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The aim of this study is to contribute to previous research by investigating the principle of regulatory congruence in two-sided advertising messages. Additionally, it addresses the underlying mechanisms of the congruence effect.

The study encompasses two experiments: a two-level between-subjects design, manipulating the message’s frame (prevention vs promotion), while measuring respondents’ chronic self-regulatory focus (prevention vs promotion), and a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, manipulating processing depth (central vs peripheral) and message frame (prevention- vs promotion-oriented), while measuring individuals’ chronic self-regulatory focus (prevention vs promotion).

Study 1 shows that in two-sided messages, the effect of regulatory congruence on attitudes toward the message depends on individuals’ self-regulatory focus: a congruence effect was only found in promotion-focused individuals. This congruence effect was driven by processing fluency. The second study builds on the first one by exploring the absence of a congruence effect found in prevention-focused individuals. Its results show that in prevention-focused individuals, processing depth influences regulatory congruence effects in two-sided messages. Under peripheral processing, prevention-focused individuals have more positive attitudes toward the issue when two-sided messages are congruent with their self-regulatory focus. Under central processing, on the other hand, a regulatory incongruence effect on attitudes occurs.

This study complements prior research by examining the validity of the regulatory congruence principle in the context of two-sided messages. Moreover, it addresses the underlying mechanisms driving regulatory (in)congruence effects. As such, our study contributes both to the existing research on two-sided messages and that on regulatory focus.

This study aims to investigate the joint effect of three factors – processing fluency, the individuals’ need for cognition (NFC) and mood – on consumer skepticism toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages.

Study 1 uses a 2 (fluency: high versus low) × 2 (NFC: high versus low) design. In Study 2, a three-way interaction between fluency, NFC and mood was explored.

Individuals high in need for cognition responded more positively after reading a CSR message that is difficult to process. On the other hand, people low in NFC exhibited a higher level of skepticism toward CSR messages with low processing fluency. In addition, such an effect was moderated by mood. Positive mood (versus negative mood) increased dopamine levels, which further reduced skepticism.

Hospitality marketers should not simply assume that all consumers process information in the same fashion and, therefore, design their CSR message using the “one size fits all” strategy. It is critical for them to understand the importance of how to present the CSR messages to communicate with customers more effectively.

CSR has been increasingly used as a marketing tool by firms because of its positive effect on company reputation and customers’ purchase intentions. However, one of the greatest challenges corporate marketers are facing with regard to CSR programs is consumer skepticism. No prior research investigated the impact of processing fluency, individuals’ need for cognition and mood on consumer skepticism. This study fills this gap in the hospitality literature.

This study aims to explore the role of the linguistic style used in the brand-posted social media content on consumer engagement in the Fintech domain.

A total of 3,286 tweets (registering nearly 1.35 million impressions) published by 10 leading Fintech unicorns in India were extracted using the Twitter API. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionary was used to analyse the linguistic characteristics of the shared tweets. Negative Binomial Regression (NBR) was used for testing the hypotheses.

This study finds that using drive words and cognitive language increases consumer engagement with Fintech messages via the central route of information processing. Further, affective words and conversational language drive consumer engagement through the peripheral route of information processing.

The study extends the literature on brand engagement by unveiling the effect of linguistic features used to design social media messages.

The study provides guidance to social media marketers of Fintech brands regarding what content strategies best enhance consumer engagement. The linguistic style to improve online consumer engagement (OCE) is detailed.

The study’s findings contribute to the growing stream of Fintech literature by exploring the role of linguistic style on consumer engagement in social media communication. The study’s findings indicate the relevance of the dual processing mechanism of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) as an explanatory theory for evaluating consumer engagement with messages posted by Fintech brands.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of a competition mind-set on persuasion. Specifically, this research examined the effect of a fit between a competition mind-set and messages on the persuasive effectiveness.

Participants were randomly assigned to a condition of 2 (competition: competition mind-set vs control) × 2 (message: concrete feasibility vs abstract desirability) between-subjects design.

This research demonstrated that participants in the competition mind-set (vs control) condition expressed the messages as more persuasive and evaluated the product more favorably when they were exposed to concrete feasibility messages. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by a local processing style.

The present research provides a useful marketing communication strategy. For the effectiveness of messages, concrete feasibility-related merits should be emphasized in competition contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the cognitive processes that the study subjects experienced when exposed to different types of public service advertisements about Special Olympics.

A total of 529 cognitive responses from 141 college students were analyzed using the content analysis method.

The results of the frequency count of cognitive responses indicated that low-empathy (LE) subjects engaged in extensive cognitive efforts to process the information as much as high-empathy (HE) subjects. Additionally, the content analysis of the qualitative data showed that the two most frequently cited categories of positive thoughts for HE subjects were good cause/importance of Special Olympics and positive feeling related to volunteering for Special Olympics. For LE subjects, the most frequently identified category in positive thoughts was altruist/moral responsibility, followed by volunteer intention and positive feeling related to volunteering for Special Olympics.

