Retailer television advertising: Consumers' skepticism of informational vs. emotional ads

The bombardment with ads that consumers face daily has led to increased Skepticism toward Advertising. This increased advertising costs billions o f dollars, yet, the research has shown conflicting results (Stafford and Day 1995) (Obermiller and Spangenberg 1998) (Obermiller, Spangenberg and MacLachlan 2005) regarding which strategies work best for reducing the negative influence of Skepticism toward Advertising. For over a decade, retailers have ranked #2 in television advertising spending (Advertising Age 2002-2012). Television advertising research has focused on advertising by manufacturers. These findings should not be generalized to retailers because retailers and manufacturers have different goals, use different promotional tools, and measure different outcome variables (Ailawadi, et al. 2009). Advertising research that has focused on retailers has also used print as the medium tested rather than television. This research also cannot be generalized due to the differences in the ways consumers process print and TV advertising. The appeal type is a strategic decision that advertisers must make yet, the previous research has yielded conflicting results regarding whether an informational or emotional appeal is more favorably received by consumers. This research utilized a threestage approach to investigate the different creative strategies used by retailers. During the first stage, a content analysis o f 179 retailer ads was conducted using the methodology suggested by (Kassarjian 1977). A modified matrix o f the Informational/Transformational matrix proposed by Puto and Wells (1984) that exchanged emotional for transformational was tested. Stage two confirmed the results of Stage one by testing four ads categorized by the judges. Participants evaluated the ads using the thinking/feeling scale by De Pelsmacker, Gueuns and Ackaert (2002). Using an online panel o f 802 participants, stage three tested the proposed model that included an interaction between the type of ad and the level o f skepticism and its influence on attitudes toward the ad and advertiser as well as retail patronage intentions and perceived retailer credibility. Skepticism toward Advertising had been conceptualized as a moderator (Obermiller and Spangenberg 1998) but in this research which tested the model only the main effects were found to be significant and not the moderator. APPROVAL FOR SCHOLARLY DISSEMINATION The author grants to the Prescott Memorial Library of Louisiana Tech University the right to reproduce, by appropriate methods, upon request, any or all portions o f this Dissertation. It is understood that “proper request” consists o f the agreement, on the part of the requesting party, that said reproduction is for his personal use and that subsequent reproduction will not occur without written approval of the author o f this Dissertation. Further, any portions of the Dissertation used in books, papers, and other works must be appropriately referenced to this Dissertation. Finally, the author of this Dissertation reserves the right to publish freely, in the literature, at any time, any or all portions of this Dissertation. Author Date _ 6 //W pe> J3