THE SALIENCE OF MARKETING STIMULI An Incongruity-Salience Hypothesis on Consumer Awareness

Transcription

1 THE SALIENCE OF MARKETING STIMULI An Incongruity-Salience Hypothesis on Consumer Awareness

2 THE SALIENCE OF MARKETING STIMULI An Incongruity-Salience Hypothesis on Consumer Awareness by GIANLUIGI GUIDO, Ph.D. (University of Cambridge, England) University of Lecce, Italy and University of Padua, Italy... " Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Copyright «) 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publisher in 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 2001 AII rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Printed on acidjree pa per.

4 Contents List of Figures xi List of Tables xiii Preface... xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCEPT OF SALIENCE PROBLEM DEFINITION Calls for Consumer Research on Salience Problem Areas A NEW MODEL OF SALIENCE Purpose and Scope Potential Contributions Research Report Format Content of Chapter Two Content of Chapter Three Content of Chapter Four CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF PERCEPTION-BASED DEFINITIONS OF SALIENCE THE NATURE OF CONSUMER PERCEPTION Perception and Consumer Information Processing Breaking down the process of perception A model of information processing Social vs. Non-Social Stimuli PROMINENCE Salience as Prominence Taylor and Fiske's Definition of Salience SALIENCE IN AN IMMEDIATE CONTEXT The Principle of Figure-Ground Figurality and Salience... 25

5 3.3 Factors Dominating the Sensory Field and Salience Contextual Novelty and Salience The von Restorff effect SALIENCE IN A LARGER CONTEXT The Principle ofunusuality Statistical Novelty and Salience Unexpectancy and Salience Top-of-the-head phenomenon Incongruity Effects of Expectations Techniques to improve unexpectancy Out-of-Role Behaviors and Salience Negativity and Salience Extremity and Salience MOTIVATIONAL FORMS OF SALIENCE The Principle ofinvolvement Instructions to Attend to a Stimulus and Salience The inhibition effect on memory Personal Goal-Relevance and Salience SUMMARy CHAPTER 3: A MODEL OF INCONGRUITY-SALIENCE AXIOMS Axiom One: Salience Is Different From Its Effect Axiom Two: Salience Depends on the Context Axiom Three: Salience Depends on Perceivers PROPOSITIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Proposition One: A Stimulus Is In-Salient when It Is Incongruent in a Certain Context with a Perceiver's Schema A The Stimulus Stimulus cues vs. information cues l.2 Cue normalizing and cue resisting Moderate incongruity B The Context C Schemata Characteristics of schemata Personal and modal schemata VI

6 2.1.6 Types of schemata Instantiation Information congruity theory Spreading activation The concept of salience in attitude research Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of reasoned action Modalities offreeelicitation tecniques Fazio's Process model Proposition Two: In-Salience Affects Attention and Interpretation A Criticism to the Figure-Ground Principle as an Explanation of Salience Perception of in-salience is not innate In-salience requires maintaining attention Involvement is a moderator of insalience B The In-Salience Hypothesis as an Explanation of Salience The role of context The role of schemata Proposition Three: In-Salience Is a Distinct Construct from Activation, Accessibility, and Availability The role of activation The role of accessibility The role of availability Proposition Four: Relevance Is the Crucial Moderating Variable that Links In-Salience to Re-Salience Different types of attention The meaning of personal relevance The Re-salience hypothesis Attribute relevance vs. attribute importance Top-down vs. bottom-up processes A reconciliation between communication theories VB

7 2.5 Implications: In-Salience Generates Consumer Awareness Retrievability in memory of in-salient vs. non-in-salient stimuli Salience effect as a retrieval bias Measures of awareness Hierarchy of effects An empirical test of in-salience CHAPTER 4: CONSUMER AWARENESS OF PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS MESSAGE IN-SALIENCE IN PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS: EFFECTS ON CONSUMER PROCESSING AND MEMORY Research Objectives Hypotheses Experimental Level One Experimental Level Two Experimental Level Three Experimental Level Four Summary of hypotheses METHOD Research Design A Part One' Measurement of Brand Schemata Measurement procedures Brand image as brand personality Procedure Results and discussion B Part Two' Effects ofin-salient Ad Messages on Consumer Awareness Experimental design Subjects Procedure Ad development pretests Attribute selection Claim development Independent variables Message in-salience Ad exposure time Schema activation Time of measurement V111

