The Impact of Persuasion
Four benefits of studying persuasion
The pervasiveness of
persuasion
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More than $260 billion per
year is spent on advertising
in the U.S. (Kardes, 2005)
The average person is
exposed to 300-400
persuasive messages per
day from the media alone
(Rosseli, Skelly, & Mackie,
1995)
The average person
watches 1,000 commercials
per week (Berger, 2004)
An average of $800 per
person is spent on
advertising in the U.S. each
year (Berger, 2004)
Obvious forms of persuasion
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Product placement on
American Idol
A 30 second spot for
Super7Bowl XLII costs $2.5
million for a 30 second
spot.
Product placements in
movies and TV amounted
to $2.5 billion in 2005 (PQ
Media).
Morgan (2005) “between
15-30 products are
inserted in every half hour
of television programming”
(p. 62).
Product Placement Rules
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http://www.brandchannel.com/br
andcameo_films.asp
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Featured Brands: Apple, Bell, Cadillac,
Chock Full O’Nuts, Chrysler, Cisco, Ford, Ford
Mustang, Hill-Rom, HP, Lacoste, Listerine,
Los Angeles Dodgers, Mercedes, Motorola,
Pepsi, Philips, Pontiac, Pyrotect, Rolls Royce,
San Francisco Giants, Sharp, The North Face,
The Riviera Hotel and Casino, Timberland,
Toyota, United States Parachute Association
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Featured brands: Apple, Belstaff, BMW,
Citibank, Datascope, Ford, Ford Mustang,
Hamilton, Honda, Hummer, JVC, Kleenex,
Loews, Magnavox, McDonald's, MetLife,
Mobil, Nautilus, NBC, Nissan, Panasonic,
Ronzoni, Salvatore Ferragamo, Sbarro,
Spam, Staples, Tic Tac, Time, Verizon,
Viking, XM Satellite Radio
Less obvious forms of influence
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“buzz” marketing or
“stealth” marketing:
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Based on word of mouth
endorsements
two-thirds of all
consumer goods sales
are now directly
influenced by word-ofmouth (Middleton,
2001)
Endorsements are
disguised as personal,
spontaneous encounters
with a product’s users
Relies on “product
seeders” or trendsetters
•Ford gave trendsetters free cars
and asked them to be seen in
trendy places with them
Viral marketing in action
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YouTube’s staggering
popularity was not driven
by commercial advertising
Marketers are scrambling
to get onto MySpace.com
and Facebook.com
Live Strong bracelets
became an overnight
fashion sensation
Burger King on
MySpace.com
Not so obvious contexts for
persuasion
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science
art
architecture and
environmental
design
traffic
engineering
Picasso’s Guernica (art as persuasion)
Weird persuasion
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The town of Clarke, Texas renamed
itself Dish, Texas in exchange for 10
years of free satellite TV
GoldenPalace.com paid $25,000 for
William Shatner’s kidney stone and
$28,000 for a grilled cheese sandwich
with an image of the Virgin Mary.
Pervasiveness of persuasion
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Anti-war persuasion:
Getting naked for peace
Billboards
Celebrity endorsers
Infomercials
Logos, insignia
TV commercials
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Merchandising
Print ads
Product placement
Spam, pop-up ads
Sponsorship
Telemarketing
Social media
1. the instrumental function
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Learning about persuasion assists
one in becoming a more effective
persuader
The ability to persuade is one
important dimension of
communication competence
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Communication competence involves
acting in ways that are perceived as
effective and appropriate (Spitzberg &
Cupach, 1984)
the fact that you’ve been engaging in
persuasion your whole life doesn’t mean
you’ve been doing it as well as you can.
2. the knowledge function
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Enquiring minds want to know
Learning about persuasion increases one’s
understanding of how persuasion works, or
“what makes it tick.”
Overcoming habitual persuasion:
Individuals are often unaware of their own
habitual, reflexive patterns of persuasion.
underlying social forces and rhetorical
exigencies that give rise to persuasion
3. the defensive function
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Learning about
persuasion makes one a
more savvy, discerning
consumer of persuasive
messages
One is less likely to
succumb to
telemarketers,
infomercials, mail-order
scams, and high pressure
sales tactics.
study of persuasion can
expose strategies, tactics,
unethical approaches
4. the debunking function
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Learning about persuasion helps to dispel
folk-wisdom, false stereotypes, and
outmoded concepts of how persuasion
functions
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Example: gaze avoidance and deception
Persuasion research has yielded a host of
non-obvious, counter-intuitive findings
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Example: logical-emotional dichotomy