Pictures in words or words in pictures? New insights from Indian print advertising research

This paper attempts to explore the impact of pictures on the accompanying verbal information in print advertisements for high-imagery and low-imagery copy, and for high-involvement and low-involvement products. The impact is measured in terms of advertisement recall as well as in terms of affect or feelings generated by the advertisement. Using an experimental design involving corporate executives, the research adopted random assignment of subjects to different treatment conditions. The results show that when the verbal attribute information in the advertisement copy is not imagery-provoking, the addition of pictures exemplifying that information enhances both recall and affect, while, when the verbal attribute information itself is imagery-provoking, the addition of pictures increases affect but not recall. These findings were also found to be contingent upon the extent of consumer involvement in the product category. The research has strong implications for marketing strategists and advertisement agencies.