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Previous literature on sponsorship-linked marketing have shown that articulation messages lead to more favorable attitudes toward the sponsor brand. However, results from some studies do not entirely support this finding, suggesting that important variables affecting the sponsorship articulation–fit relationship may have been overlooked. Addressing this gap in the literature, the authors show that consumer responses to sponsorship articulation are moderated by the fan’s level of identification with a sports team. That is, fans high in team identification respond differently to various types of articulation messages whereas fans with lower team identification levels do not. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that messages highlighting how fans and sports team benefit from the sponsorship deal elicit thoughts of sincerity which in turn evokes reciprocity and more favorable attitudes from highly identified fans.

The present research builds upon the touch literature to show that the salience of haptic product attributes related to product surface texture (smooth, rough) and weight (light weight, heavy weight) influence consumer product impressions. We propose that haptic cue congruity across texture and weight drive consumer product impressions depending on a consumer's need for touch (NFT). We show that high autotelic-NFT consumers who touch for sensory pleasure enjoyed the incongruity between smooth texture and heavy weight haptic cues, and consequently showed favorable evaluations towards exciting brands. In contrast, low autotelic-NFT consumers prefer the anticipated match between smooth texture and light weight haptic cues, which conformed to their expectation about the nature of a sophisticated brand personality. Further, we show how the interactive effect of haptic attributes and a consumer's autotelic-NFT on willingness to purchase is mediated by product personality. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

This research note investigates how consumers’ individual differences are associated with their attitude towards trip advice that has been curated by artificial intelligence (AI). Individual difference factors (anthropomorphic tendency, need for cognition, disillusionment toward marketing, life satisfaction) and variables such as smart phone usage were correlated with attitude towards AI-curated reviews (AAICR). A survey of 212 individuals from Taizhou, China found that anthropomorphic tendency, need for cognition, and smart phone usage were positively associated with AAICR. When controlling for the effect of need for cognition and smart phone usage, the effect of anthropomorphism on attitudes was still robust. Disillusionment toward marketing and life satisfaction were not associated with AAICR. The results contribute to the tourism literature by showing the effect of anthropomorphism on AAICR. Tourism practitioners who wish to inspire consumers with AI-curated destination reviews should target consumers with a high anthropomorphic tendency

Firms are deploying chatbots to automate customer service. However, miscommunication is a frequent occurrence in human-chatbot interaction. This study investigates the relationship between miscommunication and adoption for customer service chatbots. Anthropomorphism is tested as an account for the relationship. Two experiments compare the perceived humanness and adoption scores for (a) an error-free chatbot, (b) a chatbot seeking clarification regarding a consumer input and (c) a chatbot which fails to discern context. The results suggest that unresolved errors are sufficient to reduce anthropomorphism and adoption intent. However, there is no perceptual difference between an error-free chatbot and one which seeks clarification. The ability to resolve miscommunication (clarification) appears as effective as avoiding it (error-free). Furthermore, the higher a consumer’s need for human interaction, the stronger the anthropomorphism - adoption relationship. Thus, anthropomorphic chatbots may satisfy the social desires of consumers high in need for human interaction.

Despite the proliferation of gamification in the workplace, little is known about the contextual factors that contribute to its efficacy and impact on employee engagement and organizational productivity. Employing self-determination theory, this research investigates the impact of extrinsic motivation, such as social pressure or internalized guilt, on employees' psychological needs satisfaction and behavioral intention. A survey (n = 291) across multiple industries shows extrinsic motivation can decrease employees' autonomy and competence needs satisfaction, but when extrinsic motivation is internalized (such as through perceived personal value) it can support needs satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and behavioral intention. For managers, these results indicate that beyond being enjoyable, sustainable gamification design should provide benefits that are meaningful to and valued by employees. While it is acknowledged that further research is required, this study provides a basis for deeper understanding of how gamification works as the first to empirically examine the role of extrinsic motivation.

