Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle in Advertising: Its influence to Saudi Arabian Consumers' Behavior

Introduction

In communication research and practice, it is very important to know the audience. In the Total Communicator article (2004), states that “you can't persuade your listeners if you don't know much about them. Knowing your listeners helps you to shape your message in a way that's most likely to gain their acceptance”. By knowing them, the communicator or sender of message can craft a message that can appropriately persuade them. We use persuasion to motivate someone to do something or believe something that he or she would not otherwise have done or believed. Almost every day we are all bombarded with persuasive messages: companies advertise their products in social media, television, etc.; friends and co-workers convince us to do something or ask favors; teachers encourage students to learn new concepts - are only few of the examples. In order to be successful in persuading someone, we need to start with analyzing our audience.

Audience analysis involves identifying the audience and adapting the message to their interests, level of understanding, attitudes, and beliefs (University of Pittsburg – Dept. of Communication, n.d.). A complete audience analysis looks at the following: (1) socio-demographic characteristics such as sex, age, language and religion; (2) geographic characteristics like where the audience lives and how that might impact behavior; (3) psychographic characteristics such as needs, hopes, concerns and aspirations; (4) audience thoughts, beliefs, knowledge and current actions related to the health or social issue; (5) barriers and facilitators that prevent or encourage audience members to adopt the desired behavior change; (6) gender and how it impacts audience members’ behavior and ability to change; and (7) effective communication channels for reaching the audience. An audience analysis informs the design of materials, messages, media selection and activities. It establishes a clear, detailed and realistic picture of the audience. As a result, messages and activities are more likely to resonate with the audience and lead to the desired change in behaviors (Compass, n.d). According to Talkwalker blog (May, 2020), before beginning any kind of marketing or advertising campaign, it’s essential to identify the target audience. Knowing what ideal customer looks like - such as what they like to do, where they’re from, what they value, and what they spend money on - will help advertiser understand the best way to reach them. Performing an audience analysis doesn’t just help creating the right message in the moment. It will give insight into how customers operate so that message can be crafted by marketing and brand strategy around them, and create buyer personas that can be applied to new campaign and product launches.

According to Chamorro-Premuzic (2015), scientific meta-analyses show that we are more likely to be persuaded when requests are congruent with our values, self-image, and future goals. In other words, people are easily persuaded of that which they wanted to do in the first place. To be an effective persuader, you cannot use the same techniques to all people at all time. You have to customize the message that fits the demographics, interest and values of the audience (West Side Toastmasters, n.d.)

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the consumption behavior of Saudi Arabian consumers as influence by advertisement. It further aims to analyze how advertisement’s applied persuasion technique can effectively or ineffectively persuade them. Through this study, the research will endeavor to understand how Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle correlates with other variables. As the researcher unpack the influence of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle’s influence to the respondents, it will provide a clear insight for those involved in communication and advertising. It will also try to unveil any tendency how Saudi Arabian consumers respond to certain advertisement that used Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle in order to understand if there is a need to adapt advertising strategies considering their culture.

Specifically, it sought to answer the following research questions:

• RQ₁: What cultural background of Saudi Arabian consumers can affect advertisement?

• RQ₂: Does consumer’s chronological age can affect their behavior towards Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals?

• RQ₃: Does consumer’s educational attainment can affect their behavior towards Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals?

• RQ₄: What are the implications of Saudi Arabian consumer’s preferred Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals to the advertising?