Consumer response to negative celebrity publicity: the effects of moral reasoning strategies and fan identification

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sai Wang ◽  
Ki Joon Kim

Purpose In the context of celebrity endorsement, this study aims to demonstrate that the ways in which consumers adopt moral reasoning strategies (i.e. rationalization, decoupling and coupling) are largely dependent on the severity (i.e. high vs low) of celebrity transgressions and the degree to which they personally identify with the celebrity. Design/methodology/approach A between-subjects online experiment (N = 144) with two conditions, representing high- and low-severity celebrity transgressions, was conducted. Participants’ attitudes toward the celebrity and endorsed brand, their purchase intention for the endorsed product and the degrees to which they identified with the celebrity and adopted the three types of moral reasoning strategies were assessed. Findings The rationalization and decoupling strategies mediate the effects of highly negative information about a celebrity on consumer attitudes toward the celebrity and endorsed brand as well as on purchase intention for the endorsed product. In addition, consumers who identify strongly as fans of the celebrity in question are more likely to activate rationalization and decoupling strategies to process and evaluate transgressive behaviors than those with weaker fan identification. Originality/value By exploring the ways in which moral reasoning and fan identification work in processing negative information, this study provides insights into the psychological process through which negative news coverage of a celebrity endorser influences consumer attitudes and purchase intention.

Author(s):  
Erol Ustaahmetoğlu

Purpose Although religiosity and advertising messages have been extensively examined in the existing literature separately, studies which correlatively examine both these aspects are very limited. This paper aims to reveal the influence of the widely used religious messages on consumer attitudes and of purchase intentions on subjects with different levels of religiosity. Design/methodology/approach In this study, four different printed advertising messages with and without religious messages were developed for two different products. In this respect, the consumer attitudes toward advertisements and the degree to which purchase intention changed were measured. Findings The attitude and purchase intention toward the advertisements with religious messages was found to have a higher mean value compared to the advertisements without religious messages, and a statistically significant difference was found between the two. The highly religious participants’ attitudes and purchasing intention toward the advertisements with religious messages differed as compared to the participants with low levels of religiosity. Research limitations/implications Indeed, it was observed that the attitude toward different advertising messages and purchase intention differed regarding the level of religiosity. In the last section of the study, the influence of the level of religiosity on purchasing intention and consumer attitudes has been discussed with academic and practical results. Practical implications This study has also extended the practical implications of social judgment theory, which suggests that the further the consumers’ initial position to the new message the less is the acceptance of that message, and it contributes to its methodological and theoretical development. Whether a religious advertisement message is considered more or less acceptable depends on the level of religiosity and the positioning strategy adopted in the advertisement. In the present study, it is observed that as the level of religiosity increases, purchase intention and the attitude towards the advertisement with religious message increase in permissible(halal) goods. However, when prohibited (haram) services are considered, an increase in the subjects' level of religiosity brings about a decrease in the purchase intention and the attitude towards the advertisement with religious message. Therefore, this study validates social judgment theory. Social implications A significant implication for the marketing practitioners is that religiosity could be one of the criteria in segmenting market. A religiously prohibited product might gradually feel more irritating as the intensity of religious message increases in an advertisement. Thus, it is an important consideration for an organization offering faith-based products in mono-religious societies. Clearly, marketers need to be very careful when they use religious symbols in the secular marketplace, which raises the question – What factors underlie a positive response to religious message use in advertisement? Originality/value Religion was a taboo subject in society in the recent past; it has not been comprehensively investigated in marketing literature; moreover, it is evident that this situation continues to exist at present. It can, therefore, be said that the efforts to conceptualize religion’s influence on marketing and consumer behavior have been scarce.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Devlin ◽  
Andrew C. Billings

