Individual Reactions to Advertising: Theoretical and Methodological Developments

Abstract

In both theory and practice, considerable attention is paid to the issue of advertising effectiveness. Even though theoretical insights are developing and methodological improvements are made, predictions of the effectiveness of individual advertising messages can only be made within a very broad range of uncertainty. In the meantime, the communication environment is changing even more rapidly than in the recent past. While the number of commercial messages transmitted through existing and new media is increasing, the likelihood of successful exposure of individual messages may be decreasing. This development calls for a discussion of the changes that may be observed in the issues considered to be important in the literature. A broad distinction may be made between theoretical and methodological issues, even though the two types of issues are likely to be related. In this article an attempt is made to briefly outline the present communication situation, to point at complexities confronted when making predictions with regard to the effectiveness of individual advertising messages, to review general developments in the literature on individual consumer reactions to advertising, to search for methodological changes taking place, and finally, to extrapolate from these developments to future research and practice.

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