The Tri-Mediation Model of persuasion

In this paper, the effects of positive versus negative (political) advertising are modelled. The findings show that positive as well as two different types of negative advertising will lead viewers to formulate specific attitudes towards the brand (sponsor). However, the manner in which these attitudes are formed will be affected by ad type and argument strength. It was found that under strong message argument conditions, negative attack ads may lead to more positive evaluations of the sponsoring candidate, whereas under weak message argument conditions, direct comparison ads may be superior.

In developing this model to include the effects of negative appeals, the traditional Dual Mediation Model of persuasion is redefined. The author demonstrates that a peripheral cue (attitude towards the ad) can have an impact on the central route to persuasion by fostering message acceptance not only in regard to the sponsor of the advertisement but also in regard to a competitor. The resultant Tri-Mediation Model of persuasion provides significant insights into the nature of cognitive processing resulting from exposure to negative advertising.     

Ads aimed at dads: exploring consumers’ reactions towards advertising that conforms and challenges traditional gender role ideologies

Employing gender role ideology theory, this research investigates Australian consumer attitudes towards current advertisements portraying males as caregivers. Results of an experiment demonstrate that consumers perceive in-ad gender role portrayals of males as caregivers as atypical of the current advertising environment. Consumers who, in particular, hold a non-traditional (egalitarian) gender role ideology report a more positive attitude towards advertising that challenges traditional gender role ideologies (i.e., advertising that depicts males as caregivers). We suggest that non-traditional advertising that challenges traditional gender roles provides advertisers with an opportunity to stand out; however, advertisers must ensure that their key product-related message components are not overshadowed.     

The separateness-connectedness self-schema: Scale development and application to message construction

Two studies were conducted to assess separateness-connectedness (SC) as a new message variable and as a new individual difference variable in advertising. Study I began the process of developing a Separateness-Connectedness scale based on a sample of 140 college students (97 Westerners and 43 non-Westerners, 81 males and 59 females) attending a midwestern university. The 9-item, 2-factor scale revealed good reliability and construct validity. The structure of the overall model was then successfully tested on a new sample by confirmatory factor analysis. In Study II an experiment assessed whether the separateness/connectedness self-schema would moderate the effect of using either a connected or a separated advertising appeal on consumers' attitude toward the ad. As predicted, a significant interaction effect was found. The results revealed that individuals with a separate self-schema preferred a separated advertising theme, and individuals with a connected self-schema preferred a connected advertising theme. Implications for advertising managers, the studies' limitations, and future research directions are also discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

‘At the desire of several persons of quality and lovers of Musick’: pervasive and persuasive advertising for public commercial concerts in London 1672–1749

The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the development in London of the public commercial concert which made early and increasing use of the newspaper as a method of advertising. This was both an innovation for promotion of commercial entertainments and a huge rise in pervasiveness over existing methods such as flyers and bills. A detailed analysis of the advertisement texts shows how they used various advertising techniques to convey a persuasive message about the concert and employed concepts such as novelty, quality, and appeals to class, status and self-identity. Moving beyond the argument that early advertisements could be persuasive, this paper identifies and interprets the techniques of persuasion musicians used and discusses how they foreground those found in more recent and current advertising practice.     

Good ethics is good for business: Ethical attributions and response to environmental advertising

Researchers have used attribution theory as a basis for exploring the relationship between consumers' inferences of advertiser motivation (attributions) and advertising response. This study postulated the existence of two new types of attributions which relate to the perceived ethics of the advertiser (advertiser ethical attributions) and the advertising message (message ethical attributions). Research conducted among a nationally representative sample of 273 adults: (1) verified the existence of both advertiser and message ethical attributions, (2) demonstrated the independence of advertiser and message ethical attributions both from each other and from other measures of advertiser and message evaluation, (3) identified the specific advertising characteristics which lead to the formation of each type of ethical attribution and (4) demonstrated a significant relationship between advertiser and message ethical attributions and measures of advertising response.Dr. Joel J. Davis is Assistant Professor of Journalism, School of Communication, at San Diego State University. Dr. Davis' interests include environmental marketing, marketing strategy and marketing ethics. He has published in these areas in theJournal of Business Ethics, Journalism Quarterly andSAM Advanced Management Journal.     

SMS advertising: How message relevance is linked to the attitude toward the brand?

Due to recent technological developments and widespread adoption of mobile handsets, the mobile medium has been transformed into an effective channel for brand communication. Short message service (SMS) advertising is the most primitive and widely used version of mobile marketing, yet the relevant literature still lacks consensus on how SMS ads influence consumer attitudes, and how this influence is generated. The present research aims to investigate how message relevance, the most important success factor of SMS advertising, is transformed into attitudinal reactions toward the advertised brand by introducing perceived intrusiveness and attitude toward the message as mediating variables into the relationship. Implications and future research avenues are discussed.     

