How Effective is Comparison Advertising for Stimulating Brand Recall?

The Information Content of Comparative Magazine Advertisements

“…Murphy and Amundsen (21) concluded that a noncomparative appeal is more effective than a comparative appeal for new brands competing with a dominant brand. This finding tends to contradict Jain and Hackleman (14) and Prasad (22) that suggest the comparative format as a means for promoting less-well-known brands. Shimp and Dyer (26) asserted that noncomparative ads facilitated greater recall of copy points and were perceived as more believable, truthful, and informative.…”

“…Pride, Lamb and Pletcher (24) concluded that comparisons of moderate intensity were more effective than those of strong intensity for owners of the brand being compared with the advertised brand. Jain and Hackleman (14) found that comparative ads facilitate recall of the advertised brand as well as of the competitive brand. This finding is supportive of Prasad (22).…”

The Effects of Comparative Advertising on Attention, Memory, and Purchase Intentions

“…Or, consumers may forget which brand was superior as a result of memory decay and/or retroactive inhibition. Yet another drawback is that ads making direct comparative claims might increase top-of-mind awareness of the comparison brands (Jain and Hackleman 1978). The more frequently and recently consumers have been exposed to the name of a comparison brand, the stronger the memory trace and the greater the likelihood that it will be retrieved.…”

“…What these researchers may have implicitly assumed was that comparative advertising influences brand sales via its effects on subjects' cognitive responses, brand beliefs, and/or attitudes, not via its effects on attention or memory. However, comparative advertising might enhance brand sales because it is more attention getting (Murphy and Amundsen 1981;Prasad 1976) and/or it might detract from brand sales because consumers cannot remember which brand was being advertised (Jain and Hackleman 1978;Levine 1976). If attention and memory are critical in the hierarchy of comparative advertising effects (Lavidge and Steiner 1961), the fact that these variables were inflated in most prior studies may also partially explain why few effects on purchase intentions were observed.…”

The potential of inoculation in promoting resistance to the effectiveness of comparative advertising messages

“…Companies can ignore the competitor's.attack, a more plausible option during the nineteen-seventies, when the consensus of research on the relative effectiveness of comparative advertising as opposed to noncomparative or "Brand X" advertising indicated little, if any, differences (Etgar & Goodwin, 1978;Golden, 1974Golden, , 1979Goodwin & Etgar, 1980;Jain & Hackleman, 1978;Mazis, 1976;Sheluga & Jacobby, 1978;Shimp & Dyer, 1978;Wilson, 1976), revealed 26 Communication Quarterly, Vol. 40, No.…”