Journal of Marketing Communications

ISSN: 1352-7266 (Print) 1466-4445 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjmc20

Advertising for New and Existing Brands:

The Impact of Media Context and Type of
Advertisement
Wim Janssens & Patrick De Pelsmacker
To cite this article: Wim Janssens & Patrick De Pelsmacker (2005) Advertising for New and
Existing Brands: The Impact of Media Context and Type of Advertisement, Journal of Marketing
Communications, 11:2, 113-128, DOI: 10.1080/1352726042000306847
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1352726042000306847

Published online: 17 Feb 2007.

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Date: 24 January 2016, At: 23:36

Journal of Marketing Communications,

Vol. 11, No. 2, 113128, June 2005

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Advertising for New and Existing Brands:

The Impact of Media Context and Type
of Advertisement
WIM JANSSENS & PATRICK DE PELSMACKER
Universiteit Antwerpen, Faculteit Toegepaste Economische Wetenschappen, Antwerp, Belgium

ABSTRACT The effects of advertisement and context type on the responses to advertisements
for different brands of new and existing products were tested. In the first experiment (243
graduate students) a positive emotional advertisement and a non-emotional advertisement for a
well-known and a new brand of printer were tested in a positive emotional context and a nonemotional media context. In the second experiment (206 graduate students) positive emotional
and non-emotional advertisements for new brands of watches and healthy drinks were tested in an
emotional and a non-emotional context. The type of context moderated the responses to
advertisements for the well-known and new products: a positive emotional context led to a more
positive attitude towards the advertisement and the brand and purchase intention for the wellknown brand than for the new brand. A non-emotional context led to more positive responses for
the new brand than for the well-known brand. In general, emotional advertisements led to more
positive affective reactions and non-emotional advertisements led to more positive cognitive
reactions. However, the type of advertisement did not have a moderating effect on the responses
to advertising for the new or well-known brands or different product types. The studies illustrated
the relevance of media context for advertising new versus existing products.
KEY WORDS: Advertising effectiveness, media context effects, advertisement type effects, new
brands

Introduction
The effects of the characteristics of advertising stimuli on responses to advertisements
are well documented. More particularly, the impact of (positive) emotional and nonemotional (rational) appeals has been extensively studied (Weinberger and Gulas,
1992; LaTour and Henthorne, 1994; De Pelsmacker and Geuens, 1996; De
Pelsmacker et al., 2002). Advertisements can be classified according to their main
focus (cognition or affect) (Swaminathan et al., 1996). In this respect, emotional
advertisements can be defined as advertisements serving mainly to elicit affective
Correspondence Address: Patrick De Pelsmacker, Universiteit Antwerpen, Faculteit Toegepaste
Economische Wetenschappen, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium; Email: patrick.depelsmacker@
ua.ac.be
1352-7266 Print/1466-4445 Online/05/02011316 # 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/1352726042000306847

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W. Janssens & P. De Pelsmacker

