The Effect of Consumer Persuasion Knowledge on Scarcity Appeal Persuasiveness

Past research identifies demand-related scarcity appeals and supply-related scarcity appeals as effective persuasive influences on consumer behavior. The present research uses a persuasion knowledge approach to examine the persuasiveness of demand- versus supply-related scarcity appeals in advertising messages. Study 1 shows that supply-related scarcity appeal ad messages are less likely to activate persuasion knowledge than demand-related scarcity appeal messages. Study 2 demonstrates that message specificity moderates this effect. In line with an elaboration likelihood model perspective, results show that stating the appeal in specific (versus vague) terms decreases the persuasiveness of supply-related scarcity appeal ad messages.     

When transparency pays off: Enticing sceptical consumers with two-sided advertising

It has been generally assumed that higher levels of scepticism towards advertising invariably lead to higher resistance to advertising appeals. The main purpose of the present research was to examine whether highly sceptical consumers' resistance can be overcome by appeals associated with higher credibility. We tested our hypotheses using message sidedness as an advertising variable that has been associated with higher (two-sided) versus lower (one-sided) credibility. In three experimental studies, we examined more versus less sceptical consumers' responses to two- versus one-sided appeals. We found that two-sided messages are more effective in increasing purchase intentions, through enhanced credibility, but only for consumers who are more sceptical of advertising. Less sceptical consumers trust both messages equally and their purchase intentions are not affected by the type of message. Importantly, we also showed that highly sceptical consumers trust two-sided appeals as much as their less sceptical counterparts. The study contributes to the literature on advertising and persuasion knowledge by showing that advertising scepticism does not elicit a single response tendency, as originally conceptualized. Rather, advertising scepticism is more consistent with the underpinnings of the Persuasion Knowledge Model, in that higher knowledge about persuasion tactics aids consumers to better cope with, and not invariably resist persuasion attempts. We conclude that transparency pays off because it may entice a more sceptical audience and, at the same time, it does not harm less sceptical consumers' trust and purchase intentions.     

Consumer Responses to Slice-of-Life Versus Slice-of-Death Advertising Appeals: Exploring the Role of Polysemy,Branding, and Culture

Prior research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of slice-of-life and slice-of-death advertising appeals in relation to advertising and branding constructs like advertising polysemy and consumer-based brand equity. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue dealing with slice of life versus death advertising appeals. Across three studies, the authors measure, evaluate, compare, and contrast slice-of-life and slice-of-death (SOL/D) advertising appeals across British and American cultures. The authors demonstrate the interrelationships of SOL/D appeals with advertising polysemy, consumer-based brand equity, cultural differences in advertising attitudes, and purchase intentions. From a measurement perspective, the authors develop and validate parsimonious measures of slice-of-life and slice-of-death (SOL/D) advertising appeals. Furthermore, they test the assumptions that underlie these appeals for United States and British customers, and investigate how the cultural characteristic of uncertainty avoidance moderates the impact of SOL/D advertising attitudes on purchase intentions. Managerially, the research demonstrates that SOL/D appeals offer value in predicting (a) consumer-based brand equity through advertising polysemy, (b) consumers’ advertising attitudes across different cultures, (c) consumers’ intentions to purchase, and (d) advertising differences and varying consumer responses in the United States and Britain.     

Race and attitude formation in HIV/Aids fear advertising

The study on which this article is based, examined whether fear appeal advertising increases the likelihood of adopting appropriate behavior and whether different racial groups perceive fear appeals pertaining to HIV/Aids communication differently. The extent of fear, attitude towards the advertisements, as well as threat and efficacy were also investigated to ascertain the influence of different levels of fear appeals.Social marketing programs address various pandemics and anti-social behavior, where citizens act in conflict with accepted social conduct. The use of fear as a motivation in advertising places emphasis on the severity of the threat. Marketing practitioners, believing the message is too difficult to implement, have questioned the use of fear appeal advertising messages.The findings of this study indicate differences among racial groups pertaining to levels of fear and attitude towards advertisements, as well as differences in threat and efficacy experienced after exposure to high fear appeals compared to other appeals.     

Fear appeals in anti-smoking advertising: How important is self-efficacy?

