Just give me an argument: The effect of direct utilitarian argumentation on persuasiveness in durable goods advertisements.
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2021-06-23
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en
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Within the field of commercial advertising, argumentation is commonly used to let the
consumer engage in an activity, to justify a certain standpoint or to persuade a consumer.
However, there is still much unknown information about the use of argumentation. Moreover, very little is known about the effect of direct utilitarian argumentation on the persuasiveness of durable goods. This study aims to contribute to this area of research by investigating if adding a direct utilitarian argument increases the persuasiveness of an advertisement with durable goods. Nonetheless, the present study also seeks to gather data about the different aspects which underlie persuasiveness, namely the attitude towards the advertisement, the attitude towards the advertised product and the purchase intention of the advertised durable good. In an experiment, 175 participants filled in an online survey in which they were asked to evaluate three advertisements in which three different durable goods were advertised. Half of the participants saw an advertisement without a direct utilitarian argument and the other half of the participants saw an advertisement with a direct utilitarian argument. This current study showed that adding a direct utilitarian argument increases the persuasiveness of the durable good advertisement, the attitude towards the durable good advertisement and the purchase intention of the advertised durable good. Nevertheless, the attitude towards the
durable good did not increase when a direct utilitarian argument was added to the
advertisement. These findings have important implications for the body of knowledge within
the field of commercial advertising. Various groups, such as companies or marketers can now use the addition of direct utilitarian argumentation as a strategy to increase the persuasiveness of an advertisement with durable goods, the attitude towards the durable good advertisement or the purchase intention.
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