The persuasive effectiveness of mini‐films: Narrative transportation and fantasy proneness

Little empirical investigation has been made on mini‐films, an innovative online marketing technique of branded entertainment. This study intends to gain a deeper understanding of the advertising effectiveness of mini‐films. Employing a narrative persuasion research approach, an online survey with hyperlinks to a variety of real mini‐films was conducted to test the aggregate persuasive effectiveness of this marketing innovation. The results demonstrated that narrative transportation has a major influence on the attitude toward the mini‐film; the mini‐film attitude fully mediates the effect of narrative transportation to brand attitude, and subsequently to purchase intention. Furthermore, conceptualized as a normal consumer characteristic, the influence of fantasy proneness on the persuasive mechanism of this online advertising genre has also been under study. Empirical evidence showed that fantasy proneness has a positive influence on narrative transportation. This study has made a contribution to academics and practitioners alike for future research into branded entertainment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How does green advertising skepticism on social media affect consumer intention to purchase green products?

Underpinned by the stimulus–organism–response model, this study explores the underlying mechanism through which green advertising skepticism on social media affects consumer green purchase intention. It also investigates the boundary factors that moderate this indirect relationship. Performing structural equation modeling on data collected from an online survey on Sina Weibo, this study finds that green advertising skepticism on social media negatively affects green purchase intention through the mediation of perceived information utility. Moreover, interdependent self‐construal positively moderates, and independent self‐construal negatively moderates this indirect relationship. These findings suggest that truthful and consumer‐tailored green advertising is crucial to green product marketing.     

能力还是热情?广告诉求对消费者品牌认同和购买意向的影响

基于自我建构理论和情绪理论, 本文探讨了自我建构与广告诉求对品牌认同的交互作用、影响机制及边界条件。通过3个实验, 我们发现对于独立自我建构的消费者来说, 能力广告诉求更能提高品牌认同感, 而对于相依自我建构的消费者来说, 热情广告诉求则更有效; 同时我们也验证了广告诉求到愉悦感到品牌认同最终到购买意向的因果链模型, 并确定了企业类型对该机制的调节作用。     

品牌名称暗示性对消费者决策选择的影响：认知需要和专业化水平的调节作用

品牌管理者最首要的决策就是选择一个好记的或有意义的品牌名字。由于任何特征的品牌名字都必须借助消费者的认知差异来实现真正的差异化, 因此, 从消费者认知特点出发研究暗示性品牌名字就显得尤为重要和有意义。本文通过3个实验, 分别验证了消费者认知需要和专业化水平对品牌名称暗示性与决策选择的调节作用。方差分析发现：低专业化水平的消费者更倾向于根据暗示性的品牌名字做出决策, 而高专业化水平的消费者则不受品牌名称暗示程度的影响。此外, 低认知需要的消费者比较喜欢暗示性的品牌名字, 而对于高认知需要的消费者来说, 品牌名字的暗示性程度不会对其决策过程产生影响。最后, 研究结果揭示了专业化水平和认知需要对暗示性品牌名字效果发挥具有交互作用。对于具有高专业化水平的消费者来说, 无论他们处于低认知需要还是高认知需要, 品牌名字的暗示程度都不会影响他们的态度形成。相反地,对于具有低专业化水平的消费者来说, 无论是低认知需要还是高认知需要均倾向于暗示性的品牌名字。而对于专业化程度中等的消费者而言, 暗示性品牌名字效用的发挥则取决于其处理信息的动机—认知需要水平。     

品牌延伸条件下的广告说服——双中介影响模型的拓展

采用实验调查和认知编码的方法,探讨消费者的广告前后品牌态度,品牌认知反应、广告认知反应、广告态度和购买意向之间的关系。结果表明：（1）广告前的品牌态度对广告认知反应、品牌认知反应和广告后的品牌态度有影响;（2）广告认知反应直接影响广告态度,但不直接影响品牌认知反应;（3）消费者的广告态度不但直接影响品牌认知反应和广告后的品牌态度,还直接影响购买意向。这说明在品牌延伸条件下,广告态度的双中介影响模型需要修正     

Impact of consumers' corporate social responsibility‐related activities in social media on brand attitude,electronic word‐of‐mouth intention,and purchase intention: A study of Chinese consumer behavior

