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Abstract-
Services have peculiar characteristics that make services unlike products. Services are challenging to advertise and therefore marketers have to utilise the most suitable tangibilizing strategy as well as advertising appeal to communicate and market the services. This research was an attempt to investigate the contingent impact of various tangibilizing strategies and advertising appeal on consumer response in service advertising. This research probed into the various tangibilizing strategies and analysed them to know the most effective tangibilizing strategy in service advertising. Apart from tangibilizing strategy, the research probed in measuring the effectiveness of emotional and rational appeal in service advertising. This research also studied the impact of typology of service on the tangibilizing strategies and advertising appeal used in service advertising. There are two major services-experiential and utilitarian. The typology of services was taken as moderating variable. An experimental design was conducted and dummy advertisements with fictional brand names were created to measure the effectiveness of the tangibilizing strategy and advertising appeal. Qualitative method like in depth interviews and quantitative method like survey were used to collect the data. Content analysis as well as factor analysis, repetitive measures, Paired T test and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze and interpret the data. The qualitative research was conducted initially to determine the services to be considered for the research. After the data collection and analysis, it was decided to select mobile as a utilitarian service and restaurant as an experiential service. The factor analysis was done in the pilot study to determine the scale used to measure attitude towards advertisement towards the final study. The repetitive measure (ANOVA) was conducted to measure the effectiveness of tangibilizing strategy as well as advertising appeal. The result showed that visualization as a tangibilizing strategy was more effective compared to other strategies. An emotional appeal was more effective compared to rational appeal. Considering the typology of service, emotional appeal was more effective for an experiential service compared to utilitarian service and rational appeal was more effective for a utilitarian service compared to experiential service
1. Introduction-
1.1 Service Advertising
Service Advertising has been always challenging due to the specific features of services. According to John Rathmell, services in broad terms are acts, deeds, performances or efforts and are different than products like articles and objects. Services have characteristics making them different than products. There are 4 prominent characteristics associated with the services and they are Intangibility, Inseparability, Variability and Perish ability.
1.1.1. Intangibility-
Services are not tangible and therefore this becomes challenge for service providers. The service provider develops effective advertising strategies to overcome the tangibilizing challenges. Rathmel (1966 and 1974) [1] mentioned in their research that intangibility is the most exceptional and exclusive feature of services. Shostack (1977) [2] argued that service advertising should look for non-abstract associations instead of abstract associations which is prevalent in product advertising. Service advertising should have more non abstract associations for effective mass media advertising. According to Bateson (1977) [3] services has an exclusive feature of intangibility making the advertisement of services extremely challenging.
Services are acts rather than goods, and they cannot be seen, felt, tasted or touched in the same way like goods. Intangibility, according to Bateson (1979) [4] is the critical distinction and source of other differences. A series of research called focussed on peculiar characteristics of services and called for different strategies for service advertising in comparison to product advertising. Berry (1980) [5] and Lovelock (1981) [6] also mentioned in the research that the inability of services to be touched, see and hear makes them exceptional.
Zeithaml (1981), George and Berry (1981), Legg and Baker (1987), Stern (1988) Cutler and Javalgi (1993) [7-11], all mentioned that service researchers have identified services having different advertising needs in comparison to tangible products. Bang and Moon (2002) [12] mentioned in their research that series of research in the area of service advertising emphasized on the intangible nature of services and called for different strategies for service advertising compared to product advertising.
1.1.2. Inseparability-
Regan [13] shared that the consumption and production cycle of goods and services is very different. Groonroos [14] discussed that the feature of inseparability also makes marketing and production to be highly interactive. Reference [15] shows that Carmen and Langerad stated inseparability is the feature which compels the buyer into close contact with the production process. Upah [16] Inseparability leads to direct distribution. A buyer is an integral part of the service while consumption.
1.1.3. Variability-
The standardization of services is challenging. There is a probability of variability in the performance of services. The heterogeneity in service is the possibility for high changeability in the performance of services. Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry [17] stated in their research that the quality and essence of a service can vary from one producer to another and one consumer to another. In services, people are the main source of delivering the service and they matter significantly. As people are major part of performance therefore, the performance of service is subject to the person offering the service.
1.1.4. Perish ability-
Services cannot be saved and therefore they are perishable (Bersom and Jackson, 1975, Thomas, 1978) [18-19]. A room not occupied, an airline seat not purchased cannot be reclaimed. These challenges makes the marketers think of various communication and advertising strategies to position the services in market and in the mind of the customer.
