COMPARATIVE AND NONCOMPARATIVE ADVERTISING - ATTITUDINAL EFFECTS UNDER COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE INVOLVEMENT CONDITIONS

This study compares effectiveness of comparative and noncomparative ad vertising for products characterized by different levels of cognitive and affective involvement. Comparative advertisements induce more posi tive brand attitudes for products which elicit cognitive and affective motivations simultaneously. This happens because brand comparisons fa cilitate an attribute-based processing style which might otherwise suc cumb to the competing affective involvement. Noncomparative attribute- based ads yield more favorable attitudes toward the ad when affective involvement is high than when it is low. Comparative ads are also show n to positively influence brand switchers and have a negative impact o n consumers loyal to competing brands.