Understanding Advertising Appeals: Some Considerations For

Defragmenting Advertising Research

Introduction
For marketers, the ultimate goal of advertising is sales (Ogilvy, 1983; Naccarato &
Neuendorf, 1998). Modern day advertising widens the scope of this concept beyond the
selling of physical products/services (Levitt, 1960; Ogilvy, 1983), to the creation of interest
in/awareness of a brand image (Mikhailitchenko, Javalgi, Mikhailitchenko, & Laroche, 2009)
or organization (e.g., charity and not-for-profit organizations, government organizations). In
developing good (i.e., effective) advertising, arguably the most important single factor is the
theme or appeal (Karp, 1974; Labarbera, Weingard, & Yorkston, 1998) and hence many
research studies have sought to reveal the type of appeal selected by marketers to reinforce
brand positioning. The continued growth in advertising expenditures internationally
highlighted by Lee & Carter (2005) suggests that this remains a critical area of study.
The potential wealth of information for the fields of cultural, consumer and management
theory and practice that may be derived from international advertising research has
stimulated a plethora of studies over the past few decades (Hackley, 2005). However, the
development of this stream of research has also provoked criticism for its fragmented nature
and subsequent lack of theory development (Okazaki, Mueller & Taylor, 2010; Taylor,
2006).
This paper first examines the ambiguity associated with the definition of advertising appeals
to demonstrate the complexity of the study of appeals and how this has contributed to the
fragmented approach in the field of international advertising research. The authors contend
that it is the lack of a comprehensive definition of the core construct of an “advertising
appeal” that has inhibited the development of an overarching theoretical framework in the
field. Proposals for the development of a comprehensive classification scheme for
advertising appeals are presented, in order to support theoretical development and the
creation of a framework with which to guide practitioners’ decision-making.
Advertising Appeals in Current Research
Appadurai (1990) ascribes considerable weight to the power of mediascapes as conduits in
the communication of ideas to influence consumers, and notes that communication media
themselves are subject to influence by marketers seeking to find a predominant share of voice
amid the noise clutter. It has also been suggested that the evolution of advertising mirrors the
cultural evolution of the market (An, 2006), which is especially noticeable by the increasing
tendency to frame product features within a specific aspirational lifestyle context
(Williamson, 2002), rather than utilize a straightforward information-oriented explanation.
The inherent complexity in the definition of the construct of advertising appeals, endowed by
the increasing breadth of approaches to communicating the core brand message (Williamson,
2002) has motivated researchers to focus on comparative studies of the use of specific
appeals across different international markets (e.g., Nevett, 1992; So, 2004; Teng & Laroche,
2006). However, the plethora of fragmented research studies in the field of advertising
appeals suffers from an inconsistency in design due to the assorted definitions of variables
being studied and thus prohibits the development of generalizable theories (Okazaki et al.,
2010). There is additionally some overlap between the identification of appeals and
executions (Frazer, Sheehan & Patti, 2002) and ongoing debate over whether an appeal
should be treated as a message element or a response element.
Miracle’s (1984) early review of the literature bemoaned the underdevelopment of
international advertising research at that time and pointed to a lack of systematic research,
suggesting that scholars tended to initiate their own independent research rather than build on
advances made in previous studies. According to Taylor’s (2005) review of the literature, it

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would seem that the field has not moved on significantly from this haphazard approach – or
at least, in Taylor’s (2005) opinion, not quickly enough.
Defining the Scope and Purpose of an Advertising Appeal
Although scholars have spent over half a century studying and discussing advertising appeals,
it would seem that a consensus has still not been reached with regard to the definition of what
an appeal is and what are the parameters of its functions (Okazaki et al., 2010). While there
have been continued attempts to define the concept of an appeal, many fail to capture the
breadth of context in which appeals are used in an increasingly complex media environment.
