The present research explores readers' and authors' general attitudes towards brand placement in fiction. An online survey of Flemish readers (n = 500) and Flemish and Dutch authors (n = 97) measured ...attitudes towards the use of brand names and the practice of paid brand placement in fiction. Readers also reported their attitudes with regard to placement in film and TV programs. The results demonstrate that readers are favorable towards brand use in fiction. They also view the practice of paid placement as acceptable, perceive it as appropriate in most fiction genres, and are largely indifferent to the use of placement disclosures. Albeit perceptions are favorable across media in absolute terms, attitudes towards brands and paid placement in fiction, compared to film/TV programs, are less positive. Demographic characteristics and individual differences in reading motivation also predict readers' placement attitudes. Further, the results reveal that authors also perceive (paid) placement in fiction as acceptable, yet they appear more reserved about the practice than readers in our sample and see a higher need for disclosure regulation. Findings are discussed with relation to earlier work on general attitudes towards brand placement in other media and their implications for current theory and practice.
In a sample of Belgian and Irish participants, we examine the impact of individual differences in uncertainty avoidance, anxiety, and chance belief on the processing of health risk messages. We test ...a model based on the extended parallel processing model (EPPM) using multigroup comparisons in structural equation modeling (SEM). Groups differing in chance belief process health risk messages in a similar way. Perceived efficacy determines message outcomes more strongly for low-anxiety and low-uncertainty-avoidance groups. Perceived threat has a stronger impact on fear for high-anxiety individuals, while it has a stronger impact on message acceptance for low-anxiety individuals.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the boundary conditions of the effect of the valence of word-of-mouth on social networking sites (sWOM) on consumer responses (attitude toward ...the service provider, purchase intention and positive word-of-mouth intention). Specifically, the authors examine two moderators: the tone of voice (factual vs emotional) of the sWOM and service type (utilitarian vs hedonic) of the service that the sWOM is about.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (message valence: positive vs negative) × 2 (tone of voice: factual vs emotional) × 2 (service type: utilitarian vs hedonic) full-factorial between-subjects online experiment with 400 respondents was conducted and the data were analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro.
Findings
The results show that message valence exerts a greater impact on consumer responses with factual sWOM messages compared to emotional ones. Furthermore, the impact of message valence is stronger for hedonic services compared to utilitarian services. In contrast to the authors’ expectations, there is no significant impact of matching the tone of voice to the service type.
Practical implications
First, for sWOM senders, factual messages are found to be more influential: backing an sWOM up with arguments and specific details increases the chance of it affecting consumers’ responses. As a result, marketers, especially of predominantly hedonic services, should encourage their followers and customers to spread positive factual sWOM about their service.
Originality/value
The study tests two previously unstudied moderating variables that affect the relationship between message valence and consumer responses to sWOM messages. Moreover, this study provides interesting insights for marketers and bloggers or reviewers.
Governments worldwide took measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. Universities moved to online teaching almost overnight. This paper explores Belgian university students' ...perceptions, behaviors, and emotional well-being during the first weeks of strict preventive measures. We conducted a survey with 614 business administration students at the University of Antwerp. The results indicate that, in comparison to the pre-lockdown period, students feel less productive, engage less in healthy behaviors (e.g., healthy snacking, exercising alone), and report more study problems. Based on the emotional quality of their everyday experience, students can be clustered into two groups. One group (54.5%) experiences mostly negative affect, while the other reports experiencing mostly positive affect and personal optimism. The "negative affect" group consists of more women and students in the early years of their bachelor's. This group experiences more financial difficulties and spends more time on social media. These students seem to have a more challenging time coping with the lockdown: they perceive higher study load increase and more significant reduction of social contacts while facing more study problems, studying fewer hours, and perceiving a lower study efficiency. They also engage in less healthy behaviors (e.g., unhealthy snacking more, drinking more alcohol, and exercising alone less) to a greater extent than the positive affect group. These results confirm previous research, demonstrating a positive relationship between emotional well-being and the engagement in and the intensity of productive and healthy activities. Several recommendations are provided in light of these findings.
The measures to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have been concentrated on inviting people to stay at home. This has reduced opportunities to exercise while also shedding some light on the ...importance of physical health. Based on an online survey, this paper investigated physical activity behaviours of a Belgians sample (n = 427) during the lockdown period between the end of May 2020 and the beginning of June 2020 and found that, during this period, the gap between sufficiently and insufficiently active individuals widened even more. This paper analysed important moderators of physical activity behaviours, such as barriers and benefits to exercise, digital support used to exercise, and individuals’ emotional well-being. Descriptive analysis and analyses of variance indicated that, generally, individuals significantly increased their engagement in exercise, especially light- and moderate-intensity activities, mostly accepted the listed benefits but refused the listed barriers, increased their engagement in digital support and did not score high on any affective measures. A comparison between sufficiently active and insufficiently active individuals during the lockdown showed that the former engaged even more in physical activity, whereas the latter exercised equally (i.e., not enough) or even less compared to before the lockdown. By means of a logistic regression, five key factors of belonging to the sufficiently active group were revealed and discussed. Practical implications for government and policies are reviewed.
