ABSTRACT
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is discussed in detail in earlier chapters of this book. The ELM is currently the most frequently used theoretical approach to explain persuasive effects in advertising (Pasadeos, Phelps, & Edison, 2008). Despite its heavy usage by advertising researchers over many years, there is at least one major deficiency. The ELM fails to explain and predict belief changes associated with the processing of narrative advertising (Green & Brock, 2002; Chang, 2009; Appel & Richter, 2010). Narrative advertising depicts a story about product consumption (Chang, 2009) and is characterized by the content and structure of a story (Boller & Olsen, 1991). The increasing importance of narrative advertising is perhaps best illustrated in recent studies conducted by Jupiter Research and by the Advertising Research Foundation. According to Roner (2009), this research found that advertising based on brand stories is effective and that the majority of the marketers surveyed are exploring brand “storytelling” as they see a relationship between success and the ability to tell the most engaging narratives. Given the increasing recognition of the effectiveness of narrative advertising (Chang, 2009) and of the inability of dual-process models (e.g., the ELM) to adequately address narrative processing, research dedicated to theory building in the field of narrative persuasion is highly warranted (Slater & Rouner, 2002). The current chapter discusses an emerging model with much potential to explain the processing and effects of narrative advertising, namely, Melanie Green’s (1996) Transportation-Imagery Model. The Transportation-Imagery Model, by illuminating additional routes to persuasion beyond the two identified by the ELM, holds much potential for explaining the mental processing in narrative-based belief change (Green & Brock, 2000; Appel & Richter, 2010). Furthermore, integrating the Transportation-Imagery Model and the ELM could lead to an extremely potent persuasion model that is applicable both to narrative and to rhetorical persuasion.
