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The purpose of this paper was to explore the uses and gratifications sought by the primary target market (pre-adolescent and adolescent groups) of a new social media site, TikTok. The paper also sought to identify how much of a role the motivations of self-expression, social recognition and fame-seeking (important considerations within adolescent psychology development) played in the use of this particular social networking sites (SNS).

Following meticulous sampling procedures, ensuring national representation and stringent ethical practices, self-completion questionnaires were sent to pupils at 60 schools in the five key administrative regions of Denmark. The data was examined using analysis of variation tests, followed by a two-step cluster analysis using the log-likelihood method.

The findings indicated that passive consumptive behaviours were prevalent among both pre-adolescent and adolescent groups and that the gratification of entertainment/affect was the primary driver behind all behaviours: passive consumptive, participatory and contributory. Pre-adolescent groups were more active and heavier users of TikTok than were adolescents. In line with adolescent psychology theories, the authors found that contributory behaviours were motivated by a wish to expand one’s social networks, by fame-seeking, self-expression and identity-creation needs.

Pre-adolescent consumers are heavier users and interact more with the TikTok SNS than adolescent consumers, including in relation to seeking out new social networks. This is potentially of great concern as children are less likely to understand the hidden dangers of online predatorial and privacy issues.

The authors extend their understanding of the contributory functions of SNS. Motivations of fame-seeking, self-expression and social recognition are key to understanding the uses and gratifications of TikTok consumers, especially during the adolescent years; contrary to scholarly assertions that these motives are often unconscious, the sample of this study assertively and explicitly confirmed these needs. A further novel insight of this study was that both the gratifications of relationship building and relationship maintenance were sought out via the contributory, rather than the participatory function of TikTok.

The purpose of this paper is to report the development and validation of a scale for measuring “post-series depression” (PSD), a concept that describes the feelings of melancholy and longing that can occur when an individual’s all-consuming film or screen product comes to an end. Although largely ignored by academic research in the arts and leisure (A&L) domain, PSD has received wide coverage in grey literature concerning the termination of certain film or TV series.

Exploratory interviews were conducted with fans of a range of A&L products. Questionnaire surveys then examined the relationships between PSD, nostalgia and emptiness, and between PSD, binge-watching and compulsive consumption.

A 15-item scale to measure PSD was developed and its reliability demonstrated.

The study was conducted within an A&L context. It only examined the abovementioned variables and no other potentially relevant psychological and behavioural considerations (e.g. audience involvement, narcissism and social anxiety).

The scale will be useful for investigating the marketing implications of fanship and its connections with addictive behaviour. It will help marketers when segmenting A&L markets, in understanding how to extend the period during which audiences purchase screen product-related memorabilia and to know how to market binge-watching-related items (e.g. box sets, clothing, books, theatre tickets and film studio visits).

This paper provides a rigorous examination of the concept of PSD and presents a scale for its measurement.

Owner‐managers or managing directors of 106 UK public relations consultancies completed a questionnaire concerning the extent of their firms’ client reputation management activities and their attitudes and opinions about reputational work. The results suggested widespread interest in the concept and practice of reputation management as an area of activity separate and distinct from other aspects of PR. However, respondents expressed concerns about the existence of barriers to the implementation of reputation management programmes within client companies. The executives most likely to agree with the “academic” definition of corporate reputation were those whose consultancies offered a large number of reputation management services; who believed that the demand for these services was about to rise; and who clearly distinguished between reputational and general PR activities. Only a small percentage of the sample disagreed with the proposition that most innovations in the field of reputation management were attributable to practitioners rather than academics.

Two hundred members of the public were interviewed in high street and railway station locations in central London to ascertain the considerations that encourage them to donate generously to a disaster relief fund‐raising appeal. It emerged that the major fund‐raising triggers involved media representations of the indigency of aid recipients, portrayals of people helping themselves, and highly emotive advertising imagery. Although they were potentially patronising and demeaning to disaster victims, such depictions seemingly exerted powerful influences on donation decisions. Factors discouraging donations included media reports of unfair aid distributions, warfare or internal insurrection, and inefficiency in the relief operation. Combined fund‐raising efforts covering several organisations were viewed more favourably than individual charity initiatives. State endorsements of particular campaigns exerted little influence. Some but not all of the variables known to determine levels of donations to charity in general also explained the incidence of donations to disaster relief appeals. However, people with young children gave to disaster appeals more frequently than the rest of the sample, contradicting previous findings in the general (non‐disaster) charity fund‐raising area.

The purpose of the study was to develop and test a model explaining visual artists’ levels of commitment to their primary distributors (dealers, agents, gallery owners).

A questionnaire was completed by 220 British artists covering their relationships with the main external intermediaries they used most frequently. The questionnaire covered the elements of a structural equation model designed to predict commitment levels. The model included as mediating variables the strength of an artist's personal brand and the individual's control over, dependence on, and conflict with a distributor.

Most of the respondents had good relationships with their distributors. The hypothesised model provided a sound fit with the data, although there was no significant connection between an artist's ability to control a distributor and the person's commitment to the distributor.

