Will direct comparative advertising works for a leading brand A study of the honey market

The purpose of this study is to test the viability of the direct comparative advertising in emerging markets like India with reference to gender and religion. To do so, the study aims to measure the impact of direct comparative advertisement in eastern culture for a low involved product like honey. Under the supervision, post-graduate management students collected the data during the field visit through intercept technique after taking approval. This paper uses 1 × 1 fully crossed designs (comparison ad format: direct strategy; market leader brand vs. challenger brand) with established and new brands in the category of honey. The results suggest that direct comparative advertisement has helped the leader brand more compared to challenger brand. The contribution of the paper is an application of Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to explain the success of Patanjali brand in honey segment and how religious belief and gender factors affect the purchase behaviour due to direct comparative advertising.