The research topic I have selected
is how social factors affect the absorption of information presented by
advertising campaigns. This topic
is of interest to advertisers looking to effectively reach a desired
audience. According to a study
done by Puntoni and Tavassoli, “top-of-mind recall is one of the most commonly
used measures of advertising effectiveness” ( 294).
Social context is thought to affect the recall memory of participants
viewing advertisements, thus making the ad itself more or less effective to its
target audience. Understanding how
social factors influence ad recall can help advertisers create a more effective
campaign to reach their desired audience more effectively.
The
first article I reviewed on the subject is Social Context and Advertising
Memory by Stefano Puntoni and Nader T. Tavassoli. This article examines the influence of the presence of
others on advertising memory.
Three separate experiments were conducted to conclude their findings.
Experiment
1 results were observed from a sample audience consisting of 67 female students
who participated in the study in return for monetary reward. Participants were met in a waiting room
by a male experimenter who led them to the room in which the study took
place. Participants in the “alone”
condition were left in the room alone for the duration of the study. Participants in the “social condition”
completed the lexical decision task in the presence of a male confederate in
his mid-20s. He was introduced to
participants a research assistant who was to observe them performing the
task. In the participatory study
the confederate was introduced as a fellow participant, was seated next to the
other participants and used an inactive keyboard. Direct social interaction in this scenario was
discouraged. Participants were
presented with instructions on a computer screen, and told the focal goal of
the study was to judge as quickly and as accurately as possible whether a
series of target words were real or invented and to indicate their decision
using two keys, marked in green and red.
Each word (32 words, 32 non words) was displayed for 2 seconds in random
order. All participants in all
conditions completed the remainder of the study alone. They were presented with a filler task
lasting seven minutes, followed by a memory test where they were asked to
recall the real words from the lexical decision test. The original 32 words and 32 matched distracters were
displayed one at a time in random order.
Participants were asked to indicate whether they had seen the word
during the previous task. At the
end the participants were asked about the purpose of the study and the role of
the confederate.
Experiment
2 was designed to assess the influence of social context in a marketing setting
and to reexamine the effect of social context on recognition memory. Fifty-five male undergraduate students
were chosen to participate for monetary reward. After the elimination of subjects for various reasons, 53
participants were left: 27 in the alone condition and 26 in the social
condition. This study used 20
print advertisements that contained multiple sources of information applicable
to social desirability. Brand
names used were nonsensical. Ten
ads were selected to have low applicability to social desirability. Out of the ten with high applicability,
5 indicated how the product could help the consumer avoid making a bad
impression on others. Five
indicated how the product could help the consumer make a good impression on
others. The assignment of male
participants to conditions followed the procedure of Experiment 1 with a female
observational confederate.
Participants were told to rate each ad on a 5-point scale, from “I
disliked it very much” to “I liked it very much”. A cardboard screen was placed around the keyboard to prevent
the confederate from observing the responses in order to reduce evaluation
apprehension. Participants were
exposed to ads for 15 seconds each in random order.
Experiment
3 was designed to replicate the two-way interaction between viewing context and
stimulus type for free recall and semantic recognition measure. The study involved 86 undergrad
students from an introductory marketing class who took part in the study in
return for course credit. A sample
size of 78 (33 females and 45 males) was derived from the group, 39 in each
scenario condition. They were randomly
assigned to conditions and provided with an envelope containing written
instructions and other materials.
Participants first read the cover story. As part of the “visualization technique” they were asked to
imagine a doctor’s waiting room scenario then to browse four test pages of the
magazine. The first paragraph of
the magazine provided a reassuring reason for the participant’s visit to the
doctor, and a photograph of the waiting room was included to strengthen the
manipulation effect. The two
scenario conditions were identical to the previous studies except the 3rd
paragraph that described the social scenario. It described the alone scenario condition by describing the
absence of other patients in the waiting room, and the social scenario as the
presence of four other people and descriptions of their appearances and
actions. Participants were asked
to imagine how it would feel to be in that situation then to browse the four
test pages in the magazine, spending approximately 30 seconds on each page,
while imagining being in the waiting room. They were then asked to replace the magazine, take the
answer booklet and answer some questions about the magazine. The computer then introduced the recall
task followed by the recognition measures.
