Consumer Response to Advertising Endorsers' Sexual Information: Western Individualism vs. Eastern Confucian Conservatism

Focusing on the cultural differences between the United States and South Korea, this study examines the moderating effects of advertising endorsers' gender (male vs. female) and intimate sexual information (i.e., premarital sexual behavior) on consumer responses to advertising. The results demonstrate that intimate sexual information of advertising endorsers was negatively perceived among Korean consumers but not among U.S. consumers. In addition, Korean consumers evaluated intimate sexual information of female endorsers more negatively than that of male endorsers, suggesting gender-biased processing. These findings provide several theoretical and practical implications.     

The CEO endorser and message source credibility: an empirical investigation of antecedents and consequences

This article investigates the antecedents and consequences of source credibility within the context of the relatively new but growing phenomenon of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) endorsers. The study results indicate that source credibility is a central determinant of a CEO endorsers' ability to effect desired outcome states. Results also indicate that the effect of message source credibility on purchase intentions, though strong, is not direct because beliefs about critical product attributes mediate the effect of a message source's credibility on behavioural intentions. The results of the study also indicate that models of source credibility derived from the celebrity endorser literature do not generalize to the CEO endorser context. Specifically, the attractiveness and expertise of the message source had no significant impact on receivers' perceptions of credibility.     

Delineating the role of endorser's perceived qualities and consumer characteristics on celebrity endorsement effectiveness

This study examines the influence of both endorser's credibility qualities, such as expertise and trustworthiness, and consumers' characteristics, such as gender and team identification, on endorsement effectiveness expressed as purchase intentions. A survey quasi-experimental research design was used in the context of sports celebrity endorsements. Data were collected from 289 respondents via a convenience sample. The findings indicated gender differences only on team identification and not on endorsers' perceived qualities or on endorsement effectiveness. Team identification differences had a significant impact on purchase intentions while marginally affected athletes' credibility. Of the two examined elements of credibility, trustworthiness constitutes a significant differentiation factor for purchase intentions. The study provides several theoretical and practical implications.     

Has Reality Television Come of Age as a Promotional Platform? Modeling the Endorsement Effectiveness of Celebreality and Reality Stars

Reality television programming (RTVP) was once simply an innovative entertainment phenomenon. But RTVP also has recently evolved into a mainstream promotional platform. Two new forms of celebrities arose during this progression: “reality” and “celebreality” stars. This study, which is grounded in connectedness theory, addresses an unresolved issue related to the use of celebrity endorsers, that is, how endorsers’ status as reality or celebreality stars influences viewers’ perceptions of, beliefs about, and purchase intentions toward products they endorse. These relationships were examined through SEM, as were the effects of viewers’ connectedness to RTVP stars and their perceptions regarding whether RTVPs are authentic. Four primary findings emerged. The observation that reality impacted viewer connectedness and that connectedness and authenticity impacted viewers’ purchase intentions (endorsement effectiveness) revealed various practical and theoretical contributions, as did the observation that endorsers’ celebreality or reality star status moderated each of these relationships.     

When Your Source Is Smiling,Consumers May Automatically Smile with You: Investigating the Source Expressive Display Hypothesis

Facial expressions act as a powerful readout device, influencing a viewer's own emotional response. Drawing from facial feedback theory, the mediating role of source expressive display‐based judgments on the influence of source facial expressions on consumer attitudes toward advertising stimuli, attitudes toward endorsed brands, and behavioral intention is examined. In addition, the examination of expressive display‐based judgments as an automatic phenomenon, contingent on the familiarity of the source and the perceived match with the product endorsed is investigated. Across three studies, the facial expression of a source (resting vs. smiling) is manipulated within endorsement contexts. Results demonstrate that when an endorser is pictured in an advertisement with a smiling facial expression, consumers report feeling more pleasant (pleasure), with this positive emotional response mediating the relationship between source expressive display and attitude toward an advertisement, attitude toward a brand, and purchase intention. Results also indicate that the emotional response derived from the presence of a smiling source in an advertisement occurs effortlessly, yet only for a familiar source and one that is perceived to match the product endorsed, indicating this process can be defined as automatic under certain conditions. The findings from these studies provide advertisers with an effective cue to enhance a consumer's emotional response to advertisements, which in turn heighten advertisement, brand, and behavioral based judgments.     

Are They Celebrity Followers? Examining the Third-Person Perception of Celebrity-Endorsed Advertising

This study explored how consumers' presumed influences mediated the impacts of source credibility and advertising skepticism on purchase intention in the context of celebrity-endorsed advertising (CEA). A national media consumer panel (N = 445) indicated the third-person perception (TPP) were positively correlated to celebrity expertise and attractiveness, but negatively influenced by advertising skepticism. Moreover, three celebrity credibility variables and advertising skepticism yielded direct effects on purchase intention. Indirect effects by the TPP were also generated on purchase intention. The TPP would mediate the impacts of celebrity credibility and advertising skepticism on purchase intention in response to various desirable/undesirable endorsers. Moreover, the TPP would decrease the impact of celebrity credibility, but increase the impact of advertising skepticism on purchase intention, indicating that the third persons' attitudes toward CEA may become a key reference in consumers' purchase intention processes.     

Public Information and Consumer Skepticism Effects on Celebrity Endorsements: Studies among Young Consumers

This article reports on a survey and an experimental study that were conducted to determine the extent to which public information about celebrity endorsers influences consumers' attitudes and perceptions, and whether this was moderated by an individual difference factor, consumer skepticism. Participants in the survey were more likely to recall and discuss negative events involving male sports celebrities; thought that these negative events had little or no effect on their perceptions of brands or companies associated with embattled celebrities; and focused discussion on the case of Kobe Bryant, when they were asked to discuss a specific case of a controversy involving a celebrity endorser. The experimental study revealed significant main and interaction effects of nature of information about a celebrity and consumer skepticism. It revealed that consumer skepticism has its greatest impact when information is neutral. The experimental study established that advertisers have to take into account the level of consumer skepticism when they use celebrities in their advertisements to target different groups of consumers.     

Icing on the cake or gilding the lily? The impact of high-modified model images on purchase intention

Marketers had high expectations for modified model images in E-commerce, however, the social movements against photoshopped models suggested the high-modified model images may be harmful to consumers which leads to a contradictory phenomenon. So far, the link between high-modified model image and consumers' behavior is not clearly understood. Drawing on a selective accessibility model (SAM), this study investigates the influence of high-modified model images on consumers' purchase intention by introducing the concept of misrepresentation and identifying consumer trust as a mediator. Based on five experiments, we demonstrate that over-modified model images decrease consumers’ perceived authenticity referring to “misrepresentation”, and further lower their purchase intention. By comparing the level of misrepresentation, the results suggest that high-modified model images decrease purchase intention. Moreover, this negative relationship between misrepresentation of modified model images and purchase intention is mediated by consumer trust. Hence, this study makes a step toward explaining how high-modified model images impacts the behaviors of consumers, shedding new light on the application of image modification in online advertising.     

Consumers' Perceptions of Online and Offline Retailer Deception: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

This research examines the effects of consumers' perceptions of retailers' deceptive practices on their evaluations of online and offline retailers. Results from two samples of consumers (shopping in online versus offline channels) show the direct and indirect influence of consumers' perceptions of retailers' deceptive practices on consumers' evaluations, including product satisfaction, retailer satisfaction and word-of-mouth. Perceptions of deception influence retailer satisfaction through product satisfaction, and word-of-mouth through retailer satisfaction. These mediated effects are further moderated by the online vs. offline purchase channel. Implications for theory and management are discussed.     

Influencers' “organic” persuasion through electronic word of mouth: A case of sincerity over brains and beauty

Despite the growing importance of influencers' word-of-mouth through audiovisual content, little is known about its effect on consumers' brand evaluation, purchase intentions, and decisions. Drawing on Ohanian's source credibility framework, we conducted two studies across different influencers, product categories, and respondents' gender and tested the hypotheses using covariance-based and partial least square structural equation modeling. Study 1 focuses on a mega-influencer of cosmetic and beauty brands and predominantly involves female respondents. The findings show that the influencer's attractiveness affects perceptions about source expertise and source trustworthiness but not brand attitude, while source expertise predicts source trustworthiness, and both mediate the effect of source attractiveness on brand attitude. In contrast, brand attitude predicts purchase intention and mediates the impact of source credibility dimensions. Study 2 focuses on various influencers of hedonic products (lifestyle, fashion, and beauty). The results confirm the influence of source attractiveness and expertise on source trustworthiness, which ultimately predicts consumer purchase decisions. This study reveals the interdependencies between different source constructs, contributing to source credibility theory. Furthermore, we show that the effect of source dimensions that are relevant in the celebrity endorsement literature, such as source attractiveness, do not directly influence consumers' intentions and decisions in the context of influencers' electronic word of mouth. Finally, the two studies confirm that only influencers perceived as honest and sincere can influence consumers' purchase decisions.     

