Marketing Communications

214 CHAPTER 7 ADVERTISING

Figure 7.4 Most frequently used information cues in advertising

Source : Based on Abernethy, A.M. and Franke, G.R. (1996), ‘The Information Content of Advertising: A Meta-Analysis’, Journal

of Advertising , 25(2), 1–17.

Table 7.3 Resnik and Stern’s information classification

z Price

z Quality

z Performance

z Components

z Availability

z Special

z Taste

z Nutrition

z Packaging

z Warranties

z offers

z Independent research

z Company research

z New ideas

z Safety

Source : Based on Abernethy, A.M. and Franke, G.R. (1996), ‘The Information Content of Advertising: A Meta-Analysis’, Journal

of Advertising , 25(2), 1–17.

Abernethy and Franke performed a meta-analysis on 59 studies in 24 diff erent countries,

including the USA, most Western countries and the Pacifi c Rim, in which this classifi cation

had been used, and revealed the following.^32 Th e mean number of information cues (over the

diff erent countries and over diff erent media) is 2.04, and the cues most frequently used are

performance (in 43% of the cases), availability (37%), components (33%), price (25%), quality

(19%) and special off ers (13%) ( Figure 7.4 ).

As might be expected, ads for durable goods contain signifi cantly more information cues

than ads for non-durable goods (2.7 versus 2.0). Ads in developed countries (the USA,

Canada, Southern and Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand) are more informative

than ads in less developed countries (China, Taiwan, South Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, parts

of Latin America). Another study showed that rational appeals are more eff ective than emo-

tional appeals when a product is new to the market, while the opposite holds true in markets

in which consumers are already very familiar with the product.^33 Moreover, ads for intangible

products (e.g. services) contain more information cues than for tangible products. Th e same

conclusion holds for low as compared with high competitive markets.^34 One study shows that

a diagnostic product element (= information that helps consumers to assess product quality)

stimulates message involvement and enhances ad and brand evaluations for high, but not for

low Need for Cognition individuals (i.e. consumers that do not like to engage in cognitive

activities). Two diagnostic information elements, however, did not further improve involve-

ment or evaluations as compared with one information element, leading to the conclusion

that one diagnostic information element seems suffi cient.^35 Finally, the level of information

varies between diff erent advertising media (see also Chapter 8 ).

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