How mood and ad-self-congruency affect the relative influence of hedonic ad appeals and utilitarian ad appeals on brand evaluations

Abstract

This study argues that participants’ affective states determine the relative influence of hedonic ad appeals and utilitarian ad appeals on participants’ evaluations of dual function products. Specifically, this study shows that a positive affective state, in comparison to a neutral affective state, increases participants’reliance on their attitudes toward hedonic ad appeals in developing their product evaluations. As a result, ads featuring congruent self concepts generate more favorable ad and product evaluations when participants are in positive affective states as opposed to in neutral affective states. Moreover, this study demonstrates that the relative influence of hedonic ad appeals and utilitarian ad appeals on brand evaluations is a function of participants’ affective states, as well as the congruency of image portrayals in the hedonic ad with participants’ self-concepts.