When Fiction becomes Fact: Effect of Reverse Product Placement on Consumer Attitudes

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study investigates the persuasive effects of reverse product placement (RPP)—subsequent commercialization of fictional brands from entertainment media into real world products—comparing it with product placement (PP). Persuasion Knowledge Model and Attribution theory were applied to frame hypotheses of effects on brand attitudes along with the constraining effect of skepticism. A mixed test design revealed presence of persuasion knowledge, recognition of persuasive intent, and negative effect of skepticism for PP, but not for RPP. RPP also had a stronger, positive effect on consumer attitudes. Potential application of RPP in new product development and adoption is discussed.     

Vulnerable older consumers: New persuasion knowledge achievement measure

This research describes a new persuasion knowledge measure for older consumers which can be applied for both diagnostic and preventive purposes. Persuasion knowledge refers to information, attitudes, beliefs and schemas guiding our behaviour in situations where persuasion is involved. Many older consumers belong to a specific, vulnerable group, who often fail to maintain their interest in persuasive situations, so the proposed measure could serve a better understanding of their behaviour. First, a new, situation‐based achievement measure, entitled ‘Persuasion Knowledge Achievement Measure’ (PKAM), was developed in university samples (N = 530) in several stages. Afterwards, the developed measure was adapted to older individuals, resulting in the Persuasion Knowledge Achievement Measure for Older People (PKAM‐OP). Following a pilot study with personally‐assisted data collection (N = 50), the examinees were reached through an elderly care network in a two‐stage procedure (N = 183, N = 116). The psychometric analyses of the data show a high level of reliability and validity for both tests. The results of the main research studies indicate that there are two subscales of the measure: ‘Agreeableness’ and ‘Persuasion Knowledge’. Based on the empirical data, the subscales provide reliable measures of features which guide behaviour in persuasive situations. In sum, PKAM‐OP can fulfil theoretical and practical needs in research and prevention interventions focusing on older consumers.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Disclosing Sponsored Content

The amount of literature on the effects of disclosing sponsored content has increased greatly in recent years. Although the literature provides valuable insights into the effects of disclosing sponsored content, several research gaps remain, such as inconclusive findings, boundary conditions, and the mechanisms that explain how disclosures work. This article offers a meta-analysis of 61 papers that use 57 distinct data sets to address these research gaps. The results showed that disclosing sponsored content reduced brand attitudes, credibility, and source evaluation but increased recognition, persuasion knowledge, and resistance. Disclosure content, timing, and awareness, as well as product and sample characteristics, provide boundary conditions for the positive and negative effects of disclosures. A path model that tested the mechanism of disclosing sponsored content showed that, as suggested by memory priming effect, recognition of sponsored content increased memory but did not influence evaluation. Moreover, the understanding of sponsored content influenced evaluation, but memory remained unaffected, which corresponds to the flexible correction approach (i.e., consumers try to correct their answer to limit persuasive effects).     

Effects of Sponsorship Disclosure Timing on the Processing of Sponsored Content: A Study on the Effectiveness of European Disclosure Regulations

This study investigates whether the timing of sponsorship disclosure affects viewers’ processing of sponsored content, and whether a disclosure influences the persuasive effect of the sponsored content. A model is proposed in which sponsorship disclosure enhances the recognition of sponsored television content as advertising, which leads to critical processing of the sponsored content. Ultimately, this negatively affects the attitude toward the brand in the sponsored content. This model was supported, but only when the disclosure was displayed prior to or concurrent with the sponsored content. These effects were not found for a sponsorship disclosure shown at the end of the program after the sponsored content. Theoretically, the findings emphasize the importance of disclosure timing. A disclosure displayed prior to or concurrent with the sponsored content, primes the sponsored content and provides sufficient processing time, so viewers recognize the content as advertising and can process it critically. In addition, the findings show that persuasion knowledge and critical processing are important underlying mechanisms for the effect of sponsorship disclosure on brand attitude. Regarding the practical implications for legislators and advertisers, this research demonstrates that sponsorship disclosure can make viewers aware of the sponsored content in television programs. Furthermore, this changes the processing of sponsored content and can also ultimately lead to resistance against persuasion.     

