The Effect of Terminologies on Attitudes Toward Advertisements and Brands: Consumer Product Knowledge as a Moderator

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between advertisement terminology and consumer product knowledge in the attitudes toward advertisements and brands. One hundred and twenty undergraduates participated in a 2 x 2 (terminologies are used versus terminologies are not used x high consumer product knowledge versus low consumer product knowledge) between-subjects design. Low consumer product knowledge individuals form significantly more favorable advertisement attitudes and brand attitudes toward advertisements with terminologies than toward advertisements without terminologies, but no differentially favorable advertisement attitudes and brand attitudes are formed for high consumer product knowledge individuals. The interaction effects of message-level variables (such as terminology) and consumer-level variables (such as consumer product knowledge) are of importance. The effectiveness of advertisement terminologies depends on the levels of consumer product knowledge. Understanding the consumer-level variables of target markets before making advertisement decision is very critical. Techniques of data-mining and psychographics benefit advertisement managers to better realize the targeted consumers. This is one of the pioneering studies to examine the relationship between advertisement terminology and consumer product knowledge in the attitudes toward advertisements and brands. Additionally, most of the prior studies on advertisement effects associated with the use of advertisement terminology ignored the influence of consumer product knowledge. The present study helps us to understand the influence of consumer product knowledge in advertisement effects and provides evidence for the relationship between advertisement terminology and consumer product knowledge in the attitudes toward advertisements and brands.