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.     

论代言人推荐式广告如何影响消费者态度

在日常生活中,常看到许多广告运用具有专家、真实产品的使用团体,或用明星为产品代言,这种利用代言人的推荐式广告手法,是期望能对消费者提供专家性、比较性或象征性,来达到品牌知名度提升,使产品表现出差异化形象,促使消费者的人格特质与品牌形象间产生连结效果,甚至产生行为规范性的影响,于是有越来越多的学者和市场营销人员将注意力放在广告中使用的代言人(Spokesperson)或推荐人(Endorser)上,并为其提出理论基础。     

When luxury brands meet China: The effect of localized celebrity endorsements in social media marketing

In social media marketing, celebrity endorsement is a widely used strategy. Luxury brands use their social media accounts to post pictures of celebrities using their products. However, they would be confronted with the dilemma of whether to standardize or localize their celebrity endorsers for different markets. This dilemma of whether to standardize or adapt their advertisements to the local market has been haunting luxury brands for a long time. This paper examines the effectiveness of localized celebrity endorsements for luxury brands on Chinese social media. We analyze whether Chinese celebrity endorsers could trigger more social media interactions and enhance perceived brand luxury than Western celebrity endorsers, based on an analysis of online big data and two experiments. We also explore when localized celebrity endorsement is most effective, focusing on the moderating role of patriotism. The results suggest that localized (vs. standardized) celebrity endorsements lead to more social media interactions. Using localized (standardized) celebrity endorsements enhance the perceived brand luxury for people with high (low) patriotism.     

Consumer responses to the depth and minimum claimed savings of “Scratch and Save (SAS)” promotions

This study examines consumers' responses to advertisements employing “Scratch and Save” (SAS) type promotions, which are emerging store‐level promotional tools. Due to SAS promotions' “gambling” characteristics, they offer the possibility of high savings levels, however, they also confront the consumer with uncertainty about the value of the discount at the point of purchase. Particular attention is paid to the depth of the claimed savings, and its effect on regular price believability and consumers' expected savings, as well as perceived value and shopping intentions. The depth of the advertised SAS promotions was observed to not affect consumer believability of the regular price in SAS advertisements. In addition, the disjunction effect is made applicable through showing that the minimum claimed saving information enhances the level of savings expectation. The results also report the positive impact of expected savings on offer value and, in turn, shopping intentions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Beyond endorsements: The effect of celebrity Creative Directors on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement

Marketers are beginning to expand the roles that celebrities play in support of brands. Connections now go beyond the typical endorsement relationship to employing celebrities as Creative Directors. Study 1 demonstrates celebrity Creative Directors, as opposed to merely endorsers, result in increased attitudes toward the advertisement; an effect mediated by consumer perceptions of celebrity expertize and attenuated by skepticism toward advertising. Study 2 further investigates this phenomenon by considering whether it is the title of Creative Director that results in increased attitudes toward the advertisement or if consumers need to be made aware of the responsibilities associated with such a role. Results from Study 2 suggest that merely bestowing a celebrity with the title of Creative Director is not sufficient to enhance attitudes, the duties performed by the celebrity Creative Director must be made explicit.     

Celebrity ambassador/celebrity endorsement – takes a licking but keeps on ticking

The paper examines the use of advertising and celebrity endorsement in promoting wristwatches from the beginning of the 20th century up until today. It shows a progression from simple informational advertisements stressing the technical, aesthetic and social appeals of the watches to more complex ones appealing to self-image and the use of celebrity endorsement. However, some – albeit not all – luxury wristwatch manufacturers have abandoned their use of celebrity endorsers. We note the need for businesses to undertake advertising aimed at appealing to consumer self-image, often reinforced by celebrity endorsement. The paper explores why the celebrity endorsement of brands may be effective or otherwise. We question, however, the cost-effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, and whether methods such as parasocial advertising through social media sites may offer an alternative. Like the brands they promote, advertising theories also have life cycles and the need to find new theories and update or abandon existing ones continues apace.     

