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Matching luxury brand appeals with attitude functions on social media across cultures
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Matching luxury brand appeals with attitude functions on social media across cultures☆ ⁎
Yung Kyun Choia, , Yuri Seob, Udo Wagnerc, Sukki Yoond a
Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1 gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand c University of Vienna, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna, Austria d Bryant University, 1150 Douglas Pike, Simthfield, RI 02917, USA b
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Construal level and cultural context Functional attitudes Luxury brands Social media advertising
This study synthesizes previous research on psychological distance, functional theories of attitudes, and cultural contexts of communication to develop a novel perspective regarding how contemporary consumers evaluate luxury advertising on social media. Three empirical studies conducted in Korea, the U.S., and Germany reveal that the consumer perceptions of psychological distance associated with luxury brands influences whether benefit-based or attribute-based appeals are most effective. Further, we reveal that this effect depends on the consumers' attitude functions toward luxury consumption, and it varies across cultural contexts. The results offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with additional tools to increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising in the context of social media and across different cultural markets.
1. Introduction In 2016, the global market for personal luxury brands reached €318 billion (BCG and Fondazione Altagamma, 2017). Because 75% of all luxury shoppers use social media, most luxury brands must now use social media marketing to engage with their consumers, in order to increase brand awareness, preference, and behavioral intentions (Godey et al., 2016; Kim & Ko, 2012; talkwalker.com, 2017). However, previous studies have rarely explored how divergent advertising strategies can increase the effectiveness of luxury advertising in the context of social media. We synthesize psychological research on luxury brand consumption (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Wilcox, Kim, & Sen, 2009), advertising appeals (Hernandez, Wright, & Rodrigues, 2015), and social media behaviors (Choi, Seo, & Yoon, 2017; Jin, 2012) to make three main contributions that address the gap in this area. First, we show how the construal level associated with luxury brands can be leveraged to increase the effectiveness of advertising message strategies. On the one hand, previous research has established that luxury brands tend to elicit more abstract thinking and higher-level construal (Hansen & Wänke, 2011) than do non-luxury brands. This is because luxury is associated traditionally with exclusivity, status, quality, and high price (Kim & Ko, 2012; Kim, Lloyd, & Cervellon, 2016; Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2017;
Seo, Buchanan-Oliver, & Cruz, 2015). Thus, the purchase of luxury brands is limited, and often merely hypothetical (Hansen & Wänke, 2011), which elicits high-level processing through psychological distance – the subjective perception that the object is distant (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Trope & Liberman, 2010). On the other hand, advertising messages are more effective when construal levels are matched with congruent advertising appeals. In particular, high-level (low-level) construal can be matched with benefit-based (attribute-based) appeals (Hernandez et al., 2015). Informed by these previous studies, we establish that benefit-based rather than attribute-based message appeals are more effective for luxury brand advertising. Such match-up effects are particularly important in the context of social media advertising (Choi et al., 2017), where consumers are more engaged with social media posts and, thus, are likely to pay closer attention to specific message features – such as the length, content, visual information, and paratextual features (Seo, Li, Choi, & Yoon, 2018). Second, consumers desire luxury brands because of two social motives: the value-expressive function of self-expression and the socialadjustive function of self-presentation (Shavitt, 1989; Wilcox et al., 2009). Importantly, both value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes were found to play important roles within consumer behaviors on social media (Jin, 2012). However, previous studies have failed to show how these two social-function attitudes relate to the effectiveness of social
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Submitted for the possible publication in the special issue of Journal of Business Research on “Fashion marketing trends in social media.” Corresponding author at: Department of Advertising and PR, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1 gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea. E-mail address: [email protected] (Y.K. Choi).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.003 Received 7 November 2017; Received in revised form 29 September 2018; Accepted 1 October 2018 0148-2963/ © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Choi, Y.K., Journal of Business Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.003
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positive when marketers use high-level advertising stimuli for distant purchase decisions, and use low-level advertising stimuli for close purchase decisions (Choi et al., 2017; Jin & He, 2013; Martin, Gnoth, & Strong, 2009). Of particular interest for the purposes of our study, it has been found that in low-level (high-level) construal contexts, consumers will make more favorable evaluations of attribute-based (benefit-based) message appeals that focus on product features (product uses) (Hernandez et al., 2015). This is because when products are characterized with intrinsically concrete and observable attributes, consumers feel psychological proximity. On the other hand, when consumers perceive that they will derive benefits from consuming or possessing a product, they feel psychological distance (Hernandez et al., 2015). Luxury brand consumption tends to elicit perceptions of escapism, exclusivity, and inaccessibility (Brioschi, 2006), which suggests that luxury consumption is associated with more abstract perspectives – psychological distance – in contrast with consumption of non-luxury brands. In particular, both consumers and advertisers tend to use more abstract language to describe luxury products and to perceive abstract product descriptions as luxurious (Hansen & Wänke, 2011). For instance, desires for luxury brands are associated with product superiority, selective distribution, exclusivity, uniqueness, elitism, glamor, fashion, and status (Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). Indeed, previous research in psychology has established that the concept of luxury elicits high-construal processing because it evokes the perceptions of increased hypothetical distance (Hansen & Wänke, 2011). Thus, we postulate that luxury brands will craft their most effective ads by focusing on benefit-based rather than attribute-based message appeals (Hernandez et al., 2015), which leads to our first hypothesis:
media advertising. We address this gap by showing that consumers who have value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes toward luxury consumption respond with greater purchase intentions, when luxury brand messages use benefit-based rather than attribute-based appeals. Third, cultural influences are known to shape attitudes and preferences for luxury brand consumption (Hennigs et al., 2012; Seo et al., 2015; Shukla & Purani, 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). Further, there are also cross-cultural differences in social media attitudes and behaviors (Pentina, Zhang, & Basmanova, 2013). Consequently, we show that cultural context (Hall, 1976) can moderate the positive congruence effect that occurs when benefit-based luxury appeals are matched with value-expressive attitudes. Overall, we investigate the determinants of luxury advertising effectiveness in the context of social media by synthesizing research on construal-level theory (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Trope & Liberman, 2010), functional theories of attitudes (Katz, 1960; Wilcox et al., 2009), and cultural contexts of communication (Hall, 1976; Mattila, 1999). Across three empirical studies that we conducted using the context of social media, we establish that (1) high-level construal associated with luxury brands influences the effectiveness of using benefit-based versus attribute-based appeals; (2) depending on (a) social attitude functions associated with luxury consumption and (b) cultural contexts. These relationships are reflected in the conceptual model depicted in Fig. 1. Our results offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with additional tools to increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising on social media and across cultural markets.
2. Literature review and hypotheses development
H1. Benefit-based rather than attribute-based message appeals will be more effective for luxury rather than for non-luxury brands.
2.1. Construal level theory, message appeals, and luxury brands Construal level theory (CLT) describes how individuals construe objects according to psychological distance (Trope & Liberman, 2010). Psychological distance indicates subjective perceptions of whether objects and events are proximate or distant. Although temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical sources could form psychological distance, they have similar effects on predictions, preferences, and actions. Specifically, CLT assumes that individuals use low-level, more detailed, and contextualized features in construing objects that are psychologically proximate. In contrast, they use high-level, more abstract, and stable construal for objects that are psychologically distant. That is, high-level construal elicits relatively abstract, coherent, and superordinate mental representations, while low-level construal elicits relatively concrete mental representations (Trope & Liberman, 2010). The principles of CLT have been used in marketing literature to show that consumers form more positive evaluations of products, brands, and advertising messages when the messages pair construal levels with psychological distance. For example, consumers feel more
2.2. Functional attitudes, luxury brands, and CLT Functional theories of attitudes (Katz, 1960; Shavitt, 1989) posit that attitudes fulfill important psychological needs, or functions – such as maximizing rewards and minimizing punishments (utilitarian function), organizing the view of one's environment (knowledge function), and maintaining one's self esteem (ego-defensive function). Attitudes can also serve important social functions, which include facilitating self-expression (value-expressive function) and self-presentation (social-adjustive function). The key tenet of functional theories is that the motivational underpinnings of attitudes, and not merely their strength and valence, play the key role in linking attitudes with behaviors (Shavitt, 1989). Indeed, consumer research shows that advertising messages should match appeals with attitudinal functions; for example, advertisements for utilitarian products will draw higher product evaluations and message processing by emphasizing utilitarian benefits
Attitude Functions (Value-expressive vs. Social-adjustive)
Cultural Context (Low vs. High)
H3 + H2 +
Advertising Appeal (Benefits vs. Attributes)
Advertising Effectiveness H1 + Fig. 1. Conceptual model. 2
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H2. Benefit-based rather than attribute-based luxury brand appeals will be more effective with consumers whose luxury attitudes serve valueexpressive rather than social-adjustive functions.
