Advertising Repetition as a Signal of Quality: If It's Advertised So Much,Something Must Be Wrong

Abstract

The author proposes that consumers infer brand quality from the level of advertising repetition for unfamiliar brands. Consumers are posited to associate high product quality with high levels of repetition because they see repetition as costly and think higher costs reflect the manufacturer's commitment to the product. However, at very high levels of repetition, consumers may perceive the expenditures as excessive and begin to doubt the manufacturer's confidence in product quality, which would lead to an inverted-U relationship between advertising repetition and product quality perceptions. The author demonstrates that the relationship between repetition and perceived brand quality is mediated by perceptions of the manufacturer's effort and confidence in quality rather than by irritation or boredom. The hypotheses were tested in an experiment in which the level of repetition and the color of the ad were varied.     

Advertising Repetition: A Meta-Analysis on Effective Frequency in Advertising

This study uses meta-analytic techniques to examine the number of exposures that maximize consumer response to an ad. The results show that in an experimental setting maximum attitude is reached at approximately ten exposures, while recall increases linearly and does not level off before the eighth exposure. The findings are of interest for two opposing schools of thought in the advertising literature on effective frequency. They support the repetitionists’ beliefs over the minimalists’ beliefs on the number of ad exposures needed for maximum consumer response. The study further investigates whether the repetition effects depend on contingent factors. Low involvement and spaced exposures enhance repetition effects on attitude toward the brand. Embedded advertising and massed exposures enhance the repetition effects on recall. Repetition effects decay over time for both attitude toward the brand and recall. The study provides important implications for researchers by contributing to the discussion on effective frequency and providing support for the repetitionists’ view. This view has implications for practitioners who try to optimize advertising frequency.     

Self-concept and advertising effectiveness: The influence of congruency,conspicuousness, and response mode

It was hypothesized in this study that advertising appeals congruent with viewers' self-concept would be superior to incongruent appeals in terms of enhancing advertising effectiveness. Advertising effectiveness was operationalized as: brand memory, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. The sample consisted of 165 subjects who were exposed to four test stimuli (ads), two for automobiles and two for shampoos. One ad within a product class used an introvert appeal, and the other used an extrovert appeal. Congruence between self-concept and the brand image was determined by subjects' evaluations of themselves and the advertised brand. Ad-related tasks included remembering brand names and indicating preference and buying intention for each brand. The study results indicate that brand memory is not mediated by the extent to which advertising expressions are congruent with viewers' self-concept. However, brand preference and purchase intention were shown to be influenced by the self-congruency of an ad. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Customer Relationship Stage and the Use of Picture-Dominant versus Text-Dominant Advertising: A Field Study

This research reports the results of two field experiments designed to help determine what format of email advertising is most effective with customers at different lifecycle stages. The experiments examine customer response to picture-dominant versus text-dominant advertising. Although the relative effectiveness of picture- versus text-dominant advertising has received some attention in previous research, the issue of which type would be most effective at different points in the customer's relationship with the brand and for different metrics has not been explored. The two field experiments were executed by a major fashion retailer that sells clothing and accessories for special events. The first experiment was conducted with prospective customers and focused on advertising for the retailer's primary product, which typically occurs first in the purchase cycle. The second experiment was conducted with customers who had already purchased the primary product and focused on advertising for an accessory typically purchased later in the cycle. The investigation was conducted from a customer relationship management perspective, examining the financial impact of each type of advertisement at different stages in the customer's relationship with the brand. At the aggregate level we find only minor differences in the performance of the picture-dominant versus text-dominant advertisements. However, we find that the retailer can greatly improve revenue by customizing ad format based on observed customer traits.     

The influence of gender on the effectiveness of probability markers in advertising

The results of two studies reveal that gender plays a moderating role on the effects that the use of probability markers (hedges – e.g., possibly, could help; and pledges – e.g., definitely, without a doubt) in advertising copy has on consumers' attitudes towards the brand advertised and purchase intentions. Women, as comprehensive processors, are not particularly sensitive to probability markers, which function as heuristic cues. Men, on the other hand, display higher levels of sensitivity towards probability marker usage; more precisely, their responses show preference towards the use of hedges over both pledges and no probability markers in advertising copy. Interactions with product category involvement, buying motivation (hedonic or utilitarian), and familiarity with the brand advertised are also explored.     

