The Persuasion Knowledge Model

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In an effort to contribute to the understanding of how consumers interpret and cope with marketers’ persuasion attempts, Friestad and Wright (1994) introduced the persuasion knowledge model. This model has a significant impact on marketing field and has been applied to research in various advertising contexts, such as advergames (e.g., Evans & Hoy, 2016; Panic et al., 2013), TV ads (e.g., Verhellen et al., 2014), and product placement (e.g., Cowley & Barron, 2008), keyword search ads (e.g., Chan Yun, 2009). The persuasion knowledge model posits that when interacting with persuasion attempts (e.g., ad, sales presentation), consumers recall three types of interactive structures: topic knowledge, agent knowledge and persuasion knowledge. These …show more content…

This knowledge could be gained from different sources such as previous exposure to an issue, friends’ review on a product (Friestad & Wright, 1994). For example, some viewers of a TV ad about biodegradable detergent may have understanding of what is “biodegradable” and how using biodegradable products helps protect the environment because they purchased these types of products before. Agent knowledge is consumers’ understanding of characteristics, competencies, or goals of those who are responsible for advertising campaigns (Friestad & Wright, 1994). For example, consumers may have previous knowledge about the size, product ranges, the reputation of a specific company, or previous knowledge about the age, the ethnicity, and the level of honesty of a …show more content…

These studies approach persuasion knowledge from the perspective that consumers’ primary goal is to resist persuasion tactics (if detected) and therefore their coping strategy is discounting persuasion attempts. However, consumers have various goals (e.g., refining the relationship with advertisers, enriching knowledge of advertising tactics and advertisers, managing self-image) and the overriding goal of consumers is to control and manage the optimal outcomes, not only to resist marketers’ persuasion (Friestad & Wright, 1994). In addition, consumers have different coping strategies (e.g., focusing on analyzing the nature of the tactics or the content of the advertising message) (Friestad & Wright, 1994), thus, it is possible that the use of persuasion knowledge does not always create negative responses. Besides, because most consumers hold the general knowledge that advertisers’ main goal is to create influential ads (Friestad & Wright, 1994; Ham et al., 2015) and the perception of the ways advertisers use to

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