The role of emotion in advertising

This paper addresses the reemergence of attention to the role of emotion in advertising. Conceptual clarity requires that emotions be distinguished from other motivational and affective constructs. Having thus narrowed our focus, we present a model of the emotional process and a typology of emotional content. We then address some related managerial issues in advertising strategy and methodological problems in measuring emotions. Finally, the preceding considerations suggest directions for future research on the role of emotion in advertising.     

消费习惯广告的两难困境

对于那些试图培养消费者的消费习惯、锁定目标用户的广告主来说,这一研究成果很好地揭示其市场营销策略上的两难困境。在没有养成消费习惯之前,习惯行为提示型的广告语或许是有效的,它能促使消费者尽快增加消费频次,养成良好的消费习惯;对于那些已养成消费习惯的消费者来说,习惯行为提示型广告的效果可能适得其反,消费者或许会想,自己是不是消费次数太过频繁了？     

Increasing advertising effectiveness through incongruity-based tactics: The moderating role of consumer involvement

Developing effective advertising communication has been traditionally regarded as an increasing function of the fit between consumers' perceptions and the content of the transmitted messages. Given that, relevant research has given only limited attention to the consideration of incongruent and dissonant communication. Against this background, the present study explores how consumers react to brand information that is in conflict with established perceptions. The moderating role of consumer involvement in the decision process is also examined. Consistent with predictions, the results support a positive effect for moderately incongruent communication, which, however, is attenuated in high-involvement decisions. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Mail advertising and consumer behavior

This paper examines some trends in mail advertising and presents some findings from a longitudinal study on mail sent to and from U.S. households. Data from 1987 and 1991 interviews and diaries of a national probability sample of U.S. households were compared. As the third largest advertising medium, mail has grown in market share in the past decade as traditional advertising media declined or stayed the same. The paper examines how consumers feel, perceive and respond to the advertising mail they receive. It also explores how characteristics of the senders and recipients, factors outside the mail piece and the type of mail piece, influence consumer attitudes, perceptions, and treatment of the mail received. The paper concludes with recommendations to advertisers, marketers, and fundraisers for future research and for increasing the effectiveness of mail in their marketing mix. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Competing for consumer memory in television advertising

The purpose of this study is to examine how brand recall and recognition are affected by non-editorial clutter in mega-event broadcasting. Using longitudinal data collected during four years of Super Bowl broadcasts, this study investigates the effects of three different types of television clutter (other ads, on-air promos and TV billboards) and their composite effects on brand memory. The results show that increases in numbers and lengths of other ads and on-air promos negatively affect brand recall and recognition. However, such effect was not found with TV billboards. Theoretical and marketing implications are discussed.     

Decreasing advertising interference: The impact of comparable differences on consumer memory in competitive advertising environments

This study investigates the structural alignment processes in reducing memory interference in a competitive advertising context. In particular, an experimental study is carried out to understand how alignable (i.e., comparable) and nonalignable (i.e., noncomparable) attributes influence ad claim recall at differing levels of competitive ads. Findings indicate that recall of alignable attributes is higher than that of nonalignable attributes in the presence of ads for competing brands. Results from the study also suggest that nonalignable attribute recall decreases as the number of ads featuring competing brands increases from zero to two, whereas alignable attribute recall is not affected by increasing the level of competitive ads. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of traditionally marginalized groups in advertising on consumer response

Increasingly, national brands have cast people from marginalized groups in advertising. It is important to understand the elements that influence consumers’ responses to advertisements featuring groups who have been traditionally excluded from advertising campaigns. Although consumers may wish to buy brands that support their own views on human rights and equality, we propose that consumers in the target market may be uncomfortable if the group portrayal contradicts their beliefs about the topic, concept, or social groups in the ad. Across two studies, we show that when an ad creates this type of internal contradiction within consumers, it may elicit a more negative response than an ad portraying a more traditional model. However, we also find preliminary evidence that using models from marginalized groups can be more effective than using more traditional models—as long as such portrayals do not violate certain target consumers’ schemas. The implications of these results will be discussed.     

ACI,广告消费指数——广告效果测定的新标准

2008年1月8目，IMI（创研）市场信息研究所在京召开新闻发布会，发布受众媒体接触新指标——广告消费指数（ACI）。 IMI（创研）市场信息研究所（Institute for Marketing Information）是中国传媒大学广告学院的下属机构，从1992年成立以来积极参与和组织大型的市场研究和媒介受众研究活动，     

The impact of advertising on consumer price sensitivity in experience goods markets

