Weighting: 150 points (two print ads, two printed supporting discussions, oral presentation)

General Assignment

Write two versions of a persuasive message that could be used by our client.  One version is to be most effective under a high involvement (and/or high knowledge) situation; the other is to be most effective under a low involvement (and/or low knowledge) situation. 

Our client is interested in proposing an alternative location for a landfill that can take hazardous and medical waste (different from household waste).  The currently proposed location was chosen by the national company that is contracted to take care of solid waste in our area.  People living in the proximity of the proposed site have mobilized an opposition. 

Given the opposition to the proposed landfill site, our client (who is not associated with the company who would own or manage the landfill) would like to propose alternative locations that might lead to less opposition.  In conversation with her, we have hypothesized that these factors could include such issues as population density, per capita income, home ownership rates, education levels, and such. 

In order to gain insights regarding how or even if these sorts of factors might be associated with opposition, we could conduct exploratory focus group interviews on a sample of people who could be affected by the proposal of a landfill near where they live.  Students in the Marketing Research course are writing a focus group topic guide to explore, in part, different people's reactions to a persuasive message associated with hazardous and medical waste landfills. 

Write two versions of a persuasive message that could be used in these focus group sessions.  "Persuasive" in the context of the research project means a message that attempts to create positive attitudes toward the building of such a landfill.  Although you might personally hold attitudes and beliefs that are more aligned with opposition to such a landfill, this should not hinder you from designing a message from the required positive perspective. 

Each message version must be written using theoretical ideas from the ELM: one version should be designed to be most effective under high involvement and/or knowledge conditions, and the other should be designed to be most effective under low involvement and/or knowledge conditions.  Each message must be accompanied by a theoretical justification.  This justification is important for two reasons: First, our client has never heard of the concept of involvement and so you must explain how your message is expected to work in lay person terms.  Second, the involvement construct could be associated with quite a number of factors, so you need to describe your situational expectations or assumptions. 

Only one or the other of your persuasive messages (two different experimental treatments) would be used in any given focus group session.  Our ultimate interest is in observing different people's (e.g., different demographics that might be associated with high or low involvement) reactions after exposure to one of the messages. 

Some Specifics

1. The assignment requires preparation of two PRINT advertising messages; do not submit video/audio tapes, etc.  Each message MUST be accompanied by one or two page explanation.

2. The message will be in the form of a printed message (e.g, advertisement or editorial) which can include non-text illustrations as part of the message if appropriate.  Illustrations may be simple hand-drawn mock-ups to suggest work that could be outsourced to an artist.  You are not required to use graphic illustrations, however (i.e., your proposed message could be entirely text).

3. One message is to be most effective under high involvement (and/or high knowledge) conditions and the other is to be most effective under low involvement (and/or low knowledge) conditions.  Note that these must be broad and general conditions that maximize the use of the message; proposing a message that is only useful for recipients with limited English skills, for example, does not maximize the use of the message across a broad range of situations. 

4. This is a very specific assignment that requires the use of concepts and theories learned in this course: merely submitting two messages will receive a failing grade if theory and guidelines associated with recipient involvement and attitude change are not followed.

5. Each message is to be contained on a single, separate 8-1/2 x 11-inch page (a single sheet of typing paper).  Clearly mark which message is for high and which message is for low involvement conditions.  (You will receive a failing grade if you expect me to guess which message is supposed to be associated with which condition.)

6. Additionally, each message is to be accompanied by a one or two page discussion.  This discussion must:
   1. explain the sorts of situations in which the recipient would be expected to be under higher or lower levels of involvement (or knowledge) when exposed to the message,

   2. explain why each message is expected to be more persuasive under one condition of involvement than the other, and

   3. explain why each message is expected to result in a more stable and enduring attitude change under one condition than the other.

   Note that you might be using cues in the message itself to invoke higher or lower levels of recipient involvement: if so, explain what you did to manipulate these differing levels.  Your discussion must be based on concepts and theories that we have discussed with respect to motivation, involvement, attention, and attitude change.  "Shooting from the hip" without reference to concepts discussed in this course will receive a failing grade.  The above criteria are minimal requirements of your discussion, so failure to include all of the above criteria in your discussion will substantially affect your grade. 

7. You will work in teams of one or two.  The team is of your own choosing.  Note, however, that both members of a team will receive the same score. 

8. Neatness is considered a minimal requirement in your grade.  Neatness is defined here to include grammar, spelling, typos, correct use of paragraphs, and such.  Problems with these would not be acceptable in "real" promotional or editorial copy and are therefore not acceptable in this assignment.  (I.e., shoddy, unprofessional work will be marked accordingly).  Note that neatness as defined here does not require that you have access to any special sort of equipment or software applications; you are merely creating a mock-up.

9. Please do not use any kind of report folders.  Just use plain white paper with a single staple in the top left corner to attach each persuasive message the associated theoretical discussion. 

10. You are encouraged to visit the professor outside of class to discuss your ideas. 

Documents that might provide useful background information, insights, and potential persuasive arguments include: