The effects of advertisement encoding on the failure to discount information: implications for the sleeper effect

The study examines the impact of encoding of product information on temporal changes in product attitudes following exposure to discounting appeals. The sleeper effect, which is manifested by increased message effectiveness over time, was observed in two replications when participants were induced to encode the message elaboratively. Under this condition, consumers were guided to imagine themselves consuming the advertised products while viewing the ads. The sleeper effect was not observed, however, when consumers were not induced to elaborate on and integrate message information (Experiment 1 ) or when the request to imagine themselves using the products was delivered after the discounting cue was conveyed (Experiment 2). These findings support a model that postulates that the magnitude of the sleeper effect is influenced by the relative availability of the product information and the discounting cue appeal. Additional mediating mechanisms are explored and discussed.