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This article examines how consumers' exposure to the viewpoint of high versus low vertical position changes their risk-taking behavior. The author proposes that consumers' views of scenery from a high physical elevation induce an illusory sense of control, which in turn intensifies risk taking. Multiple studies show that exposure to the viewpoint of high vertical positions increases risk taking in both laboratory settings (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c) and real settings (Study 4). In addition, the author demonstrates that an illusory sense of control mediates the effect of an elevated viewpoint on risk taking (Study 2) and that the effect of elevation on risk taking is attenuated when people use a low-level mental construal to process visual information (Study 3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropomorphizing a brand (i.e., imbuing a brand with humanlike features) serves as an important brand positioning strategy formarketing managers. This research identifies a key brand anthropomorphization strategy—positioning a brand as either oriented to interact with consumers or not. Managers generally rely on this brand interaction strategy to enhance consumer brand engagement regardless of the social context. However, given that consumers often experience brands in a social context, this research demonstrates that social crowdedness moderates the positive impact of interactionoriented anthropomorphized brands on consumer brand preferences. Specifically, the authors show that consumers’ inferences of an anthropomorphized brand’s intentionality to interact with them in a socially crowded context trigger greater social withdrawal, thereby resulting in lower preferences for the brand. The authors further demonstrate that the core negative effect of social crowdedness is contingent on the type of crowding (goal-related vs. goal-unrelated). In particular, a goal-related crowding decreases social withdrawal reactions, which, in turn, leads to greater preferences for interaction-oriented anthropomorphized brands relative to brands with other positioning strategies. In contrast, the effect of social crowdedness on consumer preferences for interaction-oriented anthropomorphized brands remains negative in goal-unrelated crowded settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadening brand positioning is challenging because strong brand images are resistant to change. Consumers are likely to reject attempts to associate new discrepant attributes due to incongruence with the brand's existing image. This research presents a contextual and competitive interference-based advertising tactic that facilitates acceptance of new attribute information into familiar brand meaning. Advertisers can influence new attribute associations by featuring an advertising image similar in both style and meaning to a competitor. Boundary conditions image similarity and competitor selection, and process variable response time, are investigated. This tactic presents a strategic way to use the cluttered advertising environment advantageously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a sorting task, consumers receive a set of representational items (e.g., products, brands) and sort them into piles such that the items in each pile “go together.” The sorting task is flexible in accommodating different instructions and has been used for decades in exploratory marketing research in brand positioning and categorization. However, no general analytic procedures yet exist for analyzing sorting task data without performing arbitrary transformations to the data that influence the results and insights obtained. This manuscript introduces a flexible framework for analyzing sorting task data, as well as a new optimization approach to identify summary piles, which provide an easy way to explore associations consumers make among a set of items. Using two Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical application of single-serving snacks from a local retailer, the authors demonstrate that the resulting procedure is scalable, can provide additional insights beyond those offered by existing procedures, and requires mere minutes of computational time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to expand the domain of brand positioning measurement by demonstrating how network analysis techniques are used in brand positioning research. Using 12 sample brands in the electronic industry, this paper proposes a four-step process as a practical guide in analysing the effects of brand positioning on differentiation. Through the techniques of core-periphery structure, the paper creates four clusters to reveal differentiation of brand positioning. It provides clear arguments for using network analysis as the preferred method to capture the structure of brand positioning. The results have significant theoretical and practical implications for academic researchers and practitioners in the field of brand management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the performative role of marketing knowledge in advertising planning. It is based on an ethnography within the account planning department of a London advertising agency as it worked closely with a client and a market research agency to develop a new energy/health drink for launch in the United Kingdom. The case provides detailed support for the idea that marketing (and other) theories help perform or bring into existence that which they purport to describe. It also shows how such theories are hybridised and streamlined in the iterative battleground of a creative process, framed by the need to create plausible consumption and competitive relations. The main contribution of this article is to show how the performative power of marketing knowledge is ultimately determined not by its ‘truth value’, but by its ability to produce compelling stories that stabilise the reflexive relationships between product attributes, consumer profiles and competitive relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Consumers from cultures that read from left to right possess a spatial representation of time whereby the past is visualized on the left and the future is visualized on the right. Across four studies, the current research investigates whether and how this past-left, future-right conceptualization of time affects attitudes toward time-related products. Specifically, when consumers view advertisements in which product images are positioned congruently (incongruently) with their spatial representation of time, they have more (less) favorable attitudes toward the