Interesting Results

Positive and Negative Comparative Ads

A lot of research has examined what happens when advertisements make comparisons between the brand being advertised and competing brands. A 2004 study¹ suggests that the answer may depend in part on the nature of these comparisons. The researchers classified comparisons made in ads as either positive or negative depending on whether they positioned both brands as good but the advertised brand as better, or positioned the advertised brand as good and the other brand as bad. In a series of three experiments, they investigated how consumers reacted to the positive and negative ads. They found that negative ads:

Were perceived to be less believable.
Generated less favorable brand attitudes.
Led to more negative conclusions about the advertisers’ claims and motives.

¹ Jain, Shailendra Pratap and Steven Posavac (2004), “Valenced Comparisons”, Journal of Marketing Research, 41(1), 46-58.