• Response Hierarchy

Model 
BY
 Dr .TAMGADGE PRAVIN HIRAMAN

 
• INTRODUCTION:
The Response Hierarchy Models explains the
consumer responses and behaviour to the
advertising process. The Models provide a
complete understanding of the responses of a
customer through all stages of his path from
unaware of the product to the purchase action.
The article throws light on the five main Models of
Response Hierarchy that explain the consumer
behaviour across three awareness stages- Cognitive
Stage, Affective Stage and Behavioral Stage. The five
Response Hierarchy Models are as follows
Major segments of the FMCGs industry:
1 . AIDA MODEL
The phrase AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire,
and Action. The AIDA model is used in advertising to
define the stages that exist from the time when the
consumer first becomes aware of the product or the
brand to when the consumer purchases a product. The
AIDA model is one of the most established models
amongst all the Response Hierarchy Models. The
organisations employ the AIDA Model to obtain the
necessary response from the targeted consumers
through advertisements. This model can be operated
successfully to stimulate the different emotions of the
customers
• ATTENTION
• This is the awareness stage of the model where the consumer becomes
aware of a brand or a product mostly through advertisements.
• INTEREST
• This is the stage when the consumer shows some interest in the
product after understanding its benefits and learns how well the product
actually fits into his lifestyle.
• DESIRE
• This is the third stage of the AIDA model when the consumer desires to
own the product. He develops a favourable disposition towards the
product.
• ACTION
• This is the final step of the model where the consumer finally takes
favorable to satiate his desire. In this stage, he takes a purchase
decision and buys the product that is being advertised.
• In the AIDA model, the awareness of a brand or a product takes place in
the Cognitive stage, the potential consumers develop an interest and
desire to purchase the product in the Affective stage, and the purchase
action actually materializes in the last stage called the Behavior stage.
 2. HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECTS MODEL
Hierarchy of effects model was designed by
Robert J Lavidge and Gary A Steiner in 1961.
This advertising communication model describes
that there are 6 phases from the phase where
the customer views the product to the purchase
phase. The job of an advertisement is to prompt
the customer to endure all the six stages of the
Hierarchy-of-Effects Model, namely
the Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference, 
Conviction, and Purchase.
• AWARENESS
• This is the elementary stage of the model when the customer becomes
aware of the product or a brand. This is a very crucial step, as there is
no surety about the customer’s viewership or the awareness of the
product. Consumers may view various advertisements, but the chance
of a customer registering the advertisement in his mind depends upon
the intensity and the impact your advertisement made on the target
consumers.
• KNOWLEDGE
• The customer starts collecting the required information about the
product in this phase. He slowly tries to understand the benefits
associated with the product through the internet, retail advisors or
through people who have already used the product. Consumers may
easily switch to the competitors brand when they are unable to collect
the required information. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the
advertiser to make sure that the product information is easily available.
• LIKING
• This is a stage when the customer develops a liking for the product.
Here the advertiser’s responsibility is to highlight the product features
to further promote the brand or a product.
• PREFERENCE
• This is the fourth phase of the Hierarchy-of-Effects Model.
During this phase, the customer is clear about the product
qualifications and he is sure about his brand choices. Here the
advertisers need to constantly reinforce the positive aspects of
their brand.
• CONVICTION
• In this stage, the customer would have made up his mind to
buy the product. The advertiser’s responsibility here is to guide
the customers to choose their brand.
• PURCHASE
• This is the last stage of the hierarchy of effects model in which
the actual purchase of the product takes place.
• In the Hierarchy-of-Effects model, the awareness and the
knowledge phases fall under the Cognitive stage. Evaluation of
the customer liking, preference, and conviction fall under the
Affective stage and the actual purchase behaviour takes place
in the Behavioral stage.
  INNOVATION-ADOPTION MODEL
Innovation-Adoption Model was developed
by Rogers in 1995. He postulated various stages
in which a target customer sails through from
the stage of incognizance to purchase. The 5
stages of the
Innovation-Adoption Model
are Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Trial,
and Adoption. 
• AWARENESS
• This is the primary stage of Innovation-Adoption Model. takes action is the
awareness stage of the model where the consumer becomes aware of a brand or a
product mostly through advertisements.
• INTEREST
• This is the second phase of the Innovation-Adoption Model. This is a stage in which
the information about the brand or a product multiplies in the market and triggers
the interest of the potential buyers of the product to gain more knowledge and
information about the product.
• EVALUATION
• Evaluation is the third stage of the Innovation-Adoption Model that supplements
the necessary information regarding the product to the consumers. In this stage, the
consumers evaluate and try to gain a deeper understanding of the product that
stimulated interest in them.
• TRIAL
• In this stage, the customers try the product before making the final choice to
purchase the product.
• ADOPTION
• Adoption is the final stage of the Innovation-Evaluation Model. In this stage, the
customer accepts the product, makes a purchase decision and finally purchases the
product.
• In the Innovation-Evaluation Model, the Awareness happens at the Cognitive Stage,
developing an interest and evaluation phases fall under the conviction phase, and
the trial of the product and the actual adoption fall in the Behavioral phase.
 • 4 INFORMATION-PROCESSING MODEL

