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1 – 10 of over 7000Stephanie A. Pankiw, Barbara J. Phillips and David E. Williams
Luxury brands seek to differentiate themselves from competitors by engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Although many luxury brands participate in CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
Luxury brands seek to differentiate themselves from competitors by engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Although many luxury brands participate in CSR activities, it is unclear if luxury brands communicate these CSR activities to consumers. Therefore, this study aims to explore two questions: are luxury jewelry brands communicating CSR (including women’s empowerment) in their advertising? And how should luxury jewelry brands communicate CSR messages in their advertising?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a content analysis of luxury jewelry print advertisements and in-depth interviews with 20 female jewelry consumers analyzed using grounded theory to construct the luxury brand CSR advertising strategies theory.
Findings
Very few (3%) of print advertisements contain CSR messages, including femvertising and the theory presents four paths for brands to consider when promoting CSR practices, namely, ethical sourcing, cause-related marketing product, a signal of product care and quality and signal of an authentic relationship with the consumer.
Practical implications
The model provides four potential CSR advertising strategies and guidelines luxury jewelry brands can use to create successful advertising campaigns.
Originality/value
Luxury jewelry advertising has not been empirically examined and the study fills gaps in the understanding of luxury brands’ communication strategies. It adds to the knowledge and theorizing of the use and appropriateness of CSR appeals in a luxury brand context.
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Felix Septianto, Yuri Seo, Billy Sung and Fang Zhao
This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of luxury advertising can be improved by matching the emotional (promotion pride vs prevention pride) and luxury value…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of luxury advertising can be improved by matching the emotional (promotion pride vs prevention pride) and luxury value (authenticity vs exclusivity) appeals within advertising messages.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted. Studies 1A and 1B establish the influence of incidental emotions and regulatory focus on consumer preferences for divergent luxury value appeals (exclusivity vs authenticity) within advertisements. Study 2 shows the match-up effects of congruent emotional and luxury value appeals on advertising effectiveness.
Findings
The authors offer causal evidence that promotion pride increases the preference for exclusivity appeals, whereas prevention pride increases the preference for authenticity appeals in luxury advertising.
Research limitations/implications
The study offers a novel perspective into the ways consumers evaluate different value appeals in luxury advertising and establishes the important role played by emotions within such evaluations.
Practical implications
Marketers of luxury products can increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by considering the fit between emotional and luxury value appeals. Specifically, the authors show that the congruent matching of promotion pride with exclusivity appeals and of prevention pride with authenticity appeals within advertising messages can elicit more favorable consumer responses.
Originality/value
The study is the first to illustrate novel “match-up” effects: it shows when and how different luxury value appeals (exclusivity vs authenticity) and emotions (promotion pride vs prevention pride) influence the effectiveness of luxury advertising.
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Nina Michaelidou, Nikoletta Theofania Siamagka, Leonidas Hatzithomas and Luciana Chaput
The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury and non-luxury brands portray women in social media advertising shedding light on their femvertising practices.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury and non-luxury brands portray women in social media advertising shedding light on their femvertising practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative content analysis and multiple correspondence analysis are used to examine female representations in the advertising of personal care products on social media. The sample includes brand posts from 15 brands on two social media platforms.
Findings
The results demonstrate that non-luxury brands use femvertising to a greater extent compared to luxury brands. In particular, this study shows that luxury brands rely more on stereotyped gender expressions and use more sexualisation in their advertising, relative to non-luxury brands.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides an analysis of luxury and non-luxury brands’ femvertising practices on social media. In doing so, this study extends the study of femvertising to the context of luxury and social media, which is currently underexplored. In terms of practical implications, this study sheds light on the extent of the application of femvertising across luxury and non-luxury brands on social media.
Practical implications
The findings drive a number of suggestions for luxury marketers, including the use of more independent gender roles and more racial diversity in their social media advertising and the lessening of unrelated sexuality.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to compare femvertising practices of luxury and non-luxury brands on social media, delineating different facets of femvertising (e.g. gender roles, diversity, etc.) and extending scholarly understanding of the possible facets of this concept.