In the marketing literature, advertising appeals were already being brought under the
spotlight as early as the 1940s. Dichter’s (1949) initial discussion of the difficulties
associated in interpreting the meaning of an advertising appeal still remains valid in
highlighting the difficulty that researchers have experienced in defining the concept of an
appeal. Dichter (1949: p.61) mused that the construct is, “one of the most complex
psychological devices. Since most of our actions are governed by our needs and desires, an
effective appeal is a convincing promise of satisfaction of these needs”. Miller (1950)
equated an appeal to a ‘drive’, which was further segmented into two levels: primary (e.g.
hunger, thirst), or secondary (e.g. pride, ambition and desire for money).
The majority of studies into the application of advertising appeals are founded on the
definition by Hovland, Janis and Kelley (1965) that refers to an advertising appeal as a
message element designed to promote a behavioural response by the receiver. However,
since the individual aroused motives of the recipient can vary significantly according to
influencing factors such as the needs, past experiences, and personality of the individual
audience member, the proposed definition of appeals fails to capture the subjective response
that may be invoked in the individual consumer.
A number of definitions have emerged that focus on the role of the advertisement in
stimulating a response or action on the part of the ‘spectator’. This core premise was also
incorporated in the definition proposed by Kotler and Armstrong (1991: p. 426), “An appeal
is the basic idea that advertisers want to communicate to the audience - the basic reason why
the audience should act”. While this addresses some of the concerns associated with the
treatment of appeals as a message versus a response variable, it fails to address the
eventuality where an audience is not required to act (Mikhailitchenko et al., 2009).
In any case, since varying factors motivate different people in different ways, it follows from
the above definitions that the interpretation of the ‘appeal’ of a message lies in the eyes of the
beholder. Beetles and Harris (2005) refer to the ‘gaze theory’, maintaining that the definition
of an advertising appeal should reference the spectator, since the kind of response achieved
may be different to that originally intended by the advertiser depending on who views the
advertisement. When the spectators come from different cultures, the specificity and the
meanings assigned to similar messages can be very different (Aaker & Williams, 1998;
Baudot, 1991; Belk & Pollay, 1985; Lee, Williams & La Ferle, 2004).
The definition proposed by Kelley and Turley (2004) focuses on the indirect approach to
selling goods that advertisers deploy by communicating the need for a product/service, and
the authors suggest an underlying emotional or rational premise for such communication.
Again, this proposition does not capture all of the possible purposes of an advertisement and
the suggestion that an appeal is based on either an emotional or rational premise does not
account for situations where both categories may be applicable to a single advertisement.
Banerjee, Gulas and Iyer (1995) suggest invoking environmental consciousness through a
message and term this response as ‘green appeal’. The appeal variable here is used as an
evoked emotion rather than a message element. Vincent and Dubinsky’s (2005) research
comparing the impact of fear as a response variable in the US and France used fear as a
response variable and identified threat as the corresponding message element. Similarly,

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Rotfeld (1999) identified a fear appeal as a response to a threatening message and also
highlighted the non-universality of the responses, finding that even within a narrowly defined
demographic group, no threat evokes the same response in different people who fear different
things. Such studies that identify corresponding pairs of message and response variables have
received limited attention in the literature and are worthy of broader exploration in order to
develop a more advanced theory to establish the importance of the role of the appeal for
decision-makers seeking to develop effective advertising.
To address some of the ambiguity associated with the construct of an appeal as a copy
variable versus a response variable, some researchers (e.g. Javalgi, Cutler & White, 1994)
have tried to differentiate between content appeal and visual communication appeal. Such
differentiations are seemingly designed for the purpose of satisfying the immediate needs of
the approaches used by the researchers. For instance, Holbrook and Lehman’s (1980) study
identified two separate categories of ‘appeals’ and ‘subjective responses’, however, the
overlap between these two categories renders the classification and subsequent analysis
confusing. For example ‘believable’ is identified both as a copy variable and a response
variable. To further add to the confusion, the broader categories of emotional and rational are
classified as ‘claims’. In contrast, other researchers (Bennett & Kottasz, 2001; Mattila, 1999)
have classified these same categories as appeals. De Pelsmacker and Geuens (1997)
acknowledge that a distinction needs to be made between the emotional technique used and
emotional reaction of the consumer as a result of being exposed to the advertisement.
