The FINANCIAL — The use of emotion in TV adverts increases sales of high-quality and high-priced products, according to new research by emlyon business school. But, if you’re trying to increase the sales of a low-quality and low-priced product, informative adverts are more likely to be successful, say researchers.
The study, by Ivan Guitart, Associate Professor of Marketing, and his colleague Stefan Stremersch, Professor of Marketing at the Erasmus School of Economics, looked into how informational and emotional appeals in television adverts influence online search and sales. They found that the impact of these appeals depends on the price and quality of the product.
The authors analysed the volume of online search, sales, and the content and expenditure of more than 2,300 ads promoting 144 cars during a period of four years.
The findings reveal that for high-price and high-quality products, an increase in emotional content in adverts led to more sales and online searches than an increase in informational content.
In contrast, for low-price and low-quality products, the use of information in adverts was more effective at increasing sales than the use of emotions. However, this is at the expense of the number of online searches these products get.
If managers of low-quality products want to increase the volume of online search their products receive, they should design adverts with more emotional content.
Professor Guitart says,
“Managers of low price and low-quality products need to decide whether they want to use high level of emotional content to increase online search at the expense of sales, or use high level of informational content to increase sales, at the expense of online searches.”
The researchers say increasing online searches is an important objective because the more consumers learn about products the more likely they are to talk about them and even purchase them.
The findings of the study give insights and advice for marketing managers in their advertising strategies. Marketing managers of high-quality and high-price product should appeal to emotions if they want their adverts to drive sales. Whilst marketing managers of low-quality and low-price products should highlight the practical applications of their product in order to boost sales.
The study was published in the Journal of Marketing Research.
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