The present study investigates how the perceived congruity (the perceived level of fit between the execution of the in-game ad and the game environment) of in-game advertising (IGA) in fantasy games ...affects both players' attitude towards the IGA and their play intention of the fantasy game in which it is embedded, and how these effects are moderated by perceived IGA interactivity. An experimental study with actual fantasy game players (N = 619) following a 2 (Congruent IGA − Incongruent IGA) × 2 (Interactive IGA – Non-interactive IGA) between-subjects design was conducted. The results indicate that the perceived congruity of IGA reduces the perceived intrusiveness of the IGA and positively contributes to the perceived realism of the fantasy game. Intrusiveness and realism, in turn, influence players’ attitude towards the IGA and their play intention of the fantasy game. Whilst the positive effect of perceived congruity through intrusiveness is reinforced by the perceived interactivity of the IGA, the effect of perceived congruity through realism is attenuated by perceived interactivity.
•Moderated mediation model is tested with perceived in-game ad (IGA) congruity.•Perceived IGA congruity reduces perceived IGA intrusiveness.•Perceived IGA congruity positively contributes to perceived game realism.•Intrusiveness and realism influence attitudes towards the IGA and play intentions.•The mediation effects are moderated oppositely by perceived IGA interactivity.
This paper investigates how ads for extensions can trigger different reactions with respect to consumers' attitudes towards new line and brand extensions of familiar brands. Using a structural ...equation model, the authors research the influence of attitude towards the ad (Aad), parent brand quality, and perceived fit on attitude toward the extension (Aext), and resulting feedback effects on attitude toward the parent brand (Apb) with a sample of 509 Belgians. Results are compared between two types of advertising strategies (informational vs. positive emotional). The findings indicate that informational appeals, in comparison to emotional appeals, reduce the effects of parent brand quality and fit, but Aad is all the more important. In terms of feedback effects to the parent brand, Aext transfers more easily to Apb with an informational appeal than with a positive emotional appeal. On the other hand, Aad directly influences Apb for positive emotional appeals, but not informational appeals.
One of the critical decisions in media planning is how to allocate advertising efforts across different media. While studies indicate that marketers can create positive synergy effects by spreading ...their effort across several media, there is little understanding of how much should be invested in each specific medium to optimize advertising results. In this study, we apply a novel methodology, mixture‐amount modeling, which allows advertisers to determine the optimal allocation of advertising effort across media as a function of the total advertising effort. Moreover, we test how the optimal allocation and the resulting response change for consumers with distinctive media usage patterns and varying degrees of product category experience. Based on these results, we quantify the potential synergy between media and calculate the synergistic capacity for specific target groups. We apply the model to data from 52 beauty care advertising campaigns that ran on TV and in magazines in the Netherlands and Belgium. We determine the optimal allocation of advertising investments (measured through Gross Rating Points) to maximize campaign recognition. Our findings support the existence of positive synergistic effects between magazine and TV advertising and illustrate that these effects depend on consumers' media usage and product category experience.
Research on the impact of advertising on children has failed to keep pace with the rapidly changing media environment. Using an experimental approach, children’s responses towards traditional ...(television advertisement) versus new, hybrid advertising techniques (trailer, advergame, and their combination), and the moderating role of persuasion knowledge, are investigated. Results show that children who played an advergame have more difficulty recalling the advertised brand than children who saw a traditional television advertisement. When confronted with integrated marketing communications (a trailer followed by an advergame), children without knowledge of persuasive intent developed a more positive brand attitude than children with persuasion knowledge. The implications of these results are discussed.
We investigate the effect of model ethnicity (in-group vs. out-group) in a charity appeal and how this interacts with the scope of the charity (local vs. global) on message recipients' attitude ...toward and intention to donate money to the charity. We also test the mediating role of the perceived trustworthiness of the models in the appeal and ad skepticism. In a controlled experiment, we exposed Caucasian (French, n = 201) and Indian (n = 194) respondents to a group of Caucasian or Indian models for either a local or a global charity. Models of the same ethnicity as the message recipient (in-group) lead to more positive responses for a local charity, while models of a different ethnicity than the message recipient (out-group) lead to more positive responses for a global charity. As expected, these effects are mediated by the perceived model trustworthiness and ad skepticism.
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