Ellen Day

Retail services advertising: The effects of appeal, medium, and service

Abstract In an exploratory study, two message appeals (rational and emotional) and two media (print and radio) were tested to determine whether certain message or media strategies are more appropriate than others for two broad categories of retail services. For both types of services, a rational appeal generated higher levels of attitude toward the ad than an emotional appeal and radio ads generated higher levels of patronage intention than print ads. In addition, a main effect for service type was found for two of the dependent variables, indicating that more experiential retail services may benefit more, overall, from radio and print advertising than utilitarian offerings.

Typology of Main Message Strategies for Television Commercials

Abstract A number of classification schemes have been developed to aid researchers, practitioners, and educators in identifying various types of message strategies employed in the advertising of consumer goods. These classification schemes range from simple dichotomies to very elaborate typologies. None of these classification schemes was found to be useful when we tried to categorize commercials for a research project relating to advertising effectiveness. Difficulties encountered when attempting to use the existing classification schemes led to the development of a new typology which seems to meet the criteria for a “good” classification scheme. This article discusses the weaknesses found in the existing schemes, describes this new typology, and provides the results of an empirical test of its classification ability.

Protection motivation theory: An extension of fear appeals theory in communication

Abstract Protection motivation (PM) theory concerns how individuals process threats and select responses to cope with the danger brought about by those threats. Fear appeals, one type of communication involving a threat, have been studied in marketing. But PM theory suggests adding coping response information to fear appeals, which effectively influences adoption of appropriate coping behaviors. This article reports the results of tests of several aspects of PM theory in a marketing context. The results indicate that traditional threat-oriented fear appeals are less effective than appeals that also contain information concerning the coping response.

Share of Heart: What is it and How can it be Measured?

Examines several approaches to measuring consumers′ emotional response to brands. Describes projective techniques, fantasy and personification, story completion, usage scenarios, role playing and deprivation questioning. Concludes that qualitative research is a productive way of gaining knowledge of the whys of consumer behaviour, or share of heart, when such knowledge is essential to marketing managers.

Organizational Purchasing of Professional Services

Stresses the importance of professional service provider selection and the potentially disastrous financial penalty for error made by a client organization. Identifies problems with previous studies relating to this selection process and offers suggestions for improving future research. Provides an expanded decision‐making model to organize discussion of various stages in selection and evaluation. Identifies factors which may complicate the process. Concludes that a better understanding of the selection process should lead to the identification of ways in which professional service providers can improve their marketing effectiveness and to the reduction of risk to client firms purchasing these services.

Selecting a professional service provider from the short list

Going from the short list to winning the contract is critical to a professional service provider, yet relatively few studies have investigated selection criteria used in this last stage of the selection process. This paper presents a qualitative study that examined the dynamics of the selection process, identified decision criteria which business and organizational clients use when selecting a professional service provider from their short lists, and investigated ways in which client firms assess competing professional service providers on intangible attributes, e.g. personal chemistry. Clients who had recently awarded a contract to a firm in the “built environment” industry (e.g. an architectural and engineering firm) were sampled. Their responses to open‐ended questions provided rich data that revealed factors considered in the selection of a professional service provider in the final presentation/interview stage and yielded insights into nuances of the selection process. Managerial recommendations for getting from the short list to the contract are presented.

Opportunities for Involvement Research: A Scale Development Approach

Abstract The authors identify, classify, and compare several involvement measures used in studies reported in the Journal of Advertising and related publications, and identify opportunities for future involvement research. Most published scales pertain to enduring product involvement. Few studies have addressed enduring involvement with a service or situational involvement with either a product or a service. Most of the involvement research in advertising has investigated the effects of situational involvement on other variables. Despite the considerable theoretical work related to the involvement concept, knowledge remains incomplete. Additional scale development is advocated as a means for increasing the knowledge base.

Conveying Service Quality Through Advertising

Reports on a study attempting to understand whether, and how, service providers try to communicate quality of their services via advertising. Finds that few quality cues are present in magazine advertising for services. Offers examples and suggestions for the effective conveying of quality through advertising messages.

Reflections on Jazz and Teaching: Benny and Gene, Woody and We

Based on an analogy with a recently revived film of The Benny Goodman Story, draws some marketing‐related parallels between jazz musicianship and teaching. Specifically, as in the case of artists, professors may often pursue a product‐oriented strategy stubbornly dedicated to honouring their own convictions at the expense of a customer‐oriented quest for greater potential popularity. Illustrates through an interview with Woody Herman that, as with jazz musicians, so with teachers: one hopes that integrity will win true listeners.

Measuring Service Involvement: An Adaptation of the Personal Involvement Inventory

The involvement construct is well-established in the consumer behavior literature, and its influence on consumer decision-making is well-documented. Nevertheless, relatively little work on developing a service involvement scale has been accomplished. This study extends prior research investigating the applicability of Zaichkowskys (1994) revised Personal Involvement Inventory to consumer services.