Advertisement plays a major role in society by bringing awareness among consumers through advertisement. Advertisement appeals are communication techniques used by experts in marketing and advertising to catch attention and convince people to buy or act. The concept of an "appeal" dates back in rhetorical philosophy to Aristotle, who identified the three key appeals of communication as ethos, pathos and logos or, in modern language, integrity, sentiment and logic.

The main aim of advertising appeal is to spread the message to large audience based on three objectives which are: informative, persuasive and reminder advertising which helps consumer to make the decision to buy things. Advertisements shown on any platform contain many types of appeals which act as an influencing factor to attract large audience. The main objective of advertising by using various appeal is to launch products and to spread awareness among consumers, and also to promote the available products and to boost sales using such medium to connect audience by using right appeal at the right time. There are basically seven types of appeals and they are: Music appeal, sexual appeal, comedy appeal, Fear appeal, Emotional appeal, Rational appeal and Humour appeal.

All these appeals have been taken into consideration as part of our research and help us in finding the impact of appeals on buying decisions. From the Business Standard article, it is anticipated that Digital Media by 2020 will grow by 27% and reach 17,377 crores. Overall, the Advertising industry in India is going to grow by 10.09% from 68,475 crore to 75,952 crores. According to source it was found that the average person is now estimated to encounter nearly 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day by end of 2020. The market value of advertising industry is expected to hit US$ 769.9 billion by 2024, rising at a CAGR of about 6.3 percent over the predicted period (2019-2024). Global advertising expenditure has steadily increased and projected to surpass 560 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

A graph showing Indian advertising industry's market size is given below (Figure 1). As it can be seen the expenditure on advertising is constantly increasing and it has resulted in expansion of market size of India. The Indian advertising industry is expected to be second after China in Asia. The share of advertisement spending in GDP is expected to be about 0.45% by 2018.

Figure 1. Market Size

The internet advertisement industry in India is projected to expand at CAGR of 33.5% to surpass the Rs. 25,500 crore levels (US$ 3.8 billion) in 2020. It is sure that advertising industry has a huge market and looking at current scenario advertising market will continue to grow at a steady rate and generate huge revenues.

Advertising appeal is something that attracts the interest of people and creates awareness in customers (Mishra, 2009). The main theme of any advertisement campaign is its advertising appeal. Advertising creates a product's appetite, and appeals to convince customers to invest in the product. The opportunity to savor an upcoming pleasant experience will play a key role in increasing the appetite of the customer for a product or service marketed (Moore, 2010).

To meet huge demands of the targeted consumers, marketers mostly use emotional and rational appeal for their advertising to create an impact on the consumers (Chu, 1996). There were studies which showed that impact of both rational appeal and brand ambassador has more significant influence on the purchase intention of the combination of emotional appeals (Lin, 2011). While on other hand brand recall or recognition is directly related with the positive emotional appeal. Consumers tend to recognize the brand showing emotional appeal especially under convenience product category (Panda et al., 2013). Rational appeals have more significant influence on high involvement products whereas emotional appeals work better with low involvement products (Akbari, 2015). A generating effect occurs if the customers are familiar with a problem area and the class of products designed to address that area, and it will lead them to remember more about the advertising appeal (Moore et al., 1986). Studies have shown that emotional appeals tend to be less attractive and influencing to consumers compared to rational appeals when it comes to purchasing intentions, as rational appeals are more of information and are specific to their product due to which has higher conversion rate. Rational appeals are more effective with the convenience products (Grigaliunaite & Pileliene, 2016). Even though emotional appeal is more positive, consumers tend to rationalize their reaction when it comes to convenience products.

Humour Appeal is one of the promotional appeals used by advertisers to attract people to buy a product, take a service, contribute to a cause or be convinced to do otherwise. Applicable humour will improve promotional activity but humour that is not applicable to the promotional intent will either have no effect or negative impact. It would have positive effect when it supports the intended message and not become a subject of levity (Scott et al., 1990). Humour when used with relevant products such as toys and, games etc influences purchase intention. Humour drives customer decision-making. Humour is more suitable for items with low participation and products with an emotional orientation (Koneska et al., 2017).

Fear appeal has significant influence on purchase intentions up to an extent and may lead to rejection due to selective perception (Jovanoic et al., 2017). Advertisements are either in positive direction (motivators) or in negative direction (disincentive). There are different consequences of applying appeals with a particular direction. People with high social fear are more persuaded by positive consequences in an advertising appeal than the negative ones, which means promises are more preferable to them than threats. Person with low social fear gets persuaded by negative consequences in any advertising appeal i.e., threats used by the advertiser (Menasco & Baron, 1982). Sex appeal can be defined as a message in the sense of brand information or an appeal in any context which is associated with sexual information (Reichert et al., 2001). Sex appeal ads could be effective in communicating and in reaching the audience subject to its conformity to the perception of the target viewers (Thiyagarajan,2012).

