Write Up On

THE MODERATING ROLE OF COMMITMENT ON THE SPILLOVER

EFFECT OF MARKETINGCOMMUNICATIONS

Group-H

Amrit Priyadarshan- PGP/21/009

Harsh Agarwal – PGP/21/021

Vishakha Jagtap– PGP/21/022

Jayendu Bhaskar – PGP/21/023

Raghvendra P S Chauhan–PGP/21/036
Spillover Effect & Brand Communications

Spillover refers to the extent to which a message influences beliefs related to attributes that are not
contained in the message. For example, a consumer who is exposed to a message that describes a
detergent as strong and high in cleaning ability may infer that the detergent is harsh or harmful to
delicate fabrics. If this belief change occurs even though there is no mention of harshness in the
message, it can be said that the effect of the communication about detergent strength spilled over
to another related but unmentioned attribute.
Because communications can affect beliefs about attributes that are not mentioned in a message, a
full under- standing of communication effects requires the study of spillover effects. Through our
study ,we were able to analyse the spillover effect in communication in case of three cases of brands,
namely brand having a low commitment, no commitment & high commitment. We analysed all the
cases and came out with the managerial implications for the same

Managerial Implications

The most important task for the managers while analysing spillovers is to identify all the target
attributes of the product and whether consumers are highly associated with it or not. For the unknown
brands, its found that attributes having low association have no spillover effect but in case of
attributes to which consumers are highly associated with, when subjects are exposed to strong and
credible negative information they change their belief about the target attribute as well as other
associated attributes. In contrast when subjects are exposed to equally strong and credible positive
message about the same brand their belief about the target attribute showed positive change but
there were no changes in their belief about the other associated attributes. This is primarily due to
negativity effect. Thus spillover effects appear to be more likely for negative information than for
positive information when the target brand is unknown. Hence, its imperative for managers to clearly
identify highly associative attributes for products from the unknown brands and ensure that no
negativity is present around the attribute or else the entire product perception will be ruined.
For brands which are known but commitment of consumers towards them are low, spillover effect
will arise from both positive and negative information about the attributes towards which consumers
are highly associated. Although, negative spillover is slightly dominant, the positive spillover effect
presents a great opportunity for managers to focus more on highly associative attributes and improve
their effectiveness as positive information about it will create a positive perception about the entire
product.

The best possible way by which brands can safeguard themselves from negative spillover effect is by
having its consumers highly committed to it. Consumers have a defense motivation by which they look
for self justifying reasons as to why they are associated with the brand and any positive information
on the major attributes are looked at very favourably and this positive perception spills over to all the
other attributes of the product whereas negative information remains restricted to only the specific
attribute. Thus, high commitment by consumers safeguard the brand from any negative implications
of spillover.

A commitment to Cigarettes by Smokers- Applying Spillover & Defence Mechanism

 It is well known to marketers that commitment plays a very important role in a consumer’s buying
decision whereas spillover plays a critical role in resistance to this persuasion. But how do they process
the information they see or listen to. For example, in the case of a packet of cigarettes, the picture
displayed on the packet blatantly talks about the consequences of smoking. The smokers see and
accept this information but still maintain a positive attitude about their own smoking behaviour.
Moreover, smokers with strong commitment do not let this information Spillover to their other beliefs
like how it affects their family. This happens through isolation of negative information that affects the
target attribute. This phenomenon of Defensive processing can be measured by a marketer in terms
of denial of message content to know how his/her brand is performing in the market.

A few examples that tell us how this issue of Spillover effect was tackled by big names in the market:

Case of TATA NANO- Brand Commitment

Firstly, the case of Tata Nano is known to everyone. Usually called as People’s car, it was wrongly
positioned in the market as the “cheapest car” instead of an affordable car. This led to a negative
Spillover where the quality of the car and credibility of the brand was questioned. More importantly,
as it was a new product, the commitment of consumers could not be leveraged here. This is what
Hypothesis 1 of our presentation exactly talks about. For a marketer, one of the possible ways to
tackle this is to relaunch this product with a fresh positioning and marketing communication strategy

Case of Firestone & Low Commitment to Brand

Secondly, we are aware of the Firestone – Ford collaboration for launching Ford Explorer in the
market. This product failed miserably in the market due to numerous accidents and rollovers. But what
came next was even more shocking. Further research into this matter states that 86% of the current
owners were unaffected by this due to their prior commitment. Whereas 33% of the non-owners were
averse to buying this vehicle. Announcing for tire recall and replacement program for existing
customers helped Ford to retain them

Brand Commitment to Maggi

Thirdly, one of the very famous issues was the Maggi controversy. Maggi lost 80% of the market share
due to various issues. But initially, strongly committed consumers denied these happenings and did
not budge. Even though it was proven to be true later, this strong commitment helped Maggi to
relaunch and gain its lost market share.

Lastly, managers are focusing on Loyalty programs for long term customer relationship to increase
their profitability. Brands are focusing more on customer retention and not acquisition nowadays.