(Shavitt, Lowrey, & Han, 1992; Snyder & DeBono, 1985). Informed by this perspective, Wilcox et al. (2009) note that luxury brand consumption is characterized by two distinct social-function attitudes – social-adjustive and value-expressive. Social-adjustive attitudes are connected with the desire to maintain social relationships (DeBono, 1987; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956). Luxury brands are associated with strong social-adjustive attitudes because consumers use such brands to gain social approval. Therefore, conspicuous consumption is a major underlying motive for purchasing luxury products (e.g., Han, Nunes, & Drèze, 2010). Another reason for luxury consumption is the desire to express central beliefs and values; that is, value-expressive attitudes (Katz, 1960) in which the perceived attractive personalities of luxury brands serve as a form of self-expression (Wilcox et al., 2009). Both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions have been shown to determine luxury consumption (Bian & Forsythe, 2012; Jin, 2012; Wilcox et al., 2009). For isntance, consumers who have socialadjustive rather than value-expressive motivations for purchasing luxury brands were found to be more likely to purchase counterfeit luxury brands (Wilcox et al., 2009). Adolescent consumers sixteen to twenty-five years old were reported to be more likely to purchase luxury items for social-adjustive reasons, but young adults of twenty-six to thirty-nine are more likely to purchase luxury items for value-expressive reasons (Schade, Hegner, Horstmann, & Brinkmann, 2016). In another study, Bian and Forsythe (2012) explored the influence of social-function attitudes on luxury brand purchases among U.S. and Chinese students. Their results suggest that both types of social-function attitudes (i.e., both value-expressive and social-adjustive) are important determinants of luxury brand consumption behaviors; however, they did not establish any specific cross-cultural differences in terms of how value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes vary within their influences on luxury consumer behaviors. Finally, Jin (2012) explored the influence of social-function attitudes in the context of luxury brand management on social media. Her findings show that both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions are important determinants of social media behaviors; however, similarly to Bian and Forsythe (2012), this study falls short of providing answers as to how value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes have varying influences in terms of their relative importance for luxury consumer behaviors and advertising strategies. Against this backdrop, previous research has established that certain products are especially congruent with certain attitude functions (Shavitt, 1990). Luxury brands are valued primarily for their symbolic associations with social status, exclusivity, and unique identity (Kwon, Seo, & Ko, 2016). Consequently, they are generally more congruent with social-function attitudes (i.e., both value-expressive and socialadjustive) than are non-luxury brands (Wilcox et al., 2009). This also means that, when consumers hold strong social-function attitudes, they tend to respond more favorably to benefit-based appeals emphasizing brand imagery rather than to functionality-based appeals (Johar & Sirgy, 1991). Nevertheless, while both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions are congruent with benefit-based appeals, social-adjustive attitudes motivate luxury consumption in terms of concrete and specific benefits, such as social acceptance or rejection (Katz, 1960). Conversely, value-expressive attitudes will perceive a wider range of benefits from luxury consumption, signaling important aspects of personal identity and values – such as achievement, reward, style, and selftransformation (Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2017). Consequently, we posit that consumers who have strong value-expressive (versus social-adjustive) attitudes are more likely to activate high-level construal and higher-level abstract thinking. Thus, consistent with CLT tenets, we expect that when consumers hold value-expressive rather than socialadjustive attitudes, they will react more strongly to the positive matchup effects occurring when luxury brands are paired with benefit-based message appeals:
2.3. Individualism/collectivism, cultural context, and CLT Cultural influences play an important role in shaping attitudes and preferences toward luxury brand consumption (Hennigs et al., 2012; Seo et al., 2015; Shukla & Purani, 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). For instance, consumers in collectivist (individualistic) markets may use simpler (more complex) selection criteria for evaluating luxury brands (Shukla & Purani, 2012). Further, cultural context influences consumer judgments and communication styles (Overby, Gardial, & Woodruff, 2004). In particular, members of individualistic, low-context, cultures are more concerned with the clarity of conversations and use more direct communication; members of collectivistic cultures are more concerned with ‘face management’ and tend to communicate indirectly (Kim, 1994; Triandis, 1994). Consequently, members of individualistic cultures would be likely to prefer comparative advertising that makes direct comparisons of product attributes or benefits with those of other brands (Choi & Miracle, 2004). Accordingly, individualist and collectivist cultural contexts appear to be related to communication styles. For example, people in collectivistic cultures, such as Korea, think more holistically (Overby et al., 2004) and, thus, use high-context communication including indirect, ambiguous, and implicit verbal expressions and nonverbal communication styles (Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986, 1993; Hall, 1976; Money, Gilly, & Graham, 1998; Ting-Toomey, 1985). High-context communication conveys information through the physical context or through internal understandings; very little information is conveyed in the explicit message transmission. In contrast, members of individualistic cultures, such as Germany, use low-context communication that emphasizes direct, explicit, and clear communication (Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986, 1993; Hall, 1976). The communication style characteristics suggest that collectivistic and high-context communication is related to more abstract, high-level construal. In contrast, individualistic and low-context communication is related to concrete, low-level construal. Consequently, cultural context could play a moderating role in the match-up effects resulting from pairing luxury brands with benefit-based message appeals, because benefits are more abstract representations – connected with high-level construal (Hernandez et al., 2015). That is, consumers from high-context (low-context) cultures could favor more abstract (concrete) communication (Choi & Miracle, 2004). Taken together, the two propositions imply that members of high-context (low-context) cultures will respond better to benefit-based (attribute-based) appeals (Pae, Samiee, & Tai, 2002). Beyond influencing the processing of advertising messages, cultural context also shapes how people communicate their central beliefs and values (Overby et al., 2004), and how they express themselves (Katz, 1960). Consequently, benefit-based luxury appeals, conveying more abstract information about the value of luxury brands, will be more congruent with the value-expressive attitude function of high-context consumers (Overby et al., 2004). In other words, cultural context may affect the match-up between benefit-based appeals and value-expressive attitudes: it will be more (less) evident among consumers from high-context (low-context) cultures: H3. Cultural context will moderate the positive congruence effect resulting from matching benefit-based luxury appeals with valueexpressive attitudes: the effect will be more (less) evident in highcontext (low-context) cultures, such as Korea (Germany). To test our hypotheses, we conducted three empirical studies. In Study 1, we provide causal evidence that benefit-based rather than attribute-based appeals are more persuasive luxury advertising 3
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Fig. 2. Results of Study 1.
completed a brief demographic survey and were debriefed.
messages in the context of social media. In Study 2, we extend our results by showing that consumers prefer benefit-based appeals in luxury advertising when their brand attitudes serve a value-expressive function rather than a social-adjustive function. In Study 3, we explore the role of cultural context by conducting a cross-cultural comparison of low-context German and high-context Korean consumers. The findings corroborate Study 2 by showing more varying preference for benefitbased appeals for participants who have value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes. As predicted, cultural context moderated the relationship: it was more evident among Koreans than Germans. In the following sections, we detail findings that provide useful tools for ensuring the effectiveness of luxury advertising on social media.
