This study examines differences in men and women’s reactions to models, number of product arguments, and claim type (hedge and pledge) in advertising. Based on the selectivity model, it is proposed that men process models as cues and will therefore prefer models of the opposite sex. Contrary to this, women process models as product arguments and will therefore prefer models of the same sex. Results from a conjoint study embedded in an online survey reveal that men prefer opposite-sex models, whereas women prefer same-sex models or model couples. These sex differences are partially moderated by involvement. The utility for few product arguments tend to be weakly higher for men than for women. No differences are found for claim type.
Acknowledgment:
This article is based on Maarten L. Majoors MSc Thesis "Gender, need for cognition and product category involvement as influencers of responses to advertising" written at BI Norwegian Business School. Authors are listed alphabetically.