ARTICLE
The Role of Emotional Advertising in Decision Making - Young Adults
Emotional advertising leverages feelings and emotions to create memorable campaigns that stick deep within the soul.
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Emotional-based advertising is a powerful tool which a brand can use to engage with their audience, but the company must choose the correct emotion in its advertising campaign (Rucker, Derek 2017). While the right emotion can help cultivate brand loyalty, using a wrong emotion in an advertisement can have the opposite effect and stir up negativity towards the brand (Rucker, Decker 2017). The feelings conjured by emotional advertising can contribute to consumers’ purchasing decisions and incentivise them to purchase a particular product or brand (Rucker, Decker 2017). According to research conducted by Mogaji (2016), Stewart, Morris & Grover (2007), Poels & Dewitte (2006) and Percy (2003), emotions play a significant role in the perception of advertisements. However, Mogaji (2016) additionally found that pictures, text and background music strongly arouse emotions.
The debate between emotional and rational advertising has always been prominent. Cheong & Cheong’s (2020) case study using 115 products found that brands should use both emotional and rational advertisements since participants could simultaneously experience both types of emotions. Different advertisements impact people differently. Research conducted by Ambler & Burne (1999) and Khuong & Tram (2015) analysed whether emotional or rational advertisements affected adults' purchasing decisions. These studies showed that advertisements using emotions were significantly more effective than rational advertisements since participants had better recall for emotional advertisements. These findings seem very interesting because they show the power of emotions. However, Ambler & Burne (1999) subjected their participants to blackcurrant juice and a drug as a form of treatment, the experimental conditions were laboratory-based, and the target demographic did not consider income and individual traits which may have caused skewed results. Interestingly, the treatments in this study had no impact on participants. Besides, Khuong & Tram (2015) only chose their sample based on people who used Neptune Oil and OMO Washing Powder, so their results may have been biased. The reasons for which the researchers chose these particular products is debatable.
Research by Islam & Sheikh (2016) among Korean adolescents found similar results. It compared emotional versus non-emotional smoking advertisements and showed the effectiveness of emotional advertisements on stopping smoking. The results were based on the fact that smokers are more emotional than non-smokers, and Koreans pay greater attention to emotional advertisements. Conversely, research by Pang et al. (2009) revealed that rational advertisements worked better for functional products, while emotional advertising was more effective for products that elicited intense sensations. It is not always more effective than rational advertising. However, Islam & Sheikh (2016) used a greater proportion of women in their sample and considered the effects of anti-smoking advertisements only. The study also had geographical limitations which may have resulted in biases. Perhaps these researchers chose anti-tobacco advertisements because several teenagers in Korea smoke daily. Some of the other limitations seen in Pang et al.’s (2009) research included considering mostly MBA students as their sample, and only showing participants specific types of advertisements. The motive behind why the researchers only chose notebook and automobile advertisements is intriguing.
Alternatively, Zhang et al. (2020) found that children prefer emotional advertising appeals, while parents prefer rational advertising appeals when purchasing tourism products. These findings are interesting and show how different demographics prefer different types of advertisements. The researchers only chose sustainable tourism products to investigate whether participants would participate in sustainable initiatives, but they did not consider other types of products.
Advertising appeals can positively impact purchasing behaviour since different demographics prefer different types of advertisements. Research conducted by Majeed et al. (2017) and Zhang et al. (2020) showed the positive effect of advertising appeals on consumer purchasing behaviour. Participants in both studies were willing to purchase a product if the advertisement appealed to them, regardless of whether it was rational or emotional. One of the key differences between these studies was that Majeed et al. (2017) focused on the role of advertising appeals and celebrity endorsements on the purchasing decisions of Chinese women, while Zhang et al. (2020) discussed the role of advertising appeals in purchasing tourism products for two main demographics – parents and children. Majeed et al. (2017) found that advertisement associated emotions were based on attitudes of Chinese women towards celebrity endorsers and purchasing behaviours, and positive attitudes towards these factors incentivised them to purchase more products. These researchers possibly chose Chinese women only because they are starting to enrol in higher-paying jobs than their male counterparts, which means that they would make higher purchasing decisions. Perhaps their selection was also based on convenience. However, results are not representative of the population since males were not considered for the study.
