The Relative Effectiveness of Direct and Indirect Comparative Advertising, Message Framing and Gender on Advertising Response

Most comparative advertising research focused on the USA with limited cross-national comparisons, as comparative advertising was not allowed in most of Europe and many parts of the globe until late 1990s. With the exception of Chang (2007), little is known about gender differences in consumer perceptions of comparative advertising and less attention has been devoted to how message framing and regulatory focus theory perspectives interact with different ad types. This study contributes to the literature by examining the role of ad format (direct vs indirect comparative advertising), gender and message framing for consumer ad response in the UK, using a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial between subjects design experiment with Internet delivery. The design includes ad format (direct comparative (DCA) or indirect comparative (ICA); promotion vs prevention framed messages; male vs female respondents). Claim believability and brand beliefs are stronger for DCA than for ICA. Promotion framed messages are more effective for Direct Comparative Advertisements than indirect ones. Women had a less favorable reaction to DCA than men. This study shows that the effects of manipulations on attitude certainty do not mirror the effects on traditional outcome variables such as brand beliefs or claim believability. Future research and theoretical perspectives are provided.