Marketers use persuasive messages to sell products to specific target audience. Examples of two products in the media that use persuasive messages to sell to their target audience are Molo Yoghurt and Yu Mobile.
Molo Yoghurt is a unique form of yoghurt that comes from Molo farm. This farm produces fresh milk products with a great taste. Advertisement of Molo Yoghurt appears in both the television and billboards. These ads emphasize that there is a limitation in supply of this product. They target women and children since these two groups are the main consumers of this product.
On the other hand, Yu Mobile is a service provider that claims to offer free call services. Advertisements of Yu Mobile also appear in television and billboards. Their target audience is normally college students and persons in the low-income bracket, who cannot afford the expensive phone call tariffs.
Analysis of Social Influence Theory used by Yu Mobile
The social influence theory that Yu Mobile uses in developing its message is the low-ball technique. The low-ball technique first asks clients to take part in an activity that is without charge or that is of low charge. After a client agrees to the first deal, the marketer introduces a higher deal. Low-balling occurs when a promoter entices a person to comply with a deal and then raises the compliance cost (Perloff, 2010). The low-ball technique resembles the foot-in-the-door technique (FITD), since the persuader initiates with a small deal before presenting a turgid option. However, in low-ball technique, the requested act is the desired behavior. The only change that occurs is the fee related with conducting the target activity. When it comes to FITD, the action that the persuader requests a person to undertake is a trick to entice the person to agree to the large, vital request (Perloff, 2010).
In the case of Yu mobile, promoters first present free lines to clients. After hearing that lines are free, most clients accept them. Besides, promoters explain that Yu mobile offers free calls across the same network. This sounds more interesting to clients. Next, promoters explain that Yu only offers free calls from 10pm to 6am. This does not please many clients but because they of the earlier decision to buy the product, they accept it anyway. After agreeing to comply, in the first instance, people experience dissonance when they think of neglecting their commitments (Stiff, 2003). As seen in the case of Yu Mobile, people go on to get and use Yu Mobile services even after they discover that the services are not free completely, since they had earlier committed to using the services.
The difficult part of the process is for the promoter to induce the client to make an active choice to subscribe to Yu services by offering free lines and explaining that the brand offers free calls across the network. After the client decides to accept the line, the promoter eliminates the charge advantage. Eventually, the reason that induced the client to agree to the deal faces removal and performance of the target behavior appears further expensive (Perloff, 2010).
Analysis of Social Influence Theory used by Molo Yoghurt
Molo Yoghurt uses the social influence theory of feigned scarcity. Saying it is difficult to reach something makes people to want it more. This situation is vital in explaining why companies always strive to make people believe that their products are in limited supply. Scarcity interferes with a consumer’s ability to choose a commodity, thus making more want for the scarce product. In addition, people decide the value of a product depending on its scarcity level. The scarcity bias functions under two circumstances (Huczynski, 2004).
First, scarce commodities have more value when they are scarce for the first time. In other words, newly restricted items have more value than earlier products Second, attraction for scarce resources increase when there is competition (Weiten, 2008). Scarcity forces usually arouse emotions, and this prevents persons from thinking rationally about the products. Areas of auction are dangerous spots since rivalry and scarcity combine to awaken sentiments leading to excessive bidding. When scarcity occurs, we do not know why we need commodities, we only feel a strong urge. Mostly, people start to assign positive qualities to a product, to prove their want for the product.
The other name for feigned scarcity is the playing-hard-to-get-technique (Huczynski, 2004). This technique suggests that compliance can face addition when a product seems scarce and difficult to get. For instance, a person that is already working for one company is likely to face recruitment upon application to work for another rival company. Similarly, people prefer scarce products and some of them are usually ready to buy them even at an increased value, since scarcity increases perceived value.
Scarcity is usually true or feigned. Promoters often feign scarcity to increase the demand for commodities. Just like true scarcity, feigned scarcity increases the demand of a product. Molo Yoghurt uses ads to show limitation in supply, which increases desirability. Promoters of Molo Yoghurt tend to convince clients that the product is in short supply. This makes the product more appealing, considering its unique nature. Besides, the perceived value of the Molo Yoghurt rises with feigned scarcity.
References
Huczynski, A. (2004). Influencing within organizations. London, England : Routledge.
Perloff, R. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion : Communication and attitudes in the 21st century. New York, NY: Routledge.
Stiff, J. (2003). Persuasive communication. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Weiten, W. (2008). Psychology :Themes & variations. Australia Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.