What makes an ad enjoyable? Analysing advertising appeals as viewed by Portuguese consumers

Nowadays, consumers are faced with a variety of media that convey myriad advertising messages, which struggle amidst a highly competitive environment, with a view to drawing the viewers’ attention, raising awareness, creating interest and inspiring desire and, ultimately, leading to the purchase of the product/service at stake. For this, advertising professionals deliberately intertwine their selling arguments with emotionally-charged creative concepts. It is the aim of this study to analyse the impact of the main creative appeals and to identify groups of consumers based on their attitudes towards them. We have undertaken a quantitative study, by means of a survey administered to a convenience sample with a list of creative appeals, which had to be classified by the respondents according to their attitudes. Globally speaking, the preferred appeals were humour, music and animation. Nonetheless, it was possible to divide the respondents into three groups. ‘Advertising fans’, the ‘rationally-minded’ and the ‘emotionally-minded’. This study presents some limitations, especially as to the sample used. Apart from the reduced number of respondents and lack of more widespread geographic reach, some academic qualifications were underrepresented. The results of this study offer some avenues to be explored by marketing and advertising professionals when it comes to deciding on the best creative approach to select for their advertising campaigns. Besides, this study paves the way to the development of future research on the issue of advertising appeals and its relationship with the psychographic characteristics of consumers.

La tardía emergencia mediática de la vacuna contra la viruela, cobertura de noticias en prensa española (1999-2004)

Introducción. Las discusiones sobre la necesidad de conservación del virus de la viruela en 1999 pusieron de actualidad una enfermedad erradicada veinte años atrás. El escenario de alarma internacional creado tras los incidentes del 11-S en EE.UU vino a resituar a la viruela como potencial candidata para ser utilizada como arma bioterrorista. La consecuencia directa fue la reactivación de una vacuna que permanecía en el olvido y cuyos destinatarios iniciales eran los cuerpos de seguridad estadounidenses. España también se interesó por adquirir la vacuna antivariólica. El objetivo de este estudio es valorar la cobertura mediática que la viruela obtuvo en nuestro país. Métodos. Revisión sistemática en la base documental Dow Jones Factiva de las noticias publicadas durante el periodo 1999-2004 en los cuatro diarios de mayor tirada nacional (ABC, El Mundo, El País y La Vanguardia), utilizando como palabra clave “viruela”. Se efectuó un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de los datos obtenidos. Resultados. Se analizaron 416 noticias. El Mundo, con un total de 158 (37.98%), fue el diario con más publicaciones. El mayor número de noticias (152, 36,5%) se editaron en 2003, coincidiendo con la adquisición de vacunas por España. El tipo de mensajes emitidos fue variable a lo largo del sexenio, predominando los relacionados con “diplomacia y política”, “riesgo epidemiológico”, “bioterrorismo” y “vacuna”, concentrados en años diferentes. Conclusiones. La alarma creada en torno a la vacunación antivariólica fue un fenómeno mediático que obedeció a cuestiones de estrategia política más que a un problema real de salud pública.

Gender portrayals in food commercials: a content analysis of Spanish television advertisements

Content analysis of media messages from a gender perspective has a long tradition. In the particular field of advertising, most of the researches have been focused on generic samples of advertisements or on the advertising traditionally associated to a masculine or a feminine audience. However, few authors have analyzed gender contents in food advertising, in spite of the close relationship between gender structures and the social processes of food purchase and preparation. Thus, gender representations in food advertising broadcast in Spanish television are analyzed in this article. The main results obtained show clear gender differences. For example, there is a clear predominance of masculine voices over and a more balanced situation regarding protagonists. Besides, feminine protagonists are more frequently located indoors, portrayed as attractive women and connected to advertising claims related to beauty or to the healthy qualities of the product.

The impact of the internet on the pricing strategies of the European low cost airlines

This study seeks to analyse the price determination of low cost airlines in Europe and the effect that Internet has on this strategy. The outcomes obtained reveal that both users and companies benefit from the use of ICTs in the purchase and sale of airline tickets: the Internet allows consumers to increase their bargaining power comparing different airlines and choosing the most competitive flight, while companies can easily check the behaviour of users to adapt their pricing strategies using internal information. More than 2500 flights of the largest European low cost airlines have been used to carry out the study. The study revealed that the most significant variables for understanding pricing strategies were the number of rivals, the behaviour of the demand and the associated costs. The results indicated that consumers should buy their tickets before 25 days prior to departure.

Differentiated effect of advertising: Joint vs. separate consumption

In a context of intense competition, cooperative advertising between firms is critical. Accordingly, the objective of this article is to analyze the potential differentiated effect of advertising on two basic consumption patterns: individual products (i.e. hotel, restaurant) vs. bundle (i.e. hotel + restaurant). This research adds to the extant literature in that, for the first time, this potential differentiated effect is examined through a hierarchical modelling framework that reflects the way people make their decisions: first, they decide whether to visit or not a region; second, whether to purchase an advertised product in that region; and third, whether to buy products together or separately at the region. The empirical analysis, applied to a sample of 11,288 individuals, shows that the influence of advertising is positive for the decisions to visit and to purchase; however, when it comes to the joint or separate consumption, advertising has a differentiated effect: its impact is much greater on the joint alternative (“hotel + restaurant”) than the separate options (“hotel” and “restaurant”). Also, the variable distance moderates the advertising effect.