Online retailers are increasingly using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to solve mental and physical intangibility issues in a product evaluation. Moreover, the ...technologies are easily available and accessible to consumers via their smartphones. The authors conducted three experiments to examine consumer responses to technology interfaces (AR/VR and mobile apps) for hedonic and utilitarian products. The results show that AR is easier to use (vs. app), and users find AR more responsive when buying a hedonic (vs. utilitarian) product. Touch interface users are likely to have a more satisfying experience and greater recommendation intentions, as compared with AR, for buying utilitarian products. In contrast, a multisensory environment (AR) results in a better user experience for purchasing a hedonic product. Moreover, multisensory technologies lead to higher visual appeal, emotional appeal, and purchase intentions. The research contributes to the literature on computer‐mediated interactions in a multisensory environment and proposes actionable recommendations to online marketers.
Although both top‐dog and underdog positioning appeals are widely used in marketing and advertising, little is known about which strategy is more effective in persuading consumers. By introducing a ...sense of power, a social variable that is inherently relevant to the nature of the top‐dog versus underdog classification, we propose that consumers' responses to these two appeals are influenced by their psychological experience of power. Specifically, low‐power consumers will respond to top‐dog appeals more favorably because associating with top dogs facilitates power restoration. In contrast, high‐power consumers will respond to underdog appeals more favorably because supporting underdogs facilitates power expression. In four experimental studies, we provide consistent support for our main predictions as well as the underlying processes. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate the differential effect of consumers' power states on their attitudes toward top‐dog versus underdog appeals. Providing process evidence, Studies 3 and 4 identify boundary conditions under which the basic effect was eliminated. These findings contribute to the persuasion literature and power research and provide important implications for positioning strategy and advertisement development.
This research studies the role of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals in luxury goods communication, investigating how using one or the other type of message appeal affects product perceived ...luxuriousness and, in turn, product attitude, and consumers' willingness to buy. This research presents three experiments in which message appeal and brand prominence have been manipulated, while perception of luxuriousness, attitude toward luxury products, willingness to buy them and consumers' conspicuous consumption orientation have been measured. Hedonic, compared with utilitarian, message appeals increase perceived luxuriousness, thereby increasing product attitude and consumers' willingness to buy the product promoted. This effect is particularly likely to occur for consumers with lower levels of conspicuous consumption orientation and for products carrying lowly prominent logos. We extend the literature on luxury communication by studying the effect of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals on consumers' responses, and the literature on hedonism versus utilitarianism by studying this dichotomy in the context of luxury goods communication. This research suggests that different message appeals used in luxury goods communication produce different effects on consumers' responses and that this differential effectiveness is particularly likely to manifest for certain types of consumers and certain types of luxury products.
Studies of green advertising have had mixed findings from using single and hybrid appeals to consumers' green attitudes and behavioral intentions. However, the effects of ordering or sequencing the ...appeals or repeating them have scarcely been investigated. Drawing upon prospect theory, green advertising, and the theory of planned behavior, this experiment, with 160 Indonesian university student participants, found that green attitudes were better formed by appeal order than appeal repetition. In contrast, the types of appeal arrangement generated insignificant differences in buying intention between green products with lower and higher perceived difficulty. The moderating effects of perceived difficulty were significant only on green products with lower perceived difficulty. Furthermore, green attitudes mediated the impacts of appeal arrangement on the intention to buy green products with both lower and higher perceived difficulty. The findings' theoretical and practical implications also are discussed.
The hotel industry is vulnerable to various external crises, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Social media is one of the primary platforms for hotel crisis communication. Accordingly, this study ...adopted the perspective of message appeal and tried to develop effective hotel crisis communication messages. An online experiment was conducted where 260 Chinese customers were included. The results showed that emotional-appeal messages are more effective in attracting customers for luxury hotels, while functional-appeal messages are more suitable for economic hotels. The results also showed that perceived safety mediated the relationship between the message appeal and booking intentions and that this mediating relationship is moderated by the hotel type. This study further discussed theoretical and practical implications.
This research is among the first few to examine the role of consumers' power distance belief (PDB) in influencing the effect of nostalgic ad appeal. Findings demonstrate that the stronger effect of ...personal nostalgia (vs. historical) is attenuated among low-PDB (vs. high-PDB) consumers, and for highly (vs. lowly) visible products. When a joint moderating effect of PDB and product visibility is tested, for highly visible products, the stronger effect of personal vs. historical nostalgic ads is found among high-PDB consumers whereas it disappears among low-PDB counterparts. For lowly visible products, the stronger effect of personal vs. historical nostalgic ads remains unchanged across high- and low-PDB consumers. These findings have important implications to marketers/advertisers on how to effectively utilize nostalgic ad appeal.
PurposeGrounded in uses and gratifications (U&G) theory and relying on the congruence/incongruence approaches, the current research aims to contribute to the study of interactive marketing by ...measuring the effectiveness of social and personal sponsored post message appeals on consumer psychological and behavioral engagement. A conceptual framework is suggested.Design/methodology/approachData were collected during a field experiment conducted on Facebook, consisting of two sponsored Facebook post campaigns, followed by a survey distributed to consumers who were exposed to the experiment.FindingsA structural path model suggests that the congruence of the social message appeal of sponsored Facebook posts leads directly to psychological engagement that follows affective response. This path elevates an indirect effect toward behavioral engagement. Additionally, it was found that the incongruence of the personal message appeal of sponsored Facebook posts leads directly to behavioral engagement.Originality/valueThe novelty of the current research focuses on the unexplored subject of sponsored Facebook post message appeal effectiveness. Based on U&G theory applied to social media and the (in)congruence approaches, the study suggests a new dichotomy of message appeal for digital advertising, i.e. social vs. personal message strategies. Consumer engagement with the two appeals adds value to theory and practice by conceptualizing the effect of sponsored post content strategies on consumer engagement in Facebook while incorporating ad content with a hierarchical process.
This research investigates a novel type of fit unique to digital marketing: that between the intimacy of an advertizing appeal and of the social media platform through which it is advertized. In ...doing so, we challenge the common marketing practice of posting identical content across platforms by showing how the same ad is received differently by consumers across differing platforms. Consistent with theories of processing fluency, we propose that platform‐appeal fit (in terms of intimacy) enhances consumers' social media engagement with the brand because the associated fluency enhances consumers' favorable cognitive judgments, affective state, and attitudes. A Pilot Study first maps the contours of platform intimacy through multidimensional scaling of several popular platforms. The resulting perceptual maps are then used to compare consumer response to an intimate or nonintimate appeal posted by actual (Experiment 1) and fictitious (Experiment 2) brands on platforms of varying intimacy. Results provide evidence for fluency as a mechanism for increased engagement following platform‐appeal fit, suggesting that a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to digital marketing may be suboptimal in terms of consumer response.
