n the claws of science
Studies show in a product-color matrix for which category the use of humor is suitable
Studies show in a product-color matrix for which category the use of humor is suitableI
From Wolfgang Koschnick
The small pleasures of everyday life, such as cigarettes or a bottle of wine, are successfully advertised with humor. Expensive products with high social prestige, on the other hand, are seen as a serious purchase.
When scientists research the effect of funny advertising, they do so with a frightening seriousness that makes you lose even the most modest hint of a smile. It's hard to believe that they deal with humor... Nevertheless, sometimes a little something comes out of it.
In the mid-1990s, US advertising researchers M. G. Weinberger, H. Spotts, L. Campbell and A. L. Parsons investigated the use and effect of humor in various advertising media. To do this, they used the product-color matrix widely used in US marketing, based on the distinction between high- and low-involvement products and functional products with high utility on the one hand and expressive prestige goods with high emotional value on the other. The colors white, red, blue and yellow symbolize prototypical products in each category.
Along one dimension of the matrix, the goods were divided into functional products and expressive products, and along the other into high-risk and low-risk products. In the case of low-risk products, involvement is naturally lower, as many decisions are made routinely or the costs are so low that emotional or mental effort is hardly worthwhile.
Expressive goods cover needs, have an emotional benefit and positive purchase motivation. Functional items help to fulfill a task, to achieve a specific goal. They provide no emotional benefit and have a negative purchase motivation.
The purchase of white goods is associated with a higher risk. These are large appliances such as fridges, washing machines, cars or insurance policies. Rational ads achieve a high level of attention and motivation for systematic information processing.
Red ("red goods") stands for extravagant, expressive, role-specific prestige products such as motorcycles, eye-catching clothing and jewelry, which serve as a means of expression for the individual and involve a high level of risk, not only financial but also social. Here, advertising can count on a high level of attention and motivation to systematically process information. However, as the products also offer many emotional benefits, it should be both rational and emotionally oriented.
Blue ("blue goods") stands for habitually purchased, small, functional products (toilet flushers, personal hygiene, basic foodstuffs, medicines). The willingness to process information is low, but there is still a certain interest in relevant information. The emotional benefit is low, but advertising should work with a rational-emotional mixture.
The yellow products ("yellow goods") are the small pleasures of everyday life like wine or cigarettes: risk-free routine purchases. The willingness to process information is low. Affect transfer and mood purchases are frequent. Advertising is emotional. Humor could be successful here.
The study combined results from four different data sets from TV, radio and magazine advertising.
The results show that radio commercials used humor in 30 percent of cases and TV commercials in 24 percent. Magazines, on the other hand, used humor much less frequently. This could be due to the fact that the pace of use of printed material is determined by the reader. It allows for detailed messages and explanations. With radio and TV, on the other hand, the recipient has to follow the pace of the media. They remain passive and want to be entertained; and humor is an important means of entertainment.
In the case of expressive, high-risk prestige products ("red goods"), the tendency to use humor was lowest in all three media: no TV commercials, only 6 percent of magazine ads and 10 percent of radio commercials used humor for these personal, expensive and also socially risky products.
In contrast, the small, risk-free pleasures of everyday life ("yellow goods") were most frequently advertised with humor in all three media (radio: 41 percent; TV: 38 percent; magazines: 18 percent).
The everyday consumer goods ("blue goods") also relied relatively frequently on humor in all three media, less frequently than the yellow goods, but more frequently than the red goods.
In comparison, white goods, with their high risk and functionality, are just as frequently advertised humorously on television (24%), but much less frequently on the radio (14%) and in magazines (8%).
Radio advertisements with humor for high-risk and functional white goods were less well understood and received less attention than those without humor. In magazines, humor had a positive effect on attention to advertising for white goods, but a negative effect on comprehension.
The expressive high-risk products ("red goods") showed interesting contrasts: Humor had a positive effect on attention and understanding in both the radio and the ads. However, this was only the case when the humor was related to the product. If the humor was detached from the product, it tended to have a negative effect, especially on comprehension, and was more likely to cause confusion.
The risk-free blue goods use humor in their advertising far more frequently than products in the high-risk categories. On the radio, product-related humor had a slightly positive influence on attention and understanding. Humor without product reference on the radio performs less well. For magazines, the results are not as favorable; humor, whether product-related or not, tends to have a negative effect on attention and comprehension.
In the case of "yellow goods", humor in magazine advertising had a very positive influence on both attention and ad comprehension, regardless of its product reference. This was the only one of the four product groups in which humor had a positive effect on consumers' ability to associate the print ads with the brand (comprehension). In radio, humor also had a positive effect, provided it was product-related.
Seven key points for humorous advertising An analysis of more than a hundred studies from all over the world has produced the following statements about the effect of humorous communication:
1. attention: Humorous messages attract attention. This has been confirmed time and time again in virtually every study.
