Yih Hwai Lee

Responses to Information Incongruency in Advertising: The Role of Expectancy, Relevancy, and Humor

Two studies examining the effects of expectancy, relevancy, and humor on attitude formation are presented. Following previous research, expectancy refers to the degree to which an item or a piece of information falls into some predetermined pattern or structure evoked by an ad. Relevancy refers to the degree to which an item or a piece of information contributes to the identification of the primary message communicated by the ad. Across two studies that examined immediate response, we found that information expectancy and relevancy interact to produce different levels of attitude favorability. Although ads with unexpected-relevant information elicited more favorable attitudes than did ads with expected-relevant information, ads with unexpected-irrelevant information yielded less favorable attitudes than did ads with expected-relevant information. Furthermore, humor and relevancy interact where a humorous execution was found to have a favorable effect in ads with unexpected-irrelevant information but not in ads with unexpected-relevant information. In addition, the second study further examined delayed responses in which the findings revealed a different pattern. Particularly noteworthy is a sleeper effect for ads with unexpected-irrelevant information where attitudes for both the ad and the brand improved over time. We conclude with implications and suggestions for future research. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.

Manipulating Ad Message Involvement through Information Expectancy: Effects on Attitude Evaluation and Confidence

Abstract This research proposes an additional method (with potential advantages) of manipulating ad message involvement (AMI) through ad information expectancy. This manipulation of ad information characteristics showed that unexpected information creates a higher AMI than does expected information. In addition, the immediate and delayed effects of ad information expectancy on attitude evaluation, confidence, and recall are examined. In particular, attitude evaluation and confidence responded differently under different times of response and levels of AMI. Under immediate responses, ads with unexpected information (high AMI) produced more favorable attitude evaluation than did ads with expected information (low AMI). However, no differences in attitude confidences were found between the two conditions. Under delayed responses, both attitude evaluation and confidence were significantly higher in the unexpected than in the expected conditions. In addition, although delayed ad and brand confidences under low AMI were low, ad and brand attitudes remained significantly correlated with each other. These findings suggest that 1) assessing both attitude evaluation and attitude confidence is important especially when studying delayed attitudinal effects of advertising, and 2) high AMI through the introduction of unexpected information in ads creates relatively persistent and favorable attitudes.

The Differential Interaction of Auditory and Visual Advertising Elements with Chinese and English

Multimedia advertisements often contain nonverbal auditory elements, such as music and sound effects, and nonverbal visual elements, such as images and logos. On the one hand, these elements can have the unintended negative effect of interfering with the processing of the verbal ad copy. Two experiments demonstrate that auditory elements interfere more with the learning of and cognitive responding to English ad copy than with Chinese ad copy, and vice versa for visual elements. On the other hand, auditory and visual elements have the intended positive effect of facilitating ad copy recall when they are reinstated as part of an integrated marketing campaign or as a recall cue in an advertising tracking study. A third experiment demonstrates that auditory elements are better retrieval cues for English than for Chinese ad copy, and vice versa for visual elements. The authors discuss implications of these cross-linguistic differences for the effective design of multimedia communications, integrated marketing campaigns, advertising tracking studies, and cross-cultural research.

Partitioned Pricing in Advertising: Effects on Brand and Retailer Attitudes

This research highlights the negative attitudinal effect of partitioned pricing. The basis of this effect is that partitioned pricing tends to promote higher level of error in price recall. Consumers may not react favorably to the error especially when they perceive that the use of partitioned-price information is responsible for the mistake. This creates negative affect, which in turn unfavorably influences brand attitude formation/change. However, when consumers attribute responsibility of the price recall error to themselves or to the retailer sponsoring the ad, attitude toward the brand using partitioned-price information declines to a lesser extent.This research highlights the negative attitudinal effect of partitioned pricing. The basis of this effect is that partitioned pricing tends to promote higher level of error in price recall. Consumers may not react favorably to the error especially when they perceive that the use of partitioned-price information is responsible for the mistake. This creates negative affect, which in turn unfavorably influences brand attitude formation/change. However, when consumers attribute responsibility of the price recall error to themselves or to the retailer sponsoring the ad, attitude toward the brand using partitioned-price information declines to a lesser extent.

