Salience is the state or condition of being prominent. The Oxford English Dictionary defines salience as "most noticeable or important." The concept is discussed in communication, semiotics, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and political science. It has been studied with respect to interpersonal communication, persuasion, politics, and its influence on mass media.

Semiotics

In semiotics (the study of signs or symbolism), salience refers to the relative importance or prominence of a part of a sign. The salience of a particular sign when considered in the context of others helps an individual to quickly rank large amounts of information by importance and thus give attention to that which is the most important. This process keeps an individual from being overwhelmed with information overload.

Discussion

Meaning can be described as the "system of mental representations of an object or phenomenon, its properties and associations with other objects and/or phenomena. In the consciousness of an individual, meaning is reflected in the form of sensory information, images and concepts." In a human embryo, the heart tissue is beating and leaping. A Native American may pay no attention to Columbus Day protests until after instruction in tribal and historical Indian traditions (priming). After gaining new cultural insights, these protests may become "salient."

Salience, as a component of Communication and Social Psychology studies, asks the question of why something captures and holds our attention and why it is more readily available as a cognition than other facts, feelings, and emotions? When a person perceives and reacts, they use the information and emotions most readily accessible. This information is understood to be the most salient information.

Social Influence is an area of intense study for Social Psychologists and Communication theorists. Social Influence asks how and why, are people influenced to weaken a strongly held position, adopt a new position, change an attitude, or persuade someone? The extent that the communicator can understand and harness the power of Social Influence is the extent that they can succeed in their goal.

Salience has been identified as one of the key ideas that guides our understanding of how to make a point of view stand out from among others and draw the receivers attention to the salient points of the encoded message. Salience is then an important concept in several theories relating to Social Influence. Some areas of Communication and Social Psychology research that include the concept of salience as a component of their theory are: Persuasion Theory, Vested Interest, Summation Theory of Attitude Change, Group Salience, and Social Presence Theory. The use of salience in these theories is summarized below:

Persuasion theory: Salience is the critical concept, along with agenda and spin, for the Persuasion theory of Professor Richard E. Vatz of Towson University as articulated in his book, /The Only Authentic Book of Persuasion/, (Kendall Hunt, 2012, 2013). Salience, in his book and articles, is used as a measure of how reality is created for chosen audiences. He claims (1973) (2013) that the struggle for salience (and agenda and meaning and spin) is the sine qua non of the persuasive process. In order for someone to have a vested interest in something, it must be perceived to affect their lives personally. Things that in which we are highly vested also bear on our behavior (Crano, 1995), and it must be salient or leap out. Vivid cues are more likely to grab our attention (McArthur & Post, 1977). If an attitude object is salient to us, our vested interest will be increased as well as the likelihood that our behavior and attitudes will be consistent (Sears & Citrin, 1985).

Crano states, "Apparently, making an attitude object more salient enhances the salience of attitude-relevant outcomes as well. Vividness, priming, and similar operations may all enhance the salience of the self-interest implications of a position." These attitudes sum together to form our overall view of the attitude object and comes to the forefront (made salient) when we engage the attitude object.

Fishbein indicates that we can hold six to nine salient beliefs at a time (Cronen, 1973). Those manifested during the attitude object encounter determine the prevailing attitude. Fishbein believed that the strongest held beliefs would be the most salient and come to the fore. Cronen argued that salience is not intrinsically tied to strength, but is an independent attribute of attitude change, as some strongly held beliefs are non-salient (Cronen, 1973). Within a group, communication is the primary way that we determine salience of attitudes. Other things such as physical attributes can be observed, but deeper feelings will have to be communicated within the group to make them salient (Harwood et al., 2006).

Social presence theory (SPT): SPT can be defined as, "The degree to which a person is perceived to be a real person in mediated communication." (Gunwadena, 1995) This is an update on the original definition, developed by Short, Williams and Christie (1976), which stated, "The degree of salience of the other person in an interaction."

