Creating an effective code-switched ad for monolinguals: the influence of brand origin and foreign language familiarity

This study investigates the influence of brand origin and foreign language familiarity in code-switched (CS) ad effectiveness for monolingual consumers. CS ads refer to ads containing foreign words or phrases in an advertising copy (e.g., headline and slogan), resulting in a mixture of native and foreign languages. In this research, we conducted a pilot study to show the increasing trend of using code-switching in ads, regardless of whether the brands are local or foreign, in a monolingual market. We further examine if the effectiveness of CS ads is contingent on the brand origin among monolinguals. Study 1 showed that non-CS ads were perceived more favorably than CS ads for advertising a local brand. However, not all of the CS ads were perceived more favorably than non-CS ads when a foreign brand was advertized. The results of Study 2 showed that when a foreign brand was advertized, CS ads using a high-exposure foreign language were evaluated more favorably than CS ads using a low-exposure foreign language. Foreign language familiarity played a mediating role in the observed effects. We provide evidence that the research findings on CS ads among bilinguals cannot be applied to monolinguals. We discuss implications for international marketing and suggest advertising strategies for practitioners.     

Negative Consequences of Storytelling in Native Advertising

Native advertising and storytelling are both increasingly popular advertising strategies. This research explores the effectiveness of storytelling in a native advertising context on social media. While most research recommends the use of stories as a way to build trust and relationships with consumers, the current research suggests that in the form of native ads on social media, narratives may be less effective when compared to informational native ads. Two studies find that even when advertising cues such as disclosure labels and brand presence are prominently located, consumers are less likely to recognize the advertising nature of narrative native ads when compared to informational native ads. Lower levels of advertising recognition are associated with increased perceptions of manipulative intentions by the advertiser, which has a negative influence on consumers' attitudes toward the ad. The findings suggest that native ads that clearly communicate their advertising nature through cues such as an informational execution, high brand presence, and prominent disclosure labeling are more effective than a narrative execution style.     

Soft drink advertising and consumption in the United States 1984–2007

The internet environment has changed the format of internet advertising. One emerging form of online marketing communication is ‘contextual advertising’, in which marketers strive to develop customised images or texts more relevant to customers based on the content of web pages. This study investigates the effectiveness of internet contextual ads. In particular, we examine the effect of internet contextual ads on brand memory (i.e. recall and recognition) and attitudes towards the advertisement and/or brand using the theory of priming effect. We find that the complexity of banner ads moderates the relationship between a contextual advertisement and its effectiveness, and generates two distinct priming effects (i.e. assimilation and contrast effects). The results demonstrate that the internet contextual advertisement enhances brand recognition and induces favourable attitudes towards the ad. In addition, consumers have higher recall rates and attitudes towards the brand when they are exposed to a less complex contextual advertisement or when they are exposed to a complex, non-contextual advertisement.     

Should I say it in English? Exploring language effects on print advertising among Latin American bilinguals

ABSTRACT

Despite the extensive research conducted on language standardization in advertising across several countries, little attention has been given to the use of English versus Spanish and code-switching when advertising to Latin American bilingual consumers. We propose that stereotypes about English speakers and code-switching have potential to help determine which language is most effective in print advertising. The results of experiments conducted in Chile, Ecuador, and Mexico show that the effects of language-related stereotypes on the persuasiveness of English ads vary across different countries. In the case of Chile, English may be persuasively superior, depending on the favourableness of the stereotype of individuals that code-switch. Differently, print ads in English are functionally equivalent, in terms of ad attitudes, to Spanish and code-switching ads in Mexico, and superior in Ecuador, regardless of the favourability of the language-related stereotypes. Suggestions for advertising practice and future research are offered.     

Sex Appeal in Advertising: What Consumers Think

This study examined consumers’ attitude toward the use of sexual content in advertisements among there different cultural groups; i.e., individualistic sample (White American), collectivistic sample (US temporal visitors from Asia), and acculturation sample (Asian immigrants). Sixty participants were asked about cultural acceptability of sexual content ads and the favorable attitude toward those ads by using Q-methodology. Asian participants reported less cultural acceptability for sexuality, than either Asian American or North American participants. The findings also revealed that North Americans are more likely to prefer the use of sexual content in advertisement than Asians. Asian-American participants agreed with North American participants in regard to sexually explicit advertising. Implications and limitations were discussed.     

