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Joint advertising is an emerging strategy where marketers promote both brands in the same marketing communication. This research determines how the domestic, foreign, or global nature of the partner impacts important brand-related outcomes and identifies underlying psychological process mechanisms and contextual variables that affect this relationship.

Across three experiments, we investigate how the type of joint advertising partner impacts consumer attitudes and behaviors. We establish the number of similarities between the partners and perceived cognitive fit as the mediating process mechanisms underlying this relationship, with holistic processing moderating the effect.

We find that when consumers are exposed to joint advertisements between domestic or global [foreign] brands, they will be able to generate more [fewer] similarities between the partners and perceive a stronger [weaker] cognitive fit. Moreover, these similarities interact with consumer cultural traits related to holistic processing style to differentially influence perceived cognitive fit and downstream consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Partnering for mutually beneficial, joint advertisements is a growing phenomenon that redefines traditional thinking about advertising, but the success of the joint advertisement is contingent upon the characteristics and compatibility of the partners.

This study aims to examine how young consumers perceive the advertising effectiveness of endorsements by virtual idols and how endorsements by virtual idols differ from endorsements by real human celebrities such as traditional celebrities and online influencers.

An experimental study was conducted with 400 randomly selected young respondents in China in December 2022. A 3 × 2 factorial design was used to test how the type of celebrity endorser and level of product involvement influence the persuasiveness of advertising aimed at young adults. Among 400 respondents, the average age was 21.5 years. A total of 193 male and 207 female respondents participated in the experiment.

Young consumers find virtual idols, online influencers and traditional celebrities attractive. Although virtual idols are the least credible among the three types of celebrity endorsers, young consumers tend to be more convinced by their endorsements of products with low levels of consumer involvement than those with high levels of involvement. Among the three types of celebrity endorsements, young consumers find traditional celebrities the most effective. In addition, young consumers’ attitudes toward celebrity endorsers mediate the impact of celebrity endorsers’ attractiveness and credibility on their attitudes toward the advertisements. The perceived level of product involvement moderates the transfer of meaning from the attitude toward the celebrity endorsers to the attitude toward the advertisement.

First, when choosing celebrity endorsers to advertise products targeting young consumers, marketing communication practitioners should give priority to the endorsers’ perceived credibility, as young consumers have a variety of views about them that can significantly affect their attitudes toward the advertisement. Second, real human celebrity endorsers are more effective than virtual idols in celebrity endorsements. However, virtual idols may be suited for use in advertisements to promote products with low involvement levels, such as soft drinks.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first experimental study to attempt to analyze the effectiveness of virtual idols in advertising aimed at young consumers. This is also the first comparative study to introduce virtual idols as celebrity endorsers in product advertising and to compare their effectiveness with that of the two other types of commonly discussed celebrity endorsers, traditional celebrities and online influencers.

Endorsement marketing has been widely used to generate consumer attention, interest and purchase decisions among targeted audiences. Internet celebrities who become famous on the Internet are dependent on strategic intimacy to appeal to their followers. Our study aims to examine how multiple exposures to Internet celebrity endorsements influence consumers’ click and purchase decisions in the context of influencer marketing.

Based on a unique and representative dataset, the authors first model consumers’ choices for clicks and purchases with two panel fixed-effect logit models linking clicks and purchases with the frequency of exposure to Internet celebrity endorsement. To further control the endogeneity produced by the intercorrelation between the click and purchase models, the authors also adopt the two-stage Heckman probit structure to jointly estimate the two models using Maximum Likelihood Estimation. Robustness checks confirm the effectiveness of the models.

The results suggest that Internet celebrity endorsement plays a significant role in bringing referral traffic to e-commerce sites but is less helpful in affecting conversion to sales. The impact of repetitive Internet celebrity endorsements on consumers’ click decisions is U-shaped, but the role of Internet celebrities as online retailers will “shape-flip” this relationship to a negative linear relation.

Our study is the first to investigate the repetitive exposure effect of Internet celebrity endorsement. The results show a contradictory pattern with a wear-out effect of repetition in the advertising literature. This is the first study to show how the endorsing self, which is a common business model in influencer marketing, moderates the effectiveness of influencer marketing.

Social media marketers are keen to understand how viewers perceive their brands on a platform and how the learning experiences from content can impact their attitudes toward a brand. This study aims to focus on examining the effect of firm-generated content (FGC) on X (formerly known as Twitter), using Kolb’s experiential learning theory to analyze the viewers’ learning process. In addition, the study investigates how the length of time a viewer follows a brand and the type of brand can influence their attitudes toward it.

This study involved three qualitative studies on X to investigate how content learning affects consumer attitudes toward two brands, namely, Nike and Subway. The study also examined the impact of the duration of following the brands, with participants following the brands for 4, 8 and 12 weeks, respectively, to assess changes in their attitudes.

The results demonstrate that content learning significantly impacts consumer attitudes. By following brands and engaging with their FGC over time, viewers can transition from being occasional or intermittent followers to becoming devoted brand enthusiasts. Through the four-stage experiential learning process, followers undergo cognitive, emotional and behavioral transformations that collectively shape their brand attitudes. The impact of content learning varies according to the brand type, and the duration of following has a positive effect on brand attitudes.

