K.J.

SOMAIYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & RESEARCH

IMC
AFFECT INTENSITY OF EMOTIONAL ADVERTISING ON THE MINDS OF
CONSUMER

SUBMITTED TO: -

PROF. ISAAC JACOB

SUBMITTED BY: -

VIJAY VYAS

ROLL NO: - 60

COURSE: - PGDM –RM

Affect Intensity of Emotional Advertising on the Minds of Consumer

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 Vijay vyas, K.J. Somaiya Institute of

Management Studies & Research(SIMSR)

ABSTRACT

The measurement of emotional responses to advertising stimuli is a central field of advertising

research. Although the role of feelings at a verbal and therefore conscious level has been
investigated extensively in the marketing literature, little is known about how the human brain is
involved in advertising perception processes. The methodological problems associated with
previous pioneering approaches in this context seem to be mostly compensated for new methods
of modern neuroscience. These methods and possible applications for advertising research are
discussed in the present paper with a particular focus on the method of functional magnetic
resonance imaging. I found that a positive emotion-inducing program facilitates ad evaluation
while a negative emotion-inducing program debilitates ad evaluation. Emotional advertising is a
subject of growing interest to advertising managers and researchers given its potential for
increasing the effectiveness of marketing communications. Emotions portrayed by actors in ads
may communicate hedonic product benefits and enhance attention to the ad Emotional responses
aroused within viewers have been found to affect consumers' reactions to ads , enhance attention
to the ad (Olney, Holbrook, and Batra, 1991), affect brand attitudes, influence brand memories,
and determine the nature and extent of brand differentiation (Holman, 1984). Despite rapidly
emerging insight into the role of emotion in advertising effectiveness, much remains to be
understood about how advertising executions influence the extent of emotional processing in
viewers and how they affect more "downstream" measures of advertising effectiveness like brand
attitudes, brand image, and choice behavior.
Indeed, a special conference on emotional advertising sponsored by the Marketing Science
Institute (Yoon, 1991) highlights the need for research on emotions in advertising.
Emotional Integration: - Emotional integration is defined as the extent to which the ad portrays
a link between the brand, on the one hand, and the emotional responses of the ad's characters on
the other. In ads for which emotional integration is high, the brand is perceived as a causal agent
to the characters' emotions in the ad. For example, an advertisement that depicts not only the
brand but also clearly portrays the ad's characters as experiencing an emotional benefit or
outcome from brand use is high in emotional integration. Emotional integration is a relatively
new construct in advertising and was recently introduced to the advertising literature by Maclnnis
and Stayman (1993). The potential for this construct is strong, however, as Maclnnis and
Stayman (1993) found that commercials varied widely in the level of emotional integration they
exhibited.

Emotional Flow: -Emotional flow is defined as the extent to which emotions portrayed in a
commercial are perceived to change in their nature and/or intensity during the course of the
commercial. We conceptualize change in emotions as following Russell's (1980) circumplex
model of emotions. This emotion theorist represents emotions in two-dimensional space, with
emotions described in terms of their valence (positive versus negative) and their degree of arousal
(high versus low arousal). Thus, an emotion like "pleasure" is positive and high in intensity,
while "boredom" is an emotion that is moderately negative and low in intensity.
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With respect to emotional flow, ads that show the characters' emotions as changing, either going
from positive to negative or negative to positive, from high arousal to low arousal or low arousal
to high arousal, would represent commercials in which emotional flow is dynamic.

One way in which emotional flow and emotional integration "work" in advertising is to
provide a connection between the brand and the viewer

Linkages Created in Advertising

Creating Viewer/Brand Linkages

In addition to their effects on enhancing connections between the characters in the ad and the
viewer which is shown in the figure below Emotional flow and integration are also expected to
influence outcomes that indicate a connection between the viewer and the brand.

Ad and brand Characters

Viewer

Emotional Advertisements can appeal to:

1. The need for sex

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2. The need for affiliation
3. The need for nurture
4. The need for guidance
5. The need to aggress
6. The need to achieve
7. The need to dominate
9. The need for attention
10. The need for autonomy
11. The need to escape
12. The need to feel safe
13. The need for aesthetic sensations
14. The need to satisfy curiosity
15. Physiological needs: food, drink. sleep, etc....