3.2. Results Manipulation checks revealed that our advertising stimuli worked as intended. The advertising messages featuring benefit-based appeals were perceived to be more abstract (Mbenefit = 4.11, SD = 1.19; Mattribute = 3.55, SD = 1.13; F(1, 159) = 9.63, p < .005) and to reflect more benefits than those featuring attribute-based appeals (Mbenefit = 4.05, SD = 1.34; Mattribute = 3.35, SD = 1.34; F(1, 159) = 11.54, p < .005). Moreover, advertising messages featuring Rolex (luxury) (M = 5.5, SD = 1.37) were perceived to be more luxurious than those featuring Swatch (non-luxury) (M = 4.58, SD = 1.20; t(1, 161) = 4.57, p < .001). A 2 (message appeal: benefit-based versus attribute-based) × 2 (brand: luxury versus non-luxury) ANOVA on attitude yielded no significant main effects, but a significant two-way interaction occurred (F (1, 159) = 8.42, p < .005, η2 = 0.05). Simple effects revealed that the benefit-based appeal induced more favorable attitudes toward the luxury rather than the non-luxury brand (Mlux = 5.24; Mnon-lux = 4.60, F(1, 159) = 8.42, p < .005, η2 = 0.05). Conversely, the attributebased appeal caused no significant difference in attitudes between luxury and non-luxury brands (Mlux = 4.83, Mnon-lux = 5.13, F(1, 159) = 1.80, p = .18). Fig. 2a shows the results. To further investigate the interaction, we performed a residual means analysis (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 1989), depicted in Fig. 2b, confirming the results of simple effects.
3. Study 1 Study 1 was designed to provide evidence for the causal relationship predicted in our first hypothesis. That is, benefit-based appeals rather than attribute-based appeals will increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising on social media. 3.1. Stimuli and procedure We recruited 163 participants (men = 36.8%, Mage = 42.3) from an online panel in Korea and randomly assigned them to a 2 (message appeal: benefit-based versus attribute-based) × 2 (brand: luxury [Rolex] versus non-luxury [Swatch]) between-subjects design. We used four different versions of the same advertisement (Appendix A) manipulated by brand name and advertising appeals. To manipulate message appeals, we followed Hernandez et al. (2015) and manipulated the advertised product descriptions to be benefit-based or attribute-based. The benefit-based condition read: “This [watch brand] watch has a premium dial window covering for a sophisticated image and a stylish watchband that will never scratch. You can even swim with it.” Conversely, the attribute-based condition read: “This [watch brand] watch has a sapphire-covered dial window, polished Titanium watchband, a twin-lock double water process system, and water resistance to 100 meters.” To manipulate brand luxury, following Kwon et al. (2016), we used Rolex for the luxury brand and Swatch for the non-luxury brand. In each condition, participants viewed only one of the four mock ads in the Facebook timeline. Participants indicated their attitude toward the watch on a five-item attitude scale (1 = dislike, 7 = like, α = 0.93) (Kirmani & Zhu, 2007); and their perceptions of message abstractness (1 = very concrete, 7 = very abstract), message appeals (1 = focuses on attributes, 7 = focuses on benefits) and luxuriousness (1 = ordinary; 7 = luxurious) using single-item measures. Finally, participants
3.3. Discussion Consistent with our predictions that CLT plays a role in evaluations of luxury advertising, Study 1 confirms our key tenet that benefit-based rather than attribute-based appeals are a more effective strategy for luxury bands on social media. The attribute-based appeal failed to evoke significant differences between perceptions of luxury and nonluxury brands, but the benefit-based appeal evoked significantly more favorable attitudes toward luxury brands. Simply put, benefit-based appeals are more congruent with luxury brand advertising on social media. 4. Study 2 In Study 2, we tested our second hypothesis, which proposes that benefit-based appeals in luxury advertising on social media will be particularly effective when consumers have value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes toward luxury brands. This study was 4
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for the interaction between social-adjustive attitudes and message appeal types. In the following study, we extend our findings further by testing the effect of luxury brand attitude functions and message appeals, by contrasting the populations of luxury consumers across national markets with varying cultural communication patterns (Hall, 1976).
conducted with U.S. participants recruited from an online panel, and using social media advertising messages for another type of product – luxury handbags. Because of the product category, we recruited women participants only. 4.1. Stimuli and procedure
5. Study 3
A total of 115 (Mage = 31.6) women participants were recruited from a heterogeneous online panel in the United States through Amazon Mechanical Turk. As compensation, a token amount of money was paid. We first elicited the extent of value-expressive attitude functions (e.g., “luxury brands help me express myself,” α = 0.94) and social-adjustive functions (e.g., “luxury brands are symbols of social status,” α = 0.89), using established measures from Wilcox et al. (2009). Next, participants were assigned randomly to view a Facebook timeline featuring one of the two pre-designed social media advertisements featuring an attribute-based or benefit-based appeal for a luxury Prada handbag. To manipulate message appeals, we used the same technique as in Study 1, but revised the description of the advertised product to reflect the desired appeal (Appendix B). Manipulation checks revealed results consistent with Study 1. The advertising messages featuring a benefit-based appeal were perceived to be more abstract (Mbenefit = 4.13, SD = 1.63; Mattribute = 3.28, SD = 1.74; F(1, 114) = 7.23, p < .005), and to reflect more benefits than those featuring an attribute-based appeal (Mbenefit = 4.55, SD = 1.65; Mattribute = 3.58, SD = 2.17; F(1, 114) = 7.31, p < .005). Moreover, the branded product advertised (Prada handbag) was perceived to be luxurious (M = 6.13, SD = 1.20), as intended. Next, participants indicated their purchase intentions using four statements on 7-point scales (1 = unwilling to buy, 7 = willing to buy, α = 0.96). Finally, they were debriefed, thanked, and dismissed.
Study 3 has two purposes. First, we corroborate the Study 2 results by showing that consumers holding value-expressive rather than socialadjustive attitudes convey more varying preferences for benefit-based appeals rather than attribute-based appeals in luxury advertising on social media. Second, we test the remaining hypothesis regarding cultural context as moderating the effectiveness of luxury advertising on social media. 5.1. Stimuli and procedure For this cross-cultural comparative study, we recruited participants from two panels in Germany (N = 128, men = 36.7%, Mage = 41.10) and Korea (N = 114, men = 36%, Mage = 41.79). To manipulate message appeals, we used the Study 2 stimuli, translated into German and Korean and then back-translated into English to check for consistency. We conducted 2(country) × 2(message appeal) ANOVA for manipulation checks. The benefit-based appeals were perceived to be more abstract (Mbenefit = 3.98, SD = 1.42; Mattribute = 2.96, SD = 1.55; F(1, 241) = 29.90, p < .001), and the messages were perceived to be more abstract in Korea (M = 3.93, SD = 1.46) than in Germany (M = 3.05, SD = 1.57; F(1, 241) = 22.50, p < .001), but they showed no interaction effect. Also, the benefit-based appeals indicated more benefits than the attribute-based appeals (Mbenefit = 3.92, SD = 1.41; Mattribute = 2.98, SD = 1.73; F(1, 241) = 20.61, p < .001). Country had no significant effect, but the country × message type interaction was significant (F(1, 241) = 5.19, p < .05). A higher manipulation effect between benefit-based appeals and attribute-based appeals occurred in Germany (Mbenefit = 4.02, SD = 1.59; Mattribute = 2.64, SD = 1.91) than in Korea (Mbenefit = 3.81, SD = 1.17; Mattribute = 3.35, SD = 1.44). Moreover, the Prada handbag advertised was perceived to be luxurious in both countries, but more luxurious in Germany (M = 6.04, SD = 1.31) than in Korea (M = 5.28, SD = 1.19; t(1, 240) = 4.69, p < .001). Thus, consistent with the manipulation checks in Studies 1 and 2, benefit-based appeals were perceived to be more abstract and reflected more benefits in both countries. Finally, as we expected, German participants (M = 5.15, SD = 0.72) yielded a significantly stronger tendency toward individualism (e.g., I'd rather depend on myself than others, α = 0.73) than Korean participants (M = 5.15, SD = 0.85; t(238) = 3.46, p < .005). The study employed a 2 (country: high-context [Korea] versus lowcontext [Germany]) × 2 (message appeal: benefit-based versus attribute-based) between-subjects design. In each condition, similarly to Study 2, we first determined whether attitudes toward luxury brands served value-expressive (α = 0.89) or social-adjustive (α = 0.95) functions. Then participants viewed one of the two mock advertisements for a luxury Prada bag in the Facebook timeline. Next, participants indicated purchase intentions using four statements on 7-point scales (e.g., 1 = unwilling to buy, 7 = willing to buy, α = 0.96). Finally, participants completed a brief demographic survey and were debriefed.