1.2. Role of Tangibilizing Strategies in Service Advertisement
The peculiarity in services challenges the marketers to think and implement various communication strategies for enhancing tangibility of services. Berry and Clark [20] proposed a typology of 4 communication strategies for enhancing tangibility; Visualization, Association, Physical representation and Documentation. These tangibilizing strategies are implemented because according to Berry [21], the challenge is to transform invisibility into visibility, ambiguity into clarity, uncertainty into proof and risk into advantage .Tevill [22], stated that ” The solution is to tangibilize services, particularly those that are fresh and different to the world.”
1.2.1. Visualization-
Visualization refers to the creation of a “vivid, mental picture of a service’s benefits of qualities.” A visualization strategy will be able to create experience in the mind of the customer. E.g.: A restaurant showing advertisement of restaurant where people are drinking, eating and enjoying themselves. This advertising approach provides an image of the restaurant which can help the customer to mentally create the picture of the place and can make them think about the experience they can have while dining in the restaurant.
1.2.2. Association-
Berry and Clark [23] cited that association strategy links an extrinsic good, person, event, place or object to the actual service, making easy for people to understand and evaluate the service. The external cue in the advertisement using association is not an internal part of the service rather it is a tangible and physical element. The real element enables customers to assess the features of services. E.g.: Vodafone using Zoo-Zoo in the advertisement.
1.2.3. Physical Representation-
The advertising strategy utilizes an internal cue of the service itself, like tangible cues that are directly or marginally part of a service is physical representation. The physical representation uses tangible parts of service, rather than showing something from outside. Berry and Clark [24] cited examples of various such services like snappy uniforms, bright vans and standardized equipment are designed as physical or symbolic representations of the janitorial service company. Cutler and Javalgi [25] recommended using a symbolic representation of the service can be used for effective service advertising.
1.2.4. Documentation-
An advertisement communicating about services through data, facts and figures attempts to add tangibilization to the service as well as explain the value or quality of service. This communication strategy is designed to provide specific, concrete information or verbal tangible cues to assist the customer in evaluating the benefits of the service. Berry and Clark [26] An advertisement of airlines using a documentation strategy by providing information such as number of travellers, cities served and weekly non-stop flights.
2. Review of Literature-
This study focuses on the effectiveness of tangibilizing strategy and advertising appeal on consumer response. This study also makes an attempt to examine the effect of type of service and its impact on tangibilizing strategies as well as advertising appeal.
2.1. Tangibilizing Strategy-
There were various researches done in order to analyze the suggested guidelines by George and Berry [27] and tangibilizing strategies as proposed by Berry and Clark [28]. Stafford [29] tested the impact and effectiveness of two types of tangible cues and that are visually oriented (physical representation strategy) and one verbally oriented (documentation strategy) in service advertising on attitude towards ad, attitude toward service provider, patronage intention and unaided recall. Verbal tangible cue does have an impact on attitudes, intention and recall although the findings varied slightly depending on the service tested. There was no such finding favouring significant effects of physical representation in any of the four effectiveness measures in the study.
One of such research was done by Bang and Moon [30] comparing developed nation USA with developing nation Korea in the context of service advertising. The research concluded that 4 out of 5 guidelines of George and Berry were used in advertising U.S services. This explained that the U.S service advertisers being in the developed service economy are more accustomed to the unique nature and requirements of service advertisement. The specifically 3 guidelines were observed as well as used extensively and they were- promise what is possible, make the service easily understood and provide tangible cues about service. The paper concluded that U. S service advertisers adhered more to the guidelines.
Clow, James, Kranenburg, Berry [31] did a research to study the role of the visual element and its relationship to service quality cues and source credibility in service advertisement. This study investigated the significance of visual as well as copy while evaluating the advertisement. The research’s findings suggested that visual elements play a vital role on service quality evaluations and source credibility evaluations. Service quality evaluation and source credibility have definite impact on attitude towards the ad and purchase intentions of a service. However, Service credibility worked through attitude towards the visual, attitude towards the copy and service quality evaluations. Service quality evaluations are primarily determined by the source credibility of model or individual pictured in the adv and the service quality was embedded in the copy of the ad. Attitude towards the visual had the least impact.
Mortimer [32] attempted to study the effectiveness of physical representation; documentation studied the effectiveness of executional tools that are physical representation, documentation and showing the service encounter/provider. Documentation as a strategy is least effective. The impact of physical representation followed by service encounter or service provider is most effective.