What's Funny and What's Not: The Moderating Role of Cultural Orientation in Ad Humor

This empirical study predicts and finds that effectiveness of ad humor is jointly determined by the humor process (i.e., incongruity resolution and arousal safety) employed in the ad and the cultural orientation (i.e., uncertainty avoidance and individualism-collectivism) of the ad viewer. In particular, attitudinal effects elicited by the cognitive/affective uncertainty elements in ad humor are more pronounced among consumers who have higher uncertainty avoidance, as well as among those with more collectivistic orientations. The theoretical and managerial implications stemming from the cultural boundaries of ad humor are considered. Research avenues suggested by the findings are also discussed.

When Good Cheer Goes Unrequited: How Emotional Receptivity Affects Evaluation of Expressed Emotion

In three studies, the authors introduce and probe the role of emotional receptivity in consumer–marketer interactions. Emotional receptivity refers to a persons disposition toward experiencing a preferred level of emotional intensity. The results from the first two studies conducted in the laboratory and the field collectively demonstrate that consumers feel greater enjoyment and enhanced liking for the marketer when there is a close match between their emotional receptivity and the level of emotional intensity displayed by the marketer. In the third study, the authors show that consumers’ emotional receptivity can be temporarily increased or decreased using advertisements that depict more or less expressive social interactions, respectively. The findings are similar to those observed in the first two studies. In addition, a preliminary study establishes the discriminant validity of the proposed battery of emotional receptivity items from existing related constructs. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications and offer suggestions for further research.

Brand personality inference: The moderating role of product meaning

Abstract This study draws on categorisation theory to investigate how consumers make brand personality inferences. Its purpose is to determine the basic category at which consumers make brand personality inferences and whether this level varies for functional and symbolic products. Experimental results show that the basic level of categorisation for brand personality inferences is the brand level for symbolic products and the product type level for functional products. These findings suggest that managers may have less latitude to adopt diverse personalities for functional than symbolic products. The study also demonstrates that, in contrast to prior work, future research on brand personality should consider a wider range of sources of personality.

Necessary but not sufficient: Beyond novelty in advertising creativity

Novelty has been considered the bedrock of creative advertising. However, Ang, Lee, and Leong (2007, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 35: 220–232) proposed in their ad creativity cube that, to be effective, novel ads need to be both meaningful and connect to their audience as well. This study empirically tests whether the effects of novelty can be enhanced by meaningfulness and connectedness. Results generally showed that novelty, coupled with meaningfulness and connectedness, enhances consumer ad response. Such ads were evaluated as being more creative and were recalled and liked better than novel ads which lack either meaningfulness or connectedness, or both, as well as less novel ads of a similar nature. Implications are discussed and directions for future research suggested.

Interference of Picture and Brand Name in a Multiple Linkage Ad Context

This study investigates the superiority effects of picture incongruency and brand name suggestiveness on recall of target benefit claims. Depending on the juxtaposition of the picture and brand name with these claims, a relevant picture can interfere with and inhibit recall of a brand name claim under selected conditions. Specifically, recall of brand name claim was higher under an irrelevant rather than a relevant picture condition. Similarly, a suggestive brand name interfered and diminished recall of a picture claim compared to a nonsuggestive brand name. Additionally, the recall patterns of the picture (source) versus the picture claim (target) under various incongruency conditions showed that the effectiveness of picture incongruency on traditional picture recall measure cannot be extended to picture-related claim recall performance. Explanations based on theoretical extensions to the associated network model and interference theory are furnished together with the managerial implications regarding the effective use of picture incongruency and brand name suggestiveness.