Zeigarnick Effect Reading-For TOM MUTUNGA

World Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 3. No. 4. July 2013 Issue. Pp. 131 – 143 Relationship between the Zeigarnik Effect and Consumer Attention in Advertisement Abeer Hammadi * and Faisal K. Qureishi ** Advertisers are constantly looking for new ways and tactics to get consumer attention making sure that their brand is one that the consumer remembers when he/she goes shopping. One of the techniques used in advertising is the Zeigarnik effect coined after a research made by a Russian psychologist Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927,which states that the human brain remembers interrupted tasks better. The rationale of this study is to see the association between Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention in ads. An inventory of ads was shown to 204 respondents to check if the re lationship exists. The respondents included both males and females of different age groups and education levels. Data was collected on the basis of restricted non -probability sampling. To check that if there was a relationship between the Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention Paired Sample T -test was used. Study showed positive results which was then tested against different demographics.

Implications for future research are discussed. Keywords: Zeigarnik Effect, consumer attention, advertisements , m arke ting JEL Codes: M30, M37 and M39 1. Introduction Advertisers are constantly on an urge to learn how the black box works, how it responds to the given stimuli and how does that response effects the decision making process.

The human mind will not build a memory unless something is noteworthy something tha t would not only grab the attention but also enables to recall the same when the need arises. Advertisers stress to create that something significant that would grab the customer's attention and create a memory of the message send and would later result in recall. Plessis (2005) elucidates that an advertisements job is to be remembered so that it is able to influence the customers purchase decision. Advertisers constantly try new ideas and tactics in order to sell their product and make it stand out from the rest. There is a long list of marketing gimmicks that can be used to gain a competitive edge. “Zeigarnik Effect” is one of them coined after a research made by a Russian psychologist Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik . ______ ______________________________________ *Abeer Hammadi, Iqra University, Karachi, Pakistan, Email: [email protected] , Cell: 921 - 345 - 2104285 **Faisal Kadeer Quresih , Director , Asian Institute of Fashion Designing, Email: [email protected] ;[email protected] , Cell : 921 -322 -2160526 & 921 -315 -2120201 Hammadi & Quresih 132 The research aims to see the relationship between the Zeigarnik Effect and the consumer attention in advertisements. While most other theories like the Von Restorff Effect, the theory of incremental effects, and the psychodynamic perspective - have been discussed extensively by earlier researchers; relatively little attention has apparently been paid to the Zeigarnik Effect in advertising. The paper is structured as follows. Section 1 is the introduction. Section 2 presents a literature review of different marketing tactics used in advertisements and how a consumer responds to a certain stimuli resulting in recall and recognition . Section 3 presents the conceptual framework of this study, methods used for data collection and the statistical tests involved . The analysis of the results is presented in section 4. Section 5 presents the limitation, managerial implication, discuss ions, some conclusions alo ng with what we would like to include in our future research. Zeigarnik Effect Zeigarnik Effect” is coined after a research made by a Russian psychologist Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik. Zeigarnik Effect explains that people tend to remember unfinished tasks better than finished tasks. When a job is left incomplete it creates a sort of tension and irritation which begs for closure, thus, making it hard for human beings to forget.

Zeigarnik effect triggers suspense; a feeling of doubt and nervousness about the result of certain events which keeps the audience glued to a certain situation begging for closure, thus, making it hard for human beings to forget. Consumer Retention Consumer Retention refers to consumer’s memory; when hit with a series of stimuli what are the things he’s able to retain. Consumers are bombarded with different commercials everyday of their lives; advertisers strive to create ads to grab consumer attentio n. Create ads that a consumer is able to retain and recall the same when he goes to make purchases. Advertisements Advertising is a form of a communication technique used to encourage or persuade the audience which can fall in the category of viewers, readers or listeners to carry on with the same good or service or take some new action. Usually, the preferred outcome is to drive consumers’ actions with relevance to the commercial offer ing. Advertising is done trough a wide array of medium; print ads, television commercials, advertisements on the radio, outdoor advertising etc. 2. Literature Review If advertising is to be effective, its impact should continue over time. It is not adequ ate that an advertisement have an effect on a particular moment; rather, it should continue to exert its effect throughout the decision -making process. Hammadi & Quresih 133 Advertisers strive to create ads which would grasp maximum consumer attention.

