Gender stereotypes in television advertising in the Middle East: Time for marketers and advertisers to step up

Gender stereotypes, which are particularly harmful to women, have historically been prevalent in advertising, prompting some governments and brands to regulate conventional gender portrayals. This study examines current gender portrayals in television advertising in the Middle East, and specifically in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), because of the increasing importance accorded to women’s empowerment in some of these countries. Building on similar studies elsewhere, we analyze the content of 111 distinct television advertisements aired over a week by a major TV channel in the region. Our analysis reveals that while depictions of certain aspects, such as role (familial/nonfamilial) and location (home/occupational setting), gently nudged traditional stereotypes by portraying women in nonfamilial roles and in occupational settings, depictions of background (female/male/children) and product type further reinforced traditional stereotypes. Based on these findings, we offer specific recommendations to marketers and advertisers in the region.     

Retailers,don't ignore me on social media! The importance of consumer-brand interactions in raising purchase intention - Privacy the Achilles heel

Effective interactions are essential for retail brands to progressively nudge consumers towards purchase. While social media provides the platform for brands to directly connect with consumers, it is critical that brands take privacy concerns seriously. This paper address common questions retailers ask: How do brands develop effective interactions with consumers on social media? Do consumer-brand interactions impact purchase intention? Does privacy matter? Through 541 UK participant responses and using social exchange theory, this research examines consumer-brand interactions on social media, focusing on how social media activities, attitudes towards social media advertising, and privacy, impact upon purchase intention. Our results show that brands must establish strong relationships through high-quality consumer-brand interactions to significantly raise purchase intentions, while also carefully managing consumers' privacy expectations. Effective privacy management positively mediates the link between social media and purchase intention but ignore privacy, and it becomes the Achilles heel of the relationship.     

Paying positive to go negative: Advertisers׳ competition and media reports

This paper analyzes a two-sided market for news where two rival advertisers may pay a media outlet to conceal negative information about the quality of their own product (paying positive to avoid negative) and/or to disclose negative information about the quality of their competitor׳s product (paying positive to go negative). We show that competition in the product market does not necessarily prevent the emergence of commercial media bias. Whether or not competing advertisers end up having negative consequences on news accuracy ultimately depends on the extent of correlation in the quality of their products; the lower the correlation, the higher the expected accuracy of the media outlet׳s reports. These findings provide a rationale to explain the observed differences in the extent of commercial media bias across seemingly similar industries or products, within the same media market. The results are robust to the presence of multiple media outlets and to asymmetries between the advertisers. Overall, the paper provides theoretical insights for media regulators and for the empirical literature examining the link between advertising and news contents.     

A study of the antecedents of slogan liking

A slogan is an integral component of a brand's advertising platform that helps shape its identity and define its positioning. While prior literature has focused on the recall of slogans, knowledge regarding why consumers like some slogans more than others is still limited. This paper uses data from a large field study to explore the key factors that determine the likeability of slogans. It uses a bilinear mixed model to assess the relative importance of slogan characteristics, media expenditure, and respondent characteristics as antecedents of slogan likeability. The findings suggest that the liking for a slogan may be unrelated to media expenditure, and driven largely by the clarity of the message, the exposition of the benefits, rhymes, and creativity. Further, in sharp contrast to industry practice and conventional belief, the study finds that jingles or brevity have no systematic effects on the likeability of slogans.     

Augmented reality: Designing immersive experiences that maximize consumer engagement

Innovative marketers can now leverage augmented reality to craft immersive brand experiences, create more interactive advertising, and enable consumers to experience products and spaces in novel ways. Augmented reality (AR) is the practice of displaying digital information over people's real-time view of objects, people, or spaces in the physical world. While AR can play a valuable role in integrated marketing programs, little is known about the practice and how to execute effective AR programs in the marketplace. We address this gap by presenting a framework that describes the active and passive ingredients of augmented reality. We then describe the basic design decisions that marketers need to make when planning an augmented reality campaign. In addition, we explain how understanding and addressing the dynamics between various active and passive AR ingredients can help marketers to optimize their AR campaigns and enhance various types of consumer engagement: user-brand engagement, user-user engagement, and user-bystander engagement. Through our framework and analysis, we develop eight actionable recommendations—described with the acronym ENTANGLE—marketing managers can use to design immersive AR experiences that maximize consumer engagement.     

Receptiveness of Black Americans to outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertisements, billboards especially, represent important advertising vehicles yet they receive little attention from marketing researchers. Many managers assume that the medium has limited segmentation potential beyond geographical, yet this study reveals major differences. Based on two sets of focus groups and a survey of over 1600 users of heath service facilities in Louisiana, Black Americans appear significantly more receptive than White Americans to billboards, using measures of awareness, information conveyance, influence, and overall views.These differences persist across most education/income level combinations; significant interaction effects emerge between receptiveness, race, education, and income. The authors draw from socialization theory to explain some of the difference but suggest the high exposure of Black Americans to billboards, plus their greater openness to advertising, also contribute. Many advertisers target Black Americans and this targeting is a subject of public policy concern, giving these findings implications for marketers, researchers, and policy makers.     

中国广告业区域协同发展探析

多年来我国广告业总体规模持续扩展,但具有综合实力和国际竞争力的广告企业不多,广告业发展存在区域性不平衡,中西部地区与东部地区差距明显。本文通过各项具体指标分析对中国区域广告发展提出对策建议。     

Empirical Generalizations in Search Engine Advertising

This article compares prices per click and search engine advertising (SEA) effectiveness across six countries and 15 industries over four years. We find that prices per click are highest in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as in the financial and Internet services industries, but are lower in retail than in services industries. In highly competitive markets, increases in SEA expenditures may increase prices per click that do not necessarily lead to higher advertising effectiveness, here measured as a higher number of clicks. To analyze and compare advertising effectiveness across industries, we decompose the effect of increases in SEA expenditures on prices per click (price effect) and number of clicks (quantity effect). A cross-country, cross-industry study shows that 44 percent of the increase in SEA expenditures is associated with more clicks and 56 percent with higher prices.     

Beating the recession blues: Exploring the link between family ownership,strategic marketing behavior and firm performance during recessions

This study explores whether family firms exhibit unique marketing behavior and whether their unique behavior in turn helps them outperform non-family firms during periods of economic contraction. Findings based on a sample of 275 large publicly listed U.S. firms reveal that family firms outperform non-family firms during recessions. This superior performance is partially driven by family firms' proactive marketing behavior and their relatively strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). During recessions, while non-family firms tend to decrease their advertising intensities and rates of new product introduction (NPI), family firms are likely to maintain relatively high levels of advertising intensity and rates of NPI. Unlike non-family firms, family firms are also likely to maintain high levels of corporate social performance (CSP) during recessions. These results underscore the benefits of proactive marketing behavior and a continued emphasis on CSR during economic downturns. The authors also add to the scant family-firm literature, demonstrating the family firm to be an effective organizational form.     

Remanufacturing Marketing Strategies and Developing Countries

Remanufacturing is a means of production which systematically restores existing equipment to like-new condition. It offers an ecologically sound and economical means of production which offers LDCs a host of benefits. Distinct from mere ad hoc repairing, remanufacturing couples the benefits of employing cheap, used machines, with an efficient means of production. Most of the existing literature on remanufacturing is technical and production orientated; such research is reviewed. In addition, an array of marketing and distribution issues are analyzed. Since most failures of remanufacturing stem from marketing problems, this discussion is especially useful to policy makers and development specialists. If thoughtfully employed, remanufacturing offers LDCs greater self-sufficiency using relatively cheap "light" industry manned by unskilled and semi-skilled labor.