responses (Aaker and Stayman, 1992). Most emotional advertisements contain

positive emotional appeals. Non-emotional or rational messages, on the other hand,
can be defined as containing features, practical details and verifiable, factually
relevant cues that can serve as evaluative criteria (Puto and Wells, 1984; Belch and
Belch, 1998). Most studies have indicated that positive emotional appeals lead to
more positive advertisement and brand responses in general, although cognitive
reactions to advertisements are more positively affected by non-emotional
advertising appeals than by emotional ones (De Pelsmacker et al., 1998). Media
context can be defined as the characteristics of the content of the medium in which
an advertisement is inserted (e.g. among articles in a magazine) as the individuals
who are exposed to it perceive them. Although some studies have not found any
effect of context on advertising effectiveness (e.g. Derks and Arora, 1993), Perry et al.
(1997) found that some types of context may be more supportive for some
advertisements than others. This is attributed to the priming principle (Herr, 1989;
Yi, 1990, 1993; Lee and Sternthal, 1999; Lynch and Stipp, 1999): a specific context can
serve as a primer to make consumers more susceptible to a certain advertisement, as a
result of which the advertisement is processed more intensively. Advertisements that are
relevant for or congruent with the mood of a subject at that moment may be more easily
accessed and processed. This effect is called the mood congruencyaccessibility
hypothesis (Goldberg and Gorn, 1987; Perry et al., 1997).
The types of advertisements and media contexts can make certain needs more
salient and can also stimulate the motivation to pay attention to the product in the
advertisement (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; MacInnis and Jaworski, 1989). The link
between type of advertisement and product type has been studied in some studies
(Weinberger and Campbell, 1991; Alden and Hoyer, 1993). For instance,
Chattopadhyay and Basu (1990) and Weinberger and Gulas (1992) concluded that
the use of humorous appeals was more effective for existing products and/or when
there was already a favourable attitude towards the brand. However, overall only a
limited number of studies have focused upon the interaction effects between product
types on the one hand and advertisement and context types on the other.
The objective of this study was to explore the impact of the type of advertisement
(positive emotional versus non-emotional) and context type (emotional versus nonemotional) on the responses of consumers to advertisements. Two experiments were
conducted. In the first one advertisements for a well-known and a new brand of
printer were compared. In the second experiment advertisements for a new brand of
watch and a new healthy drink brand were studied. More particularly, the interaction
effects between type of advertisement and context type on the one hand and newness
of the brand on the other were investigated in the first experiment. The interaction
between advertisement and context types on the one hand and the type of new
products (food and durable) on the other hand were studied in the second experiment.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Experiment 1
In the first experiment positive emotional and non-emotional advertisements for a
new and an existing brand of printer were shown in positive emotional and

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115

non-emotional media contexts. As far as the main effects of advertisement and

context type and newness of the brand are concerned, it could be expected that
advertising an existing and well-known brand would lead to a more favourable
attitude towards the advertisement and the brand and a more positive purchase
intention than advertising a new brand. Furthermore, positive emotional advertising
in general could be expected to lead to more positive affective responses and less
positive cognitive responses than non-emotional advertisements (De Pelsmacker and
Geuens, 1996; De Pelsmacker et al., 1998). As far as media context is concerned, the
expected effect is unclear. On the one hand, a positive emotional context could be
expected to lead to more positive responses (Perry et al., 1997; De Pelsmacker et al.,
2002). On the other hand, a printer is a relatively non-emotional product. As a
result, the similarity between a non-emotional context and a non-emotional product
might lead to more positive responses (Yi, 1990, 1993; Perry et al., 1997;
De Pelsmacker et al., 2002). Possibly the two context effects could counterbalance
one another. This leads to the following hypotheses.
H1: Advertisements for a well-known brand lead to more positive attitudes
towards the advertisement and the brand and to more positive purchase
intentions than advertisements for a new brand.
H2: Positive emotional advertising stimuli lead to more positive feelings
towards the advertisement than non-emotional stimuli. Non-emotional
stimuli lead to more positive cognitive responses towards the advertisement than positive emotional stimuli.
H3: The attitude towards advertisements and brands and the purchase
intention do not differ between positive emotional and non-emotional
media contexts.
Chattopadhyay and Basu (1990) and Weinberger and Gulas (1992) found that a
particular type of emotional appeal (humour) resulted in more favourable responses
in the case of existing products, while this was not the case for new brands. Indeed, it
can be assumed that consumers are more interested in rational, objective product
information when they do not know the product. In the case of an existing and wellknown brand, a positive emotional message might be more effective in supporting
the brand. The consumer is not so much interested in learning about the brand and
the involvement with the brand is less explicit. In these circumstances, inducing a
good feeling by means of positive emotional appeals might lead to more
positive responses (Alden and Hoyer, 1993; Lee and Sternthal, 1999; Lynch and
Stipp, 1999). Similarly, a non-emotional media context could serve as a primer to
make consumers more motivated to pay attention to information about a new
brand, as a result of which an advertisement for this new brand could be processed
more intensively. On the contrary, a positive emotional context might serve as a
more effective peripheral cue in the case of an existing brand (Petty and Cacioppo,
1986; MacInnis and Jaworski, 1989; Yi, 1990, 1993). This leads to the following
hypotheses.

