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This study aims at building a framework for the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) response under the social media environment. The elaboration likelihood model was adopted to explain how message source credibility and message appeal jointly influence the eWOM response process, while source credibility provides a central route and message appeal plays a peripheral route for information processing.

This study used a scenario design to test the decision behavior in the Facebook environment through message content manipulation. A convenience sampling method was adopted in this study. We collected 203 valid questionnaires and tested this research model with LISREL 8.8. This study used a two-stage structural equation modeling data analysis method with LISREL 8.8, by which the measurement model was assessed through confirmatory factor analysis for the reliability and validity of the research model, and the causal relationship among factors was assessed through exploratory factor analysis .

The results showed that 53% variance of eWOM responses could be explained by message source credibility and emotional message appeal from the elaboration likelihood model perspective. Message source credibility plays a central role in the social media environment. The model was further tested with a demographic profile analysis for both gender and age. It is found that a female user is influenced by both source credibility and emotional appeal, but a male user is only influenced by message source credibility. The mature age group is more responsive to eWOM messages.

The sample might not represent all social networking sites (SNS) users. The participants represent a small segment of the Facebook population around the globe. Secondly, this research design could be improved by using more recreational messages to test the effects of message appeal and message source credibility. Thirdly, the mobile phone is a type of physical product rather than an experiential product. Future studies could try to identify the same eWOM determinants with different SNS functions, for example, the inbox message function. Similarly, Facebook users are allowed to use both text and pictures to disseminate promotional messages.

This study provides an insight for SNS administrators regarding the determinants of driving more customer responses toward a message. Message source credibility and message appeal are identified as the antecedents for eWOM responses in SNS. Companies could make use of this finding to improve their marketing communication strategy in SNS. The finding can inform administrators of the importance of focusing on both customers’ psychological state and message attributes during the dissemination of promotional messages to improve the efficiency of the promotional effort. Companies aimed at receiving different types of eWOM responses in SNS may need to consider other factors for creating their promotional messages.

Previous studies have mainly identified factors influencing eWOM responses from the people-centered variables such as personal traits and social relationships. This study proposes that the eWOM response is a dual information processing process that can be explained by the ELM. When a user processes information in SNS, he follows both the central route and the peripheral route (i.e. source credibility and message appeal) which can influence the eWOM response. It is the first time that the source credibility is investigated as the central route in ELM model.

Although saving for retirement is critical, many people are reluctant to contribute money now in anticipation of a future event, namely their retirement. This study aims to investigate the interaction effect between message frame and message appeal on individual preparedness for retirement, specifically in terms of an individual’s willingness to contribute to retirement savings.

Across three studies, the authors show that message frames with a gain-orientation are more persuasive when self-oriented rather than oriented towards socially distant others. In Study 1, the authors use a 2 (gain-loss message frame) × 3 (self, close-other, distant-other message appeal) experimental design with ad copy manipulating the scenarios. In Study 2, the authors replicate and extend Study 1 to validate the findings. In Study 3, the authors overlay life-stage to determine how consumers differ in terms of their willingness to contribute to retirement.

Across the studies the authors find that message frame and message appeal influence consumer preparedness for retirement. The authors investigate these effects in terms of willingness to contribute to retirement savings (Studies 1–3) as well as satisfaction with retirement savings, anticipated retirement enjoyment, positive emotions and negative emotions (Studies 1 and 2).

While a substantive amount of research has been devoted to retirement planning, gaps remain as to the efficacy of communication message strategies on influencing retirement preparedness. This research seeks to contribute towards this literature stream by uncovering the ways in which individuals can be encouraged to contribute towards retirement planning.

Studying the effect of social media advertising on consumer engagement, this study analyzes the impact of shared-experience versus personal message strategies, informational versus transformational creative appeals and low-involvement products versus high-involvement products. It aims to determine how best to combine ad elements to affect consumer engagement on different levels.

Using an online survey among 448 Facebook users, an experimental factorial design of 2 (message strategy conditions) X 2 (creative appeal conditions) X 2 (product types: TV vs. frozen pizza) was used. Each advertisement was evaluated on three facets of engagement: cognitive, psychological and behavioral.

Results indicate that informational appeal is preferable for all conditions. The effectiveness of message strategy differs by product type, and interactions between message and appeal are significant only for the high-involvement product. Additionally, it indicates that message strategy is most significant in affecting behavioral engagement and not necessarily cognitive or psychological engagement.