Disentangling location-based advertising: the effects of location congruency and medium type on consumers' ad attention and brand choice

Research on location-based advertising (LBA) suggests that the merits of LBA lie in the fact that consumers can be targeted with location-congruent ads on their personal mobile devices. However, LBA consists of two underlying constructs: a mobile (vs. point-of-sales) advertising medium and location congruency (vs. location incongruency). This study aims to disentangle these underlying constructs by showing that they differentially affect the efficacy of an ad. Using a virtual reality lab experiment, this study shows that location-congruent ads result in increased choice for the target brand as compared to location-incongruent ads, independent of medium type. However, in location-incongruent situations, mobile ads attracted more attention than point-of-sales display ads. The advantages of LBA thus do not seem to emanate from medium type, but rather from the congruency between the ad and product location. When the ad is received at a different location than the product, the mobile medium is able to enhance consumers' ad attention.     

Uses of Redundancy in Print Advertisements in Nigeria

The creative repetition of the most important aspects of communications, or redundancy, is a strategy employed in the field of advertising to ensure that messages are understood and acted upon by the audience or prospects. The article shows the influence of redundancy on consumer learning. Six brand advertisements were purposively selected and analyzed for content to demonstrate the occurrence, uses, and limitations of creative repetition of messages in advertising, along with appropriate recommendations.     

Stability of membership in market segments identified with a disaggregate consumption model

This paper examines the stability of membership in market segments formed from groups of households with consumption functions that indicate similar responsiveness to price, advertising, and habitual consumption rates. Four segments were identified for a particular brand of a frequently bought product: About 10% of the sample consume the brand at a steady rate; about 30% shift quantities consumed systematically over time; about 30% are very price sensitive; and the largest group of 35% are moderately price sensitive. The four segments do not have sharp demographic differences. Results indicate a high degree of instability in segment membership, with half of the households switching segments in two successive years. In a field experiment contaminated by heavy promotion, a sharp increase in advertising to an experimental group tended to inhibit household segments switching (particularly to more price-sensitive segments) relative to switching that occurred in a control group under more nearly normal advertising pressure.     

A temporal analysis of behavioural brand loyalty among urban Chinese consumers

Abstract

Chinese marketing is evolving, and this is having a dramatic influence on the incomes and spending patterns of consumers. Set against these longer-run trends, the contribution of this paper is to examine the year-on-year persistence of brand purchasing and behavioural brand loyalty in packaged goods markets in China. Revealed preference data for two product categories (toothpaste and soy sauce) in two contrasting cities (Shanghai and Xi'an) are analysed, with particular attention being paid to whether brand purchasing and behavioural brand loyalty are invariant over a five-year period. Conceptually, the NBD-Dirichlet model of brand choice and purchase incidence is employed. Analysis shows that patterns found in the Chinese data are quite similar to those reported previously for Western markets, with invariant results over time – notwithstanding supply-side and demand-side changes over the study period. In particular, the double jeopardy effect and multi-brand loyalty are consistently observed in the toothpaste and soy-sauce markets in both cities over the full five-year period. Results distinct to the Chinese market are also identified: exclusive brand loyalty appears to be declining in favour of multi-brand loyalty, and there are between-city differences in the magnitude of this decline.     

Contextual Priming Effects of Television Programs on Commercials: The Moderating Effects of Age

This study investigated whether age and its associated implicit memory deficits influences responses to contextual television advertising. Prior exposure to the advertised product or brand during a program should improve recall and brand attitude for contextual commercials. The results of a lab experiment, with participants ranging in age from 19 to 78, revealed that unbranded product appearances significantly improved recall, compared to normal unprimed commercials, but only for younger consumers. Branded product appearances did not significantly improve recall, compared to unbranded appearances. Contextual commercials had no positive effects on brand attitude. However, a competitor-brand appearance had a negative effect on brand attitude, for both older and younger consumers. Implications of these results, and their limitations, are discussed.     

广告策略对消费者-品牌关系的影响:一项基于消费者品牌喜爱度的研究

This research investigates the effects of advertising strategy, that is, rational advertising and emotional advertising, on brand love. Based on the consumer-brand relationship literature, brand love is defined as a reciprocal, dynamic, multiplex, and purposive relationship between satisfied consumers and their brands, and has three key components: brand intimacy, brand passion, and brand commitment. Using a series of pretests and a main experiment, we examine how rational and emotional advertising affect brand love as well as its components for different products and services. Results show that for products, there is an interaction between advertising strategy and product type in influencing brand love. Specifically, rational advertising is more effective for utilitarian-value based products while emotional advertising is more effective for hedonic-value based products. For services, we find that emotional advertising is more effective for both utilitarian- and hedonic-value based services.     

