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When it comes to logos,
Henderson says consumers
tend to like and remember
those that are more
concrete than abstract. For
example, General Mills’
Green Giant and Arm
& Hammer’s bulging
bicep have been hits with
consumers for decades. Symbols like
triangles, on the other hand, are
more easily forgotten,
she says.
“Car logos are notoriously
bad,” Henderson
says. “They don’t mean
anything.”
She adds, “Not that we want a
bunch of logos with big guys wearing
leaves.” Some of the most successful
logos are simple drawings of
recognizable objects, such
as the World Wildlife Fund’s
black-and-white panda
symbol, Henderson says.
“People love that,” she
says. “It’s graphical. There’s
not too much detail.”
Yearning for yesterday
Recent research by Department of
Marketing chair Darrel Muehling
and CB associate professor David
Sprott sheds light on a popular
advertising trend: the use of nostalgic
themes.
In their 2004 study “The Power of
Reflection: An Empirical Examination
of Nostalgia Advertising Effects,”
the duo commented that it’s no
coincidence that advertisers are
reminding consumers to return to
their pasts during a time when people
are “uncertain and anxious about
the future.” They note that many of
today’s ads feature the styles, scenes,
and characters—including Mr. T and
ALF—popular in the 1960s, 1970s,
and 1980s.
Muehling says it’s not so important
who the characters are, just that they
conjure memories of a time gone by.
“ALF may not be what you were
thinking about” when consumers
watch the ad, he says. “You might
be thinking about how old you were
when ALF was popular…ALF puts you
back to a certain time.”
As part of the 2004
study, Muehling and Sprott
presented research subjects
with two fictitious print
advertisements for Kodak
film. Both ads showed a
photo of a group of boys
wearing football jerseys
smiling at the camera in a back yard.
The nostalgic version of the ad reads,
“Re-Live the Moment. Last Day of
Summer. August 28, 1985.” The
other ad reads “Capture the Moment.
August 28, 2001.”
The nostalgic ad roused more
memory-related comments from the
subjects. They wrote “reminds me of
being a kid,” “brings back memories
to the last day of summer,” and
“goofing around was so much fun.”
The study found that the nostalgiathemed
advertisements stir more
favorable consumer attitudes toward
both the ads and the brands over ads
that don’t remind consumers of the
past. Gender and age had no influence
on those findings.
So why wouldn’t every company
use nostalgia in their advertising? For
one, nostalgia themes are just one
of hundreds of ad executions from
which to choose, Muehling says.
Additionally, nostalgic ads rouse
negative thoughts as well as positive
ones. They portray yesteryear
through rose-colored glasses, and
“consumers may strongly desire to
return to their pasts, but realize that
this cannot occur,” the study says.
Through further research, Muehling
hopes to learn why nostalgic advertising
works more effectively on some
people than others and to determine
whether it’s more appropriate for
some products versus others.
Reaching skeptical
consumers
Some of the hardest consumers to
reach are those who distrust advertising
claims. CB dean and marketing
professor Eric Spangenberg,
along with Seattle University’s Carl
Obermiller and the University of
Washington’s Douglas MacLachlan,
found skeptical consumers are
more responsive to ads that strike
an emotional chord rather than
ads riddled with product
information.
Their study, “Ad Skepticism:
The Consequences of
Disbelief,” was published
in the Journal of Advertising
in 2005. Fifty-four subjects,
whose skepticism levels
were rated using a scale developed
by Spangenberg and Obermiller in
1998, were shown eight television
commercials. Four commercials were
considered emotional, such as an
Ernest & Julio Gallo wine ad that
showed a family atmosphere at a
winery. The other four were informational
appeals, such as an ad for Joy
dishwashing liquid that described
how the product removes baked-on
foods.
The study found that both the
highly skeptical and less skeptical
subjects responded better to the emotional
appeals, despite the common
perception that consumers think
emotional ads are manipulative.
“The important point about
skepticism is not that it doesn’t occur
or exist, but that it occurs or exists
at varying levels across people,” says
Spangenberg, who previously studied
what types of people are more or less
skeptical than others.
A particular consumer’s level
of skepticism has to do with how
much experience they have with
advertising, not necessarily how well
educated they are. A study in the
16 WSU College of Business