Consumer Responses to English Accent Variations in Advertising

Abstract

With the growing use of different types of English accents in international advertising, it is important for marketers to understand the factors that influence the credibility of the spokesperson in order to select the most persuasive character. This study investigates the effects of a spokesperson's accent on spokesperson's perceived credibility across high and low involvement products and products of different country-of-origin. Two different accents-the standard English accent and the local Singaporean English accent (Singlish)-were tested. Results indicated that accent, product country-of-origin and product involvement significantly influence the spokesperson's perceived credibility and attitude towards the ads. The accent effects appeared to be strong enough to offset the country-of-origin, gender and product involvement effects, attesting to the importance of considering this factor in advertisements. Specifically, the Standard English accent outperformed the Singlish accent in terms of spokesperson credibility, attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions. However, the Singlish accent outperformed the Standard English accent in terms of attention to the ad. Implications for marketers are discussed.     

Perceived Third‐Person Effects and Consumer Attitudes on Prevetting and Banning DTC Advertising

This study examined consumer attitudes toward two potential direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) advertising regulatory options—prior approval of DTC ads and a total ban—and how those attitudes are influenced by perceived DTC ad effects and receiver‐specific characteristics within the context of the third‐person effect framework. Results suggest that (1) consumers support the prevetting of DTC ads, but not the banning of DTC ads, (2) their support for prior approval is unaffected by demographic, predispositional, and ad‐effect perceptual differences, but (3) their support for a ban is associated with age, attitude toward DTC advertising, and perceptions of negative effects on self and others.     

Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses to Proactive and Reactive CSR

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an effective way for firms to create favorable attitudes among consumers. Although prior research has addressed the direct influence of proactive and reactive CSR on consumer responses, this research hypothesized that consumers’ perceived organizational motives (i.e., attributions) will mediate this relationship. It was also hypothesized that the source of information and location of CSR initiative will affect the motives consumers assign to a firms’ engagement in the initiative. Two experiments were conducted to test these hypotheses. The results of Study 1 indicate that the nature of a CSR initiative influences consumer attribution effects and that these attributions act as mediators in helping to explain consumers’ responses to CSR. Study 2 suggests that the source of the CSR message moderates the effect of CSR on consumer attributions. The mediating influence of the attributions as well as the importance of information source suggests that proper communication of CSR can be a viable way to inculcate positive corporate associations and purchase intentions.     

Consumer Responses to Homosexual Imagery in Advertising: A Meta-Analysis

Rising support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, paired with the considerable buying power of this group, has triggered increasing interest from marketers in the gay and lesbian market. Many companies have developed advertising with homosexual imagery to better target this group as well as the mainstream market. The findings on the persuasive effects of homosexual imagery are mixed and do not provide insights on whether and when homosexual imagery in advertising supports persuasion. To resolve the inconsistencies in findings of prior research, this article presents a meta-analysis on the effects of homosexual imagery. The integrated effect size suggests that the net persuasive effect between homosexual and heterosexual imagery does not differ. We find, however, that homosexual consumers show negative responses to heterosexual imagery. Furthermore, the moderator analysis suggests that incongruence between imagery, consumer characteristics, cultural values, explicitness of imagery, endorser gender, and product type results in unfavorable responses to homosexual advertising imagery. These findings provide guidelines for future research and implications for advertisers who intend to address consumers of various sexual orientations.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Differential Effects of Personal,Historical, and Non-Nostalgic Advertising on Consumer Responses

Using a theory-driven approach, this study investigates whether and/or to what extent consumers' informationprocessing tendencies and ad-based responses are differentially influenced by the introduction of nostalgic cues (either "personal" or "historical" in nature) embedded in an advertisement. The results support hypothesized expectations that personal nostalgia (a yearning for one's past) generally outperforms both historical and non-nostalgic advertising when measures of self-directed thoughts, positive affect, and attitude toward the ad are considered. However, when cognitive measures (i.e., brand/message-related cognitive responses and message recall) are considered, a personally nostalgic ad is shown to be comparable to a historical nostalgic ad, but inferior to a non-nostalgic ad. Regression results utilizing cognitive response data further indicate that individuals' brand attitudes are differentially influenced by the type of nostalgia evoked. Practical and theoretical implications for the study's findings are discussed, and future research directions are presented.     

The Role of Pre-Exposure Cognitive Structure in Mediating Consumer Responses to Advertising

Measurement of cognitive responses has evolved around the use of post-test only research designs. The failure to include pre-exposure cognitive structure into research designs threatens the validity of results. In the present study, we show that consumers' product attitudes influence how they respond to television commercials and what reactions they have toward advertised products following exposure.     

