A Model of Brand Awareness Brand Attitude Advertising Strategies

A Model of Brand Awareness and Brand Attitude Advertising Strategies Larry Percy Lintas: USA John R. Rossiter Australian Graduate School of Management

ABSTRACT A model is described that helps guide advertising strategy, based upon careful attention to brand awareness and brand attitude. In this model, an important distinction is drawn between recognition brand awareness and recall brand awareness. Brand attitude strategy is seen as reflecting an interaction between a potential consumer's involvement with the purchase decision and the underlying motivation to purchase. Applications of the model are discussed. Contrary to what may seem to be obvious, purchase intention is rarely the direct object of advertising communication strategy. Although it is certainly true that purchase intention and behavior is the ultimate goal of advertising, more often one must be preconditioned by first raising the salience of a brand, and then forming at least some tentative attitudes toward it before purchase is considered. As a result, it is important, from both a practical and theoretical perspective, to understand the dynamics involved in generating brand awareness and attitude. Toward that end this article dicusses the strategic implications of the model proposed by Rossiter and Percy (1980, 1987) for executing adPsychology & Marketing © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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vertising that will meet particular brand awareness and brand attitude communication objectives. In this model, brand awareness is treated as a dichotomy that addresses both recognition and recall objectives, and brand attitude is discussed in terms of the interaction between the underlying motivations driving behavior in a category and the involvement associated with the purchase decision. As discussed in detail in the following, motivation is conceptualized as either positive or negative, involvement as either low or high. It therefore follows that eight primary strategies are available for advertising execution, based upon combinations of the two brand awareness strategies and the four brand attitude strategies (see Figure 1). BRAND AWARENESS Frequently overlooked in discussions of advertising strategy, brand awareness is a crucial consideration. It may be thought of as a buyer's ability to identify a brand within a category in sufficient detail to make a purchase. It is important to remember that sufficient detail does not always require identification of the brand name. Often it is no more then a visual image of the package that stimulates a response to the brand. Moreover, recall of the name is not necessarily required because brand awareness may proceed through brand recognition. When a brand is recognized at point of purchase, brand awareness does not require brand recall. This is a key point in the consideration of brand awareness as a communication objective. In fact, this difference is often misunderstood by marketing and advertising managers. The difficulty relates to the essential difference between recognition and recall, a difference that is extremely important to advertising strategy. Brand recognition and brand recall are two separate types of brand awareness. The difference depends upon the

BRAND AWARENESS Brand Recognition (at-point-of-purchase)

Brand Recall (prior to purchase)

BRAND ATTITUDE Low Involvement Informational

Low Involvement Transformational

High Involvement Informational

High Involvement Transformational

Figure 1. Two-factor communication models.

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communication effect that occurs first in the buyer's mind: category need or brand awareness. Recognition: Brand Awareness First In many purchase situations, the brand is quite literally presented to the consumer first, and this is what stimulates the consumer to consider the relevancy of category need: Do I really need or want this? The sequence in the buyer's mind is: Recognition of the brand reminds me of category need. It is important to understand here that a brand may actually fail a recall test, yet be recognized in the store at the time of the purchase decision and bought. A good illustration of what we are talking about here is the process most people go through when food shopping. Very few shoppers actually carry lists; and those who do will only have category reminders (e.g., trash bags, salad dressing, etc.), not brand names, on their list. Shoppers rely upon visual reminders of their needs as they scan the packages on the shelf and brands are recognized. Clearly, then, when purchase selections rely upon recognition, advertising should feature the package as it will be seen in the store. Recall: Category Need First In other decision-making situations, the brand is not present. A category need is experienced first, and then the consumer relies upon memory to generate possible solutions. In this case the consumer must recall a brand, or several brands, from memory in order to make a decision. For example, if a family decides to go out for lunch at a fast-food restraurant, they are unlikely to drive around until they recognize one they would like to patronize. Instead they will recall from memory available alternatives, select one, and then proceed there for lunch. As a rule, the first recalled brand (given a favorable attitude) will get the business. In this case, it is important to see and hear the brand name repeatedly linked to the category need in advertising. As we can see, brand awareness is not a simple issue. It has at least two major components; and, in fact, one can even look at recognition brand awareness as being either visual recognition or verbal recognition. The important thing to understand is that brand awareness is a function of whether or not recognition ofthe brand drives category need (recognition awareness) or whether category need drives brand awareness (recall awareness). This distinction is critical to effective advertising strategy. This question is relevant to all advertising and promotion situations. An advertiser is always trying to create or maintain brand awareness so that the brand is salient for the buyer in a purchase situation. With-