product. This effect occurs for both products that naturally involve the progression of time (e.g., self-improvement products) and also products for which a time component is a desired attribute (e.g., antiques). The effect of horizontal position reverses among consumers who read from right to left. The mediating role of processing fluency is highlighted as an underlying mechanism, and the moderating role of need for structure is identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of laboratory and field experiments reveals a detrimental effect of presenting options sequentially (one at a time) versus simultaneously (all at once) on choosers' satisfaction with and commitment to their chosen option. This is because choosers presented with their options simultaneously tend to remain focused on the current set of options, comparing them among each other; whereas choosers presented with their options sequentially tend to imagine a better option, hoping it will become available. This feeling of hope undermines how choosers subsequently experience their selected option, resulting in lower satisfaction and commitment levels. Sequential choosers consequently exhibit lower outcome satisfaction regardless of which option they choose, whether sequentially passed-up options remain available, and whether they have equivalent option information to simultaneous choosers. Thus, enjoying the most satisfaction from one's choice might require being willing to give up the eternal quest for the best. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphors appear frequently in contemporary advertising. The purpose of this study is to distinguish between two types of metaphor (explicit versus implicit) and to further examine potential influences associated with product type and consumer differences in need for cognition (NFC). Experimental results from two studies indicate that, regardless of metaphor type, ads with metaphors are more effective than nonmetaphor ads. An implicit metaphor is more effective than an explicit metaphor in hedonic product advertising. In contrast, an explicit metaphor is more effective than an implicit metaphor in utilitarian product promotion. These results hold only for individuals with high NFC, not for those with low NFC. Hence, in practice, marketers stand to gain not only by matching the metaphor type with their advertised products or brands but also by appropriately framing the products as hedonic or utilitarian. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors measure the revenue and cost implications to supermarkets of changing their price positioning strategy in oligopolistic downstream retail markets. Their approach formally incorporates the dynamics induced by the repositioning in a model with strategic interaction. They exploit a unique data set containing the price format decisions of all U.S. supermarkets in the 1990s. The data contain the format change decisions of supermarkets in response to a large shock to their local market positions: the entry of Wal-Mart. The authors exploit the responses of retailers to Wal-Mart entry to infer the cost of changing pricing formats using a revealed-preference argument. The interaction between retailers and Wal-Mart in each market is modeled as a dynamic game. The authors find evidence that entry by Wal-Mart had a significant impact on the costs and incidence of switching pricing strategy. Their results add to the marketing literature on the organization of retail markets and have implications for long-term market structure in the supermarket industry. Their approach, which incorporates long-term dynamic consequences, strategic interaction, and sunk investment costs, may be used to empirically model firms' positioning decisions in marketing more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors develop a dynamic factor model of brand satiation to explain longitudinal variation in consumer purchases. Factor loadings are associated with a brand's position along a satiation dimension, and factor scores are associated with a household's sensitivity to satiation effects. The authors introduce dynamics by allowing the factor scores to evolve over time, reflecting variation in household satiation sensitivity. They embed the factor model in a direct utility model that allows for both corner and interior solutions and show that it fits the data better than alternative specifications. Analysis of a panel data set of corn chips purchases indicates that respondent satiation is better explained by a low-dimensional factor structure, while baseline utility and preferences are not. The authors explore implications for product line assortment in the face of quickening satiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spending on political advertising has grown dramatically in recent years, and political campaigns have increasingly adopted the language and techniques of marketing. As such political marketing efforts proliferate, the factors that drive electoral success warrant greater attention and investigation. The authors employ a combination of laboratory studies and analysis of actual election results to reveal influences of candidate appearance and spending strategies in campaigns. They analyze how personality trait inferences based on candidate appearance interact with political party brand image, advertising spending, and negative advertising. The results indicate that appearance-based inferences about candidates influence election outcomes, but their impact is driven partially by trait associations at the party brand level. This interaction between appearance and party alters the effects of advertising spending, particularly the effects of negative advertising. The findings have implications for the marketing of political candidates in terms of their party's brand image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, increasing interest has emerged in examining global consumer culture and its impact on consumer product preferences and choices, lifestyles, and exposure to mass media from other countries. In turn, this has sparked interest in concepts such as consumer world-mindedness and its impact on attitudes and behavior. The current research examines differences in consumer response to advertisements reflecting a global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) versus a foreign consumer culture positioning (FCCP) or a local consumer culture positioning (LCCP) and the relationship with consumer world-mindedness. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors examine the impact of world-mindedness, while controlling for ethnocentric attitudes. In Study 3, they examine the interactions of world-mindedness, international travel, and preference for authenticity. The authors develop several hypotheses and examine them using two surveys of 90 (Study 1) and 100 consumers (Studies 2 and 3) in the Netherlands. The results demonstrate, for example, that advertisements for brands with FCCP and GCCP are nomologically different and evaluated differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All forms of personification draw on anthropomorphism, the propensity to attribute human characteristics to objects. In an experiment, we show that visual personification—pictures in an ad that metaphorically represent a product as engaged in some kind of human behavior—can trigger anthropomorphism. Such personification, when embedded in an ad, appears to lead to more positive emotions, more positive attributions of brand personality, and greater brand liking. Implications for advertisers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is interactivity always beneficial? Not always. Rather, the effects of interactivity on consumers' attitudes toward the site (Ast) may not be a context-free outcome, but instead may change across the product categories to which consumers have different "expected interactivity" (EI). This study attempts to show how the interactivity--attitude relationship is moderated by consumers' varying EI levels. By employing a 3 (high/medium/low Web site interactivity) × 2 (high/low product category expectation) between-subjects factorial experiment, two competing hypotheses of how EI works were tested: (1) whether EI could reverse the direction of the interactivity--attitude relationship (direction-effects hypothesis), or (2) whether EI would change only the magnitude of the effects of interactivity on Ast without changing its direction (magnitude-effects hypothesis). The experimental results supported the direction-effects hypothesis rather than the magnitude-effects hypothesis. Implications for further research and advertising practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some research into warning labels in advertisements has been conducted, little examines the impact of the placement of labels in print ads, including consumer responses to warning label placement and consumer response effects. Social contract theory suggests that consumers may, somewhat paradoxically, put a relatively high value on an advertisement of a brand that prominently displays warning information, rather than minimizing it. Our research probes the relevance of social contract assumptions by reviewing current print advertisement warning practices with a content analysis (CA) of consumer magazines and by testing the effectiveness of label placement strategies with a between-subjects experiment. Validating social contract assumptions, our study shows more positive consumer responses for recall, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, purchase intention, and responsible advertising when warnings are overtly rather than discreetly placed in print ads. Also, we develop a robust, multi-item responsible advertising scale. Our paper explores the implications and directions for future research from our warning label findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although numerous inquiries concerning comparative advertising appear in the literature, little research has examined indirect comparative claims touting a brand's superiority over all competitors. While the available evidence offers advertisers little reason to use such claims, our research conveys a different story about its effectiveness. Study 1 shows indirect comparative advertising claiming superiority over all competitors to be more effective than direct comparative and noncomparative advertising in positioning a brand against the entire market along featured attributes. Study 2 demonstrates that indirect comparative advertising's inferiority in positioning a brand against a specific competitor as opposed to all competitors disappears when consumers spontaneously generate this competitor during ad processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context effects refer to changes in consumer preference and choice responses when a new alternative is added to a choice set. This paper proposes a general scheme for classifying various context effects using newly defined share-ratio measures (SRM) and share-change measures (SCM). With these measures, we can also draw context maps and preference-substitutability maps that visualise the nature of context effects and positions of competing brands. These maps allow marketers to make positioning decisions that take advantage of positive context effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research (Barone and Miniard 1999) has demonstrated that brand usage can moderate the extent to which comparative ad information has the potential to deceive consumers. The current study extends that research by considering how gender interacts with brand usage to moderate the susceptibility of consumers to copy X copy interactions, a potentially deceptive effect associated with partial comparative advertising. Results from the present investigation indicate that, for comparison brand users, males were more susceptible than females. In contrast, for nonusers of the comparison brand, females exhibited greater evidence of this effect than did male nonusers. Implications of these findings for public policy and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies tested the notion that the confidence consumers have in their cognitive responses to an ad can increase or decrease the favorability of product attitudes. Increasing confidence in positive thoughts enhanced advertisement effectiveness. Increasing confidence in negative thoughts reduced advertisement effectiveness. These self-validation effects occurred regardless of the type of product and regardless of whether thought confidence was measured or induced through an experimental manipulation. The present research also demonstrated that source credibility can influence consumer attitudes by affecting thought confidence. Finally, thought confidence was distinguished from other potentially related thought dimensions. Antecedents, moderators, and consequences of self-validation effects are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has viewed competitive interference as undesirable due to its negative effects on brand-attribute recall. We propose that competitive interference is not inherently bad but may be beneficial under certain conditions. In the context of an established brand promoting a new attribute, we show that the new attribute information is interfered