Plessis (2005) explains that an advertisements job is to be remembered so that it is able to influence the customers purchase decision. Consumers are bombarded with different commercials everyday of their lives; the real challenge is not only to produce an ad that would get their attention but to create an ad that the consumer is able retain and recall. The way the human mind receives processes and recalls information is necessary to know if advertising is to be efficiently developed and created to extract the highest pos sible effect. There are numerous definitions of "advertising impact"; (Heimbach & Jacoby 1972) pinpointed that it falls under three groups:  Memorial effect (for example, consciousness, recognition, recall, awareness about the product)  Attitudinal effect (f or example, attitude, liking, belief, preference, passion)  Behavioral effect (for example, investigation, purchase). The text on advertising has included studies from both marketers and clients’ viewpoints. For instance, from an advertiser’s point of view , each advertisement also has a brand structuring purpose as it has a number of traits (e.g., a sign/logo or product name) that add to brand awareness . And from a buyer’s point of view, a commercial may not stimulate further action if it is not professed t o be related to their existing wants, but exclusive traits of the commercial may result in building up the brand. According to (Wa ng, Zhang, Choi, & D'Eredita 2002) brand awareness may rise without necessarily being related to a positive brand attitude. In contrast to that, a consumer may need to find ways to fulfill their needs. In that case ads help in directing the consumers. That is, the ad acts as a stimuli and directs human behavior. Mackenzie (1986) demonstrated certain attributes and elements in advertisements which would draw consumer attention. Two experiments were designed to test the hypothesis; the first experiment maneuvered the amount of attention given to a certain attribute in an advertisement and the results indicated the importance of that particular attribute. The second one focused on the relevance of the ad content and the number of times an ad is repeated. The results indicated that attenti on had a mediating effect on the relevance and the correctness of the ad on attribute importance. Creative complexity and artistic appearance continue to be a standard in contemporary print advertising, advertisers use different tactics to take hold of co nsumer attention. Creativity is questionably a very important constituent of advertising. A study by (Till & Baack 2005) highlighted the effectiveness of creativity on advertisements together with recall and persuasion; their study tested the hypothesis o f creative advertisements and their effects on aided and unaided recall. Aided recall had lower mean as they were less cognitively challenging the unaided recall. Therefore impact of creative advertisements was reduced with aided recalls. As it had an elem ent of novelty and suspense which the audience was unable to detach from keeping them glued to the situation and resulting in recall and recognition. Hence; the results of their study suggested that creative advertisements greatly facilitate unaided recall s. Advertisers make use of images, Hammadi & Quresih 134 words, fonts, colors, slogan etc to get hold of consumers’ attention. Print ads consists of three main elements the brand the text and the picture advertisers play around with them to create something new and unique to st and out from the rest so that the consumer would recognize the brand and retain the same. Research has shown that (Pieters & Wedel 2006) the brand, graphic, and content elements of print advertisements have considerable effects on attention capture and tra nsfer that are on par with common ideas in advertising practice and literature. In accordance with this (Pieters, Warlop, & Wedel 2002) focuses on advertisement originality and familiarity ads which lacks originality does not get much of consumer attentio n; in support to their hypothesis original ads drew more consumer attention and thus resulting in brand memory. Advertisements which are novel and unique grabs substantial amount of consumer attention than normal ads. According to (Nye, Roth, & Shimp2008) brands which are already familiar to the consumers are viewed less interesting than ads for new and fresh brands. Information inequalities would lead to different processing objectives for customers exposed to ads funded by well -known brands compared to n ew brands. It was further also mentioned by (Nye, Roth, & Shimp2008) in their research paper that those ads for unknown brands; which would appear more attractive and interesting, are likely to bring out broader processing.

