Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness

Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness

The Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann article Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement (1983) discusses the study they conducted on how different types of features in advertising effect people with high or low involvement towards the product. They were keen on finding out what impact would central and peripheral manipulations have on different types of consumers. The study indicates that the quality of arguments presented in the ad are more important in high involvement situations whereas the nature of the product endorser had a greater impact on people with low involvement.

The authors state that even if the informational content of ads is important to especially high involvement consumers the peripheral contents may still play an important role in convincing the consumer. Pictures of celebrity status persons linked to the product might, for example, draw attention to the ad and make the ad more likable or even add to the reliability gained by the strong arguments presented. On the other hand, the study suggests that in low involvement cases the celebrity status of the product endorser is a very potent determinant of attitudes about the product. This is something that puzzles me a bit; how do these consumers make their evaluations based on the amount of information they gain from peripheral cues. Could it be that consumers with low involvement towards a certain product are so uninterested in the product attributes and so unwilling to spend any time in evaluating the actual product that they are willing to make judgments on it based on recommendations by celebrities? In that case, would toothpaste with Eva Longoria on the ad be considered to be more effective than toothpaste recommended by Cameron Diaz, since they both have beautiful white teeth to smile with? Moreover, if one would prefer Eva Longoria over Cameron Diaz as a whole but thought Diaz has a more beautiful smile, would she still be inclined to purchase the brand represented by Longoria?

REFERENCES

Petty, R., Cacioppo, J., Schumann, D. 1983. Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement. Journal of Consumer Research. Sep 1983; 10, 2.