The Impact of Occupation on Responses to Positive and Negative Framing

Abstract

Recently, there has been a great deal of controversy around negative advertising. In this paper we examine the impact of negative as compared to positive frames for people in different occupations. For the product category of video cameras, using an experimental design, we found that occupation does indeed moderate the impact of positive and negative frames. While there is no difference in their effect for professionals, positive frames are more effective for social workers and blue collar workers. Here we focused not only on responses to the ads, but also to the brand and on purchase intent. The implications for marketing strategy are discussed.