What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment (doi:10.7910/DVN/II4HDS)

View:

Part 1: Document Description
Part 2: Study Description
Part 3: Data Files Description
Part 4: Variable Description
Part 5: Other Study-Related Materials
Entire Codebook

Document Description

Citation

Title:

What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment

Identification Number:

doi:10.7910/DVN/II4HDS

Distributor:

Harvard Dataverse

Date of Distribution:

2015-05-19

Version:

1

Bibliographic Citation:

Bertrand, Marianne; Karlan, Dean; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zinman, Jonathan, 2015, "What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/II4HDS, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:vNtyx78lIHib0bKzz9fnLg== [fileUNF]

Study Description

Citation

Title:

What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment

Identification Number:

doi:10.7910/DVN/II4HDS

Authoring Entity:

Bertrand, Marianne (University of Chicago)

Karlan, Dean (Yale University)

Mullainathan, Sendhil (Harvard University)

Shafir, Eldar (Princeton University)

Zinman, Jonathan (Dartmouth College)

Date of Production:

2010

Software used in Production:

STATA

Distributor:

Harvard Dataverse

Distributor:

Harvard Dataverse Network

Access Authority:

Research Transparency, Data Ethics, and Governance

Date of Deposit:

2015-04-08

Holdings Information:

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/II4HDS

Study Scope

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Advertising, Microfinance, Microcredit

Abstract:

Firms spend billions of dollars developing advertising content, yet there is little field evidence on how much or how it affects demand. We analyze a direct mail field experiment in South Africa implemented by a consumer lender that randomized advertising content, loan price, and loan offer deadlines simultaneously. We find that advertising content significantly affects demand. Although it was difficult to predict ex ante which specific advertising features would matter most in this context, the features that do matter have large effects. Showing fewer example loans, not suggesting a particular use for the loan, or including a photo of an attractive woman increases loan demand by about as much as a 25% reduction in the interest rate. The evidence also suggests that advertising content persuades by appealing "peripherally" to intuition rather than reason. Although the advertising content effects point to an important role for persuasion and related psychology, our deadline results do not support the psychological prediction that shorter deadlines may help overcome time-management problems; instead, demand strongly increases with longer deadlines.

Date of Collection:

2003-2005

Country:

South Africa

Geographic Coverage:

Nationwide

Unit of Analysis:

Individual

Universe:

Former (experienced) clients of the cooperating consumer lender who had borrowed within the last 24 months, but not within the last 6 months of the start of the treatment

Kind of Data:

Administrative data

Methodology and Processing

Data Collector:

The Lender

Sampling Procedure:

53,194 former clients were sent mailing solicitation for a new loan at a randomly assigned interest rate (stratified by the client's risk profile), randomly assigned deadline for taking up the offer (dependent on the address of the client and whether they can get the mail quickly), and varied marketing content of the mailers. The variati ons of the mailer content were broken down into 1) photo, 2) number of example loans, 3) interest rate in the shown examples, 4) suggested uses, 5) comparison to outside rate, 6) cell phone raffle offer, 7) language affinity, and 8) blurbs ("special" vs "low" rate vs none).

Mode of Data Collection:

The Lender's normal administrative procedures

Sources Statement

Data Access

Archive Where Study was Originally Stored:

http://karlan.yale.edu/p/index.php

Notes:

<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0">CC0 1.0</a>

Other Study Description Materials

Related Materials

http://karlan.yale.edu/p/AdContentWorth_mar09Final.pdf

Related Studies

http://karlan.yale.edu/p/index.php

File Description--f2668657

File: adcontentworth_qje.tab

  • Number of cases: 58168

  • No. of variables per record: 37

  • Type of File: text/tab-separated-values

Notes:

UNF:6:vNtyx78lIHib0bKzz9fnLg==

Stata dataset needed to produce all tables

Variable Description

List of Variables:
  • wave - Mailer wave number
  • dormancy - Number of months since last loan
  • race - Race
  • risk - lender-assigned risk tranche, based on unknown-to-researchers set of criteria su
  • offer4 - Offer Rate
  • prize - Cell phone offer mentioned - System II: overestimate small prob vs. confl
  • intshown - 1=interest rate shown (System I? several, potentially offsetting, channels)�
  • trcount - Number of prior loans taken from lender
  • tookup - Obtained loan before own deadline
  • applied - Applied before own deadline; (tookup==1|declined_pd==1)
  • badacct_last - Loan obtained before own deadline in collection status
  • female - Is borrower female? - System I: affective response
  • edhi - more educated (binary) as per self-report on application
  • waved3 - Yes if wave ==3
  • dphoto_female - Female photo (0 = male photo)
  • dphoto_none - No photo
  • dphoto_black - Black photo
  • gender_match - Photo gender matches client's gender (0 = mismatched gender) - System I: affinit
  • race_match - Photo race matches client's race (0 = mismatch) - System I: affinity/similarity
  • nspeakeligible - Zulu speaker (wave 2) or non-English speaker (wave 3)
  • speak_trt - We speak your language (Lender Imposed)
  • oneln_trt - One example loan shown - System I: avoid choice overload
  • comploss_n - 1=loss frame comparison (System II: triggers loss aversion)�
  • use_any - No specific use mentioned (no = specific use was mentioned) - System II: mention
  • deadlinemed - Medium deadline
  • deadlinelong - Long deadline
  • deadlong_elig - Client is eligible for long deadline
  • deadshort_elig - Client is eligible for short deadline
  • amountbrw_unc - amount borrowed unconditional on takeup
  • tookup_outside_only - Borrowed from other lender
  • deadlineshortext - Short deadline, extended by 2 weeks
  • tookup_after_short - Tookup first loan after short deadline
  • applied_2weeks - Individual applied within 2 weeks of mailer deadline, unconditional on own deadl
  • tookup_after_med - Tookup first loan after medium deadline
  • tookup_after_long - Tookup first loan after long deadline
  • stripany - 1 a �low� or �special� rate for you (Lender imposed)
  • comp_n - 1= comparison to competitor rate (System II: makes dominating option salient)�

