Service Advertising

Abstract

Against the background of the challenge service marketers face in influencing the risk perceptions of potential services buyers, this study attempts to assess the impact three independent variables can have on potential service buyers’risk perceptions, namely, providing general service information, providing price information, and providing a service guarantee in a printed advertisement. The empirical study was of an experimental nature and used a 3 3 2 factorial design to assess the impact of different mock advertisements on risk perceptions. The empirical results indicate that all three of the independent variables (providing general service information, providing price information, and providing a service guarantee) in any combination (the two-way interactions) exert a significant influence on risk perceptions. Another important finding is that a conditional service guarantee has a significant impact on risk perceptions but that an unconditional service guarantee does not significantly decrease risk perceptions beyond what a conditional guarantee does.