A communications model for marketing decisions

The purpose of this paper is to report the development of a communications model which could be helpful in making marketing decisions. The proposed model shows relationships between persuasibility, self-esteem, source credibility, and communication discrepancy. The importance of these variables is explained in the context of a general marketing situation. Because a major goal of marketing activities is to influence buyer attitudes, it is important to know how the buyer's self-esteem, the seller's credibility, and attitude discrepant communications may influence the effectiveness of persuasive efforts. Knowledge of these relationships can aid decision making on the part of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and other channel members. The proposed model can be used to optimize efforts in choosing target markets, selecting advertising media, selecting price levels, developing advertising formats, and in making a multitude of additional marketing decisions.