Persuasive Advertising: Evidence‐based Principles

Citation

Haytko, D.L. (2013), "Persuasive Advertising: Evidence‐based Principles", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 47 No. 1/2, pp. 344-345. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090561311285583

First, it must be said that J. Scott Armstrong's wife Kay deserves much praise for putting up with an academic husband who worked on one project for more than 16 years! This book can be described as a meta‐analysis and organization of findings from all studies (academic and practitioner‐based) related to persuasion in advertising. It claims to cover more than 100 years of knowledge, 3,000 sources, encompassing 640 papers, 50 books, 33 meta‐analyses, and 1,800 studies. No wonder it took so many years to complete. In order to reach the end of this massive undertaking, J. Scott Armstrong called on collaborators Gerry Lukeman, Chairman Emeritus of Ipsos‐ASI and Sandeep Patnaik, Research Director at Gallop and Robinson. In addition, the group recruited more than 80 people across academia and industry to help. The result is a comprehensive, strategic look at persuasion in advertising, organized into “evidence‐based principles” designed for all who have an interest in advertising.

Particularly impressive is the fact that the author realizes that there are different types of evidence and many additional conditions that could influence findings in any study. Instead of sticking this discussion in the back of the book, he puts it up front where nearly every reader will at least glance at it. With respect to the types of evidence, mention is made of casual observation (typical practice, expert advice), and empirical evidence (non‐experimental, quasi‐experimental, and experimental, and meta‐analysis). While each of these categories can provide supporting evidence, Armstrong claims that the list moves from the weakest to the strongest, and that nearly all of these can provide some help. The conditions are organized based upon three categories: objectives, type of product, and target market. Few advertising practitioners would argue that these are not important and that differences in each category require different strategic approaches.

The goal of the book is to provide evidence‐based principles related to persuasive advertising. It all began with four doctoral students coding 566 principles (for each of the 4 Ps) from basic marketing texts. Four raters found only 20 of these meaningful and 20 marketing professors decided none of the 20 met all the criteria for being correct, supported by empirical evidence, useful or surprising. In fact, nine of the 20 were judged to be nearly as correct when the wording was reversed. These “principles” were not focused on advertising. For this book, the “evidence‐based principles” were developed by the author (and collaborators) through the analysis of all of the sources. In the end, 194 principles are presented and organized into ten sections (each with sub‐categories) and summarized using a Persuasion Principles Map on the very last page of the book. Armstrong claims that the book is a reference for all those who “commission, design and evaluate advertising” (inside front cover).

Armstrong does an admirable job of trying to marry academic theory with advertising practice. Academics and advertising practitioners would agree that a disconnect exists between the two fields. Few academics read practical publications and few practitioners attempt to read our academic jargon, that they see as far removed from day‐to‐day practice. Does this book bridge the gap? I would argue no, but that does not mean it is not worthwhile reading.

I am sure there are academics who would argue that all of the relevant literature is not included, and that some of what is included can be/or has been discounted in other work. I am sure practitioners can name advertising campaigns that violate many of the principles yet have been extremely successful. I am recalling John Wanamaker's famous quote “I know that half my advertising dollars are wasted … .I just don't know which half.” It would be nice to think that we could take 100 years of academic knowledge and use it to create and evaluate all of our advertising, making it very effective. Unfortunately, it is not nearly that easy.

When I first read the book, I thought it might be useful in my advanced advertising course. However, by page 16, I knew it would not work. I spend a lot of time in my courses telling students that advertising effectiveness is nearly impossible to measure and that we are relegated to indirect measures, such as recognition, recall, and attitude toward the ad (attitude toward the brand and purchase intent, being even more removed). The most important thing I want my students to learn is that advertising cannot be proven to lead directly to sales (with the possible exception of a coupon which is brought into a retailer, though the coupon might only have facilitated a planned purchase). Why? Because of the conditions Armstrong mentions at the beginning of the book. Advertising is part of the Promotion P. There are three other Ps that are part of any sale (and likely many more factors that are not official Ps). As someone who spent years in the advertising agency business, I often counter‐argue academic studies linking advertising directly to behavior because any form of experiment cannot control for all of the other possible variables influencing a sale.

It is true that the trend has been to tie agency compensation to performance measures such as ROI. However, this assumes a causal relationship with few other influences. Life does not work that way, advertising does not work that way, and consumers do not behave that way. So, while I believe that this book is valuable for what it attempts to do, I do not believe anyone should use it as the be‐all, end‐all of how to develop persuasive advertising in practice. That said, it is useful as a general reference to see what principles should work for some advertisers under certain conditions.

From an academic perspective, the book serves as an organizing guide for looking at key constructs in advertising and the persuasion literature. It is a great way to begin a literature review.