The Effects of Humor on Ad Processing: Mediating Role of Brand Familiarity

The effect of humorous advertisement on memory and attitude has been an important topic among advertising scholars. However, scholars have used fake brands to test the effects of humor. Since the possibility for consumers to be exposed to the commercial for a completely new brand is very low, using a fake brand to test humor effects is not realistic. Hence, this study examined the role of brand familiarity on the effects of humor on memory and attitude by using existing brands in a laboratory experiment. This study suggests a different structural model for familiar and unfamiliar brands based on the previous studies in consumer behavior. Results revealed different effects of humorous advertisements for the familiar or unfamiliar brands. The structural model proposed for this study revealed a mediating role of brand familiarity on humor effects. Humorous ads worked better for the unfamiliar brands. For the familiar brands, the effects were mediated by the subjects’ brand familiarity and prior brand attitude.     

Placing snacks in children's movies: cognitive,evaluative, and conative effects of product placements with character product interaction

ABSTRACT

Type of placement integration has been shown to influence placement effects in adults. However, no studies have explored the role of character product interaction (CPI) for product placement effects on children. We also lack knowledge about the moderating role of age in this context. We therefore exposed N = 363 children aged 6–15 years to a movie containing no placement, a static placement, or a CPI placement. The presence of placements affected cognitive and conative brand outcomes. However, children's product memory and consumption were higher for CPI placements compared to static placements. As a relevant implication for product placement research, we found that brand outcomes were independent of the children's ages and prior movie familiarity. This suggests that children's developmental stage concerning age does not mitigate product placement effects. Implications for educators and consumer advocates are discussed.     

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.     

Preston,Ivan L., The Tangled Web They Weave: Truth,Falsity, & Advertisers,Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994

Abstract

In an experiment, children in three grade levels (second, fourth, and sixth) viewed four advertisements. The children were shown advertisements with either metaphors in both pictorial and verbal form or a literal equivalent. The sixth graders interpreted more metaphors correctly than the fourth and second graders. In terms of recall of advertised content, the sixth and fourth graders recalled brand names, products, and additional copy better than the second graders. Within each grade level, metaphors did not enhance children's recall of advertised content or perceptions of the understandability of the advertisements and liking of the advertised products. The authors speculate that metaphors are most likely to enhance recall under conditions in which the metaphor serves as a direct representation linking the metaphor to the advertised product. Their findings suggest that advertisers should be aware that young readers may have difficulty interpreting metaphors and that metaphors may not be more effective in terms of children's recall and perception of understandability than literal versions of advertisements.     

Attitudes toward the extension and parent brand in response to extension advertising

This paper investigates how ads for extensions can trigger different reactions with respect to consumers' attitudes towards new line and brand extensions of familiar brands. Using a structural equation model, the authors research the influence of attitude towards the ad (Aad), parent brand quality, and perceived fit on attitude toward the extension (Aext), and resulting feedback effects on attitude toward the parent brand (Apb) with a sample of 509 Belgians. Results are compared between two types of advertising strategies (informational vs. positive emotional). The findings indicate that informational appeals, in comparison to emotional appeals, reduce the effects of parent brand quality and fit, but Aad is all the more important. In terms of feedback effects to the parent brand, Aext transfers more easily to Apb with an informational appeal than with a positive emotional appeal. On the other hand, Aad directly influences Apb for positive emotional appeals, but not informational appeals.     

Investigating the recall inhibition effect: A test of practical considerations

Alba and Chattopadhyay (1985, 1986) have demonstrated that having consumers think about a familiar brand can interfere with the retrieval of competitive brand names, including those that might otherwise be considered for purchase. However, their research is silent about two issues of pragmatic importance. First, is it possible to inhibit retrieval of the consumer's preferred brand? Second, can an unfamiliar brand evoke recall inhibition? Our findings indicate that recall inhibition does not extend to the preferred brand. Our findings further suggest that recall inhibition can be induced by cueing consumers with an unfamiliar brand name, but that such inhibition is less pervasive than evoked by a highly familiar brand name.     

