90 CHAPTER 3 HOW MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WORKexample, when people have the impression that a large university has to be good since it is
able to attract so many students, a small university can try to change this evaluation by
emphasising the benefits of small classes (more personal contact, more time per student,
greater supervision, etc.). Finally, attitudes can be changed by adding attributes. For example,
if a university has an exchange contract with foreign universities so that foreign students can
take part of the courses while its own students can follow courses abroad, the university can
emphasise the multicultural environment. By doing so, it might create an additional attrib-
ute that students take into account when choosing between universities. When Levi’s, for
example, saw its market share decline, it emphasised its pioneering role in the jeans market and
tried to add the fact that Levi’s was the first jeans brand as a product attribute that consumers
might consider when buying jeans. An example in the beer market is Labatt Ice which under-
scores the freshness of the beer, rather like Cola Light claims ‘you have never been refreshed
like this before’.
Besides trying to change attitudes, marketers can focus on changing the opinion of others.
To counter the increase in smoking of young girls, for example, the UK government tried
to change the opinions of youngsters by means of a communications campaign of which
the main message was that smoking makes you less attractive to the opposite sex. One ad
pictured two pairs of kissing lips with the message ‘Ever kissed a non-smoker? Taste the
difference.’ A more recent campaign tries to counter alcohol abuse in teenage girls (to avoid
getting pregnant while being drunk) with the message ‘if you drink like a man, you might
end up looking like one’. Raising or lowering social sensitivity for specific significant others
is another possibility. For example, while buying a new car used to be a decision made by
the parents, Opel stresses how comfortable, exciting and cool the Opel Safira is perceived
by children, hoping that parents will take the opinion of their children into account when
choosing a particular type and brand of car. Finally, perceived behavioural control can be
influenced. Marketers could change control beliefs by showing how easy or convenient to use
certain products are. For example, MasterCard uses the slogan ‘North. South. East. West. No
card is more accepted’ to indicate you can pay everywhere with MasterCard (Photo 3.1).
Another possibility is to focus on increasing perceived power or the confidence of consumers
that they can master the activity. Nike stresses ‘Just do it’, meaning that everyone can be
an athlete.Photo 3.1 MasterCard: influencing perceived behavioural control
Source: Reproduced with permission of Gesamtverband Werbeagenturen GWA and McCann-Erickson Europe.M03_PELS3221_05_SE_C03.indd 90 6/5/13 3:03 PM