This study examines how consumers' corporate social responsibility (CSR)‐related activities in social media affect their responses to brands. We defined consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media as the extent to which consumers use social media to engage in CSR communication by companies. An online survey was conducted to examine social media users in China, the largest consumer market in today's global economies. This study developed a theoretical model and empirically tested the relationships between consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media, identification with the brand, and three consumer behavior outcomes: electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) intention, brand attitude, and purchase intention. The results suggested that consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media significantly impacted eWOM intention and purchase intention through enhancing identification with the brand and positive brand attitude. This study provides important insights on consumer behavior and CSR by investigating social media, an important and emerging marketing platform. Moreover, this study fills in the research gap about the association between consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media and their responses to brands. Theoretical and managerial implications for CSR strategies in social media are discussed.     

广告代言人参与度研究:深层代言还是浅层代言?

有关广告代言人效果、消费者卷入的研究都曾引起学界的重视并已取得了丰硕的成果,然而,代言人在品牌代言时实际参与(卷入)的程度是否影响消费者对其代言效果的认识,当代言不同类别的产品时这种代言效果是否依然存在,此外,消费者的个性特点是否也会影响这种代言效果等仍需要理论上的深入探讨。本文通过2(代言人高参与度/代言人低参与度)×2(高认知需求/低认知需求)×2(享乐型产品/功能型产品)的实验设计,全面、系统地探讨了代言人参与的深浅程度对消费者品牌态度和品牌文化感知的影响,以及消费者认知需求对两者之间的调节作用。结果表明,无论是代言享乐型还是功能型产品,代言人参与程度都会对消费者品牌态度和品牌文化感知有显著的影响,而且消费者对于明星代言享乐型产品的品牌态度显著高于功能型产品。特别地,这种作用还受到消费者认知需求水平的影响。即当消费者认知需求水平高时,名人参与代言的程度会对其品牌态度造成积极的正向的影响;而当消费者认知需求水平低时,名人参与代言程度则不会对其品牌态度造成显著影响。     

The Role of Virtual Experience in Consumer Learning

Through a series of studies designed to explore important aspects of virtual experience, a new type of product affordances—virtual affordances—is proposed and tested empirically. In addition, the existing geometric and material product taxonomy is extended to include mechanical products within the classification structure. Utilizing these new concepts, 3‐D product visualization is compared with traditional 2‐D product representations and television advertising. The results largely support the proposition that 3‐D product visualization is capable of influencing brand attitude and purchase intention for geometric and mechanical products within e‐commerce environments.     

Young adolescents' advertising literacy and purchase intention in social network games: Influence of perspective taking and need for cognition

Social network games (SNGs) are popular online venues for young adolescents. The aim of this study is to examine how individual traits, need for cognition (NFC) and perspective taking (PT), are related to young‐adolescents' conceptual (i.e. understanding selling and persuasive intentions) and attitudinal (i.e. critical attitude) advertising literacy in these SNGs. The current study also examines how a child's conceptual and attitudinal advertising literacy is related to purchase intentions after seeing advertising in an SNG. In total, 781 young adolescents (aged 10–14 years) took part in our study. First, participants were shown a 5‐min video clip of an SNG including advertising. After watching the video clip, the participants completed a questionnaire about, among others, NFC, PT, conceptual advertising literacy, attitudinal advertising literacy and purchase intentions. NFC was found predictive of children's understanding of the selling and persuasive intent of SNG advertising. This means that children who score higher on the NFC scale are also more likely to have a higher conceptual knowledge of SNG advertising. PT was found to negatively influence children's critical attitude towards SNG advertising. As expected, critical attitude towards advertising was negatively related to purchase intentions. Finally, purchase intention was only partially related to conceptual advertising literacy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

生活方式对大学生在线音乐购买意向的影响：有调节的中介模型

探讨生活方式对大学生在线音乐购买意向的影响机制。采用生活方式量表、在线音乐感知价值量表、神经质量表以及在线音乐购买意向量表对2011名大学生进行调查。结果表明：（1）时尚品味、完美主义和崇尚自由正向预测大学生在线音乐购买意向;（2）在线音乐感知价值在时尚品味与大学生在线音乐购买意向之间起部分中介作用,在线音乐感知价值在崇尚自由与大学生在线音乐购买意向之间起完全中介作用,在线音乐感知价值在中庸内敛、积极进取与大学生在线音乐购买意向之间起遮掩效应;（3）神经质调节了在线音乐感知价值对大学生在线音乐购买意向的影响。     