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This paper aims to examine the influence of different self-presentation strategies (cultural, personal and informational posts) and interactivity on luxury brands’ social media…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the influence of different self-presentation strategies (cultural, personal and informational posts) and interactivity on luxury brands’ social media advertising.
Design/methodology/approach
Three pre-tests and a main experiment collected responses from 459 Chinese participants in total.
Findings
Cultural posts significantly influenced brand attitudes, interest and purchase intention, and the effects were mediated by perceived reinforcement of the brand’s social media account. Informational posts added to perceived informativeness of the brand’s social media account, but were more likely to trigger a perception that the brand was conservative and distancing itself from consumers. Interactivity increased perceived closeness and reduced perceived inactiveness and conservativeness of the brand’s social media account and subsequently improved brand attitudes. Perception of brand’s social media accountfully mediated the effects of self-presentation strategies and interactivity on brand attitudes, interest and purchase intention.
Research limitations/implications
Self-presentation transfers desirable brand associations to luxury brands, reinforces brand image, and subsequently influences responses to luxury brands. Interactivity largely influences relational perceptions and brand attitudes.
Practical implications
Curating content about brand heritage and culture creates a social media self-presentation that is effective and influential on consumers. Brand and product information satisfies informational needs. Interactivity maintains customer relationship.
Originality/value
A theoretical model of luxury brands’ advertising was generated from the findings.
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Ran Huang, Sejin Ha and Sun-Hwa Kim
This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of social media communication in luxury brand advertising from a narrative persuasion perspective. Specific purposes are to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of social media communication in luxury brand advertising from a narrative persuasion perspective. Specific purposes are to examine how characteristics of a message giver (i.e. comprehension fluency, imagery fluency) and message receiver (i.e. transportability, need for affect) influence the narrative persuasion process which further affects consumers’ subsequent responses (i.e. positive affect, brand social networking services [SNS] attitudes and intentions) within the luxury hotel industry.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was performed via Amazon MTurk. A total of 193 usable responses from SNS users were obtained. The structural equation modeling approach was used to test the proposed model.
Findings
Results show that comprehension fluency and imagery fluency as message-giver factors and transportability as a message-receiver factor positively affect narrative transportation. In addition, narrative transportation leads to positive affect, brand SNS attitudes and visit intentions, while positive affect also influences brand SNS attitudes and visit intentions. Furthermore, additional analyses indicate that narrative transportation mediates the effects of comprehension fluency on affect and brand SNS as well as the effects of transportability on positive affect, brand SNS attitude and visit intention.
Originality/value
Characteristics of a message giver and message receiver altogether are not well understood in the current literature. Empirical evidence in this study contributes to the social media marketing and brand advertising research fields.
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Joshua Fogel and Marcelle Kim Setton
A number of types of scarcity messages are often used in Internet advertisements, but all these types have not been directly compared to each other.
Abstract
Purpose
A number of types of scarcity messages are often used in Internet advertisements, but all these types have not been directly compared to each other.
Design/methodology/approach
College students (n = 789) were surveyed about five advertising choices for luxury skin-care products consisting of scarcity messages of high-demand, low-stock, limited-time, countdown timer and regular advertising without any scarcity message. Outcomes were product classification attitudes of functional and symbolic and psychological attitudes of persuasion knowledge and advertising skepticism.
Findings
The study found that high-demand message had greater functional attitudes and greater symbolic attitudes than regular advertising. Limited-time message had greater symbolic attitudes than regular advertising. High-demand message had lower advertising skepticism attitudes than regular advertising.
Practical implications
The authors recommend that when a luxury skin-care product is in high demand, that marketers should use high-demand messages in their advertising. Marketers of luxury skin-care products may also benefit from using limited-time message advertisements.
Originality/value
This is the first study to directly compare the scarcity message advertising types of high-demand, low-stock, limited-time, countdown timer with regular advertising without any scarcity message.
