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Information content and consumer readership of print ads: A comparison of search and experience products

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Abstract

This study builds on past research involving the economics of advertising information (Nelson 1970, 1974) to examine the interplay between advertisers' provision and consumers' readership of information. The authors focus on the prepurchase verifiability of advertising claims in three product categories: search products, experience shopping products, and experience convenience products. They use a broader measure of the information content of advertising than in past research, together with Starch readership scores for a sample of ads from nine U.S. magazines. The results show that the relationship between information provision and readership is positive for search products, negative for convenience products, and nonsignificant for shopping products. Average information levels are significantly higher in ads for shopping products than for convenience and search products. These findings suggest that advertisers may be underinforming consumers when promoting search products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alabama, Alabama, USA

    George R. Franke & David L. Mothersbaugh

  2. New Mexico State University, New Mexico, USA

    Bruce A. Huhmann

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  1. George R. Franke
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  2. Bruce A. Huhmann
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  3. David L. Mothersbaugh
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Additional information

George R. Franke (gfranke@cba.ua.edu) is a professor and Reese Phifer Fellow of Marketing at the University of Alabama. His Ph.D. is from the University of North Carolina. His research interests include public policy, ethics, advertising, and research methodology. His previous research on the information content of advertising includes articles that received best-paper awards from theJournal of Advertising and theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing.

Bruce A. Huhmann (bhuhmann@nmsu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at New Mexico State University. His Ph.D. is from the University of Alabama. His research interests include advertising, consumer behavior, and international marketing. His primary stream of research focuses on verbal and visual appeals in advertising. He has also coauthored a study on sources of information used in consumer decision making. He has published articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theAsia Pacific Journal of Management, and in other journals and conference proceedings.

David L. Mothersbaugh (dmothers@cba.ua.edu) is an associate professor and Board of Visitors Research Fellow in marketing at the University of Alabama. His Ph.D. is from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include advertising, rhetorical language, consumer knowledge, search and decision making, e-commerce, and services marketing. He has publications in journals such as theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Consumer Affairs, as well as in various conference proceedings.

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Franke, G.R., Huhmann, B.A. & Mothersbaugh, D.L. Information content and consumer readership of print ads: A comparison of search and experience products. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 32, 20–31 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070303257856

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