In this paper we use Nielsen scanner panel data on four categories of consumer goods to examine how TV advertising and other marketing activities affect the demand curve facing a brand. Advertising can affect consumer demand in many different ways. Becker and Murphy (Quarterly Journal of Economics 108:941–964, 1993) have argued that the “presumptive case” should be that advertising works by raising marginal consumers’ willingness to pay for a brand. This has the effect of flattening the demand curve, thus increasing the equilibrium price elasticity of demand and the lowering the equilibrium price. Thus, “advertising is profitable not because it lowers the elasticity of demand for the advertised good, but because it raises the level of demand.” Our empirical results support this conjecture on how advertising shifts the demand curve for 17 of the 18 brands we examine. There have been many prior studies of how advertising affects two equilibrium quantities: the price elasticity of demand and/or the price level. Our work is differentiated from previous work primarily by our focus on how advertising shifts demand curves as a whole. As Becker and Murphy pointed out, a focus on equilibrium prices or elasticities alone can be quite misleading. Indeed, in many instances, the observation that advertising causes prices to fall and/or demand elasticities to increase, has misled authors into concluding that consumer “price sensitivity” must have increased, meaning the number of consumers’ willing to pay any particular price for a brand was reduced—perhaps because advertising makes consumers more aware of substitutes. But, in fact, a decrease in the equilibrium price is perfectly consistent with a scenario where advertising actually raises each individual consumer’s willingness to pay for a brand. Thus, we argue that to understand how advertising affects consumer price sensitivity one needs to estimate how it shifts the whole distribution of willingness to pay in the population. This means estimating how it shifts the shape of the demand curve as a whole, which in turn means estimating a complete demand system for all brands in a category—as we do here. We estimate demand systems for toothpaste, toothbrushes, detergent and ketchup. Across these categories, we find one important exception to conjecture that advertising should primarily increase the willingness to pay of marginal consumers. The exception is the case of Heinz ketchup. Heinz advertising has a greater positive effect on the WTP of infra-marginal consumers. This is not surprising, because Heinz advertising focuses on differentiating the brand on the “thickness” dimension. This is a horizontal dimension that may be highly valued by some consumers and not others. The consumers who most value this dimension have the highest WTP for Heinz, and, by focusing on this dimension; Heinz advertising raises the WTP of these infra-marginal consumers further. In such a case, advertising is profitable because it reduces the market share loss that the brand would suffer from any given price increase. In contrast, in the other categories we examine, advertising tends to focus more on vertical attributes.

Effect of online 3D advertising on consumer responses: the mediating role of telepresence

Abstract

This study develops a conceptual framework for measuring the effectiveness of Internet-based 3D advertisements. The study uses an interdisciplinary literature review (marketing, information systems, and human–computer interaction) to enhance the understanding of the impact of using 3D visualisation in online advertisements, and to identify the most relevant conditions for application. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of such ads in the case of a geometric product, as well as in the case of a material product. This study's results highlight the significance of telepresence as a mediator. The findings reveal that telepresence determines how ad format (2D versus 3D) influences the range of variables used to measure advertising effectiveness.     

The effects of schema congruity on consumer response to celebrity advertising

The trend of celebrity-branded products is on the rise, creating a new domain in which to explore the match-up hypothesis. Moving beyond the celebrity as an endorser, but rather, a brand promoting a brand extension, this article examines how perceived congruence between a celebrity's image and the brand image of products they have developed is related to attitudinal and behavioral measures of advertising effectiveness. Employing a 2 × 3 full factorial design, congruence between the celebrity's image and the brand's image was varied (less vs. more congruent), along with the use of the celebrity's image (present, absent, non-celebrity models) to determine how schema congruity influences consumer's response to celebrity advertising. The results of a multivariate analysis of covariance analysis indicating lower levels of congruence between the celebrity's image and the brand's image led to greater advertising effectiveness compared to higher levels of congruence. Specifically, the means of the attitudinal dependent variables in the less congruent condition were significantly higher than the means in the more congruent condition. These effects were more pronounced when a celebrity's image was featured in the advertisement compared to when it was not featured. The implication of the findings suggests that moderate violations in the consumer's celebrity schema may improve advertising effectiveness.     

The impact of animal metaphors on consumer response to courtesy advertising

This paper investigates how consumers feel and react to animal metaphor advertising in the context of the public service environment. Three studies are carried out using both field and experimental data. The results show that ads with an animal-like transgressor (vs. a human transgressor) elicit a stronger moral outrage response (e.g., contempt, anger, disgust), which generates a stronger perception of dehumanization toward the transgressor, consequently enhancing the consumers’ persuasive reaction to follow public etiquette. The animal metaphor effect is robust, irrespective of whether the metaphorical objects are high or low in conceptual similarity, but the consumer reaction is more intense when the metaphorical pairing is conceptually high in similarity. However, this effect is diminished when the ad is displayed as a drawing as opposed to a photograph. The implications of the findings for retailers or service providers considering the use of animal metaphor in their ads are also discussed.     

Detrimental effects of television advertising on consumer socialization

As in the United States, there has been a heated discussion about possible negative effects of TV advertising on children in the Federal Republic of Germany. Results obtained in the United States are not readily transferable, owing to differences in media structure. Based on interviews with experts and a qualitative content analysis of relevant documents, this article tries to organize claims made about detrimental effects into dimensions of detrimentality.     