LITERATURE REVIEW

Affect Intensity
The affect intensity measurement (AIM) scale measures the strength with which individuals
experience their emotions in response to emotion-eliciting stimuli (Larsen 1984). Larsen and
Diener (1987) confirmed that when people are exposed to equal levels of affect-producing
stimuli, some individuals consistently respond with high levels of emotional intensity while
others respond with only moderate levels. Moreover, the emotional reactivity seems to generalize
across both positive and negative emotional domains. For example, Larsen, Diener, and Emmons
(1986) found that subjects classified as high on the AIM scale, when faced with a positive
emotion-eliciting event, reported stronger positive affect than subjects classified as low on the
AIM scale. Correspondingly, when faced with a negative emotion-eliciting event, the same high
AI individuals reported stronger negative emotional responses than their low AI counterparts.
When subjects were exposed to a neutral or nonemotional stimulus or event, the individual
differences tended to disappear. Similarly, Diener et al. (1985), using longitudinal studies,
tracked the daily moods of individuals over a period of eight weeks. They found that the intensity
of the respondents' positive emotions correlated approximately .70 with the intensity of their
negative emotions. Hence, some people may be inclined to manifest more intensity in their
emotions regardless of the valence of the emotions Validity and Reliability of the AIM Scale.
Assessments of the validity of the AIM scale have been conducted in a variety of studies. In one
study, Larsen and Diener (1985) found that the correlation between respondents' self-reported

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AIM scores and the parents' reports of those subjects' emotional response intensity correlated .50.
Peer reports of affect intensity have been shown to be correlated at .41 with self-reported AIM
scores (Larsen and Diener 1987). Three separate studies have compared AIM with an average
daily assessment of emotional response intensity (Larsen and Diener 1987). AIM correlated .61
with emotional intensity in the first study, .52 in the second study, and .49 in the third study.
Assessments of the reliability of the AIM scale have been quite impressive. Larsen (1984) found
that the test-retest reliability for AIM with one-month, two-month and three-month time intervals
was .80, .81 and .81, respectively. In another study the test-retest reliability of AIM was reported
to be .75 over a two-year time interval (Larsen and Diener 1987). Activity Correlates of Affect
Intensity. Larsen, Diener, and Emmons (1986) found affect intensity to be related to four
dimensions of temperament: sociability, activity level, arousability, and emotionality. They found
that high AI individuals were more active, sociable, physically arousable and emotionally
reactive than their low AI counterparts. Evidence from daily activity reports (Larsen 1984)
suggests that individuals scoring high on the affect intensity measure tend to seek emotional
stimulation from day-to-day activities that are highly emotionally provocative (e.g., sexual
activity, attending a sports event, going to a party, and singing/dancing). In contrast, low affect
intensity individuals tend to engage in daily activities that are less emotionally provocative, such
as leisure reading, shopping, letter writing, and bicycle riding. In spite of those findings, Larsen,
Diener, and Emmons (1986) reported that affect intensity showed a zero correlation with
Zuckerman's (1979) sensation seeking scale. The reason is that, unlike the AIM scale that
measures affective reaction to normally occurring day-to-day activities, the sensation-seeking
construct incorporates behaviors associated with risky and thrilling activities that are unusual and
infrequent and serve to provide a change from the daily routine of life (Larsen and Diener 1987).
High AI individuals tend to maintain strong and consistent emotional responses by engaging in
day-to-day activities that are most likely to stimulate emotions. In other words, "individuals high
on the affect intensity dimension do not seek out-of-the-ordinary experiences as much as they
seek out an ordinary daily life that is more emotionally stimulating" (Larsen and Diener 1987, p.
24).

