AIDA Model
The AIDA Model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is the earliest documented mnemonic for customer engagement models, originally used for advertising and marketing. The AIDA acronym emerged somewhere between 1898 and 1907 (see the section on the origin of AIDA).
AIDA is an example of Hierarchy of Effects models, a wider category of systems to capture and measure engagement flows. The model is today mostly important as a historical reference and a precursor of a range of modern engagement frameworks, including customer funnels and metrics frameworks such as the REAN model or the Pirate Metrics Funnel.
AIDA model Strong 1925
The origin of AIDA
The AIDA model is often wrongly attributed to Edward Kellogg Strong, a professor of applied psychology and author of several influential books on workplace psychology. The reason for this is that Strong wrote a popular book (The Psychology of Selling and Advertising, published in 1925) explaining similar models.
In the book, Strong actually never defines the AIDA model under that acronym. On page 348 (in the “Theories of Selling” chapter), Strong presents something similar as the first of three theories for how to influence others to buy, providing five “conscious states”:
The first theory is expressed by the five words: “attention,” “interest,” “desire,” “action,” “satisfaction.” There is implied in this theory that the prospect must successively experience the conscious states of attention, interest, desire, action and satisfaction. And the emphasis is put upon establishing these states of consciousness.
– Edward Kellogg Strong, The Psychology of Selling and Advertising
Strong credits Elias St. Elmo Lewis with this model, claiming that Lewis coined the slogan “Attract attention, maintain interest, create desire” in 1898. Strong also claims that St. Elmo Lewis later added the fourth term “get action”, and that Arthur Frederick Sheldon added the fifth term “secure satisfaction” in correspondence from 1911. Strong presented these claims without any primary source references.
AIDA model original source
Who invented and formulated the AIDA model?
In 2023, Akinori Iwamoto published a paper researching the history of the acronym, claiming that St. Elmo Lewis only contributed a general slogan, and that other authors described similar models around the same time. Iwamoto references the work of Frederick Bartlett Goddard, who in 1889 wrote about “explanation, conviction, excitation or persuasion”. Frank H. Dukesmith wrote about “securing attention, arousing the interest, creating desire, and closing the sale” (1903) and “Attention, Interest, Desire and Conviction” (1905). Arthur Frederick Sheldon wrote about “attention, interest, desire and resolve” in 1904.
Iwamoto’s research points to Seth Brown and his article titled “Advertising in relation to salesmanship” from 1904 as the earliest reference to the exact AIDA wording, but not the acronym itself:
To make advertising which will sell goods requires development of the human part of writer [sic]. He must get away from the seller’s standpoint and into the buyer’s shoes. He must realize the different forces which command attention, interest, desire, and then produce action.
– Seth Brown, Advertising in relation to salesmanship (1904)
Iwamoto generally credits Arthur Frederick Sheldon for creating a structured model around the four steps and treating them as a sequence, citing several textbooks published by the Sheldon School around 1910. Thousands of students from the Sheldon School in the US and other countries became familiar with the model, which was crucial for making the model popular.
AIDA and Hierarchy of Effects Model
As the AIDA model has existed for more than a century, it has been used as an inspiration for countless similar models and derivatives. Thomas E. Barry’s 1987 article The Development of the Hierarchy of Effects: An Historical Perspective presents several derivatives, including AIDA + “Satisfaction” (AIDAS), ADICA (Attention, Desire, Inhibitions, Confidence, Action), AIDCA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Confidence, Action) and ACCA (Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction, Action).
The model originated as a quick mnemonic to assist with advertising campaigns, and was not backed by strong scientific research, although it was later taken both literally and seriously by academic researchers. According to Barry’s article, in the 1960s researchers were already complaining that the model is based on “sketchy views of the internal psychological process” and offering studies where some groups of consumers skipped certain steps, or did not go through the funnel in expected order.
Similarly to the AIDA model, the modern models are not backed by strong, systematic scientific research, but by intuition and experience with a specific market segment. Note that this does not mean that the models are not useful — quite the opposite — but they should not be taken literally, or expected to apply universally. Like AIDA, these modern frameworks are sometimes used with an expectation of a strict flow of consumer behaviours, instead of as a mnemonic for planning and discussions. They also suffer from fragmentation and minor variations, with various authors adding, removing or reordering steps and claiming that this significantly improves the models, without any specific evidence to back up those claims.