Transferring game attitudes to the brand: persuasion from age 6 to 14

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to replicate previous findings regarding the differential impact of TV advertising and advergames on children's brand attitudes and pester intentions. Using a large data-set (N = 940, M_age = 9.8, SD = 2.4), with children ranging between 6 and 14 years old, the influence of passive exposure to TV advertising is compared to active exposure to an advergame. In addition, the potential moderating effect of age is explored. In a between-participants experiment, Flemish children were randomly assigned to watch a TV ad, play an advergame, or a no marketing control condition. Results revealed that children who had played the advergame reported significantly more positive brand attitudes compared to children who had watched the TV ad and children in the no advertising exposure control group. Children's pester intent was significantly higher for the advergame compared to the TV ad, but not compared to the no advertising exposure control group. The findings further showed that children's attitudes towards the ad format mediate the impact of the advertising format on pester intent. The advergame was indirectly more persuasive than the TV ad since children reported more positive attitudes towards the advergame compared to the TV advertisement. Moreover, this mediation effect did not differ by children's age. Persuasion knowledge did not mediate the influence of the advertising format on pester intent since children's persuasion knowledge was not significantly related to pester intentions regardless of children's age.     

Effects of Prominence,Involvement, and Persuasion Knowledge on Children's Cognitive and Affective Responses to Advergames

The integrated and highly involving nature of advergames has led to criticism and concern among academics and caretakers. It is assumed that children are highly susceptible to persuasion via advergames, but empirical evidence is scarce. Therefore, this study examined the effects of three factors typically associated with advergames: brand prominence, game involvement, and (limited) persuasion knowledge on cognitive and affective responses. An experiment among 7 to 12 year old children (N = 105) showed that brand prominence and game involvement influenced children's responses, while persuasion knowledge did not. Brand prominence led to increased brand recall and recognition, whereas game involvement led to more positive brand attitudes. The effect of game involvement was mediated by game attitude, indicating that children are susceptible to affective mechanisms induced by the game. Crucially, our results demonstrate that brand prominence evokes cognitive responses, while game involvement leads to affective responses. Finally, our study revealed that persuasion knowledge (i.e. knowledge of the commercial source of the game and its persuasive intent) did not influence cognitive or affective responses to the brand or game. This implies that even if children understand the game's commercial and persuasive nature, they do not use this knowledge as a defense against the advergame's effects. This study has important theoretical and practical implications regarding the influence of new marketing techniques on children.     

Good for the feelings,bad for the memory: the impact of 3D versus 2D movies on persuasion knowledge and brand placement effectiveness

Abstract

Brand placements have been a popular advertising strategy for several decades, yet the effects of technological factors have been largely neglected in brand placement research. Consequently, this study analyzes the impact of a popular media technology, namely stereoscopy, on brand placement effectiveness, using the limited capacity model of mediated message processing and the persuasion knowledge model to predict and explain the effects. The main study (N?=?120) confirmed that compared with 3D movies, in 2D movies the participants were more likely to remember the brands placed and to critically reflect the persuasive intentions behind the placements. The additional structural elements in stereoscopic movies appear to require more cognitive resources. The consequent lack of cognitive capacity diminishes persuasion knowledge, which, in turn, positively affects brand evaluations and behavioral intentions. A post-hoc study (N?=?54) validated the assumption that media users watching 3D movies experience a higher cognitive load than those watching 2D movies.     

“This Post Is Sponsored”: Effects of Sponsorship Disclosure on Persuasion Knowledge and Electronic Word of Mouth in the Context of Facebook

Social media, such as Facebook, offer brands the opportunity to reach their target audience in a less obtrusive way than traditional media, through sponsored posts. Regulations require marketers to explicitly inform consumers about the commercial nature of these posts. This study addresses the effects of sponsorship disclosures by means of a 2 (no disclosure vs. the sponsorship disclosure ‘Sponsored’) × 2 (source: celebrity endorser vs. brand) experiment. Results suggest that a sponsorship disclosure only influences the use of persuasion knowledge when the post is disseminated by a celebrity. Moreover, a disclosure starts a process in which the recognition of advertising (i.e., the activation of conceptual persuasion knowledge) causes consumers to develop distrusting beliefs about the post (i.e., higher attitudinal persuasion knowledge), and in turn, decreases their intention to engage in electronic word of mouth.     

