How communication medium and message format affect corrective advertising

The medium through which a firm transmits corrective messages to consumers deceived by its advertisements may influence how effectively such messages eradicate relevant residual advertising deception. The format in which corrective messages are presented may also have comparable effects on the performance of the messages. Conceptual literature and empirical data regarding independent effects of the above variables, namely medium and format, as well as the effects of their interaction on corrective advertising are reviewed, analyzed and discussed in this paper. The empirical results reported are based on data from a controlled experiment which is also amply discussed in the paper.     

Is conventional debriefing adequate? An ethical issue in consumer research

Issues relating to ethics are infrequently addressed in the marketing literature. One area in which there might be ethical concerns is debriefing. In an experiment, when false information is provided by the researcher to subjects, those false beliefs can persist despite conventional debriefing. The persistence of false beliefs has ethical implications, of which consumer researchers should be aware. Anexplicit debriefing involving a formal discussion of the belief perseverance phenomenon is proposed as an alternative to conventional approaches. This is tested in three separate studies, including a partial replication of Ross, Lepper, and Hubbard (1975) as well as two extensions to marketing situations. Implications for corrective advertising are also discussed.     

Dynamic relationships among R&D,advertising, inventory and firm performance

Firms’ spending on R&D, advertising, and inventory holding affect firm performance, which in turn affects future spending in each of these three areas. Effective allocation of resources across R&D, advertising, and inventory holding is challenging since an understanding of their dynamic inter-relationships is necessary. Past research has not examined these spending issues simultaneously. We estimate inter-relationships among the effects of firms’ R&D spending, advertising spending, and inventory holding on sales and firm value (as measured by its Tobin’s Q) using a vector auto regression model of a panel of publicly listed U.S. high technology manufacturing firms. Insights from the computation of long-term effects indicate that advertising spending and inventory holding increase sales, while R&D spending does not, and advertising and R&D spending increase firm value, while inventory holding does not. In addition, firm spending in all three functions is positively affected by sales but negatively by firm value. We discuss the implications of the study for marketing literature and managerial practice.     

Professionalism and attorney attitudes toward legal service advertising

Contrary to existing literature in the sociology of occupations, a survey of practicing attorneys does not reveal an overwhelming inverse relationship between attorney professionalism and attitudinal dispositions toward legal service advertising. Only on the professional dimension of self-regulation are attorneys found to significantly oppose the advertising of their services. Based on these findings, advertising by professionals should not be viewed as necessarily antithetical to the delivery of professional services or the self-image of the professional practitioner.     

Humor in advertising: A behavioral perspective

Humorous appeals are used extensively in television, radio, and print advertising. This article examines the effectiveness of humor in accomplishing specific communications and sales objectives. A brief review of the literature on humorous advertising research is presented. The author argues that previous unsuccessful applications of light-hearted messages are attributable, in part, to our incomplete knowledge of how consumers process humorously conveyed information. The discussion focuses on the importance of recognizing and managing variables which mediate the impact of humor on audience response and on the need for further development and testing of behavioral theory as keys to the effective utilization of humor in advertising. The author wishes to thank Dr. Phillip D. White for his helpful comments and critical review of an earlier draft of this paper.     

Market valuation models of the effect of advertising and promotional spending: A review and meta-analysis

A narrative review is presented, within the organizing framework of a meta-analysis, of econometric models reported in the business literature that estimate the effect of advertising and promotional spending on the market value of the firm. Results from published market valuation models are aggregated, and various model specifications are appraised. In brief the meta-analysis finds support for a positive relationship between levels of advertising and promotional spending and the market value of the firm. That is, marketing activities (represented here by observed advertising and promotions spending) are generally expected to deliver future cashflows and produce increases in shareholder wealth. The review seeks to enhance understanding among the community of marketing scholars of the properties of market valuation models published in the literature and serves as a springboard for ongoing investigation of a crucial question for marketing theory and practice. Margy P. Conchar (concharm@mail.ecu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is an assistant professor at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on consumer behavior and advertising. Her work in consumer behavior concentrates on risk, motives, and optimal consumption experience. Her research in advertising focuses on the interface between advertising and finance, accounting, or economics. She has previously published in the proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Association for Consumer Research, the American Marketing Association of Educators, and the Society for Marketing Advances. Melvin R. Crask (mcrask@terry.uga.edu) (DBA, University of Indiana) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is currently serving as director of the MBA program at UGA. His teaching interests are in the areas of marketing research and marketing strategy. He has published more than three dozen articles and papers dealing with marketing research methods and with strategic issues in marketing. He is also the coauthor of two books, one on marketing strategy and one on marketing research. George M. Zinkhan (gzinkhan@terry.uga.edu) (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is the Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing at the University of Georgia. His major research interests include advertising, communication, and e-commerce.     

