Theoretical analysis on persuasive communication in advertising and its application in marketing communication

Abstract

The act of persuasion in advertising and the business world have become one of the most crucial elements in marketing communication. Advertising your business is therefore rooted in the ability of communication experts to come up with messages capable of persuading potential customers and clients to purchase the organization’s products. This implies that, messages that lack persuasion will hit only on deaf ears and the goal not attained. Accordingly, this paper centered on the theoretical analysis on persuasive communication in advertising and how they can be applied in marketing communication. The paper employed secondary data collection method, which is centered on compiled literature and researches relevant to this work. The paper positioned that persuasive communication employs the marketing mix as avenue of reaching potentials customers. The paper was further moored on common persuasive techniques such as plain folk testimonials, hidden fear appeals, social status approach and bandwagon effect. The paper was further anchored on four persuasive theoretical underpinnings that can be applied for effective marketing communication. These include the Persuasion theory, the AIDA model, Elaboration likelihood model and the Fogg Behavioural model. The paper conclude that, arketing communication thrives on persuasion and any advertising message without persuasive elements will yield no result as persuasion is the moving force of marketing communication. Lastly, the paper amongst other points recommends effective use of communication strategy designed to convince consumers, utilization of various media that meet the audience needs and to bridge the knowledge and action gap in the marketing process.