The effectiveness of number of deals purchased in influencing consumers' response to daily deal promotions: A cue utilization approach

This research proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model of consumers' response to online daily deal promotions. A unique feature of such promotions is their social influence, as they provide information about how many others have already purchased the offer. Integrating cue utilization and social influence theories, the model outlines how the social cue about the number of deals purchased by others influences consumers' deal evaluations and purchase intentions across a variety of conditions. The research findings indicate that the number of deals as an extrinsic cue affects consumers' deal evaluations and intentions only when intrinsic product and deal cues (good vs. service, discount size) and consumer personal characteristics (familiarity with the provider) are not present or are insufficient to infer deal attractiveness. The research offers managerial implications with respect to effectively designing and promoting online daily deals.     

Comparing Society’s Awareness of Women: Media-Portrayed Idealized Images and Physical Attractiveness

An advertiser develops visual associations of signs and symbols to create a product image that motivates consumers. Today is characterized by a solid consumer culture based on visual identity consumption that articulates and interacts with each consumer’s daily actions, words, and visual perceptions. The frequent use of female role portrayals and physical attractiveness in advertising contributes to an increase in society’s awareness of women. Some scholars have developed an ethical discussion out of the phenomenon of female role portrayals not matching the public expectations because the portrayals are too narrowly defined and women are unfavorably depicted. But another group has studied the product-type match-up hypothesis, which emphasizes effectively employing attractive female endorsers that closely match the product type. The shift in female social status in Taiwan contributes to the importation of foreign ideas such as feminine values, rituals, and esthetics. Women in Taiwan have been introduced to a new feminism, a modified perception of appropriate personal appearance and behavior. This current research utilizes content analysis and in-depth interviews to explore contemporary female role portrayals in advertising. In addition, this article examines the relationship between the formation of contemporary physical attractiveness and visual consumption in advertising. The results reveal that most endorsers were celebrities, with fit bodies and pleasant␣expressions, portrayed as product users who offer personal experiences to deliver product knowledge. Conservation classical beauty was the most common depiction, while sexual expression was the least common. Finally, this article recommends that different types of beauty, posture, and appeal should be carefully selected to match domestic and foreign magazines’ readers.     

To smile or not to smile: The role of facial expression valence on mundane and luxury products premiumness

A smile is an essential professional requirement for sales assistant and endorser as a means to give a stunning impression and to please customers. However, luxury brands, engrained as consumption symbols to create social distance, tend to act oppositely: they prefer endorsers and sales assistants in a neutral face rather than a smiley face. The purpose of this study is to investigate how and why facial expressions valence impact luxury product price estimation. A pilot study and three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. We first test whether neutral faces combined with luxury goods can make the customer feel distant. Then we conducted an imagination task to assess whether the interaction between the facial expressions of sales assistants and product type affects product valuations. Further, we adopted an experiment to explore the proposed mechanism, social distance. The results show that commercial models and sales assistants' neutral facial expressions increase perceived social distance, further enhancing the valuations of luxury goods. In contrast, they estimated mundane products higher when they saw a smiley face than a neutral or a negative face. These findings contribute to the literature on the impact of facial expressions in advertising and services for luxury and mundane products. Our findings have potential implications for brands to manage their images and convey their value through employees’ facial expressions according to brand positioning.     

Research on the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era

The severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world has caused consumers to think about environmental issues. Although green products are very important to environmental sustainability, the factors that influence consumers' purchase behavior of green products is unclear. This study aims to explore the impact mechanism of social media marketing on consumers' green product purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study constructs an extended TPB model to understand the influencing factors of Chinese consumers' green product purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era. The empirical results of 489 questionnaires show that social media marketing, product knowledge and crisis awareness have a direct or indirect positive influence on purchase intentions. Perceived behavioral control and intentions have positive effects on behavior. The attribution of responsibility facilitates the relationship between intentions and behaviors. The results have important implications for enterprises’ sustainability strategies and provide a framework for investigating green buying behaviors in Chinese culture in the post-pandemic era.     

