초록 열기/닫기 버튼
본 연구에서는 시각적 은유(visual metaphor)와 함께 제시되는 언어적 메시지가 시각적 은유를 활용한 인쇄광고의 효과에 미치는 영향에 대하여 살펴보았다. 동일한 시각적 은유와 함께 제시되는 언어적 메시지를 유추적 해석(analogical comprehension)을 유발하는 경우와 직접적 유사적 해석(literal similarity-based comprehension)을 유발하는 경우로 구분하였고, 함께 제시되는 언어적 메시지가 없는 경우를 포함하여 세 집단 사이의 광고 효과의 차이를 분석하였다. 분석결과 동일한 시각적 은유라도 유추적 해석을 유발하는 언어적 메시지와 함께 사용되었을 때 광고 효과가 가장 높게 나타났다. 이러한 연구결과는 직접적 유사보다 유추를 이용한 광고의 설득효과가 더 높다는 연구(Roehm and Sternthal, 2001)와 시각적 은유를 활용한 광고의 효과는 시각적 은유와 함께 제시되는 언어적 정보에 의해서 달라질 수 있다는 연구들(Edwin, Beth and Vincent 1996; Phillips 2000)에서 그 이론적 근거를 찾아볼 수 있다. 특히, 본 연구에서도 시각적 은유에 대하여 소비자가 느끼는 모호성 정도가 제시된 언어적 메시지가 없을 때가 가장 높게 나타났고, 유추적 해석을 유발하는 메시지일 때가 중간, 그리고 직접적 유사일 때가 가장 낮게 나타나서 본 연구의 결과도 시각적 은유의 모호성 정도와 광고 효과 사이에는 역U의 관계가 있다는 과거의 연구들과 같은 결론을 보이고 있다. 구체적으로 광고 효과는 광고물에 대한 태도와 광고 메시지의 설득 효과를 통하여 살펴보았는데 두 번의 실험 모두에서 유추적 해석을 유발하는 언어적 메시지와 함께 사용되었을 때가 직접적 유사적 해석을 유발하는 메시지나 함께 제시되는 메시지가 없을 때보다 높게 나타났다.
This study examined the effect of verbal message on advertising effectiveness of print advertisement using visual metaphors. Gentner and Markman(1997) argued that metaphors span the range from relational comparisons to attribute comparisons. They also defined an analogy as a metaphor which is based on relational similarity. Roehm and Sternthal(2001) reported that an analogy, which highlights the relational similarity, showed higher persuasive power than literal similarity. Phillips(2000) argued that one role of verbal message may influence the level of ambiguity regarding figures of rhetoric by facilitating comprehension of these figures. She showed that headlines which provide a clue to the meaning of a visual metaphor, increased the advertising effectiveness by facilitating comprehension. Based on research findings that verbal message can anchor comprehension of visual image(Phillips 2000) and research findings that the persuasive impact of an analogy is stronger than literal similarity (Roehm and Strernthal 2001), three different versions of print advertisement using the same visual metaphor were developed as the experimental stimuli: one without verbal message, the second with verbal message anchoring analogical comprehension and the third with verbal message leading literal similarity-based comprehension. Two separate experiments were conducted to test hypothesis in this study. The experimental stimuli in experimental 1 were print advertisements of a hypothetical insurance company. The potential problems that could have hurt the findings of experiment 1 were as follows. First, the contents verbal messages were different in addition to the difference in terms of message types. Even though ANCOVA using message evaluation as a covariate was conducted to handle this potential problem, potential confounding effects might still have remained. Secondly, the measurement for consumers' perceived ambiguity was not valid conceptually. To overcome these shortcomings, the second experiment was conducted. Research findings from the two separate experiments supported hypothesis of this study as follows. First, consumers' perceived ambiguity toward a visual metaphor was larger with analogy-oriented message than with literal similarity-oriented message. Secondly, advertising effectiveness of a visual metaphor was also most positive when the verbal message led participants to comprehend the visual metaphor analogically. This research finding coincides with the previous research which showed the reversed U shaped relationship between advertising effectiveness and the level of ambiguity of a visual metaphor (McQuarrie and Mick 1999). The additional contributions of this study can be summarized as follows. First, previous research which showed the reversed U-shaped relationship manipulated levels of ambiguity by adopting different visual metaphoric images. In this study, however, different levels of ambiguity were manipulated by different verbal messages with the same visual metaphor. Secondly, specific levels of ambiguity were manipulated in terms of analogy/literal similarity rather than just low/high.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
visual metaphor, analogy, literal similarity, ambiguity