Social Cause versus Profit Oriented Advertisements

Abstract

A common theme in social marketing research has been that for a social cause message to be effective and encourage behavioral change it must be perceived as different from other advertising messages. This article evaluated over 500 magazine print advertisements via content analysis to reveal social cause versus profit oriented advertisements. Upon identification of these two advertisement types, further analysis explored information content and emotional appeal strategies. The results significantly indicate that social cause advertisements elicited more emotional appeals than profit oriented advertisements, while profit oriented advertisements conveyed more information content. Specifically, profit oriented advertisements contained more information regarding price, quality, performance, content, availability, offers, packaging, guarantees, company research, new ideas and taste than social cause advertisements. In comparison, only safety, research, and nutritional information were revealed more frequently with social cause than profit oriented advertisements. Social cause advertisements evoked more fear, anger, sadness, disgust, interest, and surprise. Profit oriented advertisements were deemed more pleasant and happier.     

A guide to a more effective World Wide Web presence

By focusing on the construct called consumer scepticism towards advertisements, this study identified four dimensions of scepticism towards advertising claims: scepticism about the believability (disbelief), credibility (mistrust), desirability (undesirable) and informational value (misinform) of advertising claims. Using an experimental design setting, this study found that the type of claim and claim extremity solicit differential responses from consumers on different dimensions of the scepticism construct. The differential responses are more pronounced for a product than a service advertisement. Implications arising from the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research advanced.     

Fast food,ads, and taste in a Russian child’s mind

Research demonstrates that brands can influence children’s food preferences and potentially contribute to unhealthy consumption patterns. This article extends this line of research by investigating the complex and interacting effects of food brand marketing on experienced taste. The empirical field in a remote Russian town enabled the assessment of branding effects when entering a newly established market. Examining the combination of various advertisement features with emotional brand elicitation, we derive hypotheses about the interplay of brands and advertisement components linked to the perceived taste of a fast food meal. In Novosibirsk, Russia, 778 children and adolescents aged 10–18 years were exposed to fast food advertisements with real and imaginary brand logos and varying advertising claims. The advertisements consisted of a warning, an exaggerated credence claim, or both. A subsequently offered fast food meal—a portion of French fries—was experimentally varied and prepared to be either healthier but less tasty and unsalted, or less healthy but tastier and salted. The findings verify strong and positive brand effects on children’s taste satisfaction. Warnings in advertisements “worked” only for novel fast food brands by negatively affecting taste satisfaction, but increased taste satisfaction when applied in advertisements for established brands. Single credence claims did not improve the taste experience, but counteracted the negative effects of warnings for novel brands. Finally, the established brand influenced taste satisfaction positively when the fries were saltier. The findings reveal various opportunities for fast food marketing to artificially create taste satisfaction for potentially unhealthy food. Public health strategies that focus on advertising claim restrictions should be reconsidered in the context of possible evasion strategies of the food industry and counter‐effects of warnings among strong fast food brands.     

Advertisement policy for dual-channel within emissions-controlled flexible production system

Nowadays, industrial firms are very much careful to build a green environment by reducing carbon emissions. The government imposes some rules and regulations to provide a better eco-friendly environment. In this study, the cap-and-trade mechanism has been considered in a production model to control the carbon emissions rate. The manufacturers invest in advanced green technology to reduce per unit emissions. As online and offline selling is crucial to any industry for increasing customer demand, the manufacturers sell their products by dual-channel and advertise their products by online channel to make more popular of their products. Keeping these in mind, a sustainable flexible production model with single-type substitutable product production is considered here by imposing a cap-and-tax policy, investing in green technology, and advertising for products. This model is divided into two cases: with and without investment in green technology. The demand of each manufacturer depends upon an online selling price, an offline selling price, and an online advertisement of the product. A classical optimization technique helps to get the optimum strategies for the online selling price, offline selling price, advertisement investment, green technology, cycle time, and production rate. From the numerical study, it is proved that the industry gets 6.97% more profit in the case of green technology investment and the proposed study gives 5.74% more profit than the traditional production system. Sensitivity analysis and managerial insights are performed.     

