Marketing Communications

ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE 81

processing, but an evaluation based on simple, peripheral cues, such as background music,

humour, an attractive source or endorser, the number of arguments used, etc.^21 In other

words, a favourable brand attitude might be formed because the consumer liked the music

in a Levi’s commercial or the erotic setting in a Häagen-Dazs ad or because the consumer is

fond of the polar bears in the Coca-Cola commercial, or because he or she assumed that

the high price of the Miele washing machine is a sign of superior quality, or that French wine

is invariably good. However, such attitudes do not necessarily last long. If Pepsi launches

a campaign with a cute animal, a celebrity or a nice song, consumers may forget about

Coca-Cola’s nice polar bears and switch their attitude in favour of Pepsi. The reason why

consumers start paying more attention to peripheral cues is that in many ads peripheral cues

form the only processable information under circumstances of low motivation, limited ability

or limited opportunity. Ads without attractive peripheral cues, but with an easy-to-process,

product-related message, might also work under low MAO, simply because the cognitive

resources to form counter-arguments are lacking.

Probability markers are specific words or phrases in advertising used to signal to what degree it is likely that a given

claim or argument is true. Those markers that indicate the probable, rather than absolute, truth of a claim are known

as hedges, whereas the markers that indicate complete commitment to the truthfulness of the claim are known as

pledges. Hedges, which can be adverbs (‘possibly’, ‘probably’), verbs (‘can’, ‘may’, ‘help’), particles (‘about’, ‘sort

of ’), or other expressions (‘9 out of 10’, ‘85% of ’, etc.), weaken the impact of a claim by allowing for exceptions or

avoiding total commitment. Pledges, on the other hand, examples of which also include some adverbs (‘definitely’,

‘undoubtedly’), verbs (‘will’, ‘guarantee’), and other expressions (‘have been proven to’, ‘you can be sure’), are

absolute in nature and signal total confidence in the truthfulness of the claim.^22 Probability markers are frequently

used in advertising.^23 Some well-known examples include the Carlsberg campaign (‘Probably the best beer in the

world’), a similar slogan used by a Belgian brand of beer, Delirium Tremens (‘Voted as best beer in the world’),

numerous drug advertisements (such as a Nutra-Life ad stating ‘Nutra-Life Cold and Flu fighter may reduce the

severity and duration of colds’), as well as cosmetics ads (such as an Oil of Olay ad stating ‘Proven to help you look

revitalised’).

A study was conducted with 331 Belgian and 374 Croatian students;^24 55.7% of the participants were female.

The majority of them (45.9%) were between the ages of 22 and 26. The remainder fell into the following age

groups: 33.1% between the ages of 18 and 21; 6.7% between the ages of 27 and 30; 12.4% under 18; and 1.9%

over 30. The purpose of the study was to assess to what extent the type of service (hedonic vs utilitarian), the

involvement with the service (high vs low), the type of probability marker (hedge, pledge and none), and tolerance

for ambiguity affected consumer responses.

Language power, just like emotions, has been empirically proven to act as a peripheral cue.^25 It is, therefore, likely

that involvement would act as a moderator to the effectiveness of the usage of probability markers in advertising,

namely that the impact of probability markers on advertising effectiveness would be greater in low-involvement

situations than in those where involvement is high. This assumption finds support in a previous study.^26

Hedonic services, often also referred to as experiential services, are characterised by high levels of people

orientation, employee contact and customisation. The quality of and satisfaction with a hedonic service rely on the

sensations derived from the consumption of the service,^27 and are highly person-specific. As such, they are hard to

assess objectively, being dependent on personal, subjective tastes and experiences. Using pledges, markers of

researCh insight

Probability markers have a different effect depending on the type of service and the

tolerance for ambiguity of individual consumers

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