ALICE M. TYBOUT, BOBBY J. CALDER, and BRIAN STERNTHAL*
The research demonstrates the
designing marketing strategy. Two
theory are shown to be effective
rumor. The traditional theoretical
usefulness of information processing in
strategies based on information processing
in combating the impact of an adverse
and intuitive strategy of directly refuting
a rumor is shown to be ineffective.
Using Information Processing Theory to
Design Marketing Strategies
our research is thus to evaluate the effectiveness of
two strategies based on information processing theory.
To increase the strength of the evaluation, the strategies are compared with a more theoretically traditional
and intuitive strategy.
A common criticism of consumer behavior theories
is that they have failed to make much impact on
marketing practice. Perhaps this is because inquiry
has focused on demonstrating the integrity of various
theories rather than on their applicability in designing
marketing strategies. As a result, theory is viewed
as adding little insight not already provided by the
marketer's intuitions about consumer behavior. A new
approach, generally termed information processing
theory, promises to be more useful to marketers. The
research we report shows how information processing
theory leads to strategies that go beyond those suggested by previous theory and marketing practitioners'
intuition.
The purpose of our research is not to test information
processing theory, but to demonstrate its usefulness.
The former objective would require a rigorous attempt
to falsify the predictions of the theory. The latter
requires an evaluation of strategies designed on the
basis of the theory. (See Calder, Phillips, and Tybout,
forthcoming, for detailed elaboration of this distinction.) Showing that the strategies evaluated are ineffective would not necessarily constitute evidence
against the theory, for many other factors might be
at work. Showing that the strategies evaluated are
effective, however, would indicate the utility of the
theory as a basis for strategy design. The logic of
THE MARKETING PROBLEM
The evaluation of marketing strategies presupposes
a marketing problem. To increase the strength of our
evaluation, we address a problem that has been intractable in marketing practice—rumors associating
products with undesirable, and even bizarre, characteristics. In what is perhaps the best known case,
the McDonald's fast food chain was rumored to be
using red worm meat in its hamburgers. Although this
rumor was not substantiated by fact, McDonald's sales
were down by as much as 30% in the areas where
the rumor circulated.'
To combat the worm rumor, McDonald's tried to
refute it. Store managers posted a letter from the
Secretary of Agriculture stating that "hamburger produced by these [McDonald's] establishments is
wholesome, properly identified, and in compliance
with standards prescribed by Food Safety and Quality
Service regulations." Television and print advertisements emphasizing "100% pure b e e f were intensified. Public relations statements by McDonald's personnel noted, "It doesn't make sense, even from a
financial viewpoint. Red worms cost between $5 and
•Alice M. Tybout is a }. L. Kellogg Research Professor. Bobby
J. Calder is Professor of Behavioral Science in Management and
Professor of Psychology, and Brian Sternthal is Associate Professor
of Marketing, Northwestern University. The authors acknowledge
the assistance of Joe Anderson, Darlene Binns, and JoAnn Murphy
in conducting the study and the assistance of Paul Schurr in data
analysis.
'The description of the rumor that McDonald's uses worms is
adapted from Bob Greene's columns appearing in the Chicago
Tribune in December 1978. Statements attributed t9 the Secretary
of Agriculture and McDonald's personnel were originally quoted
in Greene's column.
73
Journal of Marketing Research
Vol. XVIII (February 1981), 73-9
74
$8 a pound. Hamburger meat costs just over a dollar
a pound. You'd have to be nuts to put worms in
your hamburgers. You just couldn't afford it."
McDonald's strategy for combating the worm rumor
was less than effective. As the advertising manager
for McDonald's System of Ohio Incorporated observed, "It's [the refutation] not doing any good.
The calls are still coming in. Business is still not back.''
The use of credible spokespeople and compelling
evidence was not sufficient to dispel the worm rumor.
McDonald's refutation may not have reached persons
adversely affected by the worm rumor, or perhaps
reached them but did not significantly affect their
reaction to McDonald's. Regardless of the specific
reason, refutation was unsuccessful in reversing the
rumor effect.