The Regulation of Sensory Stimulation. Research has confirmed that people tend to differ in their
baseline level of arousal (Eysenck 1967). That is, some individuals may be quite underaroused at
baseline and others may be very overaroused at baseline. Given the assumption that people are
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normally driven toward some optimal level of arousal (Geen 1984), the individual who is
underaroused at baseline is expected to be motivated to seek stronger forms of stimulation to
compensate for the presumed low level of arousal, whereas the already overaroused individual is
expected to seek to minimize strong forms of stimulation (Larsen and Diener 1987, p. 28). Affect
intensity theorists suggest that high AI individuals who may be under-aroused at baseline may
modulate the intensity of the impact of emotional stimuli and therefore tend to manifest stronger
or more intense emotional reactions. In contrast, low AI individuals who may be already over-
aroused at baseline may be much less emotionally reactive to equivalent levels of emotion-
provoking stimulation (Larsen and Diener 1987). That rationale suggests that for high AI
individuals, positive emotional stimulation is likely be a very strong form of enjoyment, but
negative emotional stimulation may be unbearably unpleasant.

Research also suggests that dimensions of temperament serve as mechanisms for the regulation of
emotional arousal (Strelau 1982). Larsen and Diener (1987) found that high levels of affect
intensity were associated with individuals who were elevated on the four fundamental dimensions
of temperament (sociability, activity, arousability, and emotionality). In other words, highly
emotionally reactive individuals are likely to show preferences for frequent social interaction, an
activity-driven lifestyle, and physically arousing sensory experiences (Larsen and Diener 1987).

Affect Intensity, Emotional Response, and Attitude Formation. Although previous research has
established that individuals' affect intensity levels have a direct impact on their emotional
responses (Larsen, Diener, and Emmons 1986), very little research is available on the relationship
between affect intensity and attitude. Advertising studies featuring self-monitoring (Snyder and
DeBono 1985) and need for cognition (Cacioppo and Petty 1982) have provided encouraging
support for a linkage between individual differences in personality traits and attitude formation.
For example, Haugtvedt, Petty, and Cacioppo (1992) have shown that need for cognition can
influence attitude formation through the process of differentiating strong from weak arguments
underlying the message. In a corresponding manner, Moore, Harris, and Chen (1995) found that
affect intensity influenced attitude formation through the mediation of emotional responses. Their
study featured a public service advertisement about child abuse that elicited very strong negative
as well as empathic emotions. High AI individuals reported more favorable attitudes toward the
organization sponsoring the ad and showed more positive attitudes toward helping to support the
organization. However, because high AI individuals supposedly experience their emotions with

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great intensity, such individuals may tend to avoid any stimuli (or advertising appeals) that evoke
uncomfortable negative emotions. If so, high AI individuals may be more likely than their low
intensity counterparts, to report unfavorable attitudes toward a negative emotional advertising
appeal. To provide a theoretical foundation for that proposition, we examined some of the
literature on approach/avoidance responses to emotional stimuli.

Approach/Avoidance Responses to Emotional Stimuli

Research assessing approach/avoidance behavior toward emotional stimuli that differ in hedonic
quality indicates that high AI individuals do have a distaste for negative stimuli and seek positive
sensory stimulation (Gallagher, Diener, and Larsen 1989). Research associated with optimal
stimulation theory suggests that individuals, in general, are likely to select positive situations and
avoid negative ones (Gallagher, Diener, and Larsen 1989; Petrie 1967). Moreover, some
individuals supposedly experience their emotions with greater intensity than others, and it may be
more difficult for such high AI individuals to tolerate the experience of intense negative
emotional stimulation. Hence, they tend to dislike exposure to such stimulation.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

To study the impact of emotional advertising on the minds of consumers and acceptance of the
product attached to it. The current study is designed to determine whether affective

Measures that assess emotional responses to advertisement are needed to measure the impact of
emotional advertising.

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 HYPOTHESIS

H1 A positive emotion-inducing program facilitates ad memory and evaluation while a negative

emotion-inducing program debilitates ad memory and evaluation

RESEARCH PROCESS

Research will be conducted in the city of Mumbai and it will be a primary research.

Research papers from ebsco and proquest will also help in making this research a profound one.

POSSIBLE OUTCOME

Emotional ads have a greater impact than any other ads.

SAMPLING DESIGN

Since everyone watches ads it was difficult and infeasible to interview all of them. Hence the
method of Sampling was used.