A meta-analysis of consumer choice and subliminal advertising

A meta-analysis is used to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of subliminal advertising to influence the consumer's decision between alternatives. A review of narrative reviews is provided to illustrate that sample size and effect size is seldom used as the basis for evaluating whether subliminal marketing stimuli are an effective means for influencing consumer choice behavior. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that there is very little effect. The resulting coefficient had a value r=0.0585, which places the effectiveness of subliminal advertising on choice between the impact of aspirin on heart attacks and the relationship between alcohol abuse and a tour of duty in Vietnam (Rosenthal, 1990). © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The moderating effect of self-esteem on consumer responses to global positioning in advertising

The study investigates consumers' responses to global positioning in advertising from the perspective of self. It is suggested that consumers' attitudes toward the brand advertised through global positioning are influenced by their ideal selves and cosmopolitan orientations and these influences are moderated by one's self-esteem level. Study 1 shows that attitudes toward the globally positioned brand are more positive for those with ideal selves that are more congruent with personal traits associated with globally positioned brands, but only for those with high self-esteem. Interview results from study 2 suggest that low self-esteem informants make use of the global brands associated with ‘Western’ as a means of signaling their social selves in order to obtain social approval and that high self-esteem informants attend to ad content, whether the ad employs global or local positioning.     

The impact of COVID-19 on consumer evaluation of authentic advertising messages

This study investigates the relationship between the COVID-19 threat and consumer evaluation of a product with authenticity appeals in advertisements. We propose that threatening situations like COVID-19 motivate consumers to lower their uncertainty and increase their preference for products with authentic advertising messages. Because individuals react differently to threatening environments according to their early-life experiences, commonly reflected in childhood socioeconomic status, we examined whether childhood socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between threat and consumer evaluation of authenticity in advertisements. First, secondary data from Google Trends provided empirical support for our predictions. In additional experimental studies, participants evaluated different target products in four studies that either manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) or measured (Studies 4 and 5) COVID-19 threat. Our results provide converging evidence that consumers positively evaluate products with authentic advertising messages under the COVID-19 threat. Consumers' motivation to lower their uncertainty underlies the effect of COVID-19 threat on their evaluation of authentic messages (Study 3). This attempt to reduce uncertainty is more likely to occur for consumers with relatively higher childhood socioeconomic status (Studies 4 and 5). These findings suggest that using authenticity appeals during a pandemic could effectively reduce consumers' perceived uncertainty and generate positive consumer evaluations.     

Effects of background music endings on consumer memory in advertising

Background music is widely used in advertising to attract audiences' attention. However, no research to date has considered the effect of background music endings on consumer memory for advertised products and messages. Across two experiments, the present research shows that background music that ends abruptly (i.e., truncated ending) distracts consumers' attention, reducing memory for both products and messages, compared to background music that ends with a note in the chord of the dominant tonality (i.e., regular ending) or that concludes with a fading-out ending.     

How consumer heterogeneity muddles the international advertising debate

Standardisation versus localisation is an enduring topic in international advertising. The generalisability of research on the topic is another issue. We address the second issue and in the process shed light on the first. Multifacet analysis on an international advertising data set indicated that individuals within countries accounted for much more variance than countries could account for. This portends that researchers should generalise with caution. It further suggests that some form of standardisation may be appropriate more often than is currently considered. Both between and within-country heterogeneity should influence international advertising strategies.     

The impact of creative media advertising on consumer responses: two field experiments

Abstract

Creative media (CM) advertising is an advertising strategy wherein a non-traditional medium is creatively used for advertising purposes. This novel advertising strategy is gaining marketers’ interest; however, little is known about its persuasive effects on consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioural responses and the processes that underlie them. Therefore, to convey a genuine experience to consumers, two field experiments with a one-factor (advertising type: creative vs. traditional) between-subjects design were conducted within a supermarket context. Results showed that creative (vs. traditional) media ads not only improve consumers’ affective and behavioural responses but also consumers’ cognitive responses. Even though no mediations were found through perceived surprise or perceived persuasive intent, results do provide evidence for the notion that perceived humor and perceived value are the underlying mechanisms through which affective and behavioural responses to creative media advertising can be explained.     

The moderating role of religiosity on nonprofit advertising

Nonprofits need to compete for donations now more than ever. Maintaining a socially responsible reputation and developing ads that are emotional and likable are tactics used to encourage donations. This study explores the role of religiosity as a moderator of antecedents to intent to donate to the nonprofit sponsor of pro-social ads and finds that religiosity acts as a moderator in the relationship between liking of the ad, perceived corporate social responsibility of the nonprofit, and intent to donate to the nonprofit. Managerial implications suggest that nonprofits employing negative emotional appeals in advertising should (1) feature real victims (not actors) to generate empathy and (2) target more religious individuals through demographic and psychographic segmentations.