Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [23]
Print ads with a USP resulted in better recall. Our WAPB analysis found 18 pairs of print ads in which one ad described a USP while the other ad did not. For example, an American Express card that offered “Global Assist—a new emergency referral service for the exclusive use of American Express card members” had much better recall than another AMEX card ad that did not describe a USP. Recall for ads with USPs was 1.43 times better than for the other ads.
Our analysis of quasi-experimental data on print ads also supports the value of using a USP that could not be claimed by other brands:
Print ads with a real USP resulted in better recall than only a “common” USP. Our WAPB analysis found 27 pairs of print ads in which one ad described an actual USP while the other ad claimed a USP that could also have been claimed by other products. An ad for Norland Bone Desensitometer that said “Unique design of the scanner allows scans anywhere on the surface of the table, and at any angle. Your patient does not move, the scanner arm does …. No other system offers this feature” had a recall thrice that for another Norland ad that based its USP on “an uncommon concern for quality.” On average, recall for ads with USPs was 1.43 times better than for the ads using a common USP. Thus, the use of a real USP had about twice the recall of ads that did not mention a USP.
Indirect evidence was obtained from 101 Korean undergraduate students in a lab experiment on the related topic of “brand differentiation.” They viewed ten Korean TV commercials with a brand-differentiating message and ten without such a message. Purchase intentions were substantially higher for the former (Taylor, Wilson and Miracle 1994).
Analyses of non-experimental data on TV commercials support this principle indirectly. Stanton and Burke (1998) found that the second most important element in persuasion was a “brand-differentiating message.” TV commercials with “brand-differentiating messages” scored much better on recall and persuasion (Stewart and Furse 1986; Stewart and Koslow 1989). Finally, commercials coded as —“completely different from what other brands say”—scored 16 percent better on recall and 17 percent higher on persuasion (Walker 2008).
1.2. News
News provides one of the best ways to persuade. Some advertisers believe this to the extent that they claim news even when there is none.
Does it help to proclaim news when there is no real news? While ads touting news are more likely to attract attention, I have found no evidence that they are persuasive if the news is not real.
1.2.1. Provide news, but only if it is real
There are many opportunities to provide real news—new or improved products, price reductions, greater ease of purchase, or faster service to name a few. News is especially persuasive when it relates to benefits that customers perceive to be important. Ads claiming news when there is no real news might annoy customers, especially when they are advertising high-involvement products.
Many ads claim to have news. For example, almost half of TV commercials by leading firms announce news (Walker 2008; Stewart and Furse 1986)
However, advertisers often claim news when there is no real substantive news. Our WAPB analysis found that while 28 percent of the 480 full-page print ads claimed to have news, only 59 percent of these contained real news. Real news, then, appeared in only 16 percent of all the ads.
When you have news, put it early in an ad. For example, start with words like, “Introducing,” “Announcing,” “New,” or “Finally.” This is common practice. For example, our WAPB analysis found that of the full-page magazine ads with real news, 85 percent put the news in the headline.
Evidence on the value of real news
In experiments conducted between 1982 and 1988, some households received TV commercials relating to new products, while matched households watching the same programs saw commercials relating to existing products. The amount of money spent on advertising was then increased in some geographical areas and reduced in others.