Preservation,rejuvenation, or confusion? Changing package designs for heritage brands

Updating a brand's packaging presents a challenge, especially for heritage brands. This study examines how and when continuity in visual package design influences brand heritage perceptions. A pre‐study uses focus groups to corroborate evidence for the constructs and processes involved. Three experiments show that lower continuity designs create confusion, which in turn damages a brand's heritage identity. Study 1a provides initial evidence for the process and demonstrates that effects occur regardless of prior brand usage. Study 1b replicates the mediating role of confusion with two different product categories, controlling for brand attachment. Study 1c rules out alternative mediating processes through other emotions. Employing a quasiexperimental design involving ten brands, Study 2 demonstrates that a brand's mascot can buffer against detrimental effects of low design continuity on confusion and consequent perceptions of brand heritage and purchase intention while controlling for brand familiarity and need for cognition. Together, these findings contribute to a better understanding of consumer responses to changes in package design and heritage brands.     

Advertising for extensions: Moderating effects of extension type,advertising strategy,and product category involvement on extension evaluation

This paper investigates how advertisements for extensions contribute to consumers’ attitudes towards new line and brand extensions of highly familiar brands. We investigate the relative importance of attitude toward the advertisement (Aad), parent brand quality, and fit between the extension and the parent brand for extension evaluations with a sample of 754 Belgians. Hierarchical regressions showed that Aad is the major influencer of extension evaluation. The importance of Aad, quality, and fit on extension evaluation is moderated by extension type (line or brand extension), advertising strategy (informational, positive emotional, negative emotional), and product involvement (low or high involvement). Quality transfer from the parent brand was more outspoken for line than for brand extensions; Aad was relatively more important for low product involvement and fit for high involvement conditions. Informational appeals, compared to emotional appeals, reduced the effects of parent brand quality and fit, but Aad was all the more important.     

The Relation Between Brand-name Linguistic Characteristics and Brand-name Memory

Copytesting results from a commercial copytesting firm were used to assessthe relation between the presence of linguistic features in brand names and memory for those names. Brand names in the ads being tested (<I>n</I> = 480) were coded on 23 linguistic properties, of which 11 occurred with sufficient frequency to be retained for analysis. Regression analyses tested for the association between linguistic properties of the brand names and brand-name memory as a function ofbrand-name familiarity,controlling forexecutionalvariables.Resultsrevealed thatthree linguistic variableswerepositively related to brand-name memory (semantic appositeness, paranomasia, initial plosives), but only for less familiar brands. Two linguistic variablesshowed main effectsfor brand-name memory: unusual spelling (positive) and blending (negative). However, the effects for unusual spelling and blending were also qualified by the same interaction with familiarity: The effects were stronger for less familiar brands than they were for more familiar brands. These results are interpreted within Craik and Lockhart's (1972) depth of processing framework and implications for the naming of brands are discussed.     

Effects of Disclosing Influencer Marketing in Videos: An Eye Tracking Study Among Children in Early Adolescence

This study focused on the effects of sponsorship disclosure timing on children's ability to understand that social influencer videos are sponsored. The study also investigated how sponsorship disclosure timing affects children's attitudes toward the sponsoring brand, the video, and the influencer. An experiment among 272 children in early adolescence (10–13 years of age) was conducted using eye tracking. Results show that a disclosure shown prior to the start of the videos leads to more visual attention than a disclosure shown concurrently with the start of videos. Consequently, disclosure prior to the start of videos is better processed, as indicated by disclosure memory, which then leads to a better understanding that the content is sponsored. This understanding evokes a more critical attitude toward the sponsored content in the video, and results in less positive attitudes toward the brands, the videos, and the influencers. Theoretically, this study provides insights into the mechanisms that explain disclosure timing effects among children in early adolescence. Practically, this study offers recommendations to policy makers to develop sponsorship disclosures that can increase transparency of online embedded advertising to minors.     

Children's Responses to Advertising in Social Games

This study explored children's (ages 9 through 12) level of persuasion knowledge and peer influence susceptibility concerning advertising in social games and investigated how these variables affect children's desire for the brands advertised in these games. Results showed that (1) children have a fairly good knowledge of the advertising in social games yet hold uncritical attitudes toward it and claim to be not very susceptible to peer influence; (2) the most important predictors of children's desire for the advertised brands are a low critical attitude and high peer influence susceptibility; and (3) recognition and understanding of advertising in social games is effective in reducing advertised brand desire only for children who are familiar with social games.     