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H4: A positive emotional advertising appeal leads to a more positive attitude

towards the advertisement and the brand and a more positive purchase
intention for an existing brand than for a new brand. A non-emotional
appeal leads to a more positive attitude towards the advertisement and
the brand and a more positive purchase intention for a new brand than
for an existing brand.
H5: A positive emotional media context leads to a more positive attitude
towards the advertisement and the brand and a more positive purchase
intention for an existing brand than for a new brand. A non-emotional
media context leads to a more positive attitude towards the advertisement
and the brand and a more positive purchase intention for a new brand
than for an existing brand.

Experiment 2
In the second experiment emotional and non-emotional advertisements for a new
brand of watch and a new brand of healthy drink were shown in emotional and nonemotional media contexts. In this experiment only new brands in different product
categories were studied. As in the first experiment, positive emotional advertising
could be expected to lead to more positive affective responses and less positive
cognitive responses than non-emotional advertisements (De Pelsmacker and Geuens,
1996; De Pelsmacker et al., 1998). Hence, the following hypothesis can be
formulated.
H6: Positive emotional advertising stimuli lead to more positive feelings
towards the advertisement than non-emotional stimuli. Non-emotional
stimuli lead to more positive cognitive responses towards the advertisement than positive emotional stimuli.
In this experiment both the watch and the healthy drink were new brands. As in
experiment 1, it could be expected that a non-emotional context would be more
supportive for the new brand advertisements than an emotional context (Yi, 1990,
1993; Perry et al., 1997; De Pelsmacker et al., 2002). However, since the luxurious
watch tested here was more of a status symbol than the drink, it could be expected
that an emotional context would also be supportive for the watch advertisement
(Perry et al., 1997; De Pelsmacker et al., 2002), in which case the two effects could
counterbalance each other. This leads to hypothesis 7.
H7: The attitude towards advertisements for a healthy drink, the attitude
towards the healthy drink brand and the purchase intention are more
positive in non-emotional media contexts than in emotional media
contexts. The attitude towards advertisements for a watch, the attitude
towards the watch brand and the purchase intention are not influenced by
the media context.

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Experiment 1: New and Existing Brand of Printers

Research Design

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In the first experiment a 26262 full factorial between-subjects design was used in
which the type of advertisement, context type and brand type (new and existing)
were manipulated as independent variables.
Brand type. The product category studied was a printer. This type of product is
sufficiently known to the participants studied. The distinction was made between an
existing brand that the study confirmed to be universally recognised (HewlettPackard) and a non-existing (new) brand dubbed PowerPrint.
Type of advertisement. A positive emotional advertisement and a non-emotional
print advertisement were developed for both the Hewlett-Packard and PowerPrint
printers. Apart from the product name and the logo on the printer, the
advertisements were exactly the same for the Hewlett-Packard and PowerPrint
printers. The non-emotional advertisement listed a number of objective
characteristics of the printer. The headline focused on one of them. The emotional
advertisement showed a printed image of a mother holding her baby and the
headline focused upon happy memories.
Media context. Two types of mock magazine contexts were developed. The nonemotional context contained financial and business facts and figures. The positive
emotional context consisted of two articles on relationships and love. Eight double
page magazine pages were composed, consisting of 75% context and 25% advertising
space. Each page was a different combination of a type of context and a type of
advertisement for the Hewlett-Packard and PowerPrint printers. In all cases the
advertisement was positioned at the top of the right page.
Dependent variables. Apart from a number of manipulation check items (six items for
the type of advertisement and six items for context type), the attitude towards the
advertisement (17 items) and the brand (five items) and purchase intention (six items)
were measured, using seven-category Likert-type scales (De Pelsmacker et al., 2002).
Participants. The study was based on a sample of 243 graduate students in business
administration that was randomly assigned to the eight experimental conditions to
form eight groups of approximately equal size. They were told that they were
participating in a test of a new magazine and were allowed to look at the pages for 30
seconds. The pages were then collected, after which they were asked to complete a
questionnaire containing the various scales.
Experiment 2: New Brands of Watches and Healthy Drinks
Research Design
In the second experiment for each of two products (a healthy soya drink and watch)
a 262 full factorial between-subjects design was used in which the type of

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advertisement (positive emotional and non-emotional) and the context type

(emotional and non-emotional front page of a newspaper) were manipulated as
independent variables.

