Preference (Ab) → Purchase Intent→ Purchase Facilitation All hierarchical models indicate that brand awareness is a necessary precondition to brand attitude, brand preference or brand purchase intention. The process of moving consumers from purchase intention to actual sales is known as conversion. While advertising is an excellent tool for creating awareness, brand attitude and purchase intent, it usually requires support from other elements in the promotion mix and the marketing program to convert purchase intent into an actual sale. Many different techniques can be used to convert interest into sales including special price offers, special promotional offers, attractive trade-in terms, guarantees or a strong call-to-action as part of the advertising message. In order to penetrate markets, it is essential that high levels of awareness are created as early as possible in a product or brand life-cycle. Hierarchical models provide marketers and advertisers with basic insights about the nature of the target audience, the optimal message and media strategy indicated at different junctures throughout a product's life cycle. For new products, the main advertising objective should be to create awareness with a broad cross-section of the potential market as quickly as practical. When the desired levels of awareness have been attained, the promotional effort should shift to stimulating interest, desire or conviction. The number of potential purchasers decreases as the product moves through the natural sales cycle in an effect likened to a funnel. Early in the campaign, the marketers should attempt to reach as many potential buyers as possible with high impact messages. Later in the cycle, and as the number of prospects becomes smaller, the marketer can employ more tightly targeted promotional activities such as personal selling, direct mail and email directed at those individuals or sub-segments more likely to exhibit a genuine interest in the product or brand. Integrative models Integrative models assume that consumers process advertising information via two paths – both cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) simultaneously. These models seek to combine the type of purchase with the consumer's dominant mode of processing. Integrative models are based on research findings indicating that congruence between personality and the way a persuasive message is framed. That is, aligning the message framing with the recipient's personality profile may play an important role in ensuring the success of that message. In a recent experiment, five advertisements (each designed to target one of the five personality traits) were constructed for a