Advertisers and marketers make u se of different tactics to clutch consumer attention. When the consumer sees something eye catching and interesting it automatically gets viewer’s attention (Bagozzi & Silk 1983) has shown in their research that recall and recognition is only a small secti on of memory, which is multidimensional, but when concentration in the commercial was held continuous, nevertheless, recall and recognition did quantify memory as a uni -dimensional construct. Stating the fact; that an ad which contains an element of intere st gets consumer’s attention and also results in brand recall and recognition. Astounding stimuli draws consumer’s attention, promotes further information processing, and are effortlessly retained in memory. As ads must be remembered to affect a behavior, it trails that ads should contain messages that would have an element of suspense in it to grasp the consumers’ attention and in future would result in brand recall and purchase. Research by (Leigh, Zinkhan, & Swaminathan 2006) focused on the cognitive aspects of print ads and their relationship with recall and recognition. They defined ‘recall’ as a reproduction of an item experienced earlier , where as ‘recognition’ is the awareness that the certain stimuli has been witnessed earlier. Their study high lighted different cognitive aspects of print ads which are as follows:  Meaningfulness : A cognitive aspect of an ad which reflects that an ad is considered meaningful and conveys a clear and convincing message.  Length of Exposure : This particular aspect reflects the time duration a consumer gives to an ad longer exposure indicates better recall. Hammadi & Quresih 135  Quality of Copy Execution : This aspect mirrors the extent to which the ad is delivered; fresh idea, entertaining, elements of empathy etc. if an ad is properly exe cuted it gets greater attention to those ads which are not.  Ability to Predict Ad Content and Structure : Another aspect which focuses on the predictability of the ad content, instead of using cliché copyrights which are easily predictable advertisers should make use of novel and new elements which would hold the attention of the consumer throughout the ad For example, ads containing the Zeigarnik effect. All these aspects are important for an advertiser to know before developing an ad Actions or facts that the consumer pays attention reluctantly are termed as interruptions. Two main effects of interruptions have been highlited by (Xia & Sudharshan 2002) (a) a raise in physiological activity, such as stimulation, and (b) a re -evaluation of the current objec t, which may lead to its revision or modification. Their study explored how consumers respond to interruptions and the influence of interruptions on decision making and satisfaction. Results of their study showed the when interpretations are used correctly they can be an effective tool for marketers to draw consumers’ attention. On the other hand, the characteristics of interruptions play an important role, like differences of consumers, their goals and objectives. Similar study by Liu (2008) she stated th at human brains information processing changes after an interruption. It is projected that an interruption can direct to changes in preferences by altering the manner of information processing in decision making; Conventionally, consumer ambiguity in promotional claims has been regarded as a negative response factor. A research carried out by (Smith & Swinyard 1988) has shown that uncertainty is created due to many advertising claims. However, this is not all bad as this uncertainty tied up with produc t knowledge and interest can produce product related curiosity. In their study, consumers were exposed to advertising generated curiosity statements.

Inducing customer inquisitiveness can have two positive effects. First, it can alter the customer from an inert information processor to an energetic seeker of product information. Second, for inexpensive good categories, inquisitiveness can easily be reduced by test purchase; curiosity can successfully produce purchase decisions, generating immediate sales for the advertisers in the marketplace. ‘Curiosity’ defined as an emotion that represents an urge to know new things, curiosity is a key force behind new researches and developments in various sciences. Being curious is an in build element n human natur e it is common at all ages from infancy to adulthood and it can also be observed in other animal species as well. According to (Menon & Soman 2002) curiosity is been referred to as a’ knowledg e gap’; the difference between two quantities: what a person knows and what he or she would like to know. A’ knowledge gap’ is interpreted as what a person knows and what he or she wants to know. Curiosity occurs when people are aware of the knowledge gap in a certain field or when they come across an uncertain or ambiguous stimulus. A situation Hammadi & Quresih 136 like this magnifies consumers’ knowledge paucity; awareness of this lack creates anxiety and an uneasy feeling which gives rise to craving for that certain knowled ge so the spotted gap can be filled. Advertisers create uncertainty/ curiosity to attract consumers to buy their products. Zeigarnik Effect (1927) is one of the several marketing tactics that is used to grab consumer attention and is also the basis of this research paper; coined after a research made by a Russian psychologist Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik now named after her. Zeigarnik effect states that people tend to memorize incomplete tasks better the complete tasks.

The question “What will happen next?” keeps th em glued to the situation creating a sort of tension which begs for closure, thus, making it hard for human beings to forget.

