The Moderating Effects of Typicality and the Mediating Effects of Advertising Message Involvement on Comparative Advertising

It is proposed that comparing a typical versus an atypical product attribute in advertising will distort the value of naming your competitor. Using two experimental studies, this research investigates how typicality of the product attribute influences the effectiveness of different types of comparative advertising in terms of consumer's attitude. Results from two experiments show that product attribute typicality interacted with the types of comparative advertising: direct comparative advertising was significantly more effective in changing consumers' attitude than indirect comparative advertising when a typical product attribute was compared; whereas such significant difference in effectiveness no longer held when an atypical product attribute was compared. These results were consistent regardless the compared brand was a market leader (Study 2) or not (Study 1). Finally, mediation analysis found that the product attribute typicality by comparative advertising type interaction influenced consumers' brand attitudes through the mediating role of advertising message involvement.