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out the appropriate brand awareness response, advertising is unlikely to be effective. BRAND ATTITUDE Like brand awareness, brand attitude is also a necessary communication effect if brand purchase is to occur. However, we are treating attitude in a somewhat different manner from that which is familiar to most researchers dealing with consumer behavior. Generally speaking, the literature in consumer psychology looks at attitude in an expectancy-value manner, following the formulation of Fishbein (cf. Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). But such a formulation is really too limiting. The Rossiter and Percy model looks at attitude as referring to a buyer's overall evaluation of a brand with respect to its perceived abiity to meet a currently relevant motivation. This may appear to the reader to be very much like the Fishbein formulation, but there is an important difference. Our model acknowledges and accepts the general notion of cognitive beliefs interacting with evaluations to form overall evaluations of a brand, but posits that the brand evaluation must be related to a currently relevant motivation in the sense that Fennell (1975,1978) argues all consumer's behavior is motivated. As a result, there are four important characteristics to be understood about brand attitude:1. Brand attitude depends upon the currently relevant motivation. As a result, if a buyer's motivation changes, so might the buyer's evaluation of a brand. 2. Brand attitude consists of both a cognitive and affective component. The cognitive, or logical belief, component guides behavior and the affective, or emotional feeling, component energizes the behavior. 3. The congitive component may be comprised of a series of specific benefit beliefs. In and of themselves these are not the attitude, but rather the reasons for the brand attitude. 4. Brand attitude is a relative construct. In almost any product category what one is looking for is the brand that, relatively speaking, meets the underlying motivation better than alternative brands. As long as a motivation to behave exists, buyers will choose some brand that best meets that motivation from the alternatives of which the buyer is aware. Brand attitude is not a simple construct, but it is critical to our understanding of effective advertising strategy. In the remainder of this article we will deal in more depth with this notion, beginning with what we mean by involvement and motivation as it relates to brand 266

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attitude, and then how all of this may be implemented in generating more effective advertising strategies. Involvement Here we are dealing with one's ivolvement with a purchase decision, reflecting the cognitive aspect of brand attitude. Involvement is categorized along the lines developed by Nelson (1970), an economic perspective classifying a brand purchase decision as either low involvement, where trial experience is sufficient, or high involvement, where information search and conviction is required prior to purchase. The formulation of low involvement is compatible with Ehrenberg's awareness-trial-reinforcement model (1974). The high involvement formulation assumes a perceived risk that may be either economic or psychosocial (Bauer, 1967; Peter & Tarpy, 1975). Motivation Overall affect for a brand, as Wyer (1974) has argued, is only one class of beliefs about that brand. Clearly there are other motivations that may stimulate a brand purchase intention. Fennell (1975, 1978) has suggested that one may look at consumer responses to particular brands in relation to a brand's ability to fulfill one of a set of either positive or negative motivations. These motivations are seen by Rossiter and Percy (1987) as part of an energizing mechanism that helps relate perceived benefits of an advertised brand with the underlying needs of the consumer. Basically, the Rossiter and Percy model (1987) defines brand attitude as a summary belief that links the advertised brand to a specific motivation. These five negative and three positive motivations provide the dimensions of motivation that drive the energizing mechanism linking a brand attitude to a motivation. These motivations are detailed in Table 1. THE STRATEGIC MODEL

A model of eight strategic directions results from an interaction first of brand awareness with brand attitude; and then, within brand attitude, of involvement and motivation. We have seen this underlying structure illustrated in Figure 1. As shown, one may be looking at an advertising strategy for one of four brand attitude strategies with either a recognition or recall brand awareness objective. We have already discussed the strategic implications of the two brand awareness objectives. Now it is necessary to look more closely at the strategic implications of the four brand attitude components of the model (see Figure 2). In the model, one looks at the affective component of brand attitude as dividing those consumers driven toward purchase primarily by an MODEL FOR ADVERTISING STRATEGY

