Yuri Seo, Jungkeun Kim, Yung Kyun Choi and Xiaozhu Li
This paper aims to examine when and how the number of “likes” can exert significant influence on consumer evaluations of social media advertising. It sheds a novel perspective on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine when and how the number of “likes” can exert significant influence on consumer evaluations of social media advertising. It sheds a novel perspective on how social media “likes”, advertising disclosures and the presence of firm-serving motives influence advertising effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 examines how the number of “likes” influences consumer attitudes towards the sponsoring brand by strengthening advertising credibility, when social media ads are effectively (vs non-effectively) disclosed. Study 2 further establishes how the influence of the number of “likes” for effectively disclosed ads varies depending on whether the company states (vs does not state) its firm-serving motives.
Findings
The authors found that a social media ad displayed with a higher number of “likes” is perceived to be more credible, which can then yield more positive attitudes towards the brand. However, the use of effective disclosures moderates this relationship. To offset this effect, companies can restore the value of “likes” by stating their firm-serving motives openly when they develop social media advertising messages.
Research limitations/implications
The study offers a novel perspective on how consumers evaluate the number of displayed “likes” in the context of other social media features.
Practical implications
The study shows how social media marketers can become more effective in taking advantage of the number of “likes” that they accumulate on social networking site platforms.
Originality/value
The study illustrates a novel mechanism behind how and when the number of “likes” can influence the effectiveness of social media advertising.
Details
Keywords
Yuri Seo, Carol Kelleher and Roderick J. Brodie
While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer lives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intersubjective hermeneutic framework that bridges the socially constructed as well as the individualised meanings of brand engagement in the context of service research.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper adopts a theory-building approach based on recent developments in the service-centric marketing literature.
Findings
The authors offer a novel theoretical perspective that recognises the intersubjective and phenomenological nature of individual and collective consumer brand experiences, and show how such experiences emerge from socially constructed brand engagement practices using the co-constituting lens of value-in-use.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed conceptual framework invites further empirical and contextual investigations of intersubjective brand engagement in both online and offline contexts.
Originality/value
The contribution of this framework is twofold. First, the authors draw on the intersubjective orientation and hermeneutic framework to provide conceptual clarity in relation to the nature of brand engagement practices, brand experiences, and value-in-use, and discuss their interrelationships. Second, the authors address the nature of meaning ascribed to engagement beyond customer-firm-brand relationships, and discuss why any given consumer’s experience of brand engagement reflects a complex dialectic between socially constructed and individualised brand meanings. In doing so, the integrative framework recognises the interplay between the intersubjective and phenomenological natures of consumer brand experiences, and offers insights as to how these experiences are framed by broader socially constructed engagement practices.
Details
Keywords
Felix Septianto, Yuri Seo, Billy Sung and Fang Zhao
This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of luxury advertising can be improved by matching the emotional (promotion pride vs prevention pride) and luxury value…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of luxury advertising can be improved by matching the emotional (promotion pride vs prevention pride) and luxury value (authenticity vs exclusivity) appeals within advertising messages.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted. Studies 1A and 1B establish the influence of incidental emotions and regulatory focus on consumer preferences for divergent luxury value appeals (exclusivity vs authenticity) within advertisements. Study 2 shows the match-up effects of congruent emotional and luxury value appeals on advertising effectiveness.
Findings
The authors offer causal evidence that promotion pride increases the preference for exclusivity appeals, whereas prevention pride increases the preference for authenticity appeals in luxury advertising.
Research limitations/implications
The study offers a novel perspective into the ways consumers evaluate different value appeals in luxury advertising and establishes the important role played by emotions within such evaluations.
Practical implications
Marketers of luxury products can increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by considering the fit between emotional and luxury value appeals. Specifically, the authors show that the congruent matching of promotion pride with exclusivity appeals and of prevention pride with authenticity appeals within advertising messages can elicit more favorable consumer responses.
Originality/value
The study is the first to illustrate novel “match-up” effects: it shows when and how different luxury value appeals (exclusivity vs authenticity) and emotions (promotion pride vs prevention pride) influence the effectiveness of luxury advertising.