• The Information-Processing Model is a structure used by

cognitive psychologists to define the mental processes. This
model links the human thought process to the computer
functions. It signifies that the human mind, like the computer
takes in information, organizes, and stores the information to be
repossessed later. It claims that just like the computer possesses
an input device, a processing unit, a storage unit, and an output
device, the human mind also has a parallel framework. The
Information-Processing Model comprises of 6 stages namely
the Presentation, Attention, Comprehension, Yielding, Retentio
n and the Behavioral stag
 Presentation
Cognitive
Attention
stage
Comprehension

Yielding Affective
stage
Retention
Behavior Behaviour
stage
• PRESENTATION
The presentation is the fundamental stage in the Information-Processing Model. This is the awareness
phase where the consumer becomes aware of his needs and seeks a product to satiate his needs.
• ATTENTION
This is the second stage of the Information-Processing Model, where the product seizes the attention of
the potential customers.
• COMPREHENSION
In this stage of the Information-Processing Model, the consumer compares and evaluates various
products of different brands accessible in the market to ascertain the product that actually meets his
requirement.
• YIELDING
This is a stage in which the customer figures out what exactly he wants and the brand and its product
that balances his needs to its specifications.
• RETENTION
This is the fifth stage in the Information-Processing Model. This is the stage in which the customer
remembers the key features and attributes, the benefits and all the positive aspects of the products that
he is seeking to purchase.
• BEHAVIOR
This is the last stage of the Information-Processing Model in which the purchase action of a product of a
particular band takes place.
In the Information-Processing Model, the Presentation, Attention and Comprehension take place in the
Cognitive stage, Yielding and Retention of information fall under the Affective stage, and the final
Behavioral action takes place in the Behavioral stage.
 Unit--CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT:

MEANING, NATURE AND TYPES OF CONSUMER

INVOLVEMENT:
consumer involvement is the state of mind that closely
relates to motivate people to make a purchase .
Involvement is defined as a psychological state that
motivates people to be more aware and careful about
persons/objects/situations. It also indicates a level of
personal importance that the person attaches to such
persons/objects/situations. Thus, there are (a) high and
low-involvement consumers; (b) high and low-
involvement purchases.
• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
• Elaboration Likelihood Model is developed by Richard E. Petty and
John T. Cacioppo in 1980s. Persuasion is very much associated
with our daily life. Persuasion occurs when readers, listeners or
viewers learns a message from what they read, listen or watch. We
remember the message as ideas and we will be persuaded by it.
That is how we remember them. If we did not learn something, it
is not possible to remember it and we will not be persuaded by it.
However learning may not be always combined with persuasion
• . For example there might be some advertisements that we hate,
we don’t want to learn or remember the message from the
advertisement and we are not being persuaded by it. The
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) explains how persuasion
message works in changing the attitude of reader or viewer. It is
very much important for corporations and advertisement
agencies, in designing their market strategies and understanding
the attitudes of peoples.
• Theory
• Persuasion is referred as the action by which, convincing or causing someone to
do something through reasoning or argument. The Elaboration Likelihood model
proposes that each and every message is undergoing the process of persuasion
in two different ways. They are called Central route and peripheral route. Both of
them are effective persuasion techniques, but each of them has its own guiding
techniques to make them more operative.

