Materialistic Cue Effects in Print Advertising 

Introduction 

Materialism is conceptualized in the buyer behavior literature as either a consumer trait (Belk 1984, 1985) or a consumer value (Richins and Dawson 1992).  It is used to describe advertising as well.  Belk and Pollay (1985) define materialistic advertising as one that emphasizes luxury, prestige, and pleasure seeking, while Sirgy and Lee (1998) refer to the content of television (i.e. both program content and advertising) as being materialistic.

It is important to study the representation of materialistic values in advertising because these values often become institutionalized in a particular culture and ultimately affect society as a whole.  Advertising as a carrier of cultural values, plays a major role in the mass media, thus giving it far more universal influence than other institutions. Because materialism has been cited as one of the most prevalent Western values leading to over-consumption (Zinkhan 1994), unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life (Belk 1984, 1985; Dawson and Bamossy 1991; Richins 1987; Richins and Dawson 1992) and lower ethical consumer standards (Muncy and Eastman 1998), the impact of materialistic advertising cues is of importance to advertisers, public policy makers, and those embracing the social responsibility component of marketing.

  The present study examines the effects of materialistic elements in an ad on consumer judgments and evaluations.  Specifically, this study employs a well-grounded paradigm in social psychology, assimilation and contrast, to examine the context effects induced by simultaneously presenting a context with a target product.  The similarity between the background setting context and the target product information in the ad is manipulated.  We define similarity as the perceived distance between ad elements, (i.e., product information and ad background setting) along the materialism dimension.   Similarity is manipulated experimentally and its effects are captured using consumers as subjects.  The next section provides a review of context effects in advertising.

Context Effects

Childers and Houston (1984) suggest that the image of a product is created by the incidental cues that appear in the setting of an ad.  An automobile parked in front of a large brick home with a brick driveway provides the automobile with a prestigious or luxurious image.  This image is quite different from one created by a mountainous setting for the same car.  In this latter case, the setting imbues the qualities of ruggedness and durability upon the car.

Advertisers use contextual cues to create the theme and/or imagery of an advertisement.  In print advertising, color (Gorn et al. 1997), odors (Ellen and Bone 1998), verbal cues (Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1993), celebrity endorsements (Sengupta, Goodstein and Boninger 1997), and brand name cues (Sengupta, Goodstein and Boninger 1997) have all been found to affect information processing and print advertising effectiveness.

More relevant to this study are investigations of the pictorial, or visual cues in print advertisements that are often found in the background setting of an ad.  Numerous studies have investigated the effects of these visual cues in print ads (Childers, Heckler, and Houston 1986; Childers and Houston 1984; Edell and Staelin 1983; Gardner and Houston 1986; Heckler and Childers 1992; Kisielius and Sternthal 1984; Lutz and Lutz 1977; Miniard et al. 1991; Mitchell and Olson 1981; Shimp, Urbany, and Camlin 1988; Stafford 1996; and Starch 1966). The impact of individual pictures or picture/word combinations have been found to offer value to an advertiser in terms of attention-getting power, comprehension, and ultimately facilitating recall.

A contextual cue can be presented prior to or together with a product stimulus.  The former relies on the priming technique, while the latter approach may utilize an information-processing paradigm, such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty and Cacioppo 1981, 1986).  Research in social psychology has substantiated that the presentation of a stimulus (i.e., prime) can affect the interpretation of a subsequent stimulus (Wyer and Srull 1989). As in Yi's studies (1990, 1993), it is often a verbal prime as well as verbal components of an advertisement that are used in context effect research.  However, Schmitt (1994) investigates priming effects on the visual components of an ad.  This research concludes that visual elements of an ad are subject to priming effects, much like that of verbal components.  A prime provides an interpretive framework for visual ad stimuli.  Subjects, depending on the primed context, give different interpretations of the same pictorial element.

Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993) state that context effect research would be of greater practical importance if context effects were shown to occur when a single contextual cue is presented as part of the target object message.  This approach and finding would suggest that context effects could be subject to strategic control by the advertiser's selection of message context.  Therefore, the present research investigates context effects when the target product information and the ad context are presented together, providing external validity for context effects.