McDonald's experience is no isolated phenomenon.
A growing number of firms are faced with rumors
linking their product to some undesirable attribute.
During the last few years, for example, Gillette hairdryers were rumored to be made with asbestos, a
carcinogen. Rumors have also circulated that Poprocks, a General Foods candy filled with carbon
dioxide, caused children to explode when they consumed it in combination with soft drinks. These stories
bear a striking resemblance to the McDonald's rumor.
Although the rumors were not based on fact, they
were threatening to sales.
Guidance in developing strategies to dispel rumors
might be expected to emerge from the attitude change
literature (e.g., Fishbein and Ajzen 1975). Fundamental to traditional attitude theory is the notion that
attitude change is produced by a persuasive message
which changes the behefs a person holds. The theory
identifies several variables, such as source credibility,
that ought to cause persuasion. Yet this theory leads
to just the strategy that seems ineffective in the
McDonald's case. Presenting consumers with persuasive messages contradicting the belief produced by
a rumor (in the case of McDonald's, that their hamburgers contain worms) does not seem to change their
attitude. This ineffectiveness is particularly striking
in that the beliefs being contradicted are not hkely
to be very strong. In theory, it should not be very
difficult to persuade someone that hamburgers do not
contain worms. The behef is so incredible to begin
with that a credible communication and spokesperson
should be able to change it easily.^
The failure of the persuasive refutation strategy also
runs counter to common sense. Rumors of the McDonald's type seem intuitively implausible. McDonald's strategy was undoubtedly based on the common
^One might also look for guidance from the literature on rumors.
Indeed, the number of investigations on rumors is substantial (see
Rosnow and Fine 1976). However, these studies typically have
a sociological perspective, and describe the genesis and circulation
of rumors but not how to counteract them.
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, FEBRUARY 1981
sense insight that it should be possible to change
people's minds about the plausibility of worms, thereby restoring the former appeal of McDonald's.
THE IN FORMA TION PROCESSING
STRA TEGIES
Information processing theory explains consumer
behavior in terms of cognitive operations. Unhke
previous theories, it is not limited to postulating
subjective states (traits, attitudes, etc.) as causes of
behavior. Information processing theory seeks a more
mechanistic account. Behavior is a consequence of
not only what people think about but how they think
about it. According to the information processing view,
incoming information is represented more or less
faithfully in active memory. This information may
stimulate the activation (called retrieval) of objectrelevant thoughts that have been processed earlier.
Because active memory is limited in capacity, information represented in active memory requires longterm storage if it is to be available for later use. Both
incoming information and previously processed information represented in active memory can be stored
by a process of rehearsal. Rehearsal involves the active
association of attributes with an object. Storage of
information is thought to be systematic. Information
about a particular object is stored as associations with
that object in one or more memory locations or
addresses (see Bettman 1979 for a more detailed
description of the theory).
Consider the marketing problem posed by the McDonald's rumor in terms of information processing
theory. Individuals exposed to a rumor linking the
object, McDonald's, to an attribute, worms, store this
association in memory. Subsequent evaluation of the
object requires retrieval of object-relevant thoughts
from memory. Among the thoughts retrieved is the
one produced by the rumor and possibly others related
to the attribute specified by the rumor. Because these
thoughts are less positive than those that would have
been retrieved in the absence of the rumor, the
evaluation of the object is less favorable. Consumers
are affected because they process the rumor, not
because they necessarily believe it.
The theory thus accounts for why the rumor has
an impact even though it is so implausible. It also
accounts for why a persuasive refutation strategy may
be ineffective. Refutation increases rehearsal of the
rumor and strengthens the stored association. Even
if the refutation were completely persuasive, so that
consumers retrieve the thought, "McDonald's hamburgers don't really contain worms," this thought is
still less positive than other thoughts that might be
retrieved in the absence of the refutation.
