| Abstract |
| The purpose of this study was to examine how the psychological characteristics of envy and self-esteem affected the effects of envy-provoking ads, as the ultimate goal of advertisement could be said to persuade consumers to buy the target product and envy might be one of the psychological factors to stimulate their purchase intention. In the first stage, a survey was conducted to identify the psychological characteristics and factors of envy. Eight factors were found to make people envious, which included threat, needs for development, under- estimation, inferiority complex, envy and comfort. In the second stage, an experiment was implemented on four groups by using 2x2 factor design to look for connections between self-esteem and the effects of envy-provoking ads. The findings of the study were as follows: First, regarding brand recall rate, envy-provoking ads produced better results the other type of ads that had nothing to do with envy. Second, as for cognitive response, the four groups investigated showed more favorable cognitive response to envy-provoking ads than to the other type of ads. Third, there`s no significant gap between the two types of ads in their effect on advertisement attitude and purchase attention. The above-mentioned findings suggested that envy-provoking ads had better effects on brand recall and cognitive response, and this fact indicated that envy-provoking ad strategy was effective in cognitive stage, which could be defined as the first stage of purchase. This finding was very worthwhile, as cognition affects attitude, which in turn, impacts on purchase. |
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| Key Words |
| envy, envy-provoking ads, self-esteem |
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