Checkout button and online consumer impulse-buying behavior in social commerce: A trust transfer perspective

To enhance social media users' shopping experiences, social media platforms launched an online shopping feature – the checkout button –allowing users to browse new products, examine items via multiple photos and videos, and purchase items without leaving the platform. Yet, few studies have examined the impacts of the ‘checkout button’ on social commerce users' perceptions and impulse-buying behaviors. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the impact of the ‘checkout button’ on consumers' trust and impulse-buying behavior based on the trust transfer theory, as well as how the impact will differ based on social factors and brand familiarity in social commerce. This study provides valuable insights into social commerce. Checkout within Instagram does not facilitate impulse-buying behavior, but brand familiarity and social factors influence consumer trust and impulse-buying intention. This indicates that well-known brands might be more suitable for social commerce. Furthermore, active social interaction is conducive to impulse-buying intentions in social commerce.     

Consumers' experiences of cold chain food packaging: A qualitative study among women in South Africa

Food packaging defines a product's uniqueness and strengthens consumers' relationship with a brand, in this way offering functional and experiential benefits. Although cold chain food is predicted to become even more important to consumers, consumers' experiences of the packaging of these products have been neglected in the literature. Thus, this exploratory study investigated these experiences of female participants in Potchefstroom, South Africa, using semi‐structured interviews and a projective technique assisted by ambiguous mock packaging. The findings reveal that despite marketers' intention to use packaging to lure consumers to purchase food products, participants also valued functionality and quality in cold chain food packaging. This study also identified a dislike of carton boxes and preference for plastic bottles for this kind of packaging, as well as further negative and positive characteristics for consideration by manufacturers. Although brand loyalty and price sensitivity were stronger considerations for some participants than the packaging, the latter seemed to play a pre‐eminent role in most participants' purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is recommended that when designing packaging for frozen and refrigerated foods, product developers and manufacturers should take into account consumers' experiences, requirements and needs of the packaging specific to cold chain food. Our research offers a starting point for designing cold chain food packaging that complies as closely as possible with consumers' expectations.     

The impact of user perceptions of AR on purchase intention of location-based AR navigation systems

As new AR supported products such as location-based AR navigation systems become available in the consumer market, it is particularly important to understand how user perceptions of AR can be optimized to enhance customer satisfaction and increase purchase intention of these products. However, little research has addressed this gap in the literature so far. Therefore, this study developed a theoretical framework including user perceptions of AR, experience, satisfaction and purchase intention employing experience economy theory. This study's main theoretical contribution is that three user perceptions of AR – spatial ability (sensory domain), sense of presence (feeling domain), and conceptual understanding (cognitive domain) – were found to be key antecedents of consumers' intention to purchase location-based AR navigation systems through the mediation of educational, entertainment, aesthetic, and escape experience. The findings have important implications for future development of location-based AR systems.     

Reexamining emerging market animosity toward western developed countries: A social dilemma in physical retailing consumption under normative influence

Focusing on physical retailing as an apparent target for boycotts in the context of emerging market consumers' animosity toward Western developed countries, this research pioneers in its in-depth examination of a social dilemma whereby consumers on one hand wish to avoid purchasing Western products/services to meet social expectations, while on the other wish to continue purchasing Western products/services, because of perceived Western product/service superiority, at the risk of social disapproval. Differing from conventional animosity research that largely neglects interpersonal influence, this research synthesizes social influence theory and social exchange theory to compare consumers’ purchase decisions in visible (physical retailing) and less-visible (online shopping) consumption contexts that are subject to different strengths of normative influence, and proposes a cost-benefit analysis to explain how consumers make trade-offs between social expectations and self-interest. Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Our study findings have important implications for future animosity research on consumer services that are subject to stronger normative pressure.     

Functional and Social Value of Chinese Brands

An increasing popularity of Chinese brands around the world suggests that Chinese brands are beginning to overcome unfavorable country-of-origin (COO) effects. However, whether the perception of the functional and/or the social value of Chinese brands has improved remains unclear. Based on the theory of reasoned action, this study develops a theoretical framework to explain how consumers' perceptions of functional and social attributes affect purchase intentions of Chinese brands. Survey data were collected from an individualistic (US) and a collectivistic (Mexico) country. Results show that perceptions of functional value antecede attitudes towards the brand while perceptions of social value antecede social norms. The effect of social norms on purchase intention is stronger in the US than in Mexico. Recommendations for managers of Chinese brands, and brands from other emerging markets, are provided.