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Drawing on theoretical insights from the persuasion knowledge model (PKM), this study aims to propose and test a model that maps out the antecedents, process and consequences to explain how consumers process and respond to fake news about brands on Facebook.

Contextualizing the fake news about Coca-Cola’s recall of Dasani water, an online survey was conducted via Qualtrics with consumers in the USA (N  =  468). Data were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Results showed that self-efficacy and media trust significantly predicted consumers’ persuasion knowledge of the fake news. Persuasion knowledge of the fake news significantly influenced consumers’ perceived diagnosticity of the fake news and subsequent brand trust. Furthermore, persuasion knowledge of the fake news mediated the effects from self-efficacy on perceived diagnosticity of the fake news and brand trust, respectively.

This study contributes to the literature of brand management by examining how consumers process and respond to fake news about a brand. It also extends the persuasion knowledge model by applying it to the context of fake news about brands on social media, and incorporating antecedents (self-efficacy and media trust) and consequences (perceived diagnosticity and brand trust) of persuasion knowledge in this particular context. Practically, this study provides insights to key stakeholders of brands to better understand consumers’ information processing of fake news about brands on social media.

This study aims to investigate the potential positive effects of cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns that show evidence of commitment to espoused causes. It examines whether consumers respond positively when a CRM campaign promises to deliver proof of the espoused cause.

This study adopted the grounded theory approach to conceptualize the promised impact evidence construct. A promised impact evidence scale was developed and validated using robust qualitative and quantitative methods, including item response theory estimates.

The study provides evidence for promised impact evidence as a reflective second-order latent construct. The promised impact evidence scale demonstrates strong internal consistency, reliability and validity. In addition, this study posits that promised impact evidence is an antecedent of advertising trust, purchase intention, advertising credibility and persuasive and selling intent.

This study positioned the promised impact evidence scale against the theoretical underpinnings of the persuasion knowledge model. Specifically, this scale contributes to existing knowledge because it applies the persuasion knowledge model in CRM campaigns by adopting an acceptance focus, as opposed to the rejection focus used in developing persuasion knowledge model scales.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to marketing communications literature by exploring consumer responses to covert advertising (CA) in a social media context.

The persuasion knowledge model was used to explore the impact of CA on brand evaluations. A factorial design experiment was conducted in a social media context (YouTube).

The results of the study show that triggering knowledge about CA changes the way consumers respond to unfamiliar brands that use such tactics. This implies that for unfamiliar brands, with future development of persuasion knowledge, CA in social media will not only be ineffective but also detrimental with damaging effects on the brand.

An important contribution of this study lies in the application of the persuasion knowledge model to social media context.

The results indicate that firms should desist from covert product and brand communications in social media contexts, and instead employ disclosed brand communications.

Given that the effects of CA have not been investigated in an online context, this study makes a unique contribution to brand communications research by providing valuable insights and better understanding of the effects of CA in social media, specifically YouTube.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of offering customer decision authority on customer satisfaction in credence services, and the moderating effects of customer persuasion knowledge and service provider credibility.

A video-based experiment is conducted to achieve high similarity to real service encounters. The video comprises three levels of customer authority while service provider credibility is manipulated. In a subsequent questionnaire, customer response and customer persuasion knowledge are measured.

Results suggest that greater decision authority increases customer satisfaction. However, customer persuasion knowledge and provider credibility together were found to moderate these effects. Offering decision autonomy is most important when source credibility is low and persuasion knowledge is high.

The study setting is an initial healthcare encounter. Other service settings and service provider communication behaviors, such as empathy, responding to customer queries, and length of encounter are not considered in this study but should be further studied.

The study confirms that offering decision authority to customers increases satisfaction only under certain circumstances. Customers are willing to relinquish authority to credible service providers who then direct customer decisions in order to maintain service quality. Offering decision autonomy to customers is suggested when provider credibility is low and customer persuasion knowledge is high.