8 Relevance level Measurement of dependent variables Top-oi-mind recall Free recall The scoring system RESULTS Manipulation Check Data Analysis Study One: The roles of in-salience, ad exposure time, and schema activation Study Two: The role of memory decay and relevance DISCUSSION General Discussion Experimental Level One Experimental Level Two Experimental Level Three Experimental Level Four Implications Theoretical implications Marketing implications Limitations Threats to internal validity Threats to external validity Other limitations Future Research Involvement and media effects Advertisement complexity Attitudes and persuasion CONCLUSIONS References Index IX

9 List of Figures Figure 1. A Model of Perception and Consumer Information Processing Figure 2. An Incongruity-Salience Hypothesis Figure 3. A Possible Network Model of Memory for Ferrari Figure 4. Overview of Attention and Interpretation Figure 5. The Hierarchy of Effects ModeL Figure 6. Network Model of Memory for Opel Figure 7. Network Model of Memory for Manetti & Roberts Bath Foam Figure 8. Network Model of Memory for Sip Mobile Phone Service... " 197 Figure 9. In-salient Test Ad Figure 10. Non-in-salient Test Ad

10 List of Tables Table 1. Stages of Perception in Consumer Behavior Table 2. Categories of Salient Stimuli Table 3. A Dichotic Theory of Salience Table 4. Subjects and Attribute Lists Table 5. Relevant Attributes in Description of Consumers' Image for Opel Automobiles Table 6. Relevant Attributes in Description of Consumers' Image for Manetti & Roberts Bath Foam... ; Table 7. Relevant Attributes in Description of Consumers' Image for Sip Mobile Phone Service Table 8. Experimental Design Table 9. Ad Orders Table 10. Manipulation Check: Ad Message In-salience Scores (t-test of Means) Table 11. Means across Ad Exposure Time and Schema Activation: Summated Recall Scores Table 12. Study One: Repeated Measures ANOV A - Top-of-Mind Recall Table 13. Study One: Repeated Measures ANOV A - Free Recall Table 14. Top-of-Mind Recall: In-salience X Ad Exposure Time Interaction and Simple Effects Table 15. Free Recall: In-salience X Ad Exposure Time Interaction and Simple Effects Table 16. Top-of-Mind Recall: In-salience X Schema Activation Interaction and Simple Effects Table 17. Free Recall: In-salience X Schema Activation Interaction and Simple Effects Table 18. Study Two: Repeated Measures ANOVA - Top-of-Mind Recall Table 19. Study Two: Repeated Measures ANOV A - Free Recall Table 20. Top-of-Mind Recall: In-salience X Time of Measurement Interaction and Simple Effects Table 21. Free Recall: In-salience X Time of Measurement Interaction and Simple Effects Table 22. Free Recall: In-salience X Relevance Level Interaction and Simple Effects under Immediate Memory Conditions

11 Table 23. Free Recall: In-salience X Relevance Level Interaction and Simple Effects under Delayed Memory Conditions Xlv

12 Preface The Incongruity-salience model presented here thoroughly for the first time is part of a wider Dichotic theory of salience, implemented in marketing settings, according to which the salience of marketing stimuli (e.g., advertisements, products, brands) is due either to a contextual incongruity with perceivers' schemata or to a contextual congruity with their personal goals. The research work produced for this book focuses on the salience triggered by external physical stimuli - like all marketing stimuli are, before being internalized by consumers - to explain and predict the conditions under which a marketing stimulus is able to achieve its communication outcomes in terms of processing and memory. When considering the cluttered environment in which consumers live and the expensive budgets of advertising campaigns, it becomes apparent how the problem of obtaining and maintaining consumers' attention is not merely academic, but rather requires a complete understanding by marketers and advertisers of the theoretical antecedents and moderators of the consumers' information processing. The Dichotic theory of salience, in general, and the Incongruity-salience hypothesis, in particular, are metaphors to approximate and interpret the cognitive processes of individuals: By putting together two streams of research, regarding salience and incongruity, they allow us to explore in greater depth the nature of consumer perceptions and the processing of complex marketing communications. This book provides, together with an articulated theoretical discussion of the model, its implementation in an advertising setting to show operatively how it works. Moreover, a selected bibliography based on a rich review of more than 1,200 studies dealing - both directly and indirectly - with the concept of salience, can advise the reader where to turn if deciding to go deep into the topic. Although this work, with its possible omissions and mistakes, is attributable solely to myself, its writing has benefited from the advice and suggestions of many distinguished persons that I wish to thank. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Nicholas O'Shaughnessy of the Judge Institute of Management Studies (JIMS) at the University of Cambridge, England, where I started my studies on salience while working on my Ph.D. dissertation. He was very supportive in