Advertising and the Consumer

Abstract

This article is a re-evaluation of advertising as a method of mass communication of ideas and information to attempt to influence opinions and attitudes. Advertising used for these purposes has certain advantages compared with other means of mass communications. There are. however, disadvantages and limitations which should be recognized if the effectiveness of this use of advertising is to be improved.     

Effects of Consumer Weight Level and Advertising Appeals on Consumer Attitude Toward Food and Advertisements

This study examines the link between consumer weight level, food type, and consumer attitude toward both food and food advertisements. Further, this research explores how food advertisements containing emotional or informational claims influence the attitudes of overweight and normal-weight consumers. Two experiments were conducted to study the interaction between weight levels, food types (meat vs. vegetables), and advertising appeals (emotional vs. informational). The results showed mixed support for the six hypotheses. The findings indicate that consumer weight level interacts with food types, and emotional/information appeals affecting food evaluation and attitudes toward food advertisements. Managerial implications for food manufacturers and advertisers are discussed.     

Effects of Word of Mouth Advertising on Consumer Risk Taking

The role of word of mouth advertising on modifying consumers' willingness to make risky product choices is analyzed. The authors present an information and perceived risk processing model of word of mouth advertising's influence on consumer behavior. Implications for advertising management are suggested.     

Ethics in Advertising Decisionmaking: Implications for Reducing the Incidence of Deceptive Advertising

A survey of 206 advertising professionals assessed the relative influence of four factors (ethics, legal considerations, business considerations, and anticipated approval of management/peers) on decision-making about advertising content and policy. Most professionals were influenced only by legal considerations; ethics exerted a relatively minor role. Age and length of professional experience were related to the factor that exerted the dominant influence on an individual's decisionmaking. Those who were youngest and had least professional experience were most influenced by business considerations. Professionals who were slightly older with slightly more experience were most influenced by legal considerations. Finally, those professionals who were the oldest and had the most experience were primarily influenced by ethical considerations. The results are used as basis for identifying specific actions in professional training, advertising agency management, and advertising regulation which have potential to reduce the incidence of deceptive advertising.     

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.     

Applications of Consumer Behavior to the Field of Advertising

Abstract

This paper reviews several concepts gleaned from research on learning as studied both by psychologists and consumer researchers. Several applications of learning theory, attitude change, and image formation are then applied to the field of advertising, not from the usual view of the advertiser but rather from the view of corrective advertising. Further it presents an overview of studies in corrective and counter advertising and attempts to assess the state of the art.

Portions of this paper were presented before the Subcommittee on Monopoly. Committee on Small Business, United States Senate, June 6, 1973.     

The Effects of Perceived Fairness on Customer Responses to Retailer SST Push Policies

Many retailers are implementing policies that encourage customer adoption of self-service technology (SST) offerings, such as self-checkout lanes, in order to enhance profitability. Instead of explicitly forcing customers to use SST, retailers create situations in which patrons are subtly pushed toward SST adoption. The authors examine the effects of fairness perceptions of these SST “push” policies on relationships between established antecedents of SST adoption and customer behavioral intentions toward the provider in a retail context. The results suggest fairness perceptions exert a significant influence on the relationships between these antecedents and customer patronage, future spending, and negative word of mouth intentions. Consistent findings across both users and nonusers of SST underscore the importance of fairness perceptions in the context of retailer SST push policies.     

The Effects of Identical Versus Varied Advertising and Publicity Messages on Consumer Response

A trend in images and messages that eventually cause offence was noted among significant international advertisers, accompanied by a steady increase in formal complaints over a 6-year period in the UK. Though the numbers are at present small, reanalysis of large-scale industry research reports suggested they are the tip of an iceberg consisting of many million potential complainants. If this latent activism reaches a critical mass, it will become a phenomenon that planners can no longer afford to ignore. Meanwhile, the literature on complaining behaviour has concentrated on the causes and responses rather than on the sources. Therefore, this study applied geographic and psychographic analysis techniques to postcodes accompanying over 50 000 complaints to the two main regulatory bodies in the UK, which were hitherto unavailable to independent researchers. A resulting index of complaints by location confirmed the intuitively logical assumption that it is characteristic of London and the south of England. A profile of the complainants showed that they typically belong to a distinctive and relatively homogeneous social group of potential opinion leaders. Together, these outputs provide an original and unique template for minimizing the risk of longterm negative effects due to accidental provocation of an unintended audience. This is a media-strategy solution; the alternative would of course be to abandon potentially controversial creative strategies.     