Analysis of credence service encounters is based on agency theory. Specifically, this study highlights the role of customer (principal) persuasion knowledge, which acts as a qualifier for the principal-agent problem because it alerts the customer to possible persuasion attempts by the service provider, whereas agent credibility eases customer suspicion.

This paper aims to show how environment-related worldview beliefs, in addition to specific persuasion knowledge, can influence how a consumer responds to ads about corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.

Two experiments manipulated ad copy and consumers’ persuasion knowledge to examine the effects of consumers’ environmental worldview beliefs on their judgments of a firm’s CSR reforestation project.

When an ad presented ambiguous information, both consumers’ persuasion knowledge and their environmental worldview influenced the attribution of the firm’s motives. When an ad presented environment-specific information, however, consumers’ worldview did not influence their attribution of motives. Attributions, in turn, predicted attitudes toward the ad and attitudes toward the brand and were associated with intentions for information-seeking and referral behavior.

A consumer’s core beliefs can play an important role in understanding the application of persuasion knowledge, and the reinforcement-of-meaning principle expands the persuasion knowledge model’s explanatory power.

Marketing communications that involve social responsibility projects must take into account how core beliefs can influence the way consumers respond to projects.

This research demonstrates the importance of worldview beliefs in communication that takes place in the public sphere.

The experiments’ results contribute to a more robust understanding of the persuasion knowledge model, particularly as it applies to CSR messages and introduces the reinforcement-of-meaning principle.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand prominence, game involvement and persuasion knowledge on gamers’ brand recall and attitude in the context of online advergames. Specifically, this investigation uses limited capacity model of attention and persuasion knowledge model to expound the conditions under which brand placements create attention, elaboration and subsequent brand recall and brand attitude.

A 2 (brand prominence: prominent versus subtle) × 2 (game involvement: high versus low involvement) × 2 (persuasion knowledge: high versus low) between-subjects measures design is used. A total of 224 student gamers participated in the study. A between-subjects measures multivariate analysis of variance is used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that an advergame with prominent brand placement under low game involvement condition results in high brand recall but less favorable brand attitude than under high game involvement condition. Furthermore, a three-way interaction shows that for a prominent brand placement advergame with high game involvement, the subjects with high persuasion knowledge report high brand recall than the subjects with low persuasion knowledge. The findings also reveal that for a prominent brand placement advergame with high game involvement, the subjects with high persuasion knowledge report less favorable brand attitude than the subjects with low persuasion knowledge.

This paper adds to advertising literature from a non-traditional advertising viewpoint, predominantly in the context of online advergames, and expounds the role played by brand placement and its boundary conditions to create customers’ brand memory and attitude. Furthermore, this investigation adds to the marketing knowledge on how and where to position and embed the brands effectively in advergames taking into account the characteristics of the gamer, such as the game involvement and gamers’ persuasion knowledge about the advergame.

This study adds to the works of online advertising, particularly the advergames by discovering the impact of brand prominence, game involvement and persuasion knowledge on gamers’ brand recall and attitude. Also, this study is the first in its stream toward understanding the moderating role of persuasion knowledge on Indian gamers’ recall and attitude in the context of online advertising.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether consumers are able to critically evaluate promotional content presented by a podcast host with whom they have a parasocial relationship, and how this interaction impacts the listeners’ behavioral intentions toward the advertised brand.

Using a blended theoretical foundation of Persuasion Knowledge Model and Parasocial Interaction theory, this between subjects’ experimental study examined the effects of a traditional advertisement versus a host-read promotional message for the same brand in a highly rated podcast among listeners who reported varying levels of a parasocial relationship (PSR) with the host.

Results from a moderated mediation analysis suggest that a PSR with the podcast host decreased evaluative persuasion knowledge about the promotional message presented, which indirectly enhanced respondents’ intention to seek more information about the promoted brand.

