Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 143
The funnel is full. The outcome is empty.
Awareness knowledge liking preference conviction and behavior are distinct outcomes rather than a guaranteed sequence
Premise
Campaigns underperform when exposure, understanding, evaluation, intention, and action are treated as interchangeable evidence of success. The Lavidge–Steiner Hierarchy of Effects separates six outcomes: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase. For executive use, the hierarchy is most valuable as a diagnostic vocabulary for locating the response that is actually constrained.
Begin with the required behavior and work backward. Awareness asks whether the audience recognizes that an offer or issue exists; knowledge asks what it understands. Liking and preference concern evaluation relative to alternatives. Conviction represents readiness or intention, while purchase is the original behavioral endpoint. Outside advertising, the endpoint can be enrollment, adoption, attendance, compliance, donation, or use.
What the model is: Hierarchy of Effects in Knowledge →
Continue in the series
- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryAnalytical Frameworks, Typologies & Heuristics
- DomainPersuasion & Argument
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Analytical Frameworks, Typologies & Heuristics
Organizes dimensions, distinctions, types or questions so that a situation can be examined systematically. A framework supplies structure, a typology distinguishes forms, and a heuristic offers a usable way to orient judgment.
- KnowledgeHierarchy of Effects
- Related briefReasoned Action: Diagnose the Path from Belief to Behavior