The Gay Family in the Ad: Consumer Responses to Non-traditional Families in Marketing Communications

This paper investigates consumer responses to gay families portrayed in advertising, drawing on critical visual analysis, reader response analysis and queer theory. Twenty-five consumers were interviewed about a selection of family oriented ads. Several themes emerged from the interviews, including straightening up – reading apparently gay images as heterosexual, or straight, despite rather overt gay signals. This important interpretive phenomenon seems to "interfere" with processing of apparently gay imagery, revealing interesting interpretive strategies. Findings are discussed within the advertising as representation research tradition, and illuminate interpretive strategies that consumers use when confronted with culturally sensitive images in advertising.     

Culture,cognitive style and consumer response to informational vs. transformational advertising among East Asians: Evidence from the PRC

Existing literature suggests that people's cognitive styles vary significantly across nations and cultures, and that East Asians emphasize holistic information processing and are more receptive to transformational advertising than people in the West. Yet, both theoretical rationale and empirical evidence of the effect of cognitive style on consumers' advertising responses are lacking. This study proposes a congruency-activation model and adopts a three by two experimental design to examine Chinese consumers' attitude towards different advertisements. The results indicate that Chinese consumers prefer transformational and integrated ads to informational ads under both low and high involvement conditions. Protocol analysis shows that Chinese consumers engage in more affective processing than cognitive thoughts. Thus, marketers should consider the effect of the cognitive style of indigenous consumers when devising international advertising strategies.     

Advertising as Unfavorable Self-Presentation: The Dirty Laundry Effect

Identity appeals—marketing communications that invoke one of the target market's identities—are typically well liked by consumers. In contrast with this notion, this research examines a situation when consumers respond negatively to identity appeals in advertising. Through three studies, we find that identity appeals fail when consumers judge an identity-congruent ad as portraying information about them that they would rather not have widely broadcast. In these cases, self-presentation concerns arise, leading to ad dislike. Thus, although identity-congruent ads resonate with consumers, such ads may lead to negative responses if consumers believe the ad airs their “dirty laundry.” We discuss implications for targeted advertising and identity marketing strategies.     

The Impact of Competitiveness on Consumer Responses to Comparative Advertisements

We examine the impact of consumers' competitive tendencies on responses to comparative advertising appeals and the underlying role of schadenfreude: pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Consistent with our theory that the depiction of others' misfortunes is compatible with more-competitive consumers' concerns for distinguishing themselves via competition, our studies show that comparative ads are associated with greater schadenfreude, as well as more favorable attitudes and a greater willingness to pay (WTP), among more- (versus less-) competitive consumers. Further results indicate that such relatively more favorable responses among consumers with greater competitive tendencies are limited to comparative ads depicting misfortunes involving brands whose choice is more deserving of failure (i.e., lower-quality brands). Importantly, even less-competitive consumers are revealed to respond favorably to comparative ads and to experience more schadenfreude when they are assured that they will not suffer the depicted misfortune.     

Television ad-skipping,consumption complementarities and the consumer demand for advertising

Endogenous consumption of advertising is common. Consumers choose to change channels to avoid TV ads, click away from paid online video ads, or discard direct mail without reading advertised details. As technological advances give firms improved abilities to target individual consumers through various media, it is becoming increasingly important for models to reflect the endogenous nature of ad consumption and to consider the implications that ad choice has for firms’ targeting strategies. With this motivation, we develop an empirical model of consumer demand for advertising in which demand for ads is jointly determined with demand for the advertised products. Building on Becker and Murphy (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108(4), 941–964 1993)’s ideas, the model treats advertising as a good over which consumers have utility and obtains demands as the outcome of a joint utility maximization problem. Leveraging new data that links household-level TV ad-viewing with product purchases, we provide empirical evidence that is consistent with the model: ad-skipping is found to be lower when a household has purchased more of the advertised brand, and purchases are higher when more ads have been watched recently, suggesting that advertising and product consumption are jointly determined. Fitting a structural model of joint demand to the data, we evaluate consumer welfare and advertiser profitability in advertising targeting counterfactuals motivated by an “addressable” future of TV. We find that targeting on the predicted ad-skip probability is an attractive strategy, as it indirectly selects consumers that value the product. Reflecting the positive view of advertising in the model, we also find that net consumer welfare may increase in several targeting scenarios. This occurs because under improved targeting, firms shift advertising to those who are likely to value it. At the same time, consumers that do not value the ads end up skipping them, mitigating possible welfare losses. Both forces are relevant to assessing advertising effects in a world with improved targeting and ad-skipping technology.     