Variables

Mailer wave number

f2668657 Location:

Summary Statistics: Max. 3.0; Min. 1.0; StDev 0.6480791631213231; Mean 2.4680236556183046; Valid 58168.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:HkKAYLSMoFW50Okwj972Bg==

Number of months since last loan

f2668657 Location:

Summary Statistics: StDev 6.878112789805481; Min. 0.0; Valid 58168.0; Mean 10.26420024755705; Max. 24.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:aiAVQAcwtgfSQMmMuBhWIA==

Race

f2668657 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:jewBkA1kTJtSf3Bx5yZRVg==

lender-assigned risk tranche, based on unknown-to-researchers set of criteria su

f2668657 Location:

Variable Format: character

Notes: UNF:6:pwBB8ejS0NUBmgMCSsnPqA==

Offer Rate

f2668657 Location:

Summary Statistics: Valid 58168.0; StDev 2.4713791501548013; Min. 3.25; Max. 14.75; Mean 7.93505707605556

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:d97vpQ2nOK9pV9OOEYhiUA==

Cell phone offer mentioned - System II: overestimate small prob vs. confl

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Valid 53194.0; Max. 1.0; Mean 0.25046057826070645; StDev 0.4332823631573751; Min. 0.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:tysh4Q7JEhyZRq1xfD5x1Q==

1=interest rate shown (System I? several, potentially offsetting, channels)�

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Valid 53194.0; Mean 0.7999210437267363; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.40006296546289943

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:puK8C0V19U2ImtITOqhvbQ==

Number of prior loans taken from lender

f2668657 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. 1.0; Valid 57911.0; StDev 3.868595578605139; Mean 4.268601820035263; Max. 30.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:/YT4ajfqCTdoPqq4S4fkwg==

Obtained loan before own deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; StDev 0.2639033414035017; Valid 58168.0; Mean 0.07531632512721476; Max. 1.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:SU1nXbNWSCG3Wp7nQxKL3w==

Applied before own deadline; (tookup==1|declined_pd==1)

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: StDev 0.28209890394117354; Mean 0.08717851739787803; Max. 1.0; Valid 58168.0; Min. 0.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:k79Rz7vQN8r4BWmzK5KeRg==

Loan obtained before own deadline in collection status

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; Mean 0.11800958685231508; Valid 4381.0; StDev 0.3226562994570283

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:s7tZWJ4rU8/OWqtDcQ0agw==

Is borrower female? - System I: affective response

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.4758802090496497; Valid 58168.0; Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.49942218978769287

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:Lu55e2683iBtOzmM+Rb+cA==

more educated (binary) as per self-report on application

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.38651836061065115; StDev 0.48695584408905235; Max. 1.0; Min. 0.0; Valid 58168.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:g90GAhGwsaw2Phmp9dHAHw==

Yes if wave ==3

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; StDev 0.4971300598732524; Valid 58168.0; Mean 0.55353458946498; Max. 1.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:nmxuRWiVg9/rhX/MmGhs6g==

Female photo (0 = male photo)

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Valid 58168.0; Mean 0.36482258286342556; Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.48138451337769605

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:QiGoAV10I6pSYIlHUJKAig==

No photo

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; Valid 53194.0; StDev 0.401437541630505; Min. 0.0; Mean 0.20192126931608845;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:82H/DNbk3eyDr5vhQ1//dA==

Black photo

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; StDev 0.4994835740900434; Mean 0.4771778772041847; Max. 1.0; Valid 53194.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:u63MRA2wQFbRqEFKQLObFw==

Photo gender matches client's gender (0 = mismatched gender) - System I: affinit

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; StDev 0.4901026013894883; Mean 0.40098507350453155; Valid 53194.0; Min. 0.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:Ol6IuK8YD8XfehwUSOlVug==

