With Women’s Hands：Effects of Mental Simulation and Social Comparison Mechanisms in Print Advertising

• Main Authors: Yu-Ting Chiang, 江育亭
• Other Authors: Min-Hsin Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7433u2

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 企業管理學系研究所 === 103 === What kind of advertisements can break the siege and capture the hearts of customers in the competitive markets？ Previous studies indicate if customers can imagine interacting with the product in their mind, their purchase intentions towards the product will increase. “Visual depiction” is one of the methods which can induce consumers to form the mental simulation; when the product handle is oriented toward consumer’s dominant hand (hereafter designated as action-fit), it will elicit more simulation of using the product. However, except for the product, models occur commonly in the ads in our lives. In recent years, there is more criticism for the pressure on women which comes from the upward social comparison caused by highly attractive models. Thus, some companies have changed their endorsers to using average-looking or obese models. However, there are still few studies analyzing the impact of models’ occurence and physical attractiveness on “Visual Depiction Effect”. As to the related research of social comparison, there are also few studies exploring the function of the portrait completeness of the model. Therefore, this study combines mental simulaton and social comparison, exploring how the visual depiction of products as well as the portrait completeness and the attractiveness of ad models influence advertising effectiveness through the mechanisms of mental simulation and social comparison. There are seven hypotheses proposed in this study. A 2 (product types) x 2 (visual product depictions) x 2 (model’s physical attractiveness) x 2 (model’s portrait completeness) between-subjects factorial experiment was conducted. Additionally, another four experimental groups (no model’s portrait) were added. The experiment results reveal the following. (1) Action-fit increases consumers’ mental simulation and ad-effect responses in specific conditions. (2) If the portrait completeness of the ad model is low, or there is no model in the ad, both conditions generate more mental simulation and improve ads effects than does the condition that the portrait completeness of the ad model is high. However, if the portrait completeness of the model is high, the degree of social comparison increases. (3) When the model in the ad is highly attractive, it would elicit consumers’ upward social comparison and therefore result in negative impact on moods and ad effects. However, if the model is lowly attractive, it not only induces downward social comparison but also worsens consumers’ mood and ad effects. (4) High completeness (vs. low completeness) of model portrait would strengthen upward social comparison toward the highly-attractive model and further worsen consumers’ moods and ad-effect responses. (5) If the portrait completeness of the model is low, a highly-attractive model (vs. a lowly-attractive one) would strengthen the positive impact of action-fit on ad effects. This study makes theoretical contribution to the related studies on mental simulation and social comparison. It also offers practical suggestions on the use of visual product depictions to improve ad effects and how to choose correct ad models.