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Table 1. Eight Basic Motives Motivation

Motivating Process

Negative 1. Problem removal 2. Problem avoidance 3. Incomplete satisfaction 4. Mixed approach avoidance

Seeking solution to a current problem Seeking to avoid an anticipated problem Seeking a better product Seeking resolution to a conflict caused by both positive and negative attributes in the same product Seeking to maintain regular supply of product

5. Normal depletion Positive

Seeking extra physiological enjoyment from the product Seeking extra psychological stimulation from the product Seeking an opportunity for social reward from the product

6. Sensory gratification 7. Intellectual stimulation 8. Social approval

information need to satisfy a negative behavioral motivation or a transformational desire to enhance a positive behavioral motivation. This distinction is directly linked to the consumer's underlying behavioral motivations associated with category need. One utilizes an informational strategy only when the advertised brand is linked to one of the five negatively originated motivations: problem remov&l (e.g., most pain relievers), problem avoidance (e.g., most detergent products), incomplete satisfaction (e.g., most new and improved products), mixed approach avoidance (e.g., most low-tar tobacco products), or normal depletion (e.g., any loyal brand that one runs out of, which retailers

Type ot Decision

INFORMATIONAL Negative drive reduction

LOW INVOLVEMENT (trial experience sufficient)

• • • •

aspirin light beer detergents routine Industrial products

HIGH INVOLVEMENT (search and conviction required prior to purchase)

• housing • professional calculators • cars (print) • new industrial products

TRANSFORMATIONAL Positive drive enhancement •soda • regular beer • snacks and dessert • cosmetics • vacations • fashion clothing •cars (television) • corporate image

Figure 2. Pour main strategies for brand attitude based upon type of motivation and type of decision.

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Table 2. Specific Advertising Tactics for the Low Involvement/Informational Brand Attitude Strategies Strategy Correct emotional portrayal of the motivation Adequate logical support perceived brand delivery

Tactic Use a simple problem-solution format It is not necessary for people to like the ad Include only one or two benefits or a single group of benefits Benefit claims should be stated extremely The benefits should easily be learned in one or two exposures

advertise). Transformational strategies, on the other hand, are used only when the advertised brand is linked to one of the positively originated motivations: sensory gratification (e.g., most prepared dessert products), intellectual stimulation (e.g., most personal computers), or social approval (e.g., most cosmetic or status goods). To illustrate how important this distinction between underlying motivations can be, consider the recent advertising for Snickers candy bars. As one might imagine, the' reason most people eat candy bars is for the taste—sensory gratification, a positive motivation. But Snickers has uncovered a second motivation from some behavior (or potential behavior) in the category. Their advertising suggests you eat a Snickers bar in the afternoon to help get you by until dinner. This benefit claim reflects the negative motivation of problem removal—the problem is late-afternoon hunger, the solution, a Snickers bar. As Tables 2 and 3

Table 3. Specific Advertising Tactics for the Low Involvement/ Transformational Brand Attitude Strategies Strategy Correct emotional portrayal of the motivation

Adequate logical support for perceived brand delivery

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Tactic Emotional authenticity is the key element and is the single benefit The execution of the emotion must be unique to the brand The target audience must like the ad Brand delivery is by association and is often implicit Repetition serves as a buildup function and a reinforcement function