Disclosing brand placement to young children

In spite of the EU's prohibition on brand placement in children's programmes, it is argued that children may still be exposed to this advertising format in many occasions. Consequently, and as children may have even more difficulties than adults to distinguish the commercial content from the editorial media content in which it is embedded, an advertising disclosure may be necessary to enable them to cope with brand placement. Entailing two one-factorial between-subjects experiments, the current article examined how different types of brand placement warning cues influenced cognitive advertising literacy and the attitude toward the placed brand, among children between 8 and 10 years old.

In a first study, it was investigated how these outcomes were influenced by warning cues with different perceptual modalities (no vs. auditory vs. visual cue, N = 98). The results showed that a visual warning cue was more effective than an auditory warning cue (vs. no warning cue) in addressing cognitive advertising literacy. However, this higher cognitive advertising literacy could not account for the effect of the visual warning cue on brand attitude.

In a second study, it was examined whether the effectiveness of this visual warning cue was influenced by the timing of disclosure (cue prior to vs. during media containing brand placement, N = 142). Additionally, it was tested whether the effect of the cue on brand attitude could be explained by cognitive advertising literacy if children's sceptical attitude toward the brand placement format was taken into account. The results showed that cognitive advertising literacy was higher when the cue was shown prior to than during the media content. This cue-influenced cognitive advertising literacy resulted in a more positive brand attitude, but only among children who were less sceptical toward brand placement. This positive relation disappeared among moderately and highly sceptical children.

These findings have significant theoretical, practical and social implications.     

Selecting the right cause partners for the right reasons: The role of importance and fit in cause‐brand alliances

Cause‐brand alliances (CBAs) are becoming a routine strategy to enhance the image of the brand and the cause and to encourage brand sales. This research conducted two studies to evaluate importance and fit as selection criteria for the cause partner. Study 1 evaluated the relative importance of a cause on attitudes and purchase intent for a familiar versus an unfamiliar brand. Results suggested that importance of the cause had an effect on attitudes and purchase intent for an unfamiliar brand but not for a familiar brand. Based on an unexpected finding in Study 1, a second study was conducted that addressed the issue of cause–brand fit. Results show that perceptions of logical fit between the cause and the brand does not have an effect for either the familiar or unfamiliar brand. These findings suggest that the importance of the cause may be a more relevant criterion for optimizing a CBA for an unfamiliar brand but, unlike other forms of alliances and contrary to popular anecdotal belief, perceptions of fit may not be relevant for either familiar or unfamiliar brand. ©2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Communicating brands playfully

An online experiment was conducted to study the effects of brand placements in computer games on brand attitude as well as game attitude (N = 521; between subject design: familiar vs unfamiliar brands vs no brand). Results show that particularly unfamiliar brands can achieve a better attitude, while the attitude towards the familiar brand worsens as a result of ad placements. In any case, the game will suffer as a result of the integration of advertising: attitude towards the game worsens as a result of ad placement. However, these effects were not moderated by ad scepticism. In terms of the process of attitude formation, attitude towards the game has a direct impact on attitude towards the advertised brand.     

TV advertising of OTC medicines and its effects on child viewers

The influence of over-the-counter (OTC) medicine commercials on children's choices concerning use of OTC medicines was investigated in two experiments. In the first, 115 third and fourth graders were exposed to commercials for six different OTC medicines or commercials for other products. They were then asked to recommend either a medicine or nonmedicine remedy for a child and an adult with various illnesses and/or problems. The OTC medicine commercials appeared to influence children's recommendations only with respect to use of sleeping pills. In the second experiment 234 third and fourth graders were exposed to either fever and cold medicine commercials, all of which were directed toward the child viewer, or nondrug commercials. Only the fever medicine commercials appeared to influence the children. It was concluded that OTC medicine commercials do not, in general, influence children's choices concerning use of those medicines. Possible exceptions to this general case are noted.     

