The Elaboration Likelihood Model Applied to Internet Advertising

Advances in the internet have changed the way America works,learns,and communicates. The internet has become an integral part of our social life. This has assisted us by communicating and research purposes.

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives--or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts--as the Internet does today.

The popularity of Internet has become ubiquitous and pervasive all over the world. The Internet plays a pivotal role in all walks of human life and has improved the quality of people life and has invaded all sectors like Governmental Organizations, Science and Technology, Business World, Industry and Education. In 1969, the Internet was originated by US Department of Defense (DoD) and Advanced Research Project (ARPANET) using Network Control Program (NCP). Research on packet switching communication methodology resulted in inter-networking of networks in 1981, when the researchers in Great Britain and Norway tried to collaborate with the researchers in US using Internet Protocol (IP). Realizing the importance and advantages of IP, the Internet

Throughout the last decades there has been vast improvements in advertising and its persuasive effects to our psychology. Not only has it become part of our global culture, it is so deeply ingrained in our society that we sometimes don't even notice if someone trying persuade us by their use of simplistic persuasive techniques. It is only when we reflect on the speech, video, or advertisement that we can pinpoint their propaganda objectives.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model has been hailed by some as “unquestionably the most influential recent theoretical development in persuasion research” (O’Keefe, 2002). Even if this is the case, it is by no means a perfect theory. One of the most commonly cited criticisms of the elaboration likelihood model is the vacuous nature of the “argument strength” component. Although this criticism is useful for pointing out an area of the model that can be fine-tuned, any perceived shortcomings due to the argument strength concept can be mitigated through a creative application of other areas of the model.

The Internet is, quite literally, a network of networks. It is comprised of ten thousands of interconnected networks spanning the globe. The computers that form the Internet range from huge mainframes in research establishments to modest PCs in people's homes and offices. Despite the recent hype, the Internet is not a new phenomenon. Its roots lie in a collection of computers that were linked together in the 1970s to form the US Department of Defense's communications systems. Fearing the consequences of nuclear attack, there was no central computer holding vast amounts of data, rather the information was dispersed across thousands of machines. A set of rules, of protocols, known as TCP/IP was

Attitudes are evaluations of people, objects, and ideas. (Akert, 2013) Cognitively based attitudes are based on thoughts and beliefs one has about an object, and this attitude provides pros and cons of an object, so we can decide if we want to be associated with it or not. Affectively based attitudes are based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object. (Akert, 2013) The elaboration likelihood model is the umbrella for this topic, because it explains the two ways in which persuasion can change someone attitude. The two ways are persuasion through the central route and the persuasion through the peripheral route. The elaboration likelihood model refers to processing the message which is related to the cognitively based attitudes. Persuasive communication is most successful in changing attitudes when going through the central route because the audience is motivated, whereas with the peripheral route the audience is not motivated. Now I am going to discuss the routes of persuasion through advertisements in detail.

When John Chambers assumed the CEO position, he outlined some very specific objectives for Cisco’s future success. His plans included creating a one-stop shop for business networks by creating a comprehensive product line, to make acquisitions an efficient business process, to create industry-wide software standards for networking, and to choose the right strategic partners. All of these efforts would change the way companies and industries operated by creating an infrastructure of networked voice, data and video.

The meathodology of this campaign with focus on the elaboration likelihood model. In this model there are two ways in which the brain prossesis new information. The central route where the brain preformes more involved cognitive prosses, assessing the new information. The peripheral route relise on past knolage and emotion, and is less involved. It is recommended that campaigns with more sensitive issues make use of both the central and peripheral route when presenting information (Croucher 2016). The disition to use one route over the other comes down to how motivated the individual is and how relivent the new information is to them.

Petty and Cacioppo (1981) have developed the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion which explains the peripheral route to persuasion and the central route. In the peripheral route, persuasive influences are more tangential to the issues at hand. For egg- in a PSA targeted against smoking in youth, the peripheral route will show the teenagers having a better sex life after quitting smoking. (William G. Shadel, January 2009) Central processing occurs when the person at hand is aware about the main message of the PSA and is motivated to consider its content. We will analyze the use of celebrities for both these routes of persuasion and try to find out the effectiveness in each case.

Advertising persuade buyers to buy the brand (Moriatry et al, 2015). The proponents of weak theory of advertising, Ehrenberg and Goodhart, 1977 suggested advertisements reinforce consumers’ habit of brand usage and selective perceptions allow buyers to watch the relevant advertisements before taking purchase decision. Advertisements emphasize and sometimes nudge consumers for repeat purchase (Ehrenberg and Barnard, 1997). Contrarily, Strong theory of advertising indicates that advertising influences consumer’s perception and persuades customers to buy the product once then repeatedly (Moriatry et al, 2015). One of the most popular strong theories of advertisings are Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). According to (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) ELM explains how a persuasive message can diversify the attitude of the receiver through two routes: central route and peripheral route. They propagated in central route the receiver considers of message arguments whereas in peripheral route

The internet is the easier way for people to communicate with each other. It has made the world smaller by bringing people together everywhere and any time. This invention has important tools for people to contact and it has changed their way of communication in today busy world. In fact people are becoming totally dependent on the internet as a way of communication in their daily life, business and work. The limitation of old communication tools has made the use of internet for communication is wider all over the world .

Scenario: you are watching your favorite TV show and during the commercial break an advertisement comes on for a brand new device that potty-trains puppies. If you have a puppy and understand how wild and untamed they are, this offer would not only seem heaven-sent, but interest you, making you more likely to think deeply about whether or not to buy the product. However, if you do not own a puppy, you would quickly lose interest in the commercial and it is extremely unlikely that you would give it much thought after the commercial is over. Why is it that things that peak our interest are more likely to stimulate our deep thoughts while things that are less-relevant to us do not? The Elaboration Likelihood Theory explains just that. It analyzes how variables such as motivation, processing, ability, and persuasion play a role in how much thought we give to a certain message. From the puppy commercial, to major things such as the digitization of health records and the upcoming presidential election, the Elaboration Likelihood Theory explains our likelihood of thinking about —and acting on—a certain message.

In today’s world Internet has become one of the most important mediums of communication. It has become the lifeline of our survival. It has removed the entire social, economic and physical barrier and has immense effect on our day to day activity.

The central route to persuasion requires high efforts of processing which occurs through a complex structure, thus leads to longer lasting effects of persuasion. However, if an audience is lacking in motivation, in which they are not analytical or involved with the message they are more likely to take the peripheral route to persuasion. In this case, peripheral cues are used in which these cues trigger an acceptance of the messages thus leading to persuasion, which is usually a temporary effect [Myers et al 2016 p190-191].