Effects beyond click-through: Incidental exposure to web advertising

While Web advertising tends to be based on a direct response model, there is a growing debate about the brand building potentials of Web ads. Click-through rates (CTR) are disappointingly low, but Web ads can be effective at brand building in an environment where Web ads are outside of consumers' attentional focus. With this in mind we conducted two experiments. The first experiment examined the effects of incidental exposure to banner ads. Subjects who were incidentally exposed to banner ads reported greater priming effects induced by implicit memory, more favorable A_ad, and greater likelihood for the advertised brand to be included in a consideration set over no exposure to the ad. These effects were found without significant improvement on explicit memories (i.e. recall and recognition) and click-through intention. The second experiment to assess the conditions conducive to incidental exposure examined two advertising strategies: format (animated vs. static) and placement (congruency vs. incongruency). Findings suggest that the level of congruency between an advertised product and Webpage content play significant roles in affecting consumers' responses to incidentally exposed banner ads. This paper examines the results of these two experiments before discussing the implications for the role of Web ads on brand building and directions for future research.     

Is television advertising being placed to reach product users?

Several textbooks, journal articles, and advertising practitioners indicate that the advertising for many products should be directed toward the heavy users of the product category. Other works suggest that advertising should be directed at current users of a brand to retain them or to users of competitive brands in an effort to attract them. The purpose of this article is to compare these directions for how advertising should be placed with data showing how advertising is being placed. The comparison is made using supermarket scanner panel data and household advertising exposure data. Examples are also provided to indicate the extent to which advertising could be targeted to heavy users of the product category and users of a brand, given the actual viewing and consumption patterns. Several implications for the placement of advertising are discussed.     

Involvement,Tolerance for Ambiguity,and Type of Service Moderate the Effectiveness of Probability Marker Usage in Service Advertising

Results of two experiments reveal that the use of probability markers in advertisements affects brand attitude and purchase intentions, and that this is moderated by the type of service, customers’ involvement, and their level of tolerance for ambiguity. Services in the study were classified as more or less hedonic/utilitarian, and more or less involving. Probability markers affect consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intentions for less-involving services, while this effect is not significant for more-involving services. In addition, higher tolerance for ambiguity results in preference of hedges over pledges or no probability markers, while for consumers with lower tolerance for ambiguity the opposite holds. With regards to service type, for more-hedonic, less-involving services the use of hedges in advertising copy increases brand attitude and purchase intentions, while for more-utilitarian, less-involving services pledges result in highest levels of brand attitude and purchase intentions.     

Modeling the Effects of Green Advertising on Brand Image: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Product Involvement Using Structural Equation

ABSTRACT

?This experimental study examined consumers’ response to green advertising for high- and low-involvement products by measuring its effect on consumers’ intention to purchase such brands. The present study enhances our understanding of the moderating role of product involvement and extends the structural equation tests of the four causal models. A dataset of 169 respondents is used to examine the role of brand image and brand attitude in the context of green advertisements. Consistent with earlier findings, the suggested model provides a good fit of the data and results indicate that positive attitude toward green advertisements, brand image, and attitude toward the brand enhances the chances of consumers’ purchase intention of such brands. The study also verifies that product involvement moderates the positive relationship between attitude toward green advertisements and brand image such that at higher levels of product involvement, attitude toward green advertisements has a stronger effect on brand image.     

Cigarette pack and advertising displays at point of purchase: community demand for restrictions

