Search results

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.

This study aims to investigate the extent and pattern of the influence of one of the most important decision-making tools in the context of social commerce. This study demonstrates how much customer testimonials (including verified purchases and ordinary users) can influence the sales rank of experience and search goods.

The data were collected by text mining and performing a content analysis on the XML documents of Web pages and processing them. For search goods, 22,311 opinions were recorded regarding 95 mobile phones. Additionally, for experience goods, 67,817 opinions were recorded regarding 162 books in the Amazon online store. The data were analyzed by functional regression method in longitudinal data analysis.

In terms of importance, the opinions and recommendations of verified purchases had a 60% greater impact on the sales rank of experience goods than the opinions and recommendations of ordinary users. In search goods, the opinions of ordinary users had a greater impact than the opinions of verified purchases. The historical effect of the opinions of ordinary users at the end of the review period on sales rank was evident, while the historical effect of the verified purchase viewpoints during the review period had a nonlinear curve. The results showed that it was necessary to increase the volume of comments to increase their reliability in experience goods.

Measuring the effect of customer testimonials helps the managers of retail websites design algorithms and online suggestion systems, thereby improving the sales of their products by providing information desired by customers.

Individuals can be a source of information and influence the buying decision process of others by sharing their experiences. This issue helps reduce the purchase risk and explains the importance of interaction and sharing the customer’s experience.

Analyzing the impact of customer testimonials by separating verified purchases and ordinary users is one of the advantages of this study. The quantitative estimation of the impact of recommendations and the provision of a model of their historical effect is one of the approaches not addressed in similar studies.

This study examined the differential effects of printed advertisements with luxury and nonluxury brands on consumer brand attitude persuasion using a qualitative experimental 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).

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.

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.

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.

This study aims to examine the tourists' visit intention by watching deepfake destination videos, using Information Manipulation and Media Richness Theory.

This study conducted a primary survey utilizing a structured questionnaire. In total, 1,360 tourists were surveyed, and quantitative data analysis was done using PLS-SEM.

The results indicate that the factors that affect the tourists' visit intention after watching deepfake videos include information manipulation tactics, trust and media richness. This study also found that perceived deception and cognitive load do not influence the tourists' visit intention.

The originality/salience of this study lies in the fact that this is possibly among the first to combine the Media Richness Theory and Information Manipulation for understanding tourists' visit intention and post-viewing deepfake destination videos.

This study aims to examine the visual effects of cause-related marketing (CM) posts on Instagram, with a focus on image resolution and consumer engagement.

Three studies were conducted through an experimental design. Study 1 (N = 155) uncovered the mediation underlying the effects of image quality (low and high image resolution). Study 2 (N = 160) replicated the findings of the first study and extended the investigation by examining the mediator (fluency) and moderator (visual sensitivity). Study 3 (N = 291) further extended the effects of image resolution by demonstrating its interactive effects with the visual complexity of an Instagram post design in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment.

The serial mediation analysis demonstrated that high image resolution CM posts yielded more favorable evaluations in terms of brand credibility and information costs saved, subsequently leading to positive brand attitudes, purchase intentions and increased Instagram engagement. Processing fluency mediated image effects on brand credibility, while individual differences in visual sensitivity moderated the image effects. The image resolution effects were greater for visually complex CM posts compared to simple ones.

To one's best knowledge, little to no research has examined the image quality of Instagram posts in the context of CM and the extent to which such visual cues can affect consumers' brand evaluations and engagement on the platform.

Despite its practical significance, there exists a notable gap in understanding the specific role of CM posts on Instagram and the impact of visual elements on consumer behaviors. The current research findings aim to bridge the research gap.

This paper aims to explore the promotion decisions of heterogeneous sellers on a decentralized platform under competitive conditions and analyze how seller behaviors impact platform profit, seller revenue, buyer surplus and social welfare.

This paper considers a Cournot model consisting of a platform charging a commission rate and two sellers with different conversion rates and browsing costs. Promotion efforts by sellers can increase traffic, but they also incur promotion costs for sellers. The sellers decide on promotion effort by weighing these two effects. The authors also explore the equilibrium when the platform charges a fixed usage fee.