To develop effective Facebook ads, practitioners should use a personal/informational combination when working with high-involvement products and a shared-experience/informational combination when working with low-involvement products.

An original grid for integrating message strategy and creative appeal is constructed in this paper. Besides behavioral engagement, it also evaluates cognitive and psychological engagement. By comparing products with a high and low involvement level, it provides marketers with actionable recommendations to increase social media campaign effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how hospitality companies can best explain controversial corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to consumers who may not agree with the CSR activity. This research explores message framing through emotional and cognitive appeals to influence consumer perceptions of the Gideon Bible in USA hotel rooms. The study uses the theory of deontic justice to measure the impacts of messaging on consumer perceptions of the morality of the Gideon Bible as suicide prevention in hotels and its relation to controversial CSR initiatives.

The study uses an experimental study design via a self-administered survey to analyze participants’ perceptions of the placement of the Gideon Bible in hotel rooms and participants’ attitudes toward CSR initiatives based on deontic justice and religion using different message framing conditions.

Results show that religion was a major determinant of attitude towards the Gideon Bible, but the sentiment analysis also revealed that negative perceptions can be mitigated through message framing via emotional and cognitive appeals. Additionally, the cognitive appeal did impact CSR perceptions, as did identifying as Christian. Moral outrage emerged as a significant moderator for the relationships between message framing, attitudes toward the Gideon Bible and CSR.

This study provides an extension of deontic justice research to examine justice traits in accepting controversial CSR.

Guilt appeals are increasingly being used in road safety campaigns, despite recent research that has raised doubts about their effectiveness and the potential for triggering defensive responses. Building on the extended parallel process model, this study aims to add to this growing body of research by evaluating whether combining a hope message with guilt appeals can solve this problem.

An online experiment with a 2 (Appeal type: Guilt vs Guilt+hope) × 2 (Language intensity: Low vs High) between-subjects design was conducted. A total of 399 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were randomized to view one of the four advertisements discouraging texting while driving (TWD). Their affective responses, perceptions about the advertisements and intentions to not TWD were measured.

The results showed that compared to guilt-only appeals, guilt+hope appeals directly reduced defensive responses (i.e. perceived manipulative intent and anger) across varying levels of language intensity. In addition, guilt+hope appeals mitigated the negative impacts of manipulative intent on intended emotions and intentions to not TWD.

Findings of this study mark the first to support the idea that communicating hope within guilt appeals is a promising social marketing strategy to discourage TWD.

Although situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) is centered on rationality and cognitive information processing, it ignores that people are also driven by irrationality and non-cognitive information processing. The purpose of this study aims to fill this gap by examining how gender stereotypes, based on perceived spokesperson sex influence the public’s perceptions of crisis response messages.

A 2 (industry type: automotive vs daycare industry) × 2 (spokesperson’s sex: male vs female) × 2 (crisis response appeal: rational vs emotional) between-subject online experiment was conducted to examine the effect of gender stereotype in crisis communication.

Results showed that either matching spokesperson sex with sex differed industry or matching sex differed industry with appropriate crisis response appeal can generate a more positive evaluation of the spokesperson and the organization. The results also revealed under which circumstances, the attractiveness of different sex of the spokesperson can either promote or mitigate people’s perceptions of the organization. Furthermore, when people are aware of a spokesperson’s sex, in a female-associated industry, a mismatching effect of a positive violation of a male-related stereotype overrides a matching effect of a female-related stereotype in crisis communication.

This study is among the first to identify how the gender of a spokesperson and industry type affect publics’ crisis response.

This study aims to understand consumers' reactions to hospitality corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns under different resource scarcity reminders, an important but overlooked contextual factor, and examine how such scarcity reminders interact with message framing, a widely used technique in CSR communication.

Three experimental studies were conducted. Studies 1 and 2 examined the main effect of resource scarcity reminders (environmental vs personal) on consumer engagement via self-other orientation. Study 3 further investigated the interactive effect between resource scarcity reminders (environmental vs personal) and message framing (gain vs loss) with hope as a key mediator.

