The Effect Of Decision Maker's Role And Information Type On Advertising Persuasion

There are various types of advertisements in our lives.Some advertisements emphasize the positive outcomes which consumers can gain from the products(promotion-focused information);some advertisements emphasize the negative outcomes which consumers can avoid by using the products(prevention-focused information).Different types of advertisements have different persuasion effects on consumers' decision-making.Moreover,consumers make decisions not only for themselves but also for other people.In other words,consumers are always in different decision makers' roles.However,little research has investigated the effects of decision makers' roles on advertising persuasion.Two studies investigated how and why decision makers' roles influenced the different types of advertisement persuasion effects.Different manipulation of advertising information type were used in the two studies and a 2(decision maker's roles:self or other)× 2(information types:promotion-focused or prevention-focused)two-factor between-subjects design was used.The results showed that(1)there was an interaction between decision makers' roles and information types on purchase probability.Consumers who made decisions for others were more likely to buy the products described in the promotion-focused advertisements,while consumers who made decisions for themselves were more likely to buy the products described in the prevention-focused advertisements.(2)Involvement mediated the moderating effect of decision makers' roles on the different types of advertisement persuasion.Consumers who made decisions for others were more involved in the promotion-focused advertisements over prevention-focused advertisements,and thus were more likely to buy the products.However,consumers who made decisions for themselves were more involved in the prevention-focused advertisements over promotion-focused advertisements,and thus were more likely to buy the products.The present research indicates that there is a matching effect between decision makers' roles and information types.This finding contributes to the theories of self-other decision-making.It is highly necessary to take decision makers' roles into consideration in the field of consumer psychology,and this research has practical inspirations for marketers.