A meta-analysis of humor in advertising

This meta-analysis combines 369 correlations on the effects of humor in advertising and thus quantifies, updates, and expands previous literature reviews on the effects of humor in advertising. In line with previous reviews, the meta-analytic correlations demonstrate that humor in advertising significantly enhances A_AD, attention, and positive affect. Contrary to the assumptions of previous reviews, there is no evidence that humor impacts positive or negative cognitions, and liking of the advertiser. The meta-analytic findings clarify some ambiguous prior conclusions: humor significantly reduces source credibility, enhances positive affect, A_BR and purchase intention. The decline from lower order to higher order communication effects is particularly strong, with the effect size of the impact of humor on A_AD being twice as large as the effect size for A_BR. This impact of humor in advertising has been rather stable over the past decades. A moderator analysis reveals, however, that the findings of academic humor research are somewhat biased. As for the underlying theory, the positive and linear relationship between the funniness of the ad and brand attitudes supports an affective mechanism underlying the impact of humor in advertising.     

我国广告产业发展的现状、问题与对策探讨

广告产业的良性发展,对于促进相关产业发展具有重要意义。近年来,我国广告产业发展迅速,但仍然存在规模小、竞争力弱、创意不足、秩序乱等问题。针对这些问题,提出了促进广告产业发展的对策。     

Market segmentation,advertising and the concept of communication systems

In this paper, attempts have been made to: (1) examine some of the underlying causes of the difficulties in which the advertising industry finds itself; and (2) to propose a basis for a reconceptualization of the role and function of that industry. The basis proposition is that the advertising industry has failed to evolve strategically because it has become locked into ways of thinking about communication and market segmentation which are inadequate and limiting in some crucial ways. By way of an alternative mode of thinking, it is proposed that natural market segments arise from the manner in which people establish and maintain ways of knowing and acting. Since they do so basically in communication with others, the concept of communication system is proposed as a means of identifying such natural market segments. By segmenting markets into various functioning communication systems (as distinct from purely statistical categorizations) and by formulating advertising strategies accordingly, advertisers are more likely to be able to communicate effectively and less likely to find themselves accused of misleading or irrelevant advertising.     

广告信息生态失衡的原因分析

广告信息生态强调广告信息人与广告信息环境之间的相互作用和影响,广告信息生态的平衡是枸建和谐社会的重要内容。通过以保健品广告为例,针对当前存在的广告信息虚假、广告信息暴力、广告信息污染等信息生态失调问题,提出了加强广告信息生产的监控,完善广告信息生态法规,提高广告信息人的信息技能等策略性建议。     

广告信息生态失衡的原因分析

广告信息生态强调广告信息人与广告信息环境之间的相互作用和影响,广告信息生态的平衡是构建和谐社会的重要内容.通过以保健品广告为例,针对当前存在的广告信息虚假、广告信息暴力、广告信息污染等信息生态失调问题,提出了加强广告信息生产的监控,完善广告信息生态法规,提高广告信息人的信息技能等策略性建议.     

Personality and ad-evoked feelings: The case for extraversion and neuroticism

Feeling responses to advertisements have been identified as important advertising effects. Considerable intersubject variance has been noted across those ad-evoked feelings. Conceptual models have proposed individual differences, including personality, as antecedents of adevoked feelings. In the psychology literature,extraversion andneuroticism have been shown to predict positive and negative affect, respectively. The current research proposes and tests relationships between extraversion and neuroticism and specific, transient feeling responses to ads. Additionally, the single traitaffect intensity, an alternative construal of individual differences in affective predispositions, is measured and compared with extraversion and neuroticism. Extraversion and neuroticism appear to be preferable, theoretically grounded predictors of adevoked feelings and consequent consumer attitudes. These findings should advance advertising managers’ understandings of differences across consumers in fundamental patterns of feeling responses to advertising. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1994. His research has been published inPsychological Reports andAdvances in Consumer Research.     

Quality uncertainty,brand reliance,and dissipative advertising

Consumers may have learned to generalize from usage experiences that nationally advertised, name-brand items tend to be higher in quality than unadvertised brands. Such generalization may have prompted the substitution of brand-name evaluations for search in quality assessments of nondurable experience goods. This paper offers theoretical arguments which suggest that if some consumers do not search, all firms in nondurable, experience goods markets can increase their profits if some substitute dissipative advertising (i.e., advertising which ignores information about product performance characteristics) of brand names for product quality enhancements. Undersearching by consumers invites firms to downgrade value in nondurable, experience goods markets. In support of the hypothesized substitution by consumers of brand-name evaluations for search in nondurable, experience goods markets, this paper reports results of a field experiment in which the influences on quality assessments of brand name and product composition were studied in two categories where dissipative advertising is heavily relied upon. Results suggest that branding is relied upon more heavily than search to assess quality, even when brand cues are inconsistent with actual quality levels and search is costless, suggesting that dissipative advertising can be extremely effective.     

