The Effectiveness of Advertising Matching Purchase Motivation

47 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2003

See all articles by Joost Loef

Joost Loef

Tinbergen Institute; Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Gerrit Antonides

Wageningen University

W. Fred van Raaij

Tilburg University - Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Date Written: February 2001, 11

Abstract

Several authors have proposed frameworks to help advertisers predict and plan advertising effectiveness. Rossiter and Percy's advertising grid (1997) recommends that the ad appeal should match the purchase motivation or attitude base. They suggest that for utilitarian brands informational advertising is more effective than transformational advertising. Likewise, for hedonic brands transformational advertising is more effective than informational advertising. These recommendations were tested in an experiment with different products and different ads. Advertising effectiveness was measured by brand and ad evaluations.In contrast with Rossiter and Percy, we find that advertising that mismatches rather than matches the motivation for the brand is more effective. Our finding can be explained in two ways. Firstly, schema theory suggests that a moderate degree of incongruity between advertising and brand perceptions and unexpected but relevant information in the mismatching ad results in favorable evaluations, as compared with a matching ad. Secondly, research on attitudes and persuasion suggests that, if typical product category ads are associated with negative affect, the particular ad functions as a counterattitudinal message, which is more persuasive in the case of a mismatch rather than a match with the category ads. We find evidence for both explanations.

Keywords: advertising, purchase motivation, matching hypothesis, advertising grid, brand perception

JEL Classification: M, M31, C44, M37

Suggested Citation

Loef, Joost and Antonides, Gerrit and van Raaij, W. Fred, The Effectiveness of Advertising Matching Purchase Motivation (February 2001, 11). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=370921

Joost Loef

Tinbergen Institute ( email )

Burg. Oudlaan 50
Rotterdam, 3062 PA
Netherlands

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Gerrit Antonides (Contact Author)

Wageningen University ( email )

Wageningen
Netherlands
+31.317.483897 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.wur.nl/en/Persons/Gerrit-prof.dr.-G-Gerrit-Antonides.htm

W. Fred Van Raaij

Tilburg University - Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands
(013) 466 2434 (Phone)
(013) 466 2067 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.kub.nl/webwijs/show.html?anr=523860

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