Priming skepticism: Unintended consequences of one-sided persuasion knowledge access

Scholars have historically assumed that consumers' persuasion knowledge is invariably linked to skepticism about advertising and marketing. As a result, studies have often used skepticism-focused stimuli to prompt persuasion knowledge access. However, as originally conceptualized, persuasion knowledge also includes an understanding of persuasion tactics that are trusted and believed, which suggests that accessing persuasion knowledge does not necessarily make consumers more skeptical. In this paper, we propose that, for at least some persuasion knowledge research questions, skepticism-focused interventions may be too “one-sided” because they bias participants to consider only the skeptical side of persuasion knowledge. The purpose of the present research is to test whether the “one-sided” persuasion knowledge interventions that are used in persuasion knowledge research encourage skepticism more than balanced interventions that focus consumers on the negative and positive motives that may underlie persuasive communication. Across three experiments with three distinct subject pools and over 2,500 participants, we demonstrate that one-sided versus balanced manipulations of persuasion knowledge can have differential effects on consumer skepticism. This is an important finding because skepticism-focused operationalizations are frequently employed in persuasion knowledge research.     

Suckers in the morning,skeptics in the evening: Time-of-Day effects on consumers’ vigilance against manipulation

Persuasion knowledge is defined as a consumer’s vigilance against manipulative persuasion. In this paper, we explore the relationship between persuasion knowledge and consumer’s diurnal preference. It is proposed that evening-type consumers display enhanced persuasion knowledge relative to morning types. Also, heightened persuasion knowledge is exhibited during their respective optimal times of day for both morning-type and evening-type consumers. We propose cognitive resource availability as the key underlying mechanism for this relationship. Finally, we also demonstrate an analogous relationship between consumer skepticism and diurnal preferences. Over three studies we find supportive evidence for our claims.     

Comparing TV Ads and Advergames Targeting Children: The Impact of Persuasion Knowledge on Behavioral Responses

Although thousands of advergames are directed at children, little is known about how advergames affect children and whether this persuasive process differs from traditional advertising formats. Investigating the underlying persuasive mechanism, Study 1 shows that, for TV advertising, persuasion knowledge drives the persuasive effects while, for advergames, persuasion is mainly driven by the attitude toward the game. Adding advertising cues to the advergame does not increase persuasion knowledge but does diminish the positive attitude toward the game effect, influencing behavior indirectly. Study 2 demonstrates that, for an advergame, the persuasive mechanism does not differ between a commercial versus a social persuasive message.     

Problem versus benefit focus: phrasing questions to enhance self-referencing and persuasion

ABSTRACT

This investigation adopts self-referencing as an underlying mechanism for measuring how question phrasing (problem versus benefit focus) in advertising may interact with consumer’s issue concern in determining the impact on persuasion. Research shows that issue-concerned participants were more strongly persuaded by a problem than a benefit-focused question. Those who demonstrated low concern about an issue exhibited exactly the opposite tendency. Self-referencing mediates the results. Furthermore, a variety of issue elements led to increased self-referencing and persuasion among issue-concerned participants. Emphasis on multiple benefits, however, reduced self-referencing and message influence for those low in issue concern. Finally, issue-concerned participants responded more favourably with a problem framed as perpetually unsolved, whereas for unconcerned participants, questions focusing on continued desires showed decreased persuasive effect.     

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Internet Advertising Tools

ABSTRACT

This study explores a wide variety of Internet advertising tools. It presents an assessment of the persuasive impact of Internet advertising tools based on the perceptions of senior executives at interactive advertising agencies. The persuasion matrix developed by McGuire (1978) is used as a framework for assessing the impact of Internet advertising tools on the response hierarchy of consumers. Based on this assessment, a series of research propositions are offered in the spirit of propositional inventories for future testing. Finally, included is a discussion that alerts managers to important issues involved in using Internet advertising tools.     

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.     