• Central Route
• The process of persuasion through Central route is straight to the point and
complete. The central route needs a thoughtful consideration of arguments
which contains in the message. It requires more involvement from the part of
reader or viewer. The receiver of the message carefully analyze the message and
think of it in every possible angle. When the receiver processes the message
through the central route, his active participation is vital also his motivation and
ability to think. In simple it can be said that the receiver should care about the
message and subject matter. The central route is strong. A person who is
distracted or having some problem with understanding the message may not be
able to do the central processing. The disadvantage of this technique is that, if
the receiver is not directly affected by the message he or she will ignore it.
• Example
• A woman who is very much interested in
platinum jewels will be closely watching the
advertisements of platinum jewels. She is
fascinated with the new trends and tends to
collect them. Here she has the motivation for the
subject matter and she care about it. She
carefully processes the message and thinks about
it. And her husband may not be interested in
jewels so he will be totally ignoring the message
from advertisements about the jewels. Here the
woman processes the message in her central
route and not her husband.
• Peripheral Route
• The peripheral route is weak and the involvement of the receiver will
be low. The message sent through peripheral route is not analyzed
cognitively. Here the receiver of the message is not sure whether to
agree with the message or to disagree. The person may not be able to
elaborate the message extensively, so in the end he will be persuaded
by the factors which are nothing to do with the message. And this is
where packing, marketing, advertising and PR does their job.
Sometimes people may not be in a position to think about the message
carefully
so he or she will look around for the next best option to be persuaded.
• Example
• Rahul, a high school student in a book store to buy a note book for
doing his homework. He sees many designs in front cover of the
notebook from various companies. He became confused, and then he
saw a notebook with his favorite football player’s picture in front cover.
Without thinking much about it, he bought that notebook.
 • FCB Model
• The FCB grid or Foote, Cone and Belding model
is an integrative approach to interpret the
consumer’s buying behaviour and its
implication for adopting suitable advertising
strategy. It is depicted on a matrix with the
help of four significant factors, i.e., thinking,
feeling, high involvement and low involvement.
n 1980, Richard Vaughn, along with his
associates, suggested the FCB Model. He was
the Senior Vice President of FCB (Foote, Cone
and Belding) Advertising company at that time.
• FCB matrix works on the four significant factors
arranged in a pattern.
• Here, the thinking to feeling aspect stretches from
left to right on the x-axis, while the high to low
involvement moves from top to bottom on the y-
axis.
• Let us now see how the quadrants formed vary
from one another:
• Informative (Quadrant 1): The expensive products
having a high level of importance to the consumers
and requires intense thinking for decision-making,
lies in this category. The prospective buyer first
learns or gathers complete information about the
product; then, he/she feels the need of buying it;
and later makes the final purchase.
• Affective (Quadrant 2): The valuable products which hold an
emotional attribute and requires consumer engagement are
considered to be affective products.
• The buyer follows a feel, learn and do order. That is he/she first
develops a connection with the brand or the product; gains
complete knowledge of it; finally buys it.

• Habitual (Quadrant 3): This category of products includes everyday

essentials. Groceries item Thus, the customer experiences a low
involvement but analytical decision making while purchasing these
items.
• The buyer first obtains the product; tries it out and determines
whether it solves the purpose or not; then develops a trust in the
brand.

