Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM) It is helpful to apply theory when attempting to differentiate and understand audience or customer

purchasing influences. Theory helps provide a skeleton for strategy development and a means for measuring the effectiveness of applying the theory to a given situation. One common theory of persuasion is the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM) by Perloff and Cacioppo. The ELM describes the cognitive processing that occurs when a person is presented with a persuasive message. Whether the message is presented one on one (as in a business relationship) or through a medium (such as a television advertisement) the theory claims we all process those messages either cognitively or peripherally. The theory can be applied to understanding both goods and service industries, because across the board, persuasive attempts are looking to induce a change of opinion or behavior. The sales process for any industry relies upon effective persuasive communication attempts to achieve certain results. The ELM describes how different processing occurs by the target of the persuasive attempt, and what additional variables play a role in how that message is processed. Specifically, the ELM, developed by Perloff and Cacioppo describes a central route and a peripheral route to persuasion. The central route being a cognitive path, where a great deal of thinking about an issue is involved, and more scrutiny and attention are paid to the message. The peripheral route is described as involving very little thought, and more attention is paid to the messages ability to evoke positive values, images, or feelings. Each route has very different ways of processing information, which means the methods to reach these two groups will also be different. The theory identifies motivation and ability to process the message as the two indicators that determine in which route a person will process a persuasive message. Motivation to process the message can be determined by the level of personal relevance the topic has, and the receivers desire to understand and cognitively think about the message in relation to a larger framework of other accepted ideas. Motivation is explained by the theory as being a factor that ranges from low involvement to high involvement. A person that is highly involved will tend to closely examine each of the statements made, and will not just accept information as factual. Rather, they will challenge statements that disagree with their position. In this situation, the persuader must present strong issue-relevant statements, leading towards the position they would like their audience to hold. A person of low involvement will probably remember how many statements were presented over the actual statements themselves, processing in the peripheral route. In this situation, it will be more important to focus on buzz words or simple ideas that will catch their attention, as peripheral cues will typically be all that is processed and remembered. Simply having an expert source that is viewed as credible can have a huge effect, because, according to the theory, speaker credibility will be more important than specific data in the messages. Level of motivation or involvement help show how differently two people can process the same message. The second important factor in determining which route is used is the ability to process the actual message. If a person does not have prior knowledge on a given topic and is generally ignorant to the subject, he or she will more than likely process through the peripheral route, attaching his or her decisions to factors that are peripheral to the message. Ability to process can also include things like distractions, comprehension of the message, and the repetition of the message. Most television advertisements focus on peripheral cues, because of the very high tendency for the audience to be distracted, many times causing them to only catch part of the commercial. This is why commercial producers utilize celebrities and attractive people, flashy graphics, catchy jingles, and various sound effects to create positive feelings and

quick, powerful images that will be remembered by the audience. The repetition of these commercials is also a strategy that helps to improve the quantity of people it reaches and the frequency by which it reaches them, considering that distractions are prevalent with this medium. A salesperson will want to look at their audiences motivation and ability to process the sales message and their ability to process the sales message to structure a most appropriate strategy and technique. Consider, for example, a salesperson selling a computer networking system to a small business owner that basically understands the user-end functionality of networking, but is not specifically educated in this technical area. The owner requested the meeting, and they are also speaking with two other competitors for the same for the same service. The owner has a high motivation to process, because they are comparing information and ultimately making a decision that affects their budget, their productivity, and their business. Their ability to process the information may not be as high, because this is not their area of expertise, but high enough given that they do have supplemental knowledge and they are creating situations to learn more about the various systems. In this situation, the owner more likely will process through the central route, because both their motivation and ability to process the information is high. The technical information, however, will likely be processed peripherally if it gets too detailed, given that this ability is not very high. A few technical statements embedded with some buzz words would be a smart approach here. This way, the owner has a few statements to really digest and understand, allowing for central route processing, sustained motivation, and to hear the message. The ELM can be very useful in understanding why certain messages and strategies work in some situations and not in others. Again, understanding the best way to sell to any group or individual, regardless of industry, is to first examine and understand the customers, and then strategize from there how to best reach them. ELM provides a framework for salespeople and persuasive professionals to better design their messages to achieve the desired results.