The Role of Schema Salience in Ad Processing and Evaluation

Advertising grids such as the Rossiter-Percy grid (Rossiter & Percy 1991, 1997) propose that brand-matching advertising is more effective than brand-mismatching advertising. However, for the match hypothesis to hold the brand schema needs to be salient in ad processing and evaluation. In this study we test how schema salience affects ad processing and evaluation. Two separate experiments were conducted, employing the same brand descriptions and ad scenarios. In the first experiment, the brand schema was made salient in ad processing, whereas in the second experiment the ad schema was made salient. In the first experiment brand(ad combinations were evaluated in line with the Rossiter-Percy advertising grid. If the brand schema was salient, consumers evaluated matching combinations of ad type and brand purchase motivation more favorably than mismatching combinations. In the second experiment, brand(ad combinations were evaluated in accordance with the existing ad schema. This implies that when the ad schema was salient, evaluations of brand(ad combinations were not affected by matches or mismatches between ads and purchase motivations for the brands. The two studies show that evaluation of brand(ad combinations depends on the schema that is salient at the time of information processing. Consequently, brand-matching advertising is effective only if consumers consciously relate ad information to brand knowledge, i.e., if the brand schema is salient in ad processing.