4.2. Results To test H2, we used the PROCESS macros (Model 2, 5000 bootstrap samples) (Hayes, 2013), and regressed the ‘value-expressive function’, the ‘social-adjustive function’, the interaction between ‘value-expressive function’ × ‘message appeal’ and the interaction between ‘social-adjustive function’ × ‘message appeal’ on ‘purchase intention’ within the same model (F = 139.39, p < .001, R2 = 0.81). The findings revealed, in line with H2, a significant interaction effect of ‘message appeal’ × ‘value-expressive function’ (b = 0.68; t = 6.53, p < .05), and only a marginally significant interaction of ‘message appeal’ × ‘social-adjustive function’ (b = 0.48; t = 1.76, p = .08). Thus, it was clear that the value-expressive function was a stronger predictor of the preference for benefit-based (versus attributebased) appeals than the social-adjustive function. When we probed the slopes of the two regressions further, the benefit-based appeal elicited significantly higher purchase intentions for strong value-expressive attitudes (one standard deviation above the mean) (b = 0.68, t = 2.44, p < .05), but not for weak value-expressive attitudes (one standard deviation below the mean) (b=. 17, t = 0.91, p = n.s.). The results support H2 by showing varying purchase intentions for benefit-based appeals for consumers who have strong value-expressive (rather than social-adjustive) luxury brand attitudes. 4.3. Discussion
5.2. Results
Study 2 extends the results of Study 1 by showing support for our second key hypothesis. That is, congruent pairing of luxury brands with benefit-based appeals is more evident when consumers have strong value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes toward luxury brands. In particular, consumers holding strong value-expressive attitudes exhibit significantly higher purchase intentions for benefit-based appeals in social media advertising. We failed to find equivalent results
To test H3, we used PROCESS macros (Model 3, 5000 bootstrap samples) (Hayes, 2013), whereby we conducted the moderated-moderation (three-way) analysis of ‘country’ × ‘message appeal’ × ‘valueexpressive function’, and ‘social-adjustive function’ as a co-variate (F = 25.60, p < .000, R2 = 0.47). The results revealed a significant 5
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Fig. 3. Results of Study 3.
three-way interaction of ‘country’ × ‘message appeal’ × ‘value-expressive function’ (b = 0.57, t = 2.07, p < .05). When we further probed the conditional effect of a two-way interaction of ‘message appeal’ × ‘value-expressive function’ within each country, the effect was highly significant in Korea (b = 0.60, t = 3.10, p < .05), but not in Germany (b = 0.03, t = 0.19, p = n.s.). The results support H3. That is, the value-expressive function more strongly moderates the congruency between luxury brands and benefit-based appeals in Korea rather than in Germany. In other words, cultural variations occur in the relative effectiveness of using benefit-based over attribute-based appeals for consumers who hold strong value-expressive attitudes (Fig. 3). To account for alternative explanations and to corroborate the Study 2 results, we conducted an alternative moderated-moderation analysis of ‘country’ × ‘message appeal’ × ‘social-adjustive function’, and ‘value-expressive function’ as a co-variate. However, the alternative model revealed no significant main or interaction effects on purchase intentions, giving further support to H2. That is, value-expressive functional attitudes have more effect than social-adjustive functional attitudes on the congruency between social media luxury brand advertising and benefit-based appeals.
featuring benefits will be more persuasive for consumers who have value-expressive attitudes, causing them to use luxury brands to express important aspects of their beliefs and values (Wilcox et al., 2009). The effect is also culturally constituted. That is, we found that in Korea, where people tend to use more abstract and holistic communication styles, more positive effects occur when benefit-based luxury ads are matched with value-expressive attitudes. However, the effects were absent in Germany, where the emphasis is on explicit and clear communication (Hall, 1976). The findings offer important theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and avenues for future research regarding the broader research on luxury brand advertising, and particularly on social media.
6.1. Theoretical contributions Our research responds to calls to develop novel insights about the determinants of contemporary luxury brand advertising effectiveness in light of the changing consumption patterns characterizing global luxury markets (Kim et al., 2016; Kwon et al., 2016). We synthesize previous findings from CLT (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Trope & Liberman, 2010); functional theories of attitudes (Katz, 1960; Wilcox et al., 2009), and cultural contexts (Hall, 1976; Mattila, 1999), and develop a novel perspective that explains how luxury consumers evaluate advertising messages using the context of social media. Social media and luxury branding research has focused largely on the positive and negative effects that social media exerts on luxury consumer behaviors (e.g., Jin, 2012; Kim & Ko, 2012; Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). Considerably less attention has been paid to specific techniques that may improve the effectiveness of luxury advertising messages on social media. To address this gap, we show how persuasiveness can be predicted and improved by using attribute-based or benefit-based appeals according to the underlying mechanisms of psychological distance, social-attitude functions, and cultural context. In particular, we contribute to luxury consumption research that has explored variations in social-function attitudes (Bian & Forsythe, 2012), but has not provided conclusive insights regarding the way value-expressive and social-adjustive functions differ in relative importance for predicting luxury consumption. We reveal that value-expressive attitudes are more explanatory than social-adjustive attitudes for determining the effectiveness of luxury advertising on social media. Our results resonate with recent tenets of luxury democratization, which suggest that the modern concept of luxury is more about creativity and self-expression rather than about conveying status (Seo & BuchananOliver, 2017). Further, we show that cultural context moderates the influence of value-expressive attitudes (Hall, 1976). That is, luxury appeals are more or less congruent depending upon how consumers express themselves in different countries (Katz, 1960; Overby et al., 2004). Overall, the results
5.3. Discussion Study 3 corroborated Study 2 by showing that value-expressive attitudes are stronger than social-adjustive attitudes for predicting effectiveness in social media luxury advertising. More importantly, we explored how cultural context moderates the relationship between social-function attitudes and social media luxury message appeals. Consistent with our predictions, high-context consumers had more positive reactions when benefit-based appeals were matched with value-expressive attitudes toward luxury brands (Choi & Miracle, 2004; Pae et al., 2002). Accordingly, a particularly effective strategy for luxury brand advertising in high-context cultures would be to use benefit-based appeals that reinforce the value-expressive properties of luxury consumption. We found no significant interaction effect between message appeals and value-expressive attitudes in Germany, perhaps because Germany is an extremely low-context culture compared with Korea and even with the United States (Cyr & Trevor-Smith, 2004). 6. General discussion We conducted three empirical studies – in Korea, the United States, and Germany – to develop novel insights into the ways consumers evaluate luxury brands using social media advertising messages. We demonstrate that luxury advertising messages featuring benefit-based appeals are generally more effective than messages featuring attributebased appeals. However, several boundary conditions increase the effectiveness of this advertising strategy. First, advertising messages 6
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separate measures for social-function attitudes because the scales were designed specifically to measure attitudes toward luxury brands, and because consumers are likely to hold simultaneous value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes. However, future studies could corroborate our results using a self-monitoring construct (Snyder, 1974). Another related limitation is that we measured rather than manipulated chronic social-function attitudes toward luxury brands. Future studies could replicate our results by priming value-expressive and social-adjustive attitude functions in the context of luxury brand consumption and advertising. Such an approach would reveal additional insights about whether temporarily activating different attitude functions alters the way consumers process luxury advertising messages. Furthermore, paratextual features of social media, such as a higher number of ‘likes’ for an advertising message, can strengthen the influence of narrative engagement on consumer decisions to share viral messages (Seo et al., 2018). Considering that social media environments include various paratextual features that convey influences from other consumers, future research might explore whether these features vary across cultures in influencing the primacy of attitude functions on social media. Finally, we found a significant interaction between message appeal types and value-expressive attitude functions in the United States and Korea, but not in Germany. We attributed these results to benefit-based appeals, eliciting higher-level abstract thinking, being more congruent with self-expression in high-context cultures such as Korea and the United States, in contrast with Germany (Cyr & Trevor-Smith, 2004). However, while we found significant cross-cultural differences in our study – in addition to the cultural context of communication – other cultural differences could be also relevant in explaining our results. Therefore, future research is needed to explore these issues in more detail. Furthermore, the question remains as to how to increase the effectiveness of luxury advertising in extremely low-context cultures, such as Germany, where value-expressive attitudes may be incongruent with benefit-based appeals. Despite increasing interest in the study of luxury advertising, the literature lacks examinations of how consumers evaluate luxury advertising on social media. We suggest that our emphasis on psychological distance, social-function attitudes, and cultural context offers new insights for researchers and practitioners with a strong interest in the most effective ways to advertise luxury brands on social media.
