Betsy D. Gelb

Business Advertising Appeals as a Mirror of Cultural Dimensions: A Study of Eleven Countries

Abstract Across cultures, do systematic differences in advertising content mirror predictable differences in the cultures themselves? The authors designed a study to shed light on that question, using Hofstedes cultural model as a tool for analyzing cultures and using advertising appeals identified by Pollay. After coding advertisements in business publications from 11 countries for the appeals employed, they computed correlation coefficients relating the proportional use of each appeal and Hofstedes cultural dimensions: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity. The culture-reflecting quality of advertising was supported for 10 of 30 hypothesized relationships, and for an additional eight after removal of outliers from the data.

Post-Purchase Consumer Processes and the Complaining Consumer

This paper addresses the issue of post-purchase processes of consumers who complain about purchase experiences. Hypotheses about complaining consumers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with organizational response and their subsequent repurchase behavior are proposed and empirically tested using data from consumers who complained to a major oil company.

Matching Advertising Appeals to Culture: The Influence of Products' Use Conditions

Abstract In an empirical study, the authors investigated the effects of different advertising appeals used in the United States and China. The study focused on the match between values expressed in advertising and values in each of the two cultures, and included the influence of product use condition (socially visible use vs. use in a private setting). Results indicate that although culturally congruent appeals were more effective in general, product use condition moderated the effectiveness of culturally incongruent advertising appeals. Specifically, the subjects reactions to the appeal were more positive when the appeal matched the product use condition than when the appeal did not match either the culture or the product use condition. Managerial implications are discussed.

Identifying Innovative National Markets for Technical Consumer Goods

Focuses on population characteristics that appear to make one nation more or less innovative for technical consumer products. Finds three predictors ‐ individualism, uncertainty avoidance and purchasing power ‐ to be related to national levels of new product ownership within Europe. Discusses the results, focusing on their implications for marketers seeking to export innovative technological consumer goods to Europe and elsewhere.

Beefcake and Cheesecake: Insights for Advertisers

Abstract Theory suggests that for an ad with a sexy illustration, the interaction of the sex of the viewer with the sex of the povocatively clothed model will influence that viewers responses to the ad. Previous research with sexy ads has supported such reasoning, but principally has used women as the sexy models. The authors examined the responses of men and women to cheesecake and beefcake (a sexy male model) and found some expected and some surprising effects. Women reported disproportionately negative attitudes toward cheesecake ads, as hypothesized, but men did not show a parallel response to beefcake. They did have higher recall scores for ads with a nonsexy female model than for cheesecake ads, as expected. Significant results in a direction opposite from that hypothesized showed that women had higher recognition scores for cheesecake than for beefcake ads.

Humor and Advertising Effectiveness after Repeated Exposures to a Radio Commercial

Abstract This study tested a model relating humor perceived after repeated exposures to a commercial message to measures of advertising effectiveness. These effectiveness variables are recall of the brand name and advertising copy, attitude toward the advertised brand, stated purchase probability and actual brand choice. The findings indicated that adding humor to a conventional hierarchy-of-effects model does not improve the models overall explanatory power. However, humor was found to be negatively related to recall and was positively related to brand attitude; both relationships were predicted based on literature in this area.

Attitude-Toward-the-AD: Links to Humor and to Advertising Effectiveness

Abstract Previous research has suggested that people form an unfavorable or favorable attitude toward a particular ad, which in turn affects their attitude toward what is being advertised and other measures of advertising effectiveness, including brand choice. This study found that idea substantiated: a favorable attitude toward an ad for a smoking cessation kit was associated with four measures of advertising effectiveness. A hypothesized link between perceived humor and favorable attitude toward the ad was found, but direct relationships between perceived humor in an ad and three of the four advertising effective-measures were not observed. A conclusion drawn from the study is that perceived humor may aid advertising effectiveness, but the relationship is for the most part moderated by the degree to which people like the ad in which the humor is perceived.

The Effect of Repetition on Humor in a Radio Advertising Study

Abstract There is evidence that humor in a commercial leads to effects that are desirable for the advertiser. There is an absence, however, of evidence that an audience still perceives humor in a commercial they have heard numerous times. This study tests the effect of repetition on perceived humor and also tests the effect of a new creative treatment as a tactic when humor wears out.

Negative Comparative Advertising: Evidence Favoring Fine-Tuning

Abstract This study tested in the context of branded products a set of hypotheses derived from theory in political science concerning negative advertising messages: those that unfavorably compare Brand B with Brand A. We expected and found that the most favorably-rated message contains negative elements, and that any negative comparison is perceived differently by users of Brand B., users of A., users of a third brand and users of multiple brands. Two other expectations were also supported. Responses are more favorable to a message simply denigrating product features of a rival brand vs. a message smearing a corporation. Also, all ratings do not differ in the same way when one contrasts responses to negative comparative messages with responses to messages that are simply brand comparisons.

Competitive intelligence practices of industrial marketers

Abstract This paper explores two ideas: that the competitive inteligence-gathering efforts of industrial marketers differ in purpose from those of consumer marketers, and that the scope of those efforts can be explained by a model incorporating purpose, size, competitive environment, and strategy. Based on data provided by employees of 151 firms, support is found for both of the basic ideas explored.