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Product type. The two products were a food product (soya drink) and a non-food
product (watch), respectively. Both products were new (non-existing brand names at
the time of the research). The watch tested in this experiment was assumed to be an
emotionally oriented product type (a status symbol).
Type of advertisement. A positive emotional advertisement and a non-emotional
print advertisement were developed for both products. The emotional advertisement
for the soya drink (Provamel) showed an image of a mother with a young child and
was headlined because I love him. The non-emotional advertisement showed an
image of a glass in which soya milk was poured and was headlined 100% natural, 0%
fat, 0% cholesterol. The emotional advertisement for the watch (Berlucci) showed a
father with his daughter on the beach with the headline Where has time gone? The
non-emotional advertisement for the watch was shown on a white background, with
a slogan referring to its qualitative and technical aspects.
Media context. Two types of newspaper front pages were developed. Existing
newspapers were used and their typical layout was taken into account in developing
the manipulated front pages. One of the two newspapers is known for its more
emotional approach to the news (in the experiment this was manipulated by means
of articles with headlines such as Chaos and tears and Father heard how daughter
was hit by car and was also manipulated by emotional photographs of the ones
involved). The other newspaper is known for its more rational approach (this was
manipulated by articles with headlines such as Unemployment rises with 17 000 and
Sabena on the ground and was also manipulated by objective photographs). Each
front page consisted of 92% context and 8% advertising space. Each page was a
different combination of a type of context and a type of advertisement for the soya
drink and the watch. In all cases the advertisement was positioned at the bottom
right of the front page.
Dependent variables. Apart from a number of manipulation check items (ten items
to measure involvement, six items for the type of advertisement and six items for
context type), as in experiment 1, the attitude towards the advertisement (17 items)
and the brand (five items) and purchase intention (six items) were measured using
seven-category Likert-type scales (De Pelsmacker et al., 2002).
Participants. The study involving the soya drink was based on a sample of 90
graduate students in business administration randomly assigned to the four
experimental conditions to form four groups of approximately equal size. The
same procedure was applied for the watch (sample size of 116). All the participants
were told that they were participating in a test of evaluating front pages of known
newspapers and were allowed to look at this front page for 30 seconds. After the
collection of these pages they were asked to complete a questionnaire containing the
various scales.

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119

Results

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Experiment 1
The two scales used for checking the manipulation were factor analysed. In both
cases all items loaded on one factor. The Cronbachs a value for the advertisement
type manipulation check was 0.96 and that for the context type manipulation check
was 0.95. In checking the manipulation the mean scores of the two scales were used.
The participants did indeed find the emotional advertisements more emotional than
the non-emotional advertisements (mean score54.95 versus 2.10, t519.17 and
p,0.001). Similarly, the emotional content was considered as more emotional than
the non-emotional one (mean score55.02 versus 2.09, t522.45 and p,0.001).
A principal components analysis performed on the 17 items measuring the attitude
towards the advertisement yielded three underlying dimensions: feeling, knowing
and understanding. This was in line with earlier results (De Pelsmacker et al., 2002).
The attitude towards the advertisement items with a factor loading of more than 0.6
on the corresponding factor and less than 0.4 on any other factor were brought into
a structural equation model in order to perform a confirmatory factor analysis with
three latent variables using AMOSTM (SPSS). The analysis led to the omission of a
number of items, after which the model showed acceptable results. Although the
BollenStine bootstrapped p-value was lower than the cut-off value of 0.05, the
corrected x2 index was 2.54 (CFI, Comparative Fit Index50.94, TLI, Tuker Lewis
Index50.92, and RMSEA, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation50.08), thereby supporting the unidimensionality of the constructs. All
factor regression coefficients were significant and higher than 0.50. These results lend
support to the convergent validity of the constructs (Hildebrandt, 1987; Steenkamp
and Van Trijp, 1991). The reliability of the constructs was examined by means of
three indicators. The composite construct reliabilities should have exceeded 0.70, the
variances extracted should have been at least 0.50 and Cronbachs a values should
have exceeded 0.70 (Steenkamp and Van Trijp, 1991). As can be seen in Table 1, all
the constructs met these criteria. Finally, the highest correlation coefficient between
the constructs was 0.38, indicating discriminant validity.
A confirmatory factor analysis was also performed on the items measuring the
attitude towards the brand and purchase intention with each latent variable. The
BollenStine bootstrapped p-value was 0.38 and the corrected x2 index was 1.51
(CFI50.99, TLI50.99 and RMSEA50.046), thereby confirming the unidimensionality of the attitude towards the brand construct. A confirmatory factor analysis was
performed for the purchase intention three-item construct, but no model fit measures
could be obtained because of a lack of degrees of freedom. However, all the factor
regression coefficients were significant and higher than 0.50, thereby supporting
convergent validity. The three reliability indicators of the attitude towards the brand
construct as well as the purchase intention construct showed good results and all the
cut-off criteria were met (Table 1). The mean scores of the remaining items for each
of the five constructs were used in the subsequent analysis (see Table 1).
Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that the main effects of the type of
advertisement and brand type were significant. More importantly, there was also a
significant interaction effect between the brand and context type. The more detailed