2. understanding: Humorous messages can impair the understanding of an advertised product; in many cases, however, they can also increase the understanding of the message.
3. distraction: Humor can distract the addressees, reduce the effectiveness of counterarguments and increase the persuasive effect of a message.
4. persuasion: Humorous appeals appear to be persuasive, but at best their persuasive effect is no stronger than that of serious appeals. In other words: humor does no harm, but it does no good either.
5. credibility: Humor often - but not always and certainly not necessarily - increases the credibility of the advertiser. However, it depends very much on the context and the advertised product. The public perceives humorous advertising as appropriate for some products and extremely inappropriate for others. For example, humor is rarely used in advertising for high-involvement products such as cars or for intelligent products such as white goods and is considered less suitable by the creatives themselves. Recently, however, advertisers seem to be breaking through this taboo. Toyota has been very successful with downright slapstick advertising, and Renault has successfully penetrated the name of its "Kangoo" with the help of horny rhinos.
6. differentiation: Certain characteristics of the recipients can thwart the effect of humor. For example, low intelligence can make comprehension more difficult. To put it more simply: a clever advertising joke doesn't work with very stupid people because they don't get the punch line. But even for people who are not quite so stupid, funny advertising requires quite a lot of attention to the content of the advertising message. But this is not exactly a prerequisite for someone who quickly zaps through various TV programs.
7. sympathy: A humorous context practically always increases sympathy for the brand and for the advertising medium and creates a positive mood, which in turn can only benefit the advertising effect.
Proportion of advertising media with humor Total advertising with humor (%)
TV 24%
Magazines 10%
Radio 30%
White products
TV 24%
Magazines 8%
Radio 14%
Red products
TV 0%
Magazines 6%
Radio 10%
Blue products
TV 22%
Magazines 12%
Radio 35%
Yellow products
TV 38%
Magazines 18%
Radio 41%
How advertising really works With this article by Wolfgang J. Koschnick, WerbeWoche continues its series of articles on the impact of advertising. Each article in this series aims to provide answers to burning questions about the current state of knowledge on the impact of advertising.
This should also be seen as an invitation to the readers of WerbeWoche. If you have any questions on aspects of advertising impact, please send them to the WerbeWoche editorial team (info@werbe woche.ch). We will answer them to the best of our knowledge.
In selecting topics for this series, Koschnick can draw on several hundred scientific studies on advertising impact that have been published in Germany and abroad over the past 50 years.
From Wolfgang Koschnick
The small pleasures of everyday life, such as cigarettes or a bottle of wine, are successfully advertised with humor. Expensive products with high social prestige, on the other hand, are seen as a serious purchase.
When scientists research the effect of funny advertising, they do so with a frightening seriousness that makes you lose even the most modest hint of a smile. It's hard to believe that they deal with humor... Nevertheless, sometimes a little something comes out of it.
In the mid-1990s, US advertising researchers M. G. Weinberger, H. Spotts, L. Campbell and A. L. Parsons investigated the use and effect of humor in various advertising media. To do this, they used the product-color matrix widely used in US marketing, based on the distinction between high- and low-involvement products and functional products with high utility on the one hand and expressive prestige goods with high emotional value on the other. The colors white, red, blue and yellow symbolize prototypical products in each category.
Along one dimension of the matrix, the goods were divided into functional products and expressive products, and along the other into high-risk and low-risk products. In the case of low-risk products, involvement is naturally lower, as many decisions are made routinely or the costs are so low that emotional or mental effort is hardly worthwhile.
Expressive goods cover needs, have an emotional benefit and positive purchase motivation. Functional items help to fulfill a task, to achieve a specific goal. They provide no emotional benefit and have a negative purchase motivation.
The purchase of white goods is associated with a higher risk. These are large appliances such as fridges, washing machines, cars or insurance policies. Rational ads achieve a high level of attention and motivation for systematic information processing.
Red ("red goods") stands for extravagant, expressive, role-specific prestige products such as motorcycles, eye-catching clothing and jewelry, which serve as a means of expression for the individual and involve a high level of risk, not only financial but also social. Here, advertising can count on a high level of attention and motivation to systematically process information. However, as the products also offer many emotional benefits, it should be both rational and emotionally oriented.
Blue ("blue goods") stands for habitually purchased, small, functional products (toilet flushers, personal hygiene, basic foodstuffs, medicines). The willingness to process information is low, but there is still a certain interest in relevant information. The emotional benefit is low, but advertising should work with a rational-emotional mixture.
The yellow products ("yellow goods") are the small pleasures of everyday life like wine or cigarettes: risk-free routine purchases. The willingness to process information is low. Affect transfer and mood purchases are frequent. Advertising is emotional. Humor could be successful here.
The study combined results from four different data sets from TV, radio and magazine advertising.