Chronic health conditions have necessitated the need for behavioral interventions (such as exercise programs) outside of clinical contexts, increasingly managed through technology such as mobile health (mHealth) services. Gamification has emerged as a promising tool to facilitate greater engagement in these services; however, no studies investigate the links between specific game design elements (GDEs) and psychological or behavioral outcomes within a health context. This domain is motivationally complex and has shown resistance to the satisfaction of social (relatedness) needs, presenting a challenge to the design of gamification products for health promotion. Drawing on self-determination theory, this research demonstrates the strengths of a taxonomy based upon structural features of GDEs (such as social, narrative or reward elements) rather than the design intent definitions of these elements used in previous studies. This taxonomy is then used to assess the relationship between GDEs and psychological needs satisfaction in a survey (N = 236) of gamified exercise/fitness application users. Further qualitative interviews (N = 20) were conducted to clarify survey findings. This research demonstrates the positive association between control and presentation elements and autonomy satisfaction, and control and reward elements and competency satisfaction. However, it also suggests that player type and context may limit the ability for GDEs alone to support relatedness satisfaction in mHealth services. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed, particularly the strengths and weaknesses of using structural taxonomies in gamification assessment.Gamification, which is the use of game design elements (GDEs) such as points, badges and avatars in nongame contexts, has emerged as a promising tool for health promotion. However, while past studies demonstrate the capacity for gamification to deliver positive outcomes in health contexts, there is still limited understanding of what contributes to the success or failure of these health campaigns. This study consists of a quantitative online survey of 236 users of exercise/fitness gamification products, as well as qualitative interviews with an additional 20 users, to investigate the relationship between specific GDEs (such as social elements or control elements) and the satisfaction of users’ psychological needs. This study found that control and presentation elements had a positive relationship with feelings of user agency, while control and reward elements had a positive relationship with feelings of mastery. However, no specific GDEs supported feelings of connection with other users, with the interviews suggesting this may be due to differences in the types of players and the desire for interaction with others outside (rather than inside) the gamification service.

Purpose The creativity-based facilitation effect, well documented by previous research, shows that creative advertisements (ads) are more memorable than regular (or less creative) ads, that is, creativity facilitates memory. This current research aims to extend our understanding by investigating the impact of creativity on regular ads and competitive advertising. It examines whether creative ads impair the memorability of regular ads to determine whether a “creativity-based impairment effect” exists. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 tested creativity-based impairment effects in brand recall. Experiment 2 replicated and validated the impairment effect in recall, using a different presentation order of ads. In Experiment 3, effects of creative ads on competing vs non-competing brands were examined. Findings Results found that creative ads impaired the brand recall of regular ads, creative ads impaired the recall of competing brands more than non-competing brands and creative ads were recalled earlier in top-of-mind recall positions. Research limitations/implications Future research may look at whether different memory measures (e.g. recognition), different proportions of creative ads, and ads of familiar vs unfamiliar brands produce differential impairment effects. Practical implications One suggestion from this research could be to not only copy-test your own brand’s advertising, but also test the advertising of other brands so that the target ad’s relative levels of creativity can be assessed before media buying. As a result of this testing, when the brand identifies any potential impairment effects, the identified creative ads could then be tracked in terms of media placement, providing a guide of where “not to schedule” advertising. Originality/value This research makes an important theoretical contribution as the first to explore impairment effects in the context of creative advertising. In doing so, it offers important managerial insights for regular and competitive advertising.

This article examines why consumers choose to research their ancestry using commercial available products. Prior research suggests this is a voyage of personal discovery. We take this voyage and review consumer interest in ancestral products (e.g., DNA services) that is driven by a consumer’s uncertainty about their sense of self. Focusing on uncertainty-identity theory, the findings from a study with a sample of adult Australian consumers show that people who want to reduce uncertainty about their sense of self respond favourably to a genealogical product that offers insight into a person’s ancestry. Finding support the proposition that the need for closure moderates this effect. Consumers who are high in need for closure respond to self-uncertainty through an interest in commercial genealogical products. The study results show that curiosity underlies the effects in several ways; the desire to gain new knowledge about self, a curiosity to understand the past and the desire to reduce self uncertainty about the past. Research implications for the study of consumer self-identity and uncertainty are presented, how consumers respond to this through the use of genealogical products examined. Managerial implications for the marketing of genealogical products are discussed, and recommendations for future research made.

