The Effects of Openness on Attitude toward the Ad, Attitude toward the Brand, and Brand Beliefs in Dutch Magazine Ads

Abstract

In recent decades, magazine advertisers have used an increasing number of open ads. Open ads do not guide consumers towards a specific interpretation as traditional ads do, and they require more effort to decipher. An experiment was carried out to determine the effects of ad openness on the attitude towards the ad, brand beliefs, the attitude towards the brand, and the moderating role of ease of comprehension on the attitude towards the ad. We also assessed the effects of openness in relation to an individual's need for cognition. As expected, openness was found to have an overall negative effect on the attitude towards the ad, brand beliefs, and the attitude towards the brand. The negative effect of openness was related to the difficulty participants experience searching for an interpretation. Contrary to expectations, however, need for cognition did not moderate the effects of openness on the attitude towards the ad and the ability to interpret open ads.

Cross-cultural differences in concrete and abstract corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns: perceived message clarity and perceived CSR as mediators

“…For example, Hitchon et al (1994) showed that music video ads with a lower level of abstractness produced more favorable attitudes toward the ad and brand. Ketelaar et al (2010) also found that consumers exposed to traditional ads were more likely to form positive attitude toward the ad than they do with open ads, which did not guide to specific information. In contrast, Ha and Hoch (1989) showed that consumers were more likely to be persuaded by ads with abstract components.…”

“…Some studies reported that concrete advertising messages were more effective (Atkin et al 2008;Hitchon et al 1994;Ketelaar et al 2010;Rossiter & Percy 1980), whereas other studies found that abstract messages were more effective (Eisenberg 1984;Ha & Hoch 1989;Hoch & Ha 1986;McQuarrie & Mick 2003). For example, Hitchon et al (1994) showed that music video ads with a lower level of abstractness produced more favorable attitudes toward the ad and brand.…”

The Occurrence and Effects of Verbal and Visual Anchoring of Tropes on the Perceived Comprehensibility and Liking of TV Commercials

“…These results show that subjectively experienced comprehension appears to be an important determinant for appreciation. This claim receives support from several studies reporting negative correlations between perceived comprehensibility and liking for tropes as diverse as irony (Burgers, van Mulken, andSchellens 2012), visual metaphors (van Mulken, le Pair, andForceville 2010) as well as tropes in advertisements in general (Ketelaar et al 2010;van Mulken, le Pair, and Forceville 2010).…”

“…This slogan poses a riddle the audience has to solve to arrive at the intended meaning. Studies have shown that over the years more and more print ads contain such figures, and that the number of figures in a single ad has increased as well (Ketelaar and van Gisbergen 2006;Phillips and McQuarrie 2002). Furthermore, there is ample evidence that rhetorical figures can influence ad liking because of the pleasure of processing they provide but only if the audience is able to come up with a solution to the riddle these rhetorical figures pose (e.g., Lee and Mason 1999;van Mulken, van Enschot-van Dijk, and Hoeken 2005).…”

“…Such hints, also known as anchoring, have been shown to increase the chances of understanding the trope, thereby increasing ad liking (e.g., Phillips 2000). However, the use of such anchoring information in print advertisements appears to be limited (Phillips and McQuarrie 2002;Ketelaar and van Gisbergen 2006).…”