Abstract

Fear appeals are frequently used in anti-smoking advertising. The evidence on the effectiveness of fear appeals is mixed, and in some studies strong fear appeals have been found to reinforce the undesirable behaviour. Individual self-efficacy may play a role in moderating the effects of fear appeals. In advertising contexts where the intention was to encourage socially desirable behaviours, it has been shown that greater self-efficacy is associated with a more positive response to fear appeals. Similarly, in such contexts, the perceived ethicality of a fear-appeal advertisement appears to be positively related to self-efficacy. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between self-efficacy, perceived ethicality, and the impact of advertising on behavioural intentions in a context where the aim is to discourage undesirable behaviour, namely anti-smoking advertising. Questionnaire data were gathered from 434 respondents in London, England. Respondents with higher reported self-efficacy were found to have more favourable views of the ethicality of fear-appeal advertising, more positive attitudes towards the advertising, and stronger intentions to quit smoking. It is recommended that when using fear appeals in advertising to discourage undesirable behaviour, advertisers should incorporate messages designed to enhance self-efficacy.     

Cultural Meaning,Advertising, and National Culture: A Four-Country Study

Cultural meaning transfer theory and GLOBE dimensions were employed in this comparative study to examine the extent to which cultural meaning presented in advertisements reflected national cultures of the target countries. Content analysis was applied to advertisements from four countries to investigate whether the use of advertising appeals presented in these advertisements mirrored variations in cultures as described by GLOBE Society Values. Results revealed that, in line with the hypotheses, there were similarities and differences in the use of appeals, and only some of them mirrored the cultural variations. GLOBE Society Values were more likely to predict the use of appeals than GLOBE Society Practices, but not for all appeals. Advertisers can draw on national cultures for cultural meanings to be used in advertisements only to a limited extent. It may be that advertisements mold rather than mirror societal values, or that only certain cultural traits are important for advertisers.     

Moral Emotions and Self-Construal in Charity Advertising: Communication on Focus

Many charity organizations face ongoing challenges to promote monetary donations and other helping behaviors. Integrating the literature on the role of emotion in persuasive communication and intercultural communication, two studies were conducted to explore the impact of moral emotions and self-construal in charity advertising. A survey investigated the extent to which moral emotions with different referent of focus operated differently among individuals with varying self-construal in affecting the intent to donate. An experiment examined the impact of ego- versus other-focused emotional appeals in the processing of charity advertising. Results indicated that moral emotions significantly influenced participants' purchase intention towards social-cause products. In addition, self-construal moderated the influence of positive moral emotions on purchase intention, as well as the influence of positive emotional appeals on the intent to donate. Specifically, the persuasive effectiveness was enhanced when independents were associated with ego-focused emotions or ego-focused emotional appeals; and interdependents with other-focused emotions or other-focused emotional appeals. These two studies expanded the knowledge on the effects of emotions on communication and persuasion, and provided relevant implications for practitioners in creating effective messages to promote social causes. Limitations and directions for future research were also outlined.     

Rational Versus Emotional Appeals in Newspaper Advertising: Copy,Art, and Layout Differences

The article compares and contrasts rational versus emotional appeals in newspaper advertising, based on over 100 items comprising copy, art, and layout characteristics. Using a sample of 1,335 advertisements that appeared in Cypriot national newspapers, a number of significant differences were observed. To a large extent these differences reflect the entirely opposite perspectives adopted by each appeal, with execution elements in rational advertisements revolving mainly around objectivity, functionality, and utilitarianism, as opposed to emotional advertising elements that are characterized more by subjectivity, emotionalism, and value-expressiveness. Several conclusions and implications for advertising researchers and practitioners are derived from the study findings.     

Author/Abstract Index

Abstract

This study assesses consumer perceptions of advertising messages for two proenvironmental products by examining the effectiveness of environmental versus personal benefit appeals and .99 versus .00 price endings. The authors borrow from Prospect Theory and Mental Accounting Theory to explain consumers' perceptions of psychological pricing and product attributes. In addition, the moderating role of environmental skepticism is assessed as it relates to the effectiveness of environmentally friendly advertisements. Results indicate that consumers feel that some products advertised with environmental appeals are more costly, but are not perceived as lower quality as compared with products advertised with personal benefits. Findings also indicate a price ending × appeal interaction for two different products, but the effects vary between the products. Finally, environmental skepticism is found to moderate perceptions of the message appeal. Implications are provided.     