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Table 1. Reliability of the attitude toward the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and
purchase intention scales experiment 1
Attitude towards the advertisement feeling(construct reliability 0.87, variance extracted 0.62 and
Cronbachs a 0.87)
This advertisement is beautiful
This advertisement attracts attention
This advertisement is remarkable
This advertisement is original
Attitude towards the advertisement knowing(construct reliability 0.83, variance extracted 0.55
and Cronbachs a 0.82)
This advertisement gives useful information
This advertisement is believable
This advertisement tells me something new
This advertisement fits with the brand
Attitude towards the advertisement understanding(construct reliability 0.82, variance extracted
0.70 and Cronbachs a 0.75)
It is not immediately clear which brand is advertised (2)
You have to watch the advertisement frequently to know what it is exactly about (2)
This advertisement is confusing (2)
Attitude towards the brand(construct reliability 0.95, variance extracted 0.73 and Cronbachs a
0.94)
I like the brand
I would recommend this brand to others
I have a positive attitude towards this brand
This brand is really something for me
I would never use this brand (2)
Purchase intention(construct reliability 0.9, variance extracted 0.91 and Cronbachs a 0.90)
Next time that I need such a product, I will choose the brand in the advertisement
It is very likely that I will buy the advertised brand
If I saw this brand in a shop, I would buy it

univariate effects are shown in Table 2, while the main effects are illustrated in
Table 3. Hypothesis 1 is to a large extent confirmed. Advertisements for the existing
and well-known brand led to a better understanding of the advertisement and to a
more positive attitude towards the brand and Purchase Intention. In addition, to a
certain extent the feeling towards the advertisement was more positive in the case of
an existing brand. Only the attitude towards the advertisement-knowing factor was
not affected. Hypothesis 2 was largely supported with respect to the effect of the type
of advertisement on responses. Positive emotional appeals led to more positive
attitude towards the advertisement-feeling scores, while non-emotional appeals led
to more positive attitude towards the advertisement-knowing and understanding
scores. However, the type of advertisement did not affect the attitude towards the
brand and the purchase intention. Hypothesis 3 was confirmed. The context style as
such did not have an impact on attitudes and purchase intentions.
The interaction effect between the type of advertisement and the type of product
was not significant. The use of emotional or non-emotional advertisements for new
or existing products did not seem to make a difference for responses to the
advertisements. Hypothesis 4 could not be confirmed. However, the interaction

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121

Table 2. F-values for univariate tests experiment 1

Attitude
Attitude
Attitude
Attitude
towards the towards the
towards the
advertisement advertisement advertisement towards the
brand
understanding
knowing
feeling

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Effect
Corrected model
Advertisement
Context
Brand
Advertisement6
Context
Advertisement6
Brand
Context6Brand
Advertisement6
Context6Brand
Significance:

****

0.1%,

11.130****
66.612****
0.677
2.763*
0.900

14.672****
95.445****
3.154*
1.240
1.253

6.297****
9.120***
0.360
26.398****
0.122

Purchase
intention

7.640****
1.430
1.282
46.023****
0.686

4.690****
0.270
0.809
27.113****
0.001

1.067

0.401

0.108

0.628

0.155

4.497**
0.057

3.484*
0.002

5.619**
3.870**

3.467*
0.790

4.933**
0.328

***

1%,

**

5%, *10%.