confirm that consumers may possess globally similar motivations for luxury consumption and uses of social media, but that the drivers and their cultural expressions have greatly differing relative importance (e.g., Hennigs et al., 2012). 6.2. Managerial implications Our research offers several managerial implications. First, our results suggest that marketers should frame social media luxury brand advertising in terms of benefits rather than attributes, because luxury brands elicit higher-level abstract thinking, which is more congruent with benefit-based appeals (Hernandez et al., 2015). Second, we found that benefit-based appeals for luxury advertising are particularly effective when consumers are focused on value-expressive attitudes (Katz, 1960; Wilcox et al., 2009). Thus, managers should design advertising messages and adopt strategies that emphasize brand benefits and focus on value-expressive functions. For example, advertising copy could emphasize consumer individuality (e.g., “express yourself”, “there is only one you”). Moreover, social media enables marketers to personalize advertisements to individual consumers, so personalized approaches could increase the persuasiveness of benefit-based appeals in luxury advertising. Finally, we show that value-expressive attitudes determine luxury consumer behaviors across different markets, but that cultural context influences the congruence between benefit-based appeals and valueexpressive attitudes. That is, high-context cultures tend to favor abstract communication; low-context cultures prefer concrete self-expression (Overby et al., 2004). Thus, luxury brand managers should closely attend to the contextual topography and to cultural boundaries regarding self-expression. Simply put, managers must adjust their brand appeals to be congruent with how consumers express themselves. 6.3. Limitations and future research Despite important contributions, our studies have several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, we explored the influence of divergent advertising message appeals and attitude functions in the context of luxury branding on social media, but we did not determine whether our findings are unique to social media. That is, some of the findings could also apply to other media channels such as interactive videos, online communities, and virtual worlds. A cross-media comparative study could further investigate the effects. In Studies 2 and 3, we explored the relative importance of valueexpressive versus social-adjustive attitude functions using measures from Wilcox et al. (2009) that specifically measure social-function attitudes toward luxury brands. An alternative approach could be to adopt self-monitoring measures (Snyder, 1974) differentiating between low self-monitoring individuals whose attitudes serve predominantly a value-expressive function and high self-monitoring individuals whose attitudes serve a social-adjustive function (DeBono, 1987). We used two
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017S1A5A2A01025879, 2017). We would like to thank Dr. Jungkeun Kim from Auckland University of Technology for his helpful comments and assistance with data collection for an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Appendix A. Stimuli used in Study 1
Luxury and attribute appeal
Luxury and benefit appeal
This Rolex watch has a sapphire-covered dial window, polished This Rolex watch has a premium dial window covering for a sophisticated image and a stylish watchband that will never scratch. Titanium watchband, and a twin-lock double water process system with water resistance to 100 m. You can even swim with it.
Non-luxury and benefit appeal
Non-luxury and attribute appeal
This Swatch watch has a premium dial window covering for a This Swatch watch has a sapphire-covered dial window, polished sophisticated image and a stylish watchband that will never scratch. Titanium watchband, and a twin-lock double water process system with You can even swim with it. water resistance to 100 m. Appendix B. Stimuli used in Study 2 and Study 3
LA
LB
Luxury and attribute appeal
Luxury and benefit appeal
*For Study 3, product descriptions were translated into Korean and German.
Brioschi, A. (2006). Selling dreams. In J. E. Schroeder, & M. Salzer-Morling (Eds.). Brand culture (pp. 177–188). London: Routledge. Choi, Y., Seo, Y., & Yoon, S. (2017). E-WOM messaging on social media: Social ties, temporal distance, and message concreteness. Internet Research, 27(3), 495–505. Choi, Y. K., & Miracle, G. E. (2004). The effectiveness of comparative advertising in Korea and the United States: A cross-cultural and individual-level analysis. Journal of Advertising, 33(4), 75–87. Cyr, D., & Trevor-Smith, H. (2004). Localization of web design: An empirical comparison
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Matching luxury brand appeals with attitude functions on social media across cultures☆ ⁎
Yung Kyun Choia, , Yuri Seob, Udo Wagnerc, Sukki Yoond a
Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1 gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand c University of Vienna, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna, Austria d Bryant University, 1150 Douglas Pike, Simthfield, RI 02917, USA b
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Construal level and cultural context Functional attitudes Luxury brands Social media advertising
This study synthesizes previous research on psychological distance, functional theories of attitudes, and cultural contexts of communication to develop a novel perspective regarding how contemporary consumers evaluate luxury advertising on social media. Three empirical studies conducted in Korea, the U.S., and Germany reveal that the consumer perceptions of psychological distance associated with luxury brands influences whether benefit-based or attribute-based appeals are most effective. Further, we reveal that this effect depends on the consumers' attitude functions toward luxury consumption, and it varies across cultural contexts. The results offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with additional tools to increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising in the context of social media and across different cultural markets.