中国城区青少年对广告价值的评价:前因和后果

通过对北京市7所中学366名学生的调查,探讨了青少年对广告价值的评价以及何种因素影响青少年对广告价值的评价,广告价值的评价是否会进一步影响其决策等问题。运用AMOS 4.0建立结构方程模型对研究假设进行检验,结果表明：（1）青少年对广告价值的评价直接影响到他们的决策意图;（2）在探讨广告价值的影响因素时发现,对广告的知觉因素（信息性和娱乐性）和青少年对广告以及广告商的社会认知（观看广告的社会动机和对广告劝服技巧的认识）对广告价值的影响作用也十分显著,信息性、娱乐性与社会动机都对广告价值产生积极影响,而对广告劝服技巧的认识则对广告价值产生显著的负面影响     

网络环境下第三方评论对冲动购买意愿的影响机制：以产品类别和评论员级别为调节变量

采用问卷调查和实验研究的方法, 构建了以情感为中介的第三方正面评论与网络消费者冲动购买意愿的关系模型, 并检验了产品类别和评论员级别对该模型的调节效应。研究结果表明：第三方评论的好评度、好评数、时效性直接正向影响冲动购买意愿; 好评度以快乐和唤起情感为中介、好评数以快乐情感为中介间接正向影响冲动购买意愿; 消费者购买低涉入度(VS：高涉入度)产品和阅读高级(VS：初级)评论员发布的评论时, 第三方正面评论对冲动购买意愿的影响更强。     

Extending overjustification: the effect of perceived reward-giver intention on response to rewards

The perceived intention model incorporates a new moderator, beliefs about reward-giver intention, into the overjustification paradigm. In 2 simulated shopping studies featuring products paired with promotional rewards, consumers who believed the marketer was promotion focused (reward used to encourage purchase) reported lower purchase intentions and brand attitudes for promoted products after promotion, whereas consumers who believed the marketer was reward focused (promotion used to distribute the reward) showed no attitude change. Promotion-focus beliefs lowered attitudes by heightening the contingency between the promotion and purchase and thereby increasing the perceived causal role of the reward. This effect was contingent on initial behavior--postpromotion attitude change occurred for consumers who actively engaged in product decisions but not for consumers who passively observed the choice sets.     

Effects of deceptive packaging and product involvement on purchase intention: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

From an Elaboration Likelihood Model perspective, it was hypothesized that postexposure awareness of deceptive packaging claims would have a greater negative effect on scores for purchase intention by consumers lowly involved rather than highly involved with a product (n = 40). Undergraduates who were classified as either highly or lowly (ns = 20 and 20) involved with M&Ms examined either a deceptive or non-deceptive package design for M&Ms candy and were subsequently informed of the deception employed in the packaging before finally rating their intention to purchase. As anticipated, highly deceived subjects who were low in involvement rated intention to purchase lower than their highly involved peers. Overall, the results attest to the robustness of the model and suggest that the model has implications beyond advertising effects and into packaging effects.     

公司形象和产品属性超越的协同效应：基于刻板印象内容模型

由于消费者和品牌之间的关系与人际关系存在许多相似之处, 反映人际感知的刻板印象内容模型为品牌感知研究提供了全新的视角。然而, 以往研究多关注品牌感知两大维度--“感知能力”和“感知温情”二者之间的作用关系, 鲜有研究同时基于公司层面和产品层面考察品牌感知不同维度的前因变量及其交互作用机理。鉴于此, 本文实验1考察了公司形象/产品属性超越的不同维度与“感知能力”和“感知温情”的对应关系, 在此基础上进一步发现公司形象和产品属性超越对购买意愿的协同效应。具体而言, 当公司形象为能力型时, 产品享乐性(相对于功能性)属性超越下消费者的购买意愿更高; 当公司形象为诚信型时, 产品功能性(相对于享乐性)属性超越下消费者的购买意愿更高。而且, 品牌赞赏感在上述协同效应中发挥中介作用。实验2探究感知风险调节公司形象和产品属性超越对购买意愿的协同影响。文章最后讨论了本文的理论贡献, 对企业如何实现公司形象策略和产品属性策略的协同促进等方面的营销启示, 以及未来研究方向。     