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate occurrences of confirmation bias existing for sponsors whose brand is congruent to a sport. More specifically, this research investigates: if confirmation biases for congruent brands occur in the absence of exposure, the impact audience segmentation has on sponsorship evaluations by comparing highly identified fans to non-fans, and if congruent sponsors are recalled more often than incongruent sponsors after exposure. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was conducted to measure how exposure, type of sponsor, and fan identification impacts recognition, attitude, and purchase intention. Findings The results confirm sport-congruent brands are more likely to be falsely recognized as a sponsor than non-congruent sponsors in the absence of sponsorship participation. Sport consumers’ confirmation biases yield positive attitudes and purchase intentions for congruent brands even in the absence of immediate exposure. Lastly, exposure has no impact on recall or sponsor outcomes, suggesting the need for articulating the brand’s connection prior to the event to build stronger memory traces. Practical implications Congruent brands should carefully consider investment costs and expected return on investment, noting benefits of participation might be marginal as a result of confirmation biases. Potential sponsors should also understand cognitive benefits begin before exposure to the sponsorship occurs, and therefore need to articulate a connection to the event prior to exposure by consumers. Originality/value The findings suggest the importance of confirmation biases when attempting to reach sport consumers. Some brands may be able to increase recall and recognition even in the absence of exposure, thus helping decision makers when managing budgets.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankur Srivastava ◽  
Nitin Gupta ◽  
Nripendra P. Rana

PurposeThis study investigates the role of consumer cosmopolitanism on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions (PIs) towards foreign and local brands.Design/methodology/approachThe responses were collected on a structured questionnaire through a consumer survey. The data were then analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThe results depict the positive influence of consumer cosmopolitanism on consumer attitudes towards foreign brands, which positively influences PIs towards foreign brands and negatively influences the PIs of local brands. Further, the mediating role of perceived quality was observed in explaining the consumer preference towards foreign and domestic brands.Practical implicationsFinally, the study concludes by providing implications for marketing scholars and managers of global and local brands.Originality/valueThe paper examines the underlying mechanisms related to consumer cosmopolitanism and its role in influencing the foreign and local brand purchase.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio S. Williams ◽  
Sungwook Son

PurposeDespite its growth, there has been a lack of investigation on how sport rebranding influences fans and their behaviors. This study sought to examine how a critical aspect of rebranding – logo redesign – influences fans' attitudes toward a sport brand and intent to purchase merchandise bearing the rebranded logo. More specifically, we aim to investigate the influence of varying degrees of logo change and fan identification in relation to brand attitude and purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachAn experimental design, 4 (degrees of logo change) × 2 (fan identification: low, high), was utilized with the sample of 277 participants. The current logo of the Ultimate Fighting Championship was redesigned into three fictitious rebranded logos as stimuli based on different rebranding types.FindingsThe results suggest that color change and revolutionary change generate the most negative attitudes from both high- and low-identified fans, and fan identification is not a significant factor influencing fan attitudes. Regarding purchase intention, low-identified fans are not significantly influenced by logo changes whereas highly identified fans showed similar response to their attitudes.Originality/valueThe findings advance the current body of knowledge on sport rebranding and fan behavior by demonstrating the effects of varying degrees of logo redesign and fan identification levels on brand attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, the current research has important implications for sport marketers on developing effective rebranding and logo redesign strategies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joon Sung Lee ◽  
Dae Hee Kwak ◽  
Jessica R. Braunstein-Minkove

Athlete endorsers’ transgressions pose a dilemma for loyal fans who have established emotional attachments toward the individual. However, little is known regarding how fans maintain their support for the wrongdoer. Drawing on moral psychology and social identity theory, the current study proposes and examines a conceptual model incorporating athlete identification, moral emotions, moral reasoning strategies, and consumer evaluations. By using an actual scandal involving an NFL player (i.e., Ray Rice), the results show that fan identification suppresses the experience of negative moral emotions but facilitates fans’ moral disengagement processes, which enables fans to support the wrongdoer. Moreover, negative moral emotions motivate the moral coupling process. Findings contribute to the sport consumer behavior literature that highly identified fans seem to regulate negative emotions but deliberately select moral disengagement reasoning strategies to maintain their positive stance toward the wrongdoer and associated brands.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nizar Souiden ◽  
Marzouki Rani

