Daniel J. Howard

A Review and Critique of the Hierarchy of Effects in Advertising

Industry practitioners and social scientists throughout the world have long sought to determine the effectiveness of advertising in this multi-billion dollar industry. For close to a century, many social scientists have debated just how advertising works. One suggested explanation is the hierarchy of effects—that body of literature that posits that audiences go through a variety of stages, namely cognitive, affective, and conative, in responding to advertising, and other persuasive marketing messages. This paper reviews the hierarchy of effects from its beginning at the turn of this century to present-day developments. The paper also examines the controversies surrounding hierarchy models and provides a critique of the evidence supporting its position as an advertising model.

A means-end analysis of brand persuasion through advertising

Abstract This study examines the explanation of brand persuasion through communicating means-end levels on information (attributes, consequences and values) in commercials. It is argued that consumers perceive the personal relevance and desirability of product attributes in terms of their association with personal consequences of product usage. Similarly, the relevance and desirability of personal consequences are derived from their association with a consumers personal values. It is predicted and supported that the strength of association between means-end information communicated by an ad will contribute to the explanation of brand persuasion. Support is also obtained for the prediction that the effect on brand persuasion of communicating means-end associations will be stronger for those who are not loyal users of the brand, since those persons have more to learn about the personal relevance and desirability of the means-end information provided by the associations betwwen levels.

Multiclus: A new method for simultaneously performing multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis

This paper develops a maximum likelihood based method for simultaneously performing multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis on two-way dominance or profile data. This MULTICLUS procedure utilizes mixtures of multivariate conditional normal distributions to estimate a joint space of stimulus coordinates andK vectors, one for each cluster or group, in aT-dimensional space. The conditional mixture, maximum likelihood method is introduced together with an E-M algorithm for parameter estimation. A Monte Carlo analysis is presented to investigate the performance of the algorithm as a number of data, parameter, and error factors are experimentally manipulated. Finally, a consumer psychology application is discussed involving consumer expertise/experience with microcomputers.

Broadening the Scope of Reference Price Advertising Research: A Field Study of Consumer Shopping Involvement

The current understanding of reference pricing requires broadening to reflect contemporary advertising practices and shopping behavior. A content analysis of 13,594 newspaper retail advertisements reveals that it is uncommon for reference pricing to be used alone in advertisements: 87.2% of the advertisements featuring reference pricing also include limited-time availability (i.e., “Three days only!”) or sale announcements in the headline or copy. Using dual-process theories of persuasion as a conceptual framework, the authors conduct three field experiments that compare the conditions under which the use of limited-time availability and sale announcements in advertisements that feature reference prices affects consumer price perceptions and store shopping intentions. The findings yield three insights for reference price advertising. First, reference pricing results in favorable price perceptions and store shopping intentions only when consumers are shopping for a product. Second, when consumers are shopping for a product, reference pricing paired with limited-time availability results in more favorable price perceptions and store shopping intentions than the use of either technique alone. Third, the use of sale announcements and limited-time availability in reference price advertisements has a favorable effect on price perceptions and store shopping intentions when consumers are not shopping for a product.

What's in a Name? A Complimentary Means of Persuasion

Three experiments demonstrate that remembering someones name facilitates their compliance with a purchase request made by the rememberer. Experiment 1 shows that name remembrance increases request compliance, but name forgetting does not cause a decrease in compliance. Experiments 2 and 3 show that name remembrance is perceived as a compliment by the person remembered, which mediates compliance with the purchase request. Experimental manipulations of the likelihood of name remembrance (experiment 2) and need for self-enhancement (experiment 3) provide results consistent with a complimentary explanation for the findings. Copyright 1995 by the University of Chicago.

The Effects of Brand Name Similarity on Brand Source Confusion: Implications for Trademark Infringement

The prevalent legal view with regard to trademark infringement is that consumers who exercise a low (high) degree of care when evaluating goods will be less (more) likely to notice differences among brands and thus conclude they are of (dis)similar origin. The authors argue on the basis of the involvement literature and demonstrate through two field experiments that the effect of degree of care on likelihood of brand source confusion varies by the type of similarity (similar sound versus similar meaning) among brand names. The authors discuss implications for trademark infringement litigation and company brand name evaluation in light of these findings.