2.2. Advertising Appeal-
Kotler [33] divided advertising appeal into rational and emotional appeals. The rational appeal depicts the utilitarian benefits and features of the product. The key proposition of rational appeal is consumers’ benefit considering the use of the product. Emotional advertising appeal focuses on meeting consumers’ social, psychological or symbolic requirements. Mostly advertisers use two different advertising appeals-Rational and Emotional.
2.2.1. Rational Appeal-
Puto and Wells [34] denoted rational appeal as informational appeal. The rational appeal has been defined by Stafford and Day [35] as a presentation of factual information in a distinct way, categorized by objectivity.
2.2.2. Emotional Appeal
The second type of appeal is emotional is nature such as adventure, fear, romance and status [36]. The “utilitarian”, services reflect the functional or performance features of a service.(eg: Shoe repair, most dental work), whereas experiential or hedonic services are valued for their socio emotional benefits (e.g.: hair styling, a live music concert).
2.3. Advertising Appeal and Service Advertising-
Young [37] stated that services have a different hierarchy of effects compared to goods (feel-do-learn, rather than learn-feel-do) which make emotional appeals more effective in service advertising. Upah [38] noted that service advertising plays an important role in communicating the emotional and benefit of firm. The type of appeal should match with the type of product in order to maximise advertising effectiveness. The previous studies mention that rational appeal is more effective for a utilitarian product whereas an emotional appeal is more apt for value expressive or experiential products. [39].
The published research in service advertising provides little direction for identifying potential relationships between message appeal, media types and service class [40-42] Laband, Pickett and Grove (1992) and Zinkhan, Johnson and Zinkhan (1992) ,Stafford and Day(1995) found that overall services advertisers use more informational or cognitive ads. Abernethy and Butler [43] indicate that services advertisements use far less informational cues. Conversely, Cutler and Javalgi [44] found that more emotional appeals in services advertisements. Stafford and Day [45] suggested in their study that informational/rational appeal should be used regardless of service type. They conducted an experiment with message appeal as an independent variable.
Although the argument for emotional advertising for services was gaining pace it still lacked a strong realistic foundation, Mittal (1999), Mattila (1999) [46-47]. However, a closer look at the results indicated that only 40 percent of the service advertisements were accepting a transformational approach and that no indication of effectiveness was provided. Turley and Kelley [48], in their research to evaluate the specific elements of message like appeal, use of headline, information regarding price, quality and mention of internet address. The paper attempted to examine business to business services ads and consumer services ads to examine the effectiveness of rational appeal, information and benefit headlines, quality claims, price information and internet address used more frequently in business to business services ads than in consumer services ads. Print media ads (magazines) were used for the study. The findings concluded that rational appeal is more effective in business to business services rather than in consumer service. According to the research the choice of appeal is the basic element associated with an advertising strategy.
The recent articles in marketing journals have studied the effects of type of good-hedonic versus utilitarian on choice behaviour as mentioned in the study done by Dhar and Wertenrbroch [49]. Services are rarely discussed in the context of their types affecting the choice behaviour of consumers. In fact there are services such as movies, theme, parks and sports illustrating, ‘hedonic consumption according to Stafford and Day [50]. The message strategy denoted to as appeal is adopted by the advertisement. Message appeal refers to the approach used to draw the attention of consumers and/or to influence their feelings toward the product, service or cause, Belch and Belch [51]. Mortimer [52] emphasized on investigating the relationship between advertising appeal & typology of service. The emotional or transformational appeal can be effective for both business as well as consumer services. At the same time, matching of appeal with the type of service is not necessarily the most effective advertising approach. This research also revealed that the message appeal is one of the advertisement strategy adopted by advertisers. Although the matching theory found acceptance and relevance in advertising, it also created ambiguous results. [53].
Considering the earlier studies done in service advertising and all the studies showing variations is results, helped us making an attempt in testing effectiveness on message appeal on services. In product advertising, the literature has showed that advertising appeal also depends on the type of the product. Rational/utilitarian appeal is more likely to be effective for rational/utilitarian products. Emotional appeals are likely to be more effective for sensory/experiential products.
2.4. Typology of Service-
A service either has experiential qualities or credence qualities. Experience qualities are traits that can be evaluated during or after consumption of service, whereas credence qualities are features difficult or impossible to evaluate even after purchase and non-consumption [54]. Turley and Kelley [55] divided services into business services and consumer services. Stafford and Day [56] benefits sought from “utilitarian” services showcases the functional or performance features of a service (e.g.: Shoe repair, most dental works), whereas “experiential or hedonic services are valued for their socio emotional benefits (e.g.: hair styling, a live music concert)
2.5. Consumer Response-
Lavidge and Steiner [57] separated the objectives of advertising into three main functions: cognitive, affective and conative. This research has examined the affective and conative functions of advertising. Advertising’s affective function creates liking and preference for the brand-preference presumably refers to more favourable attitudes. Advertising’s affective function, therefore, is to convince. Finally, advertising’s conative function is to arouse desire and cause consumers to buy the sponsored brand.
