The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising

This paper reviews the hierarchy of effects models in advertising, especially the well-known model, AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action). It introduces a new developed concept of hierarchy of effects model that was adopted from AIDA’s hierarchy of effects model, namely: AISDALSLove (Attention, Interest, Search, Desire, Action, Like/dislike, Share, and Love/hate).

- 73 -
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
The 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

- 75 -- 74 -
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 StrategyInformational,
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)

- 77 -- 76 -
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
Wellset al. ‘65 Awareness
Perception Understanding Persuasion
KNOWLEDGES FEELING MOTIVATION
 ACTION
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE CONATIVE

- 79 -- 78 -
Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85International Research Journal of Business Studies vol. V no. 01 (2012)
Year Model Developer Comment
1898 AID: Attention, Interest,
Desire
E. St Elmo Lewis Developed as a sales guide for salesmen to be successful in
moving a prospect to buy.
Circa
1900 AIDA: Attention,
Interest, Desire, Action*
E. St Elmo Lewis Added the action stage as necessary to convince salesmen
to move buyer prospects through complete selling process.
1910 AICA: Attention,
Interest, Conviction,
Printers Ink Editorial The first mention of the hierarchy model for advertising use; a
complete advertisement Action
1911 AIDAS: Attention,
Interest, Desire, Action,
Satisfaction
Arthur F. Sheldon Added ‘permanent satisfaction' as a necessary part of the per-
suasive and long-run selling process: this final stage not car-
ried through to contemporary literature.
1915 AICCA: Attention,
Interest, Confidence,
Conviction, Action
Samuel R . Hall The necessary steps in writing a good, persuasive advertise-
ment.
1921 AIDCA: Attention,
Interest, Desire,
Caution, Action
Robert E. Ramsay Mentioned this model at the beginning of his book on how
to write effective direct advertising although the model is not
developed in the book.
1921 AIDCA: Attention,
Interest, Desire,
Conviction, Action
Harry D. Kitson Used this model in writing about how the mind of the buyer
works.
1922 AIJA: Attention, Interest,
Judgment, Action
Alexander Osborn Writing about the creative /persuasive process in advertising.
1940 AIDCA: Attention,
Interest, Desire,
Conviction, Action
Clyde Bedell For advertising to sell it, it must follow these 'proved selling
stratagems' as formulated by Kitson in 1921.
1956 AIDMA: Attention,
Interest, Desire,
Memory, Action
Merrill Devoe Referred to the importance of different psychological se-
quences in constructing advertisements (AIDCA and AIDMA)
but does not develop these in his book.
1961 ACCA :Awareness,
Comprehension.,
Conviction, Action
Russell H. Colley Proposed this model as important to the development of
specified advertising goals and measuring advertising effec-
tiveness.
1961 EPCCA: Exposure,
Perception,
Communication
(Knowledge),
Communication
(Attitude), Action
Advertising Research
Foundation
The model supported by the foundation of advertising practi-
tioners and researchers to be used for developing more effec-
tive advertising campaigns.
1962 AAPIS: Awareness,
Acceptance,
Preference, Intention,
Sale,
Provocation
Harry D. Wolfe
James K. Brown
C. Clark Thompson
Illustrated how business used the hierarchy concept as a
guideline to develop advertising strategy
1962 AIETA: Awareness,
Interest, Evaluation,
Trial, Adoption
Everett M. Rogers Proposed the first application of a hierarchy-type model to the
process of new product adoption.
1969 PACYRB: Presentation,
Attention,
Comprehension,
Yielding, Retention,
Behavior
William J. McGuire The first to suggest that probabilities could be associated with
the stages of the hierarchy models to show ultimate behav-
ioral impact of advertising.
1971 ACALTA: Awareness,
Comprehension,
Attitude, Legitimation,
Trial, Adoption
Thomas S. Robertson Expanded on the adoption hierarchy of Rogers, this model
more based on Howard and Sheth buyer behavior model (at-
tention, comprehension, attitude, intention, purchase).
1982 The Association model Ivan L. Preston Proposed more comprehensive hierarchy model that pre-
served the traditional order:
distribution, vehicle exposure, advertising exposure, adver-
tising awareness, advertising elements awareness, associa-
tion evaluation, product perception, integrated perception,
products evaluation, prior evaluation. integrated evaluation,
product stimulation, prior stimulation, integrated stimulation,
search, search perception, search evaluation, search simula-
tion, trial, trial perception, trial stimulation, adoption, adop-
tion perception, adoption evaluation, adoption stimulation.