To give reliable results by Sampling Procedures, Two Important Factors was taken care of:

Accuracy: The degree to which Bias is absent from the Sample

Precision: It should fully represent its Population in all respects.

Relevant Population

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The Relevant Population in my case is of all consumers who are watching ads.

Elements All consumers watching television ads

Sample Unit Socio Economic Class A & B

Extent watching television at least one hour a day

Type of Sampling

For the purpose of this Research Simple Random Sampling was adopted.

Sample Size
Sample Size was 100 consumers.

Data Source
Interviewing viewers the relevant population with the help of Questionnaires collected the
Background information.

Research Design
Exploratory/Statistical

Statistical technique was used, varying from simple means and percentage to computerized
analysis to derive relevant information out of the raw data collected from the consumers.

Data was collected from the Primary Source. The project on Consumer Perception has been
conducted through a household viewer survey. The study was performed area – wise with a
sample size of 100 Respondents in Mumbai

Sample Range
South Mumbai (opera house to worli )

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In Simple Random Sampling every possible sample has a known and equal chance of selection.
The nature of the samples studied includes the Middle Class consumers of Socio – Economic
Class A. & B.

ME stands for measurement

The ME in emotional flow is more prominent with sad feeling in emotional ads.

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And in emotional intergation positive feeling is the most dominant function

And in interaction negative feeling is more

MALE FEMALE RESPONSE TO THE EMOTIONAL ADS.

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Who responds to emotional advertising the maximum?

It has been found in the survey that females are most easily persuaded by emotional advertising.
This group is more likely to feel empathy toward the situations presented in emotional ads
and as a result, view the brand more favorably than those competitors advertising based
upon rational appeals.

OF THE 100 SAMPLE SIZE THIS WAS THE OUTCOME AND FINDINGS ABOUT
THE PRODUCT ATTACHED TO THE EMOTIONAL ADS

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Product brought after seeing the emotional ad works was found to be 43% yes and 57% no which
means that the consumer were not affected towards buying intention.

Sample Size: 100 (All

Figures in Nos.)

1 Middle Class 55

2 Upper Middle Class 22

3 Lower Middle Class 21

4 For All 2

2%
21%
Middle Class
Upper Middle Class
Lower Middle Class
55%
22% For All

DISCUSSION

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Combined, the results suggest a clear superiority to ads regarded as dynamic versus static in
nature and those for which emotional integration is high versus low. Such ads seem to create
greater linkages between the viewer and the consumer— creating more empathy and more
intense feelings from the ad. They are also associated with less negative feelings about the ad—
feelings that are unintended by the advertiser. Such ads also appear to enhance linkages between
the viewer and the product. They create more favorable evaluations of the ad as relevant/
involving, create greater liking for the ad, and create a better sense of congruence between the
brand and the self.
The effects of emotional flow and integration on feelings, relevance/ involvement, ad liking, and
self-brand image congruity may drive purchase intentions, but the effect of emotional flow and
emotional integration on purchase intentions seems to vary by consumer segment.
These advertising variables seem to have little impact on intentions for consumers in the least
promising segment (low loyalty/ low usage) or those consumers in the segment that is currently
most profitable (high loyalty/ high usage). Instead, they seem to create differential effects on the
two segments with the greatest leverage capabilities—the low loyalty/high usage and high
loyalty/ low usage segments. These results are promising since they indicate potential behavioral
effects of advertising on segments for which leverage is most substantial. While emotional flow
appears particularly important in creating empathy, feelings, and ad likability, the interactions
reported in suggest that when emotional integration is low and ads are dynamic, the increase in
involvement and likability due to dynamic emotional flow may detract from purchase intentions.
In terms of attributions, dynamic ads may make the viewer-in interested in the cause of the
character's actions and emotions, but in the absence of salient cues about the product's causal role
(low emotional integration), this enhanced curiosity is effectively wasted on attributions related
to other cues.

Research shows that individuals do differ widely in the intensity of their emotional response to
affect-laden stimuli. Hence, because of differences in the magnitude of their affective response to
emotionally provocative appeals, some individuals may experience intense emotional discomfort
when exposed to negative emotional appeals and others may be only mildly affected. We
conducted a study to examine the extent to which individual differences in emotional reactivity
influence consumers' response to emotionally provocative advertising appeals and to observe how
those emotional reactions influence attitude toward the ad.

