The effectiveness of comparative advertising in the US automobile market influenced by consumer ethnocentrism, industry-specific personal characteristics, and foreign versus domestic brand ownership

ABSTRACT

Comparative advertising is a common promotional tactic used by automobile marketers in the USA for many decades. Comparative advertising either directly mentions a competing brand by name in a comparison favorable to the sponsor of that advertisement, or indirectly implies a competing brand by referring to the competitive group of brands without naming one in particular. Much like comparative advertising, consumer ethnocentrism is inherently adversarial because ethnocentric consumers consider domestic products superior to competing brands produced in another country. Consumer ethnocentrism materializes in the form of cognitive, affective, and conative personal characteristics that can influence purchase decisions. It also represents a consumer’s concern about the economic well-being of his or her fellow citizens. Comparative advertising can exert a significant influence on the formation of ethnocentric responses at the moment of exposure to the ad content. The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of direct and indirect comparative advertising featuring domestic versus foreign automobile brands among US consumers when the influence of consumer ethnocentrism, personal characteristics that connect respondents to the US automobile industry, and foreign versus domestic automobile brand ownership are simultaneously considered in a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) model.

比较性广告是一种普遍的促销策略，在美国已被汽车市场营销者使用了几十年。比较性广告或者在对广告赞助商有利的对比中直接提及竞争品牌的名称，或者通过间接提及其他竞争种类来间接暗指竞争品牌，而不提及某一特定品牌的名称。与比较性广告相似，消费者民族中心主义具有与生俱来的对抗性，因为具有民族中心主义的消费者认为本国产品优于外国生产的竞争品牌。消费者民族中心主义通过认知的、情感的以及意动的个人特点的形式实现，这些个人特点能够影响消费决策。消费者民族中心主义也代表了消费者对于他或她的同胞们的生活水平的关心。在人们看到广告内容时，比较性广告能够很大程度上影响民族中心主义反应的形成。

本研究的目的在于测试本国与外国汽车品牌的直接与间接比较性广告对于美国消费者的有效性。在本研究的多因素协方差分析中，同时考虑以下几方面的影响：消费者民族中心主义、个人特点（连接被试与美国汽车产业）、以及国内外汽车品牌所有权。

KEYWORDS:

• Comparative advertising
• consumer ethnocentrism
• US automobile industry employment
• foreign versus domestic brand ownership
• multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA)

关键词:

• 比较性广告
• 消费者民族中心主义
• 美国汽车产业雇佣情况
• 国内外品牌所有权
• 多因素协方差分析

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.