“Retail is detail! Give consumers a gift rather than a bundle”: Promotion framing and consumer product returns

Retailers often use the promotion strategy of offering supplementary products (e.g., free gift, bundle) to attract consumers and increase sales. Despite the growing literature on the promotions that are differently framed but offer economically identical values, little research has examined the link between promotion framing and consumer product returns. The current article sheds light on this relationship, hypothesizing that a free gift promotion would be superior to a bundle promotion in reducing consumer product returns. The findings suggest that a gift‐framed promotion leads to a lower product return intention than an economically equivalent bundle promotion, because consumers tend to perceive more loss from giving up the gift‐framed (vs. bundle‐framed) deal. Further, this study examines a moderating role of brand familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and shows that the merits of free gift framing on product return intention via perceived loss are amplified (attenuated) when the promoted brand is familiar (unfamiliar). Overall, the investigations of this study imply that it is better to frame a promotion as a “free gift” than a “bundle” to increase perceived loss in returning the purchase and thus to decrease consumer product returns. This strategic intervention works especially when the gift is offered by familiar brands.     

Brand Placement Recognition

Abstract

This study examines the impact of adding an audible reference to a visually prominent brand placement on recognition of the brand placed. Facilitated recognition scores were used to control for the effects of brand familiarity on brand placement recognition. Subjects exposed to one of two complete movies were asked to indicate recognition of brands that were or were not placed in their movie. Results indicate that brand placement recognition levels achieved by audio-visual prominent placements exceed the recognition rates achieved by visual-only prominent placements. Additionally, familiar brands achieve higher levels of recognition than unfamiliar brands, even when the recognition scores for familiar brands are adjusted for the guessing and constructive recognition that may result from inferences associated with familiar brands.     

Disclosure of Vlog Advertising Targeted to Children

Influencers can disclose vlog advertising by implementing a platform-generated disclosure or by generating their own disclosure. This study aims to investigate whether and how these two types of disclosures differentially affect children's responses toward the sponsored content and the influencer. To do so, a two (platform-generated [PG] disclosure: no PG disclosure versus PG disclosure) by three (influencer-generated [IG] disclosure: no IG disclosure versus no commercial interference disclosure versus commercial interference disclosure) between-subjects experimental study was conducted among 190 children (aged ten to twelve). The results show that both types of disclosures increased children's recognition of vlog advertising; however, children's advertising literacy (i.e. their understanding of influencer marketing and skepticism toward the ad) was less activated when the influencer specifically indicated that there was no commercial interference of the brand. In addition, besides being more beneficial for influencers (by not negatively affecting children's evaluations of the influencer), an IG disclosure also showed to be more favorable for brands, as it increased brand effects among children, whereas a PG disclosure decreased these brand effects.     

Brand placement repetition in a fictional text

This paper investigates the effect of brand name repetition on brand attitude in the context of a fictional text. Furthermore, it tests the moderating impact of brand familiarity, narrative transportation, and individual differences in need for cognition (NFC). Participants in an experiment read the full text of a real short-story, which featured the target brand. Brand name repetition and brand familiarity were systematically manipulated. The results show that brand name repetition affects attitude towards an unfamiliar brand and readers’ narrative transportation and NFC moderate this effect: Attitude towards the brand improves with repetition only when both transportation and NFC are relatively high. No effects were found for the familiar brand.     

Advertisement Disclaimer Speed and Corporate Social Responsibility: “Costs” to Consumer Comprehension and Effects on Brand Trust and Purchase Intention

It is not uncommon for advertisers to present required product disclaimers quickly at the end of advertisements. We show that fast disclaimers greatly reduce consumer comprehension of product risks and benefits, creating implications for social responsibility. In addition, across two studies, we found that disclaimer speed and brand familiarity interact to predict brand trust and purchase intention, and that brand trust mediated the interactive effect of brand familiarity and disclaimer speed on purchase intention. Our results indicate that fast disclaimers actually reduce brand trust and purchase intention for unfamiliar brands, suggesting that there are both economic and social responsibility reasons to use less rapid disclaimers for unfamiliar brands. Conversely, disclaimer speed had no negative effects on brand trust and purchase intention for highly familiar brands, presenting ethical tensions between economic interests (e.g., an efficient use of advertisement time) and social responsibility. We discuss the implications of our framework for advertising ethics, for corporate social performance, and for corporate social responsibility.