The results show that radio commercials used humor in 30 percent of cases and TV commercials in 24 percent. Magazines, on the other hand, used humor much less frequently. This could be due to the fact that the pace of use of printed material is determined by the reader. It allows for detailed messages and explanations. With radio and TV, on the other hand, the recipient has to follow the pace of the media. They remain passive and want to be entertained; and humor is an important means of entertainment.
In the case of expressive, high-risk prestige products ("red goods"), the tendency to use humor was lowest in all three media: no TV commercials, only 6 percent of magazine ads and 10 percent of radio commercials used humor for these personal, expensive and also socially risky products.
In contrast, the small, risk-free pleasures of everyday life ("yellow goods") were most frequently advertised with humor in all three media (radio: 41 percent; TV: 38 percent; magazines: 18 percent).
The everyday consumer goods ("blue goods") also relied relatively frequently on humor in all three media, less frequently than the yellow goods, but more frequently than the red goods.
In comparison, white goods, with their high risk and functionality, are just as frequently advertised humorously on television (24%), but much less frequently on the radio (14%) and in magazines (8%).
Radio advertisements with humor for high-risk and functional white goods were less well understood and received less attention than those without humor. In magazines, humor had a positive effect on attention to advertising for white goods, but a negative effect on comprehension.
The expressive high-risk products ("red goods") showed interesting contrasts: Humor had a positive effect on attention and understanding in both the radio and the ads. However, this was only the case when the humor was related to the product. If the humor was detached from the product, it tended to have a negative effect, especially on comprehension, and was more likely to cause confusion.
The risk-free blue goods use humor in their advertising far more frequently than products in the high-risk categories. On the radio, product-related humor had a slightly positive influence on attention and understanding. Humor without product reference on the radio performs less well. For magazines, the results are not as favorable; humor, whether product-related or not, tends to have a negative effect on attention and comprehension.
In the case of "yellow goods", humor in magazine advertising had a very positive influence on both attention and ad comprehension, regardless of its product reference. This was the only one of the four product groups in which humor had a positive effect on consumers' ability to associate the print ads with the brand (comprehension). In radio, humor also had a positive effect, provided it was product-related.
Seven key points for humorous advertising An analysis of more than a hundred studies from all over the world has produced the following statements about the effect of humorous communication:
1. attention: Humorous messages attract attention. This has been confirmed time and time again in virtually every study.
2. understanding: Humorous messages can impair the understanding of an advertised product; in many cases, however, they can also increase the understanding of the message.
3. distraction: Humor can distract the addressees, reduce the effectiveness of counterarguments and increase the persuasive effect of a message.
4. persuasion: Humorous appeals appear to be persuasive, but at best their persuasive effect is no stronger than that of serious appeals. In other words: humor does no harm, but it does no good either.
5. credibility: Humor often - but not always and certainly not necessarily - increases the credibility of the advertiser. However, it depends very much on the context and the advertised product. The public perceives humorous advertising as appropriate for some products and extremely inappropriate for others. For example, humor is rarely used in advertising for high-involvement products such as cars or for intelligent products such as white goods and is considered less suitable by the creatives themselves. Recently, however, advertisers seem to be breaking through this taboo. Toyota has been very successful with downright slapstick advertising, and Renault has successfully penetrated the name of its "Kangoo" with the help of horny rhinos.
6. differentiation: Certain characteristics of the recipients can thwart the effect of humor. For example, low intelligence can make comprehension more difficult. To put it more simply: a clever advertising joke doesn't work with very stupid people because they don't get the punch line. But even for people who are not quite so stupid, funny advertising requires quite a lot of attention to the content of the advertising message. But this is not exactly a prerequisite for someone who quickly zaps through various TV programs.
7. sympathy: A humorous context practically always increases sympathy for the brand and for the advertising medium and creates a positive mood, which in turn can only benefit the advertising effect.
Proportion of advertising media with humor Total advertising with humor (%)
TV 24%
Magazines 10%
Radio 30%
White products
TV 24%
Magazines 8%
Radio 14%
Red products
TV 0%
Magazines 6%
Radio 10%
Blue products
TV 22%
Magazines 12%
Radio 35%
Yellow products
TV 38%
Magazines 18%
Radio 41%
How advertising really works With this article by Wolfgang J. Koschnick, WerbeWoche continues its series of articles on the impact of advertising. Each article in this series aims to provide answers to burning questions about the current state of knowledge on the impact of advertising.
This should also be seen as an invitation to the readers of WerbeWoche. If you have any questions on aspects of advertising impact, please send them to the WerbeWoche editorial team (info@werbe woche.ch). We will answer them to the best of our knowledge.
In selecting topics for this series, Koschnick can draw on several hundred scientific studies on advertising impact that have been published in Germany and abroad over the past 50 years.