13 encouraging me to pursue consumer research, thus allowing me to be the first Doctor of Philosophy to graduate with a marketing major in such a historical Institution. I also would like to thank Prof. John O'Shaughnessy, Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University, now in Cambridge, for the invaluable comments he generously offered to me in an epistolary exchange which had a tremendous impact on the initial stage of my research process, and Professor John Child, former Director of Research at the JIMS, for his helpful comments concerning earlier versions of the project. I am also primarily indebted to Professor Gian Vittorio Caprara of the Department of Psychology at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza," Italy, where I carried out the experimental studies reported in this book. Since I was a student of his, ten years ago, at the University of California - Los Angeles, he has brought to my attention some crucial problems in social cognitive psychology which were fundamental in the development of my following research addressing both the field of marketing and the field of consumer psychology. His insights into various conceptual issues of the present research were indispensable, and our common studies in the field of brand personality provided me with the backbone for the experiments presented in this book. Furthermore, I wish to thank Prof. Claudio Barbaranelli of the Department of Psychology at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza," Italy, who is to me a "cornerstone" in the field of research methodologies. His mathematical and statistical expertise was extremely important in helping me with a number of issues in the data analysis reported in Chapter Four of this research. During the last few years, I have had the opportunity to carry out brief, but fruitful periods of research in many prestigious universities. Apart from the expertise I gained from both a teaching and a research perspective, I had stimulating conversations with Professors Joan Meyers-Levy and Jacob Hornik at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago, and - when the model of in-salience was only an idea - with Professors Lydia Price and Niraj Dawar at INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France. In Italy, I received continuous support to my research from Professor Riccardo Varaldo at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Professor Franco Fontana at LUISS University in Rome, and Professor Luciano Pilotti of the University of Padua. The clues that their intelligent talks transfused were hopefully captured and included in this work. The last version of this book was completed when I was visiting researcher at the Marketing Department of the University of Florida at Gainesville. There I had the chance to meet personally those who are to me the most exceptional personalities in consumer research today. Among these marvelous academicians, I wish to thank Professor Richard Lutz, for his XVI

14 encouragement and friendly support for this research; Professor Joe Alba for his bibliographic references kindly shared with me; and, last but not least, Professor Chris Janiszewski for his acute suggestions on the potential applications of my theory. Furthermore, lowe very special thanks to Dr Maria Grazia Guido, who happens to be my sister, for the long discussions aimed at clarifying or challenging many points in the various versions of this text. The differentiation between the force and the effect of salience (cf. Chapter Three, Axiom Three) comes directly from her. She also assisted me in many capacities, including serving as a pre-tester, a coder, and a proofreader. From an operative and editorial perspective - equally important for the success of this project - an essential support was provided by Ms. Ann Reater of the British Library in London in the finding of the review material, and by the whole personnel of the Experimental Psychology Library at the University of Cambridge. The same support I found at Kluwer Academic Publishers in Mr. Allard Winterink, senior publishing editor, whose continuous assistance was instrumental in helping me complete the writing of the manuscript and, at the University of Lecce, in Ms. Susan Perry for her careful work of proofreading. This research was partially funded by a grant of the British Council (Ref. ROMl2280/2(93/94)) and the experiments reported in Part One, Chapter Four, were conducted with the material contribution of the McCann Erickson Company, Italy. I wish to acknowledge their help. To all these gracious people, to my family, and to my students, whose efforts were "salient" to me, this book is dedicated. Gianluigi Guido, M.LB.A., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Int.l Marketing University of Lecce, Italy XVll