Responses to direct-to-consumer advertising in Australia: Comparing experience.

AbsractThis paper examines the potential effect of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising on consumers' behavioral intentions in relation to a medical issue. Using an online experiment, 1295 people were randomized to two information conditions. One group watched an advertisement for a hypothetical cold sore medicine, while a second (control) group did not view the advertisement, before both groups answered questions on symptoms. The responses were analyzed based on group allocation and the respondents' experience with cold sores. Results indicate that those who viewed the advertisement were more likely to choose the product, and the advertisement had larger effects based on consumer experience.

Effects of anxiety on preferences for generic medicines in Australia.

Generic medicines have been available to consumers for ∼40 years, with varying degrees of uptake in different countries. Despite offering equivalent therapeutic qualities, generic medicines still struggle to be accepted by consumers. This study examines the role of a consumer's affective state and framing effects on the purchase of a branded versus a generic pharmaceutical product. These issues are examined in an experiment, with independent manipulations of consumer anxiety levels and the framing of generic alternatives by the pharmacist. The sample comprised 426 men and women within Australia who completed an online survey with a scenario of purchasing a pharmaceutical after visiting a General Practitioner. Results indicate that those consumers experiencing higher levels of anxiety and where the doctor prescribed the branded medicine are more likely to choose branded medicines over cheaper, generic alternatives. The effect of framing the generic alternative as either 'generic' or 'cheaper' was not significant.

The impact of front-of-pack marketing attributes versus nutrition and health information on parents' food choices.

Front-of-pack attributes have the potential to affect parents' food choices on behalf of their children and form one avenue through which strategies to address the obesogenic environment can be developed. Previous work has focused on the isolated effects of nutrition and health information (e.g. labeling systems, health claims), and how parents trade off this information against co-occurring marketing features (e.g. product imagery, cartoons) is unclear. A Discrete Choice Experiment was utilized to understand how front-of-pack nutrition, health and marketing attributes, as well as pricing, influenced parents' choices of cereal for their child. Packages varied with respect to the two elements of the Australian Health Star Rating system (stars and nutrient facts panel), along with written claims, product visuals, additional visuals, and price. A total of 520 parents (53% male) with a child aged between five and eleven years were recruited via an online panel company and completed the survey. Product visuals, followed by star ratings, were found to be the most significant attributes in driving choice, while written claims and other visuals were the least significant. Use of the Health Star Rating (HSR) system and other features were related to the child's fussiness level and parents' concerns about their child's weight with parents of fussy children, in particular, being less influenced by the HSR star information and price. The findings suggest that front-of-pack health labeling systems can affect choice when parents trade this information off against marketing attributes, yet some marketing attributes can be more influential, and not all parents utilize this information in the same way.

Reducing offensiveness of STD prevention advertisements in China.

The issue of sexually transmitted diseases is a socially sensitive one in Asian communities, with governments being criticized for not doing enough to reduce AIDS transmission, and the advertising of such issues potentially causing offense to people. This article surveys 630 people in China to determine their level of offense toward the advertising of condoms and STD prevention and analyzes the qualitative responses to how they would reduce the offensiveness of such advertising. The results found that generally women are more offended by the advertising of these products than men, and in terms of creative execution, women prefer implicit, prevention or effects messages, whereas men suggested a scientific message, or a focus on the creative strategy or media/location of the advertisement. It is recommended that traditional Chinese Confucian values are important for public policy makers to keep in mind when wanting to advertise socially sensitive issues in China and wider Asia.