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Signaling trust in print advertisements: An empirical investigation

Trust is a key component of many successful businesses, and while there are many factors in advertising that can aid in establishing trust, this paper focuses on business tenure and local ownership as potential cues of trustworthiness. Additionally we consider industry type as a potential moderating variable. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 examined the use of the statement ‘locally owned and operated’ while Study 2 looked at the length of time in business. Dependent variables were trustworthiness, brand attitude and purchase intent. Ads were created promoting consumer services from both high-trust and low-trust industries. Study 1 found the claim ‘locally owned and operated’ has no impact on attitudes and intentions as compared to relevant control. Study 2, however, shows that length of time in business accounts for differences in consumers' perception of the company and subsequent purchase intent. Consumers use trust as the foundation for making purchase decisions through the reduction of uncertainty. We examine several possible candidates for how businesses might signal trustworthiness. This paper attempts to answer this question by taking two very prevalent phrases in advertising and testing their ability to encourage a higher level of trust in the advertised service and purchase intent among consumers.