A diagnostic model for testing the memorability of advertisements.

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to develop and empirically test a conceptual framework for examining the effects of advertising exposure on consumer memory so as to better understand the information processing of advertisements. Patterns and levels of performance on various tests of memory for different advertisement components are interpreted within the framework of a memory model adapted from the well-known SAM model in psychology. Predictions are made regarding the effects on recall, recognition, and indirect test performance of an ad's execution strength and relevance to the main message elements, and elaboration (semantic versus nondirected). The general diagnostic procedures are illustrated in a study of humor in advertising. Subjects viewed print ads with variations in the humorous execution's strength and relevance to the brand claims either without explicit instructions to elaborate or with a task requiring semantic elaboration of the links between the humor and the brand claims. Subsequently they completed a (direct) recognition or recall task, or an indirect test of memory for various ad components. The results, though not entirely systematic, show that memory for the brand name and brand claim components vary as a function of stimulus characteristics and the processing operations at encoding. Second, the findings show that the ad components may facilitate or interfere with each other. High levels of attention to one ad component may lead to lower memory performance on other components. Third, this research shows how a theory-based set of comparisons of memory test performance may be used to identify the locus of effects, viz., at encoding or at retrieval. Memory failures due to lack of encoding attention to the ad are distinguished from the inability to retrieve the encoded information later. Finally, the study demonstrates the use of indirect tasks in testing advertising effects that implicate implicit retrieval processes from memory. The patterns of parallel versus dissociated performance on traditional direct versus indirect tests offer insights into various types of advertising effects on memory. The academic and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.