The influence of anthropomorphic cues in retailing: The moderating effect of the vice versus virtue products

Today, consumers expect companies to be socially responsible. However, the literature is undecided about the effects of communicating one's corporate social responsibility activities to consumers. This raises the question of how sustainabilitydriven companies can best advertise their products to stimulate ethical consumption: using self-benefit frames, where the main beneficiary is the consumer, or using other-benefit frames, where the main beneficiary is a third party. Using three experiments, this study examines the effect of other-benefit (vs. self-benefit) advertising frames on consumers' impulse purchases from sustainability-driven companies. Increasing impulse purchases can help such companies to strengthen their competitive positions. Additionally, it is studied to what extent two types of justification (moral versus deservingness) explain the proposed effect of advertising frames. The results show that only other-benefit frames affect impulse buying behavior, both directly, as mediated by moral justification. This study's insights may help sustainability-driven companies to decide on their advertising strategies by providing evidence that other-benefit-framed advertisements are more effective in enhancing impulse purchases than self-benefit-framed advertisements.

Section: Theory and Hypothesis Buildingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Theory and Hypothesis Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Using Advertising Frames To Solve the Vice/ Virtue Response ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stimulus Materials and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A good reason to buy: Justification drives the effect of advertising frames on impulsive socially responsible buying

Moes

Fransen

Verhagen

et al. 2022

“…Adding to this line of study, the current study seeks to explore how product anthropomorphism deters consumers from imbuing traits of owned products into self‐perception. Especially, while previous research focus on how product anthropomorphism influences consumer evaluation, experience, and purchase intention (T. Chen et al, 2021; Crolic et al, 2022; Lee & Oh, 2021; Londoño & Ruiz de Maya, 2022; Puzakova & Aggarwal, 2018; Schroll, 2022; Shao et al, 2020), only a few research has investigated its impact on consumers’ perception and decision in postpurchase stage (F. Chen et al, 2022; J. Kim & Swaminathan, 2021). Thus, the current research also extends the understanding of how product anthropomorphism influences consumers’ postpurchase outcomes (i.e., product‐to‐self judgment).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

It's not mine: Anthropomorphism attenuates the effect of psychological ownership on product‐to‐self judgment

Zhang

Zhou

Yan

2023

Previous literature has shown that consumers often see themselves as possessing the characteristics of products they own, referring to product-toself judgment effect. For example, consumers perceive themselves as more innovative after owning an innovative product. The current research identifies and demonstrates a boundary condition for this effect, showing that product anthropomorphism lowers the tendency for consumers to judge themselves in assimilation with the traits and abilities of the product. We further demonstrate that this moderating effect arises because consumers are less likely to classify anthropomorphized product into the "Self" category, for they see the product as an entity like other people. Three experiments provide supportive evidence for this moderating effect and the underlying mechanism. Overall, our research contributes to the literature by uncovering the process of how product anthropomorphism may hinder consumers from using products to express themselves, thus providing implications for promoting products that focus on enhancing consumer self-expression.

The application of neuromarketing tools in communication research: A comprehensive review of trends

Casado‐Aranda

Sánchez‐Fernández

Bigné

et al. 2023

This study provides an overview of the evolution of the body of knowledge, current research streams, potential new domains, and theoretical models of interest for neuromarketing research developed in the field of communication. Neuromarketing is defined here as research applying psychophysiological or neuroscience methods in communication. We particularly implemented a comprehensive analysis of 861 publications using keyword cooccurrence analysis and science mapping tools. The performance analysis shows a strong growth in the number of publications over the last decade, with a slight declining impact in terms of citations after reaching a peak around the turn of the century. Contributions published in journals in business and communication fields (and not psychology or neuroimaging) are those with the largest average citations per year. The evolution diagrams highlight that the use of brain imaging tools to study ad persuasion in virtual environments and social marketing contexts (e.g., health or sustainable communication), as well as the employment of novel metrics (neural synchronization) and deep learning methods to analyze data, constitute fruitful research streams in the application of neuromarketing tools in communication research. These results offer communication scholars an accurate insight on recent scientific research applying neuromarketing that can shape further studies.