The critical aspect of the information processing
view for our purposes, however, is that it readily
suggests two strategies that might be effective. One
can be referred to as a storage strategy. It requires
INFORAAATION PROCESSING THEORY AND AAARKETING STRATEGIES
introducing a second object at the time rumor information is stored. The presence of the second object is
intended to foster the association of the rumor attribute
with that object rather than with the object (McDonald's) initially specified in the rumor. Moreover, if
the second object is positively evaluated by rumor
recipients, some of this affect is likely to become
associated with the rumor attribute (worms), making
it less negative. Hence, even if the rumor attribute
is still associated with the initial object (McDonald's),
it will not have as adverse an effect on that object's
evaluation as would be the case in the absence of
the storage strategy.
The second strategy can be referred to as a retrieval
strategy. It requires affecting information retrieval.
The strategy is based on the notion that judicious
choice of a stimulus will direct retrieval of thoughts
in memory away from rumor-stimulated associations.
Even if the new stimulus does not completely inhibit
the retrieval of object-rumor attribute associations,
it is likely to dilute these associations with other
thoughts in active memory.
We evaluated the storage and retrieval strategies
in a laboratory setting, which enabled us to implement
them in as pure a form as possible without interference
from uncontrolled communication factors. Personal
communication was used instead of media communication to reduce noise. Though this implementation
of the strategies could not be used directly in marketing
practice, it provides a strong test of whether the
strategies work. In a more practically oriented evaluation, the strategies might fail for many reasons (e.g.,
insufficient exposure to an advertising message). In
our test, the strategies can fail only because they are
fundamentally unsound.
To provide a strong test of the strategies, we made
considerable effort to simulate the rumor marketing
problem in the laboratory. The setting was designed
to produce the same effects experienced by McDonald's. In addition, a persuasive refutation strategy
paralleling the one employed by McDonald's was
included for comparison. To be successful, the storage
and retrieval strategies had to be effective in negating
the worm rumor and perform better than the refutation
strategy.
METHOD
Procedure
Sixty-four subjects were recruited from several
graduate classes to participate in a study that ostensibly
involved the evaluation of television programs and
commercials. The participants arrived at the laboratory
in groups of four to six, and were introduced to the
three members of the research team who jointly
administered the experiment. Unknown to research
participants, a fourth member of the team served as
75
a research subject. This confederate was present at
all experimental sessions.
Videotaped instructions featuring one of the experimenters were played first. These instructions presented the experimental guise and the required tasks.
Participants were informed that they would see a
television program that recently had been identified
as among the most violent on television and that their
task would be to evaluate the program. They were
also told that commercials were interspersed throughout the program to simulate actual viewing conditions.
Because these commercials might affect their program
evaluations, subjects were informed that they would
also be asked to evaluate the products they saw
advertised. Subjects were asked to watch the program
as they normally would, but there was to be no talking.
After viewing the instructions, the subjects watched
a one-hour episode from the Hawaii 5-0 series. Twelve
commercials were shown during the program at the
same intervals that would be used if the program were
aired on prime time network television. Three of the
commercials were for McDonald's. They were inserted
near the begiiming, middle, and end of the program
and were always preceded and followed by commercials for other products. In experimental treatments
requiring the circulation of the rumor, the confederate
introduced the rumor at the end of the last McDonald's
commercial.
After subjects had seen the program, they were
administered a series of scaled questions pertaining
to the program. Then they were asked to rate eating
at McDonald's on three scales, after which they were
sworn to secrecy and dismissed. Two days after the
last experimental session, they were asked to complete
an additional scale pertaining to the truth of the worm
rumor. Subjects were then debriefed about the experimental purpose and procedures. No subjects indicated
suspicion about the experimental guise or the confederate.
