Advertising Effectiveness and Risk in the Consumer Decision Process

The persuasion of advertising is examined in terms of the risks women face in their decisions as consumers. Experimental results relate self-confidence, risk style, and product importance to the effect of TV commercials on brand choices for regular and instant coffee, shampoo, margarine, and household wraps. The data confirm the curvilinear effect of generalized self-confidence on persuasibility. They also show that persuasion is strongly affected by a woman's risk style. The effects of these psychological variables are enhanced for more important products, while the overall level of persuasion decreases as importance increases.