The piecemeal approach to comparative advertising.

When attempting to portray the attractiveness of a brand vis-à-vis its competitors, an ad may make global claims about superiority or specific claims about one or more attributes. A special case of latter is the piecemeal ad in which the advertised brand is compared to a competitor on one attribute, a different competitor on a second attribute, another competitor on a third attribute, and so on. The present research demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique and explores the basis for its influence. A series of experiments reveals a robust effect mediated by perceived message credibility.Advertising; Effectiveness; Credibility;

The premium as informational cue in insurance decision-making

Often in insurance decision making, there are risk factors on which the insurer has an informational advantage over the consumer. But when the insurer sets and posts a premium for the consumer to consider, the consumer can potentially use the premium as an informational cue for the loss probability, and thereby to reduce the insurer’s informational advantage. We study, by means of a behavioral model, how consumers would use the premium as an informational cue in such contexts. The belief formation process in our model assumes that both prior knowledge and the premium (as a proportion of the compensation) might have an impact on the consumer’s estimate of the loss probability. Moreover, the premium impacts the estimate through an anchoring-and-adjustment process. The model potentially leads to violations of rational expectations, with which the consumer overestimates the loss probability beyond what could be inferred from the premium, given the premise that the insurer must seek to break even or earn an expected profit. Our model analysis moreover implies that the frequency of such violations is non-increasing as the premium increases. Lastly, the model implies a generally inverted-U relationship between insurance demand and the premium, so that the demand is upward sloping at low premium levels and downward sloping at high premium levels. A pilot field study and a laboratory experiment provide robust evidence for our model implications and calibrations for its parameters

Multiattribute perceptual mapping with idiosyncratic brand and attribute sets

This article proposes an extremely flexible procedure for perceptual mapping based on multiattribute ratings, such that the respondent freely generates sets of both brands and attributes. Therefore, the brands and attributes are known and relevant to each participant. Collecting and analyzing such idiosyncratic datasets can be challenging. Therefore, this study proposes a modification of generalized canonical correlation analysis to support the analysis of the complex data structure. The model results in a common perceptual map with subject-specific and overall fit measures. An experimental study compares the proposed procedure with alternative approaches using predetermined sets of brands and/or attributes. In the proposed procedure, brands are better known, attributes appear more relevant, and the respondent's burden is lower. The positions of brands in the new perceptual map differ from those obtained when using fixed brand sets. Moreover, the new procedure typically yields positioning information on more brands. An empirical study on positioning of shoe stores illustrates our procedure and resulting insights. Finally, the authors discuss limitations, potential application areas, and directions for research

Search and alignment in judgment revision: Implications for brand positioning

The authors propose a model of judgment revision, which posits that counterattitudinal challenges to a brand initially trigger a memory search for proattitudinal information about the brand. The proattitudinal information accessible from memory is then aligned with information contained in the challenge in order to assess the diagnosticity of the challenge, that is, how much it "damages" the retrieved brand information. If the challenge is not perceived to be diagnostic, the retrieved brand information is used to defend the previous attitudinal position. If the challenge is perceived to be diagnostic, judgments are revised in direct proportion to the amount of damage identified in the alignment phase. Four experiments test the model's predictions about the influence of abstract versus attribute-specific brand positioning on judgment revision. Consistent with the model's predictions, results show that compared with attribute-specific positioning, abstract positioning will result in less judgment revision when the challenge is specific (e.g., a direct attack about particular attributes of the brand) and the initial brand evaluation is based on limited learning of the positioning information. When the challenge is general (e.g., a blanket, unspecific negative statement about the brand), abstract positioning will result in greater judgment revision than attribute-specific positioning will. The differential effectiveness of abstract versus attribute-specific positioning is mediated by (1) the accessibility in memory of the positioning information at the time of the challenge and (2) the perceived diagnosticity of the challenge after alignment with the retrieved brand information

The piecemeal approach to comparative advertising

When attempting to portray the attractiveness of a brand vis-à-vis its competitors, an ad may make global claims about superiority or specific claims about one or more attributes. A special case of latter is the piecemeal ad in which the advertised brand is compared to a competitor on one attribute, a different competitor on a second attribute, another competitor on a third attribute, and so on. The present research demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique and explores the basis for its influence. A series of experiments reveals a robust effect mediated by perceived message credibility.status: publishe

Category structure, brand recall, and choice

Most marketing discussions of product-markets and competitive positioning implicitly assume that consumers are aware of product category structures. In the present research, we examine this assumption and show how the provision of structure can improve the quality of consumer decisions. The results of the first study suggest that provision of structure increases brand recall and decreases inhibitory effects of part-set cues. In a second study, we show that these positive effects on recall carry over to brand choice, in a memory-based decision. Consumers are able to make choices that are consistent with their preferences when they use an existing category structure to retrieve product information. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

The piecemeal approach to comparative advertising

When attempting to portray the attractiveness of a brand vis-A-vis its competitors, an ad may make global claims about superiority or specific claims about one or more attributes. A special case of latter is the piecemeal ad in which the advertised brand is compared to a competitor on one attribute, a different competitor on a second attribute, another competitor on a third attribute, and so on. The present research demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique and explores the parameters of its influence. We find that piecemeal messages are persuasive because they make seemingly strong claims in a believable manner. Consumer skepticism appears to arise only when conditions for scrutiny are very favorable

Comparison opportunity and judgment revision

Prior evaluations are frequently challenged and need to be revised. We propose that an important determinant of such revisions is the degree to which the challenge provides an opportunity to compare the target against a competitor. Whenever a challenge offers an opportunity; the information contained in the challene will carry a disproportionate weight in the revised judgments. We call this proposition the comparison-revision hypothesis. In Experiments 1-3, we manipulated comparison opportunity by varying the format of the challenge and examined the weights assigned to different inputs in the revised judgments. The results indicate that prior information about the target receives a greater weight under a noncomparative challenge (which provides information only about the target) than under a comparative challenge (which compares the target with a competitor). In contrast, information presented in the challenge receives a greater weight under a comparative challenge than under a noncomparative challenge. Interestingly, when presented in a comparative format, the information contained in the challenge received a relatively disproportionate weight even when the attributes presented in the challenge were less important than those on which the prior target evaluations were based. Results from Experiment 4 suggest that, under certain conditions, even a noncomparative challenge from a superior competitor can provide strong comparison opportunity and thus cause greater revisions in the prior evaluations of the target. Specifically, a greater elaboration of the initial target information and a high degree of commensurability between the target and competitor information jointly promote comparison opportunity and thus cause greater revisions of the prior target judgments. Our findings offer important extensions to previous research on the effects of amount and elaboration of prior target information on subsequent judgment revision. (C) 1999 Academic Press

The asymmetric effect of discount retraction on subsequent choice

This article examines the subsequent impact of a temporary price discount on brand preference after the promotion is retracted. Theorizing that price salience has an impact on price sensitivity, we propose that the effects of retracting a discount depend on the promoted brand's regular price-quality positioning. In a first experiment in which we track consumer choices across a sequence of choice occasions, we show that retracting a discount posted by a higher quality, higher price brand is detrimental to that brand. In contrast, a discount posted by a lower quality, lower price brand is capable of enduringly diverting consumers away from high-end brands. A second experiment relies on process measures to provide evidence for the underlying price salience mechanism. A third experiment tests our hypotheses with real incentives and offers additional support for our price salience theory by testing its most peculiar behavioral implication