The impact of headlines on the effectiveness of print advertisements
Persuasive communication involves a conscious attempt by one party to change the attitudes, beliefs or behaviour of another through the transmission of some message. The employment of persuasive communication is found extensively in advertising, where the advertiser tries to create awareness o...
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Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Final Year Project |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2015
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63748 |
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Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
Language: | English |
Summary: | Persuasive communication involves a conscious attempt by one party to change the attitudes, beliefs
or behaviour of another through the transmission of some message. The employment of persuasive
communication is found extensively in advertising, where the advertiser tries to create awareness of
the product and, ultimately, convince the viewer to purchase it. The effectiveness of the
advertisement is therefore inextricably linked to its power of persuasion .
This exploratory research focuses on the headlines in relation to print advertisements. The print
medium is but one of the media available to advertisers. However, it takes up a majority (more than
60%) of the advertising market share by media. In a print advertisement, the headline plays the
important role of drawing the reader's attention and leading him to read on further. This is crucial to
the persuasive process, because if a person does not even heed the message, he cannot be persuaded
by it. This study tries to examine the effectiveness of different kinds of headlines and their impact on
the effectiveness of print advertisements.
A survey was conducted using undergraduates as respondents. The results show that the types of
headlines differ in their effectiveness with respect to repulsiveness, clarity and believability and
exhibit no significant difference in their attention-grabbing ability, information content, attractiveness
and interest value.
It was found that the ability of a headline to draw its readers into the body copy depends largely on
the readers' attitudes towards the product and their initial intention of purchasing it, rather than the
type of headline. However, the type of headline has an impact on the readers' overall reaction
towards the advertisement, which in turn affects their likelihood to purchase the product.
The study also shows that the benefit headline has the most favourable impact on the effectiveness of
advertisements of high involvement products, such as computers. |
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