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This paper aims to investigate personalized communications through digital media, which include display, search, social and mobile communications.

Drawing on the literature pertaining to different digital mediums, the authors explore how different factors influence consumers’ responses to personalized communications. The current study integrates and reviews prior literature related to personalization, seeking a richer understanding of when personalized communications improve or hinder customer–firm interactions.

Personalization can both enhance and diminish consumer engagement with the firm: it may heighten privacy concerns because consumers worry about how their data are collected and used, and it can also benefit them in meaningful ways. Thus, firms must use the information that they collect in a strategic manner to balance this personalization-privacy paradox. This paper finds that the benefits of personalization may vary as a function of the medium through which the communication is conveyed. It suggests directions for research in each of these media and strategies firms can implement to mitigate privacy concerns.

This investigation of emerging themes related to search, display, social and mobile communications provides a more comprehensive overview of current research, as well as a foundation for further research into personalization.

After comprehensive review of discourse surrounding school-banking programmes and marketing to children, the authors develop evidence-based guidelines for such programmes. Guidance for organisations is provided to ensure they understand these products' impact on children and other vulnerable consumers.

A comprehensive, systematised review of literature related to school-banking programmes was undertaken during 2019, 22 Boolean searches were collated, appraised using a five-step quality appraisal framework and analysed against selection criteria. To accommodate literature across disciplines, quality appraisal combined two existing hierarchies of evidence and peer-review status.

Searches returned over 375,000 articles; 149 were relevant and met quality thresholds. Evidence supports the role of financial education in producing positive financial outcomes. However, education should involve communities and families to enhance consumer socialisation and limit negative consequences. From this, guidelines are presented accounting for students' and parents' ability to understand marketing messages and the impact of in-school marketing on students – including on longer-term perceptions, attitudes and behaviours.

Guidelines are to assist financial institutions, policymakers and schools balance the benefits of financial literacy and education with potentially negative consequences of school-banking programmes. Classifying programmes as marketing rather than CSR also benefits organisations contributing corporate resources and voluntarily engaging practices underpinned by commitment to community well-being.

Avoiding moral panic, the authors instead outline evidence-based guidelines on school-banking programmes. The quality appraisal process used in this review offers a new approach to synthesising inter-disciplinary evidence.

This research aims to examine the moderating role of consumers’ persuasion knowledge (PK) on the persuasive effect of combined advertising and publicity within the same medium. The synergistic effect experienced when two messages are thus combined is reversed for readers with high PK who are first exposed to publicity then to advertising. Believability of the message is found to be a mediator within this context.

Based on a review of the appropriate literatures on PK and integrated marketing communication (IMC), this paper tests the hypotheses using two experimental studies.

The results of two experiments show that publicity-then-advertising yields poorer persuasion than advertising-then-publicity, especially under a high PK condition. The reduced synergistic effect of combinations of advertising and publicity is found especially when consumers activate temporary PK and/or when they have chronically high PK. A mediator for a decrease in the synergistic effect of combinations of advertising and publicity, believability, is examined.

This study contains significant managerial implications for marketing communicators about how to most effectively combine and coordinate publicity and advertising in the implementation of an IMC strategy.

Other than making a contribution to the IMCs’ literature, this research extends understanding of the power of PK within an IMC framework. The research contributes yet another extension to the original PK model of Friestad and Wright (1994) by suggesting an underlying theoretical mechanism to explain how PK works in the IMC domain.

This chapter takes a deeper look into understanding an increasingly popular advertising tool – product placement (PP) – by defining it, examining its usage and measuring its consequences, both from a marketing and a consumer welfare perspective. It also tries to reconcile these contradictory perspectives to achieve a common ground and a positive outcome for all stakeholders.

A literature review of current research findings, from both a marketing and public policy perspective, is used to arrive at a more balanced viewpoint of PP.

Public policy makers are advised to improve the consistency of current regulations in terms of PP disclosure in the media, regardless of where a programme is produced or broadcast, to help create savvier consumers. Marketers are advised not to fight against PP regulations, but rather to develop their creativity in order to avoid consumers rejecting the disclosed placement.

We address consumers’ ability to raise a protective shield when they encounter a PP situation. We explain how certain disclosures regarding the commercial intent of PP may be more effective than others, thereby empowering consumers to manage their behaviour and make informed decisions. We then describe how PP can be used to educate consumers about pro-social issues in an entertaining, non-patronising way.

This chapter proposes to go beyond the usual divide between advertisers and policy makers to arrive at a balanced view, considering the positive role that PP may play in education, while mitigating its potential negative impacts through effective consumer training.

Previous research on advertising in digital contexts has emphasized its persuasive and information processing roles for the customer. This paper aims to problematize this point of view and argues that the converged and interactive nature of digital media makes all advertising content into potential points of engagement in a digital media journey.

The paper is conceptual in nature and applies service logic (SL) and customer engagement to reconceptualize digital advertising and selling.

The authors present digital advertisements and digital media content as elements that contribute to a digital media journey, which ideally leads to a purchase. Advertising content is regarded as a resource used by consumers in their underlying value-creating processes. Thus, the digital advertising process is conceptualized as a customer-driven process of engaging with digital media content, where a purchase is incorporated in (and naturally follows from) the theme of engagement.

