Taylor Scantlebury

Methods Section
April 3, 2015

My research question for this semester is: Which persuasive appeal has the greatest effect
on college students when considering a product to buy? The persuasive appeals of egos, logos,
and pathos are significant to communication because they aid in the understanding of successful
persuasion techniques. The goal of advertising is to persuade. First described by Aristotle 2,500
years ago, the three primary rhetorical principles or strategies of persuasion employed by
advertisers today are ethos -- persuasion appeals to credibility or trust, logos -- appeals to logic,
and pathos -- appeals to emotions. Numerous persuasion tactics are sometimes discussed in the
context of being persuasion strategies, but they are actually tactical executions of one of the three
primary strategies. Persuasive advertising is a type of product promotion that attempts to
influence a consumer in favor of a purchasing particular good or service. A business might
engage in informative or persuasive advertising to encourage first time customers to try its
product, in addition to reminding customers to purchase a product they have previously bought
(Poggi, 2005). Advertising is about selling. By nature, advertising is neither neutral nor
objective. Pleading its case through the strongest, most persuasive means, advertising informs,
entertains and sells. If advertising is about selling, then persuasion is how to get there.
Consumers are not persuaded by illogical or irrational promises and can see through illconceived ideas. You might be surprised to learn that 80 to 90 percent of new products launched
fail (OShaughnessy & OShaughnessy, 2004).
The product that will be advertised will be a high quality protective case for a cellphone.
Participants
There were 250 participants selected for this study. During the course of a week, ten
researchers lobbied in the Universitys student union asking students to participate in the study
from 11:00am-3:00pm. Every student that passed through the student union, during that research

time, was asked to participate in the study. After agreeing to participate, students provided
researchers with their identification cards to prevent anyone from participating more than once.
All the participants were students at the university and ranged between the ages of 18-24 years
old. There were 125 male students and 125 female students. The demographics of the
participants were 29% Black; 19% Asian American; 12% Latin American; 42% White.
Method
Students were shown a picture of a high quality protectant cellphone case (Otterbox) and
asked if they would consider purchasing it for $30. If they replied yes, the response was
recorded. If they replied no, participants would move to Ethos. There the Student Body
President introduced himself and showed participants the case on his phone. The Student Body
President explained to have had the case on his phone for 3 month and claimed to have dropped
it several times and that his phone was never harmed. After this conversation participants were
asked if they would buy the case for $30. If they replied yes, the response was recorded. If
they replied no, the participants would move on the logos. At Logos the participants would be
given a sheet with specifics about the phone case. These would state that the case has three layers
of protection and is drop, dust, and screen scratch protectant. Then a phone with the case on it
would be thrown across the room and checked for damage. After the phone is scanned and
proven not to be damaged, the participant would be asked if they would buy the $30 case. If they
replied yes, the response was recorded. If they replied no, they would move to Pathos. At
Pathos, the researcher would ask five other people in the room (confederates) if they would buy
the phone case for $30, all five people would reply yes. The researcher would then ask the
participant if they would buy the phone case for $30. If they replied yes, the response was
recorded. If they responded no the response was recorded.

Some issues that might have occurred could be not having the right participants for the
study to be effective. Every participant that replied yes to the initial question, when just shown
a picture of the case, had their responses thrown out of the study because the study was to see
which appeal convinced participants to make a purchase. All the participants that replied no to
the initial question and to all three appeals, had their responses thrown out also. Another issue
that could have occurred could have been after two persuasive attempts, participant could just
reply yes after being asked if they would purchase the phone case a second time. In order to
insure that the responses were as candid as possible, the order of ethos, logos, and pathos would
be switched between every participant to insure a random order.
Data Collection
The data will be collected by the research team. The first set of data: participants names
and demographics (age, race, and gender) will be collected and kept on file. The second set of
data: the responses to the initial question and the response to the appeals with then be added to
the first set of data to be processed later. The coders of the experiment are also the researchers
and will be looking for when the participants replied yes to being ask if they would purchase
the phone case for $30.
Ethical Consideration
All participants were given a procedure list at the end of the experiment, detailing all the
steps that were taken. Part of the debrief with the participants was to inform them that the other
students in the room with them were confederates to the study. To protect the privacy of the
participants, no personal information was published in the study (Treadwell, 2014). There will
not be any information that identifies the participants to the public. The only people who knew
the identity of the participants were the researchers. There was complete confidentiality for this

study. However, there was no anonymity for the participants. Attached to the details of the
experiment, which was given to all participants, there was a section with contact information for
the head researcher. Participants also had to sign a promissory note stating that they would not
disclose details of the experiment to other students to prevent diffusion to the other possible
subjects.
Whichever creative approach an advertiser chooses to use, a bond must be formed with
its consumers. The advertising that creates this bond must change or maintain an attitude, build a
brand's image and persuade consumers to buy. Of course, it is the marketer's responsibility to
provide consumers with products of the highest quality so that a continued relationship is
maintained. These case studies demonstrate how effectively advertising persuades consumers,
either by making a case for changing their attitude about a social condition/cause, or by giving
consumers a reason to take action and purchase a product or service.

References
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