Glossary of terms
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acceptance: believing a message; necessary to forming positive brand attitude when there is perceived risk in a purchase decision (high-involvement brand attitude strategies)
affect: in cognitive psychology, this is the evaluative dimension of attitude (favourable or unfavourable)
affect programme theory: the coordinated set of changes that constitute an emotional response, including physiological, behavioural, and subjective feelings
assimilation-contrast theory: the idea advanced by Sherif and Hovland in the 1960s that a person’s current position serves as a point of reference in relation to an attempt to persuade, assimilating positions close to his or her own and contrasting (or rejecting) positions discrepant from his or her own
attention: partly an automatic process, and central to perception and consciousness, it is the first step in processing a message
attitude: a relative concept, described by Fishbein and Ajzen as ‘a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object
attributes: objective characteristics of something—for example, a brand
automatic processing: what psychologists call processing of information that guides behaviour, but without conscious awareness, and without interfering with other conscious activity that may be going on at the same time: for example, driving slowly down a street (automatic processing) while looking for a specific address (conscious processing)
behavioural sequence model (BSM): a way of looking at how consumers make decisions in a product category, establishing first the stages they go through, then for each stage who are involved and the roles they play, where that stage occurs, the timing, and how
benefit: for a brand, the answer to the question ‘What does it offer’, described in terms of attributes, subjective characteristics, or emotions
benefit focus: how the benefit claim in a message is made, positioning a brand consistent with the underlying motivation driving behaviour in the category
brand attitude: a necessary communication objective reflecting the link between the brand and its benefit
brand awareness: a necessary communication objective reflecting the link in memory between the brand and the need it fulfils (category need)
brand awareness strategy: how brand awareness is used by consumers in the actual purchase decision, either by recognizing the brand at the point of purchase, or recalling it when the need occurs
brand attitude strategy: one of four strategic directions reflecting the degree of perceived risk in the purchase decision (low versus high involvement) and the underlying motivation driving behaviour in the category (positive versus negative)
brand equity: the perceived assets and liabilities associated with a brand, as reflected in people’s attitude towards it, that add to or detract from its value in their mind
brand purchase intention: a desirable communication effect, and necessary communication objective for promotion, reflecting a positive disposition to purchase
after processing a messagebottom-up processing: response to a stimulus directly in terms of what is seen or experienced
category need: an essential communication effect that becomes a communication objective either when there is a diminished perceived need for a product, or when the need must be established—for example, with new product introductions
central positioning: where a brand is seen as able to deliver all the main benefits associated with the category, and in effect defines the category (usually a successful pioneer brand or the market leader)
cognitive: in cognitive psychology this is the component of attitude that involves perceptual responses and beliefs about something (knowledge and assumption)
cognitive response theory: relating existing knowledge and assumptions (cognitions) to new information—for example, when exposed to an advert, in order to generate message-relevant associations
communication effect: one of four likely responses to a message: category need, brand awareness, brand attitude, or brand purchase intention
communication objective: the desired communication effect, which must always include brand awareness and brand attitude for any marketing communication, and brand purchase intention for promotion
communication response sequence: the sequence of steps necessary for the success of marketing communication: exposure to the message, processing of the message, achievement of the desired communication effect, and target audience action
communication strategy: the selection of appropriate communication objectives, and the identification of the specific brand awareness and brand attitude strategy consistent with behaviour in the category
conative: in cognitive psychology this is the component of attitude that involves actual behaviour
creative brief: a one-page document that outlines the strategic direction for creative development, covering the specific task at hand, the communication objectives and strategy, and any elements that the executions must contain
cross-elasticity: a way of defining markets in terms of price relationships between brands, where a change in price for one brand brings about a change in price for another brand
decision roles: whether a person is involved as an initiator, influencer, decider, purchaser, or user in the decision to buy or use a product or service
declarative memory: what we ‘know we know’ and can easily state in words
differentiated positioning: a positioning based upon a benefit that gives a brand an advantage over other brands in the consumer’s mind
direct marketing: utilizing a database specifically to target consumers, bypassing traditional channels of distribution
emotion: incidents of coordinated changes in several areas, including what has been called the ‘reaction triad’ of physiological arousal, motor expression, and subjective feeling, in response to either an internal or an external event of significant importance to an individual
emotional authenticity: necessary for all advertising addressing positive motives (transformational brand attitude strategies), where the creative execution is seen as ‘real’ and not posed or artificial
encoding specificity: an idea advanced by Endell Tulvincy suggesting that to retrieve something successfully from memory requires a match between how the tion was originally encoded and the information available when trying to retrieve the memory
episodic memory: memories of a single event, and part of declarative memory
ethos: following Aristotle, persuasion based upon an appeal that concentrates upon the source of the message rather than the source itself
excitatory behaviour: from classical conditioning, it is related to the underlying motivation that initiates an emotional sequence in the processing of a message
expectancy value: perhaps the most widely used model of attitude (generally attributed to Martin Fishbein), it posits that one’s attitude is a summary of everything believed about something weighted by the importance attached to those beliefs
explicit memory: the conscious recall of information that is recognized as coming from memory
frequency: the number of times an individual in a target audience is exposed to a campaign in a specific time period
goals: an objective (which is a broad aim or desired outcome) made specific in terms of time and degree—for example, increasing sales 20 per cent over the next year
gross rating point (GRP): the product of reach time frequency in a media schedule
hierarchal partitioning: a way of looking at markets by determining the order in which consumers consider the characteristic of a product in the decisions they make
