Analysis of Development and Improvement of Managerial Skills and Abilities - Book Report/Review Example

Developing Management Capability Introduction The speech provided from which the extract is taken is aimed at providing a marketing approach to the video rental industry. The purpose of the speech is to convince the management to take the course of doing an international marketing of the video rental services, specifically in Europe. In order to do this successfully, needed data has been presented. The appropriateness of the data along with the relevance of the points indicated in the extract will be analyzed in the course of this paper and presented below. The talk has to reflect the targeted idea and should lead to the required conclusion that the speaker would like to realize. The talk should also focus on the professional requirements and should be able to adapt to the concepts of persuasion as depicted by the researchers on persuasion. This analysis will try to match the speech given with the laid down persuasion techniques and identify the lacuna in the same with reference to the research specified. Methodology ELM Attitude change methodologies that are proposed by Petty, et al, have been studied and the extent to which the presentation followed it was studied. Second, the five stages to persuasion proposed by Dr Roger Wimmer, were mapped on to the presentation done and the extent to which this was convincing and was reached by the presenter was analyzed and presented. Communication and persuasion have been found to be interchangeable in most of the theoretical studies done by various researchers. The same is then worked out and presented in this paper. Theory Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) has been proposed to take two approaches to the attitude changes due to advertisements or persuasion. The model suggests the peripheral approach and the central approach towards attitude changes. Peripheral approach: This approach looks at six steps or cues that take one to the final step of attitude change. Peripheral route takes a short term benefit and provides for a change in mind that might give a short term gain to the advertiser or the persuader. The six cues that the researchers suggest are: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. Reciprocation happens when there is claim for returning a favor done earlier. Consistency explains the methodology of doing a job; this is how the job is to be done and therefore, let us do it this way. Social proof happens when others also start doing the same. The reason why this person should do it is because others are doing it the same way. Liking happens when you like it or the person who sells it. I like him and you like me. Therefore, let us do business together. Authority is the other way to convincing people; because I have said it therefore, it should be right. Scarcity, try to create a demand even if it is not there. That makes things better and makes the sale much more easily possible. Central approach: This approach is more for a permanent change in the attitude. This has to convince the people involved and make them believe and start having faith in the product that we try to promote. In this approach, the seller takes more time to explain the points involved, more time to ensure that the person on the other end is convinced. The aim of the central approach is to bring in a long term change in the attitude of the person. The approach enunciated by Dr Wimmer is a five step model that explains how the process of change in attitude happens with the persuasion that is employed by the speaker. The key steps are: 1. Unawareness 2. Awareness 3. Comprehension 4. Conviction 5. Action According to Dr Wimmer's theory, the five steps need to be passed through by every person who is getting convinced and every speaker or salesperson need to take this path with every customer. The listener whose attitude change is needed, is initially unaware of the product, becomes aware of it through the introduction given by the salesperson, he develops comprehension on the product and on the services of the company and any other aspect that he is interested in. After the conviction that this is reachable or realisable, he takes the action for the purchase conviction that he reached already. Every person moves through to the action stage from the Unawareness point. Let us analyze the talk given under both these models. Analysis of the speech The speech is structured as an introduction of the product that we are planning to sell, its current status in the market, the growth of the market, the promising nature of the business, the lacuna in them and finally, the possible success of the product. In line with the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we find that this talk is not a peripheral approach and that it is going in for a central approach. This is right because the peripheral model is acceptable for end users and for one time sale and for a short term persuasion. Whereas the current objective of the speaker is to get marketing and a product strategy approval by the company's executives; it is only appropriate that he takes the central approach in line with the ELM. In order to build the faith on the product, he introduces the technology (informational-educational) and also introduces the market that he is going to talk about in a short while (the European market). In order to get a clear understanding on the size of the market and on the nature of market share that the product would command, he also talks about the current market trend in Europe and who are the leaders in this sphere as of now. The nature of the product is explained initially to make sure that the audiences are in sync with his talk. As an example he also talks about the DVD made by Sotheby to educate their customers on the antique furniture market. Now with this his introduction on the product and the market sphere where he targets to work on is completed. If we analyze the same using Dr Wimmer's model, at this stage the audiences move from 'unawareness' to 'awareness'. In this model also for any sale, the audience or the target client should first move from the unawareness to the awareness stage if he is not already in it. In order to substantiate this, he also passes down a file with information which they could carry home and study. Subsequent to this, his idea he is trying to sell by saying why he is trying to sell the products in Europe, since it has got an affluent market with lots of discretionary income. This is one place where he says, they could relatively sell with ease. The question of why the market is answered after what is the product and where is the market. This puts on the analysis cloak over the audience and they try to comprehend the reasons behind is suggestion and whether they are in line with the objectives that each of them has. This fits into the comprehension phase of the Wimmer Model and continuous to be in line with the Central Approach of the ELM. Once the audience comprehend what is being said is in line with their targets then the objective of the session moves to conviction and action. The speaker brings in an assertive conviction there when he says that he would like to move into the market of this kind, right now. Before he moves on to the questions he talks of the project being an international one and that the mobilization of the funds for this project needs to be done from the bank. This talks of the conviction to go ahead with the project and also tells the audience to get into the action. During the question answer session, the speaker makes it a point to say what and how he is planning to gather information on the market situations in this case and how he is planning to get things done to ensure a smooth job. He also lets it sink that there is a major lacuna in the market situation with regard to distribution of the product under discussion. By doing this he moves the audience from the conviction end to the action end and even by throwing the session to them to ask questions, he convincingly moved forward for the audience to take on and start moving or get into action. The idea of building a slow but convincing repertoire of data to ensure that the audience get convinced of the idea and move with the speaker for a pretty long time is achievable only if the data presented sinks into their mind and that convinces them of the validity of the product and the project itself. This approach has been taken and the Central Approach taken by the speaker for this delivery is held valid. Conclusion Based on all these points raised in the previous sections, we could see that the speaker has planned his delivery and has stuck to the central approach laid down by the ELM model while at the same time stuck to the convincing / persuasion tactics that are known to the theorists. In the five stages approach, he ensured that his audience moved from one stage to the other and by allowing them the questioning time, he also ensured that he has made everyone in the audience understand and be with him in making this decision to market the product specified in Europe. Audience moved from one step to the other, however, the questions point out that there were some lingering doubts in the mind of the audience regarding the nature of competition and the status of the international market as of date which need to be eliminated by studying more on the subject. This was also accepted by the speaker and his method was also explained though not convincingly. References: 1. Eales-White, R. (1992) The Power of Persuasion. London: Kogan Page. 2. Petty, R. E. and J. T. Cacioppo (1986) Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New York: Springer-Verlag. 3. Whetten, D. and P. C. Godfrey (1998) Identity in Organizations: Building Theory Through Conversations. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. 4. Wimmer, Roger. (2006) The Five Stages of Communication / Persuasion, available at http://www.rogerwimmer.com Read More