Elaboration Likelihood Model - Essay Example

Elaboration Likelihood Model: In Need Of ‘Human’ Touch of the of the Introduction Communication is one of the most important aspects of human life. It is through communication that people can express and share their ideas with other people. However, communicating an idea is not as easy as it sounds. This is because the process of communication is influenced a lot by the unconscious emotions, desires and thoughts of human beings (Hansen & Christensen, 2007, p.15). The decisions and the choices of human beings are highly influenced by their subconscious thinking patterns. This applies even to the choices of buying different products and services that are available in the market. In today’s modern world where there are hundreds of different brands selling the same products, it has become essential for the manufacturer to know the psychology of the consumer in depth, in order to stay in the competition. It should not be surprising to know that in the developed countries the costs of manufacturing are much less compared to the costs of marketing the products (Hansen & Christensen, 2007, p.18). However, manufacturers and brands have realized that to sell the products, they need to convince the consumers of their idea and gain their confidence. Hence, understanding the psychology of the consumer has become extremely important for the manufacturers and service providers (Hansen & Christensen, 2007, p.17). Different studies and theories in the field of psychology, management and sociology have been developed to explain how the consumer makes choices (Hansen & Christensen, 2007, p.18). These theories help people in the field of marketing and advertising to understand the way consumer behaves and takes decisions. On the basis of these theories, manufacturers design their marketing strategies and persuade consumers to buy their products. One such important theory of persuasion is the ‘Elaboration Likelihood Model’ which explains the likelihood of receiver getting pursued on the basis of his involvement in the message. Elaboration Likelihood Model Petty and Cacioppo (1986) presented the ‘Elaboration Likelihood Model’(ELM) to explain how consumer processes the information while forming their attitude towards the product (Hansen & Christensen, 2007, p.59). According to ELM, “elaboration likelihood is determined by an individual’s motivation and ability to elaborate” (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.139). ELM suggests that the involvement of the consumer depends on different important factors of the communication and hence, these factors are responsible for the amount of consumer’s engagement in the communication (O’Keefe, 2002, p. 137). ELM states that the more serious the consumer’s intellectual engagement (elaboration) in the communication, the more is the chance of the consumer changing his attitude and getting persuaded by the message (O’Keefe, 2002, p. 137). However, not every consumer is same in nature. Different people have different ways of perceiving and processing the information. Hence, according to ELM, there are two different routes that consumers take to process the information, and these routes depend on the degree of the elaboration (O’Keefe, 2002, p. 137). The two routes are central route and the peripheral route. According to Sher and Lee (2009), the effectiveness of persuasive communication can be understood through the framework provided in the ELM (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.74). The Two Routes Mental attitude plays an important role in purchasing intention of the consumer. According to ELM, there are two routes that influence the consumer and make him to change his attitude (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.74). The two routes, known as the central route and the peripheral route, describe the “amount of thoughtful processing of information or ‘elaboration’ that goes into decision making about purchasing the product” (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.74). Some individuals are quality oriented. They form their attitude towards message or persuasive communication by thinking deeply about it. People are said to take central route when their attitude towards persuasive communication is based on the “thoughtful assessment of the quality of the argument presented” (Kim, Lee & Richards, 2009, p. 67). For example, people taking the central route form an attitude about the advertisement or product only after scrutinizing the merit and relevance of the argument presented (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.74). However, same is not the case for people who take peripheral route in forming attitude. People taking peripheral route rely more on the physical characteristics of the communication than on the essence of the communication (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.74). For example, their attitude is based on aspects like attractiveness of the spokesman, quantity of the arguments, aesthetics of the endorsement etc (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.74). Hence, for people taking peripheral route, what is more important is the ‘look’ of the communication and not the intellectual aspect. The Effect Of Persuasion Style The idea of central and peripheral routes to persuasion in the ELM has been confirmed and repeated in many of the researches conducted later. For example, Park, Lee and Han (2007) conducted a research to study how the attitudes of online shoppers is affected and influenced by the online consumer reviews given on the products (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.72). The researchers based their study on the theory of elaboration likelihood model as they realized that this is the theory that can help them in understanding the influence of online reviews on the decisions of online shoppers (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.72). They