Abstract
This paper examines the effect on consumers’ perceptions resulting from the positioning of a sponsor in relation to a competitor or competitors in a comparison table of a print advertisement. We hypothesize when a sponsor places its product in the right-hand panel and the competitor’s product in the left-hand panel, respondents will react with a favorable evaluation for the sponsor as a result of two primary forces. The first is a general preference for an object positioned on the right as opposed to an object positioned on the left. The second is a vastly prevalent left-to-right reading habit. The prevalent left-to-right reading habit can lead consumers to subconsciously perceive this layout as a positive comparative advertisement, and the reversed placement is perceived as a negative comparative advertisement. We confirmed the hypothesis with three laboratory experiments.
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Choi, J., Myer, D.W. The effect of product positioning in a comparison table on consumers’ evaluation of a sponsor. Mark Lett 23, 367–380 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-012-9162-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-012-9162-9