Battle of the Brand: Brand Attachment Inoculates Against the Negative Effects of Ad Repetition

Abstract

Substantial research has shown the negative effects of repeated ad exposures. The present research contributes to this literature by introducing an important moderator: personal attachment to the brand. Our results provide new insight by considering how ad wearout could threaten one’s relationship with an important brand, and demonstrating that stronger personal brand attachment slows ad wearout. Three studies show this using both natural measures and controlled manipulations of personal brand attachment. A final study links this effect to differences in the underlying cognitive thoughts, rather than direct affective responses. People with a stronger attachment generated more positive thoughts to counter negative thoughts, which could reflect a response to combat threats to their brand connection. Overall, our results introduce an important moderator of wearout effects, and provide further insight into why stronger brand attachment can buffer the negative of repeated ads.

Disclosure Statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A post-test was conducted with different individuals drawn from the same subject pool (n = 54). Results revealed that over 96% of participants had used Hulu, and that over 61% of them viewed programs on Hulu at least a few times a month.

2 We also conducted a MANCOVA using the two thought count measures as the dependent variables with repetition, PBA, and their interaction as the independent variables. The results of this analysis confirmed the findings of the Poisson regressions, and are available in Supplemental Online Appendix E. Furthermore, the inclusion of the Seinfeld viewing experience covariate in the models had no significant bearing on the results.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Marketing Science Institute under Grant number 4-1911.

Notes on contributors

Nelson B. Amaral

Nelson Amaral (PhD, University of Minnesota) is an Associate Professor of Marketing, Faculty of Business and IT, Ontario Tech University.

Joseph P. Redden

Joseph P. Redden (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is the Curtis L. Carlson Professor of Marketing Analytics, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.