Comparative advertising: Effects of concreteness and claim substantiation through reactance and activation on purchase intentions

Silke Bambauer-Sachse and Priska Heinzle

Journal of Business Research, 2018, vol. 84, issue C, 233-242

Abstract: In this paper, we examine positive (activation) and negative (reactance) effects of concrete versus non-concrete comparative advertising and the impact of claim substantiation in such comparative advertising on purchase intentions. We also analyze the moderating role of consumers' predisposition to show reactance. The results indicate that without claim substantiation, quality comparisons (less concrete) produce higher activation but also more reactance than comparisons based on intrinsic attributes (more concrete). With claim substantiation, quality comparisons still trigger higher activation, but they only trigger more reactance in consumers who have a high predisposition to show reactance. For consumers with a low predisposition to show reactance, quality comparisons trigger even less reactance than intrinsic attribute comparisons. This research enhances the theoretical understanding of processes underlying consumer reactions to comparative advertising and provides marketers with knowledge about the appropriate use of claim substantiation as well as of the comparative basis for addressing different consumer types.

Keywords: Comparative advertising; Advertising concreteness; Claim substantiation; Reactance; Activation; Purchase intention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829631730471X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:84:y:2018:i:c:p:233-242

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.025

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().