found that the purchasing intention (PI) of the online shoppers is affected by the quality and the quantity of the online product reviews (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.72). The research also reinforced the ‘route’ feature of the ELM as it was found that the consumers who have low-involvement in the message are affected more by the quantity of the reviews than the quality of the reviews, while the consumers with high-involvement are affected by the quantity of reviews only when their quality was also high (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.72). The research also revealed that the level of message quality increases the satisfaction level of the consumers (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.73). The purchasing intention of the consumer increases with the increase in satisfaction level (Lin, Lee & Horng, 2011, p.73). This shows that the quality of the message plays an important role in persuading the consumer to buy the product. However, some researchers have also revealed the weakness of the ELM by studying the role of the intrinsic values of human being in attitude formation. The Role Of Intrinsic Human Values The main feature of ELM is its stress on individual’s motivation and ability to elaborate as the factors of attitude change (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.139). Hence, according to ELM, consumers either rely on their cognitive abilities (central route) or the physical aspects (peripheral cues) of the message or communication to form their attitude about it (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.138). However, it is important to note that the internal emotional framework also affects the attitude of a consumer towards the product. Different researches were conducted to study the effect of personality traits on the strength of communication persuasion. Sher and Lee (2009) conducted a research on 278 undergraduate students to find the effect of skepticism on their attitude towards product and purchasing intention (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.142). The purpose of the study was to find out if skepticism plays any role in changing the attitude of consumers which is formed due to positive online reviews (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.142). The research proved that the ELM prediction that people with high skepticism shopping online take central route is wrong (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.142). People with high skepticism were biased against certain type of information and were not affected by the quality of the message (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.142). They, in fact, ignored the external factors while forming their attitude and depended on their intrinsic beliefs and emotional framework to form the attitude about the product (Sher & Lee, 2009, p.143). This shows that internal factors like emotions and beliefs do affect the attitude of a consumer. Another research study conducted by Chen and Lee (2007) also revealed the role of personality traits in formation of attitude (Chen & Lee, 2008, p.1386). The study was internet based and 40 Taiwanese websites were included in the study (Chen & Lee, 2008, p.1386). The results were based on the 223 questionnaires which were returned by the participants (Chen & Lee, 2008, p.1386). The results revealed that the beliefs of the consumer play an important role in formation of his attitude towards the websites (Chen & Lee, 2008, p.1393). It was also found that the websites that are fun and playful, and which arouse the emotions of the consumer, are perceived as good websites by the consumer (Chen & Lee, 2008, p.1394). This shows that the communication content that arouses and touches different aspects of personality traits are considered valuable and good by the consumer (Chen & Lee, 2008, p.1394). Hence, the research reveals that the attitude towards the product is formed not only on the basis of information processing, as stated by ELM, but is also formed on the basis of the emotional and personality framework of the consumer. Conclusion ‘Elaboration Likelihood Model’ is one of the most informative and interesting theoretical approaches to consumer information processing. Through central and peripheral information processing routes, ELM clearly explains how the consumer can be persuaded to change his attitude towards the communication or message. However, as discussed above, ELM has missed to integrate the most important aspect of human being in the model, and that is emotions. Hence, it can be said that ELM should modify its features and integrate the intrinsic aspects like emotions and personality traits of human beings to explain the information processing of the consumer. Inclusion of intrinsic aspects of human beings will add ‘human’ touch to the model and will make it more reliable and in depth. References Chen, S. & Lee, S. (2008). The Role of Personality Traits and Perceived Values In Persuasion: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective on Online Shopping. Social Behavior and Personality, 36 (10), 1379-1400. Hansen, F. & Christensen, S.R. (2007). Emotions, Advertising and Consumer Choice. Frederiksberg, Denmark: Copenhagen Business School Press. Kim, I., Lee, F. & Richards, J. (2009). The Processing of Advertisements Through Involvement Roles, Source Cues, and Affect Intensity. International Journal of Strategic Management, 9 (2), 67-72. Lin, C., Lee, S. & Horng, D. (2011). The Effects of Online Reviews on Purchasing Intention: The Moderating Role of Need for Cognition. Social Behavior and Personality, 39 (1), 71-82. O’Keefe, D,J. (2002). Persuasion Theory and Research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Sher, P.J. & Lee, S. (2009). Consumer Skepticism and Online Reviews: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective. Social Behavior and Personality, 37 (1), 137-144. Read More