Product hierarchy and brand strategy influences on the order of entry effect for consumer packaged goods

Manufacturers focus on becoming more agile, software firms deploy rapid application development tools—everyone is in a hurry. Although we all understand the benefits of being first to market, we understand just as clearly that not all first-to-market products enjoy the same, sustainable benefits from being market pioneers. Why do some pioneering products experience a more significant order-of-entry effect than others? Roger A. Kerin, Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, and Daniel J. Howard examine two factors—product hierarchy and brand strategy—which may influence the magnitude of this effect for new consumer packaged goods. First, they hypothesize that pioneering a new product class offers a greater advantage than introducing a new form to an existing product class. Second, they predict that the order-of-entry effect will be greater for brand extensions than for entirely new brands. Finally, considering both product hierarchy and brand strategy, they expect that the order-of-entry advantage for brand extensions over new brands will be significantly greater within new product classes than for new forms of existing products. These hypotheses are tested using data from the Information Resources, Inc. Behaviorscan® data set. Collected from 2,500 household panel members, 75 supermarkets, and 25 drugstores, this database contains weekly measures of brand trial penetration as well as brand distribution, price, and promotion information in eight geographic markets from the period 1983–1988. The models developed in this study explore the relationships among brand trial penetration, product hierarchy, brand strategy, order of entry, lag time between successive brand entrants, and marketing mix variables (i.e., price, promotion, distribution, and advertising). The study strongly supports all three hypotheses. In particular, the analysis clearly demonstrates that the order-of-entry effect is greatest for a new product class pioneered by a brand extension. Order of entry has the least effect on a new product form pioneered by an entirely new brand. For a company seeking a competitive advantage from being first to market, innovation in product function offers greater potential benefit than innovation in product form. Such a company can also benefit from building on the name and reputation of its established brands. Although the study finds these order-of-entry effects significant, the effects of marketing mix variables such as product price and promotion are consistently stronger.

Rhetorical question effects on message processing and persuasion: The role of information availability and the elicitation of judgment

Abstract Four experiments were conducted examining the effects of asking rhetorical questions on message processing and persuasion utilizing a radio commercial. Subjects exposed to questions were compared to other subjects exposed to content-equivalent statements across different message positions. The expectations of two different theoretical models of question effects are contrasted and compared. The results of all four experiments are consistent with the view that rhetorical questions elicit judgments on the topic of the request when they are received and that the availability of relevant information when a judgment is first requested is a critical factor determining whether or not message persuasion occurs. The pattern of results predicted by viewing rhetorical questions as elicitors of judgments is differentiated from previous views.

The role of thematic congruence between a mood-inducing event and an advertised product in determining the effects of mood on brand attitudes

We report the results of two experiments that examine the role of thematic congruence between a mood-inducing event and an advertised product in determining the effects of mood on brand attitudes. Under incongruent conditions (manipulating mood using a sports stimulus followed by exposure to a casual shoe or casual shorts ad), positive mood affected attitudes by reducing the processing of ad message information. Under congruent conditions (manipulating mood using a sports stimulus followed by exposure to an athletic shoe or athletic shorts ad), positive mood affected attitudes by facilitating the processing of ad message information. The results suggest that whether positive mood reduces or facilitates message processing depends on the relation between how mood is manipulated and the topical areas for which the effects of mood are examined.

Reference price and scarcity appeals and the use of multiple influence strategies in retail newspaper advertising

The use of scarcity and reference price techniques in 13,594 retail newspaper display advertisements across four major U.S. cities was evaluated in terms of frequency and usage strategies using framing and information‐processing perspectives. One or both of these techniques were found in 22.4% of the ads. Scarcity was used more frequently than reference pricing, and was strongly associated with the use of reference pricing. Limited time availability was found to dominate the use of scarcity tactics. Scarcity and reference pricing were also strongly associated with the use of other attention and persuasion tactics, such as color ads, larger ads, and “Sale” announcements. Given the extensive use of reference pricing and scarcity appeals, their association with each other, and their further association with other commonly recognized advertising tactics, additional research on the use of multiple influence strategies appears warranted. The authors thank Tiffani Oltmanns and Daniel Taraba for their assistance with this project.