ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS OF TELEVISED MESSAGES USING APPEALS: A CASE-STUDY IN THE CHINESE CONTEXT

Abstract

Brand managers seeking for a loyal customer base need to build an emotional connection between the brand and consumers (Brady et al., 2004) particularly in a marketplace defined by heightened competition and commoditization. To the extent that advertising plays a key role in forging these bonds, there is a growing recognition that advertisers have an incomplete understanding of what it means when an emotional component is incorporated into their persuasive communication message. The present study tries to find out the preference of Chinese consumers for an emotional or rational appeal used in Television advertisements. The findings of the study emphatically proved that emotional appeals used in Television advertisements were preferred more and had a positive impact for respondent with different demographic and psychographics profiles. This was more profound among female respondents from lower age group and among respondents having achievement as their highest priority need. However, a mixed response was found for Television advertisements dominated with emotional appeals when a cross comparison was made across demographic and psychographics profile along with product life stage. In some case emotional appeal was preferred over rational appeal while rational appeal was preferred by respondents under some specific situation proving the fact that impact of appeal is situation specific. The present study hopes to provide direction to the advertising agencies in the matter of developing an appropriate ad message. This study in the Chinese context also aims to provide a cue for a proper mix of appeals in designing effective advertising messages.