Consumer Responses to English Accent Variations in Advertising

Abstract

With the growing use of different types of English accents in international advertising, it is important for marketers to understand the factors that influence the credibility of the spokesperson in order to select the most persuasive character. This study investigates the effects of a spokesperson's accent on spokesperson's perceived credibility across high and low involvement products and products of different country-of-origin. Two different accents-the standard English accent and the local Singaporean English accent (Singlish)-were tested. Results indicated that accent, product country-of-origin and product involvement significantly influence the spokesperson's perceived credibility and attitude towards the ads. The accent effects appeared to be strong enough to offset the country-of-origin, gender and product involvement effects, attesting to the importance of considering this factor in advertisements. Specifically, the Standard English accent outperformed the Singlish accent in terms of spokesperson credibility, attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions. However, the Singlish accent outperformed the Standard English accent in terms of attention to the ad. Implications for marketers are discussed.     

Metaphor as Visual Thinking in Advertising and Its Effects: Focus on Brand Familiarity and Product Involvement

One of advertisers' favorite communication techniques is the visual metaphor. In fact, metaphor usage perennially increases in ad images. This study, which looks at consumers with varying levels of brand familiarity and product involvement, investigates how their attitudes and purchase intentions of are influenced by the persuasive effects of visual metaphors in various advertising conditions. The findings reveal that consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions are enhanced more by visual metaphor-based ads than nonmetaphor-based ads when the advertised product is in a low-involvement product category. Nonmetaphorical ads are found to have a more positive influence with high-involvement products than do metaphorical ads. The results show a significant three-way interaction effect. When the advertised product is in a low-involvement product category, visual metaphors lead to favorable brand evaluations and higher purchase intentions in the ads for a low-familiarity brand. However, nonmetaphors are more persuasive than visual metaphors only for the low familiarity brand in a high-involvement product category. Theoretical and practical implications are addressed in the discussion.     

The effects of audio-visual and visual-only cues on consumers' responses to co-branded advertising

Co-branded advertising (two brands featured in the same ad) is a relatively new and under-researched area of advertising that offers advertisers the opportunity to share advertising costs and leverage brand equity. Despite its growing popularity, few research studies have examined the potential benefits and/or limitations of this executional strategy, and particularly a strategy in which one brand (a focal brand) is paired with another, but less emphasized (peripheral) brand. This study reports the results of an empirical investigation that examines how modifying reference to the peripheral brand (visual-only versus simultaneous visual and audio references) influences consumers' perceived associations of the advertised brands, as well as their attitudes toward the advertisement and intentions to purchase either brand. Employing a convenience sample of undergraduate students on a university campus in the United States, the results of this study indicate that audio-visual cues enhance brand association and purchase intentions. However, additional analyses reveal that attitude toward a co-branded advertisement mediates the brand association effect on purchase intentions toward the focal brand, whereas brand association has a direct effect on purchase intentions toward the peripheral brand.     

Race,homophily, and purchase intentions and the Black consumer

Black consumers are an important market for advertisers to reach. However, designing effective communication strategies is difficult. This study examines the moderation effect of ethnic identification (strength of identity with other blacks) on the tie between advertising stimuli (with racially congruent or incongruent actors) and the subject's perceived homophily (similarity) toward actors featured in ads, and if perceived homophily influences purchase intentions regarding advertised products. ANOVA found a significant interaction between ethnic identity and racial congruity on the perceived level of homophily. In addition, a simple effect for racial congruity on perceived homophily was found. Regression analysis subsequently found a significant effect for the level of perceived homophily on the level of purchase intent. Strategic considerations for marketing advertisers and future research ideas are also presented. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The role of product brand image and online store image on perceived risks and online purchase intentions for apparel

Purchase intentions for apparel products often require physical examination prior to purchase. Hence, greater risk is associated with shopping online for apparel products, making it important to examine factors that reduce various risks influencing online purchase intentions. This study examines and compares the impact of two of the most important risk reducers for online apparel shopping – product brand image and online store image – on specific types of perceived risks and online purchase intentions for apparel. The results show that product brand image influences consumers' online purchase intentions both directly and indirectly by reducing various risk perceptions. Online store image impacts purchase intentions indirectly by decreasing risk perceptions. The results of this study provide fresh insight into understanding the impact of product brand image and online store image on each type of perceived risk associated with online shopping.     