What makes something salient? How does the mind select, structure and impart meaning to stimuli? People "develop and stabilize" cognitions about stimuli by an "examination of action, intention, ability and environment." (Taylor & Fiske, 1978, citing Heider, 1934, as their source, p. 250). Individuals have limited cognitive resources and abilities to process and comprehend information and situational complexity. A person cannot grasp every nuance of a stimuli required to assign its full and complete meaning. Salience is the way researchers understand what information will most likely capture one's attention in a given situation and have the greatest influence on one's cognitions about the stimuli. Research has shown that the most salient information is not always the most accurate or important, but a "Top of the Head Phenomenon" (Taylor & Fiske, 1978). Guido developed the Theory of Dichotic Salience after a review of some 1,200 studies, which pointed to a "common origin among salience instances, by emphasizing the nature of prominence which is intrinsic to any salience construct" (Guido, 1998, Abstract, p. 114).

Salience is a construct that depends on the ability of the mind to access the feelings or emotions (affect) generated by the salient stimulus. The activation in memory of cognitions that relate to and evaluate the stimulus. And finally, the availability of these mental resources to engage the stimulus (Guido, 1998). One challenge for communicators is to find a way to break through these hardened perceptions in order to persuade. Making an idea salient is one of the keys.

Guido's Principle one is figure-ground, which is the means the perceptual field from which people direct their attention towards something that stands out. Figurality is the brightness, complexity, and energy (movement) of a stimulus. It is thought that these aspects trigger cognitions and thought processes in the brain that lead to salience. Brightness includes the magnitude and the colors of the object. Studies have shown that bright, vibrant colors more easily capture the attention and are easier to remember (Guido, 1998).

Guido's Principle two is Unusuality, which can be broken down into statistical novelty (unique and unfamiliar), unexpectancy, out of role behaviors, negativity and extremity (emotional impact). Novelty is the degree that one has no experience with the stimuli. Unexpectancy is a result of learning. We have developed an expectation that is violated (Guido, 1998). Our beliefs and thoughts vary in salience. Salient beliefs are most easily activated in the cognitive processes and are more easily recalled, and are therefore more accessible (Higgins, 1996). Priming has been shown to increase accessibility of relevant knowledge (Higgins, 1996). Framing including writing decisions about definitions of words and events, causal linkages, moral implications, and solution sets for the problem area (McCombs, 1997). Our minds sort information available using our agenda (framing) and stimulus (priming) for that situation and activate it to accomplish our purpose.

When one encounters a stimulus for the first time, the initial reaction is characterized as unconditioned response. An unconditioned response is one that "elicits a national, reflexive response." (Weseley & McEntarffer, 2014, p. 136). Subsequent encounters will elicit a conditioned response has been developed through the learning that occurred with the intervening encounters with the stimulus. This learning is bedrock knowledge on which one draws when responding to a given situation. (Weseley & McEntarffer, 2014). If the first time one ate ice cream the experience was pleasant, the second experience will be informed from the firs. The second experience will generate salient pleasant cognitions, salivation, and other biological responses that will reinforce the pleasant salience of the experience. If on the other hand, the first encounter was negative (disgust, pain or nausea), the second encounter will generate the feeling of pain in the stomach awful memories of the first encounter. which will reinforce the negative salience of the first and second experience.

Another key aspect of whether a particular memory or knowledge will be activated is whether it is applicable to the situation. If it is not applicable, it will not be salient and is unlikely to be activated for that situation. "According to the synapse model…, the process begins with the stimulus, which increases the excitation level of stored knowledge as a function of the features of the match between the attended features of the stimulus and the features of the stored knowledge." (Higgins, 1996, p. 137).