According to Mishra (2009), to make the advertising campaign more attractive to the viewers, advertisers may use more than one advertising appeal in the campaign. The advertising appeal has to be something which gives strong brand recall. Studies have shown that advertisements having vocal songs are more effective whether they are original or altered compared to advertisements having only instrument or no music (Allan, 2006). It should portray a positive image of the brand and at the same time it should be unique. The youth are observed as trendsetters, early adopters, literate, more positive, idealistic and multicultural, and usually care for practical ads that sell a life style instead of just a product (Macieijewski, 2004). It has a strong appeal which adds to the product information influences. Appeals do not always necessarily have all the characteristics as the product, but they create an atmosphere where the expectations of the target audience are evoked towards the product.

The overall results from literature review shows the importance of advertisements and use of various appeals on customer mindset and the impact of various appeals on the buying behavior of people.

This study aims at finding the kind of appeal that influences the customers. The study has three objectives:

• To study the influence of various advertising appeals on customers.
• To analyze the influence of advertising appeals on genders.
• To analyze the type of advertising appeal that has major influence on consumer buying behaviour.

The research paper uses the quantitative approach of data collection using descriptive research method, as the research reports the statement of affairs as it exists. For registering the opinions of the respondents, a well structured questionnaire was prepared, containing 16 multiple choice questions pertaining to the different parameters of advertising appeal. The ideal sample size of 271 was selected. The data collection is primarily done using a non-probability sampling method. Out of a larger population, we have taken respondents from Ahmedabad as our representative segment.

It has questions on the following categories:

• Demographic Details: To gain an idea about the sample on gender, age group and occupation of respondents.
• Variable Categories: 16 multiple choice questions are created under categories of variables.

The study uses various types of advertisement appeal to find which factor influences customers' buying decision process. The study uses five different categories of parameters, namely, emotional appeal, fear appeal, comedy appeal, status appeal and romance appeal. Each question in the questionnaire indirectly relates to one of the characteristics revealed and reviewed from literature review. Different questions that were used for measuring the customer buying decision based on advertisement appeals were taken into consideration. For observing the agreeableness of the respondents in terms of 16 questions they had to answer on a 5-point Likert scale. Likert Scale was used to understand the impact of advertising appeal on customer buying decision.

3.1 Sample Profile

The data is collected from 271 respondents out of which 134 are females and 111 are males. Majority of responses (104) were in the age group of “18 – 25 years” while the rest belong to other categories. The data was gathered from respondents majority of whom are either graduate or post – graduate. All of the respondents are from Ahmedabad city.

A survey was taken on advertisement appeal and its effect on the buying decision. The results from cross tab analysis shows different ranks given by respondents to different appeals. For the analysis, only the data of the first rank has been taken with respect to gender.

Figure 2 shows that 38.8% of respondents agreed that the advertising appeals have a strong impact on their buying decision (based on 5-point Likert scale).

Figure 2. Effect of Advertising Appeal

Figure 3 shows that majority of the respondents think that content is the component which makes them recall the advertisement (based on 5-point Likert scale).

Figure 3. Recalling an Advertisement

Chi-square is used to check whether the gender is associated with the advertising appeals or not. Table 1 shows the ranking given by respondents to each of the appeal and whether the gender has any relationship with any of the appeal.

Table 1. Ranking and Appeals

The following hypothesis were taken for Chi-square test:

H₀₁ – There is no significant association between gender and comedy appeal.

H₀₂ – There is no significant association between gender and fear appeal.

H₀₃ – There is no significant association between gender and romance appeal.

H₀₄ – There is no significant association between gender and emotional appeal.

H₀₅ – There is no significant association between gender and status appeal.

Chi-square test results have shown that the influence of advertising appeals is independent of gender except for comedy appeal. There is significant association between gender and comedy appeal. The p-value for all the appeals is greater than 0.05 (confidence level), and hence we accept the null hypothesis. In case of comedy appeal, p-value is less than 0.05 which states that there is association between gender and comedy appeal and therefore, null hypothesis is rejected. If we analyze gender wise preference over appeals, it was found that females were most attracted to rational appeal, emotional appeal and romantic appeal whereas males were more inclined towards comedy and fear appeal. Status appeal was equally preferred by both male and female. Through crosstab between gender and appeals, it was quite clear that comedy appeal is related to gender.

The study also aims to find whether there is any significant difference in impact of appeals over gender. So, to find whether there is difference in the variance within and between the categorical group and comedy appeal, Anova was applied with gender as categorical variable (independent) and advertising appeals as dependent variable.

The hypothesis for Anova testing are as follows:

H₀₆ – There is no significant difference in variance of impact of emotional appeal over gender.

H₀₇ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of fear appeal over gender

H₀₈ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of status appeal over gender.

H₀₉ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of comedy appeal over gender.

H₀₁₀ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of rational appeal over gender.

H₀₁₁ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of romantic appeal over gender.

Table 2 shows whether there is significant relationship between appeals and gender group (Male, Female).

Table 2. Appeals over Gender

Here, the first hypothesis is:

H₀₆ – There is no significant difference in variance of impact of emotional appeal over gender.

H₀₆ – There is significant difference in variance of impact of emotional appeal over gender.