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suggest, quite different tactics are required with a low involvement informational strategy reflecting the use of a candy bar to stay hunger pains versus a low involvement transformational strategy where you extol the great taste of a candy bar. The cognitive component of brand attitude in the model, as we have seen, is a function of the buyer's involvement with the purchase decision. But with involvement anchored to purchase decision, it follows that it must be related to a particular target audience. For example, even the most expensive product (such as a Rolls Royce) may be low involvement to a rock star. Involvement, and thus the cognitive classification for brand attitude, must be developed for both an advertised brand and specific target audiences. In a rather interesting application of this logic, Bayer aspirin was able to take a low involving decision for a mass audience and target a high involving niche. Ordinarily, the choice of an aspirin brand is low involvement. But Bayer was able to capitalize upon recent medical findings that suggest aspirin is good for people with heart problems. In a very moving piece of advertising, where a man who recently had a heart attack is shown with his wife in a delivery room where she is having a baby, Bayer has been able to target a segment of the market where the usage decision is high involvement. Thus, with different strategies, they are able to market both a mass market and a smaller segment based upon the degree of involvement with the decision. As these examples suggest, the typology of four brand attitude strategies resulting from this interrelation of motivation and involvement necessarily suggests certain particular targeted recommendations for each. These are only summarized briefly in Tables 2-5, but the interested reader will find a detailed discussion of each in Rossiter and Percy (1987). For the purposes of this article we will review only the major distinctions. Authentic Emotional Portrayal of the Motivation With the transformational strategies, emotional authenticity in the execution of the advertising is critical. In fact, if one considers the low involvement/transformational strategy, a positive emotion is actually the only benefit that is associated with the advertised brand. With informational stategies, correct emotional portrayal is still important, but less so than the information provided. Here the correct emotional portrayal usually follows a negative to positive emotional problem solving sequence, much as we saw in the Snickers example. Attitude Toward the Advertising Itself Another distinction related to motivation is that when a transformational strategy is used, it is obviously essential that the target audience 270

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Table 4. Specific Advertising Tactics for the High Involvement/Informational Brand Attitude Strategies Strategy Correct emotional portrayal of the motivation

Adequate logical support for perceived brand delivery

Tactic Correct emotional portrayal is very important early in the product life cycle but less so toward maturity The target audience must accept the ad's main points, but need not like the ad itself The target audience's initial attitude toward the brand is the overriding consideration to take into account Benefit claims must be pitched at an acceptable upper level of brand attitude (do not overclaim) Benefit claims must be convincing (do not inadvertently underclaim) For target audiences who have objections to the brand, consider a refutation If there is a well-entrenched competitor and your brand has advantages on important benefits, consider a comparitive approach

Table 5. Specific Advertising Tactics for the High Involvement/ Transformational Brand Attitude Strategies Strategy Correct emotional portrayal of the motivation

Adequate logical support for perceived brand delivery

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Tactic Emotional authenticity is paramount and should be tailored to lifestyle groups within the target audience People must identify personally with the product as portrayed in the ad and not merely like the ad Many high involvement transformational advertisements also have to provide information Overclaiming is recommended, but do not underclaim Repetition serves a build-up function and a reinforcement function

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like the execution itself, regardless of their opinion of the brand. With informational strategies, on the other hand, this is not necessary. We might remember here, for example, that such irritating commercials as Wisk's "ring around the collar" and Charmin's original "Mr. Whippie" each helped their brands to significant increases in market share. It is interesting that in general all the studies in which attitude toward the advertising has been shown to have contributed significantly to attitude toward the brand, the products were generally advertised following a low involvement/transformational strategy: beer (Rossiter & Percy, 1980) facial tissue (Mitchell & Olsen, 1981) and soft drinks (Shimp & Yokum, 1982). Advertising for low involvement/informational products simply does not need to be liked. Adequate Logical Support for Perceived Brand Delivery on Motivation A third distinction concerns the cognitive component of brand attitude strategies. Here one is precisely interested in consumer processing of the ad. A low involvement strategy really only needs to be processed partially, in other words, only tentatively believed, such that an experimental trial occurs. What this implies is that copy claims in low involvement executions should be stated (via informational strategies) or implied (via transformational strategies) in the extreme. Because these claims need only be learned and not necessarily accepted, a more extreme claim is more likely to be attended to and learned. This follows McGuire's (1969) idea of "ask more, get more." On the other hand, with high involvement strategies, the Sherif and Hovland (1961) notion of assimilation contrast or social judgement theory seems to apply. Here careful execution of copy to refiect a target audience's prior or initial attitude makes the most sense (i.e., within their "latitude of acceptance"). Again, in terms of processing, now we require full processing: In other words, the copy claim must not only be learned, but believed and accepted as well before an intention to buy occurs. As a result, the cognitive tactics involved in the creating of high involvement advertising, especially in the high involvement/ informational case, are much more detailed than with low involvement strategies. Application of the Quadrant Dimensions as Dichotomy It would appear that Rossiter and Percy are proposing that the four brand attitude strategies represent functionally distinct models. Although it may be suggested that the dimensions involved actually could be considered as continua rather than as dichotomies, Rossiter and Percy argue that studies of consumer behavior would generally identify a target audience as exercising either a try-it-and-see type of decision 272

