Advertising for New and Existing Brands: The Impact of Media Context and Type of Advertisement

The effects of advertisement and context type on the responses to advertisements for different brands of new and existing products were tested. In the first experiment (243 graduate students) a positive emotional advertisement and a non‐emotional advertisement for a well‐known and a new brand of printer were tested in a positive emotional context and a non‐emotional media context. In the second experiment (206 graduate students) positive emotional and non‐emotional advertisements for new brands of watches and healthy drinks were tested in an emotional and a non‐emotional context. The type of context moderated the responses to advertisements for the well‐known and new products: a positive emotional context led to a more positive attitude towards the advertisement and the brand and purchase intention for the well‐known brand than for the new brand. A non‐emotional context led to more positive responses for the new brand than for the well‐known brand. In general, emotional advertisements led to more positive affective reactions and non‐emotional advertisements led to more positive cognitive reactions. However, the type of advertisement did not have a moderating effect on the responses to advertising for the new or well‐known brands or different product types. The studies illustrated the relevance of media context for advertising new versus existing products.     

Smoke Gets in Their Eyes? Third-Person Effects of Electronic Cigarette Advertising

This study examined the relationship between smoker status and attitudes toward e-cigarette usage, third-person perceptions of e-cigarette advertising, and support for regulation of e-cigarette advertising within the context of a media-saturated environment. Survey results (n = 615) indicated that participants perceived e-cigarette advertisements as having a more powerful effect on others than on themselves and that nonsmokers perceived this more strongly than did smokers. Nonsmokers were found to have more negative attitudes toward e-cigarette use than smokers. Mediation analysis indicated support for a serial indirect effect of smoker status on support for regulation through attitudes toward e-cigarettes and third-person perceptions.     

Looking in through outdoor: a socio-cultural and historical perspective on the evolution of advertising humour

This study examines the evolving acceptance and use of humour in advertising over the past century. Sociologists point to humour as an expression of the macro-societal mood. Consistent with this thesis, we analyse two data sets of outdoor advertisements that span over 100 years. We use a socio-cultural and historical perspective to understand the underlying drivers and changes in humour use at both the macro-cultural level and at the micro-industry level in the US. The results reveal the contextual interplay that led to changes in the acceptance of humorous advertisements as well as the evolution of humour styles and elements.     

Urban Perceptions of Print Advertisements in the Indian Subcontinent:

This exploratory research investigates the relationship between the degree of westernization of urban consumers in India and their perceptions toward American origin print advertisements versus print advertisements of Indian origin of the same products. The study also explores the relationship between the advertising perceptions and the behavioral intention to buy the advertised product. The results indicate that the educated, middle-class, urban respondents, irrespective of their degree of westernization, seem to like both the Indian as well as the American advertisements. The findings seem to favor the case of standardization of advertising messages. The results also indicate that there is a positive relationship between the attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) and the behavioral intention to buy (BIB) the advertised product.     

A Hong Kong view of offensive advertising

Considerable research has been conducted on offensive advertising in Western countries. However, not much is known about consumers' views of offensive advertising in an Asian context. This research, which was conducted in Hong Kong, aimed at identifying what product/service advertisements consumers find offensive, what executional styles consumers find offensive, consumers' tolerance of offensive advertisements in different media and the effects of offensive advertisements on consumers' purchase intentions. The results from a survey of 200 consumers showed that chat-line services and funeral services were considered the most offensive products or services to be advertised. When looking at the manner of advertising, sexist themes, indecent language and nudity were found to be the major reasons for the respondents finding advertisements offensive. In general, direct mail was considered to be a medium that prompts lower tolerance by consumers to potentially offensive advertisements while men and women's magazines were considered to be media that prompt higher tolerance to potentially offensive advertisements. Finally, it was found that levels of advertising offensiveness had an effect on purchase intentions.     

