Chapter 8.3, Problem 8.36ACB

Consumers’ attitudes toward advertising. The two most common marketing tools used for product advertising are ads on television and ads in a print magazine. Consumers’ attitudes toward television and magazine advertising were investigated in the Journal of Advertising (Vol. 42, 2013). In one experiment, each in a sample of 159 college students was asked to rate both the television and the magazine marketing tool on a scale of 1 to 7 points according to whether the tool was a good example of advertising, a typical form of advertising, and a representative form of advertising. Summary statistics for these “typicality” scores are provided in the following table. One objective is to compare the mean ratings of TV and magazine advertisements.

a. The researchers analyzed the data using a paired-samples f-test. Explain why this is the most valid method of analysis. Give the null and alternative hypotheses for the test.

b. The researchers reported a paired t-value of 6.96 with an associated p-value of .001 and stated that the “mean difference between television and magazine advertising was statistically significant.” Explain what this means in the context of the hypothesis test.

c. To assess whether the result is “practically significant.” we require a confidence interval for the mean difference. Although this interval was not reported in the article, you can compute it using the information provided in the table. Find a 95% confidence interval for the mean difference and interpret the result. What is your opinion regarding whether the two means are “practically significant.”