Cross-cultural perspective on sustainable consumption: implications for consumer motivations and promotion

Firms in the past have based their marketing and promotion strategies on the assumption of infinite resources and zero environmental impact. With the growing importance of environmental costs associated with finite resources, firms need to revisit their marketing and promotion strategies. This study defines and conceptualizes horizontal/vertical individualism–collectivism (H/V I-C) cultural value orientations as antecedents of sustainable consumption. Drawing on H/V I-C value orientations, this study attempts to build a sustainable consumption model to better understand how horizontal/vertical individualism–collectivism cultural values are reflected in consumers’ sustainable consumption motives and how they can be translated into persuasive advertising appeals tailored to specific cultural segments. This study contributes to provide new theoretical and managerial insights into understanding culturally relevant sustainable consumption motives and to establish appropriate strategies of sustainable consumption promotion in cross-cultural contexts. Most importantly, this study provides implications to companies for balancing more carefully their growth goals with the need to pursue sustainability across different cultures.

Does Online Dating Promotion Vary Across Cultures? A Cross-cultural Analysis of Homepage Advertisements of Online Dating Services in 51 Countries

This study extends our understanding of the influence of culture on advertising within the novel context of online dating. People around the world have come to depend on online dating services (ODSs) to participate in the dating process. Since the norms and expectations of dating are influenced by a country’s cultural values, we expect ODSs to adapt their advertising messages to be congruent with these values. Using the Pollay–Hofstede framework, we examine the relationship between advertising appeals used by 1,003 ODSs from 51 countries and the cultural dimensions of these countries. Results showed that ODS advertisements appealed to people’s need for relationship, friendship, entertainment, sex, status, design and identity. The use of these appeals was congruent with only the individualism/collectivism and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions. Based on these results, we argue that ODS’s overwhelming use of culturally incongruent advertising messages can lead to a global transformation and homogenisation of the dating culture.

Online Star vs. Celebrity Endorsements: The Role of Self-Concept and Advertising Appeal in Influencing Purchase Intention

Despite the fact that companies increasingly value online star endorsements as Internet celebrity economy booms, scientific knowledge on the effect of online star endorsements on consumers’ purchase intention is limited. Based on the theories of self and construal level theory, this study investigates the impact of online star vs. celebrity endorsements on purchase intention and explores the underlying mechanism as well as boundary conditions. The results of four studies reveal the following: (1) Compared with no endorsement, both celebrity endorsements and online star endorsements lead to increases in consumers’ purchase intention, with no significant difference between the two. (2) Self-concept mediates these relationships; specifically, celebrity and online star endorsements activate the ideal and actual self respectively, and enhance consumers’ willingness to purchase. (3) The effect of endorsements on consumers’ purchase intention is moderated by advertising appeals. That is, celebrity endorsements enhance purchase intention when consumers are exposed to symbolic appeals in advertisements, and online star endorsements enhance purchase intention when it is matched with functional advertising appeals.

Cuteness or Coolness—How Does Different Anthropomorphic Brand Image Accelerate Consumers’ Willingness to Buy Green Products?

Green consumption is an important component of environmental protection behavior. The behaviors of individual consumers are having unprecedented impacts on the sustainable development of a green society. Previous research has discussed how anthropomorphic beneficiaries of environmental behavior (e.g., nature/earth) impact green consumption behavior and compared the influence of anthropomorphic presence and absence on consumers. However, few have examined the impact of different types of anthropomorphic carriers with environmental benefits (e.g., green product/brand) on consumers. This research explores the matching effects on the willingness of consumers to buy green products between the anthropomorphic image of the brand (cute vs. cool) and advertising appeals (self-interest vs. altruism); in addition, the underlying mechanisms of matching effects are revealed. The results show that, under the self-interested advertising appeal, the cool anthropomorphic image can lead to higher purchase intention of green products due to the mediating role played by the brand capacity trust. However, when exposed to altruistic advertising appeal, the cute anthropomorphic image can enhance brand goodwill trust of consumers and make consumers more willing to buy green products. Finally, this paper discusses the contributions and limitations.

Should Facebook advertisements promoting a physical activity smartphone app be image or video-based, and should they promote benefits of being active or the app attributes?

Social media provides a convenient platform for health campaigns. However, practitioners designing such campaigns are faced with a number of decisions regarding advertising formats and appeals. This study set out to compare the effectiveness of two advertising formats (image vs. video) and two advertising appeals (benefits of being active vs. app attributes and features) for promoting a physical-activity smartphone app. The advertising experiment was conducted on Facebook and employed a 2 × 2 full-factorial experimental design, examining two advertising formats: image versus video and two advertising appeals: benefit versus attribute. Outcome measures were advertisement cost (number of viewers reached according to the amount spent) and consumer engagement (rates of advertisement click-through and app downloads). Chi-Square analysis revealed that advertisement cost was found to differ according to the type of advertising format used, with image advertisements achieving a greater audience reach than video advertisements (χ 2(1) = 905.292, p < .001). Consumer engagement also differed according to advertising format and appeal: images achieved high rates of advertisement click-through (2.7% vs. 1.9%; χ 2(1) = 196.9, p < .001) and app downloads (0.6% vs. 0.5%; χ 2(1) = 4.0, p = .044) compared with videos. Furthermore, benefit appeal advertisements were more effective than attribute appeals, yielding a greater rate of advertisement click-through (2.8% vs. 1.8%; χ 2(1) = 282.2, p < .001) and app downloads (0.7% vs. 0.4%; χ 2(1) =106.0, p < .001). Overall, image advertisements were seen to be the most cost-effective and engaging. Advertisements employing a benefit appeal achieved greater consumer engagement than and attribute appeal advertisements.

Impact of Advertising Appeals on Children's Well-being: Exploring the Moderating Role of Disposition

This research study aimed to examine the effect of advertisement appeals on the psychological well-being of children and assess the moderating role of disposition in the relationship of children's psychological well-being and advertisement appeals. The study was conducted by using primary data. Data was collected through the survey conducted in three-time lags from the children of age ranging from 8 to 12 years. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among a sample of 578 children. For the selection of sample nonprobability, convenience sampling technique was employed, whereas descriptive and inferential statistical tools were utilized for the data analysis with the help of statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) and analysis of moment structure (AMOS) version 23. Research findings showed that advertising appeals have a significant positive effect on the psychological well-being of children. Furthermore, disposition positively moderates the relationship between advertising appeals and the psychological well-being of the children.