clock 7min read

February 27, 2023

By Yossi Elchanan

2023 Marketing Mix Secret: Introduction to Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Marketing has become a challenging field in today’s world, where customers are a lot more informed and have more choices than ever before.

So today’s key to success is a good marketing mix – a blend of different elements that come together to create an effective marketing strategy.

In this article, we will introduce the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), a framework that can help you develop a successful marketing mix for your brand.

What is Marketing Mix?

The marketing mix is a set of tools and tactics that a company uses to promote its products or services to its target audience. These tools include product, price, promotion, and place, also known as the four P’s of marketing. Companies must find the right balance of these elements to create a compelling and effective marketing mix.

By considering the product, price, place, and promotion, this marketing mix model can help create a more comprehensive marketing strategy that appeals to a wide range of consumers. The product is able to be well-designed to be innovative and bold, while the pricing strategy can aim to position the brand as a ‘premium’. The company’s distribution strategy can then focus on reaching consumers through a variety of channels, while the promotional strategy aims to create a sense of excitement and fun around the brand.

Marketing Mix Example: Doritos

Product

For those unfamiliar, Doritos is a brand of tortilla chips that come in a variety of flavors and textures. The company is known for its bold and innovative flavor offerings, such as Cool Ranch and Spicy Nacho. The packaging is eye-catching and features the brand’s distinctive logo and bright colors.

Price

Doritos are priced competitively with other snack brands but are positioned as a ‘premium’ snack. The company also offers occasional promotions, such as buy one get one free, to encourage repeat business.

Place

Doritos are sold in a variety of convenient locations, including grocery stores, convenience stores, and vending machines. The company also sells its products online through major retailers such as Amazon.

Promotion

Doritos’ promotional strategy is focused on creating a sense of excitement and fun around the brand. The company has run several successful advertising campaigns that feature creative and humorous commercials, such as the “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign. The company also utilizes social media to engage with its audience and generate buzz around new product launches.

Good Marketing Mix Challenges

Creating a good marketing mix is a challenge for many companies; they must understand their target audience, identify the unique benefits of their products or services, and determine the right price, promotion, and distribution strategies. The right marketing mix will vary depending on the company, the product, and the target audience.

Finding My Brand Marketing Mix

To create a successful marketing mix, companies must go beyond the four P’s of marketing and consider the psychological processes that drive consumer behavior. A clear attempt to influence their beliefs regarding a certain brand, their attitudes towards it, and of course, their actual behavior – the purchase or use of the brand.

How does this process of persuasion work, and who does it really affect? Among many possible explanations, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), developed by Petty & Cacioppo, is among them.

What is ELM?

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a theory of persuasion that explains how people make decisions and form attitudes. Developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo in the 1980s, the ELM proposes two routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.

ELM is a psychological framework that can help companies understand how consumers process and respond to marketing messages. According to this model, the process of persuasion begins as soon as the consumer perceives the communication that is transmitted to him.

Involvement Channels

Upon receiving the message, the consumer begins processing it. This processing can be done with high involvement (when the topic is seen as very relevant to him personally) or with low involvement.

The Rational Channel

According to the model, the Rational Channel is the degree of involvement of the consumer that determines the “channel” through which the persuasion process takes place. The central route to persuasion is activated when the degree of consumer involvement is high. This channel can be called the “rational” channel, the one that focuses on the message itself, the arguments, the quality of the arguments, or in short, the “meat”.

When consumers target this channel of persuasion, they are focused on the message conveyed to them, examine it, compare it to their existing attitudes, and produce cognitive reactions – thoughts that support or oppose the message. The more responses that support the message, the greater the chance of persuasion.

When the stage of influencing beliefs is successful, it is more likely to affect the next element of the process – attitudes. The materials used by the involved consumer, who is in the central channel for persuasion, are also “central”: ideas, arguments, supporting data, facts, and everything that can improve the “quality” of the message.

The Peripheral Channel

When the consumer’s involvement in the issue is low, the channel of persuasion to be used will be the peripheral (marginal) channel. In this situation, there will be almost no cognitive (or intellectual) reactions, because the consumer does not pay attention to examining the message itself. Instead, they are content with “peripheral clues”, in everything around the subject itself – who the speaker is, how attractive they are, what they look like, etc.

In a low-involvement situation, there is indeed a chance of having some effect on the consumer’s beliefs, for example, regarding this or that attribute or achievement of one of the candidates. But it is hardly likely that his basic attitudes and feelings will change or be affected, which is certainly true of his actual behavior as well.

The Truth Effect

The popular belief that if you repeat something a large number of times, people will start to believe it, is based on “The Truth Effect”. In a low-involvement situation, a lot of repetition of a message also serves as a peripheral cue that helps people believe that message.

This happens regardless of the practical truth value of the statement. This effect is of great importance. Every evening the viewer is exposed to dozens of different and strange messages. In most cases, viewers do not bother to pay enough attention to examine the truth of the messages. This increases the likelihood that repeated messages will be perceived as accurate.

ELM and Your Marketing Mix

The ELM has important implications for developing a marketing mix that resonates with your target audience. To be effective, your marketing mix must appeal to both the central and peripheral routes of persuasion. This means that you must present compelling arguments and evidence that appeal to the cognitive processing of your audience while also using attractive visuals, emotional appeals, and social proof to persuade those who rely on peripheral cues.

In terms of the four P’s of marketing, the ELM suggests that each element can be used to appeal to either the central or peripheral route of persuasion. When combined with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this marketing mix model can be further optimized to appeal to both the central and peripheral routes of persuasion.

For example, a company’s promotional strategy could be refined to focus on emotional appeals and social proof, such as featuring celebrity endorsements and influencers enjoying the product. The packaging could also be designed to create a sense of exclusivity and desirability, appealing to the peripheral route of persuasion.

Marketing Mix and ELM Example: Apple

Apple is an excellent example of a company that has effectively used the ELM to create a powerful marketing mix. They have built their brand around a set of core values, including simplicity, design, and innovation. Their products appeal to both the central and peripheral routes of persuasion by presenting compelling arguments about the quality and performance of their products while also using attractive design, emotional appeals, and social proof to persuade consumers.

A genius way in which Apple uses the ELM to create a powerful marketing mix is through its pricing strategy. Apple’s products are often more expensive than competitors, but they are also perceived as high-quality and innovative.

By presenting compelling arguments about the value of its products, Apple appeals to the central route of persuasion. At the same time, they use emotional appeals and social proof, such as the popularity of their products among celebrities and influencers, to appeal to the peripheral route.

Apple’s promotional strategies also appeal to both the central and peripheral routes of persuasion. They use compelling arguments and evidence to demonstrate the quality and performance of their products, while also using emotional appeals and social proof to create a sense of desire and exclusivity around their brand.

Summary

In conclusion, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a powerful framework that can help companies create effective marketing mixes. By understanding how consumers process and respond to marketing messages, companies can present compelling arguments and evidence while also using attractive visuals, emotional appeals, and social proof to persuade their target audience. When combined with the traditional four P’s of marketing, the ELM can help companies develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that appeals to both the central and peripheral routes of persuasion.

Get exclusive CMO tips that I only share with email subscribers.

Don't forget to share this article!