The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising

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Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85
This paper aims to review the hierarchy of effects models in adverti-
sing, especially the well-known model, AIDA (Attention, Interest, De-
sire, and Action). Since its introduction by Lewis (1900) and generally
attributed in the marketing and advertising literature by Strong (1925),
the concept of AIDA’s hierarchy of effects model has been used by
many researchers, both academicians and practitioners. The model
is used to measure the effect of an advertisement. However, the deve-
lopment of information technology has radically changed the way of
how people communicate and socialize; as well as a paradigm shift
from product-oriented marketing to consumer-oriented marketing or
people-oriented marketing. Therefore, the variables in the hierarchy
of effects model needs to be updated in respond to the latest develop-
ments in the notice of public power as consumer audience. Based on
deep literature review and reflective method, this paper introduces a
new developed concept of hierarchy of effects model that was adop-
ted from AIDA’s hierarchy of effects model, namely: AISDALSLove (At-
tention, Interest, Search, Desire, Action, Like/dislike, Share, and Love/
hate).
© 2012 IRJBS, All rights reserved.
Received: August 27, 2011
Final revision: February 5, 2012
Keywords:
AISDALSLove,
AIDA,
Hierarchy of Effects,
Advertising,
Consumer Audience.
Corresponding author:
*
[e-mail]
Bambang Sukma Wijaya
Universitas Bakrie, Jakarta
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model
in Advertising
T
he advertising world today has grown very
rapidly, not only from the creative side, but
also from strategy and media technology.
A lot of interesting advertisings were born not only
from unexpected creative concept, but was also
executed with advanced final touch or crafting.
Similarly with the power of strategy which is not as
simple as before, for which to inform and persuade
people to buy the product. Now, advertising is
also used for a more meaningful purpose, which
is building the brand and attaching values, either
tangible or intangible so that the consumers
become loyal and even love or have a sense of
belonging to the brand.
The development of creative and strategic concepts
of communication is supported by the development
of vastly growing media, marked with the advent
Vol. 5 | No. 1
ISSN: 2089-6271

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Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85International Research Journal of Business Studies vol. V no. 01 (2012)
2011). Hence whatever the form or communication
activities that are directed to create perceptions
or certain meanings toward something (product,
person, institution, etc.), then it can be defined as
advertising.
In short, modern advertising is strategic communi-
cation that aims to accomplish something –to create
impact, by which we mean a certain consumer
response, such as understanding information or
persuading someone to do something (Moriarty et
al., 2009: 55). To achieve that consumer response,
an advertising strategy is driven by objectives (state-
ments of desired consumer response), and these
objectives can be measured to determine whether
the advertising was effective.
Likewise with the function of advertising that
continues to evolve in the same direction with the
development of human civilization. If at the begin-
ning of its development, the information function
primarily to inform the existence of a product, then
when the presence of similar products gave birth to
competition so that the persuasion function beco-
mes important, which followed by entertainment
function ̧ currently the education function and
social inspiration function have become no less im-
portant (Wijaya, 2011). Lane et al. (2011: 43) noted
that advertising could be viewed from two related
perspectives: (1) its economic role and (2) its social
and cultural role in communicating not only product
information but also social values.
The education function was born to reduce the
strength of persuasion function that is used by some
of industrial players with ‘all sorts of ways’ which
gave birth of cynicism to the presence of adverti-
sing. The education function has also strengthened
the role of advertising communication in shaping
perceptions or certain meanings that move toward
positive things and is attached to a brand.
Whilst the function of social inspiration has a broa-
der role, in which advertising also helps to promote
the values of kindness and humanity, with the
intention that people get inspired and motivated
to perform good deeds which have broad impact
to the communities where the person lives. Under
the current level of scrutiny, advertisers must be
aware of both economic and social aspects of their
advertising. The majority of both practitioners and
consumers accept the fact that advertising has an
ethical and moral responsibility to provide product
information that is truthful and socially appropriate.
In marketing perspective, this phenomenon was
mentioned by Kotler as a shift of marketing trend
from product-oriented to consumer-oriented after
that to human spirit (Kotler et al., 2010).
of new media and alternative media which have a
surprisingly creative breath, such as ambient media,
happening art, guerilla media, creative publicity,
branded entertainment, and so on. The form is also
more varied and converged in such a way, thus it
becomes so difficult to find a standalone media in
delivering the messages of a product.