In addition to deciding the treatment of an appeal as an element of a message versus the
response to it, the ambiguity associated with the meaning of an appeal needs to be addressed.
Belk and Pollay (1985) make a distinction between a theme and an appeal by providing the
example of ‘materialism’ as a theme and suggest that there are three different ‘appeals’ of
materialism: instrumental, existential and terminal. In the context of Belk and Pollay’s (1985)
definition, for instance, status is used as an instrumental appeal within the overall theme of
materialism – adding the dimension of ‘theme’ to the definition of an appeal. More recent
studies continue to refer to a general concept of appeals and acknowledge their instrumental
role in stimulating audience responses, but focus on specific types of appeals without clearly
defining the core construct (O’Shaughnessy & O’Shaughnessy, 2004; Sargeant, 2004).
The literature on advertising has afforded considerable focus to the type and scope of
advertising appeals in the communication of a particular message, since this constitutes the
primary level at which a response is invoked in the message recipient. However, Okazaki et
al. (2010) bemoan that the wide assortment of definitions of variables being studied in the
field of advertising appeals yields a plethora of fragmented research studies as a result of the
inconsistency in research designs. The definition of an appeal needs to resolve the ambiguity
that arises due to its use interchangeably with terms like drive, claim, and theme. We might
also consider whether an appeal should be treated as a message element or a response
element in its definition.
Importantly, the definition should clearly differentiate the two distinct constructs of the
appeal and the execution. The selection of an appeal type by the advertiser is not bound by
the advertising medium, in contrast to the execution – i.e., the manner in which the appeal is
communicated to the audience (Frazer et al., 2002; Marshall & Roberts, 2008) – which may
be limited by the specific communication medium chosen for the campaign.
In summary, we suggest that the definition of an appeal should encompass specific reference
to the primary motive that advertisers seek to invoke in the audience, with the intention that
the audience may respond to the underlying core message. Thus, the definition should view
an appeal as a ‘message element’, in its broadest sense, which seeks to create a specific
response from the recipient. It must also acknowledge that more than one motive may be
aroused, but that the primary one is to be used for tactical purposes. Furthermore, it is critical

3
to broaden the concept of the underlying purpose of an advertisement, which in some cases
may involve the creation of awareness and interest in the subject item, rather than simply the
stimulation of immediate purchase intents (Mikhailitchenko et al., 2009).
Classification Schemes
The lack of a consistent and comprehensive definition of an advertising appeal has generated
a large but fragmented body of research that uses a range of classification schemes (e.g.
Resnik & Stern, 1977; Shimp, 1976; Shimp & Sharma, 1987), varying in aspects of size and
form, and in levels and types. Depending on the purpose, numerous studies have used broad
dichotomous classifications of advertising appeals: these include emotional versus rational
(de Pelsmacker & Geuens, 1997; Janssens & de Pelsmacker, 2005), altruistic versus benefit
(Bennett & Kottasz, 2001), functional versus emotional (Lee & O'Connor, 2003), cognitive
versus affective (Lohtia, Donthu & Hershberger, 2003) egoistic versus altruistic (Schneider &
Johnson, 1995) image versus claim (Shrum, 1989), informational versus emotional (So,
2004), individualistic versus collectivistic (Teng & Laroche, 2006), positive versus negative
(MacInnis & Stayman, 1993) and thinking versus feeling (Golden & Johnson, 1983), to name
a few. This provides a snapshot of arbitrariness and lack of consistency even in the broadest
of the schemes, limiting the observations per study to analyses of preselected styles of
communication, rather than adopting a grounded theory approach to identifying the prevalent
types of appeal deployed.