Listening or seening an incomplete or interrupted stimulus develops to see the rest of it. The resulting anxiety leads to improvem ent in memory for that part of the message which has already been seen. According to (Schiffman & Greist -Bousquet 1992), an incomplete task, one in which the goal has not yet been achieved, does not present closure. With reference to this belief, the lac k of knowledge about the conclusion promotes thinking and reasoning together with certain traces from the memory results in retention. Their experiment took in to consideration the time duration and its effects on consumer retention. The quantity of info rmation stored affects time perception; the experiment was conducted to investigate the role of task interruption on retention and recall it was more like a tailored version of the Zeigarnik effect on perceived duration. The results of the experiment suppo rted the assumption that the disruption of a task has an outgoing effect on its perceived duration. More particularly, these results revealed that interruption between a task stretches the perceived duration of the chunk of task which is completed, as comp ared to the similar task when it is offered alone and completed. An empirical study done by (Madrigal & Bee 2005) have highlighted that people have a positive attitude towards suspenseful commercials than non suspenseful commercials.

The suspense element in ads gets the attention of the audience and later results in brand recall. A reference is being made to the sta te of current knowledge Hewett (1975) discusses that human curiosity has been acknowledged as one of the vital basic research areas of the future for buyer behavior. The study defines that curiosity creates a moment of discomfort due to incomplete informat ion which leads to exploration. The results showed that the ‘curiosity factor’ was significant amongst the respondents. (Heimbach & Jacoby 1972) have shown in their research that people with high need for achievement will manifest strong Zeigarnik effect than those with low need for achievement. Hammadi & Quresih 137 3. The Methodology and Model 3.1 Method of Data Collection An inventory of 20 ads were shown to 204 respondents, the collection consisted of 10 ads which had the Zeigarnik effect and 10 filler ads. The slide show was timed for about 3- 4 seconds per ad after the ads were shown to the respondents they were requested to fill in a questionnaire pointing out the number of ads they remembered from the ads shown. 3.2 Sampling Technique The Sampling Technique used was Restricted non -probability Sampling; the data was mainly collected from universities and high schools to get responses from different age groups. As this is a convenience based sampling method, very popular in academic research, the specific sample si ze rests arbitrarily with the researcher. 3.3 Instrument of Data Collection The was collected with the aid of a questionnaire and a slide show which consisted of 20 ads out of which 10 ads had the Zeigarnik effect and remaining 10 were normal ads. Fig ure 1: Theoretical Framework. 3.4 Sampling Framework The sampling framework has been developed based on the empirical observation and cognition of the researchers. 3.5 Statistical Technique The statistical techniques varied for all the three hypotheses. For the first hypothesis Paired Sample T -test was used to check that if there was a relationship between the Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention. Means of both Zeigarnik and normal ads were compared to see if there is difference between the two variables. Consumer Attention and Advertisement Recall Advertisements Containing the “Zeigarnik Effect” Consumer Demographics Hammadi & Quresih 138 For the next hypothesis the Independent Samples T -test was used to evaluate the mean scores of the two groups on a given variable (Male and Female). And for the third hypothesis Linear Regression was applied since the variables (age) were scale. 4. Results 4.1 Findings and Interpretation of the Results Results showed that people tend to remember incomplete ads better than complete one in this case ads containing the Zeigarnik effect. H1: There is a significant relationship between ads containing the Zeigarnik effect and Consumer attention. Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 Zeigarnik Ads 3.3137 204 1.87270 .13112 Normal Ads 2.9755 204 1.58017 .11063 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences t df Sig. (2 - tailed) Mean Std. Deviation Std.

Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Pair 1 Zeigarnik Ads – Normal Ads .33824 2.01186 .14086 .06050 .61597 2.401 203 .017 After Appling the Paired sample T – test the results indicated that the mean of ads containing the Zeigarnik effect was higher than that of normal ads. And the p -value of 0.017 being lower than significance level of 0.05 indicates that the null hypothesis is accepted and yes; there is a relationship between ads containing the Zeigarnik effect and Consumer attention. H2: The relationship between Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention is independent of gender. Hammadi & Quresih 139 Group Statistics Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Zeigarnik_Ads Female 63 3.8413 1.95272 .24602 Male 141 3.0780 1.79313 .15101 To test the second hypothesis Independent sample t -test was applied; the results indicated that out of the sample of 204, there were 141 male and 63 females. The results further showed that the mean of females were higher than males, signifying that fem ales have higher retention and recall capacity than that of males. And the p - value of 0.007 being lower than significance level of 0.05 indicates that the hypothesis is rejected , and relationship between Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention is dependent of gender. Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig . t df Sig.

