Research Briefings - August 2013
Marketers put a lot of effort into choosing just the right images for their ads. But very little thought is devoted to how much distance should exist between those images. This is a costly mistake, according to a new study in theJournal of Consumer Research.
Many advertisements promoting the effectiveness of a product show both an image of a product, such as an anti-wrinkle cream, and an image of the promised results, such as a face without wrinkles. Objectively, the distance between the two images should not affect how consumers judge the product's quality.
To determine if this was the case, consumers were asked to judge the effectiveness of a variety of products promising specific results, including acne cream, pain reliever, nasal allergy spray, bug spray, and fabric softener.
It turned out that consumers tended to assume a product was more effective when its image was placed closer to that of its promised effect. And, the proximity of the images was more influential when consumers were less knowledgeable about the product category, or when the results were expected sooner rather than later.
To make the most of this finding, companies should understand the subtle effect that spatial proximity between images has on consumer judgment of product effectiveness. Consumers tend to judge the product to be more effective when the two images are closer, versus farther apart.
Resources
Journal of Consumer Research, August 2013, Vol. 40, No. 2, "Judging Product Effectiveness from Perceived Spatial Proximity," by Boyoun Chae, et al. © 2013 Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
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