Informational/Transformational Appeals in Political Advertising: An Analysis of the Advertising Strategies of 2010 U.S. Gubernatorial Campaigns

This study addressed four gaps in political advertising research: (a) a better framework to replace the issue–image dichotomy, (b) differences in advertising strategies between incumbents and challengers, (c) influence of party positioning on candidate positioning in advertising, and (d) political advertising in state elections. Through a content analysis of 210 advertisements from the 2010 U.S. gubernatorial elections, it was revealed that (a) the concept of information/transformation was similar to the notion of issue/image, and the typology of informational/transformational advertising, after modification, adequately captured the complexity of political advertising; (b) the use of advertising appeals did differ between incumbents and challengers—incumbents used more transformational appeals and positive advertisements, whereas challengers used more informational appeals and negative advertisements; and (c) while the informational advertisements of the Republican candidates appeared to be substantially impacted by issues owned by their party, the influence of party positioning on candidate positioning was quite limited.     

Right appeals for the 'right self': connectedness–separateness self-schema and cross-cultural persuasion

While culture is often used as a segmentation variable, it may not be used as a surrogate for individual consumer in particular cultures. It is important to identify the underlying mechanism that explains the observed cross-cultural similarities and differences of consumer behaviour and to conduct international advertising research based on theoretically valid frameworks. The present paper presents the connectedness-separateness (C-S) self-schema theory based on psychological and anthropological research streams. It is argued that consumers from different cultures tend to have different construals of the self, which in turn influence their cognition, emotion, motivation and behaviour. It is proposed that cross-cultural differences in consumer responses to different advertising appeals may be explained by consumer C-S self-schema, rather than cultural orientation per se . The C-S construct can also be employed to segment the world market across cultures as well as within a culture. A series of propositions is developed by relating cross-cultural differences in self-construal to the effective design of cross-cultural advertising themes and executions.     

Offensive Advertising

Abstract

Prior literature regarding offensive advertising relates mainly to western cultures. No work has been done on this area in an Asian context. The research in this article reports on a survey of Singaporean consumers. The survey aimed to identify what types of products and appeals consumers find offensive in advertising, the reasons why they find the advertisements offensive, and how this offensive advertising may affect their purchase intentions. The results found that advertisements relating to chat-line services and sexual diseases were the most offensive, followed by advertisements for dating services. Levels of offensiveness were clearly related to demographic variables such as gender and age. In terms of reasons for offensiveness, consumers were most concerned by advertisements that had a sexual connotation or evoked unnecessary fear.Levels of offensiveness also affected purchase intentions. Based on the results, the article recommends that advertisers and their agencies should think more carefully about the demographic profile of their audiences, how this profile might impact their audiences ?sensitivity“ to potentially offensive advertising, and how this sensitivity should be used as a guide when making media and message decisions     

文化差异及其对广告诉求的影响:基于中美比较的视角(英文)

全球营销获得成功的首要条件是理解不同文化之间的价值观的相似性和差异性。由于缺乏以研究为基础获得的信息,这一任务对于试图与中国做生意的公司而言尤为艰巨。本研究采用霍夫斯塔德文化模型中的最新价值观来比较中美之间波莱广告诉求的有效性。在以文化维度为基础预测有效诉求的20个假设中,有9个得到了支持。另外一个假设也非常显著,但是与预想的方向正好相反。这些研究发现意味着,采用霍夫斯塔德文化维度作为有效广告诉求的唯一预测指标是不明智的。霍夫斯塔德维度或许缺乏可以有效预测各种广告诉求成功度所必需的结构。此外,广告诉求的有效性还可能由于其他因素(例如,年龄、社会趋势、政治法律环境及产品用法)而有所调整。     

Evaluating Facebook brand content popularity for service versus goods offerings

Marketers using social media are struggling with its successful implementation, specifically in engaging their audiences through creation of popular brand content. Yet, creating popular brand content can lead to positive financial and brand outcomes. This research examines Fortune 500 companies' brand content strategies that contribute to Facebook content popularity metrics (i.e., number of likes and comments) for service versus goods offerings. Building on psychological motivation theory and the noted differences in culture and capabilities between goods and service firms, the article analyzes the key differences in service and goods brand content strategies in terms of branding, message appeals, and vividness. The findings from a multivariate multilevel Poisson model show that the use of corporate brand names is more popular for service messages whereas the use of product brand names, images, and videos is more popular for goods messages. Furthermore, service messages generate a higher number of comments than goods messages.     

