This marketing model is meant to show how a consumer goes from not knowing about a brand to developing feelings and knowledge about that brand and finally buying that brand.
In textbooks, this hierarchy of effects model is shown in a lot of different ways. But let’s start with a very simple three-step model.
The idea behind the hierarchy of effects is pretty simple: at first, the consumer doesn’t know about the brand, but over time, they learn about it, which may lead to an understanding of the brand (thoughts and feelings), which may finally lead to some kind of purchase behaviour.
In a hierarchy, there is a ladder system that goes from being aware of the business at the bottom to becoming a loyal customer at the top.
As was already said, different marketing textbooks will explain the steps in the hierarchy of effects model in slightly different ways. However, they all basically explain the same idea: get the target market to think about something and then do something like buy something or tell their friends about it.
Kotler’s way of looking at the hierarchy of effects
This is Philip Kotler’s take on the hierarchy of effects model, which is found in one of the most popular marketing books:
- Awareness
- Knowledge
- Liking\sPreference
- Conviction
- Purchase
The first stage is simple awareness, which means the consumer has heard of the brand but doesn’t really know what it is or how it works.
The second step is to know:
Where the consumer knows what the brand is or does in general. For example, the consumer may know that the brand is a type of laundry detergent that works well on tough stains.
The next step is the liking stage: It’s important not to mix up “liking” with an emotional attachment. In this case, “liking” means that the consumer sees some good things about the brand. Like “it’s easy to use,” “it looks like a good product,” “it’s a healthy product,” and so on.
It’s the fourth stage in the hierarchy of effects model. This happens when the customer thinks the brand or product as a whole is a good choice for a future purchase. In other words, the product becomes one of the brands that the consumer thinks about.
The next step is being sure.
At this point, the consumer’s feelings about the brand move from preference to a “decision” to buy it again in the future. For instance, the customer might think, “Next time, I’ll try that brand.”
The last step in the hierarchy of effects is to buy something.
This is where the customer buys the brand or product for the first time, which is often called a “trial purchase.”