Humans have gatekeeper mental mechanisms that allow certain information in and keeps others out. This discrimination process can be viewed a defensive mechanism the protects and enhances our life experience. Our processes of making cognitions "also involve contingencies of reinforcement." (Skinner, 1974, p. 117). They cite the example of a bird watching the water for the presence of fish. Through learning, the bird associates the ripples with the closeness of the fish, but they must be careful of the uncertainty that ripple is not caused by a crocodile. The ripples are very salient, if they are caused by fish suitable for use as food. The likelihood increases that the ripples will catch the attention of the bird and improve its probability of eating the fish, if the ripple cue is a predictor of fish behavior and presence. The predictiveness of ripples reinforces its salience. The Esber–Haselgrove model argues that (1) "stimuli acquire added salience to the degree that they predict motivationally relevant consequences", and (2) "a predictor of multiple reinforcers should have more salience than a predictor of just one." (Esber & Haselgrove, 2011, 2555-25557). which researched salience and public opinion examined most of the agenda-setting research since the 1968 United States presidential election which has been concerned with how the public salience of the issue is related to mass media’s ranking of these issues in terms of frequency of coverage and news play. The main hypothesis examined in this study is the ranking of certain issues by the media, which, in time, becomes the public agenda. More importantly, the article searched whether the perceived public salience of the federal budget deficit is significantly related "to the amount of public knowledge about the issue, direction of public opinion regarding one possible solution to the issue, the strength of that opinion and political behavior such as writing letters, signing petitions, voting, etc." The result of this study concluded that "even though the federal deficit issue was one of the more salient to newspaper and voters during the 1988 election, it (the federal budget deficit) was not as emotional or dramatic as some of the other highly salient issues such as drug abuse or environmental pollution. Thus it seemed likely that public opinion regarding a solution to the federal budget deficit might be rather evenly split and would likely be more stable during the month of interviewing than would opinion on some of the other more dramatic issues being emphasized in news media coverage and political advertisements." In other words, issues that directly involve subjects, in this study, would conclude to be more salient than issues that do not involve them directly.

Marketing stimuli

Although salience is a stimulus response, is it a stimulus quality or an absolute quality?<blockquote>"This model is part of wider Dichotic theory of salience, according to which a stimulus is salient either when it is incongruent in a certain context to a perceiver's schema, or when it is congruent in a certain context to a perceiver's goal. According to the four propositions of the model, in-salient stimuli are better recalled, affect both attention and interpretation, and are moderated by the degree of perceivers' comprehension (i.e., activation, accessibility, and availability of schemata), and involvement (i.e., personal relevance of the stimuli). Results of two empirical studies on print advertisements show that in-salient ad messages have the strongest impact in triggering ad processing which, in turn, leads to consumer awareness."</blockquote>Using computer based langue to design extraction tools as part of the user experiences. Language errors that exists in projects can be passed on and further create issues for the next group. From this view issues to be fixed, ID’d and solutions set up to combat such issues. In the IT world, coding language is very important and therefore errors must be monitored well throughout the process.

Internet Alcohol Vendors unlike traditional brick and mortar stores are established to reach a wider market. With this intent state officials and competitors have both started cases in court as further regulating the practice of internet alcohol sales. Internet sales give buyers reduced discounts in many forms while offering very little in security and accountability. The case brought against the industry favored further regulation keying in on individuals underage age having access to and buying alcohol online. The courts pushed back against the plaintiff lacking substantial information to make the case. The marketing language used was focused on reduced taxes based on quantity purchased and reduced or zero fees for shipping. Customers were connected to this message and therefore drawn to the product and made significant purchases.

Russian viewpoint of marketing focused on the battle against capitalism, the west and specifically USA. Marketing language focused on the economics of each nation and how to improve it in an ever-changing world. Marketing was studied in the west by Russian students and translated for Russians to understand. Bad language came from translators who took artistic leisure with the material. Based on this context things were changed and missed when information was being relayed created huge shifts in understanding of the original material.

The difference between the English alphabet and Chinese logographical system offer a unique challenge in brand creation, marketing and language. The article touches on how unique messages have to be crafted without simply translating. The Chinese language and system of writing is over 35,000 years old and not as easily bent or flexed to make easily pronounced phrases both in sound and linguistic prowess. Marketing in china is affected my culture and language equally. Crafting an effective strategy requires adherence and understanding of all factors.

Therefore, to define salience as appropriate as possible using the information, it would be apt to define it such that, salience is that intrinsic concept of the perceived or interpreted prominence of an attitude, and its manifestation on our choices.

