proved to be an effective tool for influencing individual and societal behaviours in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Social marketing is a planned and a systematic process that helps in deciding which people should be targeted, what behaviour should be influenced and how as well as how it should be measured. The main aim of social marketing is to influence behaviours and not what people think of an issue (Bagozzi & Moore, 1994). Social marketing technique is utilised for international health programs such as cancer, aids, contraceptives, health hygiene etc. It is also used for anti-smoking and similar issues that help in promoting a healthy environment. Types of Social Marketing Campaigns Social marketing can be done for topics ranging from personal (individualistic) issues to societal issues. Thus, there are four major aspects of social marketing; safety, environment, health and community. Based on these, there are two major types of social marketing campaigns (Henley, et.al, 1998). The first type of the marketing campaign is the one that connects the target audience on a personal level. These campaigns promote health issues such as smoking cessation campaigns, safety such as anti-speeding campaigns etc. These campaigns help in identifying the individual behaviours that are required for solving the issues that are being addressed. The second type of social marketing campaign promotes the societal issues such as animal welfare, global warming etc. These campaigns are targeted at the society as a whole and help in building a better place for the humans to live in (Gordon, 2013). Emotional Appeals and Persuasion in Social Marketing Persuasion with the help of emotional appeals is one major way of gaining people’s attention to a particular issue. An individual has a strong connection between cognition and emotions, which is why, marketers utilise this approach to persuade their target audience (Donovan & Henley, 1997). As discussed earlier, the different types of emotional appeals, it is important for the marketers and advertisers to decide carefully which emotional appeal should be used. Choosing between positive and negative appeal is the key (Hastings, 2007). In order to determine the right emotional appeal for an advertisement, the Rossiter & Percy’s model is utilised. Rossiter and Percy Motivational Model Rossiter and Percy’s motivational model acts a guide for social marketers as it helps in identifying whether positive appeal should be chosen for the message or negative. The two main dimensions of the model are the level of involvement and the nature of motivation. The level of involvement can either be high or low depending on the risk that an individual sees in case a wrong decision is made (Hastings, et.al, 2004). For instance, the decision to quit smoking is a high involvement case as compared to the decision to start smoking. The nature of motivation can be negative or positive. When the goal of the advertisement is to emphasize a positive experience and aspect, positive motivation is utilised, and when the goal is to avoid a problem or an issue, negative motivation is utilised by marketers. Figure 1: Rossiter & Percy’s (1987) Hypothesized Relationships Linking Emotions to Motivation in Advertising The above table explains the different motives for which social marketing is done and the emotional sequence that is being provoked through the message. The table can be better explained with an example. For promoting physical activity, the message could be a negative one (threat) which is based on the motive ‘problem avoidance’. Individuals would fear that not being physically active would lead to serious diseases. Thus, they would realise that fear > relaxation and would look to include physical activities in their daily routine. On the other hand, the same campaign can be conducted with the help of positive motivation. With the help of sensory gratification, the importance pf physical activity in everyday life can be emphasized (Roskos-Ewoldsen, et.al, 2004). The sensory gratification will state that by being physically active, individuals will gain more energy and will live a healthier and longer life. This will arouse the emotional sequence ‘dull (or neutral) > sensory anticipation’, thus will help people in understanding the message in a better manner. Elaboration Likelihood Model This is a cognitive processing model which explains the relationship between persuasion and cognitive processing of messages (Lewis, et.al, 2007). The model explains how essential it is for social marketers to consider the audience’s attitudes towards the issue, their interest in the message that is being given in the advertisement, their motivation in order to process the information and their personal involvement as well in the issue (Example provided in Appendix). The audience of the message can process the message in a couple of ways. One is the central route and second is the peripheral route of persuasion. When the central route is taken, the message is processed by the individual based on the arguments presented. However, on the other hand, when the peripheral route is taken, individuals will be persuaded by some other aspect of the advertisement such as the characters used, the music etc (Kotler, et.al, 2002). In order words, the individual will be persuaded through some secondary sources of the message. When the issue is serious or if the individual is connected to the issue on a personal level, he is bound to take the central route. Thus, it is essential that the issue that is being marketed is significant and impacts a huge number of people in order to create a significant impact in the society (Lukic, 2009). Political Marketing Marketing is as important for politicians as running their election campaigns. Not only does it help them reach out to a larger number of people, but it also helps in sending out their messages as to how they would serve the country and its people (Henneberg, et.al, 2009). Advertisement surely has an impact on the way citizens make their choices regarding their politicians. A number of advertisement tools can be adopted by politicians; however print and electronic ads have proved to be the most successful for them. Ads running on television are the ones that have made a huge impact on the people of the country. A major advantage of this type of marketing is that it enables the political parties to communicate to a wide audience freely. They can send their message clearly across without any difficulties (Brader, 2006). However, with the choice of the medium of marketing, politicians have to decide how they should market their campaign and their message. Most of them utilise emotional appeals in order to persuade the citizens. Emotional Appeals and Persuasion in Political Marketing Advertisements that appear on television are rated as the most successful as they appeal to emotions. Music and images are used to induce emotional appeals in the ads which in turn benefits the politicians. According to Brader (2005) presidential campaign advertisements can ‘cue enthusiasm as it motivates participation and activate existing loyalties and stimulate vigilance, increase reliance on contemporary evaluations and facilitate persuasions’ (p. 288). Thus, the importance of emotional appeals in political marketing is huge; however, what the marketers have to keep in mind is the type of emotional appeal that should be