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A significant number of ads showcase products with their shadows cast in the background. Given that shadows are characteristically dark and that previous research documents a positive link between darkness and heaviness, the current work proposes and documents that consumers evaluate a product to be heavier when it is advertised with (versus without) its shadow. Particularly, when heaviness is a desired product attribute, consumers exhibit a greater preference for the product advertised with (versus without) its shadow due to enhanced product heaviness perceptions. However, when heaviness is an undesirable product attribute, presence (versus absence) of the product shadow in an ad lowers consumers' product preference. Also, the authors show that when heaviness is a desirable product attribute, the positive effect of shadow on consumer product preference attenuates when explicit associations of product heaviness are provided using verbal cues. Findings from the current research provide actionable guidelines for managers to help them use product shadows effectively in advertising for an intended impact on consumer product preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While advertising products with reflections is a common industry practice, this research is the first to investigate their impact on product aesthetics. Reflections are endowed with an inherent shine since they are naturally formed by the interaction of light with an object and a reflecting surface. We draw upon this property along with Evolutionary Psychology (EP) research documenting an intrinsic human attraction towards gloss to predict their positive effect on product aesthetics. Further in line with the EP principles, we propose that this effect is mediated by enhanced pristineness perceptions about the product in the presence of its reflection in the ad. Finally, we draw upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to identify product design complexity as a boundary condition for the positive effect of reflection on product attractiveness perceptions. For a product with relatively high (vs. low) design complexity, with design being the focal aspect that is elaborated via a central route, we predict the effect of a peripheral stylistic cue like product reflection to attenuate. Three experimentally designed studies employing different product types offer empirical support to these predictions. Our work extends prior marketing research studying the effects of executional elements in advertising on consumers' product reactions, particularly the aesthetic impact of product reflections as creative stylistic cues. The managerial implications of this work span both traditional and digital marketing channels. Incorporating a product reflection in advertising can work as an easy‐to‐implement option that can help practitioners elevate product pristineness and aesthetics. On the other hand, avoiding their use when advertising products with relatively complex designs can save both ad space and money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore Active White Space (AWS)--the space between individual logo design elements--as a stylistic modification that revamps a logo design yet preserves its extant associations. Across three studies, we find AWS to be an effective stylistic logo tool. In Study 1, we find that adding AWS to pictorial logos improves their visual evaluation. In Study 2, we find this positive evaluation to spillover to verbal brand aspects such that logo designs with AWS are perceived to communicate brand descriptions more clearly. In Study 3, we find that logo designs with AWS benefit sophisticated brand personalities the most, followed by sincere, exciting, and competent brand personalities, with no effect on rugged brand personalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing trend of soliciting donations for a store's charity partner by cashiers at grocery checkouts. A number of such charity appeals use the philosophical concept of Karma, which suggests equivalent outcomes to an individual's actions. Even though this concept is inherently neutral in stating the corresponding outcomes to both types of actions (i.e., good or bad), a majority of donation appeals use Karma's negative tenant alone (e.g., "when you don't donate, someone in your neighborhood goes without food"). Where previous message‐framing research has mainly focused on donation outcomes (e.g., pledged‐dollars), this research is a first of its kind to not only investigate the impact of using Karma's negative (vs. positive) tenants in prosocial messaging separately, but to also assess its effects on the largely‐ignored but critical store outcomes of purchase satisfaction and revisit intentions. Results from four scenario‐based experiments demonstrate that using a negative (vs. positive) Karma connotation in donation appeals at grocery checkouts significantly lowers consumers' purchase satisfaction at the store as well as their intentions to revisit the store in the future (with no major impact on the donation outcomes). Following established research on negativity bias, affect and moral consciousness, this research also shows that instead of emotions, lowered consumer mood mediates these effects. Furthermore, it evidences that the negative effect of using Karma's negative (vs. positive) connotation in checkout donation solicitations on the store outcomes attenuates when consumers' grocery basket consists of more hedonic (vs. utilitarian) products based on the former's mood‐uplifting properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]