Integrating Information from Advertising and Trial: Processes and Effects on Consumer Response to Product Information

Information integration theory and the integrated information response model are used to explore how consumers combine information from advertising and trial. Also investigated is the ability of attitude toward the ad to mediate advertising's effects on brand cognitions and brand attitudes after trial. An experiment is conducted in which three independent variables are manipulated: the information source (ad only, trial only, and ad plus trial), information sequence (ad/trial and trial/ad), and favorability of trial (positive and negative). Results show that (1) advertising can lessen the negative effects of an unfavorable trial experience on brand evaluations, especially when the ad is processed first, (2) when negative trial precedes exposure to advertising, cognitive evaluations of the ad are more negative, (3) the ability of ad attitudes to influence brand cognitions and brand attitudes is significantly reduced after trial, and (4) the ability of brand cognitions to influence brand attitudes is significantly increased after trial. Implications for advertising research and practice are discussed.

[1]  N. Anderson.  PRIMACY EFFECTS IN PERSONALITY IMPRESSION FORMATION USING A GENERALIZED ORDER EFFECT PARADIGM. , 1965, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  Kristian S. Palda.  The Hypothesis of a Hierarchy of Effects: A Partial Evaluation , 1966 .

[3]  N. Anderson.  Integration theory and attitude change. , 1971 .

[4]  Terrence O'Brien,et al.  Stages of Consumer Decision Making , 1971 .

[5]  Peter D. Bennett,et al.  The Role of Confidence in Understanding and Predicting Buyers' Attitudes and Purchase Intentions , 1975 .

[6]  M. Holbrook.  Beyond Attitude Structure: Toward the Informational Determinants of Attitude , 1978 .

[7]  Jerry C. Olson,et al.  Disconfirmation of consumer expectations through product trial. , 1979 .

[8]  M. Heesacker,et al.  Effects of rhetorical questions on persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. , 1981 .

[9]  R. Fazio,et al.  Attitude accessibility, attitude-behavior consistency, and the strength of the object-evaluation association , 1982 .

[10]  William R. Swinyard,et al.  Information Response Models: An Integrated Approach , 1982 .

[11]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement , 1983 .

[12]  Richard Staelin,et al.  The Information Processing of Pictures in Print Advertisements , 1983 .

[13]  J. Deighton,et al.  The Interaction of Advertising and Evidence , 1984 .

[14]  Meryl P. Gardner,et al.  Does Attitude toward the Ad Affect Brand Attitude under a Brand Evaluation Set? , 1985 .

[15]  Stephen J. Hoch,et al.  Consumer Learning: Advertising and the Ambiguity of Product Experience , 1986 .

[16]  A. A. Mitchell,et al.  The Effect of Verbal and Visual Components of Advertisements on Brand Attitudes and Attitude Toward the Advertisement , 1986 .

[17]  C. W. Park,et al.  Consumer Response to Television Commercials: The Impact of Involvement and Background Music on Brand Attitude Formation , 1986 .

[18]  P. Wilton,et al.  Models of Consumer Satisfaction Formation : An Extension , 1988 .

[19]  Lawrence J. Marks,et al.  The Use of Product Sampling and Advertising: Effects of Sequence of Exposure and Degree of Advertising Claim Exaggeration on Consumers’ Belief Strength, Belief Confidence, and Attitudes , 1988 .

[20]  William R. Swinyard,et al.  Cognitive response to advertising and trial: Belief strength, belief confidence and product curiosity. , 1988 .

[21]  I. Levin,et al.  How Consumers Are Affected by the Framing of Attribute Information Before and After Consuming the Product , 1988 .

[22]  Kenneth A. Bollen,et al.  Structural Equations with Latent Variables , 1989 .

[23]  Carol J. Williams,et al.  The Role of Attitude Accessibility in the Attitude-to-Behavior Process , 1989 .

[24]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  An Empirical Examination of the Structural Antecedents of Attitude toward the Ad in an Advertising Pretesting Context , 1989 .

[25]  Cornelia Dröge,et al.  Shaping the Route to Attitude Change: Central versus Peripheral Processing through Comparative versus Noncomparative Advertising , 1989 .

[26]  Ida E. Berger,et al.  The Effect of Advertising on Attitude Accessibility, Attitude Confidence, and the Attitude-Behavior Relationship , 1989 .

[27]  Stephen J. Hoch,et al.  Ambiguity, Processing Strategy, and Advertising-Evidence Interactions , 1989 .

[28]  Paul W. Miniard,et al.  On the Formation and Relationship of Ad and Brand Attitudes: An Experimental and Causal Analysis , 1990 .

[29]  Banwari Mittal,et al.  The Relative Roles of Brand Beliefs and Attitude toward the ad as Mediators of Brand Attitude: A Second Look , 1990 .

[30]  P. Homer.  The Mediating Role of Attitude toward the Ad: Some Additional Evidence , 1990 .

[31]  Steven P. Brown,et al.  Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude toward the Ad: A Meta-analysis , 1992 .