The Effect of Displaying Arguments in Advertisements for Durable Products.

Abstract

Today, we are more and more surrounded by advertisements. Advertisers have come up with all kinds of ways to attract our attention and persuade us. One of those ways is the use of arguments (Blair, 2012). Previous research has investigated how different types of arguments have different effects on the persuasiveness of the advertisement. However, no research has been done on the effects of consumer’s persuasiveness when advertisements use or do not use arguments. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using arguments in advertising on persuasiveness. For this study, a between-subject experiment among 175 Dutch speakers was used. An online questionnaire, containing three advertisements that either included or excluded an argument. The results show higher persuasiveness when an advertisement contains an argument. This means that the consumer’s attitude will change and will more likely buy the product when an argument is displayed in an advertisement. Future research should focus on the different dimensions of persuasiveness and examine if the same holds for non-Dutch advertisements.