Evolution in the usage of localized appeals in Japanese and American print advertising

Based on global consumer culture theory, this empirical investigation examines how the usage of local appeals in Japanese and American advertising content has shifted over a period of nearly three decades. It replicates and improves upon Mueller’s investigation (Journal of Advertising Research, 1987, 27(3)). Content analysis determined the existence or absence of five traditionally Japanese appeals vs five traditionally Western appeals in 2005 issues of women’s, general interest, business and sports magazines published in each country. A total of 899 US ads and 853 Japanese ads were collected. Japanese advertisers appear to have turned to a rather more direct and persuasive selling approach, but continue to maintain a tradition of Japanese subtlety. American ads have shifted from a hard-hitting and aggressive strategy to a more benefit-orientated strategy with a distinctly softer touch. Appeals employed, however, were found to vary with the product category promoted. Overall, findings suggest that while Japanese advertising may have become somewhat more ‘American’, American advertising appears to have become significantly more ‘Japanese’. Possible future convergence between Eastern and Western advertising has implications for international marketers as they craft messages to appeal to these audiences.     

A Comparison of Print Advertisements from the United States and France

Abstract

This study extends the research on cross-cultural advertising by comparing print advertisements from the United States and France in terms of emotional appeals, information content, and use of humor and sex. A content analysis of advertisements from two types of magazines from the United States and France revealed that French advertisements make greater use of emotional appeals, humor, and sex appeals. Advertisements from the United States were found to contain more information cues.     

Effects of Message Modality and Appeal on Advertising Acceptance

Differences in emotional response, cognitive response, attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand were observed after subjects were exposed to advertising messages of different modalities (audiovisual vs. audio-only) and appeals (rational vs. emotional). Hypothesized causal models depicting the relationships among the dependent measures were tested using LISREL. Results sup ported the mediating roles of both emotional and cognitive responses in the acceptance of advertising messages.     

Luxury brand advertising in Argentina: Changes following import restrictions

This study explores how the change of an economic policy affects advertising practices in Argentina. A content analysis of luxury brand ads placed in fashion magazines in Argentina was conducted to investigate changes in the ads in the wake of the import restrictions. The data supports the notion that some ads reflect societal changes. After the restrictions, ads were more likely to be factual, less likely to convey emotional messages, and ad appeals tended to be simple. Additionally, findings indicate that ads used different visual cues to evoke stronger exclusivity, luxuriousness, and global feelings. Ad components that are deeply rooted in local cultures, however, were not influenced by the restrictions.     

Guilt Appeals and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Anticipatory Versus Reactive Guilt Appeals on the Effectiveness of Blood Donor Appeals

This study investigates the effectiveness of guilt-arousing communication in promoting prosocial behavior. By analyzing the distinct effects of anticipatory versus reactive guilt appeals, we contribute to the discussion of guilt appeals as drivers of prosocial behavior, especially blood donation. Research on persuasive communication provides the theoretical basis of our study and we validate our hypotheses by means of two 2?×?2 factorial between-subjects designs. We find that anticipatory rather than reactive guilt appeals are more effective in generating prosocial action tendencies. Compared to noninformational reference group influences, messages endorsed by members of informational reference groups yielded more favorable attitudinal responses. Besides their significant main effect, two-sided messages reinforce the favorable impact of anticipatory guilt appeals. The study concludes with practical implications for nonprofit organizations and public blood donor services as well as avenues for future research.     

Effective Luxury-Brand Advertising: The ES–IF Matching (Entity–Symbolic Versus Incremental–Functional) Model

This study draws on the psychological tenets of implicit self-theories, which differentiate between individuals with entity versus incremental orientations, to deepen our understanding about how consumers evaluate luxury-brand advertising appeals. Our findings show that entity theorist consumers are more attracted to the symbolic value appeals of luxury brands, whereas incremental theorists are more attracted to functional value appeals. Furthermore, we show how consumers' implicit self-theories can be purposively primed by managers with the textual elements of a luxury-brand advertising message to increase its effectiveness, which provides useful implications for designing and executing effective luxury advertising.