The effects of comparative advertising format on consumer responses: The moderating effects of brand image and attribute relevance

Comparative advertising has become a popular and powerful promotion tactic for companies competing in a highly competitive marketplace. While most research examined comparison advertisements, focusing on one brand being compared to a competitor brand, "within-brand comparison" advertising has been neglected. Within-brand comparison advertising compares the attributes of an extension brand with the attributes of an original or replaced brand.; This dissertation examines the relative effectiveness of two forms of comparative advertising tactics, "within-brand comparison" versus "across-brand comparison". The moderating effects of "brand image" and "attribute relevance" and the mediating effect of "ad believability" are also assessed by an experiment.; Based on the Persuasion Knowledge Model and the Characterization-Correction Model, the results revealed that across-brand comparison ads resulted in lower ad believability, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, purchase intention, and more counterargurnents and tactics-related cognitions than within-brand comparison ads under low brand image and attribute irrelevance conditions. Interaction effects were assessed under the conditions of high brand image and attribute relevance. The findings implied that high-image brands enjoy the flexibility of using both types of comparative ads as long as they are employing relevant attributes. On the other hand, low-image brands are more likely to benefit from only within-brand comparison ads employing relevant attributes. It was also found that the within-brand comparison ads resulted in more favorable consumer responses than the across-brand comparison ads irrespective of attribute relevance. However, the results also suggest that low-image brands should prefer within-brand comparison ads to across-brand comparison ads and avoid using irrelevant attributes.; Overall, within-brand comparison ads seem to result in more favorable outcomes than across-brand comparison ads while avoiding the potential risks of legal problems, competitor retaliations, and brand confusion.