Salience in marketing based on the research reviewed, can be categorized as a stimulus quality. What that means is the customers’ needs have to be calculated and adjusted towards through the entire planning and execution of the plan. The overall goal of the messenger should be to create a message which adapts to the customer's affective responses, rewarding it with more info, then finally providing a product which would best arrive at the predetermined feel. Most consumers when asked about a marketing campaign are able to identify it clearly from the point of view of a commercial. These commercials capture the essence of the message being sent to all recipients. Products such as make up, cars, clothing, coffee, food, shoes etc. are all designed to create and provide an affective reaction from the recipient. The process of engaging with the customer seeks a cognitive connection. Customers will have to be grouped based on the item in order to predict affective responses. With this in mind, the focus is placed on imagery, affective responses from the consumer. How does this make you feel, do you empathize, how would you feel about using this product, etc. Marketing messages that have a significant affective component are able to connect better with people and yield greater outcome.

Identity salience can affect the consumer. This display can be explain using "Identity theory posits that identities are arranged hierarchically and that salient identities are more likely to affect behavior than those that are less important. We propose that identity salience may play an important role in relationships that are distinguished by a minimum of two characteristics. First, though most theoretical and empirical research in relation-ship marketing focuses on characteristics of successful business-to-business relationships, such as trust and commitment (Morgan and Hunt 1994), many exchange relationships involve individuals. It is not unusual for organizations to attempt to develop long-term relationships with consumers on an individual basis. We argue that in contexts in which one partner is an individual, for example, business-to consumer marketing, identity salience may be an important construct that mediates relationship-inducing factors, such as reciprocity and satisfaction, and relationship marketing success." Identity gets tied to brands, products and places for some people. There are generations of family sports team supporters, airline users, vacation goings and even restaurant patrons. These key items become a foundation block of self-identification and perception.

The vehicle industry uses certain symbols as part of its marketing campaign. Most of these are touched on from different manufacturers in their efforts to win over customers. These are also common messages points that are used to make the sale and acquire the vested interest of the customer. For e.g. comfort (leather seating), roominess (cabin space), reliability, safety, performance, on/off-road handling, award winner by category, insurance companies or other entity. The best part of all the campaign is the dealership experience. This experience is the affective piece of the process. The initial being cognitive and schema connection, followed by the affective which aims at nudging the customer towards affirming the purchase. Customer attitudes can be influenced by a myriad of variables, therefore the marketing campaign is aimed at skewing enough of those variables towards to nearest dealer or once most capable of making the sale. "Specifically, research on behavioral synchrony suggests that people express greater feelings of attraction when they share their visual gazes, body postures (Chartrand & Lakin,2013), and more recently, their language style in writing or speech (Ireland & Pennebaker,2010)."

Salience as a stimulus quality is a significant piece of the marketing, sales and commercial strategy. Manufacturers use celebrities, athletes, and other professionals as a way of drawing your attention to their product through stimulus. When it comes to car buying, many people refer to a past memory, this stimuli is different with each person but overall the quality and richness of that response is what connects to the brand in a way nothing else does. Care makers go through periods of recycling pieces of nostalgia to connect new drivers to those of yesteryear. Granpa is able to drive his mustang next to a grandson who favors the new model with a few modifications. A suit maker is able to dress members of the same family for 3 generations and just as many weddings and formal events.

The stimulus quality is the strongest connection between all these events and the company or product creator able to take advantage of this, is most likely to achieve success. "Research concerning stimulus characteristics, which include information content and format, suggests that consumers utilize more nutrition information when it Is presented in an easily processed form (Levy et al. 1985; Muller 1985; Russo et al. 1986; Scammon 1977).(Moorman, 1990)" Stimulus qualities continually change and therefore needs to be studied and adaptations made in order to attain the best marketing end results. Cultural viewpoints of marketing and advertising is important across industries in many parts of the world. In the US alcohol sales are restricted to individuals ages 21 and greater, that rule isn't universal and some in nations around the world are trying to cope with the effects of marketing and ad campaigns (O’Brian & Carr 2016)." Marketing messages are important based on the roles of the recipient. In the example of a mom she’s expected to judge the quality of goods and purchase based on the needs of children even though the good may not directly be marketed to and for her. "Noting the incongruence between the self-interested, utility maximizing persona one is expected to portray in the workforce, and the selfless, nurturing persona widespread among mothers, Hays argues that the latter identity in fact reveals a deep-seated cultural ambivalence towards economistic principles and behaviours."

le form schema based on social norms and roles. These roles are enforced individual beliefs and boosts perceptions is supposed to be doing, sometimes those expectations hold true and in others it doesn't. Social identity theory has been used while creating marketing strategies regarding women. Marketing strategies with products aimed at women should have like minds as part of the planning and creative process. Women across cultures and backgrounds experience similar stimuli but not on the same wave. Products like shoes, makeup, clothing and others geared specifically for women have messages focused on stimuli response of "feel good". Moms receive and are sent messages of safety and security of their children, a measure of style and the look and presentation of a strong woman. Marketing towards men are designed to inspire the feel of strength, leadership, vision, connection to nature, and feeling of ruggedness.

