WHAT'S ADVERTISING CONTENT WORTH? EVIDENCE FROM A CONSUMER CREDIT MARKETING FIELD EXPERIMENT

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bertrand, Marianne; Karlan, Dean; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zinman, Jonathan
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Chicago; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Yale University; Harvard University; Princeton University; Dartmouth College; Yale University; Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA); Harvard University; Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2010.125.1.263
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 263-306
• 关键词: self-control; CHOICE; ALTERNATIVES; PSYCHOLOGY; ECONOMICS; DECISION

摘要

Firms spend billions of dollars developing advertising content, yet there is little field evidence on how much or how it affects demand. We analyze a direct mail field experiment in South Africa implemented by a consumer lender that randomized advertising content, loan price, and loan offer deadlines simultaneously. We find that advertising content significantly affects demand. Although it was difficult to predict ex ante which specific advertising features would matter most in this context, the features that do matter have large effects. Showing fewer example loans, not suggesting a particular use for the loan, or including a photo of an attractive woman increases loan demand by about as much as a 25% reduction in the interest rate. The evidence also suggests that advertising content persuades by appealing peripherally to intuition rather than reason. Although the advertising content effects point to an important role for persuasion and related psychology, our deadline results do not support the psychological prediction that shorter deadlines may help overcome time-management problems; instead, demand strongly increases with longer deadlines.