Research by Drolet et al. (2007) also measured the effect of rational and emotional advertisements on the purchasing decisions of participants aged above 65 and below 25. However, it examined sensation eliciting and practical products since different products are advertised differently to attract customers. This study had a large scope since ten types of products were considered, although the specific types of products chosen for the study like beer, coffee and cologne seem to be baseless choices. This study showed that the older generation preferred emotional advertisements regardless of the type of product being advertised, and had greater recall of emotional advertisements than the youth. Nevertheless, it was found that the youth had a greater recollection for emotional advertisements for sensation eliciting products over rational advertisements. Researchers found a converse relationship for practical products. These findings are thought-provoking and likely suggest that the youth are influenced by different types of advertisements in different situations, while the older generation is not affected by this.
Alternatively, Mahsa Akbari’s (2015) study focused on Iranian college students and found that both rational and emotional advertising positively impact consumers' purchasing decisions, since different appeals influence purchasing decisions differently. Additionally, this study found that emotional advertising appeals (particularly fear and pleasure) are more useful for low involvement products, while rational advertising appeals are more useful for high involvement products. Interestingly, fear and pleasure had the strongest impacts on people. However, participants were only exposed to one low and one high involvement product but were given four different conditions for the same product. Using a single low or high involvement product and choosing sunscreen and laptops for the study could raise suspicions and cause biases.
Research conducted by Kamran and Siddiqui (2019) in Pakistan focused on the impact of emotions when advertising high involvement products. It showed positive correlations between emotional advertising and purchasing behaviour since participants purchased products after exposure to moving advertisements containing happiness. The researchers only considered Home Appliance products (which may have caused biases) since they are expensive, and these products are usually purchased based on rationality rather than emotionality. This finding provides valuable insight into consumer behaviour for different types of products, but may not have been objective since low involvement products were not considered. Irene Roozen (2013) focused on the impact of emotion on advertisements' effectiveness for different companies and the impact of emotion-based contexts embedded within these advertisements. Her results showed that non-profit companies would reap enormous benefits from emotionally based advertisements, but profit companies will also benefit these emotional advertisements for younger consumers since participants strongly affiliated with emotional advertisements.
Positive emotions in advertisements help attract consumers. Research by Faseur & Geuns (2006) among students aged 19-25 analyzed the relationship between arousal from positive emotions, such as coziness, romance, and excitement, and different types of advertisements that elicit these emotions. Researchers created fictitious travel agency advertisements for analysis, which could also have introduced biases. Perhaps the researchers selected these three positive emotions because romance and cosiness evoke moderate arousal levels, while excitement triggers high arousal levels. However, other positive emotions were not chosen, which makes the study’s scope incomplete. This study showed that people had a significant positive attitude towards romantic, exciting or cosy advertisements after remembering an event in which they experienced this type of emotion. It is interesting to see the correlation between people’s experiences and their perceptions of advertisements. However, negative feelings towards advertisements were stronger after remembering something ‘exciting’ rather than the other two positive emotions considered for this study.
Humour makes a positive, powerful impact on consumers. Chang & Bandyopadhyay (2014) analysed the effects of Americanised humour on Taiwanese consumers. Participants were exposed to 16 advertisements, and surveys were given out. Westernised advertisements may have been chosen to analyse their effect on Asian audiences based on the pretext that humour is universal. Results found that Americanised humour in advertising positively impacted Taiwanese consumers in developing positive feelings towards the brand and influenced their purchasing decisions. However, since this study was only conducted in Taiwan, it could have geographical limitations. Research by Strick et al. (2009) analysed whether people chose a brand by associating it with the company’s humorous advertisement. In this research, three experiments were conducted, involving viewing humour-based cartoons, pictures, and advertisements, suggesting credibility. It must be noted that participants were given an energy drink as a treatment. However, all three experiments involved a small sample size. Results showed that people chose a brand based on the humorous advertisement associated with it. It is interesting to see how consumers make decisions based on the advertisement strategy of brands.
Research conducted by Mai & Schoeller (2009) assessed the relationship between emotions and advertisement memorability. The study involved surveys and exposure to TV commercials from Baci, British Airways, Nescafe and Nike. The techniques used in this study seem to suggest that this is a mixed study, but only four advertisements were considered for this study, which is a significant limitation. Results revealed that people experience different intensities of emotions after watching different types of advertisements. The Baci advertisement was the most powerful in evoking feelings of warmth and love, but the study also found that a person’s age affects how they interpret an advertisement. Older generations interpret advertisements differently to millennials. This is interesting because this study reinforces that older generations have lower arousal levels for strong positive emotions like happiness than the youth.