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55 %, Respondents to Target Middle Class Consumers as according to them are for that Class of
People.

22 %, i.e. 32, Respondents are of Upper Middle Class of People because they feel certain
products especially for Upper Middle Class category.

These shows how do the class responds towards the emotional ads

This study tests only one personality trait and examines only emotional ads. Since a person's self-
concept is multidimensional, examining other personality traits is necessary for replications. As
discussed briefly earlier, bottled water is a low involving product. Extroverts and introverts are
likely to respond differently to high-involving products due to their orientations toward risk.
Hence the hypothesis taken
H1 A positive emotion-inducing program facilitates ad memory and evaluation while a negative
emotion-inducing program debilitates ad memory and evaluation

And the possible outcome was also correct that emotional ads do influence the minds of
consumers though majorly by female consumers/viewers.

References

1. THE IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL VALENCE AND INTENSITY ON AD EVALUATION

AND MEMORY
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Karen Russo France, West Virginia University
Reshma H. Shah, University of Pittsburgh
C. Whan Park, University of Kttsburgh

2. EMOTIONAL FEELINGS AND ATTITUDE TOWARD THE ADVERTISEMENT: THE

ROLES OF BRAND FAMILIARITY AND REPETITION
Karen A. Machleit
R. Dale Wilson

3. MEASURING EMOTIONAL RESPONSES TO ADVERTISING

Ronald P. Hill, The American University
Michael B. Mazis, The American University

4. THE IMPACTS OF PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES ON PRODUCT EVALUATIONS

Chingching Chang, National Chengchi University

5. SOME THINK DTC ADS BAD FOR HEALTH; OTHERS CONTEND EFFECTS HARD TO
PROVE
Chairman of the AMA Board 2002-2003
Barton A. Weitz University of Florida, Gainesville
AMA Publishing Group Vice President 2000-2003
MichaelJ. Houston University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

6. IMPACT OF DIRECT ADVERTISING

Carlo Lewis

7. DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADS: IMPACT ON PRESCRIBING

Rodent feces." (MMWR, May 6 2005; 54:429-
432)

8. EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Regina molaro

9. ETHICAL JUDGMENTS OF POLITICAL TELEVISION

COMMERCIALS AS PREDICTORS OF ATTITUDE TOWARD THE AD
Spencer F. Tinkham and Ruth Ann Weaver-Larisey

10. CHARACTERISTICS OF PORTRAYED EMOTIONS IN COMMERCIALS: WHEN DOES

WHAT IS SHOWN IN ADS AFFECT VIEWERS?
Edward Kamp and Deborah j. McInnis

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 ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

(1) Do you watch television ads?

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 Yes No

(2) Can you recall the last few ads that you have seen?

________________________________________________________________________

(3) Can you recall the last few emotional ads that you have seen?

________________________________________________________________________

(4) Of the ads viewed which one do you think was more impactful? (if emotional continue)

Emotional ________________

Humorous ________________

Fearful _________________

Educative _________________

Any other (please mention) ______________________________________

(5) How did you feel about the ad?

Empathy ______________
Positive feelings ______________
Sad feelings ______________
Negative feelings ______________
Relevance/involvement ______________
Ad attitudes _______________
Self-brand Image congruity _______________
Purchase intentions _______________

(6) What was the product attached to the emotional ads viewed?

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 Insurance ________________
Car ________________
Baby care ________________
Telecom ________________
Apparels ________________
Any other (please specify) _____________________

(7) Did the ad emotionally focused on fear, humor and self-idealization?

Fear _____________

Humor _____________

Self-idealization _____________

(8) Did you buy the product attached to it after seeing the ads?

Yes No

Name: _________________________________________________

Age: _________________________________________________

Gender: _________________________________________________

Occupation: _________________________________________________

No. of family Members: _________________________________________________

Monthly Income:

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o Upto – 10,000
o 10,000 – 20,000
o 20,000 – 40,000
o 40,000 and above.

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