IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v61y2008i9p933-941.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How brand attribute typicality and consumer commitment moderate the influence of comparative advertising

Author

Listed:
  • Pillai, Kishore Gopalakrishna
  • Goldsmith, Ronald E.

Abstract

This study examines how product attribute typicality and brand commitment influence the effects of comparative versus non-comparative ads on brand attitudes. Employing perspectives from the literatures on typicality and commitment, the study examines the effects of commitment to the comparison brand on the effectiveness of comparative versus non-comparative advertising. A between-informants experiment uses data from 466 student informants. It is hypothesized that (a) when the attribute under consideration is typical (atypical), among comparison brand committed informants, a non-comparative ad is more (no more) persuasive than a comparative ad, (b) when the attribute under consideration is typical, among comparison brand non-committed informants, a comparative ad is more persuasive than a non-comparative ad, and (c) when the attribute under consideration is atypical, among comparison brand non-committed informants, a comparative ad is likely to be more persuasive than a non-comparative ad, but the effect will be weaker than in the case of a typical attribute. Hypothesis (a) is supported while (b) has directional support. The results support a three-way interaction between consumer commitment, attribute typicality, and type of advertisement. The findings are relevant to a variety of contexts, such as markets characterized by high levels of market share and commitment for the market leader as well as fragmented markets where market share and commitment levels are low.

