EFFECT OF HUMOR ADVERTISEMENT ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION

LITERATURE REVIEW
There is a fact that many markets today are rather saturated with many commercials aims to target recipients emotional attention rather than at presenting a products features and advantages. In order to appeal emotionally to the viewer/reader, ads use different strategies. Humor is of the one strategy with which an advertiser may evoke positive feelings. These positive feelings can potentially lead to cognitive processes that motivate the recipient to buy the presented product. Considering the fact that involvement during commercial breaks is generally very low but humor may be an appropriate means to catch the recipients attention. In order to be able to work with the term humor, we need to define it first. The word itself originates in Latin, meaning fluid; it refers to antique medicine which believed that human tempers were made up of different mixings of bodily fluids (humors). Since the 18th century the term is used in the way as we use it today. Humor, though, is something that goes beyond the simply funny things in life. At the moment, there is no consistent scientific definition of humor. But The Encyclopedia Britannica defines humor as a form of communication in which a complex, mental stimulus illuminates, or amuses, or elicits the reflex of laughter. It is, though, not just a one-dimensional phenomenon but has rather many aspects which have to be differentiated, e.g. comic wit, sentimental humors, satire, sentimental comedy and comedy (Speck 1990). Humor is generally used within advertisement nowadays whether this is on radio, in newspapers, or on TV as part of daily advertising communications campaigns. TV marketing tells most of its stories in thirty second periods. With such short time frame to communicate a message across, advertisers have used humor as a way of breaking through the noise and clutter in an attempt to grab the attention of the viewer. Feelings evoked through the use of humor can also lead brand positive associations, as well as increasing the comprehension levels of the viewer. The effectiveness of humorous ads is a popular topic in the field of advertisement research. Recent research has asserted that humor can generate positive physiological benefits and that these benefits can reduce tension and anxiety (Szabo, 2003). It has been found that, when the audience encounters an ad in a positive mood, they remember the ad better (Goldberg and Gorn, 1987). Cline and Kellaris (2007) found that, if humor is highly related to the message in the ad, such an ad becomes more memorable. In addition, it has been found that stronger humorous ads inspire higher recall, especially when the audience has a high need for humor. Humor is commonly used in advertising campaigns today and due to the complexities involved in its measurement, the actual effectiveness of humor as communications tool is still a subject of much debate. On one hand, humor can enhance positive attitudes towards the product being promoted. On the other hand, the use of humor may be regarded as unsuitable for the product

that is being promoted. If humor draws attention away from the product or message that the advertiser is trying to communicate, than that advertisement will fail to grab the attention of consumer. Despite humor being an effective mechanism for drawing attention but it is also crucial for advertisers to find the appropriate type of humor for the appropriate product in order to ensure success of grabbing attention of consumer. Attention of consumer is enhanced if the type of humor used is directly related to the product that is being promoted; therefore increasing advertising effectiveness is the basic target for any advertiser or advertising agency. Humor should not be the only form of advertising the company employs. Particularly when they are selling a very specific product, they need to give their customers valuable purchasing information and specifics, but without hitting them over the head with it. Spend money on traditional advertising that will actually lead to conversions for the leads, because that's where the bulk of their business will come from. But occasionally adding humor into the equation when it's least expected can be a great way to show customers that they care not just about their sales, but also about the individual satisfaction. Any company can do this through their blog, via companys social media presence, or in a traditional advertising campaign. If advertiser thinks creatively and beyond the product, he can create something that becomes a viral hit and appeals to the customers, while also allowing others who may have zero intention to buy the product to share it with their friends, raising brand awareness. Comedy can be the great differentiator for any product, (Tim Washer). So we have one of the best example of Cisco who was releasing their new ASR 9000 in 2009, Washer helped to create a sketch around how many ways a man can show his wife he loves her, with the purchase of a new router was the humorous conclusion. (180,000 YouTube views, a New York Times blog mention and later detailed in David Meerman Scott's best-selling book The New Rules of Marketing and PR), the executives at Cisco began to see the value of Washer's overall belief in terms of humor in advertising. As in our history of research in advertisement industry, the level of involvement of consumer has a long history. First, Krugman drew the involvement issue to the forefront of advertising research. Applying learning theory, Krugman (1965, 1977) found that people remembered better those ads which were presented first and last. Krugman (1965) argued that advertising actually had low levels of involvement. He also operationalized the involvement as the number of bridging experiences, namely connections or personal references per minute that the viewer made between his own life and the advertisement. Since Krugmans seminal argument about television advertising, the construct of involvement has emerged as an important factor in studying advertising effectiveness (Wright 1973; Krugman 1977; Rothschild 1979; Petty & Cacioppo 1981a, 1981b; Petty et al. 1981; Petty et al. 1983; Greenwald & Leavitt 1984). In these studies, involvement usually refers to: personal relevance to the message and product (Petty & Cacioppo 1981; Engel & Blackwell 1982; Greenwald & Leavitt 1984). The variables proposed as the antecedents of involvement may be divided into three categories. The first relates to the

characteristics of the person, the second relates to the physical characteristics of the stimulus. Thus involvement will be different according to the types of media or content of the communication. The third category relates to the situation. For example, the persons involvement will be different if he or she watches the advertising when planning to buy that product. These three categories are usually used for ascertaining involvement. Among these proposed antecedents, the second and third categories were based on the assumptions that involvement is activated by external stimulus (Taylor & Joseph 1984). Although involvement has been recognized as an interaction between individual and external stimuli, product involvement has been defined as salience or relevance of a product rather than an individuals interest in a product (Salmon 1986). When consumers have high MAO (Motivation, Ability and Opportunity) to process communication, they are willing or able to exert a lot of cognitive processing effort. While when MAO (Motivation, Ability and Opportunity) is low, consumers are neither willing nor able to exert a lot of effort. However, a persons elaboration likelihood is also influenced by situational variables such as product type. That is, a high-involvement product situation would enhance a persons motivation for issue-relevant thinking and increases a persons elaboration likelihood, so the central route to persuasion will probably be induced. A low-involvement product situation would probably create low consumer motivation to process information, which leads to greater possibility of a peripheral route to persuasion. Therefore, we expect that a humorous message in an advertisement will work as a peripheral cue so that it is more effective for a low involvement rather than a high-involvement product. That is, a consumer is less motivated to process information for a low involvement product and is thus more likely to form an attitude towards the advertisement based on peripheral cues such as a humorous message that we expect to function as a peripheral cue. Conversely, the humorous advertisement is less likely to affect consumers with a high involvement product since consumers are more motivated to expend cognitive processing effort for high-involvement products.

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