Independent Variables
For purposes of analysis, the six treatments used
were conceived of as a 2 x 2 factorial design with
two additional contrasts. The 2 x 2 factorial design
was employed to assess the effect of the worm rumor
and the retrieval strategy. It entailed two levels of
worm rumor (present, absent) and two levels of
retrieval cue (present, absent). In the rumor-present
condition, the rumor that McDonald's used worms
was introduced by the confederate who was ostensibly
a research participant. At the close of the third
McDonald's commercial, she stated the rumor: "You
know these McDonald's commercials remind me of
that rumor about worms and McDonald's—you know,
that McDonald's uses worm meat in their hamburgers." The experimenter responded by reminding
the confederate that there was to be no talking. In
the rumor-absent control condition, the confederate
76
simply watched the program with the research participants.
The retrieval cue was manipulated by the presence
or absence of a series of questions. After subjects
in the retrieval cue condition had completed their
evaluation of the program, but before they evaluated
eating at McDonald's, they were administered questions asking them to indicate the location of the
McDonald's they frequent most often, how often they
visit it per year, and whether or not it had indoor
seating. This induction was intended to stimulate
retrieval of thoughts about McDonald's other than
ones related to the worm rumor. In the no retrieval
cue condition, subjects completed the evaluation of
eating at McDonald's immediately after the program
evaluation. Information processing theory suggests
there will be a significant rumor by retrieval cue
interaction such that the evaluation of eating at McDonald's will be less positive in the worm rumor/no
retrieval cue condition than it will be in the other
three cells.
Two additional treatments were included. One was
designed to emulate the "worming-out" refutational
strategy used by McDonald's. Refutation was introduced by having the experimenter respond to the
confederate's rumor statement by saying: "That's just
not true. If nothing else, worms are too expensive—
$8 a pound! Besides the FDA did a study and they
found that McDonald's uses 100% pure beef. Now,
no more talking." On the basis of information processing theory, the refutation strategy is expected to
result in less positive evaluations of eating at McDonald's than would be observed in the rumor absent/no
retrieval cue condition.
The other treatment involved the operationalization
of the storage strategy by a device we termed "the
French connection." Subjects in this treatment heard
the experimenter respond to the confederate's rumor
statement by saying: "That may sound funny to you,
but last week my mother-in-law was in town and we
took her to Chez Paul and had a really good sauce
that was made out of worms. Now, no more talking."
The storage strategy condition was intended to minimize the chance that the worm rumor would be stored
with McDonald's. The temporal proximity of the rumor
and the French connection was anticipated to help
achieve this aim. Even if the worm rumor were stored
at the McDonald's address in memory, its association
with an affectively positive object. French food,
should minimize any adverse rumor effect. Thus we
expected on the basis of the information processing
view that the storage strategy would induce more
positive evaluations of eating at McDonald's than
would be observed in the rumor present/no retrieval
cue/no storage cue condition.
Dependent Measures
Three rating scales that were likely to be sensitive
to the presence and absence of the rumor induction
JOURNAL OF AAARKETING RESEARCH, FEBRUARY 1981
served as the dependent measure of evaluation of
McDonald's. They required subjects to rate eating
at McDonald's with respect to "good quality food/bad
quality food," "completely fits my needs/does not
fit my needs at all," and "certain to eat at McDonald's/certain not to eat at McDonald's." Subjects'
responses on these seven-point rating scales were
summed to derive an evaluative index. Use of the
Cronbach a statistic showed this index to be highly
reliable (a = .78). In addition, 47 of the research
participants completed the scale pertaining to the truth
of the worm rumor two days after the experiment.'
It stated, "It's been mentioned that McDonald's hamburgers have worms. How likely is this to be true?"
Responses were on a seven-point scale ranging from
"very likely to be true" (scored 1) to "very unlikely
to be true" (scored 7).