Tobacco promotion influences tobacco consumption. Traditional forms of tobacco promotion have been heavily restricted in response to the harmful effects of tobacco. Tobacco displays at the point of purchase are increasingly important as a means of communicating brand imagery for the tobacco industry, especially when advertising is restricted at these points. Previous research has demonstrated that children exposed to tobacco advertising at the point of purchase have inflated perceptions of availability, use and popularity of tobacco. Internationally, laws are being debated and implemented to prohibit or restrict the display of tobacco at the point of purchase or put tobacco out of sight. Such measures would reduce tobacco product exposure and, hence, tobacco marketing among youth and the community. In South Australia, a ban on all cigarette advertising at the point of purchase was introduced in 2005. This study was designed to assess community support for restrictions on cigarette displays and advertising at the point of purchase. A telephone survey was conducted with a random sample of 2026 South Australian adults (aged 18 years and over) in July 2005. Overall, 63% of the community approved of a hypothetical total ban on cigarette displays at the point of purchase, with over three‐quarters believing this should happen in the next 12 months. A further 24% believed that cigarette displays should be restricted and 82% would approve of a ban on displays in stores that sell confectionary. Only 7% of adult smokers reported making their decision about the brand of cigarettes to buy at the point of purchase and 90% made their decision before they even entered the shop. The results strengthen arguments that cigarette displays are not necessary to maintain brand loyalty or to encourage brand switching of established smokers. Instead, the results make arguments more credible that cigarette displays normalize and promote smoking among young people and may also promote unplanned purchase or increased consumption among less frequent smokers or former smokers. Placing cigarettes out of sight would be unlikely to impact on brand choice for most smokers, who have already made up their mind before they enter the store.     

Advertising non-premium products as if they were premium: The impact of advertising up on advertising elasticity and brand equity

Non-premium brands occasionally emulate their premium counterparts by using ads that emphasize premium characteristics such as superior performance and exclusivity. We define this practice as “advertising up” and develop hypotheses about its short- and long-term impact on advertising elasticity and brand equity respectively. We test the hypotheses in two large-scale empirical studies using a comprehensive dataset from the automotive industry that includes, among others, the content of 2317 television ads broadcast over a period of 45?months. The results indicate that advertising up increases (decreases) short-term advertising elasticity for non-premium products with a low (high) market share. The results also show that an intensive use of advertising up over time leads to long-term improvements (reductions) in brand equity for expensive (cheap) non-premium products. Furthermore, an inconsistent use of advertising up leads to reductions in brand equity. The results imply that managers of non-premium products with a low market share can use advertising up to increase advertising effectiveness in the short run. However, advertising up will only generate long-term improvements in brand equity for expensive non-premium products. Finally, to avoid long-term reductions in brand equity, advertising up should be consistently used over time.     

Using Eye Tracking to Understand the Effects of Brand Placement Disclosure Types in Television Programs

This eye tracking experiment (N = 149) investigates the influence of different ways of disclosing brand placement on viewers’ visual attention, the use of persuasion knowledge, and brand responses. The results showed that (1) a combination of text (“This program contains product placement”) and a product placement (PP) logo was most effective in enhancing the recognition of advertising and that a logo alone was least effective; (2) this effect was mediated by viewers’ visual attention to the disclosure and brand placement; and (3) the recognition of advertising consequently increased brand memory and led to more negative brand attitudes.     

The effects of a consistent ad series on consumer evaluations

While academics and practitioners alike appear to widely hold the idea that consistent advertising campaigns can be effective in creating a positive and lasting image for a brand, little empirical evidence of these effects and their nature has been provided in the literature. In this study, we conducted two experiments in South Korea to examine the impact of the use of a consistent ad series versus (a) an inconsistent ad series and (b) multiple exposures to a single ad. We used the repetition–variation hypothesis as a theoretical basis for predicting that a consistent ad series will be more effective in enhancing the brand’s image on key brand personality dimensions, attitude towards the brand (A-Brand) and purchase intention. Results provide support for the notion that a consistent message enhances A-Brand, purchase intention and brand personality in comparison to an inconsistent ad series, and also provide initial support for the repetition–variation hypothesis.     

How retailer money-back guarantees influence consumer preferences for retailer versus national brands

Retailers often use money-back guarantees to reduce consumer perceived risk about brand quality and to increase their market share. The effect of such guarantees on perceived product quality and ultimately preference and product choice depends on their perceived value and credibility, related to other extrinsic clues, such as price and brand. An analysis of an experimental design with a national sample of consumers shows that compared with a simple money-back guarantee, a double money-back guarantee does not further increase the relative preference for a retailer brand over a national brand. Furthermore, the size of the effect of a money-back guarantee is small, moderated by the effects of other information on product quality, such as the size of the price differential between retailer and national brands. Finally, the effect of a money-back guarantee differs, depending on the customer–retailer relationship: A retailer with high credibility can influence regular customers less by guarantees.