No abstract

This article presents an experiment examining the effects of stimulus complexity on consumers’ aesthetic preferences. The results suggest that preferences for visually complex product designs tend to increase with repeated exposure, while preferences for visually simple product designs tend to decrease with repeated exposure. In addition, the results suggest that perceived complexity partially mediates the exposure-preference relationship. The authors discuss implications of these findings for market researchers conducting aesthetic product design concept tests, as well as more basic research on the affective impact of repeated exposure.

Music is an increasingly prominent and expensive feature of broadcast ads, yet its effects on message reception are controversial. The authors propose and test a contingency that may help resolve this controversy. Experimental results suggest that message reception is influenced by the interplay of two musical properties: attentiongaining value and music-message congruency. Increasing audience attention to music enhances message reception when the music evokes message-congruent (versus incongruent) thoughts. M USIC has been a prominent feature in advertising since the first network radio broadcast aired in 1923 (Hettinger 1933). Early broadcasts used signature "theme music" to introduce commercial sponsors. By the late 1930s, the ' 'singing commercial'' had become standard practice. Pepsi's historic "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot" jingle became a jukebox hit in 1941 (Enrico and Kornbluth 1986). Musical ads made a graceful transition to television in the 1950s, and they continue to play an important role in broadcast advertising today. Estimates of the proportion of TV commercials using music have ranged from about 75% (Michlin 1984) to over 90% (Garfield 1988). According to a recent Video Storyboard Tests report, music is used as "the main creative ingredient" in one-third of 500 new TV ads (Tharp 1989).Advertisers spend large sums of money on the production of musical ads. Creative fees for an original composition can cost over $10,000 (Karmen 1989). The rights to popular songs can cost much more (Alsop 1985); for example, Nike paid $500,000 for the use of The Beatles' song "Revolution" (Cocks 1987).Industry is risking millions of dollars on the belief that music can help ads sell; yet there is no universally accepted explanation of how this works. Some investigators have suggested that music influences listeners mainly through their feelings. For example, Gorn (l 982) viewed the effects of ad music from a classical conditioning perspective, suggesting that consumers' feelings toward a piece of music may transfer to a product when the two are paired in an ad. Another explanation is that the power of music operates by creating moods (Alpert and Alpert 1990;Bruner 1990;Gardner 1985) that enhance product evaluations and facilitate message acceptance. /Journal of Marketing, October 1993Though most of the research literature has focused on emotional responses to ad music, it is also important to consider music's impact on message reception and processing. Creating positive feelings during ad exposure may be desirable but have little impact unless the brand and message are remembered. Therefore, the current research examines ad recall and recognition. Our focus on cognitive aspects of ad performance is justifiable on both theoretical and practical grounds. Remembering information such as brand names and message claims often precedes responses at other levels in the hierarchy of effects. Various measures of memorability are used extensively in the advertising industry to assess ad performance (Stewart, Furse, and Kozak 19...

Shoplifting is a troubling and widespread aspect of consumer behavior, particularly among adolescents, yet it has attracted little attention from consumer researchers. This article reports and interprets findings on the pervasiveness of shoplifting among adolescents, the characteristics that distinguish adolescent shoplifters from their nonshoplifting peers, and adolescents' views regarding the reasons for this behavior. Our findings contradict some popular stereotypes concerning the typical shoplifter and suggest some rethinking about adolescents' reasons for shoplifting.

This article examines how consumers' attitudes toward advertisements are affected by their previous exposure to them. The results of our experiment suggest that the effects of exposure on ad attitudes may be moderated by the complexity of the advertisement: evaluations of complex ads become more positive with exposure, while those of simple ads do not. This finding may help explain why previous studies of ad exposure effects have yielded mixed results.