卷入影响广告理性诉求信息加工效果的眼动研究

使用眼动技术,考察了卷入的两方面（个人卷入与产品卷入）共同对广告理性诉求信息加工效果的影响。研究发现：（1）随着个人卷入或产品卷入度的提高,被试获得的广告信息显著增加。（2）仅在产品卷入度高时,强说服证据理性诉求广告的品牌信息所获得的加工深度才明显优于弱说服证据者;同时,只有当个人卷入度高时,产品卷入度高的商品信息所获得的加工才明显比产品卷入度低者更为精细。这说明,广告理性诉求方式可能主要适宜于宣传产品卷入度高的商品,且只有当个人卷入度高时才可能更为有效     

Using decoy effects to influence an online brand choice: the role of price-quality trade-offs

This research aims to investigate decoy effects on online brand choices. To assess the influence of decoys, we test decoy effects on three constructs-product involvement, judgment conditions, and decoy conditions-within an online experiment. A survey of 635 Internet users and a 2?×?2?×?3 ANOVA between-subjects experimental design is used to guide the research design and the systematic analysis procedure. A major finding of this study is that a standard decoy seems to have a significant effect on an advertised (target) brand for high-involvement products; from the survey, it is also apparent that competitors can also use inferior decoys to increase brand preference for low-involvement products.     

What If the Energizer Bunny Were Female? Importance of Gender in Perceptions of Advertising Spokes-Character Effectiveness

An experiment was designed to determine whether and in what way gender makes a difference in the ratings of advertising spokes-characters. It was hypothesized and results confirmed that gender and product type affect the likability of spokes-characters and perceptions of target audience. A male spokes-character is perceived as more appropriate for a male-oriented product; however, a female spokes-character and a male product created the impression that the product was not quite so male oriented. It was also hypothesized that the spokes-character with the most positive ratings would be the most memorable. Results did not bear this out.     

The impact of customer engagement on customer happiness

Previous studies have found relationships between variables that predict happiness and engagement. While this suggests that engagement is a basis for generating customer happiness, the literature does not provide sufficient confirmatory evidence. Thus, the effects of different engagement intensities remain unclear. Focusing on conditions related to the Starbucks brand, this study analyzed how (1) passive and active engagement impacted customer happiness and (2) happiness impacted word of mouth (WOM) and purchase intention. Data were collected through an online survey among 802 Peruvian customers, all of whom were recruited via non-probabilistic sampling. Because two exogenous variables were considered formative (i.e., customer engagement and customer happiness), a partial least-squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis. In sum, engagement (both passive and active) significantly and positively impacted customer happiness, which then positively impacted WOM and purchase intention. Given that engagement is associated with variables that are broadly related to happiness, this study makes new contributions by (i) clarifying how customer engagement can generate customer happiness, (ii) identifying differences between active and passive engagement, and (iii) adding evidence for use in the debate on the purpose of marketing and traditional practices such as engagement. As discussed in the paper, these findings have theoretical and practical implications for brand managers.     

Value-based adoption of augmented reality: A study on the influence on online purchase intention in retail

The increasing use of digital technology-based retail services provides new opportunities for digital marketing. In this paper, we investigate how augmented reality (AR) technology can be leveraged as part of the firm's strategy. We explore the online purchase intention through AR smart glasses (ARSG), considering consumers' value assessment through a cost–benefit analysis and the influence of technical, experiential and social AR value drivers. We develop an augmented value-based adoption model addressing four main objectives: (1) Evaluate the effect of the perceived value of ARSG, (2) Evaluate the effect of immersion (experiential dimension), (3) Evaluate the effect of AR devices and technical complexity (technical dimension) and (4) Evaluate the importance of subjective norms (social dimension) on the online purchase intention through AR technology. Based on an ESIC Tech Lab experiment with two types of ARSG from market leaders and AR retail apps, the study uses survey data from 253 participants. The results suggest that the technical dimension has an ambiguous effect, with tech-complexity enhancing directly the perceived value of ARSG for online purchase while reducing the net value of consumers' economic cost–benefit analysis. We find strong evidence that the experiential and social AR dimensions (in the form of immersion and subjective norm) have a significant positive influence on consumers' purchase intention online, which are better predictors than the pure economic cost–benefit assessment (through usefulness and difficulty). Furthermore, the technical innovativeness of consumers is found to increase directly the online purchase intention through ARSG.