1. Introduction In 2016, the global market for personal luxury brands reached €318 billion (BCG and Fondazione Altagamma, 2017). Because 75% of all luxury shoppers use social media, most luxury brands must now use social media marketing to engage with their consumers, in order to increase brand awareness, preference, and behavioral intentions (Godey et al., 2016; Kim & Ko, 2012; talkwalker.com, 2017). However, previous studies have rarely explored how divergent advertising strategies can increase the effectiveness of luxury advertising in the context of social media. We synthesize psychological research on luxury brand consumption (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Wilcox, Kim, & Sen, 2009), advertising appeals (Hernandez, Wright, & Rodrigues, 2015), and social media behaviors (Choi, Seo, & Yoon, 2017; Jin, 2012) to make three main contributions that address the gap in this area. First, we show how the construal level associated with luxury brands can be leveraged to increase the effectiveness of advertising message strategies. On the one hand, previous research has established that luxury brands tend to elicit more abstract thinking and higher-level construal (Hansen & Wänke, 2011) than do non-luxury brands. This is because luxury is associated traditionally with exclusivity, status, quality, and high price (Kim & Ko, 2012; Kim, Lloyd, & Cervellon, 2016; Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2017;
Seo, Buchanan-Oliver, & Cruz, 2015). Thus, the purchase of luxury brands is limited, and often merely hypothetical (Hansen & Wänke, 2011), which elicits high-level processing through psychological distance – the subjective perception that the object is distant (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Trope & Liberman, 2010). On the other hand, advertising messages are more effective when construal levels are matched with congruent advertising appeals. In particular, high-level (low-level) construal can be matched with benefit-based (attribute-based) appeals (Hernandez et al., 2015). Informed by these previous studies, we establish that benefit-based rather than attribute-based message appeals are more effective for luxury brand advertising. Such match-up effects are particularly important in the context of social media advertising (Choi et al., 2017), where consumers are more engaged with social media posts and, thus, are likely to pay closer attention to specific message features – such as the length, content, visual information, and paratextual features (Seo, Li, Choi, & Yoon, 2018). Second, consumers desire luxury brands because of two social motives: the value-expressive function of self-expression and the socialadjustive function of self-presentation (Shavitt, 1989; Wilcox et al., 2009). Importantly, both value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes were found to play important roles within consumer behaviors on social media (Jin, 2012). However, previous studies have failed to show how these two social-function attitudes relate to the effectiveness of social
☆ ⁎
Submitted for the possible publication in the special issue of Journal of Business Research on “Fashion marketing trends in social media.” Corresponding author at: Department of Advertising and PR, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1 gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea. E-mail address: [email protected] (Y.K. Choi).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.003 Received 7 November 2017; Received in revised form 29 September 2018; Accepted 1 October 2018 0148-2963/ © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Choi, Y.K., Journal of Business Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.003
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positive when marketers use high-level advertising stimuli for distant purchase decisions, and use low-level advertising stimuli for close purchase decisions (Choi et al., 2017; Jin & He, 2013; Martin, Gnoth, & Strong, 2009). Of particular interest for the purposes of our study, it has been found that in low-level (high-level) construal contexts, consumers will make more favorable evaluations of attribute-based (benefit-based) message appeals that focus on product features (product uses) (Hernandez et al., 2015). This is because when products are characterized with intrinsically concrete and observable attributes, consumers feel psychological proximity. On the other hand, when consumers perceive that they will derive benefits from consuming or possessing a product, they feel psychological distance (Hernandez et al., 2015). Luxury brand consumption tends to elicit perceptions of escapism, exclusivity, and inaccessibility (Brioschi, 2006), which suggests that luxury consumption is associated with more abstract perspectives – psychological distance – in contrast with consumption of non-luxury brands. In particular, both consumers and advertisers tend to use more abstract language to describe luxury products and to perceive abstract product descriptions as luxurious (Hansen & Wänke, 2011). For instance, desires for luxury brands are associated with product superiority, selective distribution, exclusivity, uniqueness, elitism, glamor, fashion, and status (Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). Indeed, previous research in psychology has established that the concept of luxury elicits high-construal processing because it evokes the perceptions of increased hypothetical distance (Hansen & Wänke, 2011). Thus, we postulate that luxury brands will craft their most effective ads by focusing on benefit-based rather than attribute-based message appeals (Hernandez et al., 2015), which leads to our first hypothesis:
media advertising. We address this gap by showing that consumers who have value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes toward luxury consumption respond with greater purchase intentions, when luxury brand messages use benefit-based rather than attribute-based appeals. Third, cultural influences are known to shape attitudes and preferences for luxury brand consumption (Hennigs et al., 2012; Seo et al., 2015; Shukla & Purani, 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). Further, there are also cross-cultural differences in social media attitudes and behaviors (Pentina, Zhang, & Basmanova, 2013). Consequently, we show that cultural context (Hall, 1976) can moderate the positive congruence effect that occurs when benefit-based luxury appeals are matched with value-expressive attitudes. Overall, we investigate the determinants of luxury advertising effectiveness in the context of social media by synthesizing research on construal-level theory (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Trope & Liberman, 2010), functional theories of attitudes (Katz, 1960; Wilcox et al., 2009), and cultural contexts of communication (Hall, 1976; Mattila, 1999). Across three empirical studies that we conducted using the context of social media, we establish that (1) high-level construal associated with luxury brands influences the effectiveness of using benefit-based versus attribute-based appeals; (2) depending on (a) social attitude functions associated with luxury consumption and (b) cultural contexts. These relationships are reflected in the conceptual model depicted in Fig. 1. Our results offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with additional tools to increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising on social media and across cultural markets.
2. Literature review and hypotheses development
H1. Benefit-based rather than attribute-based message appeals will be more effective for luxury rather than for non-luxury brands.
2.1. Construal level theory, message appeals, and luxury brands Construal level theory (CLT) describes how individuals construe objects according to psychological distance (Trope & Liberman, 2010). Psychological distance indicates subjective perceptions of whether objects and events are proximate or distant. Although temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical sources could form psychological distance, they have similar effects on predictions, preferences, and actions. Specifically, CLT assumes that individuals use low-level, more detailed, and contextualized features in construing objects that are psychologically proximate. In contrast, they use high-level, more abstract, and stable construal for objects that are psychologically distant. That is, high-level construal elicits relatively abstract, coherent, and superordinate mental representations, while low-level construal elicits relatively concrete mental representations (Trope & Liberman, 2010). The principles of CLT have been used in marketing literature to show that consumers form more positive evaluations of products, brands, and advertising messages when the messages pair construal levels with psychological distance. For example, consumers feel more
2.2. Functional attitudes, luxury brands, and CLT Functional theories of attitudes (Katz, 1960; Shavitt, 1989) posit that attitudes fulfill important psychological needs, or functions – such as maximizing rewards and minimizing punishments (utilitarian function), organizing the view of one's environment (knowledge function), and maintaining one's self esteem (ego-defensive function). Attitudes can also serve important social functions, which include facilitating self-expression (value-expressive function) and self-presentation (social-adjustive function). The key tenet of functional theories is that the motivational underpinnings of attitudes, and not merely their strength and valence, play the key role in linking attitudes with behaviors (Shavitt, 1989). Indeed, consumer research shows that advertising messages should match appeals with attitudinal functions; for example, advertisements for utilitarian products will draw higher product evaluations and message processing by emphasizing utilitarian benefits
Attitude Functions (Value-expressive vs. Social-adjustive)
Cultural Context (Low vs. High)
H3 + H2 +
Advertising Appeal (Benefits vs. Attributes)
Advertising Effectiveness H1 + Fig. 1. Conceptual model. 2
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H2. Benefit-based rather than attribute-based luxury brand appeals will be more effective with consumers whose luxury attitudes serve valueexpressive rather than social-adjustive functions.