RESULTS
The means and standard deviations for the evaluative index are shown in Table 1. Figure 1 depicts
the experimental results. The effects of the rumor
and retrieval cue were assessed through a 2 x 2 analysis of variance. A significant rumor x retrieval cue
interaction was found (F=5.92, d.f. = 1,39, p<
.02).^ A comparison of the rumor present/no retrieval
cue and rumor absent/no retrieval cue conditions
indicated that the rumor induction was successful in
causing a less favorable evaluation toward eating at
McDonald's (t = 2.32, d.f. = 1, 19, p < .01).' This
effect emerged despite the fact that subjects' postexperimental responses to the assertion that McDonald's hamburgers were made with worm meat indicated
a strong disbelief of this contention in all treatments
Table 1
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR THE
EVALUATION OF EATING AT McDONALD'S INDEX
CATEGORIZED BY THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
Cell
size
Rumor
Rumor
Rumor
Rumor
Rumor
Rumor
absent, no retrieval cue
present, no retrieval cue
absent, retrieval cue
present, retrieval cue
present, refutation
present, storage cue
12
9
11
11
10
11
S.D.
10.75"
14.89
11.46
10.64
14.50
10.09
3.73
4.44
2.12
3.83
3.56
4.23
'Higher numbers reflect a more negative evaluation.
'Attrition in the number of post-experimental respondents was
similar for the various experimental treatments and ranged from
one to three people.
'Analyses of experimental effects are based on a sum scale
composed of the three dependent measures. However, the same
effects were observed when the scales were analyzed individually.
'The f-tests were protected by the significant rumor X retrieval
cue interaction.
INFORAAATION PROCESSING THEORY AND AAARKETING STRATEGIES
77
Figure 1
o
c
o
o
o
Q
u
u
o
o
o
I
o
No
Rumor
Rumor
Alone
Rumor
Atone
Rumor plus
Retrieval Strotegy
(b) The Effect of Retrievol
Strategy on the Rumor Impact
(o) The Rumor Effect
JO
o
c
o
o
o
o
c
o
a
u
o
o
I
UJ
Rumor
Alone
Rumor plus
Refutotion
(c) The Effect of Refutotion on
Rumor Impact
{X = 6.53, S.D. = .78, F < 1). Moreover, a comparison of the rumor present/no retrieval cue and the
rumor present/retrieval cue conditions indicated that
the retrieval strategy was successful in combating the
rumor effect (t = 2.31, d.f. = 1, 18,/? < .01).
The effect of the refutation strategy was assessed
by contrasting it to the rumor absent/no retrieval cue
condition. The refutation induced a less positive eval-
Rumor
Alone
Rumor plus
Storoge Strategy
(d) The Effect of Storage Strategy
on Rumor Impact
uation of eating at McDonald's (F=8.13, d.f. =
1, 20, p < .01), thus echoing the result obtained by
McDonald's when it employed a similar strategy in
natural settings. In contrast, the French connection
storage strategy was effective in dispelling the rumor
effect. A comparison of this storage strategy and rumor
present/no retrieval cue conditions indicated a significantly more favorable evaluation of eating at McDon-
78
aid's when French connection was employed (F =
6.11, d.f. = 1, 18,/» < .02).
DISCUSSION
The simulation of the worm rumor in the laboratory
was successful. Evaluation of McDonald's was less
positive in the presence of the worm comment than
in its absence. Producing this effect provided the
necessary condition for determining strategy effectiveness. The evaluation indicated that the storage
and retrieval strategies based on information processing theory were effective. Both increased evaluation
of McDonald's to no-rumor levels. The two strategies
also were effective in comparison with the refutation
strategy.
In addition to demonstrating the effectiveness of
the information processing strategies, the results have
two important implications. One is the need for further
elaboration and testing of information processing
theory. The focus of our study was on evaluating
strategies, not on disentangling different types of
processing. Thus the specific strategies selected were
ones expected to be ef^fective on multiple theoretical
grounds. The storage strategy could have disrupted
the association of McDonald's with worms or it could
simply have made that association more positive (by
relating worms to French food). The retrieval strategy
either blocked the activation of McDonald's worm
associations or inhibited their retrieval in relation to
other thoughts individuals had stored about eating at
McDonald's. Though it is useful in practical terms
to design strategies that have multiple bases for effectiveness, such strategies do not allow identification
of the specific mechanism at work. Further research
is needed to determine the specific processes involved
in storage and retrieval.
