The impact of congruency and contrast on the effectiveness of happy ads

Résumé du document

Big companies have more and more interest in improving the image of their brand to increase their sales but also their profits and there are several reasons for this: According to Malinvaud, using ads enable the brand differentiate itself from its competitors, so this is for a company a way to avoid a price competition (the products are not homogeneous anymore). Thanks to globalization new opportunities are given to companies to export their products, so ads are important for companies which come in new markets, and the power of negotiation of a firm (against supermarket like Wal-Mart for instance) increases when the brand is demanded by customers, and then the company has a biggest margin room to negotiate the prices of its products. Ads became a major stake for companies and marketers try to increase the efficiency of their ads. In our study we will focus on the way to optimize the efficiency of happy ads and with this aim we will try to determinate the impact of the context (happy or sad) in which happy ads are broadcast.

Extraits

[...] P. de Pelsmacker, M. Guens, and P. Allckaert (2002), J.H. Murphy, I. Cunningham, and G.B. Wilcox (1979) dealt with this issue. They studied the impacts of the humorous ad when broadcasted in humorous programs or in contrasting programs. Both of these two researches came up with the following conclusion: congruency brings more effectiveness for humorous ads. [...]

[...] Our sequence of ads was composed of three neutral ads for a laptop created by Lenovo, for a car produced by SsangYong and for wireless services sold by AT&T and one happy ad, shown in second position. The happy ad was promoting Danish, a company that sells breakfast products, and evoked clubbing and flirting, by showing a small character entirely made of breakfast food that was dancing. In the two versions of our experiment, we broadcasted this sequence of ads in the middle of the screening of the series. We designed a questionnaire that we gave to the participants right after the end of the episodes. Every volunteer had to fill it individually. [...]

[...] But we observe a big difference in the results about the brand image. The image of the Danish firm is much better –nearly four times better- when it is watched in a Friend's episode than in a Grey's Anatomy's one. It shows in a significant way that a drama implies a worse evaluation of the brand promoted by a happy ad. Indeed, for example, Schwarz and Clore mention the “contamination” effect, proven by our experience: a sad programme “contaminate” the screen and implies quite an unfavourable evaluation of what is watched then. [...]

[...] Moreover, it seems to be a thorny issue for marketers who always try to increase the effectiveness of their ads. We deeply studied 10 articles from well-known reviews such as: Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Research, and Psychology and Marketing. The questions raised in these articles are very close to those we are trying to answer. Yet, more than clear answers, most of these articles point a finger to new parameters that enrich the research. One of the main parameters that appear as crucial for the effectiveness of the ad is the congruency and the contrast between the program and the ad. [...]

[...] As we had already mentioned, volunteers were asked to fill again the same questionnaire some time later in order to test the effectiveness of the ad and the impact of the context on it as time goes by. Results Analysis of the results concerning the noticeable spots People who watched Friends and Grey's Anatomy were pleased to write down which spots they found outstanding. For the Grey's Anatomy's episode of the people quoted Danish, and no one mentioned one of the three other ads. [...]