Cross-cultural research in advertising: An assessment of methodologies

The volume of scholarly work in cross-cultural advertising has been increasing in recent years. This study examines empirical studies in this area from a methodological perspective. Cross-cultural research designs should include many critical facets that do not surface in studies involving single cultures. These facets are discussed within the context of cross-cultural advertising literature. It is apparent from this review that a sharper focus on cross-cultural research tools and considerations can strengthen studies of advertising, lead to more robust results, and increase validity and reliability. Both students and practitioners need meaningful and generalizable findings that will emerge only when strict methodological considerations are adhered to. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and others. His areas of interest include global new product development, entrepreneurship, and exporting.     

我国网络广告存在的问题与对策

随着网络的普及,电子商务的蓬勃发展,越来越多的企业开始关注网络广告。我国的网络广告近年来发展也很迅猛：但同时还存在着一系列的问题,如网络广告的思想观念滞后、网络广告人才培养不尖端、针对网络广告的法律法规不全面等等。本文针对这一系列的现状问题进行了比较深入的剖析,提出了一些解决网络广告瓶颈的相关对策和建议。     

Advertising’s image —U.S. and Yugoslavia

Advertising is one of the institutions which cut across cultures, and this study assesses comparative differences and similarities between the U.S. and Yugoslavia in their attitudes toward advertising as an institution. The comparison is effected through replication in Yugoslavia of the Bauer-Geyser Study. The findings indicate that advertising in Yugoslavia is not a salient issue, although there is a greater homogeneity of salience of other specific issues than in the U.S. More U.S. respondents expressed a need for change in advertising; more Yugoslav respondents were indifferent toward advertising. The reasons for liking and disliking advertising also differed in the two samples. The implications are that the intensity of advertising in the U.S. has made it a salient irritant to at least a minority of consumers, whereas in Yugoslavia there is an immediate need for improvement in the creative aspect of advertising.     

Copy testing methods and measures favored by top ad agency and advertising executives

Many changes in advertising copy testing methods have developed in the last decade. A survey of advertising agency and advertising executives was conducted to learn the relative popularity of these methods and to draw comparisons with an earlier survey done in the mid-1960's by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. The survey also inquired into the factors upon which these preferences have developed, as well as the relative influence of advertising agency personnel in the selection of testing methods, compared to their clients. Some evidence was found that preference for certain testing methods by advertising executives is a function of the product category in which they operate.     

Enhancing television advertising: same-language subtitles can improve brand recall,verbal memory,and behavioral intent

This research explores how same-language subtitles—on-screen text that matches the spoken language—can enhance advertising effectiveness for television commercials on normal viewing audiences outside of foreign-language or deaf-viewer contexts. A preliminary eye-tracker study shows that same-language subtitles capture disproportionate visual attention, and a first study highlights that same-language commercial subtitles can increase brand recall and memory of other verbal ad information. Three further studies using 12 additional ads reinforce the positive effects of subtitles and show how same-language subtitle effectiveness varies with changes in visual and verbal ad complexity. In addition to showing how subtitles can increase behavioral intent, results also highlight how varying subtitle content affects memory gains and illustrate how subtitles can lead to negative effects in the uncommon situation that brand information is missing from the audio. As the efficacy of television advertising becomes increasingly debated, same-language subtitling is a simple way to boost advertising effectiveness.     

沉淀成本、承揽制度与全球广告市场结构

本文根据统计数据发现,全球广告市场存在着中国、欧美与日本三种不同的结构类型。通过引入业务承揽制度的差别以及由此产生的组织创新,结合广告作业中的沉淀成本,解释了广告市场的结构类型的差异;就动态而言,这一理论框架也解释了全球广告市场近20年来的重大结构变化。最后,文章扼要讨论了中国广告市场存在的主要问题及本土代理公司面临的挑战。     

How brand innovativeness creates advertising flexibility

We advance a broadened conceptualization of advertising context effects by considering how consumer response is influenced by the competitive advertising context. This contextual variable reflects how typically or atypically advertising tactics are employed by brands in a product category. Study 1 demonstrates that employing an advertising tactic that is perceived by consumers as atypical in a category undermines its influence on brand attitudes. Study 2 shows that this persuasion penalty is circumvented by innovative brands through a phenomenon we refer to as advertising flexibility that enables innovative brands to successfully employ advertising tactics under a wider range of conditions than non-innovative brands. A final study provides process evidence for this effect by showing that brand attitudes are determined by advertising content for innovative brands but by considerations of the competitive advertising context for non-innovative brands.