Washington, Apr 5 (IANS): There's bad news for advertisers who hope to woo buyers with a smatterng of glossy but obscure product claims.

Advertising that touts head-scratching scientific ingredients or other details only an expert could appreciate, can turn away consumers instead, according to research by Alison Jing Xu and Robert S. Wyer Jr. of the University of Illinois (UI) College of Business.

"When consumers suspect that advertisers are just trying to manipulate them with useless information, they may react negatively and lose trust," said Xu, a doctoral student in marketing. "And trust is very important in advertising."

The study gauged consumer reaction to technical and tough-to-decipher advertising claims that seek to give products a competitive edge, which the researchers refer to as "puffery".

A fictional cleansing gel ad used in the survey trumpeted ingredients such as "Sebopur Complex", while another ad promoted a beer brewed through the "European Pilsen Method".

How consumers responded to the technical-sounding claims varied based on their own personal knowledge of the product and where the ad appeared, according to findings by Xu and Wyer, a professor of business administration in UI business school.

Consumers who considered themselves less knowledgeable than the target audience rated products higher, assuming the puzzling references were useful but merely over their heads, the researchers found.

However, consumers who considered themselves well-informed about a product reacted negatively, viewing puffery as an effort to trick them with meaningless information, says the study. Where puffed-up advertising appears also matters, the study found.

Consumers have differing reactions based on their personal product knowledge when ads appear in popular, mainstream media, the study found.

But all consumers generally have a positive impression of ads in media geared toward industry professionals, concluding that the claims are meaningful to the experts they serve, says an UI release.

Xu says the findings show that puffery could be counterproductive for companies that rely on ads in the popular media. Though murky claims can sway less-informed consumers, they can alienate the knowledgeable buyers who provide the greatest sales potential.

These findings will appear in the Journal of Consumer Research.