Want to make me emotional? The influence of emotional advertisements on women’s consumption behavior

A wide difference of opinion exists about the content and composition of emotions. Advertising may influence an audience and their buying decisions about products and services. The objective of this study is to better conceptualize how women emotionally respond to emotional advertisements (EAs). The variant views are integrated into an ACE model, composed of subordinate levels of emotions (E), celebrity endorsements (C), and appeal drivers (A). This empirical study examines women’s emotional response using data from 240 Chinese women respondents. The study participants were invited to develop ACE mix based advertisements and fill out questionnaires. PLS-SEM analysis, a novel approach in ACE advertisement development and its applicability to consumer behavior, was used. The results show that showbiz celebrities expressing the emotion of happiness with music and color make the most effective ACE mix to influence the consumption behavior of women. The results are significantly mediated by attention levels and are widely applicable in the burgeoning advertising industry. The study also calls for further research with different ACE mixes in different contexts and on different audiences. It also opens doors for policy making and an appropriate understanding of women’s consumption behavior in the Chinese context.     

Survey of Internet users’ attitudes toward Internet advertising

Many have speculated about the current state of Internet advertising (IA), how it compares to advertising in general (GA), and its implications for traditional marketing models and practices. Although many estimates exist regarding who uses the Internet as well as guidelines about how best to design IA, little is known about Internet users’ attitudes toward IA, much less what characterizes these attitudes. To test this, a national sample of over 400 participants with at least some exposure to the Internet was surveyed. The results revealed no majority opinion of IA: approximately a third of respondents liked, disliked, and felt neutrally toward IA, respectively. A regression analysis indicated that enjoyment of looking at Internet advertisements, its informativeness, and its utility for making behavioral (purchasing) decisions contributed to participants’ attitudes toward IA. Enjoyment of looking at IA contributed the most to attitudes toward IA, yet at the same time appears to be one of IA's weakest features. In order to assess whether attitudes toward and perceptions of IA might reflect attitudes toward advertising in general by this demographic group, rather than attitudes toward IA per se, responses were compared to those of a demographically weighted-to-match national sample of over 1,000 who answered similar questions in regard to advertising in general. The results indicate that more respondents found IA to be informative and trustworthy than a demographically similar sample found GA. Even though the attitudes and perceptions of IA and GA were significantly different, the structure of GA and IA attitudes was the same. Implications for the design of IA are discussed.     

Inclusive advertising featuring disability on instagram: Effect on consumer well-being,brand engagement,and purchase intention

Should advertisers continue to promote their brands through brand endorsers without considering their diverse characteristics, or should they embrace diversity in advertising? Gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are some of the aspects of diversity that have been investigated in advertising research, primarily in the context of Western and developed countries. However, it remains underexplored how physical disabilities in influencer advertising on Instagram affect consumer well-being and consumers’ responses toward brands in a non-Western market. Through an experimental design (including both inclusive and non-inclusive samples), this study examined the effects of inclusive advertising (including disabled persons) on consumer well-being (both hedonic and eudaimonic), brand engagement, and purchase intention. Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1 (shampoo brand case), a data analysis of 260 young Pakistani consumers revealed that inclusive (vs non-inclusive) advertisements enhance both hedonic well-being (HWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB), with a stronger effect for EWB. The spillover effects of EWB and HWB indicated a significant influence on brand engagement and purchase intention, whereas the effect of HWB is significant only on brand engagement. The effects of HWB on brand engagement and of EWB on purchase intention showed a greater influence in the case of inclusive advertisements than in traditional non-inclusive advertisements. In Study 2 (clothing brand case), an analysis of 235 respondents revealed that inclusive advertising drives both HWB and EWB, which have a greater influence on brand engagement and purchase intention when individuals are exposed to an inclusive advertisement featuring disabled persons than a non-inclusive one. These studies confirm that inclusive advertisements attract a more diverse customer base in addition to existing customers. These findings offer theoretical and practical insights for advertising and consumer research.     

Typologies of Banner Advertisements’ Attributes: A Content Analysis

The web has received significant amount of attention from advertising and consumer researchers investigating the impact of banner advertisement on consumers’ psychological and behavioral responses. However, no typology of banner advertisement has been identified yet, and the selection of banner advertisements as advertising stimuli has been carried out on the premise of personal judgment rather than scientific methodology. The identification of typology is important because different banner advertisement, such as static and pop-up, elicit different consumers’ responses. In addition the identification of a typology constitutes an advance to mid-range theory in a research domain. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify the typologies of banner advertisements’ attributes such as type, number, shape, location, and size using content analysis. Specifically, nine banner advertisement types are identified as well as the typology of number, shape, location, and size of banner advertisements. Contributions of the research are discussed.     

