No abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects on consumer response between disease-specific advertising containing a celebrity compared to a non-celebrity endorser. Design/methodology/approach – A randomized, cross-sectional two (endorser type) by two (levels of disease state involvement) factorial design was used. Respondents (over the age of 18) were randomly shown one of the ad types and then responded to an online survey questionnaire containing questions and various scales measuring disease state involvement, endorser credibility, attitude toward the ad and company, attention to the ad, behavioral intentions and information search behavior. The disease-specific ad stimuli modeled the form of current print direct-to-consumer ads and were created following recent Food and Drug Administration guidelines, with the only difference being the specific pictorial used (celebrity versus non-celebrity). Findings – While endorser type did not significantly affect consumer attitudes, behavioral intentions and information search behavior, level of disease state involvement, though, did. More highly involved consumers had more positive attitudes, behavioral intentions and greater information search behavior. Originality/value – While consumers paid more attention to the celebrity-containing ads and viewed them as more credible, this did not translate into significant effects on the outcome dependent variables of consumer attitudes toward the ad and company, behavioral intentions and information search behavior. As previous literature has suggested, level of disease state involvement was a significant predictor of respondent outcomes. Overall, pharmaceutical manufacturers might want to re-evaluate using a celebrity endorser in disease-specific ads, as this research shows the benefits/outcomes may not justify the cost.

No abstract

Behavioral Intentions and Information-Seeking Behavior: A Comparison of Nonbranded VersusBranded Direct-to-Consumer PrescriPtion I Advertisements A recent trend in DTC advertising has been the increasing presence of nonbranded, or helpseeking, ads. These ads make no mention of a branded medication, using only the pharmaceutical manufacturer as an identifier. Though these ads have been around since the inception of DTC, no direct comparison to the branded counterpart has been conducted in the literature. An online survey panel was used to examine the effects of these two DTC ad types, branded and nonbranded, on behavioral intentions. Whether these self-reported measures of intent correlated to a predefined informationseeking behavior was also analyzed.Results showed that subjects who either viewed the nonbranded ad or had a high level of disease state involvement had more positive behavioral intentions. Overall, intent did not correlate to the predefined behavior. However, those with higher behavioral intentions performed the behavior significantly more. Nonbranded ads induced greater behavioral intentions, which could lead to more physician discussions and increased information-seeking behavior. Given DTC's goal of increasing physician interaction, these results suggest nonbranded ads can be a viable and very productive part of the marketing mix.

Recently, pharmaceutical manufacturers have increased the amount of nonbranded, disease-education focused, direct-to-consumer advertisements. A comparison to branded, product-specific, ads was examined through a series of survey questions measuring consumer attitudes and the role of involvement. Nonbranded ads compared favorably to branded ads and should remain a viable part of the marketing mix. Consumers' level of disease state involvement was the strongest determinant of attitudes overall and within the two ad groupings, as highly involved consumers had significantly more positives attitudes regarding the nonbranded ads. Regardless of involvement level, however, nonbranded ads maintained positive attitude levels.