Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [94]
5.10.2. Negative innuendoes are effective when there is one major competitor and total demand is of little interest
Negative innuendoes are less prone to counter-arguing than direct statements, but they can lead to negative associations about the product category, and thus harm overall demand.
The ideal application of negative innuendoes is politics, where the concern is market share—that is, the percentage of votes. Unsurprisingly, then, innuendoes are often used to challenge competitors in political campaigns. An ad might ask whether it is true that the opponent is an alcoholic. A particularly sly approach is, “I do not believe that Senator Smith has abused his wife.”
Another approach is to raise a hypothetical question such as, “Would you vote for Governor Jones if you learned that he embezzled funds?”
Evidence on the effects of negative innuendos
A lab experiment on newspaper headlines during an election period found that innuendoes framed as questions were as persuasive as those framed as statements. In addition, both were persuasive compared with neutral headlines (Wegner et al. 1981).
Lab experiments involving over 600 subjects found that the use of negative hypothetical questions affected voters’ choices of political candidates. Similar findings were obtained for customers’ choices of products (Fitzsimons and Shiv 2001).
5.11. Customer involvement
When baiting a trap with cheese, always leave room for the mouse.
Howard Gossage, noted advertiser, 1960s
Ads that involve the customer can help persuade, especially when the arguments for the product are strong. Advertisers with weak arguments are likely to have little use for the principles in this section.
Involvement can build on the commitment principle: ”If I am doing this, I must be interested in the product.” Consider this study on involvement: Under the guise of testing headphones, some subjects were asked to hold their heads steady at all times, others to shake them back and forth at all times, and still others to shake them up and down as they listened to messages about increasing (or reducing) tuition. Subjects who were shaking their head up and down were more likely to agree with the message than those not shaking their head, and were much more likely to agree than those shaking their head horizontally (Wells and Petty 1980).
Can you give one good reason why people should buy Persuasive Advertising?
5.11.1. If good reasons can easily be generated, ask customers to provide a few reasons for accepting an offer
We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found
ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.
Pascal, mid-1600s
In 2002, to encourage active involvement, the Manchester Evening News in the United Kingdom developed a campaign claiming that its “want ads” could provide people with better jobs. Its black-and yellow ads posted around the city each depicted a day in the life of an unsatisfied office worker. The ads contained yellow blanks to encourage people to think about what text they would insert into an ad. Many people scrawled their interpretations on the posters. People’s perception of the “Jobs section” improved and sales of the Evening News rose. The campaign won an IPA Effectiveness Award (Rimini 2003).
An ad might ask questions that encourage customers to convince themselves that purchasing a product is a good idea. The reasons they generate will be based on their own motivations and interests. This technique is designed for situations in which it is easy to think of answers. It is effective even when customers do not explicitly provide reasons; they can be convinced just by imagining how easy it would be to come up with reasons.
This principle of involving customers could also be used for negative advertising. For example, “Can you think of one reason why you should not vote for Jones?”
First Direct, a U.K. Internet bank, misused this principle in ads in which it tried to