A COMPARISON OF ADVERTISING CONTENT - BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS VERSUS CONSUMER SERVICES

Several studies have investigated differences between goods and servic es advertisements, but no research has examined differences between bu siness-to-business serv ices advertising and consumer services adverti sing. The authors use the content analysis method to investigate diffe rences in several message elements in the context of the two types of services advertisements. In their sample of 186 advertisements, 91 ads were for business-to-business services and 95 were for consumer servi ces. The specific message elements evaluated were message appeal, head line usage, price information, quality claims, and the inclusion of an Internet address. The findings indicate significant differences betwe en business-to-business and consumer services advertisements in the ty pes of message appeals used.