Here, as can be seen from Table 3, the significance value for emotional appeal over gender is 0.344 which is greater than the level of significance. Hence, null hypothesis is accepted which suggests that there is no significant difference between the impact of emotional appeal on consumer buying behavior, be it a male or a female. Both are equally affected by this advertising appeal.

Table 3. Appeals over Gender

H₀₇ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of fear appeal over gender.

H₀₇ - There is significant difference in variance of impact of fear appeal over gender.

Here, as can be seen from Table 3, the significance value for fear appeal over gender is 0.234 which is greater than the level of significance. Hence, null hypothesis is accepted which suggests that there is no significant difference between the impact of fear appeal on consumer buying behavior, be it a male or a female. Both are equally affected by this advertising appeal.

H₀₈ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of status appeal over gender.

H₀₈ - There is significant difference in variance of impact of status appeal over gender.

Here, as can be seen from Table 3, the significance value for status appeal over gender is 0.079 which is greater than the level of significance. Hence, null hypothesis is accepted which suggests that there is no significant difference between the impact of status appeal on consumer buying behavior, be it a male or a female. Both are equally affected by this advertising appeal.

H₀₉ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of comedy appeal over gender.

H₀₉ - There is significant difference in variance of impact of comedy appeal over gender.

Here, as can be seen from Table 3, the significance value for comedy appeal over gender is 0.008 which is less than the level of significance. Hence, alternate hypothesis is accepted which suggests that there is significant difference between the impact of comedy appeal on consumer buying behavior. Males and females react to comedy appeal differently.

H₀₁₀ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of rational appeal over gender.

H₀₁₀ - There is significant difference in variance of impact of rational appeal over gender.

Here, as can be seen from Table 3, the significance value for rational appeal over gender is 0.431 which is greater than the level of significance. Hence, null hypothesis is accepted which suggests that there is no significant difference between the impact of rational appeal on consumer buying behavior, be it a male or a female. Both are equally affected by this advertising appeal.

H₀₁₁ - There is no significant difference in variance of impact of romantic appeal over gender.

H₀₁₁ - There is significant difference in variance of impact of romantic appeal over gender.

Here, as can be seen from Table 3, the significance value for emotional appeal over gender is 0.467 which is greater than the level of significance. Hence, null hypothesis is accepted which suggests that there is no significant difference between the impact of emotional appeal on consumer buying behavior, be it a male or a female. Both are equally affected by the advertising appeal.

Summarizing the results of the above six hypothesis, it is found that there is no significant difference between male and female categorical groups when related to emotional, fear, status, rational and romantic appeals. However, there is a significant difference between male and female categorical groups when related to comedy appeal.

To analyze comedy appeal further, to know which category of gender is influenced more because of comedy appeal, mean value analysis was taken. Figure 3 shows that the mean value of males is 3.7 which is greater than in comparison with females having 3.59 as mean. This explains that males get influenced more with comedy appeal in comparison with female respondents.

Figure 4. Mean Analysis of Comedy Appeal Over Gender

Anova test has shown that comedy appeal has created significant variance between male and female. By comparing their means, we find that males have higher average compared to females. So, we conclude that males are more influenced by comedy appeal.

The important findings that result from this study are that there is no significant variance of effect of advertising appeals over gender except comedy appeal. This means males and females both are equally affected by advertising appeals and no significant variation stating high or low impact was found in this study. The study reveals that majority of females have ranked rational, emotional and romantic appeal as their first preferences whereas males have ranked status, fear and comedy appeal as their first preferences. But, overall it was found that maximum respondents have given rational and emotional appeal as first preference whereas they have given last preference to fear appeal.

While emotional appeal and romantic appeal have a direct impact on consumers, fear appeal has an indirect impact on consumers. This reveals that fear appeal and emotional appeal trigger certain emotions in the mind of the viewers but fear appeal is associated with some loss. It compels the viewer to fear about the loss of the loved ones and buy certain products for their safety. Emotional appeal may show happiness, sadness or anger or any other human emotion and thus has a direct impact on consumers.

The study also confirms the fact that people strongly agree to buy those products that provide safety to their loved ones. But when they were asked to rank the appeals, they chose fear appeal as their last preference which means that people do prefer to buy products like Odomos and All- Out but do not prefer to be evoked by advertisements which scare them. Messages delivered to the consumers generally have a negative response towards the advertised product particularly when the advertisement portrays high negative emotions as that instills fear emotion in the minds of the consumer. The study analysis reveals that there is a significant difference in the variances of gender groups when compared with comedy appeal as males prefer it more than females.

There are various real life implications of the findings from this study. The results generated provide relevant insights which can be applied to both organizations and advertisers. The insights generated not only proves that different appeals have different impact on gender but also helps the marketers to identify the right appeal for target segment in Gujarat. Moreover, it is not necessary that all appeals will attract and influence a particular gender category as there are other demographic variables (age, education, income etc.) as well that might affect the influence of advertising appeal. Once the perfect advertisement appeal is determined by the advertisers, it will enhance the advertising effectiveness.