2.5 Reactance and Persuasion Knowledge

Question 1

1. Reactance
2. Elements of Reactance
3. Typical reaction

Answer 1

Reactance:

• Psychological tension that appears when a person feels threatened in his/her freedom concerning opinion and behavior

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Elements of Reactance:

• Affective component: anger
• Cognitive component: negative cognitions

Reactance is more intense if:

• The higher the perceived pressure and the experienced importance of the restricted behavior and the wider the range of the restrictions

Typical reaction:

• Eliminate the restrictions reasons, if this is not possible the restricted option becomes more attractive

Question 2

Example Reactance

Answer 2

• Reactance often results when customers perceive a restriction of choice when a product is scarce
• The threatened or lost alternative may increase in perceived value

Practical examples of how marketers can make use of reactance:

• Sale ,Limited Editions , Statements that only few items are available (scarcity) 


Question 3

Persuasion Knowledge Model

Definition

Key message

Result

Answer 3

Explains:

• how a recipient reacts to a persuasion attempt

Key message:

• 
Recipients try to retain control over persuasion attempts via advertising by learning to recognize and handle such attempts of persuasion

Result:


• Recipients recognize, analyze, interpret, evaluate and remember
• attempts of influence and choose a suitable tactic to react to the influence and reach their own goals.

Question 4

Usage of Persuasion Knowledge Model

Answer 4

• the situation makes ulterior motives accessible. Accessibility depends on expectations, strength of association, frequency of activation, and recency of activation

–> Sales people, unsympathetic companies or companies with a bad image (or current scandal)




• consumers have unconstrained resources. Using PK requires higher-order attributional processing (instead of solely automatic processing)

Question 5

Effects during Persuasion Episode

Example PK

Answer 5

Effects during the persuasion episode:

• Distraction of the target person by drawing the attention from topic knowledge to persuasion knowledge
• Change in attitude towards the agent
• Devaluation of actual message by perception of used influence tactic

Example: Selling Situation: Blue ray player at Conrad

Agent = Selling Staff, Company, Advertisement; Promoter

• Topic knowledge: The staff member will share its knowledge on the players with the customer
• Persuasion knowledge: The staff member will use it to persuade (e.g., make compliments).
• Target knowledge: The staff member knows the customer from prior purchases or uses stereotypical knowledge and will base his/her behavior on this

Target = Customer

• Topic knowledge, e.g., knowledge and opinion about Blu-ray players
• Persuasion knowledge: The customer knows that the sales staff must sell products and is trained to do so, influences how persuasion attempts are analyzed, remembered and coped with.
• Agent knowledge: e.g. whether the agent is trustable/competent, etc.

Explanation:

• During the persuasion episode, both will interact, check out whether the other person indicates to have/use persuasion knowledge and will correspond accordingly (e.g., the target with reactance, the agent with the use of persuasive tactics).
• The target might engage in Persuasion Coping Behavior if it feels that the agent tries to persuade it (Persuasion Attempt)

Question 6

Consumer strategies for resisting advertising

Answer 6

• Forced exposure: At the cinema
• Self-affirmation: Sales staff praises your knowledge or style!, “As a mother, you only want the best”
• Branded contents: YouTube Tutorials,
• Freedom: When sales staff tells you they don’t want to influence you!