DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals. Measuring Advertising Results). This flow-model for advertising was developed by Colley.

He believed that there must be four levels of understanding if your aiming for a sale. The four levels are Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction and Action. The first task is to make the audience aware of the product and its attributes such as its brand name, size and where it can be seen and bought from.Then it's convincing the consumer, why they need the product.

The action stage is when the consumer finally purchases the product. Colley believed that the role of advertising is to the help the consumer through one or more levels in the spectrum leading to a final act of purchase. Not all consumers follow this model so it doesn't necessarily lead to a final purchase. I am going to be looking at many of the factors that influence advertising and consumer buying behaviour.

Models of CommunicationAll the models have the same elements sender, message, medium and audience. The sender of the message is the originator of the message; this could be the manufacturer or the client of an advertising agency. The message is what you want to tell the consumer and it has to be understood by the audience. Things have to be taken into consideration such as if the audience are likely to respond the way you want them to and use of language to help you to relate to your audience better. The choice of medium is very important it can make your message more effective. The main media for advertising are newspaper, magazines, television and radio.

Appropriate media has to be used and this will involve a great deal of research. You have to select the right type of media that will be most likely read or watched by the target audience. In western countries television and radio are the most powerful forms of media, it enables you to reach a wider audience. In some countries advertising is limited especially in countries that are state run some of them accept no advertising.In this country advertising is controlled by the Independent Broadcasting Agency (IBA), they control or ban any advertising they feel that are not suitable.

Other advertising is direct mail, billboards and posters, transit advertising and other miscellaneous media. One of the most powerful media is word of mouth (W.O.M).

If a consumer likes a particular product and has had a good experience with it they may recommend to others such as family and friends. Many companies use this to their advantage by offering special promotions and discounts for introducing a friend.Factors that influence consumers Getting to know the audience is very important, there are many major factors that influence consumers buying: cultural, social, personal and psychological. Certain cultures have values, preferences and perceptions, which influences the decisions they make through consumption. Some consumers want to express individuality while others want to keep to group norms.

Other influences are sub cultural such as social class. Members of any social class tend to share the same interests, values and behaviour. The social factors that impact the buying process include: reference groups such as formal and informal social groups that consumers tend to compare themselves against.There are a lot of groups who consumers wish to be a part of. A person may buy a particular kind of clothing because other people are wearing it.

Teenagers want to wear the same designer clothes as their peers so that they can 'fit in'. Every consumer has a role in each group and they are tied closely to status. Family is the most influential group ("family of orientation"). In a family you have the consumer, their partner and the children (the "family of procreation").

The personal factors are about the consumer's individual characteristics. Their age, lifestyle, occupation and economic circumstances will affect their buying. Also how consumers think about themselves, their self-concept and their personality can influence their buying behaviour.The psychological factors are the ways in which consumers think and what influences them to make a purchasing decision.

We need to look at the process that takes place in the mind of the consumer and how an advert is understood, perceived and reacted to by the intended consumers. Advertising Influences The way the consumer responds to advertising effects their buying behaviour. Advertising is not the only thing that impacts on awareness and sales.Perception Attention is selective and perception is subjective, A consumer's perception of an advertisement or a product will affect the buying behaviour because people perceive things in different ways. People have different views and opinions of certain adverts Perception can be selective; this is when you look at things that are of interest to you. Consumer's perception is influenced by attitudes and expectations.

 Consumers may form Attitudes towards certain advertisements or products, this could be due to prior experience or how they feel towards a manufacturer or service can contribute towards itAnother thing that affects a consumer buying a product is the level of purchase involvement. This describes how important the purchase decision is to the consumer, a higher involvement would be associated with making a purchase that is expensive or risky. Consumers will scan through many ads featuring the same products and will be comparing it to different brands, they may even ask friends and family for their opinion before purchasing. A low-involvement purchase is when the difference between brands is smaller and therefore the consumer chooses familiar brands and doesn't make an effort to switch to a new one.Some consumers form attitudes towards certain products Therefore the consumer has to be informed about the product, its attributes and its benefits. Informing and persuading are very important to get the message across to the consumer.

The relationship between informing and persuading is linked to three stages in which starts off at a lower-order level and then progressively moves through to a higher level. This is cognitive - which is when it is someone just knowing something. Affective - a higher-order level of letting what one knows influence what one actually thinks and believes. Behaviour - the highest-order level of translating what one thinks and believes into action. Some people do not progress beyond the cognitive stage and others jump from the cognitive stage to the behaviour stage, which is known as the impulse factor.Many people enjoy the ad's they see for its creativity but it doesn't mean that they are persuaded into buying the particular product.

 We are subjected to so many adverts that it is so hard to take to take them all in. The only adverts that grab our attention are the ones that stand out. People only take in a certain amount of information from adverts and most of it does not go further. People tend to distort or discriminate their reception of advertising messages. With the DAGMAR model it is very unlikely that the consumer will follow all the steps towards a final purchase, consumers are not subject to advertising.