28 May EGO INVOLVEMENT AND INFLUENCE
Last week, you examined ethical practice as an external guide on the use of persuasion. Another important dimension of persuasion is internal influence. That is measured by how invested a person is in an idea, person, place, or object.
For example, think of a cause that you care about. Researchers would say you are “ego involved” in that case. Ego involvement also varies, from low involvement to high involvement. Consider how easily someone could persuade you to give up this cause or change your view of it. Your answer will give you an idea of how much ego involvement you have invested.
Measuring allegiance to causes is only one example of ego involvement at work. Another example is how your personal investment informs your meaning-making processes when you engage with print material in advertisements.
For this Discussion, you will consider ego involvement as a key influence on decision making, with advertising as the subject. You will imagine yourself as a small business owner who needs to create an online ad for a specific product that you want to put on your website. You will explore how to influence the largest number of consumers to purchase your product.
To prepare:
Review Chapter 4 and 7 in the text and Kaptein and Halteren’s (2013) article. In particular, pay attention to the persuasion principles in the Kaptein & Halteren article. Decide on your business, the specific product you want to sell, and who is likely to be your target customer. Consider which of Kaptein & Halteren’s persuasion principles might work best for influencing your website visitors to purchase your product. Within the ELM framework, think about the importance of involvement. Consider how you could create an ad with language that appeals to both consumers with low involvement and consumers with high ego involvement. Also consider advertising ethics you would need to follow in creating your ad.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673850
https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673871
Note: You are not required to create and submit an ad as part of your post.
Of Week, 2 post responses to the following:
Briefly describe your business, your target audience, and the specific product you are selling online. Present the principle(s) of persuasion you would use to sell this product, and justify why the principle(s) you chose would be best for your ad and target consumers. Explain what you would emphasize about the product to appeal to online consumers with low ego involvement and what you would emphasize to attract consumers with high ego involvement. In your response, be sure to demonstrate your understanding of ego involvement and what makes each group of consumers different. Select the specific advertising ethics that you were most mindful of in creating your ad, and explain your thinking.
Note: Be sure to support the responses within your initial Discussion post (and in your colleague reply) with information obtained from the assigned Learning Resources, including in-text citations and a reference list for sources used. For information regarding how your Discussion will be evaluated, please review the Rubric, located in the Course Information area of the course.
Of Week 2, respond to one of your colleagues in one of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, and provide insight into how you would answer your question and why. Ask a probing question and provide the foundation (or rationale) for the question. Expand on your colleague’s posting by offering a new perspective or insight. Agree with a colleague, and offer additional (new) supporting information for consideration. Disagree with a colleague by respectfully discussing and supporting a different perspective.
Support your reply to a colleague’s post with at least one reference (textbook or other scholarly, empirical resources). You may state your opinion and/or provide personal examples; however, you must also back up your assertions with evidence (including in-text citations) from the source and provide a reference.
