Print Advertising Context Effects

Abstract

An expanded view of the advertisement credibility construct will offer a more complete representation of the factors that contribute to credibility and its outcomes. Based on recent proposed revisions to the advertising communication process model, a revised model of advertisement credibility is offered. A test of a portion of the model supports the inclusion of media credibility as a dimension of advertisement credibility and as an influence on attitude toward the ad, on attitude toward the brand, and on purchase intentions.     

Decomposing the effect of advertising: What happens in the retail channel?

The diverging interests of manufacturers and retailers famously give rise to the double marginalization problem but have consequences far beyond pricing. Advertising is another marketing instrument that is under the control of the manufacturer but its ultimate effect on consumer demand also depends on retailers’ pricing decisions. We decompose the effect of advertising in the channel and highlight an additional route through which advertising affects sales, namely via the changes in the retail price that a strategic retailer makes in response to changes in demand following manufacturer advertising. The total demand effect of advertising thus comprises the direct effects of advertising on market shares, and the indirect effects coming through adjustments that the retailer makes to the in-store prices of all the brands in a given product category in response to the shifted demand due to advertising. We match advertising data for four different categories (both food and non-food) to store-level scanner panel data, which also include information on wholesale prices. Controlling for wholesale prices, we establish in a reduced-form model that the retailer reacts to manufacturer advertising by changing retail prices instead of simply imposing a constant markup on the wholesale price. To further explore the role of the strategic response of the retailer in a systematic fashion and quantify the effects derived in the decomposition, we estimate a discrete-choice model of demand and determine the magnitude of the direct and indirect effects. We find that the indirect effect of advertising through retailer prices is about half the size of the direct effect, and thus substantively affects advertising effectiveness.     

The Impact of Brand Equity and the Company's Reputation on Revenues

Abstract

This paper intends to establish the relationships among variables in corporate communications, especially between advertising and public relations, and to form an evaluation model for integrating the effects of brand equity and the company's reputation in the context of integrated marketing communications (IMC). A new approach for integrating the effects of brand equity and the company's reputation was introduced and the IMC evaluation model was specified for testing. The proposed model was tested with existing secondary data. The outcomes indicated that both brand equity and the company's reputation have significant impact on revenues and showed the positive relationship between brand equity and the company's reputation in the proposed model to justify the need of IMC in overall corporate communications.     

Clear,conspicuous, and concise: Disclosures and Twitter word-of-mouth

Regulatory bodies in the United States and the United Kingdom recently issued revised guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in marketing efforts. Of specific interest within these guidelines is the disclosure of a material connection when brand communications are sent within social media platforms such as Twitter. The findings of quantitative and qualitative survey data analysis indicate that consumers may be misled by current disclosure conventions. Managerial implications, policy recommendations, and suggestions for future research are presented in light of these findings.     

An Upbeat Crowd: Fast In-store Music Alleviates Negative Effects of High Social Density on Customers’ Spending

Research suggests that in-store crowding can lower customers’ spending, thus limiting overall benefits of high store frequentation. Here, we propose that this negative effect can be mitigated by adjusting store ambiance, specifically by using certain types of in-store music. To test this idea, we conducted a longitudinal field experiment in which we manipulated in-store music tempo and measured social density in six European retail stores. Analyzing over 40,000 individual shopping baskets, we found that social density had an inverted u-shape effect on customer spending. This effect was moderated by in-store music tempo, such that fast music strongly increased spending under high-density conditions. The increase in shopping basket value was driven by customers buying more items rather than buying items that were more expensive. Fast music thus alleviated negative effects of social density. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and describe how practitioners can use in-store music to counter negative effects of high customer density.     

Bridging the B2C and B2B Research Divide: The Domain of Retailing Literature

As the oldest academic journal in marketing, Journal of Retailing publishes research dealing with all sorts of B2B and B2C retailing-related topics. However, there appears to be a perception that Journal of Retailing welcomes only research pertaining to B2C issues. In this article, we debunk that perception through an analysis of the content of Journal of Retailing articles published during the 2002-2008 period. In particular, we find that only 18.7% of Journal of Retailing's content is devoted exclusively to B2C or C2C (consumer-to-consumer) topics. The remainder focuses on B2B research issues. We explore the implications of these findings for researchers who wish to pursue retailing-related B2B research.     

Cultural resistance and the gradual emergence of modern marketing and retailing practices in Spain, 1950–1975

The backwardness and autarky of early Francoism explain why Spain failed to enter the age of mass consumption before the late 1960s. The modernization of commercial practices lagged behind the rapid growth in income per capita. This article examines the different ways in which modern marketing methods were introduced in Spain during the 1950s and the 1960s. It demonstrates that marketing as both concept and practice faced fierce cultural resistance, manifest in the derided image of the salesman and an enduring distrust of advertising.     

Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix

The emergence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and the companies that provide them. Thus, the impact of consumer-to-consumer communications has been greatly magnified in the marketplace. This article argues that social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The content, timing, and frequency of the social media-based conversations occurring between consumers are outside managers’ direct control. This stands in contrast to the traditional integrated marketing communications paradigm whereby a high degree of control is present. Therefore, managers must learn to shape consumer discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization's mission and performance goals. Methods by which this can be accomplished are delineated herein. They include providing consumers with networking platforms, and using blogs, social media tools, and promotional tools to engage customers.     

Electronic Marketing Communications: An Evolving Environment,but Similar Story Regarding the Perception of Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail and Postal Direct Mail

The internet is still a relatively new mass communication tool for advertisers and marketers. When weighing the potential benefits of electronic techniques against the financial investment, spam seems particularly attractive to marketers for either for-profit or non-profit objectives. Since it is unlikely that marketers will decrease their efforts related to spam and postal direct mail as a form of communicating to mass consumers, it is important to track consumer attitudes so that audiences are not subjected to the backlash predicted by psychological reactance. The results of this study found that spam is more irritating than postal direct mail at both T₁ (2004) and T₂ (2006), and participants in T₂ found both direct marketing communication methods more intrusive than those in T₁.