The moderating influence of brand status and source confirmation on third-party endorsement effects in advertising

Two studies were conducted to examine the effect that perceived brand status has on consumers’responses to source confirmation of third-party advertising endorsements. In Study 1, a 2 (ad exposure with opportunity to confirm the source of the endorsement vs ad exposure with no opportunity to confirm) by 2 (topdog brand vs underdog brand) factorial design was used to examine hypothesised effects on message believability and brand attitude. Results indicated that, for underdog brands, augmenting advertising strategies with publicity pieces (source confirmation) is an effective approach in enhancing advertising message believability and producing more favourable brand attitudes. On the other hand, this ad strategy was not shown to have similar added benefits for the topdog brand. Study 2 further examined these interactive effects, finding that, in an underdog brand condition, individuals reported higher levels of involvement with a publicity piece than with an advertisement. An opposite effect (i.e. greater ad involvement than publicity piece involvement) was observed for individuals in the topdog brand condition. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed, and future research directions are offered.     

The Persuasive Effect of Circadian Arousal,Endorser Expertise,and Argument Strength in Advertising

Abstract

This research investigates the influence of circadian arousal, endorser expertise, and argument strength of a message on attitudes toward the brand and purchase intention. The quasi-experimental design is a 2 (high versus low endorser expertise) × 2 (strong versus weak arguments) × 2 (morning-type versus evening-type persons) × 3 (advertisement viewing time: 10 a.m., 3 p.m., or 8 p.m.) between-subjects factorial design with 602 Thai female adults. The results are not in complete accordance with predictions from the Elaboration Likelihood Model. For both types of persons, higher argument strength leads to better attitudes toward the brand and higher purchase intention, regardless of endorser expertise and advertisement viewing time. When morning-type persons view the advertisements in the morning and evening, the high- and the low-expertise endorsers have no different effect on attitudes toward the brand, regardless of argument strength. When they view the advertisements in the afternoon, the high expertise endorser creates better attitudes toward the brand than does the low expertise endorser, regardless of argument strength. For evening-type persons, endorser expertise does not affect either of the dependent variables. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.     

Would you believe it? A detailed investigation of believability in comparative price advertising

Abstract

The construct of believability has been shown to be a key variable in consumers' evaluations of comparative price offers. This paper provides a detailed investigation of believability in the context of such offers. In particular, it investigates the impact of the presence of, level of, and type of advertised reference prices (ARPs) on believability across a range of product contexts. An experimental methodology is adopted for the study. Findings show that the presence of an ARP does not enhance believability but that the presence of a time limit does. Believability is also shown to vary inversely with the level of ARP but is not related to semantic cues, such as list prices, contained within the offer. The study provides evidence that the product context of the offer impacts on believability. Two interaction effects are also identified. The paper contributes to the extant literature by providing new insights into how consumers' believability is influenced by how a comparative price offer is presented. Such insights will be of interest to academics interested in pricing, practitioners seeking to ensure that their promotions have maximum impact, and policymakers hoping to ensure that consumers are not misled by dishonest comparative price advertising.     

广告英语的特点分析

广告,作为推销商品的理想媒介,以各种形式影响着人们的生活。英语广告也同样须具备广告的四种职能,即推销能力(sellingpower),记忆价值(memoryvalue),注意价值(attentionvalue)和可读性(readability)。成功的广告英语语言优美,和谐,简洁,高雅,幽默,简明清晰,通俗易懂,蕴藏着高度的艺术性。     

Does Celebrity Image Congruence Influences Brand Attitude and Purchase Intention?