Although a number of researchers have based their analysis on published classification
schemes, such as the CETSCALE (Shimp & Sharma, 1987), multi-cultural studies have
frequently required the modification of such schemes to accommodate the cultural nuances of
the participating markets (Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996).
The broadest and most common classification of emotional versus rational presents some
operational problems in the classification of advertisements into subcategories. For example
‘quality’ is most likely to be considered a rational appeal but the intended reaction of trust,
prestige or status that it may plausibly invoke will just as easily fit into the emotional appeal
category. The subcategories of ‘warmth’, ‘fantasy’ and ‘tradition’ involve operationalisation
problems as message elements and leave a lot of interpretational ambiguity in their meaning
(Mueller, 1987). Similarly, sex appeal (Kelley & Turley, 2004), erotic and provocative appeal
(de Pelsmacker & Geuens, 1997) have the potential for significant overlap.
There is also a lack of consistency across the advertising media. Some studies, based on the
content analysis of television advertisements, use a broad classification scheme of
informational versus transformational (Chiou, 2002; Marshall & Roberts, 2008). While this
scheme is clearly analogous to the emotional versus rational scheme, usually employed in
print advertising classifications, the different terminology leads to confusion and prevents
comparisons. Similar issues are apparent in studies investigating advertisement appeals on
the Internet: e.g., Tuten, Bosnjak and Bandilla (1999) used intrinsic versus extrinsic
classification to differentiate advertisements that used cues through message content versus
those that used cues such as colour and sound. Such a classification scheme is not commonly
found on the other advertising channels.
In some classification schemes, positive or negative ‘tone’ of the message is incorporated
which results in four broad categories of rational positive, rational negative, emotional
positive and emotional negative (e.g. Manrai, Broach, Carter & Manrai, 1992). Main, Argo
and Huhmann (2004) used the positive/negative classification of rational versus emotional
categories, wherein positive emotional appeals include sub categories like warmth, happiness,
humour, nostalgia and sex, and negative emotional appeals include sub-categories of fear,
guilt, shame, regret, sadness, and anger. The three levels of classification add further to the
complexity, lack of clarity, confusion and arbitrariness of the schemes and the value of the
intermediate level of classification, i.e., positive versus negative, is not clear.

4
Towards a Comprehensive Classification Scheme
The diversity of practices in the classification of advertising appeals, especially regarding the
terminologies used in broad and subcategories, and coding of multiple cues and intensity in
appeals, has prevented efficient cumulative building of knowledge in this field. The
development of a comprehensive classification scheme to this end is of paramount
significance and the following criteria are proposed as a starting point.
An efficient classification scheme must involve several levels of classification starting with
the broad categories like emotional, factual, rational or informational. These categories may
then be evaluated for mutual exclusivity and any overlap identified may be addressed through
deletion (Shimp, 1976). A cumulative list generated from several previous studies (see
examples in Appendix 1) may be considered for ‘collective exhaustiveness’. At this point,
any gaps may be addressed through the addition of categories. Techniques such as cluster
analysis may also be employed with subsequent tests for reliability as well as convergent,
discriminant and predictive validity. These steps may then be repeated for individual sub
categories like humour, guilt, fear, etc. referring again to the list collated from past studies,
and testing for mutual exclusivity and collectively complete representation. The next step
may involve generating a list of clear, concise, and unambiguous definitions of the broad and
subcategories of appeals to facilitate universal coding standards in future studies.
Following the finalization of the lists and the corresponding definitions of the categories, the
classification scheme should allow for further sub-classification into types and levels of these
appeals, which may be required for cross-industry and cross-cultural comparisons. It is
acknowledged that not all studies will need to use this kind of depth in coding - the research
question and purpose of the research may be used to assess the need for any such sub-
classification for individual studies.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that creative departments of companies and advertising
agencies drive the use of appeals, therefore periodically, based on popular usage the list of
categories will need to be updated. As a case in point, the use of ‘green appeal’ and ‘country
of origin’ appeal has increased in the last few years warranting their inclusion in newer
studies as possible appeals.
