Regulatory focus and choice: The impact of control perceptions on advertising effectiveness

ABSTRACT

Consumers experience different degrees of control in their daily lives. However, control perceptions have not attracted the necessary attention in advertising research. Across two experiments, we investigated how perceived control influences consumer responses to advertisements. In Study 1, participants with different levels of perceived control were exposed to advertisements with different regulatory focus. The results indicated that perceptions of sufficient control led to more favorable responses to a promotion-focused advertisement than a prevention-focused advertisement. In Study 2, the advertising stimuli not only differed in regulatory focus but also presented different product choices (i.e., one choice vs. ten choices). It was found that participants with sufficient control evaluated a promotion-focused advertisement more favorably than a prevention-focused advertisement when there was only one choice rather than ten choices presented. However, participants with reduced control responded to the advertisement presenting ten choices more favorably than the one with one choice regardless of regulatory focus.

KEYWORDS:

• Control perceptions
• regulatory focus
• product choice
• advertising effectiveness
• message strategy
• consumer responses

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Utilitarian perceptions (four-item) and hedonic perceptions (four-item) were measured by adopting items from Voss, Spangenberg, and Grohmann (2003). Items of utilitarian perceptions included ‘unhelpful/helpful,’ ‘not functional/functional,’ ‘not useful/useful,’ and ‘not beneficial/beneficial.’ Items of hedonic perceptions included ‘not fun/fun,’ ‘dull/exciting,’ ‘unpleasant/pleasant,’ and ‘unenjoyable/enjoyable.’

2. Perceived prevention focus was measured adopting a three-item, 9-point scale from White, MacDonnell, and Dahl (2011). An example item was ‘The advertisement focused on preventing negative outcomes.’

3. Perceived promotion focus was measured adopting a three-item, 9-point scale from White, MacDonnell, and Dahl (2011). An example item was ‘The advertisement focused on achieving positive outcomes.’

4. Sense of control was measured using a four-item, 9-point scale adapted from Bailey and Pearson (1983). The items were ‘low/high,’ ‘insufficient/sufficient,’ ‘vague/precise,’ and ‘weak/strong.’

5. For both studies, the ad copy of the stimuli was consistent with the attributes of the product used. This was to ensure that the message regulatory focus was associated with the specific product in the stimuli (i.e., yogurt/grape juice). Hence, the manipulation focused on the message regulatory focus which offers the possibility of the expansion of this research’s findings to other products in different categories.

6. Perceived prevention focus was measured in the same way as in the pretest in Study 1.

7. Perceived promotion focus was measured in the same way as in the pretest in Study 1.

8. Perceived choice was measured using two 9-point items from Diehl and Poynor (2010) and Hui and Bateson (1991). The items were ‘This advertisement provides … (1 = a very small selection; 9 = a very large selection)’ and ‘How much choice do you think a consumer has when viewing this advertisement? (1 = very little choice; 9 = very much choice)’.

9. Sense of control was measured in the same way as in the pretest in Study 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naa Amponsah Dodoo

Naa Amponsah Dodoo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing Communication at Emerson College. Dr Dodoo’s research revolves around her fascination with evolving new media technologies, its role in digital and social media environments, and subsequent influence on consumer psychology and behavior in offline and online realms. Primarily, she explores the effects of individual traits and contextual aspects of digital communication on persuasion. Her work has been published in journals such as Journal of Interactive Advertising and Journal of Marketing Communications.

Linwan Wu

Dr. Linwan Wu is an Assistant Professor in School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Wu’s research adopts the empirical and social scientific approach investigating how communication technologies influence consumers’ responses to strategic communication. He is interested in seeing how different features of digital media work together with other factors (e.g., message, individual, and contextual factors) to influence consumers’ cognitive, affective, and conative responses. His work has been published in journals such as International Journal of Advertising and Journal of Marketing Communications.