1983 and the expanded
1984 Association model Esther Thorson
Table 1. A summary of popular hierarchy models (Source: Barry and Howard, 1990)
* Italics indicate change in stage/nomenclature from previous model(s).
on future decision making and brand relationship
having experienced consumption. Evidently a
good consumption experience is likely to lead to
other purchase or long good perception and feeling
toward the brand (Egan, 2007: 44). As early as 1911,
Sheldon included ‘permanent satisfaction’ as the
final step in the Lewis/ Strong model to create AIDAS
(Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction).
Rogers (1983) as part of his theory of adoption
suggested that there were various stages including
knowledge, persuasion, decision (adopt/ reject),
implementation and confirmation (continued adop-
tion, discontinuance, continued rejection). Bovee
et al. (1995) took this further by suggesting that the
post-purchase period is the point when advertising
(and the other marketing communication tools)
should be used to bolster the customers’ sense of
satisfaction about the action or purchase and that
this phase represents the beginning of a new cycle
in the communication process.
Development of hierarchy of effect model by in-
corporating post-purchase stage can be seen in
the figure 4.
In spite of the enthusiasm with which the marketing
community has embraced the hierarchy-of-adverti-
sing-effects explanation of how advertising works,
there is still no specific evidence that the consumer
research measurements implied by the specifics
of the model like brand awareness, brand feature
awareness, brand preference, and intention-to-buy
specific brands actually do reflect the way that
advertising works or its specific effects in moving
consumers toward purchase action (Weilbacher,
2001). After all, there is no evidence that every hie-
rarchy of advertising effects ends in a sale.
While Egan (2007: 46) noted a number of
shortcomings of classical hierarchy models:
• There is no empirical support that suggests
consumers actually go through each stage
• Hierarchy models do not take account of the
potential for interaction between stages
• Post-purchase experience is often not consi-
dered
In addition, the existing hierarchy of effect model
is not completely accommodate the phenomenon
of today’s information technology that gave birth to
many new social media that change the way people
communicate, socialize, and influence consumer
audience behavior. It is not an exaggeration to
state that the internet is the most revolutionary new
medium to be developed since television in the
late 1940s and ‘50s. Internet has made its greatest
impact on society as a personal communications
medium and a business-to-business sales medium
(Cappo, 2003: 193).
Development of a broader advertising role as a com-
munication device and brand development also
Figure 4. Extended hierarchy of effects models
(Source: Egan, 2007)
AIDA(S) Attention Interest Desire Action (Satisfactio
Rogers Awareness Decision Confirmation
Persuasion Implementation
Bovee et al. Awareness Acceptance Ownership
Comprehension Preference Reinforcement
KNOWLEDGES FEELING MOTIVATION POST PURCHASE
 ACTION
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE CONATIVE CONATIVE

- 81 -- 80 -
Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85International Research Journal of Business Studies vol. V no. 01 (2012)
became writer’s consideration. Therefore writer
developed AIDA’s hierarchy of effects model by ad-
ding several relevant elements, such as S (Search),
L (Like/dislike), S (Share) and Love (Love/hate),
which then become AISDALSLove. Regarding the
development of hierarchical model, Hall (2002:
23) argued that advertisers need to move away
from explicit and implicit reliance on hierarchical
models of advertising effects and develop models
that place affect and experience at the center of the
advertising process.
Writer put special attention on concept of AIDA
model, considering this model is the most popu-
lar, widely used in studies to measure the effect
of advertising, as well as inspiring the birth of new
hierarchy of effect models (see Table 1). Barry &
Howard (1990: 101) stated that so important was
the AIDA formulation at the turn of the century
that Strong (1925) estimated that 90 per cent of
persons engaged in selling and the vast majority of
advertising and selling textbooks fully endorsed the
Lewis-Sheldon hierarchical framework.
Apart from variable development in stages by ad-
ding ‘S’ (Search) element, ‘L’ (Like/dislike), ‘S’
(Share) and ‘Love’ (Love/hate), in AISDALSLove
too, writer carried out grouping of advertising effect
to short-term effect and long-term effect, especially
related to development of the advertised brand.
types of information: (1) brands, (2) attributes, (3)
evaluations, and (4) experiences (Alba et al., 1991).
Recall of brands refers to the set of brands that
consumers recall from memory whenever problem
recognition has been stimulated, recall of attributes
refers to specific facts about a product or service,
recall of evaluations refers to our effort to find out
overall evaluations or attitudes (that is, our likes
and dislikes), because our memory for specific
details decays rapidly over time. Evaluations are
also more likely to be recalled by consumers who
are actively evaluating the brand when they are
exposed to relevant information. Meanwhile, recall
of experiences refers to internal search by recalling
experiences from autobiographical memory in the
form of specific images and the effect associated
with them (Baumgartner et al., 1992).