The stated phenomenon raises question about
the true definition of advertising. Some people
say advertising is simply way to sell a product –to
announce what products are available, who made
them, and where you go to buy (Moriarty et al.,
2009: 53).
Meanwhile, a modern definition of advertising
includes other important factors, such as
media, audience, and goals. Moriarty et al
defined advertising is a paid form of persuasive
communication that uses mass and interactive
media to reach broad audiences in order to
connect an identified sponsor with buyers (a target
audience) and provide information about product
(goods, service, and ideas). This definition has five
basic factors: is usually paid by the advertiser, the
sponsor is identified, generally reaches a broad
audience of potential consumers, seeks to inform
and also persuade or influence consumers, and
the message is conveyed through many different
kinds of mass media and also now interactive types
of media.
Fairly similar to the definition above, Lane et al.
(2011: 41) stated that advertising is a message paid
for by an identified sponsor and usually delivered
through some medium of mass communication.
The fundamental principle of good advertising is
that it must be built around the overall marketing
plan and execute the communication elements of a
more far-reaching marketing program. While Egan
(2007: 19) defined advertising is a non-personal
form of mass communication with a high degree of
control over design and placement but potentially a
low degree of persuasion and credibility. It is never
either neutral or unbiased.
In the communication philosophy perspective,
advertising principally is a communication that sells.
So any form of communication that sells something,
or delivers sales messages, then can be defined
as advertising. By looking at various strategic
developments, which sometimes advertising
is no longer just a communication tool to “sell
something”, but more extensive than that which
creates “meaning towards something” followed by
attaching to a brand and becomes an integral part of
people’s lives, then advertising now can be defined
as communication that creates perception (Wijaya,
Figure 1. Redefinition of advertising in the communication perspective
(Source: Wijaya, 2011)
FUNCTION  Information Persuasion Entertainment Education Social
Inspiration
Consumer
Insights
“What’s new?”
“Any product that
I need?”
“Which one is the
best for me?”
“Any product that
understands me?”
“Ads are so
boring”
“I hate ads! Just
cheating, selling,
no caring”
“Ads only
hypnotize me
to waste my
money!”
Focus on Functional
Benefits
Functional,
Emotional &
Symbolic Benefits
Emotional &
Symbolic Benefits
Functional &
Social Benefit
Symbolic,
Emotional &
Social Benefit
Creative Strategy Informational,
Announcement
Head on,
life style,
comparative ads
Humor, dramatic,
musicals
‘How-to’ ads,
advertorials
Brand Social
Responsibility
Figure 2. Development of the advertising function
(Source: Wijaya, 2011)

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Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85International Research Journal of Business Studies vol. V no. 01 (2012)
Lavidge and Steiner (1961) and Wells et al. (1965)
were also trying to represent the communication
process in their hierarchy models as shown below.
Lavidge and Steiner believed that advertising was
an investment in a long-term process that moved
consumers over time through a variety of stair-step
stages, beginning with product ‘unawareness’
and moving ultimately to actual purchase (Barry
& Howard, 1990: 99). Therefore, they added the
stages of ’knowledge’, ’liking’ and ’preference’ prior
‘conviction’. While Wells et al. further highlight the
importance of the process of ’perception’ before
reaching the stage of ‘understanding’ and ‘persua-
sion’ (Egan, 2007: 44).
There are still actually many hierarchies of effects
models developed by academicians, researchers
and practitioners since its inception over a century
ago. Some are as shown in the table below (Barry
& Howard, 1990: 100-102).
Why do we need to know about the sequential
hierarchy of effects in advertising? One reason is
that determining hierarchical processes allows us to
predict behavior (Preston & Thorson, 1983; Barry &
Howard, 1990). Yet, the easiest way to predict what
someone will do is simply to ask them what they in-
tend to do (i.e., the intention-behavior-relationship).
A second reason is that understanding the hierarchy
of effects provides information on what advertising
strategy to emphasize. A third reason is that the
hierarchy of effects has proven valuable for helping
to organize planning, training, and conceptual tasks
within a firm (Barry & Howard, 1990: 108).
