Let's face it—all advertising is
about AIDA; i.e., to attract
the Attention of the customer, to raise
customer Interest, to convince customers
that what marketers have to offer is what they Desire and to make customers take Action by purchasing
the products and services. Drawing on this very simple idea, a series
of models on consumer behavior have evolved. The appealing
image offered by these models is that the consumer goes through a series
of distinct phases from the point in time when he realizes that he has
a need until he has acquired the product that satisfies his need.
Let's take a basic example such as the buying of a car in order to
illustrate the consumer's progression along these distinct phases. First,
the consumer recognizes a need for a car (perhaps the old car has
broken down, perhaps his financial situation has recently
changed dramatically, thus leaving room in the budget for a car for the first
time, or perhaps he simply needs to invest in a car because he has gotten a
new job, to which he cannot go by foot). Realizing this need, the
customer will search for information on cars. Such information searches
may both be internal (i.e., scanning one's own memory for information
on various car brands and models) and external (i.e., turning to the
outside world for further information). After having carefully collected
and intensively studied all of the information obtained from
both internal searches and external information searches, the
customer will make a choice on the basis of evaluation of alternatives.
Finally, the consumer goes out and buys the car of his choice. The
interesting issue is that in order to affect the consumer (i.e., to catch
his attention, to trigger his interest, to make him desire and to make
him take action) the seller needs to ensure that what he wishes to sell
is in the consumer's mind during the various processes and
especially, marketers have to ensure that the customer draws on information
on what they have to offer during the process. However, advertising is
but one of the information sources the customer draws upon while
making decisions on how to solve his problems and satisfy his
needs. Hence, the sources of information include personal sources
(e.g., friends, family, acquaintances), commercial sources
(predominantly advertising), public sources (e.g., governmental assessment of
safety of various models of cars) and personal experiences.
Obviously, the consumer's assessment of credibility varies across
these information sources. After all, it is highly unlikely that the
consumer should distrust his personal experiences. Furthermore,
in general, information obtained from friends and relatives
(word-of-mouth—or WOM for short) is considered more trustworthy
and credible than information from commercial sources—after
all, family and friends have nothing to gain from positive WOM
except from prestige insofar the information they provide turns
out to be true after the car is bought. Accordingly, although advertising
is all about how sellers and marketers try to influence customers, it has
to be acknowledged that marketers compete for the customer's
attention with other information sources and that one of these sources (i.e.,
WOM) holds a competitive advantage due to the simple fact that it is considered
to be more objective, altruistic, trustworthy and credible than
the information that is provided in the ads.
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