The study’s findings have significant marketing implications for social media marketers, suggesting that they should restructure their social media platforms as learning platforms to effectively engage followers. Companies should adjust their content marketing strategies from a learner’s perspective, providing followers with content that resonates with them, enhances their learning outcomes and helps shift their beliefs and brand attitudes, ultimately converting them into loyal consumers.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this qualitative research is the first of its kind to apply experiential learning theories to investigate how users learn from FGC by following brands on social media and how this learning ultimately changes their brand attitude. The study provides a unique perspective on social media marketing, enriching the understanding of content marketing and consumer experiences on social media platforms.

The purpose of this study is to explore the comparative effects of mainstream celebrities and social media influencers on consumer advocacy and relationship intentions. The study also examines the direct and serial mediation effects on those relationships.

The survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 718 respondents throughout Malaysia, with convenience and snowball sampling techniques employed. The data were analyzed based on the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach through the AMOS version 24. The PROCESS MACRO v-4.20 was applied to evaluate mediating effects in the model.

The results reveal that celebrity endorsers' involvement in social media significantly influences the uses of social media, which also impacts the attitudes and, subsequently, consumer relationship and advocacy intentions. The study found that mainstream celebrities and social media influencers effectively promote brands, and it discovered insignificant differences in their effects on the analyzed relationships.

This study has been conducted on consumers in Malaysia; it may have different effects on consumers in other countries.

Brand managers and policymakers may benefit from following the study's guidelines for making consumer relationship and advocacy intentions by celebrity endorsers and uses of social media.

The brand community can benefit from tightening their social bondage by sharing and managing crucial information from celebrities and using social media.

The study explores the effects of mainstream celebrities on consumer relationship and advocacy intentions using social media networks and managing consumer attitudes.

This research aims to examine how consumer minimalism (CM), self-conscious feelings (such as consumer guilt (CG) and consumer pride (CP)) and the inclination to use rental services interact. It also looks at how attitudes toward pro-environmental advertisements affect these relationships as a moderator, recognizing the importance of pro-environmental advertising in influencing consumer behavior.

This study employed a quantitative methodology to investigate the aforementioned associations. Survey questionnaires are used to collect data, which is then analyzed using AMOS 25 and Process Macro to generate meaningful insights.

The findings indicate that the willingness to use rental services is directly associated with CM, while self-conscious emotions (SCEs) play the role of a mediator in this relationship.

It is essential to recognize the limitations of this study. There may be other variables at play, but the research focuses on SCEs (CG and CP) and their role as mediators. The findings must be interpreted based on the selected research methodology and sample size. Future research could investigate additional variables and enlarge the sample size to increase generalizability.

Targeted marketing can leverage CM, SCEs and willingness to use rental services. Recognizing the moderating effect of attitude toward pro-environmental advertisements can help create more effective campaigns promoting environmental behavior.

Underpinned by SCEs, the current study is one of the initial studies to explain how CM encourages responsible environmental behavior through access-based consumption models.

Consumer animosity in the wake of Russia–Ukraine war has gained significance in consumer behavior research. In this line, this study aims to examine the critical influence of consumer animosity in developing brand attitude and its ensuing outcomes – brand boycott behavior and brand-country image – the moderating role of perceived intrusiveness on the relationship between consumer animosity and brand attitude and the moderating role of altruism between brand attitude and behavioral outcomes.

Using the data obtained from 411 European consumers, data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling to examine the proposed relationships.

The findings revealed a strong negative influence of consumer animosity on brand attitude, which eventually leads to brand boycott behavior and a negative brand-country image. This work also confirmed the boundary condition of perceived intrusiveness on the effect of consumers’ animosity on brand attitude. Furthermore, the authors validated the moderating effects of altruistic behavior on the relationships between brand attitude and boycott behavior and brand-country image.

This study offers theoretical, practical and policy implications in international marketing domain. The authors acknowledged a few shortcomings and made some recommendations for future research.

In the context of the Russian–Ukraine war, this study creates a novel conceptual framework based on consumer animosity. In the current scenario, provide critical perspective on how European customers’ animosity to Russian brands develops their adverse attitudes. This study also highlighted the alternatives to Russian brands when they were boycotted during the Russia–Ukraine war.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of fashion influencer measures on consumers' purchase intentions and the mediation of attitudes to understand the phenomenon of influencer marketing in the backdrop of the fashion industry.

The present study employs a conceptual model based on extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) with added perceived trust. Data were collected from 341 participants from different regions of the country and analysed using direct path analysis and mediation technique.

The study found that attitudes toward fashion influencers are positively influenced by perceived trust, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. However, perceived behavioural control is not directly related to purchasing intents in the research model. The results confirmed that attitudes have a positive association with purchase intentions both directly and indirectly (partially mediation).

The study advocates market practitioners and advertisers to acknowledge the increasing importance of influencer marketing and the promotion of their fashion offerings in the setting of emerging fashion industry.

The present study adds crucial value to enhance the understanding of fashion influencer marketing in the Indian context. This research offers several insights into the continually growing knowledge domain of influencer marketing by predicting the direct relationships with purchase intents and the mediation of attitudes.

This study aims to reveal the knowledge structure of social media influencer marketing literature by performing science mapping analysis through a state-of-the-art bibliometric approach to determine the current and future trends. Social media influencer marketing is one of the most effective approaches to presenting a brand and offering value to consumers via social media.

This study evaluates the knowledge structure to uncover the emerging trends and future predictions in social media influencer marketing through bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis. In total, 917 journal publications were retrieved from the Web of Science database and analyzed using VOSviewer software.

The central theme in social media influencer marketing reflects digital engagement between influencers and followers and communication between influencers and followers. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

This study unleashes the knowledge structure according to the fundamental literature of social media influencer marketing and the underlying themes related to the phenomenon.