Details
Keywords
Yung Kyun Choi, Yuri Seo and Sukki Yoon
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intentions to share electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM) messages on social media websites depending on tie strength, perceptions of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intentions to share electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM) messages on social media websites depending on tie strength, perceptions of temporal distance and the concreteness of promotional messages.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2×2×2 mixed design is used. Temporal distance (near vs distant) and message concreteness (text vs picture) are between-subjects factors; sharing intentions (close friends vs general public) is a within-subjects factor.
Findings
Findings indicate that consumers are more likely to share promotional messages with their strong rather than weak ties. If they perceive that purchases will occur soon, concrete promotional messages will more strongly motivate them to share the message with their friends. However, if they perceive that purchases will occur in the distant future, abstract messages are more motivating. The difference occurs because construal-level theory is more effective among strong E-WOM ties.
Originality/value
By studying senders’ perspectives, the authors make a new theoretical and practical contribution to the emerging literature on E-WOM communication. Specifically, the authors show how senders are persuaded to share information with their strong- or weak-tie audiences according to the concreteness of a message and temporal distance. The authors add construal-level theory and advertising message processing to the domain of E-WOM and social ties research.
Details
Keywords
Jungkeun Kim, Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui, Euejung Hwang, Drew Franklin and Yuri Seo
This paper aims to examine how consumers make choices when they are faced with a fixed set of available options, consisting of both preferred and less-preferred choices, in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how consumers make choices when they are faced with a fixed set of available options, consisting of both preferred and less-preferred choices, in the domain of food consumption. Specifically, the paper offers a novel perspective to predict repeated choice decisions in food consumption, which is termed as “pattern-seeking” – a consumption choice pattern that involves a coherent repetitive sequence of sub-groupings or coherently concentrated sub-groupings of options.
Design/methodology/approach
Eight experimental studies that contrast the existing theoretical predictions regarding repeated choices (e.g. primacy effect, recency effect, variety vs consistency) against pattern-seeking were conducted using hypothetical and actual food choices.
Findings
The results of experimental studies show that an explicit decision pattern (i.e. pattern-seeking) emerges as the most significant predictor of repeated choice in the food consumption domain.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers a novel perspective on how consumers make repeated choices in the domain of food consumption.
Practical implications
The results show that consumers prefer food consumption with a pattern (vs non-pattern). Thus, it would be better to generate marketing activities that allow customers to satisfy their pattern-seeking more easily.
Originality/value
This study advances the literature on repeated food choices by demonstrating that people possess an inherent preference for patterns in food consumption.
Details
Keywords
In this editorial viewpoint for the special issue, the authors identify a need to deepen our understanding of the important role that Asian consumer culture plays in the global…
Abstract
Purpose
In this editorial viewpoint for the special issue, the authors identify a need to deepen our understanding of the important role that Asian consumer culture plays in the global marketplace of the twenty-first century.
Design/methodology/approach
This editorial article discusses the emergence of Asian consumer culture, offers an integrative summary of the special issue and develops several key directions for future research.
Findings
The authors observe that Asian consumer culture is not a coherent knowledge tradition that can be described merely as “collectivist” or “Confucianist” in nature. Rather, it is better understood as the confluence of cultural traditions that are characterized by inner differentiation and complexity, various transformations and mutual influences in the Asian region and beyond.
Research limitations/implications
Although Asia’s economic growth has received much recent attention, extant theory regarding Asian consumer culture is still in its infancy. The authors highlight important developments in this area that show the path for future work.
Originality/value
The authors make three contributions to the emerging scholarly interest in Asian consumer culture. First, the authors respond to recent calls to increase the use of qualitative methods in Asian contexts. Second, the authors draw attention to the cultural complexities and mutual influences that characterize contemporary Asian consumer cultures, and subcultures in the Asian region and beyond, through the selection of articles for this special issue. Finally, the authors draw the threads together to provide directions for future research in this area.
Details
Keywords
Felix Septianto, Saira Khan, Yuri Seo and Linsong Shi
This paper aims to examine how mortality-related sadness, as compared to other emotions such as fear, anger and happiness, can leverage the effectiveness of fresh start appeals.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how mortality-related sadness, as compared to other emotions such as fear, anger and happiness, can leverage the effectiveness of fresh start appeals.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon the consumption-based affect regulation principle, this paper investigates how sadness associated with mortality can elicit the appraisal of irretrievable loss, which subsequently increases the effectiveness of fresh start appeals. These predictions are tested across three experimental studies.