The ELM allows for the examination of central and peripheral elements in an ad when both sets are presented simultaneously.   Central elements are message cues that evoke cognitive responses and are of central importance to the advertised product, while peripheral cues generally evoke emotional responses.  Advertisers incorporate central and peripheral elements in ads and executions to capture the attentions of consumers and aid them in their comprehension of the advertisement.  (See Petty and Cacioppo, 1986 for an excellent review of their findings.)  The ELM examines the effects of individual elements and not similarity among them, thus is not appropriate for our study.

Our study examines the effect of similarity between visual materialistic product information and materialistic background cues.  The assimilation/contrast framework has previously been used to explain the effect of similarity between a context and a target in an ad (Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1993).  Our study also relies on this framework to explain the effects of the distance between an advertised product (i.e., target) and its

background setting (i.e., context) in the ad.  The following provides a review of this framework, leading to the central hypothesis of our study. 

Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis

Assimilation/Contrast

Social Judgment Theory suggests that judgments or attitudes toward a stimulus are affected by the context within which it is being evaluated (Sherif and Hovland 1961).  In other words, a stimulus is judged not only by its own characteristics, but also by accompanying stimuli (Sherman, Ahlm, and Berman 1978).  

Research demonstrates that large discrepancies between context and target stimuli produce contrast effects, while resemblance between the context and target produces assimilation effects (Herr 1989; Herr, Sherman, and Fazio 1983; Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1993; Sherif and Hovland 1961).  A contrast effect occurs when one's judgment of a target stimulus is in the direction opposite the context, while an assimilation effect occurs when the judgment of the social stimulus moves toward the context. 

Previous research has examined the conditions under which assimilation and contrast outcomes occur.  One aspect of assimilation/contrast effects is explained by the utilization of cognitive effort (Martin, Seta, and Crelia 1990).  Contrast effects require more cognitive effort and involve a greater magnitude in the movement of the judgment process than assimilation.  This condition has been tested using consumers' needs for cognition (Martin, Seta, and Crelia 1990) and cognitive styles (Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1993).

Assimilation/contrast outcomes are also dictated by the amount of similarity between the target stimulus and the context within which it is judged (Herr, Sherman, and Fazio 1983).  The greater the amount of similarity the more likely assimilation will occur, while little similarity between the context and target stimulus fosters a situation for contrast effects. 

In an advertising study, Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993) examined the impact of similarity between a context and a target in the processing of an advertised object.  The contextual cues and the target were presented simultaneously in the ad.  The ad served to introduce a new restaurant as the target stimulus and the mention of the name of the previous tenant as the contextual cue.  The high similarity condition was operationalized by indicating that the previous occupant was a restaurant, while low similarity was represented by the previous occupant being a clothing store.  The image of both the restaurant and clothing store was also manipulated with regard to the casualness of each (e.g., a fine French restaurant versus a fast-food restaurant).  The authors also examined the impact of subjects' cognitive styles.  Thus, the experimental procedures yielded a three-factor design.  The difference between high/low experimental conditions was captured in judgments, evaluations, cognitive responses, and recall measures.  One hundred and forty nine subjects participated in this study.  Results indicated that in a high

similarity condition (i.e., when the target and context were both restaurants), judgments of the advertised restaurant were in line with the context; while a low similarity condition resulted in judgments in the opposite direction of the context.  In other words, when the location of the new restaurant was being compared to that of a previous clothing store (i.e., low similarity), judgments regarding the casualness of the restaurant were in the opposite direction of the casualness of the previous clothing store, resulting in contrast. Furthermore results indicated that subjects in high similarity conditions produced more favorable evaluations of the new restaurant than in low similarity conditions.

Hypothesis   

Based on relevant literature, it is expected in the present study when the ad background and the target product information are similar, assimilation will occur; while if the background and the target information are dissimilar, contrast effects will be the realized outcome.  In the present study, similarity is operationalized along the materialism dimension. Specifically the presence/absence of materialistic notions in the background of an ad and the presence/absence of materialistic qualities of a product, allow for the manipulation of different degrees of similarity.  Thus, the following central hypothesis emerges:

H1: When there is similarity (dissimilarity) between the target product information in an ad and the ad's background context on the materialism construct, assimilation (contrast) will occur. 

Contrast processes have been found to require greater cognitive processing and generate more exaggerated judgments away from a given context (Martin, Seta, and Crelia 1990). Thus, movements in judgments of the target stimulus are expected to be greater in cases where contrast is anticipated and less in assimilation conditions. 

Therefore,

H1a: The magnitude of the movement in judgments is expected to be greater in contrast conditions than assimilation conditions. 

Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993) state that assimilation processes generate more favorable associations and ultimately more favorable evaluations than conditions that foster contrast processes.  Thus, it is expected that high similarity with regard to materialistic qualities between the target product information and the background context in a print ad will produce more favorable evaluations of the product, features, and the overall ad itself.  This suggests,

H1b:  More favorable evaluations will occur in assimilation conditions than contrast conditions. 

Based on attitude-behavior consistency studies (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975), it is expected that in conditions where there are more favorable evaluations, purchase intentions will also be more positive.

H1c:  More positive purchase intentions are to be formed in assimilation conditions than contrast conditions.

Method

Paralleling the work of Sherif and Hovland (1961), Herr, Sherman, and Fazio (1983), Herr (1989), and Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993), this study examines the impact of similarity between an ad background and the target product on producing assimilation and contrast effects. These effects are tested using subjects' judgments, evaluations, and purchase intentions as dependent measures.

Experimental Stimuli

The present research uses materialistic ad elements as a means for operationalizing the impact of contextual cue effects in print advertising.  This is an appropriate operationalization of similarity effects because materialism is commonly used in advertising.  Thus, it provides the stimulus with external validity.

Product.  An automobile ad was created as the advertising stimulus.  Previous context effect research has stated that it is important to use a product class that is of interest to subjects in the experiment, as well as one that lends itself to several permissible interpretations (Yi 1993).  Furthermore, other assimilation/context effect research has also used this product category (Herr 1989).

Pretesting.  Similarity can be defined in terms of an advertised target product and its context (i.e., ad setting).  A stimulus ad is high on similarity when the target and its context are both high or both low in materialistic appeals.  By the same token, if the target is high (low) on materialistic appeals and the context is low (high) on materialistic appeals, the overall ad corresponds to a low similarity condition. 

Pretests were conducted to identify automobiles and ad backgrounds with high or low materialistic appeals.  Consultation with Consumer Reports and other authoritative sources on automobiles generated a listing of 10 different styles of cars (e.g., 4-door sedan, station wagon, 2-door mid-size, and sports car), and 20 automobile features (e.g., exterior finish, performance, fuel economy, and driver seating) that could be used to obtain perceptions of the materialistic nature associated with each. 

Forty-nine students from an undergraduate marketing course participated in the pretest survey.  The survey asked subjects to rate automobile style on a 7-point scale (1 = "a car that would be purchased by a person who is unconcerned with image and possessions" to 7 = "a car that would be purchased by a person who is concerned with image and possessions").  Additionally, the participants were asked to rate the 20 car features using

a 7-point scale (1 = "a feature that would be important to a person unconcerned with image and possessions" to 7 = "a feature that would be important to a person who is concerned with image and possessions").  Results from this pretest indicated that a 2-door sports car best represented a materialistic automobile (mean = 6.59, std. dev.= .64), while a station wagon was viewed as the most nonmaterialistic (mean = 1.39, std. dev.= .67).  While these styles may not be the most popular styles in the market today, the pretest suggested that they are good indicators of materialistic/nonmaterialistic automobiles and therefore provide clear experimental manipulations.  In addition, style was rated as the feature that would most likely be important to a materialist (mean = 6.33, std. dev. = .90), whereas economic value was judged as the most nonmaterialistic-like feature (mean = 2.71, std. dev.= 1.84). 

A second portion the pretest instrument contained questions on ad backgrounds.  A thorough review of automobile advertisements provided a list of common backgrounds used in automobile advertisements (e.g., golf course, field, white sandy beach).  Subjects rated 11 ad background descriptions using a 7-point scale (1 = "a location where you might find a person who is unconcerned with image and possessions" to 7 = "a location where you might find a person who is concerned with image and possessions").  The subjects indicated that a polo match would most likely be a place where you might find a person who is concerned with image and possessions (mean = 6.45, std. dev. = 1.0), while a campground was a place that represented a nonmaterialist's preference in locations (mean = 2.16, std. dev.= 1.12).

