Right metaphor, right place: choosing a visual metaphor based on product type and consumer differences

Abstract

This research examines the effectiveness of different metaphor types (juxtaposition vs. replacement vs. fusion) while taking into account the potential impacts of product type, consumer gender differences, and consumer cognitive capacity. The experimental results indicate that ads with metaphors are more effective than those without, regardless of the type of metaphor being used. For females, a replacement metaphor is more effective in ads for ‘search products’, while a juxtaposition metaphor is more effective in ads for ‘experience products’. Juxtaposition metaphors are more effective for males, regardless of product type. When the focus is narrowed to the cognitive capacity of female participants, metaphor type and product type are found to have an interactive effect on females with high cognitive capacity. Fusion metaphors have the advantage when promoting a search product to high cognitive capacity females. The results suggest that practitioners can more effectively promote their products by choosing the right type of metaphor.

Keywords:

• metaphor type
• product type
• gender differences
• cognitive capacity
• advertising

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Corrigendum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.