This research examined the relationship between different measures of narcissism and a range of consumption behaviors. Measures of individual, communal, and collective narcissism were correlated with three sets of consumption behaviors termed vanity, self-improvement, and prosocial consumption behavior. Based on a sample of 552 MTurk users, it was found that all narcissism measures were positively associated with vanity behaviors. However, differences amongst narcissism measures emerged for self-improvement behaviors and prosocial behaviors. The admiration scale of the NARQ was positively associated with self-improvement and prosocial behaviors, whereas the rivalry scale of the NARQ was negatively associated with prosocial behaviors. The communal and collective narcissism scales were also positively associated with prosocial consumption behaviors. The results contribute to the narcissism literature by showing (1) which narcissism measures are most strongly related to consumption behaviors (2) that certain measures of narcissism are positively associated with some prosocial consumption behaviors, and (3) that individual, communal and collective narcissism are not strongly correlated with each other.

This research examines the impact of Chinese tourists' level of entitlement (i.e., a belief they deserve more than others) on their responses to testimonials for a missed benefit. Missed benefits are destination activities which are no longer available (e.g., an annual festival). Two experiments compare how Chinese tourists react to a testimonial for a missed benefit from a satisfied tourist (vs. a local citizen). Results show that entitled tourists dislike testimonials from tourists. Non-entitled tourists have a similar preference for either endorser. The results provide important theoretical implications. First, the research introduces a new area of study to tourism researchers: missed benefits. Second, the results show how tourist entitlement negatively influences testimonial responses. Third, the malicious envy entitled tourists feel towards the tourists in the testimonial drives their negative responses. Managerial implications include showing destination marketers that Chinese tourists can have an entitled mindset. This mindset can result in envy felt toward other tourists which can explain their negative responses to marketing messages about destination activities.

This study assessed consumers’ initial reactions to in‐feed native ads appearing as news content. In particular, it focuses on consumers’ recognition of advertising when they realize that content they had thought were news stories had in fact been advertising. Recognition of advertising made consumers infer that advertisers had deliberately manipulated them. Consequently, consumers engaged less with the message, had less positive attitudes toward the brand, and were less likely to purchase and share. The results demonstrated the mechanisms through which the two mediators, manipulative intent and message engagement, lowered brand attitude, purchase intention, and sharing intention. In addition, ad disclosure made more people recognize the ad when they were exposed to it than when it was not disclosed as an ad.

This research investigates the interaction between ego depletion (a state of reduced self-regulatory resources) and different types of charitable message appeals upon subsequent charitable support. Three experiments compare the time donation intent and actual monetary donations of depleted (vs. non-depleted) individuals who have been exposed to either a self-benefit message, highlighting the gains to be accrued to donors themselves, or an other-benefit message which focuses on the welfare of beneficiaries. The results show that when people are depleted, self-benefit messages are more effective than other-benefit messages in generating charitable support. When people are not depleted, the opposite pattern is observed. It appears that generosity among depleted people is self-seeking. As a processing mechanism, we show that depleted individuals perceive self-benefit messages as more appealing than the other-benefit messages. This research demonstrates that charities can maximize donations by advertising other-benefit messages in the morning and then self-benefit messages in the evening, given that depletion occurs naturally over the course of the day.

This research examined how individual differences in anthropomorphic tendency (the tendency to humanize non-human agents/objects) influence how people respond to destination marketing communications. Specifically, this study examined whether individual-level anthropomorphic tendency and text-personification of destination marketing communications interact to influence destination attitude and travel intentions. Results from a study involving 210 Australian participants revealed that destination attitude and travel intentions were most favorable for people with high levels of anthropomorphic tendency and who were exposed to personified tourism messages. These findings indicate that text-personification represents a new communication tactic for tourism – particularly for target consumers who are high in anthropomorphic tendency – and one that can humanize the destination leading to more favorable attitudes and higher intentions to travel. This effect is mediated by positive emotions. People with high anthropomorphic tendency who are exposed to a personified advertisement feel more positive emotions, which lead to positive tourism outcomes.

