Standardized Advertising Campaigns

This empirical study examined U.S. advertising agencies' practices in Europe to decide whether they were promoting products and services the same way everywhere. Information regarding environmental factors and advertising strategy were gathered from 160 European affiliates of U.S. advertising agencies in 16 countries. It was found that in general, agencies were neither standardizing nor customizing their sales platforms and creative contexts. Instead they tended to utilize the adaptive approach-a strategy that seems to viewed as the ontimal approach when dealing in multiple foreign markets. Legal restrictions abroad was one of the major motivators for usage of adaptative strategies. More specifically, restrictions on claims their ads could make and limitations on hiring foreigners were stated as the two top problems facing agencies' operations. Surprisingly, cultural factors presented much lesser problems to agencies.     

The Risk Reduction Role of Advertising

This study shows theoretically and empirically that exposure to advertising increases consumers tendency to purchase the promoted product because the informative content of advertising resolves some of the uncertainty that the risk averse consumers face and thus reduces the risk associated with the product. We call this effect the risk-reduction role of advertising. The risk-reduction model implies that advertising effectiveness depends on (a) the risk preference parameter, (b) the precision of the advertising message, (c) the familiarity of the consumer with the product, (d) the consumers sensitivity to products attributes (and thus, her involvement level with the product), and (e) the diversity of products offered by multiproduct firms. These findings suggest that ads spending should be higher (a) for new and relatively unknown products, (b) for high-involvement products, (c) when ads can be quite precise, and (d) when the firm offers a diverse product-line. It also implies that ads should target consumers (a) who are more sensitive to risk, (b) who are more involved, and (c) those who are not familiar with the promoted product.The model allows ads to affect choices also through a direct effect on the utility (i.e., the standard approach to formulate the effect of advertising). In our empirical example (where the products are television shows) the risk-reduction effect is significant and strong and the direct effect is negligible behaviorally. We discuss the welfare implications of these findings, and illustrate the quantitative differences in managerial implications between our model and the traditional one.     

Informational/Transformational Appeals in Political Advertising: An Analysis of the Advertising Strategies of 2010 U.S. Gubernatorial Campaigns

This study addressed four gaps in political advertising research: (a) a better framework to replace the issue–image dichotomy, (b) differences in advertising strategies between incumbents and challengers, (c) influence of party positioning on candidate positioning in advertising, and (d) political advertising in state elections. Through a content analysis of 210 advertisements from the 2010 U.S. gubernatorial elections, it was revealed that (a) the concept of information/transformation was similar to the notion of issue/image, and the typology of informational/transformational advertising, after modification, adequately captured the complexity of political advertising; (b) the use of advertising appeals did differ between incumbents and challengers—incumbents used more transformational appeals and positive advertisements, whereas challengers used more informational appeals and negative advertisements; and (c) while the informational advertisements of the Republican candidates appeared to be substantially impacted by issues owned by their party, the influence of party positioning on candidate positioning was quite limited.     

Advertising Agency Philosophies and Employee Risk Taking

Abstract

On the basis of an exploratory survey of executives from a cross-section of U.S. advertising agencies, this article examines the relationship between agency creative philosophies and agent creative risk taking. The natures of both creative risk and agency philosophy are discussed. Multiple measures of risk taking are applied and the findings suggest that agency executives working in agencies with clear identities are more likely to take risks than are those in agencies without such identities (hybrid philosophies), but not for all measures of risk. The extent to which the size of client plays a role also is assessed. After an assessment of the findings, limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Leveraging Reputational Risk: Sustainable Sourcing Campaigns for Improving Labour Standards in Production Networks

Ethical or ‘socially sustainable’ sourcing mechanisms mandating labour standards among the suppliers and subcontractors that organisations source goods and services from are becoming more common. The issue of how labour activist groups such as trade unions can encourage organisations to adopt and strengthen these mechanisms within domestic production networks is largely unexplored. Using three cases of domestic sustainable sourcing campaigns developed by unions in Britain, the strategies used by labour activists, the characteristics of the organisations targeted and the motivations of lead firms for improving sourcing practices are analysed. The article makes a significant contribution by demonstrating that organisational susceptibility to reputational risk is a key factor influencing the capacity of activist groups to convince and compel their targets to improve sourcing practices. It argues that different types of organisations are susceptible to reputational damage in different ways, that risk events provide opportunities for unions to strengthen their leverage against target organisations, and that the multidimensional nature of corporate reputation needs to be better considered for understanding how campaigns are framed and executed.     

本土广告赢家——户外广告

过去十年，在中国广告业营业额增长6倍的同时，户外广告以整个广告业2倍以上的速度迅猛发展。[第一段]     

Do Binary Collateral Outcome Variables Proxy Collateral Levels? The Case of Collateral from Start-ups and Existing SMEs

This paper is designed to test whether the factors which affect the decision to collateralise business loans affect the level of collateralisation in the same manner. If the level of collateralisation does matter, the provision of collateral becomes more than a goodwill gesture to placate banks and more a device to ameliorate the risk of lending. We use a thitherto unseen dataset from a U.K. retail bank comprising 4,618 transfers and start-ups (TS group) who applied for business loans and overdrafts between January 1998 and January 2000. The control sample comprised 9,596 existing businesses from the same period. Our unique dataset permits an analysis of this kind for the first time because it contains a continuous variable for collateral unlike previous studies. Existing businesses exhibit a higher frequency (binary outcome) and level (tobit outcome) of collateral than the businesses who are start-ups or have transferred from another bank only when distortions within the data are not controlled for. These distortions negate the value of binary collateral variables. Factors such as business type and loan purpose are useful at explaining the likelihood of a borrower having his loan collateralised and the level of collateralisation for borrowers who provided collateral or not.     

