The effects of advertisement picture likeability on information search and brand choice

A considerable amount of advertising research has focused on the effects of affective cues such as likeable people, pictures, or music. The conclusions have been that ads relying on affective cues can influence choice only under limited conditions, when relevant brand information is either unavailable or not useful if present. However, the effects of affective cues on choice may not be as limited as previously thought. When respondents are allowed to explore diagnostic information but must do it sequentially after initial exposure to the ads with pictures varying in likeability, we hypothesize that the positive ad will influence brand choice, and this effect will be at least partially due to the initial effects of the ads on search of this information. Our study manipulated the likeability of pictures in print ads for a ??test brand,?? along with other similarly formatted ads for three other brands. Brand attribute information was not readily available but could be searched and showed clearly that the test brand was only the second-best. Results showed that the ad pictures biased search order in favor of the advertised test brand and increased choice of the second-best test brand when it was advertised with the likeable pictures. Subsequent analysis revealed that search order significantly but not completely mediated the effects of picture on choice. The results suggest that information search can be a useful, sensitive measure of the effects of advertising.