Persuasion

'A symbolic process which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behaviours regarding an issue through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice'

'Coercion occurs when the influencing agent:

a) Delivers a threat of some consquences

b) Attempts to induce the individual to act contrary to her preferences

c) Deprives the individual of some measure of freedom or authority

'Manipulation is a persuasive technique that occurs when a communicator disguises his or her true goals, hoping to mislead the recipient by delivering an overt message that belies its true intent'

• Gatekeeper - Dictates the flow on information
• Initiator - Identifies the problem that needs to be overcome
• Decider - Individual who makes the final decision
• Buyer - Carries out the buying process including negotiating
• User - Actually uses the service
• Financier - Handles money
• Influencers - Not directly responsible for the decision but has significant influence upon it

Positive encouragement leads to improvement performance

Nye, J

'Power means the ability to get the outcomes one wants'

'The ability to establish preferences tends to be associated with intangible assets such as an attractive personality, culture, political values and institutions, and policies which are seen as legitimate or having moral authority'

'Hard power can rest on inducements (carrots) or threats (sticks)'

• Reciprocity
• Social proof
• Rarity
• Commitment and consistency
• Liking
• Authority

• Low self-esteem = Easy to persuade
• High self-esteem = Need to engage with relevant thinking and internalise message
• Higher self-esteem = Avoid unwelcome messages

Threat component

• Threat to well-being conveyed
• Susceptibility to threat

Threat then evokes fear

• Fear is an emotion
• Fear generates a physical response

Coping component

• How to avoid the threat

• People must believe they can make a change
• If expect more from an audience then will fail
• Must see, hear, understand and remember messages and undertake more actions before behaviour is likely to change

• Authority
  • Reward and punishment
• Credibility
  • Expertise
  • Trustworthiness
  • Goodwill
• Social Attractiveness
  • Likeability
  • Similarity
  • Physical appeal

• Aristotle said persuasion has three elements
  • Ethos - Appeal based on credibility of speaker
  • Logos - Appeal to reason
  • Pathos - Appeal to emotion
• These three elements can be seen in the development of powerful messages in corporate communications

• Considered key to PR
• Grunig and Hunt (1984) - Do not include it in their model of symmetrical two-way communication

• Integrity - Builds relationships around trust
• Nurturing - Cares about people
• Faith - Believes in people
• Listening - Values what others have to say
  • Open and purposeful questions - how, what, why
  • Reinforcement - Positive body language, empathy
  • Paraphrasing - summarise
  • Contradiction - Let them prove you wrong, avoid conflict
  • Disclosure - Tell enough to encourage
  • Avoid - Talking over other people, asking closed questions, competitive anecdotes
• Understanding - Recognises others point of view
• Enlarging - Helps others become bigger
• Navigating - Helps others through difficulties
• Connecting - Initiates positive relationships
• Empowering - Power to lead

Some people look outward for clues (high self-esteem) at how to respond to messages whilst others look inward (low self-esteem).