Photo race matches client's race (0 = mismatch) - System I: affinity/similarity

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.5344775726585815; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.49881456925686957; Min. 0.0; Valid 53194.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:7mnq50V5WWofjVICoGedZg==

Zulu speaker (wave 2) or non-English speaker (wave 3)

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Mean 0.43807572282590024; Max. 1.0; Valid 53194.0; StDev 0.4961552294133498

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:poaFOtKw54HLm7JthbWt2Q==

We speak your language (Lender Imposed)

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.27704252359288084; Min. 0.0; StDev 0.44754187408379065; Valid 53194.0; Max. 1.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:oLXN6ekh+Qg5G3a0Z+7llg==

One example loan shown - System I: avoid choice overload

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Valid 53194.0; StDev 0.49530781400815216; Min. 0.0; Mean 0.43162762717599584; Max. 1.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:gdwzkdiPl/xoedluhQiWxw==

1=loss frame comparison (System II: triggers loss aversion)�

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Valid 53194.0; Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.48975773627903413; Mean 0.3992931533631619

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:BEIMarYkS0x5llHD8mGmHA==

No specific use mentioned (no = specific use was mentioned) - System II: mention

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; Mean 0.18283248521523876; StDev 0.3865324515661769; Min. 0.0; Valid 58168.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:/iqgcARYju5fqnD++IrIJg==

Medium deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.7849381509192661; Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; Valid 53194.0; StDev 0.41086910773784246

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:gvFYIHPT/rVqUQCb0lkmHg==

Long deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; Min. 0.0; Mean 0.14464037297438737; Valid 53194.0; StDev 0.3517411851653177

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:A5JNs7MCoOj9BsdTdT7lJg==

Client is eligible for long deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; Valid 53194.0; StDev 0.40787654703548354; Mean 0.7892055494980408;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:rOCdT3p1z9y5EFrJFD8rvw==

Client is eligible for short deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.13954581343759243; StDev 0.34651845072646636; Max. 1.0; Min. 0.0; Valid 53194.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:JXSHN0kevCRSiiTrJLTXiw==

amount borrowed unconditional on takeup

f2668657 Location:

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Mean 110.529861779674; Valid 58168.0; Max. 10000.0; StDev 531.2490710585354;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:8Sw+P2tlJiP529n8VuaEFw==

Borrowed from other lender

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; StDev 0.4163938182234877; Min. 0.0; Valid 58168.0; Mean 0.22319832210150192;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:ELCp1+XdlI5arTAyz/YRQg==

Short deadline, extended by 2 weeks

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.03254366662082028; Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; Valid 58168.0; StDev 0.17744046230409485

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:MgU0p5X0hr78ebvXWIKA/A==

Tookup first loan after short deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; Mean 0.1673428689313504; StDev 0.3732849161867449; Valid 58168.0; Max. 1.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:bxUHQ/uL8r94Y/bCiTd29A==

Individual applied within 2 weeks of mailer deadline, unconditional on own deadl

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Valid 58168.0; Min. 0.0; StDev 0.19697795084638944; Max. 1.0; Mean 0.04043460321826182

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:44pTWSteilUv+zkHfdEyqw==

Tookup first loan after medium deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Max. 1.0; Mean 0.1350398844725532; Valid 58168.0; StDev 0.341769106497715; Min. 0.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:JIv99hVnYoHj3gdZrg0zpw==

Tookup first loan after long deadline

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.1082897813230759; StDev 0.3107487163050437; Max. 1.0; Valid 58168.0; Min. 0.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:IDDIIGp/gcqWqVdBpvrYpg==

1 a �low� or �special� rate for you (Lender imposed)

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

0.

no

1.

yes

Summary Statistics: Min. 0.0; StDev 0.4587446076365885; Max. 1.0; Mean 0.6988894237381382; Valid 58168.0

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:oeABOVgUf2Vxd1VAWAzERA==

1= comparison to competitor rate (System II: makes dominating option salient)�

f2668657 Location:

Value

Label

Frequency

Text

1.

yes

0.

no

Summary Statistics: Mean 0.7317425388529978; Min. 0.0; Max. 1.0; StDev 0.4430561706744735; Valid 58168.0;

Variable Format: numeric

Notes: UNF:6:rNWl7r+ywzBk/z/hgZaitA==

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

adcontentworth_regs_jan09.do

Text:

Stata code needed to create all main tables

Notes:

application/x-stata-syntax

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

adcontentworth_WebAppendregs_jan09.do

Text:

Stata code needed to create all tables in the Web Appendix

Notes:

application/x-stata-syntax

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

ado files.zip

Text:

Zip file containing all ado files needed to run the code

Notes:

application/zip

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

Karlan - Advertising Content.zip

Text:

Contains all files needed for replication (data, code, ado files) in the proper folder structure, as well as Readme files.

Notes:

application/zip

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

Readme - Karlan, Advertising Content.pdf

Text:

Readme document that accompanies the data and code. Contains information on what is included in each file, the folder structure needed to run the code, Stata version used and user-written commands needed.

Notes:

application/pdf