Separate and joint effects of medium type on consumer responses: a comparison of television, print, and the Internet

Abstract

This study explores the effects on consumer responses of single- and multiple-media campaigns consisting of television, print, and the Internet. Multiple media in a campaign are expected to have synergy effects. We examine whether a complementarity effect is present in multiple-media campaigns related to media differences in evoking cognitive, affective, and conative responses. Media contribute differentially to the route to persuasion and may complement each other in a marketing-communication campaign. The results show that TV-only campaigns are superior in evoking cognitive responses. This superiority is probably due to the larger number of senses stimulated as well as the forced exposure associated with television as a delivery medium. Affective and conative responses do not significantly differ between the single-medium campaigns. Product involvement influences brand affect and purchase intention. The analysis of covariance reveals a complementarity effect in multiple-media campaigns compared to the Internet-only campaign. However, compared to the TV-only campaign, multiple-media campaigns are less effective in evoking cognitive responses. For most responses, print-only campaigns are as effective as multiple-media campaigns.