IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v84y2018icp233-242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparative advertising: Effects of concreteness and claim substantiation through reactance and activation on purchase intentions

Author

Listed:
  • Bambauer-Sachse, Silke
  • Heinzle, Priska

Abstract

In this paper, we examine positive (activation) and negative (reactance) effects of concrete versus non-concrete comparative advertising and the impact of claim substantiation in such comparative advertising on purchase intentions. We also analyze the moderating role of consumers' predisposition to show reactance. The results indicate that without claim substantiation, quality comparisons (less concrete) produce higher activation but also more reactance than comparisons based on intrinsic attributes (more concrete). With claim substantiation, quality comparisons still trigger higher activation, but they only trigger more reactance in consumers who have a high predisposition to show reactance. For consumers with a low predisposition to show reactance, quality comparisons trigger even less reactance than intrinsic attribute comparisons. This research enhances the theoretical understanding of processes underlying consumer reactions to comparative advertising and provides marketers with knowledge about the appropriate use of claim substantiation as well as of the comparative basis for addressing different consumer types.

Suggested Citation

  • Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Heinzle, Priska, 2018. "Comparative advertising: Effects of concreteness and claim substantiation through reactance and activation on purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 233-242.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:84:y:2018:i:c:p:233-242
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829631730471X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clee, Mona A & Wicklund, Robert A, 1980. "Consumer Behavior and Psychological Reactance," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 389-405, March.
    2. Pillai, Kishore Gopalakrishna & Goldsmith, Ronald E., 2008. "How brand attribute typicality and consumer commitment moderate the influence of comparative advertising," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 933-941, September.
    3. Batra, Rajeev & Ray, Michael L, 1986. "Affective Responses Mediating Acceptance of Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(2), pages 234-249, September.
    4. Pechmann, Cornelia & Stewart, David W, 1990. "The Effects of Comparative Advertising on Attention, Memory, and Purchase Intentions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(2), pages 180-191, September.
    5. Pechmann, Cornelia & Ratneshwar, S, 1991. "The Use of Comparative Advertising for Brand Positioning: Association versus Differentiation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(2), pages 145-160, September.
    6. Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter, 1994. "The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 1-31, June.
    7. Kroeber-Riel, Werner, 1979. "Activation Research: Psychobiological Approaches in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 5(4), pages 240-250, March.
    8. Debora Viana Thompson & Rebecca W. Hamilton, 2006. "The Effects of Information Processing Mode on Consumers' Responses to Comparative Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(4), pages 530-540, March.
    9. Jeon, Jung Ok & Beatty, Sharon E., 2002. "Comparative advertising effectiveness in different national cultures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 907-913, November.
    10. Brown, Steven P & Stayman, Douglas M, 1992. "Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude toward the Ad: A Meta-analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(1), pages 34-51, June.
    11. Yagci, Mehmet I. & Biswas, Abhijit & Dutta, Sujay, 2009. "Effects of comparative advertising format on consumer responses: The moderating effects of brand image and attribute relevance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 768-774, August.
    12. Jewell, Robert D. & Saenger, Christina, 2014. "Associative and dissociative comparative advertising strategies in broadening brand positioning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1559-1566.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Heinzle, Priska, 2018. "Comparative advertising for goods versus services: Effects of different types of product attributes through consumer reactance and activation on consumer response," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 82-90.
    2. Jian Xu & Zhe Li & Xuequn Wang & Chunyu Xia, 2022. "Narrative information on secondhand products in e-commerce," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 625-644, December.
    3. del Barrio-García, Salvador & Muñoz-Leiva, Francisco & Golden, Linda, 2020. "A review of comparative advertising research 1975–2018: Thematic and citation analyses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 73-84.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Heinzle, Priska, 2018. "Comparative advertising for goods versus services: Effects of different types of product attributes through consumer reactance and activation on consumer response," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 82-90.
    2. Jun Zhang & Joon Soo Lim, 2021. "Mitigating negative spillover effects in a product-harm crisis: strategies for market leaders versus market challengers," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(1), pages 77-98, January.
    3. Kirk Kristofferson & Lea Dunn, 2023. "The brand that wasn’t there: The impact of brand displacement on viewer engagement and brand attitude," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 716-745, May.
    4. Puccinelli, Nancy M. & Goodstein, Ronald C. & Grewal, Dhruv & Price, Robert & Raghubir, Priya & Stewart, David, 2009. "Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 15-30.
    5. Easley, Richard W. & Bearden, William O. & Teel, Jesse E., 1995. "Testing predictions derived from inoculation theory and the effectiveness of self-disclosure communications strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 93-105, October.
    6. María del Mar García‐De los Salmones & Andrea Perez, 2018. "Effectiveness of CSR Advertising: The Role of Reputation, Consumer Attributions, and Emotions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(2), pages 194-208, March.
    7. Torres, Ivonne M., 2007. "A tale of two theories: Sympathy or competition?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 197-205, March.
    8. James J. Zboja & Ronald A. Clark & Diana L. Haytko, 2016. "An offer you can’t refuse: consumer perceptions of sales pressure," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 806-821, November.
    9. Megehee, Carol M., 2009. "Advertising time expansion, compression, and cognitive processing influences on consumer acceptance of message and brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 420-431, April.
    10. Dens, Nathalie & De Pelsmacker, Patrick & Verhellen, Yann, 2018. "Better together? Harnessing the power of brand placement through program sponsorship messages," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 151-159.
    11. Yagci, Mehmet I. & Biswas, Abhijit & Dutta, Sujay, 2009. "Effects of comparative advertising format on consumer responses: The moderating effects of brand image and attribute relevance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 768-774, August.
    12. Wallach, Karen Anne & Popovich, Deidre, 2023. "When Big Is Less than Small: Why dominant brands lack authenticity in their sustainability initiatives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Malhotra, Naresh K., 2005. "Attitude and affect: new frontiers of research in the 21st century," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 477-482, April.
    14. Söderlund, Magnus & Mattsson, Jan, 2015. "Merely asking the customer to recommend has an impact on word-of-mouth activity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 80-89.
    15. Zhanfei Lei & Dezhi Yin & Han Zhang, 2021. "Focus Within or On Others: The Impact of Reviewers’ Attentional Focus on Review Helpfulness," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 801-819, September.
    16. Dieter K. Tscheulin & Bernd Helmig, 1999. "Zur Effizienz verschiedener Ausgestaltungsformen vergleichender Werbung — Internationale Rechtslage, „State-of-the-art” und Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 550-578, June.
    17. Johannes Knoll & Jörg Matthes, 2017. "The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements: a meta-analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 55-75, January.
    18. van Reijmersdal, Eva A. & Rozendaal, Esther & Hudders, Liselot & Vanwesenbeeck, Ini & Cauberghe, Veroline & van Berlo, Zeph M.C., 2020. "Effects of Disclosing Influencer Marketing in Videos: An Eye Tracking Study Among Children in Early Adolescence," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 94-106.
    19. Yasir Rashid, Muhammad Zeeshan, 2018. "Customer Attitude towards Online Ads of Smartphone Brands: A Netnographic Analysis of User Generated Comments on YouTube," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 5(2), pages 40-64, October.
    20. Selma Kadić-Maglajlić & Maja Arslanagić-Kalajdžić & Milena Micevski & Nina Michaelidou & Ekaterina Nemkova, 2017. "Controversial Advert Perceptions in SNS Advertising: The Role of Ethical Judgement and Religious Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 249-265, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:84:y:2018:i:c:p:233-242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.