Creativity in advertising: Impact on communication-effect and consumer purchase behaviour

Introduction and Background: Introduction of the triple mantra, Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) in Indian Economy towards the beginning of 1990’s attracted many Multi-National Companies to Indian Consumer market. This new entry of MNC's coupled with the struggle of traditional Indian corporate to survive in the market resulted in increased volume of advertisements and now the media are flooded with the advertisements of competing brands. Objectives: 1. To compare the level of Communication-Effect in terms of Advertising Effectiveness, among highly Creative advertising and Conventional Advertising. 2. To see the differences in Communication-Effect in terms of fulfilling Communication Objectives, in two groups of advertising. 3. To measure and compare the Attitude towards Advertisements generated by the two types of advertisements. Methods: The study reported here embodies a quantitative perspective and the type of research was designated as diagnostic research. The research method used to collect data was Sample Survey method. The sample size was determined as 200 and Multi-Stage Stratified Random Sampling method was resorted to as the sampling procedure. The research participants consisted of women, aged 18 to 49. Results: Among The Five Most Liked Ads by consumers, without any form of aid, Liril Toilet Soap's commercial showing the fantasy of a dancing girl under waterfall gets the highest liking position. Other most liked ads are the commercials of Santhoor soap, Kanan Devan Tea, Close-up paste and Rasna soft drink. Highly Creative advertising has more Communication Effect in terms of Advertising Effectiveness when compared to Conventional advertising. Firstly, Highly Creative group gets higher level of Recall measured by both Brand and Ad Recall. Highly Creative advertising has significantly more Communication Effect in terms of other measures of Advertising Effectiveness. It has more Interest or Cognitive Affect (ICA), more Information value, lower Irritation level and higher positive Attitude towards Ads.