Suggested Citation

  • Pillai, Kishore Gopalakrishna & Goldsmith, Ronald E., 2008. "How brand attribute typicality and consumer commitment moderate the influence of comparative advertising," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 933-941, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:61:y:2008:i:9:p:933-941
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148-2963(07)00302-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bettman, James R & Kakkar, Pradeep, 1977. "Effects of Information Presentation Format on Consumer Information Acquisition Strategies," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 3(4), pages 233-240, March.
    2. Sujan, Mita & Dekleva, Christine, 1987. "Product Categorization and Inference Making: Some Implications for Comparative Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 372-378, December.
    3. Fournier, Susan, 1998. "Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(4), pages 343-373, March.
    4. Lynch, John G, Jr, 1983. "The Role of External Validity in Theoretical Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(1), pages 109-111, June.
    5. Sujan, Mita, 1985. "Consumer Knowledge: Effects on Evaluation Strategies Mediating Consumer Judgments," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(1), pages 31-46, June.
    6. Calder, Bobby J & Philips, Lynn W & Tybout, Alice M, 1983. "Beyond External Validity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(1), pages 112-124, June.
    7. Calder, Bobby J & Phillips, Lynn W & Tybout, Alice M, 1982. "The Concept of External Validity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(3), pages 240-244, December.
    8. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 1987. "Dimensions of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 411-454, March.
    9. Pechmann, Cornelia & Stewart, David W, 1990. "The Effects of Comparative Advertising on Attention, Memory, and Purchase Intentions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(2), pages 180-191, September.
    10. Pechmann, Cornelia & Ratneshwar, S, 1991. "The Use of Comparative Advertising for Brand Positioning: Association versus Differentiation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(2), pages 145-160, September.
    11. Edell, Julie E & Staelin, Richard, 1983. "The Information Processing of Pictures in Print Advertisements," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(1), pages 45-61, June.
    12. Peterson, Robert A, 2001. "On the Use of College Students in Social Science Research: Insights from a Second-Order Meta-analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 450-461, December.
    13. Kavanoor, Sukumar & Grewal, Dhruv & Blodgett, Jeff, 1997. "Ads promoting OTC medications: The effect of ad format and credibility on beliefs, attitudes, and purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 219-227, November.
    14. Dick, Alan & Chakravarti, Dipankar & Biehal, Gabriel, 1990. "Memory-Based Inferences during Consumer Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(1), pages 82-93, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jun Zhang & Joon Soo Lim, 2021. "Mitigating negative spillover effects in a product-harm crisis: strategies for market leaders versus market challengers," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(1), pages 77-98, January.
    2. Lacey, Russell & Close, Angeline G. & Finney, R. Zachary, 2010. "The pivotal roles of product knowledge and corporate social responsibility in event sponsorship effectiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 1222-1228, November.
    3. Bassant Eyada & Asli Cazorla Milla, 2020. "Comparative Advertising: Proposed Guidelines for Middle Marketers," International Journal of Marketing Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Sergio Andres Osuna Ramirez & Cleopatra Veloutsou & Anna Morgan-Thomas, 2017. "A Systematic Literature Review of Brand Commitment: Definitions, Perspectives and Dimensions," Athens Journal of Business & Economics, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), vol. 3(3), pages 305-332, July.
    5. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Heinzle, Priska, 2018. "Comparative advertising: Effects of concreteness and claim substantiation through reactance and activation on purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 233-242.
    6. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Heinzle, Priska, 2018. "Comparative advertising for goods versus services: Effects of different types of product attributes through consumer reactance and activation on consumer response," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 82-90.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcel Lichters & Marko Sarstedt & Bodo Vogt, 2015. "On the practical relevance of the attraction effect: A cautionary note and guidelines for context effect experiments," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Peterson, Robert A. & Merunka, Dwight R., 2014. "Convenience samples of college students and research reproducibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 1035-1041.
    3. Punj, Girish & Moon, Junyean, 2002. "Positioning options for achieving brand association: a psychological categorization framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 275-283, April.
    4. Davies, Antony & Cline, Thomas W., 2005. "A consumer behavior approach to modeling monopolistic competition," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 797-826, December.
    5. Roggeveen, Anne L. & Nordfält, Jens & Grewal, Dhruv, 2016. "Do Digital Displays Enhance Sales? Role of Retail Format and Message Content," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 122-131.
    6. Georg Wübker, 1999. "Sonderangebotspolitik und Preisbündelung," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 51(7), pages 693-713, July.
    7. Easley, Richard W. & Madden, Charles S. & Dunn, Mark G., 2000. "Conducting Marketing Science: The Role of Replication in the Research Process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 83-92, April.
    8. Dieter K. Tscheulin & Bernd Helmig, 1999. "Zur Effizienz verschiedener Ausgestaltungsformen vergleichender Werbung — Internationale Rechtslage, „State-of-the-art” und Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 550-578, June.
    9. Andreas Otto & Herbert Kotzab, 2001. "Der Beitrag des Supply Chain Management zum Management von Supply Chains — Überlegungen zu einer unpopulären Frage," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 157-176, March.
    10. Heribert Gierl & Hans Höser, 2002. "Der Reihenfolgeeffekt auf Präferenzen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 3-18, February.
    11. CZELLAR, Sandor & VOYER, Benjamin & SCHWOB, Alexandre & LUNA, David, 2008. "Whence brand evaluations ? Investigating the relevance of personal and extrapersonal associations in brand attitudes," HEC Research Papers Series 890, HEC Paris.
    12. Paswan, Audhesh K. & Dant, Rajiv P. & Lumpkin, James R., 1998. "An Empirical Investigation of the Linkages among Relationalism, Environmental Uncertainty, and Bureaucratization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 125-140, November.
    13. Marcel Lichters & Marko Sarstedt & Bodo Vogt, 2015. "On the practical relevance of the attraction effect: A cautionary note and guidelines for context effect experiments," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, June.
    14. McQuarrie, Edward F., 2004. "Integration of construct and external validity by means of proximal similarity:: Implications for laboratory experiments in marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 142-153, February.
    15. Gupta, Pranjal & Yadav, Manjit S. & Varadarajan, Rajan, 2009. "How Task-Facilitative Interactive Tools Foster Buyers’ Trust in Online Retailers: A Process View of Trust Development in the Electronic Marketplace," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 159-176.
    16. Grewal, Rajdeep & Mehta, Raj & Kardes, Frank R., 2000. "The role of the social-identity function of attitudes in consumer innovativeness and opinion leadership," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 233-252, June.
    17. Carter Morgan & Tatiana M. Fajardo & Claudia Townsend, 2021. "Show it or say it: how brand familiarity influences the effectiveness of image-based versus text-based logos," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 566-583, May.
    18. Siddharth Bhattacharya & Jing Gong & Sunil Wattal, 2022. "Competitive Poaching in Search Advertising: Two Randomized Field Experiments," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 599-619, June.
    19. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4248 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Ashish Arora & Michelle Gittelman & Sarah Kaplan & John Lynch & Will Mitchell & Nicolaj Siggelkow & Aaron K. Chatterji & Michael Findley & Nathan M. Jensen & Stephan Meier & Daniel Nielson, 2016. "Field experiments in strategy research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 116-132, January.
    21. Agnès Helme-Guizon & Fanny Magnoni, 2019. "Consumer brand engagement and its social side on brand-hosted social media: how do they contribute to brand loyalty?," Post-Print hal-03591683, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:61:y:2008:i:9:p:933-941. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.