Because similarity between the product and the ad background is the key experimental variable, a second pretest was conducted to measure the perceived similarity between the automobiles selected in the pretest - 2-door sport car and station wagon; and selected ad backgrounds - polo match and campground.  Forty undergraduate marketing students participated in the second pretest.  Based on the results of the first pretest that provided information regarding perceptions of materialistic/nonmaterialistic cars and backgrounds, four-color ads were developed for the four combinations of product and background.  Subjects were asked to indicate how well matched the product was to the background of the ad (1 = extremely unmatched to 6 = extremely well matched).  Subjects perceived a greater amount of similarity in the sport car/polo match combination (mean = 4.58, std. dev. = 1.60) than with the sport car/campground (mean= 2.50, std. dev. = 1.75).  The station wagon/campground achieved a higher similarity score (mean = 3.62, std. dev. = 1.27) than the same car with polo match background (mean = 2.50, std. dev. = 1.39).

While context effect research often uses the priming paradigm (Yi 1993, 1990), Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993) state that context effect research would have greater managerial implications by presenting a context and target together simultaneously, and then comparing the judgments produced by this presentation to a context-free judgment.  A context-free judgment of an advertised product is one that is obtained in the absence of the experimental context and serves to provide a comparison anchor for context-dependent judgments.  Thus, in the present study the context and the target are presented simultaneously, and the movements in judgment are defined as the difference between context-dependent and context-free judgments of a target stimulus.  Two sets of measures

(i.e., context-free measures and context-dependent measures) are gathered in order to capture any movement in judgment. 

A preliminary study was conducted in order to provide the context-free judgment of the advertised automobiles, product features and backgrounds.  Differences in movements in judgment could then be examined across experimental conditions.  Context dependent judgments are to be obtained in the main experiment.  Any movement in judgments in the direction of the context-free judgments would indicate an assimilation effect, while movements away from the context-free responses indicate contrast.

The third pretest was conducted with 40 consumer volunteers.  The color ads used in the second pretest were dissected in order to obtain judgments on each of the individual ad elements.  Each participant was asked to judge the 2-door sports car and station wagon separately.  As in Herr, Sherman, and Fazio (1983), and Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993), several judgment measures were used.  A three-item, 9-point semantic scale was used (high/low prestige, expensive/inexpensive, extremely materialistic/extremely nonmaterialistic).  The participants were also requested to provide judgments on the automobile features.  Subjects were provided with separate pictures of the ad backgrounds and were asked to use the same three-item measure to judge the two background settings.

Responses to the three-item judgment measure from the pretest were summed for the product, features and background settings. Results are found in Table 1.  As expected, the 2-door sports car (Pm) was judged as more materialistic than the station wagon (Pnm) (p .001).  Similarly, the materialistic features of the car (Fm) received more materialistic judgments than the nonmaterialistic features (Fnm) (p .001).  Finally, the polo match activity (Cm) was judged as more materialistic than the camping activity (Cnm) (p .001).  Thus, the ads were deemed appropriate for use in the experimental study.

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Table 1 about here

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Experimental Design and Subjects

A two-by-two factorial experiment was used for this study.  The factors are materialistic/nonmaterialistic product (Pm/Pnm) and materialistic/nonmaterialistic background context (Cm/Cnm).  Thus, the high similarity conditions reside in the Pm/Cm and  Pnm/Cnm cells. 

Participants consisted of a total of 104 consumers intercepted at a Midwestern, suburban shopping mall.  This pool was comprised of 50 men and 54 women.  The mean age was 39.40.  Approximately 82% of the sample was white Americans.  Various occupations were represented by this sample.  Specifically, 41% were professionals, 19% were

employed as skilled laborers, 5% held secretarial positions, 3% were unskilled laborers, 12% were retired, and the remainder was students or unemployed individuals.  The mean annual household income was $40,270.  Approximately one half of the sample was single, while 41% was married, 10% was divorced, and 2% were widowed.

Dependent Measures

Judgments.   The same nine-point, three-item scale used in the pretest was used in the main experiment (i.e., high/low prestige, expensive/inexpensive, extremely materialistic/extremely nonmaterialistic), to measure subjects' judgments of the product and the product features advertised in the ad (i.e., the context-dependent judgments).  The items were summed to produce overall judgment scores for the product ( = .61) and product features ( = .69).   

Evaluations.  Evaluations of the product, product features, and the advertisement itself were measured using Chatterjee's (1997) three-item, bi-polar scale anchored by values of 1 (bad, unsatisfactory, and unfavorable) and 9 (good, satisfactory, and favorable).  Items were summed in order to obtain overall evaluation scores for the product ( = .69), features ( = .77), and the ad ( = .89).    

Purchase Intentions.  Purchase intention was measured using a single, seven-point semantic differential scale, ranging from 1 (not likely at all) to 7 (very likely) (MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch 1986).  Due to the expensive nature of the experimental product, subjects were specifically asked to indicate their intention "if money is not an obstacle."