Advertising Ethics: The Use of Sexual Appeal in Chinese Advertising

With increasing social awareness of unethical advertisements in today's advertising, this study explores consumers' ethical judgements about the use of sexual appeals in advertising in a Chinese context by replicating LaTour and Henthorne's study. It specifically focuses upon responses on the Reidenbach-Robin multidimensional ethical scale, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions. The results show that sexual appeal was evaluated as the most frequent use in Hong Kong print advertising and they were also perceived as the most attractive instrument. Similar to LeTour and Henthorne's findings, regardless of respondent's gender, the use of a strong overt sexual appeal was not well received by Chinese consumers and resulted in less favorable attitude toward the ad itself and the purchase intention than using mild sexual themes. However, the degree of sexual content used in advertising has no direct influence on brand attitudes. Due to the conservative nature of Chinese culture, the advertisers should be careful in the use of sexual appeal for Chinese consumers.     

Effects of Word of Mouth Advertising on Consumer Risk Taking

The role of word of mouth advertising on modifying consumers' willingness to make risky product choices is analyzed. The authors present an information and perceived risk processing model of word of mouth advertising's influence on consumer behavior. Implications for advertising management are suggested.     

The Death of Advertising

Abstract

Mass media advertising as we know it today is on its deathbed, and its prognosis is poor. Advertising agencies are restructuring to accommodate a harsher advertising climate, agency income is flat, agency employees are being laid off, direct marketing is stealing business from traditional advertising, and the growth of sales promotion and integrated marketing communications both come at the expense of traditional advertising. The reason for advertising's impending demise is the advent of new technologies that have resulted in the fragmentation of media and markets, and the empowerment of consumers. In the place of traditional mass media advertising, a new communications environment is developing around an evolving network of new media, which is high capacity, interactive and multimedia. The result is a new era of producer-consumer interaction. Because of the speed of technological innovation, the new media advertising paradigm that results will attain prominence faster than did mass media advertising. The new paradigm of 21st Century Marketing and advertising will be dominant by 2010 and should last well into the middle of the century. If they hope to survive, university advertising departments will have about ten years to 1) think of themselves much more broadly, and 2) transform themselves into departments specializing in information transfer in the new media environment.     

The Self-regulation of Advertising in Europe

The extent of the self-regulation of advertising in Europe may come as a surprise to some readers. The main purpose of this paper is to put self-regulation and legislation into perspective and to give an overall picture of the means of regulating advertising throughout the whole of Europe. The regulation systems are placed in four broad bands: countries with no self-regulation, those with weak self-regulation, those with strong legislation, and finally the ten countries with strong self-regulation. Information is also given about the control bodies, their structures and their powers.     

The Internationalisation of Advertising

World expenditure on advertising has grown faster than world gross product in recent years. Organisational structure is highly dichotomised between small and large firms: the latter have engaged in restructuring into major transnational networks co-ordinated by holding companies. This is the most effective way to service multinational clients which have globalised product development but sell locally. But trade in advertising services is restricted by barriers to market access, national treatment and the opportunities created by global agreements such as the GATS. Technology may, however, be a more important influence on the internationalisation of agenceis than trade liberalisation.     

The Image of Advertising in Europe

‘Product differentiation’ has frequently been held responsible for hindering new entry to an industry. Whether this can be a theoretical possibility depends on the exact interpretation given to the phrase. This paper shows how, from the commonly accepted meanings of the term (for example, dissimilarity in characteristics), product differentiation is actually likely to encourage entry. Only when the phrase is taken to be synonymous with advertising or some kind of demand advantage is there scope for an entry barrier effect. It is recommended that in order to avoid future confusion, more precise terminology is adopted.     

The Role of Advertising Educators as Problem Solvers in the Field of Advertising

Abstract

Nationally syndicated product-media data services are very useful for analyzing the nature of target markets. They are not, however, generally considered useful for estimating television reach and frequency. This paper explains how selectivity indices derived from national product-media data can be combined with data from more specialized television-usage data services to yield an estimate of target market ratings. The paper describes a pilot study designed to test the plausibility of this approach.     

经济衰退期的广告影响——国外研究述略

在经济衰退期间减少广告支出,将导致在衰退期间及以后的商品销量下降,且不能带来实质性的利润的增加。在经济衰退期间增加广告支出对企业的销量、市场份额、利润及品牌资产都有积极的作用,且其影响远大于经济扩张期和稳定期。增减广告支出的影响时效往往超出衰退期本身。     

The Role of Logo Recoloring on Perceptual Fluency in Cause-Related Marketing Campaigns

Abstract

This article investigates the influence of brand esthetics on consumer response to cause-related marketing campaigns. Drawing on brand visual identity and advertising research, a processing fluency perspective is explored in the relationship between stimulus characteristics and consumer judgment. Processing fluency suggests color enhances the ease with which consumers recognize and process brand elements, and more broadly, cause-related marketing campaigns. Brand logos were recolored to enhance the perceptual fluency of the two entities. Its joint effect with conceptual congruence (e.g., fit) indicate that both low and high fit brands benefit from enhanced processing fluency, with a more robust outcome for high fit brands. These effects were mediated by logo evaluation, leading to a new path of fit perceptions in CRM initiatives.