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(a low involvement decision) or one where they would require convincing before trial (a high involvement decision). If one were to find a case where there were in fact dual decision models within the same target audience, and only one communications campaign is practical, one should opt for the more conservative high involvement strategies. Although this is definitely the safer choice, the advertiser should nevertheless be aware that because high involvement strategies are generally more complex, they may be somewhat less effective strategies than low involvement ones for those members of the target audience utilizing low involvement decisions. In the same way, by identifying the main motivation for a purchase, it becomes rather straightforward to decide whether the predominant executional focus should be informational or transformational. A truly mixed case should rarely occur outside of the high involvement/transformational strategy. Because of the high risk attached to purchase here, even though the purchase motivation is principally positive, executions must still provide some level of information in order to provide the consumer with some rationale for purchase. To be sure, one can deal with these mixed cases of strategy by utilizing both sets of appropriate tactics, but the resulting execution is likely to be much more difficult to effectively develop. SUMMARY

Rossiter and Percy (1987) have presented a 2 x 4 communication model based upon an interaction of brand awareness seen as recognition versus recall based and brand attitude seen in light of the traditional cognitive and affective components of attitude. The cognitive dimension utilizes the concept of involvement or perceived risk attached to the purchase of a brand. Following Nelson (1970), the model takes advantage of an economic theory that classifies brand purchase decision as either low involving, where trial experience is sufficient, or high involving, where search and conviction are required prior to purchase. Involvement conceived of in this way was shown to be highly dependent upon target audience. The affective dimension utilizes the dominant motivation underlying brand purchase. Strategies based upon this motivation are classified as either being informational or transformational. Utilizing Fennell's (1978) motivations, Rossiter and Percy suggest informational strategies associated with negative drive reduction states—problem removal, problem avoidance, incomplete satisfaction, mixed approach avoidance, or normal depletion; and transformational strategies associated with positive drive enhancement—sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval. Following this model in the development of brand awareness and MODEL FOR ADVERTISING STRATEGY

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attitude strategies enables one to create better tailored, more effective advertising based upon careful consideration of what works best in advertising communication. REFERENCES Bauer, R. A. (1967). Source effect and persuasiblity: A new look. In D. F. Cox (Ed.) Risk taking and information handling in consumer behavior (pp. 559578). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ehrenberg, A. S. C. (1974). Repetitive advertising and the consumer. Journal of Advertising Research, 14, 25-34. FennelU, G. (1975). Motivation research revisited. Journal of Advertising Research, 15, 23-27. Fennell, G. (1978). Consumers' perceptions of the product-use situation. Journal of Marketing, 42, 38-47. Fishbein, M. & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. McGuire, W. J. (1969). The nature of attitudes and attitude change. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 136-314). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Mitchell, A. A. & Olson J. C. (1981). Are product attribute beliefs the only mediator of advertising effects on brand attitude? Journal of Marketing Research, 18, 318-332. Nelson, P. E. (1970). Information and consumer behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 78, 311-329. Peter, J. P. & Tarpy, L. X. (1975). A comparative analysis of three consumer decision strategies. Journal of Consumer Research, 2, 29-37. Rossiter, J. R. & Percy L. (1980). Attitude change through visual imagery in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 9, 10-16. Rossiter, J. R. & Percy, L. (1987). Advertising and promotion management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Sherif, M., & Hovland, C. I. (1961). Social judgement. New Haven: Yale University Press. Shimp, T. A. & Yokum, J. T. (1982). Advertising inputs and psychophysical judgments in vending-machine retailing. Journal of Retailing, 58, 95-113. Wyer, R. S. (1974). Cognitive organization and change: An information processing approach. Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum. Larry Percy, the corresponding author, is with Lintas: USA, 30400 Van Dyke, Warren, MI 48093.

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