The Language used in marketing is important because it is potentially the most important reason why someone makes a purchase/acquires a product. Research has shown that analytics aren't always the best predictor of sales or consumer connection with a product. Social identity theory can be used to evaluate the roles of individuals while creating the strategy. Depending on this solely will lead one astray without the addition of other pieces of information. Shema allows the consumer to receive each detail of a commercial/ad campaign in a way that energizes particular stimuli and therefore puts each person into the "driver seat" of an experience.

The cognitive perspective spells out information which must be received, processed and analyzed and solutions south. Salience in marketing searches for the affective or stimulus response. A combination of efforts which both harvests information and processes it carefully if very important. Things such as age group, buying power, shopping frequency, socioeconomic status are all important. Once a product is created and during its testing phase the response which users and customers alike will be its feel. In the new age of tech data, appliances and complex machinery, marketing will still need to focus its efforts on such products and how consumer stimuli reacts to the product. The best engineers can create something that's amazing with all its bells and whistles, but its up to the perception of the customer to evaluate its usefulness and fit into his/her lifestyle.

The growing tech industry with the power of achievement is quickly advancing virtual reality. VR can be experienced in the home without leaving to try or test any product prior to purchase. "The mural isn't just about aesthetics. Visitors will be instructed via signs to download an app to view the mural's augmented reality features. Downloading the app will also unlock a special coupon at The Elephant Room. It's a marketing tactic that Moody believes can drive foot traffic to the bar." With this power marketing analysts and executives can craft messages and commercial aimed at each person with a unique and authentic feel. Information and data points are being collected and tested now. Video games offer a chance into the virtual world medical training and some groups in government and the military are adopting the technology to better achieve results. Crafting the message and spreading it out the masses will take less effort in the future, messages can be adapted to fit all manner of permutations each person may have. There may finally be an era of error free messaging with a direct link into the internet, show rooms of fashion designers, engineers at car factories and all other sorts of products. Testing in the virtual world would be far less tasking on legions of people.

Humans in general respond greatly to stimuli and we offer this through the reactions generated. Marketing lends help in this manner by studying the patterns of behavior and crafting products for sale. The messaging is not always clear, succinct, and wide reaching. Research is still ongoing regarding how best to reach the customer in order to pitch and complete a sale. Those who are successful have crafted tools to help measure key things like salience in messaging and reaction to products. In the new age, the data collected will be very important while outfitting each member of the consuming public. Being able to craft a message or medium that can quickly adapt to each person virtually is of great importance. Online markets are gaining followership daily as more money spending moves to the digital realm. Perception and reception of the message is still the single most important part of any marketing strategy and should not be treated lightly.

References

Bibliography

  • Crano, W. D. (1995). Attitude strength and vested interest. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and Consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp.&nbsp;131–158.
  • Humphreys & Garry, M & J (2000). Thinking about salience. Early drafts from Columbia. 1–55.
  • Sears, D. O., & Citrin, J. (1985). Tax revolt: Something for nothing in California (enlarged ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Weaver, D (1991). Issue salience and public opinion: Are there consequences of agenda-setting?. International journal of public opinion research. 1–16.
  • Vatz, R. E. (1973). The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy and Rhetoric. 155–162.
  • Vatz, R. E. (2012, 2013) The Only Authentic Book of Persuasion. Dubuque, Iowa. Kendall Hunt.

Further reading

  • Benjamin Brown, '“But Me No Buts”: The Theological Debate Between the Hasidim and the Mitnagdim in Light of the Discourse-Markers Theory'
  • 'Benjamin Brown, "Some Say This, Some Say That": Pragmatics and Discourse Markers in Yad Malachi's Interpretation Rules'