with by the brand's old attributes, causing lower retrieval. However, in the presence of competitive advertising, old attribute information is suppressed, and new attribute information is successfully retrieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the People's Republic of China (PRO), consumers have recently shown a tendency to shift away from foreign products in preference for local offerings. Some commentators have speculated that this new market phenomenon is a result of government intervention, consumer ethnocentrism, and improvement in the quality of local products. In this study, the authors offer an alternative reason, which pertains to the fading symbolic value of foreign products in the PRC market. To provide support for their argument, Zhou and Hui present the results of a study of Chinese consumption behaviors involving a foreign, inconspicuous product item (Canadian pork sausage). By using such a privately consumed item, the authors attempt to demonstrate that symbolic benefits (such as modernity, prestige, and associations with foreign lifestyles) constitute one of the primary motivating forces of PRC consumers' purchases of products of nonlocal origin, including products that may not be commonly regarded as conspicuous. The results challenge the conventional wisdom that improvement in the quality of local products is the main cause of the decreasing competitiveness of foreign products in the PRC. The authors also discuss implications for global marketers with respect to market adaptation and positioning strategies in the PRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a theoretical model of the relationships between market-focused resources, competitive positioning and firm performance. Building on prior work in strategic management, theory form the 'resource based view' (RBV) of the firm is integrated with marketing theory to propose a holistic model and suggest a future research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a cross-cultural study which tests the robustness of the approach developed by Gupta and Gould (1997) concerning use of product placements in movies. Using their American data as a comparison point, additional data using the same questionnaire were collected in Austria and France. As an international medium in which movies freely cross borders, product placement is also a less adaptable one, relative to commercials since it remains in the movie regardless of the nation where it is shown. Applying a three-pronged framework which considered country, product and individual differences and their interactive effects, the results of this study indicate the ways in which all three have an impact on the acceptability of product placements and on potential purchase behavior. Finally, implications for managing and further researching product placements based on this framework are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider how marketing managers can benefit from the concept of a 'brand mantra.' We examine how brand mantras relate to brand positioning and a related concept, 'core brand association.' Our focus is on how brand mantras can be used to improve internal brand management. We consider design and implementation issues in term of characteristics of good brand mantras as well as process issues in developing brand mantras. It is noted that brand mantras, as with Nike's 'authentic athletic performance' and Disney's 'fun family entertainment' often consist of three words that combine brand functions with describtive and emotional modifiers. Procedurally, brand mantras are developed at the same time as brand positioning. At that time, brand mantras would then be judged on their ability to effectively communicate, simplify and inspire, as reflected by employee research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Products vary in the degree to which they are members of product categories. Understanding how product attributes influence product categorization is important for marketing decisions about product development, brand extension, and product positioning. Existing attribute-level measures of product attitude emphasize evaluation rather than categorization. Measures of category membership either are at the overall product level or emphasize feature-based attributes, whereas product attributes are often continuous in nature. A comprehensive approach for conceptualizing product categorization is provided by fuzzy set theory, with its basic postulate that no clear boundaries exist between members and nonmembers of a fuzzy set. The authors conceptualize product categories as fuzzy sets in which products have degrees of membership along specific attributes, argued to arise as a result of the degree to which a product possesses an attribute. Two fuzzy set-based measures of category membership are developed that assess gradedness of category membership at the attribute level, which is then combined across attributes to reach overall measures of gradedness for a product. The results of a study demonstrate the validity of these measures and illustrate important attribute-level analyses that are not possible with existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has focused on early entrant advantage rather than on theories that explain and predict how late entrants can surpass the early entrant's performance. In this research, the authors propose that learning about new brands is influenced by the way the attributes of later entrants compare with attributes of the first. In three experiments, the authors show that attributes that differentiate later entrants from the first entrant are better remembered and listed more often in judgment formation protocols if the attributes are comparable along some common aspect (i.e., they are alignable differences) than if they do not correspond to any attributes of the first entrant (i.e., they are nonalignable differences). The impact of greater memorability of alignable over nonalignable differences is that later entrants whose attributes are superior to those of the first entrant can come to be preferred over the first entrant when the attributes are alignable differences but not when they are nonalignable differences. These findings have important implications for product entry, differentiation, and positioning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the logic and differentiators of organizational positioning and planning of sustainability initiatives between private and public organizations in the healthcare industry. Sustainability initiatives refer to organizations’ economic, social and environmental actions.Design/methodology/approach This study