Integrating Information from Advertising and Trial: Processes and Effects on Consumer Response to Product Information

Information integration theory and the integrated information response model are used to explore how consumers combine information from advertising and trial. Also investigated is the ability of attitude toward the ad to mediate advertising's effects on brand cognitions and brand attitudes after trial. An experiment is conducted in which three independent variables are manipulated: the information source (ad only, trial only, and ad plus trial), information sequence (ad/trial and trial/ad), and favorability of trial (positive and negative). Results show that (1) advertising can lessen the negative effects of an unfavorable trial experience on brand evaluations, especially when the ad is processed first, (2) when negative trial precedes exposure to advertising, cognitive evaluations of the ad are more negative, (3) the ability of ad attitudes to influence brand cognitions and brand attitudes is significantly reduced after trial, and (4) the ability of brand cognitions to influence brand attitudes is significantly increased after trial. Implications for advertising research and practice are discussed.