Conclusions
Lee and Carter (2005) highlight the dramatic growth rates for advertising communications
across many significant economies of the world over the last two decades of the twentieth
century. With ever-increasing amounts of resources at stake, future research must respond to
the information needs of practitioners to assist them in making various choices related to the
development of effective advertising (Taylor, 2006), which is grounded in the appeal
deployed to engage the recipient with the communication elements.
The majority of comparative studies incorporate only a few markets in the analysis.
Similarly, many studies are industry-specific and risk developing classification schemes that
omit types of appeals unique to other industries and may be misleading for generalized
practitioner use. While this approach has yielded interesting results, a wider span of
interacting elements and a grounded theory approach would contribute significantly to the
field, as well as ensure that the sub-topics are afforded the appropriate weight. The creation
of an all-encompassing scheme would extend the reach of studies in the field and facilitate
greater generalisation of the results.
The impact of current trends such as the increasing integration of the global environment, and
the growth of the Internet, etc., on the choice of message appeals warrants further research
attention as companies strive to maintain global visibility (Banerjee, 2000; Lee & Carter,
2005) in their cross-cultural communications. Although it must be emphasized that
clarification of a comprehensive definition of the construct is of primary importance in the
development of the research design (Levy, Beechler, Taylor, & Boyacigiller, 2007).

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Appendix I: Examples of the range of advertising appeals examined in advertising research
Type of Appeal Author(s)
Emotional vs. rational de Pelsmacker & Geuens (1997)
Janssens & de Pelsmacker (2005)
Functional vs. emotional Lee & O’Connor (2003)
Informational vs. transformational Cutler, Thomas & Rao (2000)
Need vs. want McNeal & McDaniel (1984)
Thinking vs. feeling Golden & Johnson (1983)
Cognitive vs. affective Lohtia, Donthu & Hershberger (2003)
Empathy vs. pride Aaker & Williams (1998)
Positive vs. negative feelings MacInnis & Stayman (1993)
Faseur & Geuens (2006)
Persuasion vs. advocacy Han & Shavitt (2004)
Altruistic vs. benefit Bennett & Kottasz (2001)
Claims Maciejewski (2005)
“Green” products / claims Banerjee, Gulas & Iyer (1995)
Schuhwerk & Lefkoff-Hagius (1995)
Social values Zinkhan, Hong & Lawson (1990)
Humour Toncar (2001)
Hatzithomas Zotos & Boutsouki (2011)
Fear Rotfeld (1999)
Vincent & Dubinsky (2005)
Threats / Shocks Dickinson & Holmes (2008)
Guilt Cotte, Coulter & Moore (2005)
Public Health & Safety:
- anti-smoking Devlin, Eadie, Stead & Evans (2007)
- road safety Lewis, Watson & Tay (2007)
- alcohol consumption Dorsett & Dickerson (2004)
- AIDS awareness Mitchell, Macklin & Paxman (2007)
Lifestyle images Belk & Pollay (1985)
Materialism and status appeals Barnes, Kitchen, Spickett-Jones & Yu
(2004)
Bisseil & Rask (2010)
Sex Beetles & Harris (2005)
Manceau & Tissier-Desbordes (2006)
Gender roles Wiles, Wiles & Tjernlund (1995)
Strieter & Weaver (2005)
Age Simcock & Sudbury (2006)
Ethnic minorities Lee, Fernandez & Martin (2002)
Culture Teng & Laroche (2006)
Country-of-Origin Verlegh, Steenkamp & Meulenberg (2005)
Patriotism Gelb 2002
Expert endorsers Lafferty & Goldsmith (1999)
Employee endorsers Stephens & Faranda (1993)
Celebrity endorsers Erdogan, Baker & Tagg (2001)
Chao, Wuhrer & Werani (2005)