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By Root 2025 0

statements. They were asked about the ease of understanding of various formats, such as, “It is estimated that by the year 2020, (a) any given American will have a probability of 0.01 of having … (b) 1 of every 100 Americans will have … (c) 1 percent of all Americans will have … or (d) 2.7 million Americans will have … been exposed to Flu strain X.” Simple frequencies (one in every hundred) and percentages were easier to understand. Supplementing this with absolute frequencies improved understanding when the numbers were not large. People had difficulty understanding probabilities or absolute frequencies involving large numbers (Brase 2002).

6.4.2. Use simple tables or graphs if you have substantial amounts of data

Tables or graphs can help to display data when you have a large amount of data. This is most relevant for still media with long copy, such as brochures or Internet sites.

Data should be organized so that the conclusion is immediately obvious. Do not expect readers to ponder its meaning. Consider the following summary: “Nearly 65 percent of the users of our brand gave us an ‘excellent rating’ versus 25 percent for Brand B, 45 percent for Brand C, and 37 percent for Brand D.”

Now organize it as a table:

User ratings on excellence

Our brand

65%

Brand B

25%

Brand C

45%

Brand D

37%

Better yet, order the table rows by the key measure (the percentages in this case) to make the conclusion obvious. Do not put redundant or irrelevant information in graphs or tables. For example, do not repeat “ %” when you can use % as a column heading.

User ratings on excellence

Brand

%

Ours

65

C

45

D

37

B

25

If the conclusions are not obvious from the data, use descriptive titles for exhibits. Titles and labels in exhibits and tables are especially helpful for low-involvement products because people may not invest the energy to draw conclusions. The same applies for fast-exposure ads because people do not have time to think about the ad. Descriptive titles for exhibits also serve as subheadings, and aid readers who are scanning for information.

Websites are ideal when there is substantial evidence to support claims. They can also allow customers to search for and organize the data. For example, Amazon. com allows users to rank books within categories by sales or by customer reviews, and airlines allow customers to organize their search in various ways, such as by price or by number of stops.

If using graphs, start from zero for ratio-scaled data; otherwise, the scale is distorted and could be misleading. Use pie charts only when obviously necessary; in other words, they should hardly ever be used. Line graphs are generally more effective than bar charts.

To help customers make comparisons, right-justify the numbers and align decimals. Tables are more attractive if they do not use lines to separate columns. Barring a need for high precision, use no more than two or three significant digits. Avoid leading zeros.

Provide a verbal summary of the graph’s important information. This helps make the information more memorable.

Evidence on the effects of graphs

This principle is based heavily on received wisdom. There is some empirical evidence on the use of graphs, and in general they offered little advantage over tables—and sometimes graphs reduced understanding (DeSanctis 1984). However, graphs can help to show trends or patterns in data (Jarvenpaa and Dickson 1988).

6.5. Customer endorsements

Endorsements have a long history in advertising. For example, in an 1884 ad for Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush, a customer said, “My hair was falling out and I was rapidly becoming bald, but since using the brush, a thick growth of hair has made its appearance.”

6.5.1. Consider endorsements by customers

In a print ad, a smiling, attractive, middle-aged woman is pictured, with her name and address and the headline, “I stopped using aspirin the day the hospital gave me Tylenol.”

To help customers identify with a “typical customer,” use only one customer