Subject Area: Marketing

Topic: An Investigation of the Relationship

Between Emotional Advertisements and
Its Effectiveness

Introduction
Due to the fast technological developments, the ease of outsourcing, emergence of China as the
producer of nearly everything, gray markets, and problems in securing patents, Brands are
becoming alike. Rational Buying motives are still the most important factor for the consumers in
making purchasing decisions, but the rational differentiation including attributes and features are
no more associated with single brand. The earliest known patent related to power steering in cars
was owned by Frederick W. Lanchester in the UK in Feb. 1902. It was then Chrysler corporation
that used power steering technology for the first time commercially in 1951 in its model Chrysler
Imperial (After forty nine years). But when iphone introduced touch and sliding screen, the
competitors responded and copied in days. Brands to be successful needs differentiation, but
because of the numerous factors it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate the brand
based on attributes or features for the longer period of time. Continuous innovation is also very
important, but requires huge R&D budgets and development costs. Volvo that stands for safety
refused to install GPS systems in its cars with a stance that it will divert the attention of the
driver and will increase the risk of accidents.
Brand differentiation is the need of the time. It secure higher profit margins for the corporations,
contributes in the exports of the country, and offers the opportunity for extensions. If the
organization is successful in establishing a brand the opportunity for outsourcing is there and the
brand owner needs not to establish factories. Sara Lee Proudly claims that ‘We are asset less
company’.

It is more long lasting than the differentiation based on features and attributes, if backed by
creative advertising, utilizing numerous Medias. Brands started differentiating their selves
through emotional advertising in the late twentieth century and the focus for many brand
managers are now shifting from unique selling point to emotional selling point.

Marketers use emotional differentiation in the hope of positive feeling towards Brands and
studies shows that emotional advertising is better remembered than non emotional advertising
messages (Ogilvy, 2002). He argues that advertising headlines can be strengthened by the
addition of the words like Love, Friends, Baby and others.
Preliminary Literature Review
There are five levels of any product from chips to ships. Managing products need to focus on all
these five levels. (Kotler, 2006). For creating differentiation in the brand, these five levels can be
properly utilized. The most important one for the consumers that is the core benefit may be most
important base of differentiation especially for technical products. There are four major types of
positioning errors. The most common one is under positioning error (Kotler, 2006). To avoid
under positioning error, companies use advertising to create differentiation.

Ries (2002) argues that the analgesic sector in the pharmaceutical industry is overcrowded by
hundreds of brands, and there is no further room for another brand, that can be differentiated
through rational factor. Many analgesic brands are differentiated on the basis of fast relief, in the
analgesic sector of pharmaceutical industry. One brand tied to differentiate itself on the basis of
long lasting relief, to discover that consumers were totally not interested. The same brand might
have differentiated on the basis of emotional factor, that may be difficult, time consuming, but
possible.

Kapferer (2007) points out against keller, that focus only on the cognitions of the consumers is
not enough. Strong brand should have to be associated with emotional components.

The social value of the brand may be least tangible, but consumers around the world prefer those
brands that are socially responsible and contribute to the well being of the people and the society.
Above all consumers associate themselves as the contributor of the well being of the people and
society with the brand that stands for it (Hilton, 2007). According to the research conducted by
MORI/Environics, that selected 25000 adults in twenty three countries, revealed some very
interesting facts. According to the findings, people prefer and regard those companies that are
socially responsible in employee treatment and social commitment more than the brands that
stand for quality. 56% prefer socially responsible brands as compared to 40% that prefer
companies on the basis of quality. The task to communicate the social responsibility, employee
treatment, and social commitment of the brand largely rests on advertising that feature emotional
factors to associate the brand with the proper cause and social responsibility.

According to Gallup/ Environics study conducted for world economic forum 2003, the most
trusted institutions are Armed forces and NGOs, as compared to parliament/ congress, large
national and global companies being the least trusted. If we compared the activities, of the most
trusted and least trusted we can see the gap between the social commitments of the organizations
(emotional factor). An emotional factor again contributes to the preferences of the consumers.
For consumer preferences, emotional factors indirectly are important factors for consumers.

According to another survey by Fourth Edelman, about the most trusted brand in the United
States, 69% consumers voted for Johnson and Johnson as compared to 13% for HSBC. Johnson
and Johnson is famous for its differentiation techniques based on emotional factors.

(Brymer, 2002), associate the brand on two ranks: Objective and Subjective ranks. Brymer,
associate objective range based on financial, tangible and rational basis. And Subjective rank he
associate with Emotive, Perceived and Personal basis. According to Brymer, Subjective basis is
becoming more and more common in the purchase decision of the consumers when it comes to
the purchase decision.

Objective of the Study

The above review of literature suggests that advertisements based on emotional appeals are more
effective in influencing consumer Behavior. This study attempts to empirically examine the
relationship between emotional ads and its effectiveness in Pakistan which is a developing
country. The main objective of the study therefore is to:

To examine whether advertisements based on emotional appeals are more effective than the
other factors such as rational advertisements and others.

Emotional ads will serve as dependent variable and effectiveness of the ads will serve as
independent variables. Advertising effectiveness will be measured through Recall, (Aided and
forced recall), Buying intensions, and brand perception.

Research Methodology
To achieve the objective of the study the following methodology will be used:

The data will be collected in three consecutive steps:

1. Focus group session will be arranged for the selection of the print advertisements. The
panel members will include the representative of the advertising agencies, rand managers,
and consumers.
2. In the second step, consumers will be exposed to the selected advertisements, for the
purpose of DAR experimental test, that will proceed in the following step.
3. The sample group that is exposed to the advertisement will be contacted Day After, for
their recall ability of the advertisements. In this step the advertisements messages and
appeals will also be classified in aided and forced recalls. These two different categories
of the ads will be linked with the purchase intentions of the sample audience.
References:

1. Brymer, C. (2003), What Makes Brand Great, Brands and Branding, London, Profile
books.
2. Kapferer, J. Noel, The New Strategic Brand Management, 4th ed, London, Kogan Page.
3. Kotler, P. (2006), Ten Deadly Marketing Sins, India, S.P. Printers.
4. Kotler, P. & Keller, K. Lane (2006), Marketing management, 12ed, New Jersey, Printice
hall.
5. Ogilvy, D (1988), Confessions of an advertising man, New York, Atheneum.
6. Ries, A. & Ries, L. A. (2005), War in the Board room, New York, Harper Collins.