utilised. One of the most used emotional appeal in political marketing is fear. Political advertisements induce fear in the citizens in a manner that if they do not vote, they might have to face repercussions. When fear is used as an emotional appeal, it directs attention of individuals to the relevant message that is being advertised, and helps people think about the alternative courses of action. Cognitive function is activated as soon as an individual comes across an advertisement that entails fear as an emotional appeal (Cwalina, et.al, 2005). The cognitive centres of the brain process information faster in such circumstances and helps individuals respond to the data and information that the brain has gathered from the environment. Another type of emotional appeal that is used for political marketing in order to persuade citizens for a certain type of behaviour is enthusiasm. It guarantees that things are going well and helps in strengthening the motivation of individuals. During political marketing, when individuals believe that their candidates are doing well, they stick to their choices and decide to vote for them again (Dickinson & Holmes, 2008). Individuals’ brains are then associated with past experiences and make the same choice again based on their past decisions (Example provided in Appendix). Marcus et. al (2000) explain how political marketing persuades its targeted audience through emotional appeals. These appeals maybe negative in form of fear or positive in the form of enthusiasm. Even though no research has yet proved, but it has been seen and observed that the use of fear as an emotional appeal has helped politicians achieve their objectives and has also assisted them in reaching their desired goals i.e. to gain more votes. Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) Figure 2: EPPM Model (Adapted from Witte 1994) Extended parallel process model (EPPM) demonstrates the fear concept that is utilised in political marketing. According to this model, when people receive fear appeals, they engage in a couple of appraisal processes. First is threat appraisal and the second is perceived coping appraisal. According to Witte (1994), threat appraisal is to judge the severity and intensity of danger. It also includes an individual’s susceptibility as to what he perceives and believes to be danger for himself. This model predicts the interaction between efficacy and threat with regards to danger control processes that occur when efficacy and threat both are high. This is also referred to as the concept of ‘wake-up call’. The effect that it creates results in tension, energy and action (O’ Cass, 1996). As a result fear will occur which will then lead to suppressed thinking related to the threatening event. In order to decrease the perceived level of danger, the danger control processes should help in accepting and performing according to the adaptive behaviour (Goldstein & Freedman, 2002). Furthermore, this model also states that when an individual cares about a situation or an issue, that is when fear appeals tend to be most effective. In addition to this, the individual also perceives that he possesses a way to deal with the issue or situation. This was referred to as the boomerang effect by LaTour & Rotfeld (1997). They further stated, ‘the advertisement accomplishes what it was set out to do. It was released out into the public, and it comes back with the public responding we want more and/or what can we do?’ (p. 52) Conclusion The use of emotional appeals for persuasion in social and political marketing has been successful in a number of cases. They have helped advertisers to reach out to a huge number of people and achieve their marketing goals and objectives. With different types of emotional appeals, social marketers have been able to run their campaigns successfully and have been able to persuade people towards various health and other society related issues. On the other hand, the use of emotional appeal for persuasion in the field of political marketing makes a huge impact on the targeted audience. Politicians are able to reach out to a wider range of people with the help of emotional appeal marketing and they are also able to get their desired outcomes in the form of votes from the citizens. Overall, the relationship between emotional appeals and persuasion is positive and has a huge impact in social as well as positive marketing. References 1. Andreasen, A. & Kotler, P. (2008), Strategic Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations, 7th Edition, Northwestern University, Pearson 2. Bagozzi, R.P. & Moore, D.J., (1994). Public service advertisements: Emotions and empathy guide prosocial behavior. The Journal of Marketing, pp.56-70. 3. Brader, T. (2005). Striking a Responsive Chord: How Political Ads Motivate and Persuade Voters by Appealing to Emotions. American Journal of Political Science, 49, p-. Brader, T. (2006). Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 5. Brennan, L., & Binney, W. (2010). Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing. Journal of business Research, 63(2),-. Cwalina, W., Falkowski, A., & Kaid, L.L. (2005). Advertising and the Image of Politicians in Evolving and Established Democracies. Journal of Political Marketing, 4(2/3), 19-44 7. Dickinson, S. & Holmes, M. (2008). ‘Understanding the emotional and coping responses of adolescent individuals exposed to threat appeals’. International Journal of Advertising, vol. 27, issue 2, pp-. Dillard, J.P & Peck, E. (2000). “Affect and persuasion: Emotional responses to public service announcements” Communication Research, vol.27, issue 4, pp-. Donovan, R. & Henley, N. (2003). ‘Social Marketing Principles & Practice’, Melbourne: IP Communications. 10. Henley, N., Donovan, R.J. & Moorhead, H., (1998). ”Appealing to Positive Motivations and emotions in Social marketing: Example of a Positive Parenting Campaign”. Social Marketing Quarterly, vol.4, issue 4, pp 48-53 11. Donovan, R. J. & Henley, N. 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Fear Appeal Messages Affect Accessibility of Attitudes Toward the Threat and Adaptive Behaviors. Communication Monographs, 71, p. 49-69 24. Rossiter, J.R. & Percy, L., (1987). Advertising and promotion management. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 25. Tunner, J.F., Day, E. & Crask, M.R. (1989). “Protection Motivation Theory – An Extension of Fear Appeals Theory in Communication.” Journal of Business Research, issue 19, pp-. Witte. K. (1994), “Fear Control and Danger Control: A Test of the Extended Parallel Process Model,” Communication Monographs, 61, p. 113-134 Appendix Social Marketing Campaign This campaign was launched by NHS, a publicly funded healthcare system for England. It highlights the importance of knowing the ideal and optimal level of alcohol consumption in a day. For men, they should not exceed 4 units in a day and for women they should not exceed 3 units in a day. The ad utilizes the rational aspect of emotional appeal to help people understand the importance of knowing their alcohol limits. Another picture from the same campaign. Political Marketing Campaign These are images from Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign. The campaign utilizes the enthusiasm aspect of emotional appeal which motivates people to vote for him. The use of slogans and the marketing graphics utilized in this campaign proved to be very effective for the President.