Persuasion Knowledge Model: Design for an Audience That Reads the Tactic

Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 348

The audience can see the tactic

PKM treats persuasion as an encounter between adaptive agents and targets whose knowledge of motives and tactics can change what the same message means

Premise

Audiences do not encounter persuasion as blank targets. They accumulate beliefs about sellers, managers, advertisers, influencers, fundraisers, recommendation systems, and the tactics those agents use. Marian Friestad and Peter Wright’s Persuasion Knowledge Model places that accumulated knowledge inside the persuasion episode itself.

For executives, the consequence is that the same wording can acquire a different meaning once persuasive intent becomes salient. Praise can become ingratiation, urgency can become pressure, personalization can become targeting, and an independent recommendation can become sponsored advocacy. Communication design therefore has to account for what the audience thinks is being done, not only for what the message says.

What the model is: Persuasion Knowledge Model in Knowledge →