One ad content’s explicitness and explicitness and

One of the first definitions of the two appeals whereexpressed by Mueller (1987), who proposed that soft-sell appeal creates moodand atmosphere through a beautiful scenery or an emotional story, whilehard-sell appeal shows explicit information about the brand name andrecommendations and the performance contributes to the competitive advantage ofthe product. Another approach presents the two appeals as contradicted messagestrategy appeals, the soft-sell/image appeal which has image oriented contentand uses associations with the brand rather than reasons to buy the product, and the hard-sell/direct approach which has sales orientation, comparativecontent and strong message arguments (Alden, Steenkamp, and Batra, 1999). It is revealed from the study of Beard (2004) that thedebate between the two message strategy approaches was heated from the early1911, in a trade journal called Printer’s Ink, between U. S. automotiveadvertisers who were arguing the benefits of “ atmospheric” or “ impressionistic” and “ reason why” advertisements. This conflict was still ongoing in 1997, in anAdvertising Age issue between the supporters of the advertising which is basedon emotions and its aim is to entertain and connect with the consumers, and ofthe rationally based advertising that sells.

Okazaki, Muellerand Taylor (2010) conducteda research for the hard-sell and soft-sell appeal because they recognized thelack of a wide accepted definition of these appeals in the scientific world andthe lack of a measurement scheme to capture them. A definition close to theMueller’s was proposed, but slightly modified. Consequently, a soft-sell appealis subtle and indirect and seeks to induce affective reaction to the consumer. It is image-centered using attractive scenery, emotional stories or other indirectways.

On the other hand, a hard-sell appeal refers to a sales-oriented, directappeal with references to the features and factual information of theperformance of the product advertised, with recommendations and explicitmention of the brand name. Often, it uses direct comparisons with competingproducts. The focus of this appeal is to induce rational thinking. The appealscan be measured by taken into consideration three aspects: the degree offeeling and thinking developed to viewer, the level of the ad content’sexplicitness and explicitness and the focus of the ad to facts or image. Intheir study, Okazaki, Mueller and Taylor (2010) suggest that the extensive useof feelings or emotions, implicit or indirect messages and product-image formatin the ads is attached with the soft-sell appeal, whereas the considerable useof cognitive processing or thinking, explicit or direct messages andproduct-information format in the ads is attached with the hard-sell appeal. The two appeals will be used in the study to provideinsight on which approach influences consumers’ purchase intention to buysustainable apparel products the most in different advertisements of asustainable apparel product.

Moreover, the results of the research of Okazaki, Mueller and Taylor (2010) will contribute to the support of one of myhypotheses, which will be presented in a following chapter. Further knowledgeis needed on the formation of the purchase intention influenced byadvertisement.