This activity is important because, as an IMC manager, you need to how the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) functions to analyze how consumers process messages intended to persuade buyers toward a brand, firm, or organization. ELM explains how consumers process stimuli and information and subsequently change their attitudes toward or against the item being presented by the IMC.

The goal of this activity is to evidence how the ELM is used by consumers through one of two mechanisms, either the central or peripheral persuasion route. The degree of elaboration through which the consumer processes, or the extent of elaboration, is primarily a function of his motivation and his ability to process the information.

Read the case on plant-based burgers and the Elaboration Likelihood Model and then answer the questions that follow.

The ELM primarily explains the two different ways of processing stimuli and the possible outcomes that can change buyer's attitudes. The two different routes to persuasion are the central route and the peripheral route. Under the central route, persuasion will likely result from logical, cognitive thinking and clear scrutiny of content, features, and attributes. This central route depends on a high level of message elaboration resulting in attitude change that is usually enduring, resistant to attitude change and, consequently, is fairly predictive of behavior.

The second path of the ELM is the peripheral route by which persuasion results from the consumer's association with positive or negative cues in the stimuli. The consumer usually makes a simple inference about the merits of the advocated position. The cues that he or she receives under the peripheral route are generally unrelated to the logical quality and attributes of the stimulus. These cues involve factors such as the credibility or attractiveness of the sources (presenter) of the message, the production quality of the message, credibility and satisfaction. The likelihood of consumer elaboration is often defined by less predictable, often irrelevant cues.

In the burgeoning market for plant-based foods, there are several competitors. Two with significant market share at this point are "Beyond Burgers" and "Impossibly Good Burgers." Both manufacture a variety of protein-based food products. The vegan meat substitutes are made from mixtures of pea, rice, and mung bean proteins; canola and coconut oil, and lesser amounts of potato starch, apple extract, lecithin, and pomegranate powder then infused with vitamins and minerals. The burger beef products are made to "bleed" like real beef with beet juice.

Many consumers are eagerly embracing vegan burgers, hoping to reduce their carbon footprint and eliminate eating animals. Other consumers are experimenting as "flexitarians" with a bit of nonmeat burgers in their diet especially as some are being offered by popular fast-food restaurants. How are consumers making elaborations and decisions about plant-based burgers?

Beyond Burgers positions the brand as reducing one's carbon footprint by offering buyers a plant-based burger and reducing the rate of consumption of animal products. Consumers are eager to try the product after hearing the brand's message and elaborating on the motivation that they are helping to save the planet. This element of the consumer response pattern is defined as

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