The paper introduces the concept of contextually embedded selling, which refers to a process where digital advertising content is thematically congruent with the surrounding editorial content, so that both contribute to the same consumer journey. Otherwise, consumers experience a contextual jump – a disconnect in theme, place or time during the consumer’s process of engagement with the digital content.

The paper contributes to advertising theory on advertising, engagement and the emerging research on consumer journey design by presenting an approach based on SL, namely, contextually embedded digital selling.

This study aims to examine the ability of the social influence heuristics framework to capture skillful and creative social media influencer (SMI) marketing in long-form video content on YouTube for influencer-owned brands and products.

The theoretical lens was a framework of seven evidence-based social influence heuristics (reciprocity, social proof, consistency, scarcity, liking, authority and unity). For the methodological lens, a qualitative case study approach was applied to a purposeful sample of 6 SMIs and 15 videos on YouTube.

The evidence shows that self-promotional influencer marketing in long-form video content is relatable to all seven heuristics and shows signs of high elaboration, innovativeness and skillfulness.

The study reveals that a heuristic-based account of self-promotional influencer marketing in long-form video content can greatly contribute to the understanding of how various well-established marketing concepts (e.g. source attractivity) might be expressed in real-world communications and behaviors. Based on this improved, in-depth understanding, current research efforts, such as experimental studies using one video with a more or less arbitrary influencer and pre-post measure, are advised to explore research questions via designs that account for the observed subtle and complex nature of real-world influencer marketing in long-form video content.

This structured account of skillful and creative marketing can be used as educational and instructive material for influencer marketing practitioners to enhance their creativity, for consumers to increase their marketing literacy and for policymakers to rethink policies for influencer marketing.

Prior research has created a body of knowledge on influencer marketing. However, a conceptual disconnect has hampered the advancement of the field. The social influence heuristics framework is a highly functional conceptual bridge that links the qualitative and quantitative evidence and will advance the understanding of influencer marketing more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that focuses on the cultural drivers and trust outcomes of consumer perceptions on issues pertaining to the unethical marketing behavior of firms. It specifically investigates: the role of cultural orientation in forming consumer ethical ideology; the link between the consumer's ethical ideology and his/her perceptions regarding the unethical marketing behavior of firms; the effect of perceived unethical marketing behavior on trust in firms; and the moderating role of gender, age, and education of the consumer.

The article is based on a quantitative survey conducted among 387 Cypriot consumers aged 18 and above, using stratified random sampling procedures. The items comprising the constructs used were derived from multiple literature sources and these were measured on a seven‐point Likert scale. Data were gathered through personal, face‐to‐face interviews conducted at central locations in all major towns of Cyprus. To test the hypothesized relationships among the constructs of the model, structural equation modeling was employed.

The study confirmed that both power distance and uncertainty avoidance are important in forming idealistic attitudes, while both individualism and masculinity lead to an egoistic attitude. Idealism was observed to have a positive association with perceived marketing unethicality, while egoism was found to negatively affect consumer perceptions of unethical marketing behavior by firms. It was also revealed that perceived unethical marketing behavior decreases consumer trust. The study also revealed that the link between idealism and perceived marketing unethicality is stronger among male and older individuals, while consumer's level of education had no moderating impact on this link. Finally, none of the consumer demographics examined (i.e. gender, age, and education) moderated the association between egoism and perceived unethical marketing behavior.

The originality of the study lies in the fact that: it puts together in a single model both antecedents and outcomes of the marketing unethicality of firms, as this is perceived by the individual consumer; concurrently examines the role of cultural orientation and ethical ideology of the consumer in forming ethical attitudes and responses; focuses on the instrumental role of cultural characteristics on consumer ethical perceptions from the perspective of the individual, rather than the society as a whole; places emphasis on unethical issues taking place across all elements of the marketing mix; and provides useful examination of the effects of unethical marketing practices on consumer trust.

This study aims to extend the literature on marketing communications by exploring the effect of placing products in humorous scenes. It aims to ascertain the prevalence of placement scenes associated with humor in television programs and the effect of humor on brand persuasiveness.

The study used a two-phase research process. A content analysis of prime-time television programing was conducted to map the relative prevalence of brands placed in humorous contexts and for the selection of research stimuli. This was followed by a large-scale experimental study of 1,100 television viewers in Hong Kong with real stimuli that had been digitally manipulated.

The study found that a humorous context did enhance recall of placed brands but its effect on brand attitudes was mediated by audience involvement in the viewing and moderated by psychological trait reactance. Interestingly, and in contrast to conventional advertising, placing brands in a humorous context led to lower involvement in the viewing, which, in turn, resulted in lower brand attitudes. Individuals with low trait reactance were more positive toward brands placed in a non-humorous context than individuals with high trait reactance while individuals with high trait reactance were more positive toward brands placed in a humorous context, though the difference was less prominent.

The findings help to illustrate when and how a humorous context contributes to the recall of and attitudes toward placed brands.

The results also facilitate marketers and program producers to choose the best placement context and design more effective placement strategies.

This research is the first to empirically examine the effect of a humorous context on the unaided recall of and attitudes toward brands placed in television programs.