The Effects of Advertising Appeal on Perceptions of Product Quality

In Study 1, high and low self-monitors either listened to music on a cassette tape or sampded a cola product after observing either an image- or a quality-oriented advertisement for the product. High self-monitors rated the quality of the products higher than low self-monitors after suing the image-oriented advertisements, and low self-monitors rated the quality of the products higher than high self-monitors after seeing the quality-oriented advertisements. In Study 2, high and low self-monitors -sorted ads that varied in the degree to which they represented image- or quality-based appeals into self-relevant and non-self-relevant categories. The more image oriented the ads were, the more self-relevant high self-monitors perceived the ads to be, and the more quality oriented the ads were, the more self-relevant low self-monitors perceived them to be. In Study 3, 1 week after viewing image-and quality-oriented ads, high and low self-monitors saw additional image and quality ads (some new, some originals) and were asked whether the ads were old or new. High self-monitors were more accurate at identifying image ads as old or new, whereas low self-monitors were more accurate at identifying quality ads as old or new.