Procedure

In the main experiment, participants were recruited via a mall intercept format at a Midwestern, suburban shopping mall on six different days.  The mall intercept was conducted on both weekend and weekdays, during day and evening hours.  The mall management provided an open space with two tables and approximately 10 chairs.  Two researchers administered the experimental sessions.

The researchers indicated to the mall patrons that they must be at least 18 years of age and be willing to spend 20-30 minutes to participate.  They were reminded that their participation would aid in an academic research project and were offered a free instant lottery ticket as an incentive for participation.  Random assignment was utilized.  As the subjects were recruited, random numbers were selected and assigned to treatments.  The treatments were then assigned to subjects as they were seated in the experimental setting. 

Subjects were given two booklets, (1) an Advertisement Booklet, and (2) a Survey Booklet.  The Advertisement Booklet contained a brief overview of the purpose of the study, a consent form, and an advertisement.  They were instructed by the researchers to carefully read the purpose of the study, spend a few minutes viewing the ad, and then put the advertisement booklet aside.  The Advertisement Booklet contained one of the four

stimuli consisting of a hypothetical product within the context of the ad background.  After they closed the Advertisement Booklet, they were instructed to open the Survey Booklet and answer the questions as "honestly and accurately" as possible.  The Survey Booklet first asked subjects to rate the automobile in terms of the judgment and evaluation measures, followed by their intention to purchase the car.  Next they were asked to rate the features of the car.  Demographic questions such as age, occupation, education level, average household income, gender, marital status, and race concluded the survey.  At the end of the experimental session, an administrator collected the booklets.  At this time, each subject was debriefed, thanked for their participation, given their participation incentive, and released.

Results

Assimilation and contrast effects are measured and captured in the judgment, evaluation and purchase intention measures.  Results are summarized in accordance to the proposed hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1a.  Previous research supports the notion that contrast effects require greater cognitive effort and occur when a target stimulus and a context are dissimilar.  Conversely, assimilation requires very little cognitive effort and occurs when a high degree of similarity exists between a target and a context.  We use the magnitude of the movement in judgments to determine whether assimilation or contrast occurred.

In our experiment, the judgment scores of the target stimuli were taken in the presence of ad backgrounds (i.e., a context dependent situation).  Using the context-dependent judgment scores from each subject in the experiment and the average context-free judgment scores from the pretest, we computed the magnitude of the change in judgment in the following way:

Change in judgment =   |CDPi - CFB| / CFB

where CDPi =context-dependent product judgment for subject i,

CFB = average context-free background judgment.

For example, a subject in the Pm/Cm condition with a product judgment score of approximately 21.00 would produce a difference score of 21.0-20.51= .49.  See Table 1 for the context-free judgments. Since the average context-free scores are different for the two types of background, inserting these averages as the denominator in the above equation removes this source of variation.  In our illustration, the change in magnitude will be |21.0-20.51|/20.51 = .024.  See Table 2 for the context-dependent judgments.

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Table 2 about here

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The magnitude of the change in judgments of the target product from the context-free judgment to the context-dependent judgment was found to be greater in the low similarity conditions.  In the materialistic context conditions (Cm), judgments of a materialistic car (Pm) changed by an average of  .146 as compared to .274 for a nonmaterialistic car (Pnm).  The difference in these two averages was significant at p .001.  It is concluded that contrast effects have occurred in the low similarity condition, while assimilation is inferred from the movements in the high similarity condition.  In the Cnm conditions, the average change in judgment for Pm was .969, as compared to .681 for Pnm.  The difference in these averages was statistically significant at p .008, providing evidence of contrast and assimilation effects.  

Judgments of the target product features mentioned in the ad also suggest contrast effects in low similarity conditions, and assimilation effects in high similarity conditions.  In the Cm conditions, judgment of materialistic features changed on average by .139 as compared to .244 as observed for nonmaterialistic features, indicating assimilation and contrast effects respectively.  This difference was significant at p .008.  The average change in judgment of the materialistic features presented with Cnm was 1.01, and only  .560 for the nonmaterialistic features (p .001).  Again, the greater magnitude in the movement in judgment for the materialistic product with the nonmaterialistic background suggests contrast effects, while assimilation can be inferred with the nonmaterialistic product with the nonmaterialistic background.  Overall, these results lend support for Hypothesis 1a that greater magnitudes in the change in judgments are found in a contrast condition than in assimilation conditions.  See Table 3 for a summary of these results.

