The Effects of Matching Empty Ad Space Color to Featured Product’s Color on Consumer Buying Impulse: An Abstract

Abstract

This research investigates how matching an ad’s empty space color specifically to that of the advertised product’s color (instead of leaving it white) impacts consumers’ product buying impulse. It tests two competing hypotheses, where the salience explanation proposes a positive effect of empty space-product color matching on product buying impulse, while the contrast account predicts an opposite effect.

Prior research suggests a positive link between stimulus-based salience and consumer urge to buy impulsively (Huang 2016), with a hedonic appraisal of the stimulus acting as a strong precursor to the buying impulse (Amos et al. 2014). Therefore, following the Theory of Visceral Influences which suggests that certain stimuli can narrow consumer attention to situational impulsivity, the salience explanation proposes that empty space-product color matching would increase overall ad salience due to an increased exposure to product color (an important sensory aspect) (Loewenstein 1996). This visceral sensory influence would then enhance the product’s hedonic appraisal, in turn propelling consumers’ product buying impulse (Monaco et al. 2003).

However, a traditional stream of research predicts more positive outcomes when there is a greater contrast between the ad elements (Schindler 1986; Moore et al. 2005; Pracejus et al. 2006; Olsen et al. 2012; Kim and Lakshmanan 2015). Greater contrast increases perceptual fluency, which creates a hedonically-marked, fluent processing experience (Reber et al., 1998; Reber et al. 2004). Therefore, it can be alternatively proposed that using a white (rather than product-colored) empty space in an ad increases contrast, which elevates the product’s hedonic appeal due to an affect-laden fluent processing and that increases product buying impulse.

In testing these competing predictions (salience versus contrast), three experimentally-designed studies were conducted by soliciting participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform (Goodman et al. 2013). Findings from all studies support the salience rather than the contrast account across two product categories, three colors, and three online ad formats.

In addition to being the first to investigate the impact of using a product-colored empty space on consumer buying impulse as the focal outcome, the current work extends prior research studying stylistic visual cues (Peracchio and Meyers-Levy 2005; Yang et al. 2010). It also provides marketers with a systematic understanding of how making such a simple, cost-effective, stylistic change can not only increase their ad’s noticeability in a competitively-cluttered digital ad environment, but also enhance their product’s hedonic appeal.