A major part of my methods section of my comp is the creation and presentation of the sales pitches for the products. I will need to create a general script describing the products and the beginning then make sure the script only contains the desired tropes within them. I am debating with the idea of using an actor to deliver the sales pitches. It is still up in the air whether he/she will be delivering them in person or through a prerecorded video. After reading this article, delivery and dialogue are very important in verbal advertisements and I will have to think long and hard about who will be delivering the pitch and what he/she should say.
The article, Persuasive Talk: Is it what you say or how you say? explains how elements withing a verbal advertisement function to trigger persuasion within a consumer. First, the article talks about delivery. A study done by Thomas and Soldow (1989) found that tone and inflection impact the perceived forcefulness of the spokesperson. If the spokesperson uses a loud tone and a lot of inflection as opposed to if he/she uses a soft voice., he/she is perceived as being dominant, strong-minded and confident. These findings are important and must be taken into consideration in my research. Also another thing that I will have to be conscious of in my study is the idea of hesitation. Talking without hesitation is perceived as being knowledgeable and forceful.
The article also discusses the dialogue and interaction. The interaction between speaker and consumer could enhance or inhibit persuasion. In the following study, researchers used a Rice Krispies Treat commercial. The commercial contained a lot fo dialogue and little narration. Also, the dialogue was used to explain product benefits (healthy, etc). A total of 75 males and females were used in the study. The results suggest that viewers' perceptions of the appropriateness of how the actors in the advertisement deliver their lines contributed to the emotional response of the viewers. The lines in the study were delivered with an enthusiastic tone and thus viewers reported feelings of happiness, warm feelings and enthusiasm. The results show that dialogue influences attitudinal and behavioral responses. Conducting my study as a field experiment will allow consumers (participants) to ask questions about he product; however, if the actor does not know how to answer those questions and he/she does not deliver the answer in the correct manner, interaction could act as a distraction.
These are two ideas that I will need to take into consideration when I am deciding who my salesperson will be, whether it will be a field experiment or a controlled study with a video tape and what will actually be said in the pitches.
Boyd, H. C., III. (2006). Persuasive talk: Is it what you say or how you say it? Journal of Advertising Research, 46(1), 84-92.
Comments (1)
I think you will want to be very careful about having this be a "live" sale. You would have to make sure your actor gave the same exact pitch everytime, in the same exact way. I think doing a video would give you a lot more control. You could always ask participants if they have questions about the product and those questions could become part of what you examine as a DV. However, keep in mind that you can only test so much in one study...stick to the variables you identified because they are interesting, important, and should be challenging enough for a first try at research.
Posted by Prof Knupsky | April 28, 2009 9:07 AM
Posted on April 28, 2009 09:07