An Investigation of Egyptian Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Ethical Issues in Advertising

This article investigates Egyptian consumers’ attitudes toward ethical issues in advertising held by a sample of 306 participants. The subjects completed a 20-item instrument originally designed to measure respondents’ attitudes toward controversial issues in advertising. The study validates the scale in an Arab non-Western context. The results revealed that Egyptian consumers have negative attitudes toward ethical issues in advertising. There are significant differences between males’ and females’ perceptions of ethics in advertising. Finally, the study detects a significant difference between Muslims and non-Muslims in Egypt regarding their attitudes toward ethical issues in advertising. These results lend strong support to the adaptation hypothesis and suggest that ads produced in one country cannot be standardized or directly translated for use in another, particularly if they are different culturally.     

Effects of involvement,argument strength,and source characteristics on central and peripheral processing of advertising

The reported experiment tested predictions made by the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Manipulations of message processing involvement, argument strength, and favorability of source information were used to examine predicted effects on cognitive response activity and attitude change. Major study findings reveal general support for ELM predictions concerning cognitive response activity, as well as support for central and peripheral attitude change predictions. In addition, central route attitude change was influenced by message cognitions, while peripheral route attitude change was determined by both message cognitions as well as simple perceptions of the source. A theoretical interpretation of the results and implications for advertising practice are offered.     

The impact of bias and unexpectedness on message response

Behavioural research has produced mixed results as to the various effects perceived bias can produce on message response. Though bias and unexpectedly unbiased messages have not been much researched in an advertising framework, perceived bias in advertising messages is an inherent problem. This study presents the results of an experiment designed to test the effect of bias and unexpectedness on message response in an advertising context. The results suggest bias may be more of a problem with advertisements using a comparative format. Unexpectedness, while less effective in comparative approaches, performed well in a non-comparative format. Unexpected messages appeared to produce greater attention to message content, suggesting that this tactic may result in lower advertising exposure levels producing response.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Skepticism toward Health Claims: An Empirical Investigation of Singaporean Consumers

The purpose of this study is to test the persuasive effects of visual metaphors in advertising. Advertisements containing visual metaphors deliver persuasive arguments in visual modality and metaphorical style of rhetoric, both of which may increase the persuasiveness of messages. The study has three message conditions that are advertisements containing (a) non‐metaphorical (literal) visual image with verbal argument; (b) metaphorical visual image with verbal argument; and (c) metaphorical image without accompanying verbal argument. Cognitive elaboration, source credibility, ad attitude, brand attitude, product belief, and purchase intention are considered as outcomes. The study results suggest that visual metaphors may be more persuasive due to both visual argumentation and metaphorical rhetoric. The theoretical explanations and managerial implications of the findings of this study are further discussed.     

Effects of ironic advertising on consumers’ attention,involvement and attitude

The use of an ironic message in advertising has increased, but little empirical research has been conducted to identify the effects of ironic advertising on consumers. This study demonstrated that ironic advertising can lead to consumers’ higher attention to the ad and greater involvement in the ad message compared to non-ironic advertising, applying schema incongruity theory. This study also examines whether ironic advertising influences consumers’ attitudes toward the ad and the brand. Lastly, this study identified a moderating role of need for cognition on ad attention.     

The Paradox: An Application of a Clinical Psychological Concept to Marketing

This article has taken a concept from the clinical psychological and psychiatric literature, paradoxical communication, and demonstrated how the concept could be utilized in an advertising context. Paradoxical communication requires a relationship in which the receiver of the message is powerless relative to the sender, and the receiver is not able to communicate about the message to the sender. This relationship may be inherent in mass media. Finally, paradoxical messages demand behavior that, by its very nature, can only be spontaneous (e.g., “I want you to dominate me”). Paradoxical messages have been said to lead to schizophrenia in children and also to be therapeutic in treating symptomatic behavior. From these two diverse situations, two alternative paradoxical messages were developed for use in mass media advertising contexts.     

Functional matching effect in CRM: Moderating roles of perceived message quality and skepticism

By applying the functional matching effect to the domain of cause-related marketing (CRM), this study examined the conditions under which the CRM message matching to attitude bases would elicit greater persuasion. In this study, a matched (or mismatched) CRM message is represented by the ad message featuring an argument that matches (or mismatches) consumers' primary motivation for purchasing the product supporting a social cause. Using a before-and-after experimental design, the perceived message quality and consumer skepticism about CRM practices were tested as moderators of the relationship between the functional matching of arguments and persuasion. This study assessed persuasion by measuring attitudes toward the CRM ad and the brand, and purchase intention. As expected, the functionally matched message appeared to generate greater persuasion when the argument was perceived to be strong. Additionally, low skeptics showed more favorable responses to the matched message compared to high skeptics. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed to enhance the persuasiveness of CRM messages.     