(Shavitt, Lowrey, & Han, 1992; Snyder & DeBono, 1985). Informed by this perspective, Wilcox et al. (2009) note that luxury brand consumption is characterized by two distinct social-function attitudes – social-adjustive and value-expressive. Social-adjustive attitudes are connected with the desire to maintain social relationships (DeBono, 1987; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956). Luxury brands are associated with strong social-adjustive attitudes because consumers use such brands to gain social approval. Therefore, conspicuous consumption is a major underlying motive for purchasing luxury products (e.g., Han, Nunes, & Drèze, 2010). Another reason for luxury consumption is the desire to express central beliefs and values; that is, value-expressive attitudes (Katz, 1960) in which the perceived attractive personalities of luxury brands serve as a form of self-expression (Wilcox et al., 2009). Both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions have been shown to determine luxury consumption (Bian & Forsythe, 2012; Jin, 2012; Wilcox et al., 2009). For isntance, consumers who have socialadjustive rather than value-expressive motivations for purchasing luxury brands were found to be more likely to purchase counterfeit luxury brands (Wilcox et al., 2009). Adolescent consumers sixteen to twenty-five years old were reported to be more likely to purchase luxury items for social-adjustive reasons, but young adults of twenty-six to thirty-nine are more likely to purchase luxury items for value-expressive reasons (Schade, Hegner, Horstmann, & Brinkmann, 2016). In another study, Bian and Forsythe (2012) explored the influence of social-function attitudes on luxury brand purchases among U.S. and Chinese students. Their results suggest that both types of social-function attitudes (i.e., both value-expressive and social-adjustive) are important determinants of luxury brand consumption behaviors; however, they did not establish any specific cross-cultural differences in terms of how value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes vary within their influences on luxury consumer behaviors. Finally, Jin (2012) explored the influence of social-function attitudes in the context of luxury brand management on social media. Her findings show that both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions are important determinants of social media behaviors; however, similarly to Bian and Forsythe (2012), this study falls short of providing answers as to how value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes have varying influences in terms of their relative importance for luxury consumer behaviors and advertising strategies. Against this backdrop, previous research has established that certain products are especially congruent with certain attitude functions (Shavitt, 1990). Luxury brands are valued primarily for their symbolic associations with social status, exclusivity, and unique identity (Kwon, Seo, & Ko, 2016). Consequently, they are generally more congruent with social-function attitudes (i.e., both value-expressive and socialadjustive) than are non-luxury brands (Wilcox et al., 2009). This also means that, when consumers hold strong social-function attitudes, they tend to respond more favorably to benefit-based appeals emphasizing brand imagery rather than to functionality-based appeals (Johar & Sirgy, 1991). Nevertheless, while both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions are congruent with benefit-based appeals, social-adjustive attitudes motivate luxury consumption in terms of concrete and specific benefits, such as social acceptance or rejection (Katz, 1960). Conversely, value-expressive attitudes will perceive a wider range of benefits from luxury consumption, signaling important aspects of personal identity and values – such as achievement, reward, style, and selftransformation (Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2017). Consequently, we posit that consumers who have strong value-expressive (versus social-adjustive) attitudes are more likely to activate high-level construal and higher-level abstract thinking. Thus, consistent with CLT tenets, we expect that when consumers hold value-expressive rather than socialadjustive attitudes, they will react more strongly to the positive matchup effects occurring when luxury brands are paired with benefit-based message appeals:
2.3. Individualism/collectivism, cultural context, and CLT Cultural influences play an important role in shaping attitudes and preferences toward luxury brand consumption (Hennigs et al., 2012; Seo et al., 2015; Shukla & Purani, 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). For instance, consumers in collectivist (individualistic) markets may use simpler (more complex) selection criteria for evaluating luxury brands (Shukla & Purani, 2012). Further, cultural context influences consumer judgments and communication styles (Overby, Gardial, & Woodruff, 2004). In particular, members of individualistic, low-context, cultures are more concerned with the clarity of conversations and use more direct communication; members of collectivistic cultures are more concerned with ‘face management’ and tend to communicate indirectly (Kim, 1994; Triandis, 1994). Consequently, members of individualistic cultures would be likely to prefer comparative advertising that makes direct comparisons of product attributes or benefits with those of other brands (Choi & Miracle, 2004). Accordingly, individualist and collectivist cultural contexts appear to be related to communication styles. For example, people in collectivistic cultures, such as Korea, think more holistically (Overby et al., 2004) and, thus, use high-context communication including indirect, ambiguous, and implicit verbal expressions and nonverbal communication styles (Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986, 1993; Hall, 1976; Money, Gilly, & Graham, 1998; Ting-Toomey, 1985). High-context communication conveys information through the physical context or through internal understandings; very little information is conveyed in the explicit message transmission. In contrast, members of individualistic cultures, such as Germany, use low-context communication that emphasizes direct, explicit, and clear communication (Gudykunst & Nishida, 1986, 1993; Hall, 1976). The communication style characteristics suggest that collectivistic and high-context communication is related to more abstract, high-level construal. In contrast, individualistic and low-context communication is related to concrete, low-level construal. Consequently, cultural context could play a moderating role in the match-up effects resulting from pairing luxury brands with benefit-based message appeals, because benefits are more abstract representations – connected with high-level construal (Hernandez et al., 2015). That is, consumers from high-context (low-context) cultures could favor more abstract (concrete) communication (Choi & Miracle, 2004). Taken together, the two propositions imply that members of high-context (low-context) cultures will respond better to benefit-based (attribute-based) appeals (Pae, Samiee, & Tai, 2002). Beyond influencing the processing of advertising messages, cultural context also shapes how people communicate their central beliefs and values (Overby et al., 2004), and how they express themselves (Katz, 1960). Consequently, benefit-based luxury appeals, conveying more abstract information about the value of luxury brands, will be more congruent with the value-expressive attitude function of high-context consumers (Overby et al., 2004). In other words, cultural context may affect the match-up between benefit-based appeals and value-expressive attitudes: it will be more (less) evident among consumers from high-context (low-context) cultures: H3. Cultural context will moderate the positive congruence effect resulting from matching benefit-based luxury appeals with valueexpressive attitudes: the effect will be more (less) evident in highcontext (low-context) cultures, such as Korea (Germany). To test our hypotheses, we conducted three empirical studies. In Study 1, we provide causal evidence that benefit-based rather than attribute-based appeals are more persuasive luxury advertising 3
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Fig. 2. Results of Study 1.
completed a brief demographic survey and were debriefed.
messages in the context of social media. In Study 2, we extend our results by showing that consumers prefer benefit-based appeals in luxury advertising when their brand attitudes serve a value-expressive function rather than a social-adjustive function. In Study 3, we explore the role of cultural context by conducting a cross-cultural comparison of low-context German and high-context Korean consumers. The findings corroborate Study 2 by showing more varying preference for benefitbased appeals for participants who have value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes. As predicted, cultural context moderated the relationship: it was more evident among Koreans than Germans. In the following sections, we detail findings that provide useful tools for ensuring the effectiveness of luxury advertising on social media.
3.2. Results Manipulation checks revealed that our advertising stimuli worked as intended. The advertising messages featuring benefit-based appeals were perceived to be more abstract (Mbenefit = 4.11, SD = 1.19; Mattribute = 3.55, SD = 1.13; F(1, 159) = 9.63, p < .005) and to reflect more benefits than those featuring attribute-based appeals (Mbenefit = 4.05, SD = 1.34; Mattribute = 3.35, SD = 1.34; F(1, 159) = 11.54, p < .005). Moreover, advertising messages featuring Rolex (luxury) (M = 5.5, SD = 1.37) were perceived to be more luxurious than those featuring Swatch (non-luxury) (M = 4.58, SD = 1.20; t(1, 161) = 4.57, p < .001). A 2 (message appeal: benefit-based versus attribute-based) × 2 (brand: luxury versus non-luxury) ANOVA on attitude yielded no significant main effects, but a significant two-way interaction occurred (F (1, 159) = 8.42, p < .005, η2 = 0.05). Simple effects revealed that the benefit-based appeal induced more favorable attitudes toward the luxury rather than the non-luxury brand (Mlux = 5.24; Mnon-lux = 4.60, F(1, 159) = 8.42, p < .005, η2 = 0.05). Conversely, the attributebased appeal caused no significant difference in attitudes between luxury and non-luxury brands (Mlux = 4.83, Mnon-lux = 5.13, F(1, 159) = 1.80, p = .18). Fig. 2a shows the results. To further investigate the interaction, we performed a residual means analysis (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 1989), depicted in Fig. 2b, confirming the results of simple effects.