Finally, consumers can recall information from
memory only if they have the opportunity to do
so. Time pressure or distractions will limit internal
search. At other times, information may be missing
or some uncertainty may surround the recalled in-
formation. Then Consumers engage in an external
search of outside sources, such as dealers, trusted
friends or relatives, published sources (magazines,
pamphlets, or books), the internet, other marketing
communications tools and media, or the product
package. Consumers use external search to collect
additional information about which brands are av-
ailable as well as about the attributes and benefits
associated with brands in the consideration set
(Hoyer and Macinnis, 2010: 205).
For either pre-purchase or ongoing search, consu-
mers can acquire information from five major ca-
tegories of external sources: retailer search, media
search, interpersonal search, independent search,
and experiential search (Beatty & Smith, 1987).
Like/Dislike (L)
This element is closely related to consumers’ ex-
perience after purchasing and using the product
because of tempted by the advertisement. If consu-
mers like the product, then consumers usually feel
From the figure above, can be explained that the
stages started from Attention to Action and Like/
dislike are the stages of short-term effect, while
Share and specifically Love/hate are long-term ef-
fects. New elements (Search, Like/dislike, Share
and Love/hate) can be explained as follows.
Search (S)
This element refers to assumption that today’s
consumers increasingly critical. Information obtai-
ned from an advertising is not accepted instantly
to become a belief or directly make a desire to do
purchase action, no matter how interesting the
displayed stimulus by the advertising message. Con-
sumers will complete the obtained information or
stimulus with other information before they decide
to buy. Information search is the process by which
we survey the environment for appropriate data to
make a reasonable decision (Solomon, 2011: 337).
The process of information search includes internal
search and external search.
Internal search involves the consumer identifying
alternatives from his or her memory. Consumers
have stored in memory a variety of information,
feelings, and past experiences that can be recalled
when making a decision. Consumers with a greater
degree of knowledge and experience therefore
have a greater ability to search internally. Specifi-
cally, researchers have examined the recall of four
satisfied and afterward do the next action, such as
make a repurchase or reordering. Satisfaction is as
an attitude-like judgment following a consumption
experience (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2011: 74).
The resulting judgment is labeled positive discon-
firmation if the product or service is better than
expected, negative disconfirmation if it is worse
than expected, and simple confirmation if it is as
expected (Oliver, 1997; Lovelock & Wirtz, 2011). In
short, consumers evaluate product or service per-
formance through their experience by comparing
what they expected, imagined, and convicted with
what they perceive they received from a particular
supplier.
Thus, the unpleasant experience or not in accor-
dance with the promise delivered by the ads will
lead to resentment on the products and usually
consumer decides not to try it again. The extremely
importance of ‘Like/ dislike’ effect in post-purchase
stage has made Sheldon (1919) completed the
AIDA’s effect stage with ‘S’, which is ‘Satisfaction’.
Meanwhile Rogers called it as ‘Confirmation’,
and Bovee et al. named it ‘Reinforcement’. The
consumer’s experience may possibly cause the next
snowball effect, which is share the experience to
others about the advertised product.
Share (S)
In an age where the world is becoming increasingly
borderless by the late development of information
technology, consumers have the power to perform
radical actions that may cause impact to the brand
image of a product. This is based on like and dislike
experience toward the product they have used.
The case of Prita who shared her unpleasant expe-
rience to her friends through internet media about
Omni hospital services gives lesson about how big
consumer’s role is in spreading information about
a product or service, especially supported by infor-
mation technology facility which able to spread the
information widely in instance. Though Prita’s voice
then tried to be shut through the ‘iron-hand of law’,
Figure 5. AISDALSLove Model

- 83 -- 82 -
Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85International Research Journal of Business Studies vol. V no. 01 (2012)
however people’s support through Facebook and
the movement of coin collection for Prita is a proof
that people (consumer) power cannot be neglected
(Wijaya, 2009b).
Meanwhile, the law of small numbers in the
consumer’s decision making process, whereby
people expect information obtained from a small
sample to be typical of the larger population (Tver-
sky and Kahneman, 1971; Hoyer and Macinnis,
2010) more strengthening the assumption of the
role of consumer experience sharing in influencing
other consumers. If friends say that a new hand
phone by a particular group is really good or that
the food at a particular restaurant is terrible, we
believe that information, even if most people do
not feel that way.
In fact, reliance on small numbers is another rea-
son that word-of-mouth communication can be so
powerful. We tend to have confidence that the
opinions of friends or relatives are more reflective
of the majority than they may actually be.