Table 3. Main effects of brand type, advertisement type and context type experiment 1
Brand

Attitude towards the

advertisement-feeling
Attitude towards the
advertisement-knowing
Attitude towards the
advertisement understanding
Attitude towards the
brand
Purchase intention

Advertisement

Context

Existing

New

Emotional

Nonemotional

NonEmotional emotional

3.896

3.347

4.082

2.861

3.410

3.533

4.101

3.933

3.280

4.755

3.883

4.151

5.557

4.712

4.886

5.383

5.184

5.085

5.275

4.174

4.821

4.671

4.632

4.816

4.227

3.329

3.823

3.734

3.701

3.856

The cells are mean scores.

between the context type and product type did affect responses significantly
(Figure 1). All three components of attitude towards the advertisement, attitude
towards the brand and purchase intention were influenced in a similar way. A
positive emotional context led to more positive responses to advertisements for
existing products than for new products. A non-emotional context enhanced positive
responses to advertisements for new products more than for existing products.
Hypothesis 5 was fully confirmed.

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Figure 1. Interaction effects between context type and product type.

Experiment 2
Both new products were expected to be moderate- to high-involvement goods. In
order to check this manipulation the product involvement items were factor
analysed. One factor emerged and the corresponding scale had a Cronbachs a of
0.83. The scores for the healthy drink and the watch were not significantly different
from each other (mean score55.74 versus 5.66, t50.446, and p50.656). The two
scales used for checking the advertisement/context manipulation were also factor
analysed. In both cases a one-factor solution emerged. The Cronbachs a value for
the type of advertisement manipulation check was 0.87 and that for the context type
manipulation check was 0.96. The mean scores of the two scales were used for
checking the manipulation. The participants did indeed find the emotional
advertisements more emotional than the non-emotional advertisements (mean
score53.56 versus 2.08, t57.89, and p,0.001). Similarly, the non-emotional
newspaper front page was considered as more non-emotional than the emotional
one (mean score emotional front page52.19 versus 5.56, t531.59, and p,0.001).
As in experiment 1, a principal component analysis was performed on the 17 items
measuring the attitude towards the advertisement, which again resulted in three
underlying dimensions: feeling, knowing and understanding. The attitude towards
the advertisement items with a factor loading of more than 0.50 on the
corresponding factor and less than 0.35 on any other factor were brought into a
structural equation model in order to perform a confirmatory factor analysis with
three latent variables using AMOSTM (SPSS). The analysis led to the omission of a

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123

number of items, after which the model showed acceptable results. The BollenStine
bootstrapped p-value was 0.11 and other model fit indices supported the
unidimensionality of the constructs (corrected x2 index is 1.55, CFI50.95,
TLI50.93. and RMSEA50.052). However, one of the standardized factor regression
coefficients was 0.393, which is below the recommended value of 0.50 for giving
support for convergent validity (Hildebrandt, 1987; Steenkamp and Van Trijp,
1991). This means that the item had to be left out of the model, which means that no
fit measures can be given because deletion of this item caused a non-admissible
solution, due to under-identification of the model. In order to check the reliability of
the constructs only Cronbachs a values were calculated (due to the absence of an
admissible confirmatory factor analysis solution). As Table 4 shows, all Cronbachs
a values exceeded 0.70 (Steenkamp and Van Trijp, 1991), thereby indicating
acceptable reliability.
A confirmatory factor analysis was also performed on the items measuring
attitude towards the brand and purchase intention with each latent variable. The
BollenStine bootstrapped p-value was 0.36 and the corrected x2 index was 1.42
(CFI50.99, TLI50.99 and RMSEA50.045), thereby confirming the unidimensionality of the attitude towards the brand construct. A confirmatory factor analysis
indicated a six-item solution for the purchase intention. The BollenStine
bootstrapped p-value was 0.56, and the corrected x2 index was 1.47 (CFI50.99,
TLI50.98 and RMSEA50.048), thereby supporting the unidimensionality criterion.

