2.1 Hierarchy of Effects Approach The hierarchy of effects model clarifies what the goals of an advertising campaign are and thus assists the marketers in determining the best message strategy (Clow and Baack, 2007). The three advertising functions discussed above are related to a classic psychological model which divides behaviour into three components suggesting that there are six steps a consumer moves through when purchasing a product. Table 1, taken from Lavidge and Steiner’s article (1961) provides a good overview of the hierarchy of effects model: Table 1: Hierarchy of Effects Model (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961, p.61) Related Behavioural Dimensions Movement towards the purchase Examples of types of promotion or advertising relevant to various steps CONATIVE The realm of motives. Ads stimulate or direct desires. AFFECTIVE The realm of emotions. Ads change attitudes and feelings. COGNITIVE The realm of thoughts. Ads provide information and facts. PURCHASE CONVICTION PREFERENCE LIKING KNOWLEDGE AWARENESS Points-of-purchase Retail ads Deals “Last chance” offers Price appeals Testimonials Competitive ads Argumentative copy “Image” ads Status, glamour appeals Announcements Descriptive copy Classified ads Slogans and jungles Sky writing Teaser campaigns 1. The cognitive component is a person’s ideas, understanding and mental images about something. It includes the first two steps a consumer moves through when making a purchase: awareness and knowledge.
Reichert et al. (2001) define sexual appeals as messages that are associated with sexual information and that sexual thoughts or feelings. Reichert (2002) identifies five forms of sexual content in advertising: body display, sexual behaviour, contextual factors, sexual referents, and sexual embeds and symbolism. 1.2 Body display Body display mainly refers to the model’s body or clothing, often defined in advertising as “nudity”. Soley and Reid (1988) identify four different dimensions of nudity. Demute dress is characterised by “everyday dress” excluding evening clothing such as mini-skirts. Suggestive dress is the one that exposes cleavage or chests and includes “mini-skirts, short shorts, muscle shirts” (p.962). Partially clad is defined as “models in bathing suits, wearing under apparel and three-quarter length or shorter lingerie”. And finally the nude category is characterized by unclothed models, including silhouettes, translucent under apparel and lingerie” (p.962) (see Appendix II, Exhibit 1). In study Reichert and Ramirez (2000) investigate the topic and research on how respondents identify an advertising they consider contains sexual appeal and which characteristics of the ad made them perceive it as such. The Physical Features characteristic (which is identical to the Body display) was mentioned by the majority of respondents, 65%, as decisive in perceiving an advertisement as “sexual”. 1.2 Sexual Behaviour In the same study (Reichert and Ramirez, 2000), sexual behaviour was mentioned by 39% of the respondents. Description of this characteristic included behaviour of the model in such a way that it evokes viewer’s sexual interest. Flirting, dancing and shaving were associated with sexual behaviour, as well as the nature of the model’s attitude which could be described as provocative, fun-loving etc. Furthermore, sexual behaviour includes type of voices, i.e. what or how something is said in the advertisement. A very popular commercial for Clairol’s Herbal Essences shampoo from 1995 illustrates the latter: it features a female model washing her hair in the shower who verbally expresses feelings of joy and finally loudly says “Yes! Yes! Yes” which clearly suggested sexual activity.
Severn, J., Belch G.E., Belch, M.A. (1990), “The Effects of Sexual and Non-Sexual Advertising Appeals and Information Level on Cognitive Processing and Communication Effectiveness”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1990), pp. 14-22 T.A. (2010), “Integrated Marketing Communication in Advertising and Promotion”, 8e, South-Western, Cengage Learning Soley, L.C., Reid, L.N. (1988), “Taking It Off: Are Models In Magazine Ads Wearing Less?”, Journalism Quarterly; Winter88, Vol. 65 Issue 4, pp. 960-966 State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report, 2011, Nielsen, [online] Available at: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/mediauniverse/, [Accessed 08 July 2012] Van Waterschoot, W., Van den Bulte C. (1992), “The 4P Classification of the Marketing Mix Revisited”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56, pp. 83-93 Appendix I 4: Newspaper Circulation Volume: 1940-2009, Newspaper Association of America 5: American households with TV (Nielsen, 2011)