Understanding the purchase decision process is of little use without the ability to develop and communicate an effective message. The AIDA model offers a framework to help design the desired message.
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| AIDA (Lewis 1898) |
- A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.
- I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).
- D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
- A - Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.
This design should be incorporated into all areas of the promotional mix. Advertising for example needs precision design as it is expensive and has no room for error.
Information Search
The consumer may have sufficient internal information from past promotional activities or built brand awareness. This is unlikely and it is therefore necessary to design effective promotional material to guide the consumer’s external search.
Drive comes about because there is a gap between the actual and desired states of the market (Blythe 2008). To feed that desire we must offer something that is not yet offered by competing resorts. We may do this by highlighting our niche, the panoramic views of the island, and including it in our external search materials (website, Facebook, brochures):
Imagery should be used to attract consumer’s Attention to our resort and niche and short messages should be used to build Interest and differentiate our resort from competitors. Our unique niche should have created a Desire for our product as it fills a gap in the market. Most importantly a clear route to take Action must be provided. These are phone and online booking details for the resort.
Evaluation
It is our priority to be in the consumer’s consideration set. To do this we must identify potential criteria and cut-offs. Where we meet certain criteria we must communicate this to the consumer. Where we do not meet the criteria we must provide an alternative, create an interest in it and persuade the consumer to desire it.
For example the consumer may want a beachside resort. Instead we will offer the alternative of a hilltop, forest resort with panoramic views of the island and just minutes from the beach. We must create a desire for this alternative and persuade the consumer that this is an equal if not better location. We will aim to widen the consumer’s search criteria and become part of their consideration set.
While using the AIDA design we must be sure to reflect the positive attributes of the resort without deceiving the consumer. ‘It is generally better to ensure that the consumer has accurate information about the product beforehand so as to avoid post purchase dissonance,’ (Day 1981)
