What is Relevant to the Consumer?

Sammanfattning: The ways consumer perceive and think about relevance in an advertising context are investigated through exploring research questions through a quantitative research method in an attempt to broaden the measurements of this variable. By using the work of Smith et al (2007) as a starting point this study adds to the current research by complementing previous findings. The majority of research of ad relevance is restricted to advertising creativity; hence this study uses this as a starting-point but moves beyond the scope of creativity and investigates the matter for non-creative ads as well. This study concludes that in addition to the two dimensions ad-to-consumer and brand-to-consumer, there are two more significantly important dimensions that can be used when describing ad relevance. These are the influence of other people's opinions and the relevance of the product category to the consumer. These aspects of ad relevance all account for some direct effects on one or more of the effectiveness measures brand attitude, ad attitude and purchase intentions. The findings indicate that ad relevance does not have to be considered only as an "overall construct" but is better interpreted in parts, something that can have implications for practitioners when they create new commercials.