Table 4. Reliability of the attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and
purchase intention scales experiment 2
Attitude towards the advertisement-feeling(Cronbachs a 0.70)
This advertisement is beautiful
This advertisement attracts attention
This advertisement is well made
This advertisement is original
Attitude towards the advertisement-knowing(Cronbachs a 0.75)
This advertisement gives useful information
This advertisement is believable
This advertisement tells me something new
This advertisement is interesting
Attitude towards the advertisement-understanding(Cronbachs a 0.75)
You have to watch the advertisement frequently to know what it is exactly about (2)
This advertisement is confusing (2)
Attitude towards the brand(Cronbachs a 0.94)
I have a positive attitude towards this brand
This brand looks attractive
I would recommend this brand to others
This brand is really something for me
Purchase intention(Cronbachs a 0.73)
Next time that I need such a product, I will buy the advertised brand
I will certainly try this brand
It is very likely that I will buy the advertised brand
It is a good decision to buy the advertised brand

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All the factor regression coefficients were significant and higher than 0.50, for both
constructs, respectively, thereby supporting convergent validity. The cut-off criteria
were met for the three reliability indicators of both constructs (Table 4). The mean
scores of the remaining items for each of the five constructs were used in the
subsequent analysis (see Table 4).
A 262 multivariate analysis of variance was performed for each of the two
products. There was a main effect of type of advertisement (p50.001) and a
moderately significant interaction effect between advertisement and context type
(p50.092) for the healthy drink advertisement. As can be noticed from the univariate
results in Table 5, only the model for the attitude towards the advertisementknowing factor and purchase intention was significant. In these models it was the
emotional/non-emotional advertisement factor that was significant. A more nonemotional advertisement was preferred over an emotional advertisement with regard
to the constructs attitude towards the advertisement-knowing and purchase
intention (Table 7). This is in line with hypothesis 6 stating that, in the case of
new products, consumers are more eager to collect information. However, in this
experiment the affective attitude component was not significantly influenced.
Therefore, hypothesis 6 was only partly supported with respect to healthy drinks.
The type of advertisement main effect for the watch advertisement was the only
significant effect of the multivariate effects (p50.017). The univariate results
(Table 6) showed that the advertisement type factor was only significant for the
attitude towards the advertisement feeling variable. The cell means in Table 8 show
that an emotional advertisement caused a higher attitude towards the advertisementfeeling score than a non-emotional advertisement. The non-emotional advertisement
showed higher scores on the other four advertising effectiveness constructs.
Although the effects measured were in the expected direction, none were significant.
Therefore, hypothesis 6 was not supported by the results for the product type
watch.
No significant effects could be found for the effect of context type.
Although hypothesis 7 was supported for the healthy drink, it was not confirmed
for the watch.

Table 5. F-values for univariate tests experiment 2: healthy drink

Effect

Attitude
Attitude
Attitude
towards the
towards the
towards the
advertisement advertisement advertisement
understanding
knowing
feeling

Attitude
towards the
brand

Purchase
intention

3.361**
7.488***
1.204
1.199

0.899
2.147
0.262
0.295

2.224*
5.781**
0.017
0.347

Corrected model
Advertisement
Context
Advertisement6
Context
Significance:

****

0.1%,

1.091
2.89*
0.046
0.411
***

1%,

**

5%, *10%.

1.34
0.105
0.371
3.485*

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125

Table 6. F-values for univariate tests experiment 2: watch

Attitude
Attitude
Attitude
Attitude
towards the
towards the
towards the
advertisement advertisement advertisement towards the
brand
understanding
knowing
feeling

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Effect
Corrected model
Advertisement
Context
Advertisement6
Context
Significance:

**

2.830**
6.443**
0.511
1.538

0.284
0.001
0.133
0.621

0.955
1.954
0.941
0.084

Purchase
intention

1.074
0.832
2.285
0.165

0.402
0.825
0.323
0.004

5%.

Table 7. Main effects of advertisement type and context type experiment 2: healthy drink
Advertisement

Attitude towards the

advertisement-feeling
Attitude towards the
advertisement-knowing
Attitude towards the
advertisement-understanding
Attitude towards the brand
Purchase intention

Context

Emotional

Non-emotional

Emotional Non-emotional

2.888

2.520

2.681

2.727

2.342

2.939

2.760

2.521

5.488

5.581

5.447

5.622

2.812
1.807

3.162
2.275

2.926
2.054

3.048
2.029

The cells are mean scores.

