This study examines differences in the emotional and rational appeal of premium and standard brands in the promotion of automobiles. A content analysis of 216 print advertisements of premium brands and 276 of standard brands serve as basis for the analysis. Emotional and rational cues as well as emotion and argument types are used to compare premium with standard brands. The findings show that print advertisements are dominated by emotional appeals and that premium brands differ significantly from standard brands regarding the use of cues and types. Also, a clear hierarchy among emotional and argument types is found.

1. EMAC 2015
Differences in the Emotional and Rational
Appeal of Premium and Standard Brands in
the Promotion of Automobiles
Christian W. Scheiner, Christian V. Baccarella, Timm Trefzger & Kai-Ingo Voigt
EMAC 2015 - Leuven
17.07.15

2. EMAC 2015
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3. EMAC 2015

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6. EMAC 2015
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7. EMAC 2015

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10. EMAC 2015
Theoretical Background (I)
• Car manufacturers face a high
pressure to present new product
developments to their existing
and potential customers
(Srinivasan et al., 2009)
• Cars are technologically
advanced products as they
incorporate both old and new
technologies
(Meldrum & Millman, 1991)
• Among the top 20 of 1000 companies spending most on R&D, five automotive
OEMs can be found (Booz & Company, 2007)
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11. EMAC 2015
Theoretical Background (II)
• High-tech markets are dynamic and fast-moving (Lynn et al. 1999), manifested by short product life
cycles and rapid technological changes (Beard & Easingwood, 1996; Bridges et al., 1995; Gardner et al., 2000; Ofek & Sarvary,
2003)
• Those market traits lead to a high competitive pressure to continuously develop new
products, which incorporate new technological innovations (Eng & Quaia, 2009; Gupta et al., 1985)
• This high level of uncertainty in high-technology environments, which is emphasized by
Moriarty and Kosnik (1989), induces the challenge about how marketing messages should be
communicated
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The optimal application
of information in
advertisements
(e.g. Baccarella et al., in press; Chen et
al., 2007; Singh & Schoenbachler, 2001;
Petty et al., 1983; Yadav et al., 2006)
The use of emotional or
rational appeal
(Panda et al., 2013)
Type as brand
differentiator
Decisive elements in the
marketing communication of high-tech products

12. EMAC 2015
Hypothesis 1a:
Premium brands use more emotional cues than standard
brands
Hypothesis 1b:
Standard brands use more rational cues than premium brands
Hypothesis 1c:
Print advertisements of premium brands are dominated by
emotional cues
Hypothesis 1d:
Advertisements of standards brands contain more rational
than emotional cues
Hypothesis 2a:
Premium brands use more emotion types (love, proud,
guilt, fear) than standard brands
Hypothesis 2b:
Argument types (refutation, comparison, unique positioning)
are used more often by standard brands than premium brands
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Sample object Automotive industry
Kategorisierung der Marken Premium: brand BMW & AUDI; standard brand: VW & Toyota
Number of coded print advertisements 492
Time span covered 2006-2011
Sources of print advertisements Online data bases and corporate publications/data bases
Emotional and
rationale elements
Based on an approach of Pollay
(1983) and Chandy et al. (2001)
Trained master students coded the
print advertisements
Pretest
Group discussion
Print advertisements were coded
in an online survey
Content Coding Scheme Coding Procedure

14. EMAC 2015
Results (I) – Hypotheses 1a & b
Print advertisements of high-tech premium brands contain more emotional cues than print
advertisements of high-tech standard brands
– Print advertisements of premium brands contain in average 4.04 emotional cues
– Print advertisements of standard brands contain in average 1.81 emotional cues
– The χ2 analysis identifies a significant difference between premium and standard brands
(χ2= 88.320, df= 14, p= .000) in the use of emotional cues
à Hypothesis 1a can be confirmed
Print advertisements of high-tech standard brands contain more rational cues than
advertisements of high-tech premium brands
– Print advertisements of premium brands contain in average 7.98 rational cues
– Print advertisements of standard brands contain in average 4.20 rational cues
– The χ2 analysis identifies that a significant difference between premium and standard
brands exists (χ2= 88.320, df= 14, p= .000)
à Hypothesis 1b cannot be confirmed
1417.07.15

15. EMAC 2015
Results (II) – Hypotheses 1c & d
Print advertisements of high-tech premium brands and high-tech standard brands are
dominated in average by rational cues
– Rational cues outweigh emotional cues in 116 out of 181 print advertisements of premium brands
à Hypothesis 1c can be declined
– Rational cues outweigh emotional cues in 168 out of 215 print advertisements of standard brands
à Hypothesis 1d can be confirmed
1517.07.15

16. EMAC 2015
Results (III) – Hypothesis 2a
Print advertisements of high-tech premium and standard brands use more emotion types
à Hypothesis 2a can be confirmed
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17. EMAC 2015
Results (IV) – Hypothesis 2b
Print advertisements of high-tech standard brands use more argument types
à Hypothesis 2c can be declined
1717.07.15

18. EMAC 2015
Discussion and implications (I)
Print advertisements of premium brands contain significantly more emotional and rational
cues than standard brands
– The findings support the line of argumentation of Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999), Johar and Sirgy
(1991), Panda et al. (2013), and Quelch (1987). Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999) who argue that
different product categories should initiate different advertising approaches
– Premium brands try to reduce the price sensitivity of customers by addressing customers with an
emotional approach (Panda et al., 2013)
– Emotionality in print advertisement can be
used to strengthen customer loyalty
Premium brands differ from standard brands
in the usage of emotion and argument types
– Premium brands foucs on types with a positive
character (love, pride, unique positioning),
while standard brands emphasize types with a
negative connotation (comparison, fear)
1817.07.15

19. EMAC 2015
Discussion and implications (II)
Future research is needed to examine whether
those findings are consistent over different
communication channels
Future studies could examine the effect of
specific emotional and rational appeals on the
viewer of print advertisement
1917.07.15
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20. EMAC 2015
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Comments
christian.scheiner@uni-luebeck.de

21. EMAC 2015