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Table 3 about here

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Hypothesis 1b.  Previous research supports the notion that more favorable evaluations result when the target and context are similar (Meyers-Levy and Sternthal 1993).  In the present study, it was posited that the advertised automobile and its features, as well as the ad itself, would receive more favorable evaluations when the product information was similar to the ad's background with regard to materialistic orientations, rather than dissimilar. 

As shown in Table 4, average evaluation scores of the product were 18.17 for high similarity ads versus 15.56 in the low similarity conditions (p .04).  Furthermore, evaluations of the product features were more favorable for high similarity ads than in low similarity ads (18.29 versus 17.38).  However these results were not statistically significant.  Again, subjects reported average evaluations of 16.69 for the overall ad evaluation in high similarity conditions and 14.37 for the ad with low similarity (p .036).  Thus, these results lend overall support for Hypothesis 1b.

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Table 4 about here

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Hypothesis 1c.  Subjects reported purchase intentions of 4.21 in high similarity conditions versus 3.38 in low similarity conditions (p .03; see Table 4).  Thus, the prediction that assimilation conditions would foster more positive purchase intentions than contrast conditions is supported.

Collectively, the empirical evidence found in the study lends overall support for Hypothesis 1.  This hypothesis stated that in conditions where there is a high degree of similarity between a context and a target, assimilation will occur; while in conditions where there is low similarity, contrast is the anticipated outcome.  Subjects' changes in judgment from a context-free situation to a context-dependent situation provide support for the conclusion that assimilation and contrast effects in judgments have occurred.  Subjects' evaluations also supported the notion that assimilation effects produce more favorable evaluations than contrast contextual effects.  Finally, the hypothesis (H1c) that more positive purchase intentions will result from assimilation conditions was fully supported.

Discussion

Previous context effect research has relied heavily on the ELM framework and the priming paradigm to examine the effects of individual contextual cues on the processing of ad information.  However, print ads are designed in such a way that contextual cues and product information are combined to create imagery and meaning. For this reason the present study takes a practical approach to context effect research by investigating the impact of the combination of the context and target.  This was accomplished by manipulating the degree of similarity between the context and the target of a print ad along the materialism dimension.  This effect was captured in consumer judgments and evaluations of the product and the ad itself, as well as consumer purchase intentions.    

Advertising has been cited as a powerful carrier of consumer values.  In fact, Pollay (1983) states, "while there are many institutions that carry out value transmission, such as family, church, military, courts, universities, etc., there is good reason to pay particularly close attention to advertising as a carrier of cultural values" (p. 73).  It is also known that advertising carries materialistic ideals via luxuries and prestigious appeals (Belk and Pollay 1985; Pollay 1986, 1987).  Because materialism is so pervasive in advertising today, it was deemed appropriate and interesting to examine context effects with materialistic/nonmaterialistic images in advertising.

This study has two major implications important to advertisers, academicians, and public policy makers.  First, the results of this experiment support the notion that the amount of similarity illustrated between an advertised product and the ad background context affects

judgments, evaluations, and purchase intentions of an advertised product, as well as judgments and evaluations of the advertisement itself.  Thus, creative directors can affect judgments and evaluations of an advertised product by manipulating the levels of similarity/dissimilarity between the product and the background context.  It is important to remember that assimilation effects took place under both materialistic and non-materialistic product conditions and ultimately fostered more favorable product evaluations and more positive purchase intentions. Thus, despite the attention-getting effect of incongruencies that are often used as advertising tactics, advertisers should be well advised to create background settings that are perceived to be similar in image to the product being advertised in order to foster favorable evaluations of the advertised product.  Results of this study suggest that the selection of creatives, an important aspect of ad development and execution, should not be based on attention-getting power and aesthetics alone.

Previous research has suggested that materialistic communication negatively affects consumer perceptions of quality of life, leading them to engage in materialistic consumption (Mittal 1994; Sirgy and Lee 1998; Zinkhan 1994).  It is with this notion that the present study utilized product and ad representations of materialistic values in order to assess whether consumers perceive similarity/dissimilarity between various ad elements along the materialism dimension.  Results suggest that consumers do indeed judge the materialistic nature of products and ads, and use these judgments in their evaluation processes.  Thus, if consumers use materialism as a way to judge and evaluate products, there is a need for future research to investigate advertising's role in the production of the materialistic values of society.

