The effect of print product presentation on consumer’s responses through mental imagery

This paper explores the effectiveness of a specific choice of iconic and verbal stimuli within print advertising to evoke mental imagery. This research aims to further investigate how the evoked imagery influences positive emotions and attitude towards both the advertisement and the brand. We explore how these positive emotions mediate the relationship between mental imagery and subsequent attitudinal responses. Experimental design is employed to examine the effects of imagery-evoking strategies among 340 university students. Structural equation modelling along with the ANOVA and Sobel’s test were used in order to investigate the proposed hypotheses. The study’s findings indicated that the most effective combination involves an ad containing a staged product image and textual content included instructions to imagine. This combination led to a significant enhancement across all three dimensions of mental imagery: quantity, vividness and elaboration. The findings supported the significant influence of mental imagery in engendering positive emotions and generating favorable attitudes towards the advertised products. Furthermore, the study revealed that positive emotions mediate the relationship between mental imagery and attitude. Keywords: mental imagery, product presentation, advertising, positive emotion, attitude DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/90-08 Publication date: October 31 st 2023