Partial comparative messages in competition

Partial comparative messages comprise a mixture of comparative and non-comparative claims. This study demonstrates how the extent to which non-comparative (NC), partial comparative (PC) and complete comparative (CC) messages influence consumer preference depends on the comparisons (i.e. NC, PC or CC) made by the messages promoting the two competing brands. A 3 (brand A used NC, PC or CC message) × 3 (brand B used NC, PC or CC message) design was used. Two studies (n=284, 283, respectively) show that participants preferred (1) the first brand they saw when both brands were promoted by NC messages, (2) neither brand when both brands were promoted by messages containing comparative claims, (3) the brand promoted by a PC message when the other brand was promoted by an NC message, and (4) the brand promoted by an NC message when the other brand was promoted by a CC message.