As in any study of this nature, limitations may compromise the generalizability of the results.  Specific limitations involve the type of product used, the specific ads that were used, as well as the sample.  This study was conducted in a relatively high-involvement situation (e.g., automobiles and print advertising).  Results of the study may not be readily generalizable to other product categories, other types of advertising mediums, and to other populations.  Therefore findings should be interpreted with caution.  However, the testing of these effects with other product categories and advertising vehicles (television advertising, internet advertising, etc.) would serve as interesting future research avenues and would gain external validity for this research stream.

This study extends executional cue research by employing the assimilation/contrast paradigm to model the "fit" between advertised product information and background setting along the materialism dimension.  However, it is expected that these effects would be much the same along other dimensions as well (e.g., quality).  Future research should test these effects using other attributes of products and advertising in order to further our knowledge about the robustness of these effects within this paradigm.

The context of advertising is experiencing revolutionary changes.  Technology has brought about new ways of creating and disseminating persuasive messages.  Product information mixed with entertainment and interactivity is the future of marketing communications.  The meanings of products will continue to be conveyed via contexts. 

Academicians and advertising practitioners must continue to study the ways in which consumers process the contexts that accompany product information. With the proliferation of brands, consumers need to find differentiation among them.  Contextual cues provide assistance to consumers for making consumer judgments and evaluations among similar brands. This may have major implications for marketers trying to establish or change the position of a product in the marketplace along various dimensions.  It is quite possible that changing the background of print ads is just as effective and perhaps more cost efficient in changing a product's position, than changing the product's price, package design, or entire promotional campaign. 

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Table 1

Judgments In Context-Free Pretest Study

n = 40

Dependent Measures       Mean

  

Judgments   

Product Judgments       

Materialistic Product  22.02  

Nonmaterialistic Product 12.62  (t = 2.82, p .001)

Feature Judgments       

Materialistic Product  22.56  

Nonmaterialistic Product 12.29  (t = 2.71, p .001)

Background Judgments      

Materialistic Context  20.51  

Nonmaterialistic Context   9.84  (t = 3.62, p .001)  

Note :  Means are the summed value of a three-item measure.  Respondents used a nine-point scale where 9 represented the positive end of the scale

 

Table 2

Judgments In Context-Dependent Main Study

n = 104

Dependent Measures       Mean

Judgments   

Product Judgments       

Materialistic Product/Materialistic Context  20.81  

Materialistic Product /Nonmaterialistic Context 19.23  

Nonmaterialistic Product/Materialistic Context 15.15  

Nonmaterialistic Product/Nonmaterialistic Context 16.54  

(F = 12.33, p .001)

Feature Judgments       

Materialistic Product/Materialistic Context  21.62  

Materialistic Product /Nonmaterialistic Context 19.54  

Nonmaterialistic Product/Materialistic Context 15.54  

Nonmaterialistic Product/Nonmaterialistic Context 15.35            (F = 17.02, p .001)  

 

Table 3

Independent Sample T-Test Results For Change in Judgments

n = 104  

Dependent Measures    Mean

Change in Judgments

Product Judgments in Cm Conditions

Materialistic Product  .146    

Nonmaterialistic Product .274  (t = -3.769, p .001)

Product Judgments in Cnm Conditions

Materialistic Product  .969    

Nonmaterialistic Product .681  (t = 2.760, p .008)

Feature Judgments in Cm Conditions

Materialistic Features  .139

Nonmaterialistic Features .244  (t = -2.746, p .008)

Feature Judgments in Cnm Conditions

Materialistic Features  1.01

Nonmaterialistic Features   .56  (t = 4.109, p .001) 

Table 4

 

Independent Sample T-Test Results For Evaluation And

Purchase Intention Measures 

High Similarity Vs. Low Similarity Conditions

n = 104

Dependent Measures    Mean

Evaluations   

Product Evaluations       

High Similarity  18.17  

Low Similarity  15.56  (t = 2.09, p .04)

Feature Evaluations       

High Similarity  18.29  

Low Similarity  17.38  (t = 1.08, p = n.s.)

 

Ad Evaluations           High Similarity  16.69  

Low Similarity  14.37  (t = 2.13, p .04) 

Purchase Intention        

High Similarity    4.21  

Low Similarity    3.38  (t = 2.21, p .03)