A similar issue arises with respect to the refutation
strategy. Its ineffectiveness may be due to any one
of three causes. First, subjects may not have processed
the refutation. This possibility seems unlikely because
all the other experimental inductions (i.e., the worm
rumor, the storage strategy, and the retrieval strategy)
were presented in a similar manner and were processed. More difficult to rule out is the possibility
that the particular operationalization of the refutation
strategy was ineffective, whereas other operationalizations would have been effective. Finally, as predicted by the information processing view, the refutation may have stimulated the retrieval of the McDonald's-worm association. In our study, and in McDonald's implementation of the refutation strategy, there
is no way to disentangle these alternative explanations.
Nonetheless, investigations employing a "debriefing
paradigm" do suggest that refutation can operate in
the way depicted by information processing theory
(Ross, Lepper, and Hubbard 1975; Walster et al. 1967).
In the Ross study, subjects were initially given false
feedback about their ability to distinguish real and
JOURNAL OF AAARKETING RESEARCH, FEBRUARY 1981
fictitious suicide notes. Those assigned to the outcome
debriefmg treatment were told that the feedback they
had received was predetermined and random. Despite
this debriefmg, subjects persevered in holding the
impressions about their abihty they had formed on
the basis of the false feedback. Apparently, discrediting an object-attribute association did not eradicate
beliefs caused by the feedback. They were still retrieved for evaluation. In contrast, those subjects
whose debriefmg included an expUcit and detailed
discussion of the psychological process being investigated did not exhibit this perseverance. Our interpretation is that this debriefing procedure cued beliefs
other than those formed on the basis of the initial
false feedback.
These fmdings suggest a second implication of our
results—that the worm rumor problem may be only
one instance of a much more pervasive problem.
Specifically, our study and the one done by Ross
and his colleagues imply that even when an association
is disbelieved, it may be stored in memory and may
influence evaluation. Although these studies examine
a disbeUeved association that is negative, disbelieved
associations could also be positive. As Maloney (1962,
1963) noted some time ago, presenting a communication that directs people to certain product attributes
can create a more favorable attitude, even when people
do not believe the communication (e.g., it is too good
to be true).
If the disbelief phenomenon is as general as the
results indicate, the suggested storage and retrieval
strategies should have wide applicability. As a practical
matter, ways must be found to implement the strategies
through marketing communications. In principle this
undertaking should be no more difficult than developing an execution for any other strategy.
Beyond any specific marketing strategies, our research illustrates the value of information processing
theory in guiding managerial practice. Everyday insight
into consumer behavior may not be sufficient. Strategies should be designed on the basis of theoretical
understanding of the psychological processes underlying consumer behavior. Information processing theory
offers great promise of providing this understanding.
REFERENCES
Bettman, James (1979), "Memory Factors in Consumer
Choice: A Review," Journal of Marketing, 43 (Spring),
37-53.
Calder, Bobby, Lynn Phillips, and Alice Tybout (forthcoming), "Designing Research for Application," Journal of
Consumer Research.
Fishbein, Martin and leek Ajzen (1975), Belief, Attitude,
Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and
Research. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Maloney, John (1962), "Curiosity vs. Disbelief in Advertising," Journal of Advertising Research, 2 (June), 2-8.
INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY AND AAARKETING STRATEGIES
(1963), "Is Advertising Believability Really Important?" Journal of Marketing, 27 (October), 1-8.
Rosnow, Ralph and Gary Fine (1976), Rumor and Gossip:
The Social Psychology of Hearsay. New York: Elsevier.
Ross, Lee, Mark Lepper, and Michael Hubbard (1975),
"Biased Attributional Processes in the Debriefing Para-
79
digm," Journal of Personality and Social Psycholgy, 32
(November), 880-92.
Walster, Elaine, Ellen Berscheid, D'Arcy Abrahams, and
Vera Aronson (1967), "Effectiveness of Debriefing Following Deception Experiments," Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 6 (March), 371-80.
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