The impact of headlines on the effectiveness of print advertisements

• Main Authors: Leong, Jenn Binn, Peh, Bee Lan, Tang, Siew Yin
• Other Authors: Constance Soh
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Marketing
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63748
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

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.