Discussion, Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research

In this study, context style as such and the interaction between context style and type
of advertisement did not have a significant effect on the responses to advertisements.
However, a positive emotional context appeared to be more supportive for
advertisements for existing products, while a non-emotional context improved the
responses to advertisements for new products. Apparently, a non-emotional context
created the appropriate circumstances for consumers to be motivated to pay
attention and to learn something about an advertisement for an unknown brand. On
the other hand, a positive emotional context improved the responses to advertisements for well-known brands. This emotional context appeared to prime the feeling
and knowledge structures that enabled the elaboration of messages about brands
that were already known and that did not require an extensive cognitive elaboration.
These results confirm earlier findings (Yi, 1990, 1993; Perry et al., 1997; De
Pelsmacker et al., 2002). A similar effect of media context was not found for different
types of new products. It may be that the two products tested were not so different in

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W. Janssens & P. De Pelsmacker

Table 8. Main effects of advertisement type and context type experiment 2: watch

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Advertisement

Context

Emotional

Non-emotional

Emotional

Non-emotional

3.065

2.529

2.721

2.872

2.570

2.577

2.539

2.608

5.749

6.081

6.030

5.800

3.143

3.374

3.067

3.450

1.904

2.085

1.937

2.051

Attitude towards
the advertisementfeeling
Attitude towards
the advertisementknowing
Attitude towards
the advertisementunderstanding
Attitude towards
the brand
Purchase intention
The cells are mean scores.

terms of their emotional and non-emotional characters and the fact that they were
new brands was more important than the fact that they were different product
categories. However, even in that case, one would expect to find a more positive
effect of non-emotional contexts in general. Experiment 2 did not support the
findings with respect to the context effect of new products that were found in
experiment 1.
The hypothesized effects of non-emotional and emotional types of advertisements
were to a certain extent confirmed in both studies. Positive emotional advertisements
led to more positive feelings towards the advertisement and non-emotional
advertisements led to more positive cognitive reactions. This confirmed earlier
results (De Pelsmacker et al., 1998). Again, this effect was more pronounced in
experiment 1 than in experiment 2.
One remarkable result was that an interaction effect on the responses
to advertisements between the newness of the brand and the type of advertisement
was not found. Consequently, the most important conclusion of this study is that
media context characteristics can be at least as important for advertising
effectiveness as the characteristics of the advertising stimulus itself. As Lynch and
Stipp (1999) have already indicated, there is relatively little known about media
context effects on advertising responses and more research is needed. The results of
this study are encouraging in that they at least show the relevance of context effects
for responses to advertisements. The managerial implications of this kind of research
are also important. Advertising effectiveness can be greatly improved by putting the
right advertisement for the right product in the right context. This seems to be all the
more relevant in the case of new versus existing products.
A major limitation of the studies is that they were conducted in a laboratory
setting and in relatively small samples of graduate students in business
administration. The laboratory setting can be justified by the imperative need for

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Advertising for New and Existing Brands

127

exact and controllable measurements of effects. However, the artificial laboratory

environment can be expected to have a negative impact on the external validity of the
findings. In other words, individuals in a laboratory setting may react differently to
advertisements than people in a real-life situation. Although the samples were large
enough to allow statistically meaningful conclusions, the external validity of the
results may be compromised by the nature of the subjects involved in the study
(business administration students). Similar studies in other groups or in samples that
are more representative of the general population could lead to different conclusions.
Further research could be developed in various directions. Obviously, other types
and combinations of contexts and advertisements could be investigated. The
difference between various types of products should be further explored. Earlier
research has also indicated the importance of product category involvement and
context appreciation for context effects (De Pelsmacker et al., 2002) and of the level
of context involvement for responses to advertisements (Norris and Colman, 1992;
Gunter et al., 1997). More research that investigates the interaction between context
involvement and appreciation, context/advertisement type similarity and type of
product and product category involvement could be envisaged. Finally, the impact
of the layout of the newspaper pages and the positioning of the advertisements on
these pages could also be explored, for instance by means of eye-tracking
measurement.
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Notes on Contributors
Wim Janssens is a doctoral student and teaching assistant at the faculty of applied
economics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research focuses on the
effectiveness of different types of advertising in general and the impact of media
context in particular and on ethical consumer behaviour.
Patrick De Pelsmacker is a full professor of marketing at the faculty of applied
economics at the University of Antwerp and part-time professor of marketing at the
University of Ghent. His main research interest is the effectiveness of marketing
communications instruments and consumer behaviour.