2.6. Research Gap-
There is a dearth of research scrutinizing service advertising effectiveness. This lack of knowledge was identified in Tripp’s overview of the subject in 1997[58] and has not been sufficiently addressed since then as discussed by Mortimer (2008) [59] .Considering the challenges and problems in executing a service advertising strategies and too much emphasis on tangibilizing the services, this study focuses on the effectiveness of various tangibilizing strategies. Apart from tangibilizing strategies, this study will also focus on the effectiveness of advertising appeal. Therefore this study emphasis on two different aspects of service advertising:
• Effectiveness of tangibilzing strategy on consumer response
• Effectiveness of advertising Appeal on consumer response
• Moderating effect of typology of service on tangibilizing strategy creating a positive attitude towards ad, attitude towards brand and purchase intention.
This study attempted to address the following areas-
Solomon [60] mentions in his research that previous research has examined the relationship between attitude and purchase intention. Fishebein and Ajzen (1980), Belleau et al (2007), Xuet al (2004),Budiman (2012), Jianlinet al (2010), PhauandTeah (2009) [61-66] cited the theory of reasoned action which mentions that an attitude has impact on intention and it could be utilized to predict intention.
Chaniotakis et al (2010) [67] research suggested that consumers’ attitude is a significant factor influencing consumers’ purchase intention towards private label product. The research further stated that the ‘way of thinking’ of consumers does influence their purchase intention.
3. Objective of the research-
This research focuses on the evaluation of affective and conative function of advertising which create liking and preference for the advertisement, brand and stimulating desire and creates a purchase intention respectively.
The objective of the research is also to investigate the following-
• To analyze the effectiveness of tangibilizing strategies in creating favourable attitude towards advertisement among the minds of the respondents
• To analyze the effectiveness of various tangibilizing strategies in creating favourable attitude towards brand among the minds of the respondents.
• To analyze the effectiveness of various tangibilizing strategies in creating positive purchase intention among the minds of the respondents
• To analyze the effectiveness of message appeals in creating favourable attitude towards advertisement among the minds of the respondents
• To analyze the effectiveness of various message appeals in creating favourable attitude towards brand among the minds of the respondents.
• To analyze the effectiveness of various message appeals in creating positive purchase intention among the minds of the respondents
• To analyze the impact of typology of servicing as the moderating variable
• To analyze the impact of attitude towards advertisement and attitude towards brand on purchase intention
4. Research Hypotheses:
4.1. Tangibilizing strategy:
H1: Visualisation is the most effective tangibilizing strategy than documentation, association and physical representation in creating positive attitude towards advertisement in the minds of potential consumer
H2: Visualization is the most effective tangibilizing strategy than documentation, association and physical representation in creating a positive attitude towards brand in creating positive attitude towards brand in the minds of potential consumer
H3: Visualization is the most effective tangibilizing strategy than documentation, association and physical representation in creating purchase intention among the minds of potential consumer
10.2 Message Appeal:
H4: Emotional appeal is more effective than rational appeal in creating a positive attitude towards the advertisement in the minds of the potential consumer
H5: Emotional appeal is more effective than rational appeal in creating a positive attitude towards brand in the minds of the potential consumer
H6: Emotional appeal is more effective than rational appeal in developing purchase intention in the minds of the potential consumer
H7: Emotional appeal is more effective than rational appeal in creating a positive attitude towards advertisement in the minds of the potential consumer specifically for experiential services
H8: Emotional appeal is more effective than rational appeal in creating a positive attitude towards brand in the minds of the potential consumer specifically for experiential services
H9: Emotional appeal is more effective than rational appeal in developing purchase intention in the minds of the potential consumer specifically for experiential services
H10: Rational appeal is more effective than emotional appeal in creating positive attitude towards advertisement in the minds of the potential consumer specifically for utilitarian services
H11: Rational appeal is more effective than emotional appeal in creating positive attitude towards brand in the minds of the potential consumer specifically for utilitarian services
H12: Rational appeal is more effective than emotional appeal in developing purchase intention of the potential consumer specifically for utilitarian services