Customization of online advertising: The role of intrusiveness

This study examines the trade-off between tailoring an ad to an individual consumer’s needs and the demand for personal data required to do so, which is inherent in targeted online advertising. Two scenario-based studies in two different industries reveal the extent to which using personal information with greater distinctiveness affects consumers’ sense of intrusiveness and purchase intentions. We also manipulate ad fit to each consumer’s needs and the presence of a discount to investigate whether feelings of intrusiveness mitigate the potential positive effects of fit and discount. Higher degrees of personalization, such as adding personal identification or transaction information to browsing data, increase feelings of intrusiveness, and negatively affect purchase intentions. These negative effects are not compensated for by offering discounts but can be partly mitigated by presenting an ad with a high fit to consumers’ current needs. The positive effect of tailoring the ad is weakened at higher levels of intrusiveness though. Furthermore, high fit may lead to not only higher purchase intentions but also higher perceived intrusiveness levels. Presenting a consumer with a customized ad can thus be a double-edged sword, leading to higher purchase intentions but also greater perceived intrusiveness, which then negatively affects purchase intentions.     

Too Popular to Ignore: The Influence of Online Reviews on Purchase Intentions of Search and Experience Products

Consumers assess the credibility of online product reviews to guide their purchase decisions. However, little is known about how consumers determine the credibility of online product reviews. This article examines the effect of the level of detail in a product review and the level of reviewer agreement with it on the credibility of a review and consumers' purchase intentions for search and experience products. Overall, the results indicate that more credible reviews lead to higher purchase intentions. Interestingly, the findings also demonstrate that consumers determine the credibility of a review differently for search and experience products. For search products, consumers deem online reviews to be more credible when the reviews contain detailed information about the product. However, for experience products, consumers determine the credibility of a review by assessing the level of reviewer agreement with a review. The lack of diagnosticity of detailed information in online reviews of experience products is attributed to the idiosyncratic nature of experiences. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The role of perceived product quality and overall satisfaction on purchase intentions

The study investigated the effects of perceived product quality and overall satisfaction on purchase intentions. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of values and involvement on purchase intentions were studied. The study utilized the survey questionnaire and used sport shoes as the product being researched. The sample consisted of 197 students who responded to an anonymous questionnaire. Five hypotheses were tested and four of them were confirmed by the data. Perceived quality had a direct and an indirect effect (through overall satisfaction) on purchase intentions, overall satisfaction had a direct effect on purchase intentions and involvement had an indirect effect on purchase intentions through overall satisfaction and perceived quality. The results of the study provide several theoretical and practical implications.     

Purchasing natural personal care products in the era of fake news? The moderation effect of brand trust

Natural personal care products are gaining popularity due to their benefits in terms of health and well-being. However, consumers are wary of these products and are guided by the fake news circulating about them. Since natural product consumption offers several personal and environmental benefits, it would be worthwhile to understand consumers’ tendency to let fake news influence their consumption decisions. Accordingly, the current study examined the association of fake news and purchasing behaviour towards natural personal care products, utilising Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence (SOBC) as the theoretical framework. The study proposed openness to change as the stimulus, perceived benefits and perceived risks as organismic internal states, purchase intentions as the behaviour, and the propensity of believing and acting on fake news as the consequence, which is further associated with system trust. The model was tested by analysing data collected from 390 existing consumers, considering the moderation effect of brand trust and controlling the effect of age and gender. The findings confirmed that openness to change is associated with perceived benefits and risks. Furthermore, perceived benefits and system trust are associated with purchase intentions, which are, in turn, associated with the propensity of believing and acting on fake news. The study presents several novel contributions to theory and practice.     

Ads promoting OTC medications: The effect of ad format and credibility on beliefs, attitudes, and purchase intentions

This investigation explores the effects of ad credibility and ad format (direct comparative vs. noncomparative) on consumers' beliefs, attitudes, and purchase intentions for over-the-counter (OTC) medications. It is hypothesized that ad credibility moderates the effects of ad format. To test the hypotheses three different experiments were conducted, with each one using a different method to manipulate ad credibility (multiple explanations for claimed superiority, claim substantiation, and approval of ad information from the Federal Trade Commission). The results of the three studies provide consistent support for the main effects of ad credibility and ad format. Increased persuasion was evidenced with higher credibility ads and with direct comparative ads. However, the hypothesized interaction consistently was not supported. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

It is different than what I saw online: Negative effects of webrooming on purchase intentions