Moreover with the growing users of digital social
media today, make the consumers become freer in
expressing their experience to the world. Therefore,
the key for brands is to empower consumers by deli-
vering an exceptional experience that inspires them
to share their stories (Davila, 2011). In recent survey,
it’s clear that word of mouth via social media, pro-
duct review sites, etc. where consumer share their
experiences is what drives business results.
Apart from the form of storytelling in blogs, consu-
mers also share their experience in the form of letter
to the editor in many mass media, updated status in
many social media such as Facebook and Twitter,
upload video on Youtube, interpersonal rumors in
hangout places, product review in certain websites,
broadcast messages in messenger facilities and
inbox, spamming and hoax, as well as information
and comments posting in mailing lists and social
media walls.
Love/Hate (Love)
Long-term effect of an ad is love or hatred of con-
sumers to the advertised brand or product. A con-
sumer, who has already interested to purchase a
product after being influenced by the ad’s message
(visual or verbal), and feel satisfied after a ‘simple
confirmation’ or even ‘positive disconfirmation’,
then share the experience and express his satis-
faction towards the products he has been tried,
eventually will create a deep feeling to the brand.
Some degrees of love towards brand, starts from
hate, neutral, good perception, good experience,
good feeling, brand liking, brand fans, brand ob-
session, to deep feeling (love) on the top (Wijaya,
2011: d-13).
A love can also arise due to connection between
consumers with story or creative advertising con-
cept. This connection can be presented through in-
depth understanding of consumers through consu-
mer insight. Supported by a good brand experience,
this connection becomes stronger over time so that
creates brand loyalty and sense of belonging to the
advertised brand. There is no better way to build
such a similarly long-lasting brand loyalty than by
continually nurturing brand relationship in order to
ensure that brand and consumer remain connected
(Wijaya, 2009a).
On the contrary, if the consumer experience
towards the advertised product has a negative dis-
confirmation, the consumer will spread rumor to
other consumers or society at large with the inten-
tion that impact to a bad perception of a product.
Instead of love and loyal to a brand, consumer
become resentful and may possibly express such
hatred in various ways.
That is why advertisers should not focus only on
short-term effects of advertising, which raises
purchase action, but also consider long-term effect,
namely loyalty to the brand which came from good
experience on brand and good image about the
brand product. As a result, in planning advertising
and marketing communication, advertisers should
be very careful in presenting ‘what to say’ and ‘how
to say’ their brand product.
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
Many things have changed the face of the ad-
vertising world today. Besides creativity, strategy
development, business landscape changes, and
media convergence as well as information tech-
nology development also changed the way people
communicate which then impact on the change
of consumer audience behavior. The increasingly
diverse form, be it traditional or modern advertising,
made advertising needs to be redefined and reinter-
preted to answer the challenges of time. Role and
function of advertising also continues to evolve from
merely inform and persuade people to purchase a
product becomes wider to deliver social inspiration
to the society.
These developments eventually change our per-
spective in viewing advertising effects. The adverti-
sing effects are no longer as simple as Attention,
Interest, Desire and Action or added with Satisfac-
tion as developed by Strong (1925). This is due to
more critical public or potential customers and no
longer can be dictated by advertising information.
Although the advertisement is quite interesting,
but it’s not enticing enough to create a passion to
purchase the advertised product. They tried to look
for information before they decide to buy.
Meanwhile, it is no less important after make a
purchase is the consumers experience towards the
product they buy due to the influence of advertising.
This experience can create preference to products
so that increase to satisfaction, but conversely can
also create aversion which have an impact to con-
sumers’ disappointment because what they expe-
rience about a product is under their expectation or
not in accordance with the communicated promise
through advertising. Like/ dislike experience above
then caused snow ball effect, that is action to share
experience on product/ brand to other consumers,
both straight forward through interpersonal com-
munication and through mass media so that has the
potential of word-of-mouth. Furthermore with the
development of information technology which gave
birth to social media sites, the potential of consumer
‘storytelling’ becomes greater. In this case, the role
of consumer becomes more powerful in turning on
and off a product.
Figure 6. The Pyramid of Love towards Brand
(Source: Wijaya, 2011)

- 85 -- 84 -
Bambang Sukma Wijaya / The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising / 73 - 85International Research Journal of Business Studies vol. V no. 01 (2012)
Lastly, advertising not only has short-term effect
on product purchase action, but more than that,
advertising also has the effect of building a brand
that can be felt in the long run. If advertisers want
the product brand be loved by consumers, then
advertisers should have the goodwill to deliver the
product message correctly, honest, and came from
a good consumer insight so that creates connec-
tion between brand and consumers. Advertisers
should maintain the consistency of the message
and consumer’s actual experiences on the benefits
of the product, which create consumer confidence
and encourage consumer to carry out positive ac-
tions that impact positively for the brand. Advertisers
should enhance the positive image of products
through inspirational communication behaviors,
thus strengthening the emotional bond between
consumers and brand. Strong bond eventually
creates sense of love and sense of belonging to a
product brand by becoming a loyal consumer, even
become brand ambassador voluntarily by promo-
ting the brand they love.