• Satisfaction (Quadrant 4): The products whose purchase is driven

by the emotions; emergency delibratly however, the buying decision
does not require much consumer involvement, lies in this quadrant.
• The consumer buys the product; feels positive or negative about the
purchase; and then learns about the product.
• Example : Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance ‘Early
Retirement Life Goal’ Advertisement: It
shows how one can plan for retirement from
work before the age of 60 years, by opting for
this early retirement plan.
• This product lies in informative or; high
involvement and thinking category, i.e., first
quadrant.
• Tanishq’s festive collection ‘Virasat’: The brand
highlighted in its advertisement, the significance of the
ancient tradition of buying and worshipping gold jewellery,
on the auspicious festival of Diwali.
• Thus, it truly belongs to the high involvement and feels
section, which is categorized in the second quadrant as an
affective product.
• Ghadi Machine Wash: This product is featured as a
specialist for cleaning clothes in the washing machine,
which not only saves user’s time but is also cost-effective.
• This is a routine product and its selection is based on low
involvement, though it requires thinking; thus, it lies in the
third quadrant.
• Sunfeast Dark Fantasy’s ‘New Meetha’
campaign:
The product advertisement shows the
fulfilment of the sweets craving by having this
indulgent biscuit. It is posed as an alternative to
regular Indian sweets.
This product brings satisfaction since it is a
low involvement and feeling class, lying in the
fourth quadrant.
• What is Marketing Communication?
• Marketing communications are those techniques that the company or a business
individual uses to convey promotional messages about their products and services.
Experts of marketing communication design different types of persuasive
communication and send it to the target audience.
• What are the integrated Marketing Communication Tools?
• There are different tools used to attract the target audience. However, which tool to
use depends on various factors such as geographical location of your target audience,
popularity of your products, etc. Following are the important tools popularly used for
marketing communications −
• Pamphlets
• Brochures
• Emails
• Advertisements
• Websites
• Sales Promotions and Campaign
• Exhibitions
• Personal Selling
• Press Release
 – Marketing Communication Process
Communication from Latin word Communicare simply means to share or passing the
information from the sender to the receiver. But in practice, this is a complex process that involves
many other factors. However, Kotler has given one of the most effective models to define the
marketing communication process (see the following diagram) −
• The diagram explains various components − first two components are ‘sender’ and ‘receiver’.
Second two components are ‘message’ and ‘media.’ The other features of this model
are ‘encoding,’ ‘decoding,’ ‘response,’ and ‘feedback.’ And, the last feature is ‘noise.’ Noise
is random and other competing messages that more frequently obstruct with the
communication.
• Communications Process
• Communications is a continuous process which mainly involves three elements viz.
sender, message, and receiver. The elements involved in the communication process
are explained below in detail:
• 1. Sender
• The sender or the communicator generates the message and conveys it to the
receiver. He is the source and the one who starts the communication
• 2. Message
• It is the idea, information, view, fact, feeling, etc. that is generated by the sender and
is then intended to be communicated further.
• 3. Encoding
• The message generated by the sender is encoded symbolically such as in the form of
words, pictures, gestures, etc. before it is being conveyed.
• 4. Media
• It is the manner in which the encoded message is transmitted. The message may be
transmitted orally or in writing. The medium of communication includes telephone,
internet, post, fax, e-mail, etc. The choice of medium is decided by the sender.
• . Decoding
• It is the process of converting the symbols encoded by the sender. After decoding the
message is received by the receiver.
• . Receiver
• He is the person who is last in the chain and for whom the message
was sent by the sender. Once the receiver receives the message and
understands it in proper perspective and acts according to the
message, only then the purpose of communication is successful.
• 7. Feedback
• Once the receiver confirms to the sender that he has received the
message and understood it, the process of communication is
complete.
• 8. Noise
• It refers to any obstruction that is caused by the sender, message or
receiver during the process of communication. For example, bad
telephone connection, faulty encoding, faulty decoding, inattentive
receiver, poor understanding of message due to prejudice or
inappropriate gestures, etc.
• This model emphasizes on the major key factors that play an important
role in effective communication. It is imperative to know the market
response and your target audience before you send any message.
• Tips of Effective Marketing Communications
• Following are the important points that you need to take care of for
effective marketing communications −

• Persuasive Message − Different customers have different

requirements and expectations; therefore, it is very important to
customize your persuasive messages accordingly.

• Design − Every medium of communication (such as magazine,

newspaper, TV, digital media, or brochure) has its own design and
requirements. Therefore, you need to plan and design your messages
accordingly.

• Feedback − Must collect feedback from your audience; it will help you
improve your marketing communication.