implicit memory: the unconscious impact of recent experiences on behaviour
informational brand attitude strategy: communication strategy for building positive brand attitude when the underlying motivation driving behaviour in the category is negative (for example, problem solution or problem avoidance)
information processing paradigm: a model proposed by William J. McGuire to define the steps necessary for communication to change attitude: the message must be presented, attended to, comprehended, and yielded to, and that intention retained and acted upon
inhibitory behaviour: from classical conditioning, it is related to the motivation and emotion associated with the end state in processing a message
integrated marketing communication (IMC): the planning and execution of all types of advertising and promotion (that is, any marketing communication) for a brand, service, or company in order to meet a common set of communication objectives in support of a single positioning
involvement: the perceived risk associated with a purchase or usage decision, measured dichotomously as high (risk attached) or low (no risk attached)
learning: an essential stage in the processing of all messages, it is the rote acquisition of some part of a message’s content, and can occur without conscious effort
limbic system: an area in the forebrain traditionally considered critical for emotion, and where innate responses required for survival as a species are thought to originate
logos: following Aristotle, persuasion that uses an appeal to logical arguments that requires one to draw one’s own conclusion based upon the argument presented
long-term potentiation (LTP): the neurological basis of learning, it is the process of stimulating a dendritic spine repeatedly, leaving it more responsive to new input of the same type
marketing plan: a general term used to describe the overall plan for marketing a brand, which outlines goals and objectives for the brand, and how to reach them
memory: studied by philosophers, writers, and scientists for hundreds of years, it is the reflection of an accumulation of all of our experiences, and is (as described by Howard Eschenbaum) ‘who we are’
mere exposure: described by Zajonc and his colleagues, it represents an example of unconscious affective memory, independent of declarative memory, where a slight preference is expressed for familiar items even when they are not explicitly remembered
motivation: the innate or acquired drive that stimulates behaviour, and that may be negatively originated to solve or avoid a problem (for example) or positively originate for sensory gratification or social approval
new media: a general term covering non-traditional ways of delivering advertising or promotion messages, anything from text messaging to the Internet
non-declarative emotional memory: centred in the amygdala, it is where emotional associations and experiences are stored out of consciousness, but nevertheless inform conscious processing
objective: a broad or general description of a desired outcome
objective characteristic: specific attributes or features of a brand or product such as alcoholic content in beer or memory capacity in a computer
partitioning: a way of looking at markets in terms of how consumers categorize products in relationship to perceived characteristics of the category
pathos: following Aristotle, persuasion that uses appeals that involve feelings, values, or emotions
perceptions: in both a colloquial and neuro-psychological sense, what your mind tells you something is
positioning: in terms of marketing communication, locating a brand in the target audience’s mind relative to competitors in terms of benefits
primary emotion: following Damasio, universal emotions that are located in the limbic system and are triggered directly by sensory input without the mediation of higher brain centres: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust
primary media: the key media in a campaign that provide the most effective media for achieving all a brand’s communication objectives
processing: the immediate response to elements in an advert or promotion: attention, learning, emotion, and (for high-involvement purchase decisions) acceptance
product benefit-oriented positioning: positioning a brand in marketing communication where the product is the hero and is defined in terms of specific benefits, not the user
product life cycle: traditional marketing understanding of the progress of a brand or product over time, moving through four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline
psycho-graphics: term used to describe various target audience characteristics such as ‘feelings’ and other non-demographic variables
psycho-linguistics: the study of how verbal content of a message is processed, and what is needed for effective communication
ratchet effect: following William Moran, the idea that using advertising and promotion together in an appropriate way enables promotions to help ‘ratchet up’ the overall effect of advertising
reach: the percentage of a target audience that has an opportunity for exposure to a campaign in a given time period
recall brand awareness: where the category need stimulates the recall of a brand that will satisfy that need
recognition brand awareness: when a brand is recognized at the point of purchase, and that recognition reminds the consumer of a need for the product
reflexive attention: unconscious attention that occurs automatically, and associated with bottom-up processing
schemata: following Bartlett, a way of organizing in memory past experiences so that in remembering one constructs or infers the probable components of a memory and the order in which they occur
secondary emotions: following Damasio, emotions that are acquired such as embarrassment, jealousy, guilt, or pride and that are triggered by things one has been sensitized to through experience
selective attention: voluntary attention that occurs consciously, and associated with top-down processing
semantic memory: everything one knows, not connected to any specific experience where it was acquired (unlike episodic memory), and part of declarative memory
segmentation: identifying niches or subgroups within a market, generally with the aim of more targeted communication
sequential planning: a planning process where the order in which the steps taken are critical to the result, such as the strategic planning process for advertising and other marketing communication
strategy: in the broadest sense, a specific way in which something is to be done
strategic planning: the specific process used to accomplish a task, such as the five steps necessary to develop an effective advertising campaign
synapses: the gap between two neurons, over which impulses lead to learning
tactic: specific details or parts of a strategy, and how it can be implemented
target audience: that portion of a market identified to receive messages in the form of advertising or promotion
top-down processing: the use of knowledge and assumptions in the processing of any stimulus, beyond simple sensory input (bottom-up processing)
transformational brand attitude strategy: communication strategy for building positive brand attitude when the underlying motivation driving behaviour in the category is positive (for example, sensory gratification or social approval)
user-oriented positioning: while utilizing brand benefits, the message is specifically addressing the user of the brand, not the product
visual imagery: the images stimulated in the ‘mind’s eye’ either by something concrete such as an advert or by a memory
working memory: temporary storage of information while one is working with it or attending to it