Have you ever purchased a product watching an infomercial? Consumer behavior theory states consumers will allocate income among different goods and services to maximize their well-being.
When consumers follow this theory, we find what is know as the Consumer Purchase Decision Process, a 5 step process that ultimately leads purchases.
As a media writer, the second step of the process is important: consumer information search. This begs the question, How do writers promote their products to capture audience attention and make sales? The answer is below.
Marketers tend to promote and sell products based on Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (MMS), named after its founder, Alan Monroe, a professor at Purdue University. MMS follows 5 distinct steps to promote consumer purchasing behavior:
- Attention Step: Get the audience’s attention by placing the problem into a context that they all can empathize with and understand.
- Need Step: Show that the problem exists, that it is significant, and that it cannot continue. Use statistics, examples, and/or testimonials.
- Satisfaction Step: Show that this need can be satisfied. Provide specific solutions for the problem, solutions that can be realized from your product.
- Visualization Step: Tell the audience what will happen if the solution is implemented and is not implemented. Be descriptive and detailed with your writing.
- Action Step: Tell the audience what action they can personally undertake to resolve the problem, such as purchasing your product. This step is your call to action.
Assignment Week 12:
Consider the following scenario, then write a 30-second ad spot that could air on either radio or television. Your advertisement must be at least 28 seconds and no more than 30 seconds to read.
Scenario: The car sharing business has grown in popularity throughout the world in densely populated major city centers. Over the past few years, U Drive Transport company has dominated the United States marketplace as a premier car sharing business, but the company has struggled to grow in suburban areas such as Rockland County. You have recently accepted a job as an account executive with U Drive Transport, which means you need to create a 30-second ad spot that could air on either radio or television. Your goal with the spot: to help the company expand into the Rockland County, NY market.
Your objective: Follow the MMS steps above to create your advertisement. To help you get started, here is what you should do for the attention step.
- Begin by researching “car sharing” and “taxis” and “public transportation” on the Internet to see what the current alternatives are for your customers. You should find what is undesirable about these competitors.
- You should also research the layout of Rockland County. What locations do people wish to travel? What current transportation is available to get people to these locations? What is the current problem with getting to these locations?
Once you have conducted this step, then continue on to the remaining MMS steps to create your 30 second spot.
Requirements:
- Begin a new page for this assignment and place it on your menu under the lab work section; label the page “Week 12 MMS.”
- Create an advertisement following MMS that will take between 28 – 30 seconds to read: no more, no less. You should time yourself, as it will take me approximately the same amount of time to read your ad, as it took for you to read your ad.
- For each of the five steps, use a new paragraph. In total, your “Week 12 MMS” page should contain 5 paragraphs, one paragraph for each step.
- Please do not forget to screenshot your work and submit it on Blackboard by Sunday at 11:59 PM.