is based on an inductive approach judgmental sampling and in-depth interviews of executives at private and public hospitals in Spain have been used. Data were collected from the directors of communication at private hospitals, and from the executive in charge of corporate social responsibility in public hospitals. An empirical discourse analysis is used.Findings The positioning and planning of sustainability initiatives differs between private and public hospitals. The former consider sustainability as an option that is required mainly for social reasons, a bottom-up positioning and planning. It emerges merely spontaneously within the organization, while the sustainability initiatives in public hospitals are compulsory. They are imposed by the healthcare system within which the public hospital, operates and constitutes a top-down positioning and planning that is structured to accomplish set sustainability goals.Research limitations/implications A limitation of this study is that it is undertaken exclusively in Spanish organizations from one industry. This study differs from previous ones in terms of exploring the positioning and planning of the sustainability initiatives, which focus on the organizational logic of such sustainability initiatives. There are both common denominators and differentiators between private and public hospitals.Practical implications The logic of determining the positioning and planning of the sustainability initiatives is mainly about satisfying organizational needs and societal demands. Nowadays, organizations tend to engage in sustainability initiatives, so it is essential to understand the logic of how organizations position and plan such efforts.Originality/value This study investigates the path that follows sustainability initiatives in public and private organizations. It reports mainly differentiators between private and public organizations. It also contributes to explaining the organizational reasoning as to why companies make decisions about sustainability initiatives, an issue which has not been addressed sufficiently in existing theory studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reports the results of an exploratory study of cross-country differences in recall of and attitude toward comparative advertising. As American companies are increasingly advertising their products in other countries, the issue of cross-country differences in comparative advertising effectiveness is very important. The study found that although recall of comparative ads was high, consumer attitudes toward comparative ads was not very positive, especially in countries where comparative ads are not widely used or are used rarely. Therefore, comparative ads should be targeted at other countries with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental challenge to media planners in using television advertising is to choose a daypart (time of day) combination that will achieve efficient delivery of an audience. The author addresses audience accumulation by daypart allocation with a household-level exposure model using viewing records from single-source data. By retaining the behavioral assumption of a popular beta binomial distribution model, exposure by each household within each daypart during each week is assumed to follow a binomial process with a distinct exposure probability that is inferred from the household's past exposure history. The model captures exposure heterogeneity nonparametrically by household-specific exposure probabilities rather than fitting a parametric beta function, and automatically accounts for audience duplication across dayparts. This approach is made possible by the availability of large-scale household-level exposure records obtained from audimeters and the increasing computation power of personal computers. An example of spot allocation to dayparts shows how media planners can use the model to obtain insights into audience accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the moderating effect of prior knowledge on the degree to which contextual priming influences evaluations of an ambiguous product (i.e., a product that can be evaluated in various ways) in the ad. Before subjects saw an ad containing ambiguous product information, one of the two product attributes pertinent to product evaluations had been brought to mind through contextual priming. Contextual priming had pronounced effects on brand evaluations among moderate-knowledge subjects, but the effects on low-and high-knowledge subjects diminished sharply. By showing that ad context can inhibit or facilitate the effects of a particular ad on brand evaluations and that the effects vary as a function of consumer knowledge, the study provides insights into the situations when contextual effects may be strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male and female respondents were exposed to a television news program containing commercials. Immediately following exposure to either an emotionally disturbing or an innocuous, affectively neutral news story, respondents watched a sequence of standard news items mixed with commercials. The placement of 30-second commercials was systematically varied through three time slots: immediately following the experimental pretreatment (0.0-0.5 min); delayed by two minutes (2.0-2.5 min); or delayed by four minutes (4.0-4-5 min). A surprise recognition/ recall test, measuring information acquisition of the content of the commercials, was administered. Compared with the control condition, the acquisition of information from the commercials following the emotionally charged, disturbing story was significantly poorer for a period of two and one-half minutes. No appreciable difference in information acquisition was observed thereafter. The apparent impairment of information acquisition, processing, and retrieval is discussed in terms of emotion theory. Implications for the placement of commercials in news and entertainment programs are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on the persuasive impact of comparative advertising has produced inconsistent results. Consequently, researchers have suggested lack of credibility and the need for higher involvement as two problems which might impede the persuasive impact of comparative advertising. However, virtually no empirical evidence comparing the effects of comparative advertising to non-comparative advertising when different levels of involvement are activated exists. In addition, little research has examined whether source credibility enhances the persuasive impact of comparative advertising. Attribution theory provided the framework for the experiment reported