Measuring Advertising Effectiveness Through Inter Modulation of Affect and Cognition

Abstract

Information processing models, involving affect and cognition, are replete with theories advocating prominence of cognition or affect or the hierarchies in which processing takes place. We have taken into account various literatures on information processing, along with recent advances on neuroscience to propose a model in which affect and cognition operate simultaneously and interactively in a mutually reinforcing manner. Any study to assess advertising effectiveness cannot ignore the role of involvement, cognitive resource allocation, and gender. The proposed model takes into consideration the moderating role of all these factors on various attitudes and behaviors. Looking at the recent surge in the tendency of advertisers to humanize the offer, the model developed can also determine the effectiveness of anthropomorphized advertisements as well, and explains the mediating role of affect and relatedness (generated as a consequence of category based processing on exposure to these advertisements) on purchase behavior.