How Hand Proximity Impacts Consumer Responses to a Persuasive Communication

This research examines the impact of hand proximity (i.e., proximal or distal) on how consumers process the information contained in an advertisement or on a product Web site. Four studies demonstrate that when hands are proximal to that information (e.g., when using a mobile device to view the information), there is more detail‐oriented processing that results in greater attribute recall and a greater amount of attribute‐related thoughts. When hands are distal to that information (e.g., when using a desktop to view the ad or product Web site), there is more holistic, conceptually oriented processing that results in greater thematic recall and more thoughts about the theme. This research also demonstrates that hand proximity can differentially impact choice and product evaluations. Specifically, when hands are proximal consumers prefer ads communicating detailed product information; when hands are distal consumers prefer ads that focus on a theme. Hand proximity effects are driven by the innate tendency to manipulate or inspect an item. The research has important practical implications, given the ubiquity of both hand‐held devices and computers.     

Eat,drink, and create content: a multi-method exploration of visual social media marketing content

As visual social media marketing (VSMM) content continues to increase in popularity, it is imperative for marketers to understand the elements of such marketing efforts that capture consumers attention. Across three empirical studies, the researchers use eye tracking technology and a scenario-based experimental design to explore the impacts of the use of figurative language (i.e., antithesis and alliteration) and Snapchat’s drawing feature on consumers attention to the verbal element (i.e., caption) of company-generated and consumer-generated VSMM content (i.e., snap), specifically, on Snapchat. Results demonstrate the positive impact of the use of figurative language on consumers attention to the caption in VSMM content. Furthermore, consumers attention to the caption in company-generated (consumer-generated) VSMM content is greater when the caption uses antithesis (alliteration). Finally, the presence of pictorial information (i.e., drawings) in VSMM content may impact the relationship between the use of figurative language (i.e., alliteration) and consumers attention to the caption in consumer-generated VSMM content. Implications for marketing and advertising theory and practice are discussed.     

Remembering the Good Old Days: The Moderating Role of Consumer Affective State on the Effectiveness of Nostalgic Advertising

Employing different experimental priming procedures and advertising treatments across two studies, we examine the moderating role of consumer affective state on individuals’ responses to nostalgic and nonnostalgic advertising. Consistent with hypothesized expectations, our findings indicate that when consumers are in a positive affective state they respond more favorably (i.e., report more positive memories and favorable brand-related responses) to nostalgic (versus nonnostalgic) ads. In contrast, one's negative affective state appears to play a limited role in affecting responses between ad types. The theoretical implications of these findings as they relate to nostalgic advertising effects are discussed, and recommendations for advertising practitioners are offered.     

Portrayals of Minorities and Women in Super Bowl Advertising

Portrayals of women and minorities advertising have long been of interest to advertising scholars. While research has found that the overall representation of these groups has increased, some stereotypes persist, and so do questions about the quality and prominence of portrayals. This study examines portrayals of minorities and women in Super Bowl advertising, the main “pop culture” showcase for US advertising. A content analysis of 10 years of Super Bowl ads is conducted and a multinomial logit regression model is employed to delve deeper into the content analysis results. Findings show that while the overall representation of women and various minority groups is strong, a deeper analysis shows that these groups are seldom depicted as primary characters by themselves and that some subtle stereotypes persist. We also find that ads featuring female principal characters are more likely to feature home settings, sexual appeals, emotional messages, and music as a major element and that it is less likely for female (vs. male) celebrities to be used. Minority principal characters are more likely to be celebrities and be included in ads with music or for technical products but are less likely to be included in ads featuring corporate social responsibility messages.     

Images paired with concrete claims improve skeptical consumers’ responses to advertising promoting a firm’s good deeds

Previous research has focused attention on state skepticism over corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications, but little work has focused on how to override preexisting differences in consumer skepticism. To gain insight into this issue, the present studies explore whether company ads promoting a firm’s good deeds generate more positive responses when the ads contain concrete claims and/or images related to the firm’s corporate social responsibility claims, and how these elements of the CSR communication interact with individual differences in advertising skepticism. Results show that highly skeptical consumers (a) respond less favorably to ads than less skeptical consumers, overall; (b) respond more favorably to ads that contain a combination of concrete claims and images supporting those claims; and (c) respond as favorably as less skeptical consumers when ads feature concrete claims with supporting images. Additional results suggest that images are effective among highly skeptical consumers because skeptical consumers have a reduced ability to visualize advertising claims. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The Risk Reduction Role of Advertising