The Effects of Current Market Forces on the Impact of a TV Commercial in Creating Persuasion

Abstract

The present study investigates the extent to which extenuating factors (excluding those produced by the commercial) affect the extent to which an advertisement is both persuasive and eventually engenders persuasion. The authors collected data from over 5,000 television commercials in the United States, and identified the existing market structure (e.g., brand share, number of competing brands, brand loyalty) surrounding each item at the time the product was advertised, in an effort to separate the effects of the advertisement from the effects of pre-existing market forces on persuasiveness. The results demonstrate that the combined pre-existing market forces have a greater impact on a commercial's ability to persuade than does the message or creativity in the advertisement itself. However, when pre-existing market forces between two products were similar, a creative advertising campaign was still identified as important in producing persuasion. Marketing strategy implications are discussed.     

Emotional Information Management: Concept development and measurement in public service announcements

Research on emotion as information in persuasive communication and ad response has created a need for a measure of individual abilities in the management of emotional information. Previous measures (e.g., emotional intelligence measures) lack adequate validity and reliability for use in persuasion and advertising contexts. Four studies iteratively refine a parsimonious Emotional Information Management scale that corresponds to theoretical dimensions of the construct and interrelationships between those dimensions—recognition of emotion, regulatory processes of optimistic utilization and management of emotions, as well as cognitive and emotional empathy. Reliability and construct validity are demonstrated, and scale norms are established. Although gender does not affect recognition of emotions or cognitive empathy, females exhibit greater emotional empathy ability, whereas males exhibit greater emotion regulation ability. Measuring emotional information management should contribute to greater understanding of responses to emotion‐laden or emotion‐eliciting persuasive communication (e.g., public service announcements). ©2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Emoji rhetoric: a social media influencer perspective

ABSTRACT

Social media require a marketing rhetoric that embraces emerging language use and shifting communication norms. Emojis have become quintessential elements of social media communication; yet, their role in supporting persuasion attempts has not been systematically analysed. Drawing on general rhetoric literature, this paper dissects, portrays and labels social media influencers’ persuasive attempts to initiate engagement through emojis. The focus on influencers is justified because of their dual roles as marketers and active social media users. 600 Weibo posts by the top 200 Weibo influencers were collected to develop a taxonomy of emoji-based verbal moves aimed at encouraging responses in followers. The resulting taxonomy demonstrates that emoji use by social media influencers is complex and strategic and serves multiple persuasive and communicative purposes.     

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.     

The trustworthy brand: effects of conclusion explicitness and persuasion awareness on consumer judgments

Two studies examine how a consumer’s awareness of marketing tactics influences the effectiveness of conclusion explicitness advertising (implicit, open-ended or explicit, closed-ended conclusions). Study 1 shows that persuasion awareness and conclusion explicitness influence brand evaluations. Persuasion aware consumers prefer implicit conclusions in comparative advertising that allow them to decide which brand is superior, rather than explicit conclusions which state the superior brand. Persuasion unaware consumers show no difference for conclusion explicitness. Brand trust mediates the results. Study 2 demonstrates the robustness of these effects. Research contributions include persuasion awareness as a moderator of conclusion explicitness effects and the role of trust as a mediator. For managers, results show how implicit conclusions can improve the brand evaluations of persuasion aware consumers.     

The Use of Persuasion Management Strategies by Identity-Vulnerable Consumers: The Case of Urban Heterosexual Male Shoppers

This paper investigates the relevance of Kirmani and Campbell’s [Kirmani, Amna and Margaret C. Campbell (2004). “Goal Seeker and Persuasion Sentry: How Consumer Targets Respond to Interpersonal Marketing Persuasion,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (3), 573-582] typology of persuasion management strategies to one group of identity-vulnerable consumers, heterosexual urban male shoppers of grooming and fashion products. Our informants use seeker strategies to refine their conceptualizations of heterosexual masculinity, or to gain expertise. In addition to the seeker strategies Kirmani and Campbell identify, our informants employ three new seeker strategies and use previously identified sentry strategies as seeker strategies. We offer theoretical and managerial insights for those interested in the shopping behavior of vulnerable consumers, and more specifically, heterosexual urban male shoppers of fashion and grooming goods.