Question

If a duck commercial is to tested against two nonduck commercials to determine which ad generates more favorable attitudes toward Aflac, what type of experimental design would you recommend and why?

preexperimental designs

,true experimental design

quasi-experimental designs
statistical design

Answer 1

• A factorial design is recommended. There will be one factor with three treatment levels: current commercial, non-duck commercial 1, and non-duck commercial 2. Respondents will be assigned randomly to the three groups. Post-exposure measure of advertising effectiveness will be obtained for all the groups. This design will allow a comparison of the three commercials in terms of advertising effectiveness.
• Factorial designs are a form of true experiment, where multiple factors (the researcher-controlled independent variables) are manipulated or allowed to vary, and they provide researchers two main advantages.
• First, they allow researchers to examine the main effects of two or more individual independent variables simultaneously.
• Second, they allow researchers to detect interactions among variables. An interaction is when the effects of one variable vary according to the levels of another variable. Such interactions can only be detected when the variables are examined in combination.