Differential Effects of Chinese Women's Sexual Self-Schema on Responses to Sex Appeal in Advertising

Despite the increased use of sex appeal in advertising, little is known about the influence of individual personality differences on responses to sexual information. This study examines the effects of the “sexual self-schema” personality trait on Chinese women's responses to advertisements using sex appeal. Regardless of the type of sexual information used, attitudes toward these advertisements mediate the effect of sexual self-schema on the purchase intentions of women with lower sexual self-schema while this mediating effect was not observed in women with higher sexual self-schema. The theoretical and practical implications of sex appeal in advertising for Chinese women are discussed.     

移动视频广告与消费者态度分析

随着移动技术的迭代更新,移动网络环境不断优化,中国已然进入了移动信息化时代。近年来,越来越多的消费者通过移动端获取产品信息,移动端视频播放量也呈现出爆炸式的增长,这一趋势为广告营销带来了新的机遇。广告主正逐渐加大对移动视频广告的资金投入,移动视频广告在市场中也表现出了积极地发展态势。通过对移动视频广告的解析,进一步分析消费者对移动视频广告的态度,并对移动视频广告的未来市场化发展进行了有益探索。移动广告公司应以消费者为主导去设计视频广告,增加用户粘合度,让视频广告效果实现最大化。     

Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses

The lack of attention to sustainability, as a concept with multiple dimensions, has presented a developmental gap in green marketing literature, sustainability, and marketing literature for decades. Based on the established premise of customer–corporate (C–C) identification, in which consumers respond favorably to companies with corporate social responsibility initiatives that they identify with, we propose that consumers would respond similarly to companies with sustainability initiatives. We postulate that consumers care about protecting and preserving favorable economic environments (an economic dimension of sustainability) as much as they care about natural environments. Thus, we investigate how two sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental and economic) and price can influence consumer responses. Using an experimental method, we demonstrate that consumers favor sustainability in both dimensions by giving positive evaluations of the company and purchase intent. In addition, consumers respond more negatively to poor company sustainability than to high company sustainability. In comparison, consumers respond more negatively to the company’s poor commitment to caring for the environment than to the company’s poor commitment to economic sustainability. We also find that consumers do not respond favorably to low prices when they have information about the firm’s poor environmental sustainability. Finally, we find support for an interaction effect between consumer support for sustainability and corporate sustainability; that is, consumers evaluate a company more favorably if the company shares the consumers’ social causes. Overall, we conclude, from our empirical study, support for the idea that consumers do respond to multiple dimensions of sustainability.     

Advertising and Word-of-Mouth Effects on Pre-launch Consumer Interest and Initial Sales of Experience Products

This study examines how consumers' interest in a new experience product develops as a result of advertising and word-of-mouth activities during the pre-launch period. The empirical settings are the U.S. motion picture and video game industries. The focal variables include weekly ad spend, blog volume, online search volume during pre-launch periods, opening-week sales, and product characteristics. We treat pre-launch search volume of keywords as a measure of pre-launch consumer interest in the related product. To identify probable persistent effects among the pre-launch time-series variables, we apply a vector autoregressive modeling approach. We find that blog postings have permanent, trend-setting effects on pre-launch consumer interest in a new product, while advertising has only temporary effects. In the U.S. motion picture industry, the four-week cumulative elasticity of pre-launch consumer interest is 0.187 to advertising and 0.635 to blog postings. In the U.S. video game industry, the elasticities are 0.093 and 1.306, respectively. We also find long-run co-evolution between blog and search volume, which suggests that consumers' interest in the upcoming product cannot grow without bounds for a given level of blog volume.     

Theoretical and Applied Relevance of Consumer Limits to Processing Advertising

Abstract

This study investigates (1) how immigrant consumers change their media consumption when they move across cultural boundaries and (2) whether media exposure relates to consumers' acculturation of the new social norms. A total of 938 respondents from four sample groups including Hong Kong residents, long-time and new Hong Kong immigrants to Canada and English-speaking Caucasian Canadians responded to a predesigned questionnaire. It was found that while the immigrant groups did not increase their total media consumption, their consumption across different media types followed both assimilation and ethnic affirmation models. This acculturation process seemed to be affected by immigrants' original media consumption behavior and language ability. Media exposure was found to relate significantly to immigrants' acculturation of the new social norms after influences due to personal characteristics were removed.     

A Model of the Effects of Self-efficacy on the Perceived Ethicality and Performance of Fear Appeals in Advertising

The primary purpose of this study was to better understand the effects of consumers' perceived self-efficacy on their perceptions of the ethicality of a fear appeal and subsequent attitudes towards the ad, the brand, and purchase intentions. In this study, a total of 305 consumer responses were investigated to determine attitudes toward a fear appeal ad. The results suggest that the use of strong fear appeals may not be perceived as unethical if consumers feel they can use the recommended product to effectively eliminate the threat posed by the ad.