As mentioned above, the hierarchy of effects model is a study under behavioral psychology, which focuses on the response of behavior. The model is thus criticized for its effectiveness by cognitive psychology, which studies the information processing of brains.
Hierarchy Of Effects Model By Robert Lavidge
The hierarchies of effects models have been perpetually updated across different time period. Ever since the evolution of the primary customer path indicated through the Attention, Interest, Desire, Action model in the 1900s, the hierarchical frameworks have witnessed a significant transformation in context to the present age of Web connectivity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the transformation in the hierarchy of effects models in the age of connectivity.
This paper is conceptual in nature and an attempt to provide an overall view of the shifting dimension in the customer path as indicated in the various hierarchies of effects models since evolution up to the age of digitalisation.
Chakravarty, R. and Sarma, N.N. (2022), "Evolutionary framework of hierarchy of effects models: exploring relevance in the shifting of customer path", Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 59-68. -09-2020-0151
The digital disruptions have significantly affected the hierarchy models of advertising effects and have generated a paradigm shift in the way customers think and make decisions. The hierarchy models of communication effects prevalent since the 1900s (Barry and Howard, 1990) need a reoriented look. Traditionally, marketing was primarily focused on segmenting, which is a process of dividing the entire market into homogeneous groups based on geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural profiles, and thereafter targeting the customers in each group based on their needs. However, the emergence of the digital economy has provided a new dimension in the form of online communities of customers who are the contemporary target groups for marketers (Kotler et al., 2016). Such online customer communities are a conglomerate of acquaintances connected with one another in the digital world and are sensitive to any sort of irrelevant and manipulative product or service related information. Over the years, there has been a need-based transformation in the way companies communicate with its new breed of emerging young customers who are connected with one another on a virtual platform. The digital economy has further enhanced an undisrupted flow of information amongst the online customer communities that has led to the delivery of transparent information about products and services from the marketers, so that they can transform a customer into a loyal brand advocate (Kotler et al., 2016). Customers today are better informed about products through the exchange of information that happen in those online communities. However, understanding the customer is a complex process because of the regular shift in their tastes and preferences which has led to constant research on the understanding as well as developing frameworks to describe the customer path, as it is evident from previous literature related on the different hierarchical models of advertising effects (Barry, 1987; Barry and Howard, 1990). Also, according to Barry, (1987), Barry and Howard (1990), the first traditional model of measuring advertising effectiveness was introduced by E. St. Elmo Lewis in the year 1898 which is popularly known as Attention-Interest-Desire (AID). Thereafter several hierarchical models were developed by researchers in their inquisitiveness to understand the transformation that took place in the behavioural pattern of customers due to advertisements (Smith and Swinyard, 1983; Cobb and Hoyer, 1985). However, with the development in the area of information and technology, the hierarchical models of advertising effects underwent significant transformation. Contrary to the earlier models, which were more oriented to gain the attention of the customers, the hierarchical models due to the digital transformation are more inclined towards adding value to the brand so as to gain brand advocates (Kotler et al., 2016). In addition to generating awareness about products and inducing purchases, the new age marketing communication concentrate on building brand value and customer loyalty (Wijaya, 2012). This paper therefore is an attempt to understand the changing dimension in the hierarchy of effect models of advertising through the traditional, modern and the digital era that has eventually witnessed a paradigm shift towards the development of a new customer path. The objectives of this research work have been formulated as under:To study the emerging trends in the literature regarding hierarchy models of communication.
All the previous hierarchical models have been developed during the pre-connectivity period when the unlimited capability of the internet was still unexplored. The digital disruption created by the evolution of the internet has made both researchers and management practitioners to look at the hierarchical framework from a different perspective. The internet has significantly influenced the society and transformed the process of communication (Cappo, 2003). The emergence of the social media has provided a new dimension in the form of online communities of customers who are the contemporary target groups for marketers. The customer paths demonstrated in the previous hierarchical models are not sufficient in this current age of digitalization that has transformed the way people socialize and communicate with one another (Wijaya, 2012). It is observed that the customer path in the previous hierarchical models did not indicate follow up action which is essential to understand the level of satisfaction of the customers and measure their post-purchase behaviour. To this have commented that the previous hierarchy of effect models and also the one proposed by (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961; Colley, 1961) had illustrated a suitable customer path that might end in ultimate purchase of the advertised product (Weilbacher, 2001). However, there was a lack of any empirical evidence to justify that the customers actually passes through each stage before taking a decision. Such gaps identified in the literature had necessitated the development of an evolutionary framework of hierarchy of effects models. Considering that the customer path as indicated in the AIDA framework was the earliest and widely used in several studies related to advertising and a popular model used by practitioners therefore the authors of this study have adopted this as the base model.
The hierarchical models developed during the traditional phase were inclined towards enhancing sales while those developed during the pre-connectivity phase concentrated more on the attitude formation of the customer and the models developed during the digital phase were focused on the behavioural aspect of the customers either in the form of repurchasing the advertised brand or by being loyal brand advocates. Thus an evolutionary framework of the hierarchy of effects models has been clearly depicted across the different phase that signifies a transformational shift in the customer path as indicated in Figure 5.
Every model from the early part of the previous century till date is relevant in respect of the time when that was propounded. The models could provide insight for a customer path. The new age models have changed to capture the emerging trends. Not only capturing the time specific trends, the hierarchy of communication effect models provides scope for marketers to develop their advertising strategies to sustain in the respective marketing environment. However, with the growth and development of the internet, the hierarchical models have been updated and new customer path has been developed. Marketers need to be honest and truthful in communicating to the online group of customers as such groups are very much sensitive to misleading information and a wrong message from the marketer may open the door for its competitors to enter. The pioneer advantage and sustaining the same will create the entry barriers for the prospective competitors.
However, whether the customer will follow the entire path as indicated in the different hierarchy models will have to be further established through investigation as previous researchers did not focus much on this aspect.
The hierarchy reflects the improvement of customer experience in learning and decision-making. A hierarchy-of-effects model is used to set up for a single product a standardized sequence of promotional message goals, to expand on each successive goal before a transaction is eventually made.
The hierarchy of effects model is a model which tells advertisers to make an advertisement in such a way that the customer goes through all these six stages namely awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase. It is created by Robert J Lavidge and Gary A Steiner in 1961, the hierarchy of effects model suggests six steps to consumer buying behaviour.
The hierarchy of effects model is a model which tells advertisers to make an advertisement in such a way that the customer goes through all these six stages namely awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase.
The AIDA model is just one of a class of models known as hierarchy of effects models or hierarchical models, all of which imply that consumers move through a series of steps or stages when they make purchase decisions. These models are linear, sequential models built on an assumption that consumers move through a series of cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) stages culminating in a behavioural (doing e.g. purchase or trial) stage.[1]
Some of the contemporary variants of the model replace attention with awareness. The common thread among all hierarchical models is that advertising operates as a stimulus (S) and the purchase decision is a response (R). In other words, the AIDA model is an applied stimulus-response model. A number of hierarchical models can be found in the literature including Lavidge's hierarchy of effects, DAGMAR and variants of AIDA. Hierarchical models have dominated advertising theory,[4] and, of these models, the AIDA model is one of the most widely applied.[5] 2ff7e9595c
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