(2 - tailed ) Mean Differenc e Std.

Error Differenc e 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lowe r Upper Zeigarnik_A ds Equal variance s assume d .11 6 .73 3 2.73 2 202 .007 .76326 .27938 .2123 8 1.3141 3 Equal variance s not assume d 2.64 4 110.56 8 .009 .76326 .28867 .1912 2 1.3352 9 Hammadi & Quresih 140 H3: The relationship between Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention is independent of age. Results have indicated that the variable age has no impact on consumer attention. Variable Entered / Removed b Model Variable Entered Variable Removed Method 1 Age a - Enter a. All requested variables entered. b. Dependent variable: Zeigarnik_Ads Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .093a .009 .004 1.86927 a. Predictors (Constant), Age. The model summary table reports the strength of the relationship between the model and the depend ent variable, the value of R is 0.093 indicates that there is a very weak relationship between the Zeigarnik effect and the respondents’ age. ANOVA Zeigarnik_Ads Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 115.371 18 6.410 1.988 .012 Within Groups 596.550 185 3.225 Total 711.922 203 The p -value of 0.188 being greater than significance level of 0.05 indicating that the hypothesis is accepted, the relationship between Zei garnik effect and consumer attention is independent of age. Age has no impact on consumer attention. Hammadi & Quresih 141 Coefficients a Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t. Sig B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 4.315 .769 5.611 .000 Age -.043 .032 -.093 -1.321 .188 a. Dependent variable: Zeigarnik_Ads Hypotheses Assessment Summary Hypotheses Significant Value Empirical Conclusion There is a significant relationship between ads containing the Zeigarnik effect and Consumer attention 0.017 The hypothesis is accepted since the p - value is lower than the significance level of 0.05. The relationship between Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention is independent of gender. 0.007 The hypothesis is rejected since the p - value is lower than t he significance level of 0.05. The relationship between Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention is independent of age. 0.188 The hypothesis is accepted since the p - value is greater than the significance level of 0.05. 5. Conclusion The aim of advertisers is not to create an ad that would only attract the consumer but influence the customers purchase decision. Consumers are bombarded with different commercials everyday of their lives; the real challenge is not only to produce an ad that would ge t their attention but to create an ad that the consumer is able retain and recall. Out of the numerous tactics used by advertisers we selected the Zeigarnik effect for our study. And the results indicated a strong relationship between the Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention. 5.1 Discussions The results indicated that there is a positive correlation among the ads containing the Zeigarnik effect and Consumer attention. Consumers tend to pay attention to things that appear novel, in this case ads with the Zeigarnik effect. Zeigarnik effect states that people tend to remember incomplete tasks better tha n completed tasks. The aspect of curiosity keeps the viewer glued to the situation. From the inventory of ads shown to the respondents, they were able to remember ads with the Zeigarnik effect better than normal ads. Furthermore, our second hypothesis reve aled that females have a better Hammadi & Quresih 142 memory span; they have higher retention and recall capacity over males. Hence, signifying the fact that gender has an impact on the Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention . The third hypothesis of our study tested the impac t of age on Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention. And the results signified that Age did not have impact on consumer attention. 5.2 Implications This research will be beneficial to both, academics studying the disciplines of marketing and advertising, as well as practitioners: marketers and advertisers, to develop an understanding on how to apply the Ziegarnik effect in their marketing communicatio n, and learn how to reap the maximum advantage out of it in terms of enhancing consumer involvement, attention and retention. 5.3 Future Research In the current research, we took only two demographic variables to test the consumer attention in the Zeiga rnik effect. In future we wish to test the effect against other demographics as well e.g. income, level of education etc. Secondly we also wish to see consumer attention toward video ads as well the current work is based on print ads only. 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