in this paper. Experimental results suggest that when higher involvement is activated and a source of higher credibility is included in the advertisements, comparative advertising for a new brand has a more positive effect on purchase intentions than non-comparative advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically tested the assumption that the more creative alternatives generated, the better the chance of developing the most effective campaign creative strategy. A panel of four professional creative people from a branch of a "top-twenty" advertising agency judged positioning statements generated by four groups of advertising students. Various analyses of the data tended to confirm the assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue advertising usage will increase in the 1980s. But questionable effectiveness of this form of communication challenges business management to improve basic positioning strategies, achieve a better working relationship with advertising planners and executors, invest in better research efforts, and target interest groups more carefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing research on comparative vs. noncomparative advertising has resulted in a great deal of conflict and confusion concerning its effectiveness. However, little attention has been directed toward examining the informational nature of the ads themselves. The current investigation examines the question of whether comparative advertisements actually contain more objective information cues than their noncomparative counterparts. The results indicated that comparative ads did indeed have greater information content than noncomparative ads. Additional informational dimensions of comparative ads are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is the PACT booklet, "Positioning Advertising Copy Testing," which resulted from a research collaboration that was sponsored by several American advertising agencies. The nine copy-testing principles include: copy testing systems should provide data relevant to advertising objectives; action standards should be specified before testing begins; multiple measurements should be used in evaluating advertising effectiveness; and the model should relate to communication--human reception, comprehension, and response to an advertisement.

Matching advertising to the appropriate segment is especially critical for television advertising which reaches many diverse segments. This problem has received much attention from researchers over the years. Attempts have been made to develop a television program typology based on the program's most salient feature rather than the dimensions perceived by the audience. However, little research has related preference for these program types to market related variables. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived dimensions underlying the television programs and the similarity of the programs along the dimensions, and if various program preference groups differ with respect to life styles, shopping orientations, and demographics. The results of this research suggest that consumers prefer distinct sets of programs rather than one specific type. The preference groups were found to differ with respect to life styles and demographics but not shopping orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association Model, a new advertising process model based upon traditional predecessors such as AIDA, is introduced. Its steps of consumer response are described in detail; they are chosen so as to enable the model to incorporate all measures of research commonly used in advertising. The research measures appropriate to each step are discussed and identified. The Association Model is compared with previous models, which lack various essential research steps. The model is further justified for its ability to incorporate pertinent elements of both the traditional S-R psychology and the newer consumer information processing. The emphasis on the process of "association" is explained, and literature on the function of association in advertising is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full disclosure in advertising has become a concept of major concern to public policy decision makers and advertising practitioners. Comparative advertising, two-sided messages, and the use of performance tests results are three techniques used to help consumers become better informed and more knowledgeable about products. Yet, little empirical testing has been done to determine whether use of these techniques actually increases the informativeness of advertisements. This article reports the results of a factorial-designed experiment regarding the effects of comparative messages, message sidedness, and the use of performance test results in print advertisement on two dimensions of informativeness--the reader's perception of advertisement informativeness and the reader's awareness of product features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most media selection problems involve some kind of matching between media audience and target market membership. As a rule, this matching is done indirectly, using demographics as mediating variables. Recent studies have suggested that psychographics might also be used for this purpose. This study evaluates the performance of a standard set of psychographic variables as mediators of the media-market relationship. It then discusses the implications of this performance for media selection theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of the use of a field experiment method, utilizing a dual-system CATV service, to determine the optimal advertising spending level for a consumer packaged product. Based on consumer purchase diary data (n = 2000 HHs), research was able to determine a ceiling effect of daytime advertising, and a threshold effect of nighttime advertising. Research findings were implemented for alternative advertising spending plans which provided flexibility in media scheduling while maintaining a certain set of objectives such as product sales or profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of comparative advertising has escalated from an occasional, partially disguised acknowledgement of the competition to direct, point-by-point comparisons of the sponsored and competing brands. This article presents a conceptual framework for classifying and evaluating different comparison advertising formats. The framework identifies different formats along two multi-level dimensions. Examples of several research questions that could be addressed using the framework are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]