Is self-mockery in advertising copywriting an efficient strategy to build brand closeness and purchase intention?

Purpose Brands have increasingly used self-mockery in advertisements. Although previous insights from the social science literature assert that self-mockery is an effective strategy to boost brand closeness, the paper aims to show a more contigent view of self-mockery efficiency in an advertising context. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments were conducted. Findings This study shows that self-mockery helps build brand purchase intention through brand closeness only when self-mockery is based on a weak negative claim rather than a strong negative claim and that this influence occurs only for consumers with prior positive brand attitudes. Practical implications Marketing managers should consider self-mockery as a valuable brand-building strategy, especially if the main goal of the brand is to develop brand closeness among consumers with prior positive brand attitudes. Originality/value First, the current research is the first to provide empirical support for the mediating role of brand closeness to explain how self-mockery influences brand purchase intention. Second, this study qualify previous results and the popular idea that self-mockery may systematically help build brand closeness. This study demonstrates that this effect is conditional on the strength of the negative attribute claim disclosed and consumers’ prior brand attitudes.

Investigating the Effects of Narrative Advertising in a Real-Life Setting

This study investigates the effects of narrative ads, which differ in terms of narrative focus and brand prominence in a native advertising context. Considering the recent methodological debates about advertising and consumer experiments, we aim to design the research to be as realistic as possible. We produced video ad stimuli and published them as sponsored posts on Instagram to test the effects in a real-life setting. In this way, online engagement behavior was examined through social media metrics. The users who clicked on the ad were directed to the research website and asked to answer the scales of narrative transportation and attitude toward the ad. While the ads achieved different engagement results in line with their content features, transportation and attitude results demonstrate the superiority of narrative ads, which are product-oriented and with low brand prominence.

The old and the beautiful: senior women’s exposure to models in advertisements and the impact on their identity

Purpose This study aims to examine how exposure to female models in advertisements can create identity tensions in senior women and how they manage the comparison and develop different adaptation strategies to deal with these tensions. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on a qualitative approach involving 27 in-depth interviews with French women aged 60 to 79. Photo-elicitation with choice of models as reference points by respondents was used to capture comparison strategies with regard to models. Findings Interviews with senior women confirm that identity tensions due to appearance arise in the context of ageing, particularly when senior women are faced with advertising models. Three reactions of senior women to identity tensions are described, namely, avoiding comparison to protect the self, engaging in comparison despite its resulting devaluation of the self, proceeding to a positive comparison that reinforces their identity. This paper finds that comparison modalities are specific to each strategy. Research limitations/implications This research opens the way to further investigation, especially with regard to understanding social comparison mechanisms in an advertising context for senior women targets. Practical implications This paper raises awareness of the effects of senior women’s exposure to advertising on their self-perception in the context of ageing. It provides practical guidance to advertising professionals on the use of models in ads when targeting senior women and helps marketing managers in their communication strategies. Social implications This research reveals pronounced identity tensions in relation to appearance among senior women in the context of advertising exposure. By providing more diverse models, advertising representations could help to improve the identity perceptions of senior women. Originality/value Very few studies have hitherto investigated identity effects on senior female consumers of female model usage in advertising.

How do self-brand connections affect ad responses among South Korean consumers? The roles of reference groups and message construals

This research explored how self-brand connections (SBCs) influence consumers’ ad responses in South Korea where collectivistic cultures, especially in-group orientations, are highly valued. Synthesizing social identity and construal level theories, Study 1 found that individuals tended to feel proximal to the brand that is perceived to be highly consistent with their in-groups. Furthermore, individuals’ SBCs were found to mediate such a relationship between in-group orientations and psychological distance to the brand. Expanding to the advertising context, Study 2 investigated the interactive effect of SBCs and ad messages construals. The results demonstrated that ads featuring low-construal messages evoked more favorable attitudes toward and purchase intentions of brands with weak SBCs, whereas no such matching effect was found for brands with strong SBCs.

Staying in the middle or avoiding extremes? A test of the effect of rating scale length in advertising research with Chinese consumers

Given the rapid growth of many Asian economies in recent years, Asian advertising research is attracting increasing attention. However, systematic examinations of how to move this body of research forward from both theoretical and methodological perspectives are lacking. This study discusses a method-related issue in Asian advertising research, specifically focusing on the rating scale length used in measuring consumer attitude and behavioral intention. The experiment examines whether using different rating scale lengths (i.e., 1–3, 1–5, 1–7, and 1–9) will produce inconsistent research results due to the influence of Confucianism on East Asian consumers’ response style. Based on the experimental findings, a theoretical discussion of how to consider the cultural impact on measurement in an East Asian advertising context is provided.

Developing brand emotions across cultures: effects of self-construal and context

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the nature of brand emotions elicited by advertising stimuli across cultures and the process underlying such emotional experiences. Design/methodology/approach The study uses factorial between-subjects design. Random samples of the populations were solicited from the panels of an international data provider in Norway and Thailand. Findings This research shows that Thai consumers experience more positive socially engaging and disengaging brand emotions and fewer negative socially engaging emotions relative to Norwegian consumers. The effects of culture are mediated by consumers’ self-construal. Social advertising context increases number of positive and negative socially engaging emotions among Thai (but not among Norwegian) consumers. Research limitations/implications The results highlight the importance of incorporating social orientation of emotions and adverting context in cross-cultural studies of brand emotions. The finding that Thai consumers (relative to Norwegian) experience higher levels of atypical for their culture – positive socially disengaging brand emotions requires further research. Practical implications The findings suggest that advertising stimuli need to be adapted to the cultural context. Marketing managers should use extensive pretesting in culturally distinct markets to make sure that advertising evokes brand emotions in line with the strategy. Originality/value Despite extensive research on brand emotions, extant studies on brand emotions across cultures are limited. This study is among the first to advance the understanding of how social orientation of emotions and advertising context underlie experience of brand emotions across cultures.

Does It Pay to Be Real? Understanding Authenticity in TV Advertising

Marketing managers and creatives alike believe that authenticity is an essential element for effective advertising. However, no common understanding of authenticity in advertising exists, and empirical knowledge about its impact on consumer behavior is limited. In this study, the authors use a comprehensive literature review and qualitative studies to identify four dimensions of authenticity in an advertising context. By examining 323 television ads across 67 brands and four years, they investigate these dimensions’ effects on the sales performance of advertised products. Because the impact of authenticity may depend on brand or product characteristics, the authors also analyze how these effects vary with brand size or across hedonic and utilitarian products. The results suggest that authenticity influences consumer behavior in a more nuanced manner than previously recognized. For instance, whereas an ad congruent with the brand’s essence has a positive effect on sales in most cases, an overly honest advertising message can actually hurt performance; the latter is true especially for hedonic products, for which consumers rely more on subjective information when making purchase decisions.