This research examines how a tourist’s degree of psychological entitlement (sense of deservingness) influences their responses to hotels that differ in cultural distance. Using a visit to China by Western tourists as a context, an experiment shows that entitled tourists respond more negatively to high cultural distance hotel environments compared with low cultural distance environments. Results are mediated by tourist irritation. Research contributions include demonstrating how entitlement moderates cultural distance effects, revealing tourist irritation as a mechanism that explains these effects, and showing how psychological entitlement influences how tourists react to hotel environments when visiting a foreign destination.

This study examines whether memory of antidepressant direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising is associated with the public stigma attached to depression. Results indicate that those who better remember antidepressant DTC ads tend to have a higher perceived prevalence of depression (i.e., more people suffer from depression). And, the perceived prevalence of depression is inversely associated with the public stigma toward depression. That is, those who have a higher perceived prevalence of depression report that they are more supportive of and comfortable with people who have depression. The results suggest that the perceived prevalence of depression is a mediating variable that accounts for the relationship between memory of antidepressant DTC ads and the public stigma toward depression. The implications and limitations of the study, as an exploratory investigation, are discussed.

This study examined whether children recognized advergames as a type of advertising and the efficacy of an advertising literacy program. Results indicated that without the advertising literacy education, about three-quarters of the children did not recognize advergames as a type of advertising. However, those with advertising literacy education showed a significantly enhanced understanding. Also, a series of mediation tests showed that recognition of advertising was an indirect-only mediator between the advertising literacy and skeptical attitudes toward advertising. Only those who viewed the advergame as a type of advertising demonstrated more skeptical attitudes toward it.

Despite the wide array of contemporary advertising formats and media, television advertising remains the most dominant form to which typical consumers are exposed. Research on attitudes toward advertising in general (Att-AiG) implicitly assumes that the Att-AiG measure represents advertising as a whole. A major finding of the current research is that consumers tend to have a mental representation, or exemplar, of the most typical type of advertising—television advertising—when they report their Att-AiG. Therefore, in reality, Att-AiG primarily reflects attitudes toward television advertising. In addition, the results of our experiments indicate that television ad exemplars generate temporal changes in consumers’ reported Att-AiG and attitudes toward television advertising. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study examined the extent to which exposure to direct-to-consumer (DTC) antidepressant ads is associated with young adults' understanding of depression as a medical condition. A vignette-based questionnaire was presented to 285 college students. Among those who had not experienced depressive symptoms, high exposure to a DTC antidepressant commercial was significantly associated with recognition of depression cases and listing antidepressants as a treatment option. As their exposure to the DTC ad increased, respondents also demonstrated a more positive evaluation of antidepressant treatment. Such effects were not found, however, for those who had experienced depressive symptoms.

The major goals of this study were to identify voters' belief structures about political advertising, develop a scale to measure beliefs, and examine how the identified beliefs are related to overall attitudes toward political advertising. The reliabilities, factor structure, and validity tests indicate that five belief dimensions—information, veracity, cynicism, money politics, and entertainment—have sound and stable properties. The scale demonstrates that voters assess political advertising at the instrumental level (e.g., information, veracity, and entertainment) as well as the institutional level (e.g., cynicism and money politics). The results showed that not all beliefs predicted overall attitudes. Furthermore, the results indicated that political involvement was a significant factor in influencing both beliefs and attitudes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Previous research has demonstrated that preexposure of publicity about advertising campaigns facilitates recall of subsequently advertised brands. In this paper, we investigate the potential inhibitive effect; that is, preexposure of publicity can suppress retrieval of other nonpublicized brands that would otherwise have been retrieved. The inhibitive effect was examined in the list-strength paradigm, which posits that strengthened items in a list inhibit memory for nonstrengthened items. We found the inhibitive effect of publicity in free recall. The inhibition was not found in recognition memory, however. This study also examines the effect of publicity on the criterion placement in recognition tests. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) and its implications are discussed.

Previous experimental research found that the pre-exposure of publicity about advertisements has two distinct but related effects in advertised brand recall: (a) a facilitative effect on publicized brands and (b) an inhibitive effect on nonpublicized brands. We speculate that publicity effects exist beyond the controlled experiments. In this article, we used a field study to investigate the effects of publicity messages related to the commercials aired during three Super Bowl games. We found that publicity had a positive impact on the memory of subsequent advertisements for both recall and recognition, but publicity effects were more evident in recall than in recognition.