Experiment
1’s results concluded significant interactions between viewing context and
stimulus type for reaction times and recall memory. It found participants reacted faster to and recalled more
words applicable to social desirability when in the presence of another person. Performance on the goal of providing
speeded responses was impeded by the alternative goal of making a good
impression on others. They
concluded that social context plays a lesser role for recognition than for
recall.
Experiment
2 found that participants recalled more product categories from advertisements
applicable to social desirability than from neutral ads. There were no significant effects
involving viewing context or stimulus type for recognition. It also mirrored the memory results of
Experiment 1. It concluded that
participants on the social condition were more likely than participants in the
alone condition to recall product categories presented in ads applicable to
social desirability.
Experiment
3 found that across all dependent variables, no significant gender differences
were observed. Participants in the
social scenario condition were found to remember more product categories than
in the alone scenario. Also, more
advertisements pertaining to social desirability were recalled compared to neutral
advertisements. This experiment
successfully replicated the two-way interaction between viewing context
stimulus type for free recall and a semantic recognition measure. In contrast, as in Experiments 1 and 2,
the two perceptual recognition measures in Experiment 3 were not sensitive to
social context. This experiment
concludes that social context affects memory for social desirability
advertisements through semantic processes but not through perceptual processes.
The
second article I chose to examine is titled “Don’t Interrupt Me Now: Media ‘Transportation’
and Advertising Effectiveness” by Echo Wen-Wan, based on the research of Jing
Wang and Bobby J. Calder. This
article examines how “transportation”, which is a term that describes being
absorbed into the narrative flow of a story, affects advertising
effectiveness. Previous research
on transportation experience has shown that a high level of transportation into
narrative flow leads to more changes in story-related beliefs and produces a
pleasurable experience. When relating
to advertising effectiveness, a high level of transportation into an ad leads
to a more favorable brand evaluation and greater intentions to purchase the
product. This study hypothesizes
that if an ad does not interfere with the transportation process into the media
content, the positive experience will lead to greater advertising
effectiveness, and vise-versa if the ad intrudes. Two experiments were conducted to test this theory.
In
the first experiment, 56 participants read a 4-page book excerpt about a
college life situation, which included a full-page ad for Wendy’s. Half of the participants read the ad
after the second page of the story, interrupting their transportation
experience. The other half read
the ad after the last page of the story, which did not interfere.
In
the second experiment, 50 undergrad students viewed an ad for fictitious brand
of bottled water while reading a three-page short story. The ad was positioned between the
second and third pages of the story in all circumstances. Before reading the story, half of the
participants were told they would be in charge of getting beverages for a
social event. In this condition,
viewing the ad for the bottled water was particularly relevant to participants
goals, hence they were more likely to process the ad more deeply while reading
the story, making the ad more intrusive to their transportation
experience. The other half were
told they would be getting snacks for a social event, making the ad less relevant
to their goals, thus making the ad less intrusive to their transportation
experience.
Results
for the first experiment supported the hypothesis. They showed when the ad was presented at the end of the
story, highly transported participants had a higher evaluation of Wendy’s than
those who were less transported.
When the ad was inserted in the middle of the story, participants who
were more transported had a lower evaluation of Wendy’s than those who were
less transported.
Results
for the second experiment also supported the hypothesis. These results concluded when the ad was
irrelevant to the participants’ goals, they were equally favorable towards the
bottled water regardless of their transportation experience. However, when the ad was relevant to
their goal, participants who were more transported showed less favorable
attitudes towards the bottled water than those who were less transported.
The
research question I have formulated that pertains to both articles mentioned
above states, “How could advertisers make ads in magazines more
effective?” The first article
shows that the social context in which ads are viewed affects the overall
absorption and effectiveness of information from the advertisement. Advertisers should make ads applicable
to social desirability, because they are proven to have a higher recall than
neutral advertisements. The second
article suggests that advertisements placed in the middle of an engaging text,
such as a short story, generate a less favorable impression because they
interrupt the reader’s transportation experience. To avoid this negative effect and generate a more favorable
impression of their product, advertisers should place ads before or after
involved text features.
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