Submitted by Cristiano Amaral (cristiano.ab.castro@gmail.com) on 2013-03-29T12:07:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Versão Final Revisada Pós Banca.pdf: 5123662 bytes, checksum: 8f45db0b7df686fbca7c29913288d95c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2013-04-01T13:25:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Versão Final Revisada Pós Banca.pdf: 5123662 bytes, checksum: 8f45db0b7df686fbca7c29913288d95c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-01T13:29:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Versão Final Revisada Pós Banca.pdf: 5123662 bytes, checksum: 8f45db0b7df686fbca7c29913288d95c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-01 / The Cue Utilization Theory establishes that all products are made of multiples cues that may be seen as surrogates for the intangible attributes that make up any given product. However, the results of many years of research have yet yielded little consensus as to the impact generated by the use of such cues. This research aims to contribute to the discussion about the importance of intrinsic cues by investigating the effects that the use of product cues that confirm the product claim may have on Claim Credibility (measured through Ad Credibility), and also on consumers’ Purchase Intention and Perceived Risk toward the product. An experiment was designed to test such effects and the results suggest the effects of the use of Claim Confirming Product Cues depend on consumer’s level of awareness about such cue, and that when consumers are aware of it, Ad Credibility and Purchase Intention increase, as Perceived Risk decreases. Such results may have implications to academicians and practitioners, as well as may provide insights for future research.

Pharmaceutical product claim and help-seeking advertisements have prompted the types and purposes of medical dermatology service(s) that patients have used in the United States. Indeed, researchers have demonstrated that 94% of working nurse practitioners affirmed receiving from their patients a request for a cancer drug advertised. However, adult dermatology patients members of Saint Nicholas Catholic Church or/and patients at MedStar Clinic in Houston, Texas, have not been of interest for any study so far. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the relationship between product claim, help-seeking, types, and purposes of medical dermatology services used amongst males and females aged at least 18 years. Prospect theory (PT) was the theoretical framework used to analyze the purpose of this study. A cross-sectional survey approach permitted to collect primary data from 120 participants who were members of Saint Nicholas Catholic Church or/and patients at MedStar Clinic. The results, based on a forced entry multiple regression analysis at 95% confidence interval, indicated that product claim and help-seeking significantly explained (p -?¤ .05) the variances of certain types and purposes of medical dermatology services used. Thus, product claim and help-seeking predicted the types and purposes of medical services used by the study population. Pharmaceutical announcers may benefit from the results of this study by using the study results to create new direct-to-consumers advertisements for the dermatology health promotion. The study population may benefit healthy skin, hairs, and nails by using medical dermatology services after exposure to the new pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertisements.