The VisCAP model in advertising

Psychologists have long studied what it is about a person who presents a message that influences how well it is received. For example, someone dressed in a white lab coat will be more convincing when talking about health problems than the same person dressed more casually. The first attempt to synthesize this work and apply it to advertising and other marketing communication was the VisCAP model of source effectiveness, introduced by Percy and Rossiter in 1980. VisCAP is an acronym for visibility, credibility, attractiveness and power , the main source characteristics in communication.

The VisCAP model in advertising states that the source of a message in marketing communication can be anything from a person delivering a message, such as a friend, doctor or salesperson, to the medium through which the message is delivered. If we think about an advert in a magazine, we can notice that the type of magazine and the environment in which the reader finds the advert can affect how he will respond to the advertising.

Another important aspect in realising an advert are the people or characters chosen; they span a range from celebrity endorsers to experts, to cartoon characters, to actors playing ordinary people. What the advertiser must consider in the selection of the people or characters to be used in advertising is how a particular person or character will affect the processing of the message. To facilitate processing, they should be selected in such way that their personal characteristics are consistent with communication objective. There are specific source characteristics that are best suited to specific communication objectives and these are described by the VisCAP model .

The first component of the model, visibility , deals with how well known or recognizable the person or character is from public exposure. The second component, credibility , has also two components: expertise, which represents the perceived knowledge of the source concerning what is being advertised and objectivity, which is the perceived sincerity or trustworthiness in communicating what the source knows. The third component, attractiveness , has also two components: likeability of the source and the perceived similarity of the source to the target audience. The last component of the VisCAP model in advertising, power, represents the source's perceived ability to instil compliance on the part of the target audience.

The way these source characteristics match up with communication objectives is rather straightforward. Thus, visibility helps facilitate brand awareness, especially if a celebrity is used. But with a celebrity the advertiser must be very careful that the attention to the celebrity does not overpower the brand. Awareness of the celebrity must be transferred to the brand. Also, when using a celebrity the advertiser must remember that he is always subject to possible changes in their popularity and this is especially true for sports celebrities - an important feature of the "VisCAP model" in advertising. As we all know, certain long-running characters or cartoons can achieve high levels of visibility and this will continually be associated with the brand.

VisCAP model characteristics

The source characteristic that helps facilitate informational brand attitude communication objectives is credibility. The advertiser must perceive expertise in a source for both low- and high-involvement informational strategies, because he does not really need to accept a benefit claim as literally true with low-involvement informational advertising, but it must be believed and accepted as true with high-involvement informational advertising.

With transformational advertising, the advertiser wants that the source to be attractive. Here, likeability is the important source characteristic for low-involvement transformational advertising. In fact, one of the differences in creative tactics for low- vs. high-involvement transformational advertising is the need for the target audience to identify personally with the high-involvement advertising. That is why perceived similarity to the source is important in the VisCAP model. This does not mean that the source must be seen as acting like the target audience, but it should be seen as similar to what they imagine or want themselves to be.

Power is not often a factor in advertising or marketing communication, because it is not easy to imagine how someone in an advert can reward or punish the target audience. Some possible exceptions are with certain fear appeals and when ‘9 out of 10 doctors' recommend a certain behaviour for a particular problem. To the extent that power might operate, it will help facilitate the communication objective of brand purchase intention - in fact, overviewing teh very essence of the VisCAP model in advertising. (Larry Percy, John R. Rossiter and Richard Elliott, 2001)