Chapter 8 ● Attitudes and Persuasive Communications
Case Study
Shampoo Buying: A “Bad Hair” Day?
CS 8-1) Describe Cream Silk’s promotion within the context of the multiattribute model: Which
attribute(s) were central to the promotion and how does the model explain what the company was
trying to accomplish with the “Human Hair Quartet?” What limitations might this model have for
predicting consumer’s attitudes and purchase behavior towards Cream Silk?
Concerning the Cream Silk’s promotion, the company contacted an advertising agency called JWT. The
company wanted to promote the benefit of strength that the conditioner gives to hair. In order to prove
the strength of the conditioner, JWT reached Mr. Goh who’s a violin bows maker. Mr. Goh switch
horse hair by a human hair that had been washed by the conditioner. Then, a string quarter
used the violin and play for4 hours and the hair did not break. According to the chapter: “a
permission marketing acknowledge that a marketer will be more successful when he communicates with
consumer who have already agreed to listen to him” (307). In my opinion, the company has used a
permission marketing strategy to promote the attributes of the product. The limitations that this model
might have are the boundaries of the “Theory of Reasoned Action”. According to the chapter: “The
theory of Reasoned Action is the newest version of the Fishbein model, this model contains several
important additions to the original, and although the model is still not perfect, it does a better job of
prediction” (301). The limitations are the following: The model does not predict the outcomes of the
behavior. In addition, it might not target the right audience, especially in this case with the conditioner
and the violin. Finally, people can misinterpret the message and have a bad image of the product.
CS 8-2) In contrast to the Cream Silk promotion, Old Spice used its characteristically quirky approach
to persuade men to try its hair care products. The integrated campaign, “That’s the Power of Hair,”
incorporated a popular Huey Lewis tune, an interactive Web site, and funny ads featuring animated
hair. Discuss the type of message appeal and the Elaboration Likelihood Model route each campaign
used.
The biggest difference in terms of promotion between Cream Silk and Old Spice is that “Old spice has
been known as the brand Dad keeps in his medicine cabinet” (223).However, now Old Spice has
improved his image by incorporating a Huey Lewis’ tune in their campaign. The message is totally
different and target different audiences. In addition, the message “That’s the Power of Hair”, was able
to target more people and in my opinion, it was more efficient than the conditioner one.