AISDALSLove can help advertisers to measure the
effect of advertising they made, can help brand
managers or brand owners to understand consumer
audience attitude and behavior towards brands,
and help them to decide what strategy should be
developed at every stage in AISDALSLove.
CONCLUSION
The hierarchy of effects model AISDALSLove can
be described as ‘A’ for Attention (the stage where
consumer audience firstly pay attention to the ad), ‘I’
for Interest (stage at which the consumer audience
then become interested in that ad), ‘S’ for Search
(the stage where consumer audience will seek for
information about the message or the advertised
brand, both internally and externally).
’D’ for Desire (the stage where consumer audience
have a passion towards the brand or product after
getting information about the brand or additional
information regarding the advertising message), ’A’
for Action (stage at which the consumer audience
take action in form of purchase of products or the
election of a brand to satisfy his/ her desire), ’L’ for
Like/ dislike (the stage where after experiencing a
product or brand, the consumer audience will like
or dislike towards that product).
’S’ for Share (this stage is a continuation from the
previous stage, in which the consumer audience
will express feelings of likes or dislikes by sharing
their experience to other consumers directly or
through media), and the last is ’Love’ for Love/
hate (the stage when after feeling satisfied or not
satisfied, and share experiences with others, then
will come a deep feeling towards the product or
brand as long-term effects, these feelings can be
either love or hate).
However, AISDALSLove model is a concept that
requires testing through research. Therefore, the
authors suggest several studies related to the ad-
vertising effects on consumer audience behavior
by using the variables that exist in AISDALSLove
model, as well as multiple dimensions and indica-
tors in these variables.
R E F E R E N C E S
Alba, Joseph W., J. Wesley Hutchinson and John G. Lynch (1991). Memory and Decision Making. In Roberton, Thomas C. and
Harold H. Kassarjian (Eds), Handbook of Consumer Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Barry, Thomas E. & Daniel J. Howard (1990). A Review and Critique of The Hierarchy of Effects in Advertising. International
Journal of Advertising, 9 (2), 98-111
Baumgartner, Hans, Mita Sujan and James R. Bettman (1992). Autobiographical Memories, Affect, and Consumer Information
Processing. Journal of Consumer Psychology. 1 (1), 53-82
Cappo, Joe (2003). The Future of Advertising: New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age. USA:
McGraw-Hill
Davila, Scott (2012, January 15). Great Customer Experiences Make the Best Brand Stories. Retrieved from http://allthings.
womma.org/2011/04/28/great-customer-experiences-make-the-best-brand-stories/
Egan, John (2007). Marketing Communications. London: Thomson
Hall, BF. (2002). A New Model for Measuring Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research, 42 (2), 23-31
Hoyer, Wayne D. and Deborah J. Macinnis (2010). Consumer Behavior. Singapore: Cengage
Kotler, Philip, Hermawan Kartajaya & Iwan Setiawan (2010). Marketing 3.0. Translated by Dian Wulandari. Jakarta: Erlangga
Lane, W. Ronald, Karen Whitehill King and Tom Reichert (2011). Kleppner’s Advertising Procedure. New Jersey: Pearson
Lovelock, Christopher and Jochen Wirtz (2011). Service Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy. New Jersey: Pearson
McDaniel, Carl, Charles W. Lamb and Joseph Hair, Jr. (2011). Introduction to Marketing. Singapore: Cengage
Moriarty, Sandra , Nancy Mitchell and William Wells (2009). Advertising: Principles & Practice. New Jersey: Pearson
Solomon, Michael R. (2011). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being. New Jersey: Pearson
Vakratsas, D & T. Ambler (1999). How Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?. Journal of Marketing, 63 (1), 26-43
Weilbacher, William M. (2001). Point of View: Does Advertising Cause a “Hierarchy of Effects”?. Journal of Advertisin
Research, 41 (6), 19-26
Wijaya, Bambang Sukma (2011). New Model of Hierarchy of Effects in Advertising. Proceeding International Seminar
Scientific Issues and Trends, d5-15
_____________________(2009, May-June). Brand & Me. ADOI Magazine
_____________________(2009, December 15). Mencermati Balada Prita dan Potret Nestapa Konsumen. Kontan Daily