METHODS
This paper is a conceptual paper. The objective of
this paper is to review and analyze the hierarchy
of effects models in advertising and introducing
a new concept of hierarchy of effects model that
developed from the well-known model, AIDA (At-
tention, Interest, Desire and Action). In formulating
the concept, the author performed literature review
and then reflected or dialogued it with the latest
phenomenon, which is the change in the ways of
people communicate and socialize as a result of the
development of information technology marked by
the rise of social media. Besides, development of
advertising media and marketing communication
strategy also affects and are affected by consumer
audience behavior towards advertised brands, so
that the previous hierarchy of effects model need
to be updated according to the latest developments
in the notice of public power.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
What is most evidently missing from the previous
models is the post-purchase effect. That is the effect
Viewing the function, role and impact of advertising
is so enormous to people’s lives, therefore it is also
interesting to recognize the effect of advertising to
the individual lives, both as communication target
audience and consumer that become marketing
target of a brand. Individual responses to advertising
are usually mediated or filtered by factors such as
motivation and ability to process information, which
can radically alter or change the individual’s re-
sponse to advertising (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999:
43). Likewise, advertising affects consumers’ daily
lives, informing them about products and services
and influencing their attitudes, beliefs, and ultima-
tely their purchases (McDaniel et al., 2011: 556).
Though advertising cannot change consumers’
deeply rooted values and attitudes, it may succeed
in transforming a person’s negative attitude toward
a product into a positive one. For instance, serious
or dramatic advertisings are more effective at chan-
ging consumers’ negative attitudes. Humorous ads,
on the other hand, have been shown to be more
effective at shaping attitudes when consumers al-
ready have a positive image of the advertised brand
(Solomon, 2011).
Advertising can also affect the way consumers
rank a brand’s attributes, such as color, taste,
smell, and texture. Advertising’s role, therefore, is
to make consumers, whatever their current state
of attitudes toward, information about, or images
of a brand, more informed about the brand and
more generally favorable to it. Advertising must,
that is, produce some sort of mental change in the
consumer: he or she must think differently about the
brand after being exposed to successful advertising
(Weilbacher, 2001).
Meanwhile, some hierarchy of effect models have
been developed and used by researchers from both
academician as well as marketing communication
practitioners in a bid to measure the communica-
tion effect of an ad to the consumer audience be-
havior. These models are also used as preparation
basis of marketing communication strategy.
Proponents of the traditional hierarchy framework
suggest that audiences respond to messages in a
very ordered way that is firstly cognitively (thinking),
then affectively (feeling) and thirdly conatively
(doing). Cognition is typically defined as ‘mental ac-
tivity’ as reflected in knowledge, beliefs or thoughts
that someone has about some aspect of their world
(Barry and Howard, 1990). While the affective com-
ponent is any degree of feeling and emotion, in a
general sense, which can be attributed to the brand
and conation refers to either intension to perform
a behavior (e.g. purchase) or the behavior itself
(Egan, 2007: 43).
One of the earliest attempts to model the effect of
advertising was the AIDA model generally attributed
to Strong in 1925 but which actually originated with
E. St. Elmo Lewis around 20 to 30 years earlier. The
model was designed to represent the stages through
which a salesperson should take a prospect but was
later adopted as a basic framework to explain how
persuasive communication (mainly advertising)
worked. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire
and Action.
Similar popular model included DAGMAR (Defining
Advertising Goals for Measuring Advertising Results)
which was Colley’s (1961) suggested formula for
setting communications orientated objectives.
DAGMAR incorporated elements of Awareness,
Comprehension, Conviction and Purchase as sta-
ges of the influence of advertising message on
consumer behavior. Awareness is the stage where
advertising can raise audience awareness on ad-
vertising message (similar to Attention and Interest
in AIDA). Comprehension is the stage where consu-
mer audience understands the core message of an
ad, after that Conviction is a stage where audience
believes the genuineness of the message that is
delivered through advertising (similar to Desire in
AIDA, since a strong conviction can raise a desire
to purchase), and Purchase is where the consumer
audience follow up his belief in the advertising
message through an act of purchase (this stage is
similar to Action in AIDA). Figure 3. Hierarchy of effects models
(Source: Egan, 2007)
AIDA (Strong ’25)
Attention Interest Desire Action
DAGMAR Colley ‘61 Awareness Conviction
Comprehension Purchase
Lavidge & Steiner ‘61 Awareness Liking Conviction
Knowledge Preference Purchase
Wells
et al. ‘65 Awareness
Perception Understanding Persuasion
KNOWLEDGES FEELING MOTIVATION
 ACTION
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE CONATIVE