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Cheng-Yue Yin, Nan Bi, Patrick Poon and Yang Sun
The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of endorser ethnicity (local Chinese vs Western) and portrayal (smart vs sexy) on Chinese women’s attitudes toward…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of endorser ethnicity (local Chinese vs Western) and portrayal (smart vs sexy) on Chinese women’s attitudes toward luxury advertisements and brands, as well as any moderating effect appearance self-esteem has on the above-mentioned interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Two online experiments were conducted. Study 1 was a 2×2 factorial design (with 280 participants), while Study 2 was a 2×2 ×2 factorial design (with 320 participants). Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test and simple effect analysis.
Findings
Results demonstrated that Chinese female consumers are more likely to have a positive attitude toward advertisements for luxury goods and brands when a local Chinese (vs Western) endorser is used and portrayed as smart (vs sexy), particularly if consumers have low appearance self-esteem.
Research limitations/implications
The research focused only on female consumers and only one product type was used for the experiments. The use of controls for potential confounding effects was insufficient in this study design.
Practical implications
To maximize profits, marketers should choose the most appropriate combination of endorser ethnicity and portrayal in the Chinese luxury goods market. Accordingly, if adopting a localization strategy and using a Chinese female endorser, the endorser should be portrayed as smart rather than sexy. In contrast, if a luxury brand adopts an internationalization strategy and uses the same Western female endorser as in other countries, it is more effective to portray her as sexy rather than smart. Furthermore, advertisers should pay particular attention to Chinese female consumers who have low appearance self-esteem when advertising their product and/or brand.
Originality/value
Compared with past studies concerned with consumers’ perceptions of endorser image in advertisements through a focus on endorser ethnicity, this study linked endorser portrayal with his/her ethnicity and discussed the interaction effects between these two factors on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand portrayed in the advertisement. The findings herein contribute new insights to the body of work on luxury marketing and endorser advertising.
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Nirma Sadamali Jayawardena, Sara Quach, Chinmoy Bandyopadhyay and Park Thaichon
This study examined the differential effects of printed advertisements with luxury and nonluxury brands on consumer brand attitude persuasion using a qualitative experimental…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined the differential effects of printed advertisements with luxury and nonluxury brands on consumer brand attitude persuasion using a qualitative experimental approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted a qualitative experimental approach and the authors conducted two experiments over six months. In the first experiment, participants were asked to view five print advertisements related to five different luxury brands. In the second experiment, the same participants were asked to view another five print advertisements on non-luxury brands. The qualitative thematic differences for each brand were analyzed using NVivo software, employing the theoretical assumptions of Petty and Cacioppo's (1981) elaboration likelihood model (ELM).
Findings
In experiments 1 and 2, it was identified that brand experience, personalized brand experience, product quality, product quantity, personal image-conscious, nonpersonal image-conscious, affordability and unaffordability as the main thematic findings leading to consumer attitude persuasion.
Practical implications
The two main contributions are as follows: theoretically, applying a social psychology theory to the advertising industry offers an understanding of the social cognition stages of a human mindset. As a practical implication, this study's findings guide advertising agencies, marketers and salespeople regarding how to design effective print advertisements in a way that persuades consumer attitudes.
Originality/value
Through the theoretical assumptions of Petty and Cacioppo's (1981) ELM, this paper can be considered one of the first studies to combine social psychology and advertising to investigate the differential effects on consumer brand attitude persuasion for luxury and nonluxury brands.
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Jae-Eun Kim, Stephen Lloyd, Keji Adebeshin and Ju-Young M. Kang
The purpose of this paper is to advance the theory and practice of luxury and masstige brand advertising effectiveness by decoding symbolism imbedded in fashion advertising.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the theory and practice of luxury and masstige brand advertising effectiveness by decoding symbolism imbedded in fashion advertising.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a semiotic analysis of masstige brand advertising to discover those messages and themes that emerge and that communicate masstige values.
Findings
The research identifies identitary values that are exclusive to masstige brands, and those they share with luxury brands.
Research limitations/implications
The purpose of this research is not to make generalizations; rather, its purpose is to offer insights into those themes that define luxury and masstige brand identitary values.
Practical implications
The research provides insights into the key identifiers, which may inspire further research and provide marketing insights for the operation management in luxury fashion.
Originality/value
The research contributes to luxury and masstige retail brand research by identifying the symbolic meaning of luxury advertising.