We examine whether image congruence (IC) of celebrities have significant effect on purchase intention (PI) and whether attitude towards brand and attitude towards advertisement mediate the relationships in a developing country, based on sample data from India. The data was collected using a Likert Scale of 1 to 7. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test the recursive model incorporating endorser-brand IC, advertising effectiveness (AE), attitude toward advertisement (ATA), attitude towards brand (ATB), and purchase intention (PI). It was found that the celebrity image congruence (IC) has a negative significant effect on ATB and positive significant effect on ATA whereas advertising effectiveness (AE) had significant effect on both attitude towards brand and attitude towards advertisement. Finally AE and ATA both had significant positive effect on PI. Drawing on research on moral reasoning associated with celebrity endorsement, we provide strong theoretical as well as empirical evidence that celebrity (endorser-brand) IC is not a strong predictor of PI in a developing country. Spending huge resources on endorsers for IC does not always provide the desired benefits in countries like India. Findings would be useful for both multinational firms engaged in international marketing as well as local firms.     

More Isn't Always Better: Exploring the Influence of Familiarity When Using Multiple Celebrity Endorsers

Marketers continually employ celebrity endorsers as a promotional tactic to enhance brand awareness and increase sales. Frequently, companies will use multiple celebrities to endorse the same product, but feature them individually across a series of concurrent advertisements. While this tactic is often used in practice, its effectiveness has not been thoroughly examined within the academic literature. Our research investigates the value of using multiple concurrent endorsers and the moderating role that celebrity familiarity has on attitudes toward the brand and purchase intentions. Results suggest that using multiple endorsers concurrently is not always the best approach.     

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.     

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.     

Who is the Athlete Endorser? A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Advertising Practitioners’ Views

ABSTRACT

This study, via the use of focus groups, explores the common meanings that advertising practitioners in 10 countries associate with athlete endorsers. The study's macro perspective brings a unique understanding of practitioners’ universal thinking and practices in relation to athlete endorsement. It reveals that practitioners across the world correlate athlete endorsers with a wide range of positive and useful psychological, social, physical, skillfulness, and sport meanings. In particular, authenticity, objective performance, and the athletes’ belonging to the realm of sport—considered by practitioners as a carrier of positive meanings and as a “meeting place” between audiences and endorsers—were identified as greatly contributing to athletes’ positive endorsement value. The article places the various universal dimensions of athletes raised by practitioners in a holistic conceptual profile, in order to help visualize and organize thoughts when selecting athlete endorsers for marketing campaigns.     

Revenue management in a multi-level multi-channel supply chain considering pricing,greening, and advertising decisions

This paper explores coordinated decisions regarding a multi-level multi-channel supply chain considering the price of sale channels, the advertisement level, and the green policy of the products. The main objective is to maximize the total profit of the Supply Chain (SC) by considering the profitability of entities. In this regard, two kinds of selling channels (i.e. online and in-person) are extended to enable all the entities to sell the product through their own channels. Demands in both types of channels depend on price, greenness, and advertisement. In the studied SC, the manufacturer not only produces the products and sells them to the distributor and the customer but it also decides on the greening and advertising levels. As a contribution, the demand functions simultaneously consider environmental and financial issues. Besides, since each member has its own selling channel, it should determine the price based on three criteria: advertising costs, greening costs, and other members' pricing decisions. For this purpose, three models including Centralized Supply Chain (CSC), Decentralized Supply Chain (DCSC), and Modified Centralized Supply Chain (MCSC) are developed and then solved to cope with various real-world situations. Based on the findings, although the SC gains the most profitability under the CSC model, the manufacturer faces a considerable loss. To overcome this issue, the MCSC model ensures the manufacturer's profit while keeping the price, greenness, and advertisement competitive. Also, the profitability of the MCSC model is more than that of under the DCSC model. The proposed models' performance for different situations is corroborated using several examples and various analyses, along with a real case study. The results acknowledge the applicability of the models and give practical insights for experts.