Webrooming is a two-stage shopping process that begins with examining product options online followed by making a purchase at an offline store. In four experiments, we investigate webrooming effects on product evaluation and purchase intentions. The results suggest that webrooming (vs. non-webrooming) has negative impacts on (1) perceived product performance vis-à-vis expectations and (2) purchase intentions for the products offline. Our moderated-mediation analyses show that webrooming leads to lower perceived product performance, which in turn results in lower purchase intentions, and participants’ Need for Touch (NFT) moderates the negative mediation effect, which is stronger with instrumental NFT than autotelic NFT. However, this moderated-mediation effect is attenuated when products are searched across multiple categories. These findings contribute to the marketing literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of how two-stage, webrooming behavior affects consumers’ cognitions and purchase decisions. They also provide several managerial implications that when controlling for time intervals between the stages, (1) webrooming may adversely affect retailers’ business outcomes when webrooming within a single (e.g., blankets), related (e.g., baby products), and unrelated product categories; (2) thus, creating an integrated online-to-offline cross-channel customer experiences is critical to minimize the negative webrooming effects on final sales.     

Does consumer knowledge affect consumer responses to advertised reference price claims?

As expected, internal reference prices (IRPs) and purchase intentions for two product categories (microwave ovens and disposable razors) differed according to whether consumers possessed a high or low level of consumer knowledge about the product in this factorial design experiment. Contrary to theory and expectations, neither internal reference points nor purchase intentions were affected by exposure to comparative price advertisements. Students were used as subjects in a before-after procedure with approximately two weeks between pre- and postmeasures of IRPs and purchase intentions. Postmeasures were taken immediately after exposure to ads containing three levels of advertised reference prices. t tests indicated differences between high and low knowledge group IRP means before ad exposure. However, no ANOVA differences were detected in change in IRP or purchase intention scores after ad exposure. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

“Green cannibalism” or an “organic inside job”? Empirical insights into the rivalry of ethical grocery types

Despite having favorable purchase intentions toward organic groceries, the respective purchase behavior falls often short. This so‐called intention–behavior gap is investigated by exploring the impact of competing ethical products fulfilling green consumption motives (“green fit”) as well or lacking credibility of organic groceries on organic purchase behavior. The first two studies (n ₁ = 225; n ₂ = 321) assessing actual and reported purchase behavior are testing the impact of perceived substitutability of local and fair trade alternatives compared with organic groceries. A third study ( n ₃ = 145) examines the impact of food miles and packaging on perceived product quality and credibility as possible reasons for a lacking “green fit” of organic groceries in terms of an experimental design. Local (fair trade) and organic groceries are perceived as substitute (complementary) alternatives. Additionally, local (organic) “green fit” impedes (enhances) the transformation from organic intentions into a respective purchase behavior. Wrapped organic produces with high food miles are linked to lower quality and credibility perceptions, reducing organic sales rates in favor of local groceries.     

Explaining the impact of consumer religiosity,perceived risk and moral potency on purchase intentions

The role of religion has been overlooked as an antecedent to risk perception, as has moral potency, when purchasing religiously sensitive products. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how perceived risk and moral potency explain the impact of shopper religiosity on purchasing religiously-questionable products from retailers. A conceptual model was tested on a sample of 271 respondents, elucidating the complex relationships between religiosity, social and psychological risk, moral potency and purchase intention. The model offers a strong psychological explanation of how a shopper's religion may increase their perceptions of risk and personal responsibility, confidence and courage, which subsequently impact purchase intentions. Retail managers may choose to implement this model to better predict shopper adoption behaviour of new religiously-questionable products. The model allows for future empirical examinations across multiple shopping contexts and may be employed to estimate levels of demand for new products based on the extent of religiosity, moral potency and risk.     

From Online Motivations to Ad Clicks and to Behavioral Intentions: An Empirical Study of Consumer Response to Social Media Advertising

Marketers increasingly use social media advertising to promote their products and services. In particular, display ads have a prominent presence accompanying various social media feeds. This study aims to develop an understanding of how consumer online motivations (connection vs. consumption) lead to ad clicks on social media, which in turn affect behavioral intentions. A research model is developed to delineate two processes: First, the effects of motivations on ad clicks via perceived entertainment and informativeness values of ads, in which the mediating role of perceived congruity between ad and media content is proposed, too; second, the effect of ad clicks on behavioral intentions to purchase and spread positive word of mouth. The model was tested and confirmed with the online survey data of 613 social media users. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Children and advergames: the role of product involvement,prior brand attitude,persuasion knowledge and game attitude in purchase intentions and changing attitudes

