An Empirical Study on the Fear Appeal of Advertising

Kim, Mi Sook(Graduated School of Business Administration, Ajou University.)

Fear appeals are one of the appealing methods of advertising messages that make use of the threat of negative consequences, thereby, after consumer's attitude behavior eventually.

These fear appeals are known to be very useful ways of persuading customers in some situations where fear or anxiety is one of the most salient factors that determine purchase decisions(e.g. insurance company and preventive medicine champagnes)

The purpose of this study is to suggest an effective advertising strategy in using fear appeals. In chapters 2 and 3, theoretical grounds for fear appeals are discussed and the relevant previous research are reviewed.

An empirical study testing various hypothesis derived from previous works is described and the results are discussed in chapter 4.

The major findings of the study are as follows:

First, the fear appeals seem more effective in enhancing attention to and interest of advertising.

Second, the fear appeals seem not so much significant in affecting attitude toward products as the level of involvement.

Third, the fear appeals have significant positive effects on purchase intention.

In conclusion, the fear appeals are proven viable as effective advertising appealing strategies in some circumstances(e.g. high involvement), which call for more close attention of marketing managers of certain consumer products to the use of the fear appeals that are almost exclusively adopted for the public advertisements.

Finally, the limitations of the study and the directions for future study are discussed in chapter 5.