Effects of Comparative Advertising: Moderating Role of Attribute Typicality and Commitment

Abstract

The topic of this paper is comparative advertising. According to a large body of research, the effectiveness of comparative advertising is equivocal. Researchers have examined the role of variables such as market share of the advertised or comparison brand and prepurchase attribute verifiability as moderators influencing the effectiveness of comparative advertising. We propose that brand attribute typicality and brand commitment moderate the effects of comparative versus noncomparative ads on brand attitudes. Employing perspectives from the literatures on typicality and commitment, we propose that among consumers committed to the comparison brand, a noncomparative ad will be more persuasive when the attribute under consideration is typical, while both types of ads (comparative and noncomparative) will be equally effective for atypical attributes. Among non-committed subjects, a comparative ad will be more persuasive than a noncomparative ad when the attributes are typical and atypical, with the effect being stronger in the former case. We further use the theoretical anchor of similarity to propose that commitment to a third brand moderates the above effects. We embody these speculations in a set of formal propositions that could be tested empirically. The propositions are listed below.