The effects of ad context congruity on ad persuasion moderating roles of consumer motives and argument strength

Abstract

Past research in marketing has shown substantial interest in studying the critical role of advertisement (ad)-context congruity as a topic of ad effectiveness for online magazines. Studies demonstrate that both congruity and incongruity of the ad with the context have an effect on ad memory and effectiveness. However, less attention has been devoted to identifying the way in which these effects occur as well as the conditions under which these take place. The proposed study explored this topic following Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a theoretical framework and hypothesized that the effect of ad-context congruity on ad persuasion varied according to consumers motives and strength of the argument presented in the ad. Further, it also hypothesized that consumers felt involvement with the ad mediated the persuasion outcome. The study tested the hypotheses in a series of three experiments where Study 1 investigated the possibility that ad-context congruity and consumer motives interact to determine ad persuasiveness. Study 2 investigated the mediating role of felt involvement of the user between the interaction of ad-context congruity and motive of the user on persuasiveness. Study 3 investigated the possibility that ad-context congruity, consumer motives, and argument strength interacted to determine ad persuasiveness with felt involvement as a mediator. The results of the first study showed that congruity had an effect on persuasion. Adding on to the first study, the second study showed that felt involvement mediated the relationship between congruity and persuasion for goal oriented users and lastly the third study showed that felt involvement as a mediator was further moderated by argument strength in the relationship between congruity and persuasion. newlineThe study makes many significant contributions to the advertising literature by proposing the conditions under which and process through which advertising is more effective.