European Views of Advertising

Abstract

The effects of brand beliefs and attitude-toward-the-ad (A_ad) on immediate and delayed measures of attitude-toward-the-brand (A_b)were investigated for individuals who were more- and less-involved with the message of a print advertisement. Results suggest A_ad's and brand beliefs' influence on immediate and delayed measures of A_b depend on individuals' involvement with the message. As expected, for individuals who are more-involved with an advertising message, both beliefs and A_ad influenced A_b. This relationship held even after a one-week delay. For those less-involved with the advertising message, however, beliefs had no significant influence on brand attitudes, measured immediately following advertising exposure or after a one-week delay. A_ad was shown to have a significant influence on brand attitudes in both time conditions. Implications for theory and practice, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.     

The Effectiveness of a Buzz Marketing Approach Compared to Traditional Advertising: An Exploration

Marketers are now willing to go anyplace they can find a captive audience to espouse the virtues of their products. The success of the “buzz” marketing approach is linked to the consumer being lured into doing the advertising by spreading the message to others. This study compares students’ responses to a traditional advertising and a buzz approach. Using a factor analysis to identify variables, the results show that subjects perceive a buzz approach to be more influential than a traditional advertising. However, they do not perceive a buzz approach to be authentic. This finding is consistent with practitioners’ argument that, although a buzz approach may be effective in the short-term, once consumers recognize its selling intent, the program may have a “boomerang effect.”     

Advertising and National Consumption: A Path Analytic Re-Examination of the Galbraithian Argument

Abstract

A relatively new analytic technique, PATHEVAL, is used to re-examine an old issue, the relationship between advertising and national consumption. Using cross-national annual data collected on 53 nations, the authors find little evidence for Galbraith's view of advertising as a most persuasive force in altering people's spending and savings habits. Four variables are included in the path analytic model: national income, energy use — a proxy for industrial development, disposable income, private final consumption, and national advertising expenditures. In the Galbraithian argument, disposable income and industrial development predict to advertising, which leads to consumption. The contentions of Galbraith's critics are supported by the analysis: income appears to lead to consumption, which in turn, leads to advertising.     

Place the good after the bad: effects of emotional shifts on consumer memory

Marketing research has a limited understanding about the effects arising from emotional shifts (i.e., the transition from one emotion to another) during the same advertising message. This paper sheds light on this topic through two studies. Study 1 examines whether an advertising message that features a negative-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a negative to a positive emotion) generates greater recall of an advertised brand than an advertising message with a neutral-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a neutral to a positive emotion) or one with no emotional shift. Study 2 examines whether an advertising message that simulates a buyer-seller encounter—with the seller reproducing a negative-to-positive emotional shift via facial expressions—generates a greater recall of the advertised content than an identical advertisement with no emotional shift. Results confirm that a negative-to-positive shift facilitates the recall of both the brand and the advertised information.     

Articulating a New Framework for Visual Metaphors in Advertising

This study develops and tests a conceptual framework for categorizing visual metaphors in advertising according to whether the pictorial elements in the ad are synthesized or juxtaposed. In this attempt, it subscribes to the view that creative ideas frequently share similar design structures and patterns in devising visual metaphors. This study demonstrates that compared with ad visuals that simply juxtapose metaphorical objects, ad visuals that synthesize conceptually similar metaphorical objects provoke greater elaboration and elicit more favorable consumer attitudes toward both the ad and the brand. These positive effects are not free of comprehension costs, however. Ads that synthesize very dissimilar objects (as compared with ads that juxtapose objects) fail to produce the same benefits and might, in some cases, even risk reducing the persuasiveness of the argument about key product attributes in the advertising message.     

Examining Third-Person Perceptions in the Context of Sexually Oriented Advertising

A limited amount of research has been undertaken to investigate third-person perceptions as persuasion in the context of sexually oriented advertising. This study examined whether sexually oriented advertising and gender differences would yield significant influences on third-person perceptions and whether participants’ sexual cognition would moderate their third-person perceptions. Results showed that sexually oriented advertising, gender differences, and sexual cognition were significant factors that dominated the third-person perceptions. After exposure to sexually oriented advertising, females were led to a stronger degree of the third-person perceptions than males. Moreover, the participants with a more negative level of sexual cognition had a stronger degree of the third-person perceptions than those with a more positive level of sexual cognition after exposure to sexually oriented advertising.