This study shows theoretically and empirically that exposure to advertising increases consumers tendency to purchase the promoted product because the informative content of advertising resolves some of the uncertainty that the risk averse consumers face and thus reduces the risk associated with the product. We call this effect the risk-reduction role of advertising. The risk-reduction model implies that advertising effectiveness depends on (a) the risk preference parameter, (b) the precision of the advertising message, (c) the familiarity of the consumer with the product, (d) the consumers sensitivity to products attributes (and thus, her involvement level with the product), and (e) the diversity of products offered by multiproduct firms. These findings suggest that ads spending should be higher (a) for new and relatively unknown products, (b) for high-involvement products, (c) when ads can be quite precise, and (d) when the firm offers a diverse product-line. It also implies that ads should target consumers (a) who are more sensitive to risk, (b) who are more involved, and (c) those who are not familiar with the promoted product.The model allows ads to affect choices also through a direct effect on the utility (i.e., the standard approach to formulate the effect of advertising). In our empirical example (where the products are television shows) the risk-reduction effect is significant and strong and the direct effect is negligible behaviorally. We discuss the welfare implications of these findings, and illustrate the quantitative differences in managerial implications between our model and the traditional one.     

The effects of incentive types and appeal regulatory framing in travel advertising

What types of incentives and regulatory-framed advertising appeals are preferable when the promoted travel destination in a travel advert is spatially distant vs. near? Based on construal-level theory, this paper addresses this question by investigating whether there is a matching effect between the spatial distance of the travel destination and the incentives or the regulatory-framed appeals in ads. The experimental results indicate that when the promoted travel destination is spatially distant, consumers prefer non-monetary incentives and promotion-framed appeals. When the travel destination is spatially near, however, monetary incentives and prevention-framed appeals can generate better advertising effectiveness.     

Effects of game‐product congruity on in‐app interstitial advertising and the moderation of media‐context factors

Advertising has become one of the major sources of game apps revenues and interstitial ads, in particular, are the most used monetization method among the types of in‐game mobile ad formats. Interstitial ads overlaid on top of a mobile game app have more obvious advertising intent and a higher degree of forced exposure and perceived intrusiveness. This study examined how the degree of congruity (high vs. moderate vs. low) between the promoted products in interstitial ads and the mobile game app environment affects consumers’ responses. The moderating effects of media‐context factors (i.e., excited– or calm–happiness game types and game immersion) were further assessed. The results of two experiments revealed that game‐product congruity lead to better consumers’ responses toward ads and advertised products. The positive effects of game‐product congruity were more salient when consumers played calm–happiness games and were less immersed in the game. Theoretical implications on integrating perspectives across disciplines such as schema theory, happiness, and immersion within the media‐context framework, as well as practical suggestions are discussed.     

The impact of animal metaphors on consumer response to courtesy advertising

This paper investigates how consumers feel and react to animal metaphor advertising in the context of the public service environment. Three studies are carried out using both field and experimental data. The results show that ads with an animal-like transgressor (vs. a human transgressor) elicit a stronger moral outrage response (e.g., contempt, anger, disgust), which generates a stronger perception of dehumanization toward the transgressor, consequently enhancing the consumers’ persuasive reaction to follow public etiquette. The animal metaphor effect is robust, irrespective of whether the metaphorical objects are high or low in conceptual similarity, but the consumer reaction is more intense when the metaphorical pairing is conceptually high in similarity. However, this effect is diminished when the ad is displayed as a drawing as opposed to a photograph. The implications of the findings for retailers or service providers considering the use of animal metaphor in their ads are also discussed.     

Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising: The Occurrence of Stereotyping in Humorous and Nonhumorous Advertising and Its Consequences for Advertising Effectiveness

The advertising literature includes extensive research on the occurrence and effects of gender-role portrayals in advertising. None of these studies has examined the ways in which humor affects depictions and the advertising effectiveness of these portrayals. This article reports the results of content-analytic and experimental studies that investigate the occurrence and effectiveness of gender stereotyping in humorous and nonhumorous advertising. The findings from these studies are in line with the assumptions of information processing theories. They indicate that the way women and men are stereotyped in advertising is dependent on humor; in particular, traditional male stereotypes are more prevalent in humorous ads, whereas traditional female stereotypes are more prevalent in nonhumorous ads. With respect to the influence of these stereotypes, humor improves consumers’ attitudes, particularly if nontraditional stereotyping is utilized instead of traditional stereotyping. Furthermore, humor in stereotyped advertising influences women more than men. Women evaluate gender portrayals more favorably and as more credible in humorous ads than in nonhumorous ads, particularly when nontraditional stereotyping instead of traditional stereotypes are used. These findings provide implications for gender-role and humor research in advertising and for practitioners who wish to increase the effectiveness of ads that use stereotypes.