The research was undertaken in a single country and only visual artists (rather than, for instance, performing artists) were considered. Space restrictions prevented the detailed examination within the questionnaire of the participants’ relationships with different types of intermediary.

Artists should cultivate powerful personal brands and apply ‘relationalist’ approaches when dealing with distributors.

The study was the first to apply marketing theories of distribution to the arts domain. A new and original measure of the extent of a visual artist's personal branding activities was devised and employed as a part of the investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the potential contributions of corporate art collections (CACs) to the process of corporate identity management within companies.

Respondents in 181 enterprises in nine different countries completed a questionnaire concerning the roles of CACs in symbolising a firm's core values and culture, influencing the attitudes and behaviour of employees, and developing a company's external image. A regression analysis identified the variables that determined the primary roles of CACs in particular businesses.

CACs were routinely employed to facilitate marketing communications (internal as well as external) and to project corporate identities, including aspects related to a company's core values. Additionally collections were frequently used to symbolise core values to a firm's employees.

Less than a majority of the sampling frame returned the questionnaire. Only a single manager was approached in each enterprise. Case studies of the roles of different kinds of CAC (classical, contemporary, etc.) in disparate industry sectors are required.

The results demonstrate that CACs represent a powerful marketing communications weapon capable both of attracting clients and developing corporate identity.

More than half the Fortune 500 companies and around 2000 other major enterprises in Europe and North America now collect art. This research was the first ever to investigate the use of CACs for marketing (especially corporate identity building) purposes.

The purpose of the paper is to establish the antecedents of changes in public attitudes towards the UK banking industry following the global financial crisis.

A questionnaire was administered to 1,066 people querying their attributions of blame for the crisis, attitudes towards the banking industry, levels of anger, knowledge of the crisis, degrees of moralistic trust, political orientations, prior perceptions of the banking industry's reputation, and whether they had personally suffered as a result of events. A structural equation model covering these matters was developed and estimated.

A substantial deterioration in the favourability of public attitudes towards the banking industry seems to have occurred following the crisis. However, certain groups of respondents were much less critical of the industry's role in the crisis than were others.

The banking industry of just a single country was considered. Participants only commented on their attitudes towards the banking sector and not their actual banking behaviour.

Collectively, the banking industry needs to advertise the fact that failures on the part of public regulators played a critical role in the advent of the crisis. The industry should take joint action to influence the mass media's interpretations of the banking sector's current activities.

This was the first study to explore how members of the public interpret the post‐crisis identity and behaviour of the banking industry as a whole, rather than individual companies within it. The results contribute to knowledge concerning the determinants of attitude change vis‐à‐vis the banking sector and how customers might be segmented in terms of their perceptions.

The purpose of this paper was to identify whether the promotional materials used by government bodies and private producers to stimulate the mass market for electric vehicles (EVs) embodied themes deemed attractive by a sample of motorists in Greater London.

The EV websites and advertisements of EV manufacturers and the EV websites of relevant public bodies were subjected to semantic network and categorical content analyses. Outcomes were inputted to a conjoint analysis, the results of which were clustered into customer segments using the NORMCLUS generalized market segmentation procedure.

Substantial disparities between, on one hand, the EV characteristics emphasized in manufacturers’ and public bodies’ EV promotional materials and, on the other, potential EV buyers’ views regarding the key qualities of EVs became evident.

The sample size of motorists was limited and the research was completed in a single country.

Social marketing campaigns initiated by government and private bodies concerning EVs need to incorporate specific themes reflecting the preferences of various segments of motorists.

A “one-size-fits-all” approach is unlikely to be appropriate for the mass marketing of EVs.

This was the first study to explore the appeal to potential EV purchasers of the value of the contents of EV marketing messages used by government bodies and vehicle manufacturers.

To examine the extent to which “account planners” in advertising agencies use formal academic models of “how advertising works” and to identify the factors that discourage non‐users from applying academic advertising theory.

Account executives in 152 full‐service and 72 creative advertising agencies in the UK completed a questionnaire concerning the use of formal models, preferences for developing those in‐house versus adopting pre‐existing “textbook” prescriptions, and factors that might discouraged application of academic advertising theory in any form. The data collected were interpreted by means of factor analysis, structural equation modelling and correspondence analysis, and conclusions drawn with respect to theory and practice.

There was considerable ignorance of formal models of advertising effect. Agencies using them typically favoured the hierarchy‐of‐effects variants. Although more than a third of the sample eschewed models, there was little evidence of animosity towards advertising theory of itself. Non‐adoption was significantly explained by constructs drawn from the academic literature of knowledge dissemination.

It was not possible in this study to establish precise details of agencies' in‐house proprietary models, so the degree to which those reflected either current practice or textbook prescriptions could not be determined.

The study emphasises the pressing need to harmonise formal models of “how advertising works” with conceptual frameworks used by advertising agencies in practice (if any), for the improvement of campaign planning and evaluation.

This is the first empirical study to investigate the extent to which advertising theory is actually used by account planners in advertising agencies.