This study extends the limited research examining the effects of promotional messaging delivered by podcast hosts with whom audiences have a PSR, and how this interaction impacts the listeners’ behavioral intentions. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for podcast marketers are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the list of boundary factors which impact consumer evaluation of ambient scenting. More specifically, this study aims at demonstrating that pre-informing about the scenting measure, the particular environment in which the scenting takes place and the disposition of persuasion knowledge are necessary variables to be considered for achieving positive evaluations.

A field experiment was carried out in a local grocery store (a “pay-now” environment) and in a medical therapy centre (a “pre-paid” environment, n=200). The paper draws on the theoretical concept of spreading activation, the consumer decision process and the persuasion knowledge model. Data were analysed by using ANOVA and moderated regression analysis.

Consumers evaluated the scenting as more favourable when having been pre-informed about the marketing measure. Consumers were also more in favour of ambient scents in the usage-oriented, pre-paid service environment than in the purchase-oriented, pay-now store environment. Persuasion knowledge moderated the relationship between environment and evaluation of ambient scenting.

As important research implication, the role of customers’ pre-information, environment and persuasion knowledge as boundary factors for scent marketing interventions is supported. These results can inform retailers how best to proceed in scent marketing. Future research could extend the present results with various informational measures and in different pre-paid and pay-now environments and experiment with different scents.

The results speak for pre-informing customers and using scents particularly in pre-paid environments, such as medical therapy centres. For customers with a higher level of persuasion knowledge, pre-information and a fitting environment are particularly advisable.

This paper adds important insight to scent marketing literature by addressing additional boundary factors which so far have been neglected. Methodologically, it differentiates itself by employing a field experiment, which offers higher external validity than laboratory experiments which are frequently used in scent research.

Food packaging pictures are one of the most important extrinsic cues for consumers to evaluate food products before purchasing. Over the past decades, marketers have used exaggerated pictures to attract consumers' attention, enhance their attitude toward a product and increase their purchase intention. This study examined the interplay of “puff-up” product picture, food type and picture type in influencing consumers' responses via persuasion knowledge.

The research comprises two 2 × 2 factorial experiments. Study 1 tested the interaction effect of puffery (high vs low) and food type (utilitarian vs. hedonic) on consumers' responses using two fictitious brands of prepared food, whereas Study 2 tested the interaction effect of puffery (high vs. low) and picture type (ingredients vs. cooked food) using a fictitious brand of Chinese delicacy.

Results demonstrated that the degree of picture puffery did not influence consumers' responses to utilitarian food and ingredient image. Conversely, consumers were sensitive to puffery when they see hedonic food and cooked-food image. Our findings also suggested that consumers' persuasion knowledge mediates the relationship between puffery and their responses.

The presented findings facilitate marketers to know consumers' attitude about food puffery pictures.

This research is one of the first efforts to empirically explore the influences of persuasion knowledge on food puffery pictures. The importance of this work is underscored by the fact that a growing number of visual exaggerations are adopted on food packaging.

Virtual assistants are increasingly used for persuasive purposes, employing the different modalities of voice and text (or a combination of the two). In this study, the authors compare the persuasiveness of voice-and text-based virtual assistants. The authors argue for perceived human-likeness and cognitive load as underlying mechanisms that can explain why voice- and text-based assistants differ in their persuasive potential by suppressing the activation of consumers' persuasion knowledge.

A pre-registered online-experiment (n = 450) implemented a text-based and two voice-based (with and without interaction history displayed in text) virtual assistants.

Findings show that, contrary to expectations, a text-based assistant is perceived as more human-like compared to a voice-based assistant (regardless of whether the interaction history is displayed), which in turn positively influences brand attitudes and purchase intention. The authors also find that voice as a communication modality can increase persuasion knowledge by being cognitively more demanding in comparison to text.

Simply using voice as a presumably human cue might not suffice to give virtual assistants a human-like appeal. For the development of virtual assistants, it might be beneficial to actively engage consumers to increase awareness of persuasion.

The current study adds to the emergent research stream considering virtual assistants in explicitly exploring modality differences between voice and text (and a combination of the two) and provides insights into the effects of persuasion coming from virtual assistants.