Findings
Findings demonstrate that mortality-related sadness enhances donation allocations (Study 1), willingness to pay (Study 2) and favorable attitudes (Study 3) toward an advertisement promoted with a fresh start appeal. This effect is mediated by an appraisal of irretrievable loss (Studies 1–3). Moreover, the emotion’s effect only emerges among consumers who believe that their emotional experiences are stable (vs malleable) (Study 3).
Research limitations/implications
This paper investigates the effects of negative (vs positive emotions). It would thus be of interest to explore whether different discrete positive emotions may also enhance favorable evaluations of fresh start appeals.
Practical implications
While fresh start appeals have been widely used by marketers and organizations, the extant literature in this area has yet to identify how marketers can leverage the effectiveness of such appeals. This paper highlights how a specific negative emotion can be beneficial to marketers in leveraging the effectiveness of fresh start appeals.
Originality/value
The findings of this research suggest a novel potential strategy for the regulation of sadness. Specifically, consumers experiencing mortality-related sadness show favorable evaluations of fresh start appeals, indicating they are seeking to dissociate themselves from the past.
Details
Keywords
Felix Septianto, Reza Ashari Nasution, Devi Arnita and Yuri Seo
This study aims to investigate how charitable advertising effectiveness in response to threat-based awe, an emotional response that typically arises in the presence of natural…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how charitable advertising effectiveness in response to threat-based awe, an emotional response that typically arises in the presence of natural disasters, is likely to depend on the construal level.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experimental studies were conducted to examine the positive and negative effects of threat-based awe on charitable advertising effectiveness. Further, the moderating role of construal level was tested and the underlying mechanisms established.
Findings
Consumers who experience a high (vs low) level of threat-based awe donate more when evaluating a disaster-relief advertisement processed at a high construal level (e.g. when an advertisement is framed as a “why” message) but donate less when evaluating a disaster-relief advertisement processed at a low construal level (e.g. when an advertisement is framed as a “how” message). Further, the authors established two distinct mechanisms underlying these divergent effects. At a high construal level, consumers are driven by concern for others, whereas at a low construal level, consumers are driven by feelings of powerlessness.
Research limitations/implications
The present research contributes to the literature on how emotions influence charitable advertising effectiveness by establishing the divergent effects of threat-based awe and the moderating role of construal level.
Practical implications
This paper offers managerial implications for nonprofits and charities in developing effective charitable advertising strategies in the context of natural disaster-relief campaigns.
Originality/value
The present research provides a novel perspective on when and why threat-based awe, a unique emotion arising in the case of natural disasters, can lead to positive or negative effects on charitable advertising effectiveness.
Details
Keywords
Felix Septianto, Arnold Japutra, Billy Sung and Yuri Seo
This research draws upon construal level theory to investigate how brands can develop effective international marketing strategies using country image versus product image across…
Abstract
Purpose
This research draws upon construal level theory to investigate how brands can develop effective international marketing strategies using country image versus product image across international markets with different cultural distances between them.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports two preliminary studies and three experimental studies in the context of Australian brands using a “clean and green” image. The preliminary studies explore how product versus country image and cultural similarity are related to construal levels. Then, Study 1 examines consumers from different countries as a proxy of cultural distance, whereas Studies 2 and 3 manipulate levels of cultural distance to test the effects on consumers. Moreover, Study 3 also uses a behavioral outcome as the focal dependent variable and tests the underlying mechanism.
Findings
The results demonstrate a significant interaction effect between country-of-origin positioning and cultural distance, such that an Australian brand emphasizing the country (vs product) image gains more favorable responses among consumers with high levels of cultural distance. Conversely, an Australian brand emphasizing the product (vs country) image gains more favorable responses among consumers with low levels of cultural distance. Further, this research identifies perceived brand cultural authenticity as the underlying process driving the interaction effect.
Originality/value
The findings of this research contribute to the literature on international marketing in general and the country-of-origin literature in particular by examining country-of-origin positioning and cultural distance from the construal level perspective. The research also provides managerial implications on how to promote products in the international market across different cultural distances.