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Abstract

The current research examines the moderating role of consumers' product knowledge in the effect of message sidedness on how consumers engender their perceived product quality, product attitudes, and purchase intentions. The experimental results indicate that consumers with low level of product knowledge engender higher perceived product quality, more positive product attitudes, and greater purchase intentions for two-sided messages over one-sided messages, whereas consumers with high level of product knowledge are not affected by message sidedness.

Key Words: Message Sidedness, Product Knowledge, Product Quality, Attitude, Purchase Intention

1.Introduction

Researchers on marketing have long been interested in the effects of one- versus two-sided messages. The sidedness of a message can be one-sided-that is, the advertiser only highlights the positive aspects of a product-to influence consumer behavior toward a product without mentioning its disadvantages. A message can also be two-sided-that is, the advertiser highlights both positive and negative aspects of a product-with the positive attributes related to determinant characteristics and the negatives linked to less relevant attributes [9].

Even if some empirical studies in consumer psychology literature have examined the effect of message sidedness [2, 7, 8], there is still disagreement with regard to whether one-sided or two-sided messages are more persuasive. For example, evidence for more favorable product attitudes or increased buying intentions is rather scarce [6, 12], though two- (vs. one-) sided ads have often produced a number of positive effects concerning judgments of communicator credibility [8, 15].

To interpret the mixed conclusions about the effect of message sidedness, therefore, the present research examines the moderating role of consumers' product knowledge (low vs. high) in their responses to one-sided and two-sided messages. That is, this research examines the interaction between message sidedness and consumers' product knowledge in terms of perceived product quality, product attitudes, and purchase intentions. More specifically, we propose that consumers with low level of product knowledge will elicit higher perceived product quality, more favorable product attitudes, and greater purchase intentions for twosided messages over one-sided messages, whereas consumers with high level of product knowledge will not be affected by message sidedness.

2.Hypothesis Development

Prior research in marketing has long been interested in the attitudinal effects of one-sided versus two-sided messages in communication. A one-sided message presents either the positive or negative feature...

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