The paper provides valuable information on cognitive responses to public service advertising messages.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms can use social media such as Facebook to recruit top job prospects.

In the context of a fictitious event presumably sponsored by a potential employer, a sample of university students became members of a new private and secret Facebook user group dedicated to this event for a period of four days. They were exposed to event sponsorship activation messages varying systematically with respect to the mode of processing (i.e. passive or active) and their focus (i.e. the brand or the event).

The results show that their expectations as regards the salary that they would require to become employees were higher in the active mode of processing. Also, their attitude toward the sponsor as an employer was more favorable when the activation messages focussed on the brand rather than on the event. In addition, further analyses showed that the effects of message focus and mode of processing on the attitudinal responses toward the sponsoring employers were mediated by the degree of elaboration and richness of social interactions of the Facebook group's members as well as their attitude toward the activation messages.

Managers seeking to gain a recruiting edge through their social media presence should use online messages that stimulate more active processing and that have high entertainment value since this leads to more favorable responses toward the employer. These messages should insist more on the brand than on the event that is sponsored.

This study is the first study to foray into the usage of social networking sites for recruitment purposes. It represents one of the few research efforts to monitor the interactions of users in a social media platform by means of a controlled experiment performed in situ through the creation of an ad hoc Facebook group.

Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cause involvement, ability to process, and motivation to process on consumer judgments of organizational image following exposure to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) message.

This study relies upon an experimental manipulation of message complexity and uses quantitative survey data. The data were analyzed via tests of means differences, hierarchical multiple OLS regression, and mediation analysis.

The authors found that CSR’s influence on image is unaffected by message complexity – at least directly. However, CSR’s influence on image is intensified by greater cause involvement and information processing ability, which indicates that central route processing is more likely to move the needle on such assessments. Additionally, involvement serves as an important mediator on the effects that ability and motivation to process have on ratings of organizational image.

The findings suggest the necessity for communicators of CSR to foster cause involvement in consumers if social responsibility efforts are to resonate and garner positive results. Additionally, should organizations wish to create deeper elaboration about CSR messages among consumers, simple, straightforward messaging appears most effective. Complex messages can, however, serve as valuable peripheral cues among certain audiences.

The author examined effects of endorser type and message framing on visual attention and ad effectiveness in health ads, including the moderator of involvement. This paper aims to discuss this issue.

An experiment was conducted with a 2 (celebrity vs. expert) × 2 (positive vs. negative framing) between-subject factorial design. Eye-tracking measured visual attention and a questionnaire measured ad effectiveness and product involvement.

Experimental data from 78 responses showed no vampire effect in the health advertisements. Celebrity endorsement with negative message framing received more attention and had less ad recall than that with positive message framing. Negative and positive message framing attracted the same amount of attention and ad recall in the expert endorsement condition. High involvement participants paid more attention to the ad message with the expert than that with the celebrity, but ad recall was not significantly increased. Low involvement participants exhibited the same attention to the ad message with the expert and with the celebrity, but had greater recall of the ad message with the expert. Visual attention to the endorser was associated with ad attitude but not with ad recall. Ad attitude impacted behavioral intention.

Studies examining influences of celebrity and message framing on ad effectiveness have focused on the response to advertising stimuli, not the information process. The author provides empirical evidence of the viewers' information processing of endorsers and health messages, and its relationship with ad effectiveness. The study contributes to the literature by combining endorser and message framing in health ads to promote public health communication from the information processing perspective.

President Obama embraced social media and remains one of the most followed persons on Twitter. The focus of this study is twofold: to assess how the President’s use of Twitter affected (a) Millennials’ perception of Obama and (b) Millennials’ interest and likelihood to participate in the political process. Study findings provide support for a model derived from information processing theory. Results also suggest that message orientation (or perceived favorability) predicted source credibility, which stems from message content as well as the Twitter medium by which the message was delivered. Implications for study findings – including optimal strategies for cultivating a social media presence – are discussed.

The study aimed to investigate consumers’ views on criteria to be claimed for organic processed foods and information to be communicated.

An online survey was carried out among 439 adults living in Italy, users of processed organic food, to gather opinions on criteria that processing of organic food should meet and on the terms that best define “careful” processing. Next, a conjoint design was applied to examine the effects of five independent factors on consumers' ideal concept of “organic”; these were potential information on packaging, processing, additives and product quality, and the type of food product. Three products with different processing level were selected: an ultra-processed and multi-ingredient product (vegetable burger), a processed product preserved by canning (peas in glass jar) and a minimally processed product (bagged salad).

The findings highlight that consumers attach more importance to the organic food carrier than the informational messages. Information on the processing and packaging follows, with messages on quality and on additives seemingly of minor importance. Three clusters of respondents were identified: those driven primarily by the type of organic food (24.6%), those placing more emphasis on product processing (21.3%), and a third larger cluster (54.1%) who expressed almost equal importance to all the factors considered. As for the processing of organic products, “eco-friendly” was the best message.

This paper offers insights into what best outlines the ideal concept of “processed organic food” as seen by organic food consumers, to be communicated to better guide their purchasing decisions.