An examination of measurement context effects in empirically based advertising research

The purpose of this research was to examine the issue of measurement context effects in advertising processing research. Based upon a review of the advertising processing literature and recent research focusingon measurement contexteffects, hypotheses were specified and empirically tested via a measurement context experiment. The results indicate that the cognitions measurement treatment procedures used in advertisement processing model tests produce small measurement context effects. However, these effects are not sufficiently severe to suggest a reinterpretation of previous findings or to result in drastic changes in future advertisement processing research methods. The results suggest the process of measuring respondents' attitudes towards advertisements did not result in statistically significant measurement context effects on the measures of attitudes towards brands or purchase intentions.     

Significance of attitudes,passion and cultural factors in driver’s speeding behavior in Oman: application of theory of planned behavior

Abstract

Traffic accidents and related fatalities have become a major public health problem in the world. This study aims to identify the significant factors that play an important role in the speeding behavior of drivers. A comprehensive questionnaire was designed and conducted with the students and employees of the University of Nizwa. The questionnaire items were designed considering the theoretical background of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and local socio-cultural aspects of the driving environment. A total of 303 usable samples were obtained. The collected data were analyzed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling technique. The extracted factors of speeding passion and culture, speeding attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are significant determinants of drivers speeding behavior in Oman. The driver’s speeding attitudes, speeding culture, and passion have positive association with the drivers’ speeding intentions and behavior, and driver’s perceived behavioral control forms negative relationship with the speeding behavior. This study confirms the application of the TPB in predicting the drivers’ speeding behavior in the context of Oman.     

Moderating Role of Brand Familiarity in Cross-Media Effects: An Information Processing Perspective

Abstract

Cross-media advertising campaigns have become commonplace in today's multimedia environment. Drawing from the multiple source effect theorization, this study explores the underlying mechanism of media synergistic effect from an information processing perspective. Brand familiarity is proposed as a moderator of cross-media effects: people with different levels of prior brand-related knowledge tend to process advertisements in diverse cognitive routes. An experiment found that for an unfamiliar brand, media synergy outperformed repeated exposures via a solo medium in terms of raising message credibility and generating more positive thoughts, while similar effects were not seen on a familiar brand.     

Impacts of advertisements that are unfriendly to women and men

Taking Belgium as a case in point, this study analyses, first, tolerance for advertisements unfriendly to women and men as expressed by advertising and marketing professionals, consumers and gender equal opportunity workers. Second, it compares which types of unequal gender portrayal raise concerns with which sector of respondents. Finally, it analyses the differences in adherence of the three sectors to the two main policy solution paradigms proposed in the 2008 European Parliament Resolution on ‘How marketing and advertising affect equality between women and men’. Results suggest a degree of tolerance that varies significantly according to sector, language, gender and age. Overall, respondents express more concerns regarding traditional sex roles in advertising than regarding nudity, unattainable beauty standards or gender stereotypes, and prefer gender-and-advertising literacy programmes and awards for advertisements that break through gender stereotypes over stricter ethical and/or legal regulations. These findings should prove useful to advertising and marketing professionals, national advertising regulatory bodies and policy makers.     

Addressing the Advertising of Controversial Products in China: An Empirical Approach

China is a country that has undertaken a great transformation since the late 1970’s, and among these changes, has seen a massive growth in the advertising industry with the influx of foreign advertisers, and the development of regional and global media, such as satellite television and the Internet. This has resulted in the Chinese people of all ages having a greater opportunity of exposure to different types of advertising, including the advertising of potentially controversial products, which could clash with traditional Chinese values. Using a stakeholder theory approach, this study analyzes the responses of 630 Chinese respondents to discover who is offended by controversial advertisements and determine ways potentially offensive advertising messages can be reduced, thereby assisting marketers in being more socially responsible in their advertising messages.     

