Functional Appeal vs. Symptomatic Appeal: Self-referencing and Persuasion

• Main Authors: HUANG, CHUNG-YI, 黃崇逸
• Other Authors: KU, HSUAN-HSUAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ezb6bs

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 國際經營與貿易學系 === 105 === Purpose To investigate the effect of advertisements headlines in rhetorical question form which content functional and symptomatic message under different levels of issue concerns, through self-reference as a mediator, in prompting the persuasion and attractiveness of headlines on advertisement. Design/methodology/approach Two between-subjects experiments assessed the extent to which message content of rhetorical questions in headlines via self-reference affecting to persuasion and product attractiveness moderated by different levels of issue concerns (Study 1). This paper further examined the effects on participants’ preference of functional and symptomatic message within the single versus multiple message contents under the situations of different levels of issue concerns (Study 2) Findings When consumers face advertising headlines, with low issue concern, they prefer functional appeal than symptomatic appeal in rhetorical questions. Relatively, when consumers with high issue concern face advertising headlines would prefer symptomatic appeal than functional appeal in rhetorical questions. More symptomatic information in headlines would effect persuasion significantly, more functional information in headlines could misdirect consumers.