The seller’s profit improves as its conversion rate increases and worsens as browsing costs increase. Also, increasing the commission rate charged by the platform makes the seller invest less in promotional efforts. Therefore, the platform must consider this trade-off to determine an optimal rate. The analysis shows that the seller with a high conversion rate and high browsing cost plays a greater role in generating more overall revenue. When the market favors such a seller, the platform tends to charge less in order not to impair its profitability.

This paper incorporates conversion rate, buyer’s browsing cost, unit promotion cost and the fee charged by the platform into the model to study sellers’ promotion decisions on decentralized platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When examining promotion strategies, the study focuses on the change in marketing and public relations strategies based on the incorporation of information and communication technologies and, in particular, the use of the internet.

This study draws on a qualitative analysis of the different strategies used by traditional agencies and online agencies in Spain from the mid-19th century to the present. This analysis shows how traditional communication strategies survived at the beginning of the 21st century, together with other more innovative ones, while some disappeared, being eliminated by the new online travel agencies, which created a particular conception of marketing and communication. This paper is divided into the following parts: the introduction; the beginnings of travel agency promotion in the 20th century; the evolution of promotion in travel agencies since the late 20th century; communication innovation at the beginning of the 21st century; online travel agencies; and conclusions.

This study shows that although online agencies did not manage to position themselves with a large turnover, they generated advantages and sharpened their imagination to create a new, more economical advertising model, eliminating the costs of public relations and advertising campaigns. In addition, they allowed clients to have greater independence when making their reservations, while enabling them to monitor the tastes of potential and real clients and add blogs so that consumers could express their degree of satisfaction with the product or services provided by the agency.

The focus of attention is the travel agency sector in Spain and, more specifically, communication. Studies on travel agencies and their marketing have been very scarce and partial, impeding professionals in the tourism sector from having a broad vision to direct their promotional and public relations actions. The originality of this article lies in its making a comparison between two different visions of tourism marketing and, specifically, of travel agencies, that is, the traditional vision and the innovative one. It thus helps all professionals in the sector to value and improve their marketing and communication strategies.

This study investigates two important research questions. First, does YouTube advertising create value for customers to activate their inspired-by state (motivation), or does customer engagement in advertised brands have a mediating role? Second, does the inspired-by state influence customers’ inspired-to state (action) to purchase the advertised brand?

This study employs Ducoffe’s advertising value model to investigate how customers’ engagement mediates perceived advertising value and their inspired-by state. The authors split customer inspiration into two primary states: inspired-by (i.e. the early interest in taking action) and inspired-to (i.e. the intention to act), demonstrating that the latter is positively influenced by the former. The study employs SmartPLS V3.2.9 to analyze survey data from 360 respondents in Pakistan – an emerging market.

This study found that informativeness, entertainment, creativity and incentives exerted a significant positive impact on perceived advertising value. The perceived advertising value of YouTube ads fails to influence customers’ inspired-by state directly; however, customer engagement positively mediates the relationship between the perceived advertising value of YouTube and customers’ inspired-by state. Finally, the customers’ inspired-by state is successfully converted into an inspired-to state.

This study has numerous practical implications for advertisers and marketers seeking to optimize social media advertising and marketing performance.

YouTube ads shape consumer behavior, empowering informed choices; authentic engagement transforms the advertising landscape.

This study is the first to examine the perceived advertising value of YouTube ads for eliciting customers’ inspired-by state, assessing the mediating role of customer engagement as a mechanism. Moreover, the authors examine the role of customers’ inspired-by state as a predictor of the inspired-to state.

The study investigates the antecedents and consequences of digital ad avoidance in the e-commerce industry. This study aims to investigate how digital ad avoidance relates to internet usage over time, using a two-wave longitudinal research design. This study also explores how real-world advertising clutter (clutter and non-clutter) affects these relationships.

The data were collected from 192 online consumers in Türkiye, and a two-wave longitudinal research design and structural equation modeling were conducted to test the hypotheses of the conceptual model.

The results indicated that perceived goal impediment and prior negative experience had positive effects on affective avoidance in both ad-clutter and non-clutter periods. Further, affective avoidance had a significant positive effect on both cognitive and behavioral avoidance in either period. In addition, ad clutter moderated the effects of cognitive and behavioral avoidance on online purchase intention.

This research provides new evidence of the crucial role perceived goal impediment, prior negative experience and perceived control each play in driving digital ad avoidance. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in the field by exploring how advertising clutter (both cluttered and non-cluttered settings) moderates these relationships through a two-wave longitudinal study.