Magazine Advertising: Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Celebrity Advertising

This study analyzes the differences in celebrity effectiveness in advertisements of different styles as well as the impact of source credibility. This study uses an experimental magazine to test nine fictional advertisements for three products with unreal brands and three advertising styles. The findings show that the advertising styles that generate the greatest effectiveness differ according to the product; the celebrities do not increase effectiveness, but when the respondents recognize the celebrity, effectiveness increases; and credibility influences affective and conative measures. The work also considers how celebrity-product pairings, the existence of negative celebrity information, and the familiarity with the celebrity affect the effectiveness.     

Am I intruding? Developing a conceptualisation of advertising intrusiveness

This study develops a conceptual framework of advertising intrusiveness that extends previous research on the topic by examining both drivers and consequences. To achieve this, the work draws on in-depth interviews with 29 adult consumers who report experiencing intrusive advertising in their daily lives. Three drivers of advertising intrusiveness are identified – temporal disruption, visual disruption and flow disruption – along with three consequences – emotional response, behavioural response and cognitive response. From these drivers and consequences, a conceptual framework of advertising intrusiveness is developed based on ideas about psychological reactance. Based on this framework it is proposed that, while all advertisements might ultimately be perceived as intrusive, an advertisement’s characteristics, which are the identified subcomponents of the drivers of intrusiveness, exacerbate the resultant consequences.     

Book Reviews

This study examines community attitudes of Australians towards gender portrayal in advertising. Despite some well-publicised cases involving sexually provocative billboards, we find that gender portrayal in advertising is not of major concern to many Australians. We also examined the relationship between attitudes to gender portrayal and Arnott's (1972) Female Autonomy Inventory, a measure of feminist consciousness. Ford and LaTour (1996) tested a model of attitudes toward gender portrayal in advertising that found an unambiguous relationship between attitudes to female autonomy and the perceived offensiveness of the portrayal of women in advertisements. Our study, in contrast, suggests that the relationship is more complex. While one group of high female autonomy respondents (that we labeled "Feminist Pessimists") rated the offensiveness of the portrayal of women in advertising very highly, another high female autonomy group (labeled "Feminist Optimists") did not. Hence regulatory bodies may treat complaints on stereotyping in advertisements from these groups in different ways and advertisers may modify their messages for maximum effect. Differences in the findings between this study and Ford and LaTour's are discussed.     

The effect of perceived advertising effort on brand perception: implication for retailers in Hong Kong

This paper examines how advertising effort, specifically advertising creativity and advertising believability, may influence consumers’ perceptions of a retailer’s business philosophy, and in turn consumers’ behavior toward retailers in Hong Kong. Altogether five hundred and eighty-three respondents (i.e. 320 college students and 263 shoppers) were surveyed. The results suggested that retailers that are regarded as having more creative advertising are perceived as being more learning-oriented, which leads to higher brand recognition. Meanwhile, retailers that are regarded as having more believable advertisements are perceived as having higher levels of integrity, and as a result are better recognized and more likely to be patronized. This research contributes to literature in retailing and marketing communication by establishing the antecedents and consequences of building a learning-oriented and trustworthy business philosophy in a cultural specific context. It also provides practical guidance for retailers who aim to increase brand recognition and purchase intentions through promotional effort.     

Consumer processing of foreign advertisements: roles of country-of-origin perceptions,consumer ethnocentrism,and country attitude

This paper reports the findings of a study that examined the impact of consumers’ three cross-national individual difference variables — country-of-origin perceptions, consumer ethnocentrism, and country attitudes — on their responses and attitudes toward foreign advertisements and advertised products. A model of consumer processing of international advertising has been proposed that consolidates a dual-element thesis comprising research on consumer processing of advertising, and several streams of research on cross-national individual difference variables. Empirical analysis of the hypothetical model through structural equation modeling yields supportive results: positive effects of consumers’ country attitudes on their responses to the creative presentation of international advertising, and positive effects of consumers’ country-of-origin perceptions on their responses to the buying proposal of international advertising. However, the hypothesized negative effects of consumer ethnocentrism on their responses to international advertising was not confirmed. The study contributes to our understanding of cross-national individual difference variables that precede and determine consumers’ attitudes toward foreign advertisements. It has practical implications for standardization versus localization of international advertising strategy.