The central aim of this study is to build upon previous research by investigating the role of product involvement, prior brand attitude, persuasion knowledge and game attitude in the brand attitude changes and purchase intentions of children after playing an advergame. In all, 279 respondents between the ages of 10 and 12 years participated in the study. First, they were asked to complete a pre-test survey addressing product involvement and prior brand attitude towards several products and brands. Two weeks later, the respondents were asked to play an advergame and complete a survey addressing brand attitude, purchase intention, persuasion knowledge and attitude towards the game. Our analysis reveals that a positive attitude change is more likely when the game player has already evaluated the brand positively. Furthermore, game attitude is positively related to attitude changes towards the advertised brands, consistent with affect transfer theory. Counterintuitively, a higher level of persuasion knowledge is associated with a higher intention to buy the advertised product. Finally, children who had a more positive attitude towards the game were more likely to report higher purchase intentions, indicating that games which provide good experiences positively influence behavioural intentions. We conclude the paper by discussing the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Effects of the number of advertised brands in a choice set: A metacognitive process

When product shelves feature more advertised brands, such that the choice set likely contains some familiar options, this subjective experience of familiarity could influence consumers' evaluations of chosen products and shopping experiences, through a metacognitive process. The findings of this study suggest that (a) a product shelf displaying some advertised brands, as opposed to no advertised brands, generates greater subjective familiarity, more favorable attitudes toward the purchased items, more shopping satisfaction, and greater intentions to revisit the store; and similarly, (b) a product shelf displaying more, as opposed to fewer, advertised brands generates greater subjective familiarity, more favorable attitudes toward the purchased items, more shopping satisfaction, and greater intentions to revisit the store. These outcomes result from a three‐step metacognitive process, whereby the subjective familiarity triggered by the presence of advertised brands influences judgments, through the effect of shopping pleasure. These results are robust for high‐ and low‐involvement products, as well as in contexts in which the prices of the advertised brands are higher than, lower than, or the same as those of the nonadvertised brands.     

Effects of national identity salience on responses to ads

This paper investigates the effect of national identity salience on responses to ads in two contexts: national identity activated through media context, and national identity activated through advertising appeals. The results remain consistent with the idea that heightening national identity leads individuals to react more positively to representations of that identity. The salience manipulations serve to influence respondents' evaluations of ads and purchase intentions. Respondents present more favorable evaluations of ads and intentions to purchase the advertised products when the ads explicitly pair the advertised product with national identity symbols or rhetoric, as compared to when no such explicit pairing occurs. Further, the activation of individuals' national identity through media context affects the response to embedded ads, even when those ads do not explicitly pair the product with national symbols or rhetoric.     

Influencers' “organic” persuasion through electronic word of mouth: A case of sincerity over brains and beauty

Despite the growing importance of influencers' word-of-mouth through audiovisual content, little is known about its effect on consumers' brand evaluation, purchase intentions, and decisions. Drawing on Ohanian's source credibility framework, we conducted two studies across different influencers, product categories, and respondents' gender and tested the hypotheses using covariance-based and partial least square structural equation modeling. Study 1 focuses on a mega-influencer of cosmetic and beauty brands and predominantly involves female respondents. The findings show that the influencer's attractiveness affects perceptions about source expertise and source trustworthiness but not brand attitude, while source expertise predicts source trustworthiness, and both mediate the effect of source attractiveness on brand attitude. In contrast, brand attitude predicts purchase intention and mediates the impact of source credibility dimensions. Study 2 focuses on various influencers of hedonic products (lifestyle, fashion, and beauty). The results confirm the influence of source attractiveness and expertise on source trustworthiness, which ultimately predicts consumer purchase decisions. This study reveals the interdependencies between different source constructs, contributing to source credibility theory. Furthermore, we show that the effect of source dimensions that are relevant in the celebrity endorsement literature, such as source attractiveness, do not directly influence consumers' intentions and decisions in the context of influencers' electronic word of mouth. Finally, the two studies confirm that only influencers perceived as honest and sincere can influence consumers' purchase decisions.     

Lose like a man: body image and celebrity endorsement effects of weight loss product purchase intentions

Abstract

Recent research suggests men are increasingly concerned with their body size, which has led to a corresponding increase in marketing efforts for weight loss products geared toward them. In many cases, these ads include athlete endorsers of the product. Drawing from the match-up hypothesis and social comparison theory, this study employed structural equation modeling to explore relationships between men’s body image, endorser credibility, advertisement believability, and purchase intentions for weight loss products using two advertisements featuring former professional athlete endorsers. Results indicate an inverse relationship between consumer body image and athlete endorser credibility, such that individuals with lower body image perceived the endorsers as more credible. Further, athlete endorser credibility was positively associated with advertisement believability, which itself was associated with purchase intentions. These findings suggest that athlete endorsers are an effective tool in marketing weight loss products to men, particularly those with negative body image. Further implications and directions for future research are discussed.