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of religiosity on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions toward Islamic banks. Design/methodology/approach – The study takes place in the Tunisian context. Even though Tunisia is a Muslim country, the culture is considerably different from those of the Middle East or Malaysia (countries where the majority of studies on Islamic banks have taken place). Consequently, an adapted religiosity scale was developed to fit the study’s context. Then, the scale was pre-tested on a sample of 188 respondents. In order to test the research hypotheses, a second data collection, based on a convenience sampling technique, was undertaken, yielding a sample of 217 respondents. Findings – The religiosity variable was found to be tridimensional. Results show that the more a person fears divine punishment, the more he/she will develop a favorable attitude towards Islamic banks. Also, the more a person believes in Islamic laws, the more favorable his/her attitude towards Islamic banks. However, the relationship between religious involvement (practice and interest) and attitude toward Islamic banks is found to be insignificant. Other alternative models were tested and the results indicate that neither fear, nor beliefs, nor religious involvement has a direct effect on purchase intention. Thus, religiosity has an indirect effect on purchase intentions of Islamic bank services through attitude towards these banks. Practical implications – It is suggested that a communication strategy focusing on the compatibility of Islamic banks with Islamic beliefs and eliminating any doubt that Islamic bank operations are suspicious (from a religious point of view) could attract a segment of consumers who wish to be in harmony with the prescriptions of their religion. Islamic banks can better position their offers compared to conventional banks and improve the perception of actual or potential clients. The study offers some implications to managers of conventional banks as well. Originality/value – Previous studies have reported the strong impact of religion on Muslims’ attitude towards Islamic banks. The main contribution of this study is to show which dimension of religiosity has the most important impact on attitude and purchase intention toward Islamic banks.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Yang

Purpose Social recommender systems have recently gained increasing popularity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of informational factors on purchase intention in social recommender systems. Design/methodology/approach Specifically, this study validated the mediating effect of trust in recommendations and the perceived value between informational factors and consumers’ purchase intention. Findings The results confirm that recommendation persuasiveness was a strong predictor of trust in recommendations and perceived value. Recommendation completeness was positively related to trust in recommendations and perceived value as well. Trust in recommendations and perceived value was found to be strong drivers of purchase intention. Originality/value The author identifies two sets of informational factors, i.e. recommendation persuasiveness and recommendation completeness, which are relevant to consumer attitudes. The current study proved that informational factors on consumers’ purchase intention are fully mediated through trust in recommendations and perceived value.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1084-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria-Sophie Osburg ◽  
Vignesh Yoganathan ◽  
Sandra Brueckner ◽  
Waldemar Toporowski

Purpose Whilst many studies consider labelling as means of aggregated communication of environmental product features, the presentation of detailed product information seems a promising alternative. However, the mechanisms through which detailed product information takes effect on consumers requires better understanding. The purpose of this paper is to empirically develop a framework that focuses on consumers’ perceived usefulness of, and trust in, detailed product information, whilst also considering the role of environmental self-identity. This understanding will help businesses to further stimulate eco-friendly consumption. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modelling and conditional process analysis are utilised to test hypotheses based on a sample of 279 respondents to a German online survey. Findings Results show that the perceived usefulness of product information (PUPI) has a positive effect on purchase intention, and this effect is intensified by an individual’s environmental self-identity. Furthermore, for consumers with high environmental self-identity, the effect of PUPI on purchase intention is mediated in turn by trust in detailed product information and resistance to negative information. Originality/value This study contributes to the debate on the role of product information in ethical consumption by showing how detailed product information gives rise to favourable behavioural outcomes. When detailed information is perceived as being useful, it can affect purchase intention through greater trust and an increased resistance to negative information. Further, detailed product information appears beneficial for both, the mass market and specific segments with high environmental self-identity. Hence, this study empirically establishes the effects of detailed product information on consumer decision making, thus informing sustainability-related marketing theory and practice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruppal Walia Sharma

Purpose – This paper aims to study whether age impacts the responses to different communication cues in terms of brand recall, attitude toward advertisement, attitude toward brand and purchase intention, and which age groups respond more favorably to a given cue. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental research was conducted across a sample of 1,050 respondents in Delhi to test variance in consumer attitudes across “tweenagers”, teenagers, youth, young adults and adults, when exposed to different communication cues for dummy brands of biscuits and mobile handsets. Findings – Significant variances were observed in consumer attitudes across the five age groups. However, the variation pattern differs across the two product categories. The caricature cue worked well for biscuits across most age groups. For mobile handsets, the picture cue was very effective for the two younger age groups but not as much for others. The product information cue was highly effective for adults. Practical implications – The study provides insights on making communication for brands targeted at more than one age group. If adults are a part of the marketers’ age group, some amount of product information is highly desirable, just as bright pictures/caricatures are necessary for tweenagers. For teenagers, who exhibit high variance vis-a-vis other age groups, communication needs to be customized. For brands where both children and adults are part of the target audience, common appeals can easily be identified, as they had similar responses in all but one case. Originality/value – The framework proposed in this research fills a gap in the existing literature by establishing that age impacts attitude formation in response to communication cues and gives insights for marketing communication.


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