Georgios Halkias

The Degree of Ad–Brand Incongruity and the Distinction Between Schema-Driven and Stimulus-Driven Attitudes

Drawing on schema theory and advertising rhetoric, this article contributes to research on incongruent communication with three studies exploring consumer responses across different degrees of ad–brand incongruity. Study 1 reveals an inverted U-shaped pattern, indicating the superiority of moderate incongruity on ad processing time, recall, and attitude toward the ad (Aad) and the brand (Ab). Studies 2A and 2B replicate this pattern and further demonstrate that the affect already stored in the brand schema drives brand attitude formation for congruent and extremely incongruent ads, whereas both schema- and stimulus-based affect determine brand attitude for moderately incongruent ads. Study 2B also shows that participants are able to resolve ad–brand incongruity and comprehend the ad unless discrepancies are extreme. Finally, it is revealed that comprehension of more cognitively challenging ads mediates the effect of incongruity on both Aad and Ab.

Mental representation of brands: a schema-based approach to consumers’ organization of market knowledge

Purpose – This paper aims to review the notion of schemata in consumer behavior, placing particular emphasis on the conceptualization of brand knowledge, and illustrate how schema theory may act as a unifying conceptual framework to study what consumers know about products and brands. Extant research on how consumers conceptualize brands lacks a single, coherent theoretical framework. The literature is fragmented into different approaches that may prevent comparisons across studies and make it difficult to draw conclusive results. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the central tenets of schema theory and then presents the structure of schematic knowledge and the main typology of consumer schemata. It focuses on the brand schema, delineating its internal properties and drawing analogies with other approaches used to describe consumers’ mental representation of brands. Findings – Schema theory can provide a comprehensive framework to analyze how consumers perceive brand information. A cogniti...

Schema strength, processing opportunity, and the rewarding nature of incongruity resolution in advertising

Extant literature calls for more research to identify the boundary conditions as well as the process underlying the effects of ad messages that violate specific brand beliefs. This paper examines different levels of ad–brand incongruity, considering brand schema strength and processing opportunity as factors that influence the perception and the resolution of incongruity. Moreover, it provides empirical evidence for the process mediating attitudinal responses to ad–brand incongruity. Experiment 1 shows superiority for moderately incongruent ads over congruent and extremely incongruent ads which is eliminated when participants have a weak, as opposed to a strong, brand schema. Experiment 2 replicates the nonmonotonic pattern for strong, real brands but further shows that low processing opportunity favors congruent ads. Mediation analysis reveals that the psychological satisfaction experienced during the ad interpretation process has an asymmetric mediating effect, such that moderate levels of ad–brand incongruity generate highest levels of satisfaction which then leads to more positive responses.