The effect of advertising message involvement on brand attitude accessibility

Abstract This study examines the hypothesis that the level of message involvement during advertising exposure determines the accessibility of brand attitudes. Sixty-two subjects were exposed to an advertisement for an unfamiliar product under high and low involvement conditions and subsequently their brand attitudes, as well as the accessibility of these attitudes, were assessed. The results support the hypothesis as the brand attitudes formed under conditions of high advertising message involvement were significantly more accessible compared to those formed under lower levels of involvement. Findings are discussed in terms of the impact of involvement on cognitive elaboration during attitude formation and of the relation between involvement and accessibility as two dimensions of attitude strength. PsycINFO classification : 3920; 3940

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