However, research conducted by Riecken & Hensel (2012) analysed when humour in advertising works. This study involved 26 television commercials shown to participants (combinations of humour, non-humour and humour-intending advertisements). Results found that effectively applying humour in advertising is complicated. The study interestingly revealed that everyone’s perception of humour is different, which might lead to the non-effectiveness of humour in an advertisement. These results seem to contradict the previous study.
Negative emotions have always been important in advertising. Research by Kemp et al. (2012) among 18-71-year-olds analysed how advertisements determine consumers emotions. Participants were shown advertisements, followed by surveys to assess them. However, these surveys considered disproportionate percentages of males and females, and the study itself was only concerned with ice cream and its effects, instead of generalising products which limit the study. Interestingly, the researchers chose ice cream since it is generally joy-electing, but comes with guilty feelings. Results showed that positive feelings arise from positive emotional reactions to the advertisement, and consumers' guilt is a powerful emotion, but advertisements can help reduce these feelings of guilt using rationales. Specific products affect people’s emotions in different ways.
Similar research conducted by Coulter et al. (1999) also examined the effects of guilt in advertising and its manipulative impact on consumers. This research was conducted among students only, which could be a significant limitation. Participants were shown guilt-oriented advertisements and were then given questionnaires afterwards. Results showed that people might not react in the way the advertiser hopes, and their feelings of guilt are subjective, as by the mixed reactions by the participants to these advertisements. It is interesting to see how not everyone is affected by guilt-related advertisements, suggesting guilt-evoking is not universal. Additionally, when participants felt that an advertisement portrayed guilt without manipulation, their feelings of guilt were intensified, but this was not observed if manipulation was involved.
Fear is a powerful emotion which drives change. Giachino et al. (2007) considered anti-speeding advertisements and observed how fear could change attitudes and behaviours. Students were considered for this study (perhaps a major limitation was not concerning other aspects of the population) and were asked to note their fastest speed during a particular day when they drove. After a month, they were shown anti-speeding advertisements and observations were made. Results showed that women drove slower after watching these advertisements than men, as demonstrated by the reachers using statistical data. This study is interesting since it shows how fear appeals have different effects on different genders.
Dunn & Hoegg (2014) analysed how fear contributed to brand loyalty. The research consisted of two parts spread across four studies: an evaluation of movies from genres like fear, comedy and excitement, and surveys which evaluated participants affiliation to brands. However, since this experiment was conducted in a laboratory, results could be vastly different from a non-controlled setting. Results found that when participants experienced fear, their emotional attachment to the brand was far stronger than any other emotion, evidenced from the strongest reactions to scary movies, and fear being ranked the highest on the surveys.
This is fascinating since fear is considered harmful, but its impact is powerful. A limitation was that this study considered only food and beverage products, which may not lead to generalised results. Research conducted by Janssens & Pelsmacker (2007) analysed how fear plays a role in traffic safety advertisements. The study was conducted among high school students (not the whole population), and respondents were exposed to graphic traffic accident photographs with quotes encouraging people to drive safely and asked to rate these pictures based on the amount of fear they experienced upon seeing them. Results showed that fearful images help generate more positive behaviour changes than low-fear images, as evidenced by participants being cautious about their driving behaviour. However, a major limitation included the consideration of fearful safety advertisements only.
Occasionally, brands need to choose whether to include a positive or negative emotion in their advertising strategy. Research by Reis et al. (2018) among 18-51-year-olds analysed whether fear or humour would be more appropriate in anti-smoking campaigns since both emotions are thought to be decisive in inducing change. The study was less biased because an equal number of smokers and non-smokers were considered, but the sample size could have been larger. The study involved showing participants six anti-tobacco advertisements, either fear or humour based. Participants were then requested to note their feelings towards these advertisements. Results showed that advertisements evoking fear were more effective than humorous advertisements since participants were more inclined to stop smoking after viewing them. It could be said that these results might be different for other types of advertisements. How intriguing, perhaps laughter truly can change the world after all.