Studies 1 and 2 show that environmental (vs personal) scarcity activates a more salient other orientation, subsequently increasing consumers' donation and word-of-mouth intentions. Study 3 reveals that environmental (vs personal) scarcity makes people more hopeful with gain-framed messages. Moreover, the elevated hope enhances perceived efficacy (attitude toward the company), leading to higher donation (word-of-mouth) intention.

Hospitality marketers could remind consumers of the harsh environment to elicit other orientation and encourage CSR participation. Using gain-framed messages or other hope-inducing appeals would be particularly advantageous in engaging consumers in CSR campaigns during heightened environmental scarcity.

Focusing on consumer responses to CSR campaigns, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to reveal reminders of resource scarcity as a novel antecedent factor and further uncover how such reminders interact with message framing to affect CSR engagement.

Low-fit brand extensions offer several potential benefits, yet their success is challenging. Building on construal level theory, this study aims to investigate how different advertising appeals can improve the evaluations of low-fit brand extensions through two different processes (cognitive and affective).

Two experiments were conducted with US consumers. Study 1 used a 2 (extension fit: high, low) × 2 (ad appeal: abstract, concrete) between-subjects design. Study 2 applied a 2 (brand associations: promotion, prevention) × 2 (ad appeal: promotion, prevention) between-subjects design. Multivariate analyses and follow-up means comparisons were used to analyse data.

Study 1 found that an abstract ad appeal is more effective for promoting low-fit brand extension because it improves the perception of fit. Study 2 showed promotion vs prevention ad appeals lead to better evaluation of low-fit brand extensions when matched with parent brand associations (promotion vs prevention) in terms of construal level. This matching effect is underpinned by processing fluency.

Ad appeals can influence low-fit brand extension evaluation by influencing the perception of fit (cognitive process) or processing fluency (affective process). Future research could consider different ad appeals and other construal related factors to generalise these findings.

Marketers can design different ad appeals to effectively advertise low-fit brand extensions. These findings can guide managers in the development of effective advertising strategies.

This research offers a new perspective on how ad appeals can enhance low-fit brand extension evaluation.

The study aims to analyse the possibilities of positioning the anti-consumption through different communication appeals. It analyses commercial and social marketing campaigns in the global context, with the aim to recommend communication guidelines to empower anti-consumption among different industries.

The study conducted a qualitative content analysis of marketing communication focused on anti-consumption promotion.

The results bring a comprehensive overview of possible communication appeals of anti-consumption and prove feasibility of their implementation. The analysis of used appeals leads to recommendations for developing effective marketing communication for promoting anti-consumption.

The recommendations can serve both for-profit and non-profit organization as a showcase to discover the idea of anti-consumption as communication appeals. By empowering anti-consumption, consumers could reach personal welfare and participate in social equilibrium. Also, the study brings recommendations for further research considering the evaluation of the implemented strategies.

The study covers a gap in published literature focusing on comprehensive analysis of existing anti-consumption marketing communication strategies and appeals and brings an overview of potential strategies for empowering anti-consumption among modern consumers.

Effective post-disaster communication is essential for destination marketing organizations to encourage visitors following natural disasters. This research aimed to analyze the impact of two typical types of post-disaster communication messages – solidarity messages and testimonial messages – on post-disaster visiting intention. This research proposes effective communication strategies for post-disaster destination marketing.

For the case of Jiuzhai Valley, China, which experienced market recovery after two years of rebuilding following a 2017 earthquake, this study designed three contextual experiments based on post-disaster communication scenarios on the Internet and social media to test the causal chain between recovery message types and post-disaster visiting intentions. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance, independent samples t-tests, and the bootstrap method.

The results indicate that both solidarity messages and testimonial messages evoked higher visiting intention than the no-message group. However, solidarity messages (vs testimonial messages) were more effective when shared on the destination management organization's official account than when they were shared on an influencer's account, with their effects being mediated by the symbolic – as opposed to the hedonic – value of tourist behavior.

Destination management organizations should actively carry out marketing communication through the Internet and social media for areas that have experienced disasters. Crisis communicators should consider inviting popular social media influencers to visit the destination and share their experiences to enhance market confidence, while also paying more attention to the operation of official social media accounts.

This study sheds light on the use of the Internet and social media as tools for post-disaster marketing. By expanding on post-disaster communication theory, this study fills a research gap regarding the effectiveness of tourism marketing strategies after a crisis.