3. Study 1 Study 1 was designed to provide evidence for the causal relationship predicted in our first hypothesis. That is, benefit-based appeals rather than attribute-based appeals will increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising on social media. 3.1. Stimuli and procedure We recruited 163 participants (men = 36.8%, Mage = 42.3) from an online panel in Korea and randomly assigned them to a 2 (message appeal: benefit-based versus attribute-based) × 2 (brand: luxury [Rolex] versus non-luxury [Swatch]) between-subjects design. We used four different versions of the same advertisement (Appendix A) manipulated by brand name and advertising appeals. To manipulate message appeals, we followed Hernandez et al. (2015) and manipulated the advertised product descriptions to be benefit-based or attribute-based. The benefit-based condition read: “This [watch brand] watch has a premium dial window covering for a sophisticated image and a stylish watchband that will never scratch. You can even swim with it.” Conversely, the attribute-based condition read: “This [watch brand] watch has a sapphire-covered dial window, polished Titanium watchband, a twin-lock double water process system, and water resistance to 100 meters.” To manipulate brand luxury, following Kwon et al. (2016), we used Rolex for the luxury brand and Swatch for the non-luxury brand. In each condition, participants viewed only one of the four mock ads in the Facebook timeline. Participants indicated their attitude toward the watch on a five-item attitude scale (1 = dislike, 7 = like, α = 0.93) (Kirmani & Zhu, 2007); and their perceptions of message abstractness (1 = very concrete, 7 = very abstract), message appeals (1 = focuses on attributes, 7 = focuses on benefits) and luxuriousness (1 = ordinary; 7 = luxurious) using single-item measures. Finally, participants
3.3. Discussion Consistent with our predictions that CLT plays a role in evaluations of luxury advertising, Study 1 confirms our key tenet that benefit-based rather than attribute-based appeals are a more effective strategy for luxury bands on social media. The attribute-based appeal failed to evoke significant differences between perceptions of luxury and nonluxury brands, but the benefit-based appeal evoked significantly more favorable attitudes toward luxury brands. Simply put, benefit-based appeals are more congruent with luxury brand advertising on social media. 4. Study 2 In Study 2, we tested our second hypothesis, which proposes that benefit-based appeals in luxury advertising on social media will be particularly effective when consumers have value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes toward luxury brands. This study was 4
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for the interaction between social-adjustive attitudes and message appeal types. In the following study, we extend our findings further by testing the effect of luxury brand attitude functions and message appeals, by contrasting the populations of luxury consumers across national markets with varying cultural communication patterns (Hall, 1976).
conducted with U.S. participants recruited from an online panel, and using social media advertising messages for another type of product – luxury handbags. Because of the product category, we recruited women participants only. 4.1. Stimuli and procedure
5. Study 3
A total of 115 (Mage = 31.6) women participants were recruited from a heterogeneous online panel in the United States through Amazon Mechanical Turk. As compensation, a token amount of money was paid. We first elicited the extent of value-expressive attitude functions (e.g., “luxury brands help me express myself,” α = 0.94) and social-adjustive functions (e.g., “luxury brands are symbols of social status,” α = 0.89), using established measures from Wilcox et al. (2009). Next, participants were assigned randomly to view a Facebook timeline featuring one of the two pre-designed social media advertisements featuring an attribute-based or benefit-based appeal for a luxury Prada handbag. To manipulate message appeals, we used the same technique as in Study 1, but revised the description of the advertised product to reflect the desired appeal (Appendix B). Manipulation checks revealed results consistent with Study 1. The advertising messages featuring a benefit-based appeal were perceived to be more abstract (Mbenefit = 4.13, SD = 1.63; Mattribute = 3.28, SD = 1.74; F(1, 114) = 7.23, p < .005), and to reflect more benefits than those featuring an attribute-based appeal (Mbenefit = 4.55, SD = 1.65; Mattribute = 3.58, SD = 2.17; F(1, 114) = 7.31, p < .005). Moreover, the branded product advertised (Prada handbag) was perceived to be luxurious (M = 6.13, SD = 1.20), as intended. Next, participants indicated their purchase intentions using four statements on 7-point scales (1 = unwilling to buy, 7 = willing to buy, α = 0.96). Finally, they were debriefed, thanked, and dismissed.
Study 3 has two purposes. First, we corroborate the Study 2 results by showing that consumers holding value-expressive rather than socialadjustive attitudes convey more varying preferences for benefit-based appeals rather than attribute-based appeals in luxury advertising on social media. Second, we test the remaining hypothesis regarding cultural context as moderating the effectiveness of luxury advertising on social media. 5.1. Stimuli and procedure For this cross-cultural comparative study, we recruited participants from two panels in Germany (N = 128, men = 36.7%, Mage = 41.10) and Korea (N = 114, men = 36%, Mage = 41.79). To manipulate message appeals, we used the Study 2 stimuli, translated into German and Korean and then back-translated into English to check for consistency. We conducted 2(country) × 2(message appeal) ANOVA for manipulation checks. The benefit-based appeals were perceived to be more abstract (Mbenefit = 3.98, SD = 1.42; Mattribute = 2.96, SD = 1.55; F(1, 241) = 29.90, p < .001), and the messages were perceived to be more abstract in Korea (M = 3.93, SD = 1.46) than in Germany (M = 3.05, SD = 1.57; F(1, 241) = 22.50, p < .001), but they showed no interaction effect. Also, the benefit-based appeals indicated more benefits than the attribute-based appeals (Mbenefit = 3.92, SD = 1.41; Mattribute = 2.98, SD = 1.73; F(1, 241) = 20.61, p < .001). Country had no significant effect, but the country × message type interaction was significant (F(1, 241) = 5.19, p < .05). A higher manipulation effect between benefit-based appeals and attribute-based appeals occurred in Germany (Mbenefit = 4.02, SD = 1.59; Mattribute = 2.64, SD = 1.91) than in Korea (Mbenefit = 3.81, SD = 1.17; Mattribute = 3.35, SD = 1.44). Moreover, the Prada handbag advertised was perceived to be luxurious in both countries, but more luxurious in Germany (M = 6.04, SD = 1.31) than in Korea (M = 5.28, SD = 1.19; t(1, 240) = 4.69, p < .001). Thus, consistent with the manipulation checks in Studies 1 and 2, benefit-based appeals were perceived to be more abstract and reflected more benefits in both countries. Finally, as we expected, German participants (M = 5.15, SD = 0.72) yielded a significantly stronger tendency toward individualism (e.g., I'd rather depend on myself than others, α = 0.73) than Korean participants (M = 5.15, SD = 0.85; t(238) = 3.46, p < .005). The study employed a 2 (country: high-context [Korea] versus lowcontext [Germany]) × 2 (message appeal: benefit-based versus attribute-based) between-subjects design. In each condition, similarly to Study 2, we first determined whether attitudes toward luxury brands served value-expressive (α = 0.89) or social-adjustive (α = 0.95) functions. Then participants viewed one of the two mock advertisements for a luxury Prada bag in the Facebook timeline. Next, participants indicated purchase intentions using four statements on 7-point scales (e.g., 1 = unwilling to buy, 7 = willing to buy, α = 0.96). Finally, participants completed a brief demographic survey and were debriefed.
4.2. Results To test H2, we used the PROCESS macros (Model 2, 5000 bootstrap samples) (Hayes, 2013), and regressed the ‘value-expressive function’, the ‘social-adjustive function’, the interaction between ‘value-expressive function’ × ‘message appeal’ and the interaction between ‘social-adjustive function’ × ‘message appeal’ on ‘purchase intention’ within the same model (F = 139.39, p < .001, R2 = 0.81). The findings revealed, in line with H2, a significant interaction effect of ‘message appeal’ × ‘value-expressive function’ (b = 0.68; t = 6.53, p < .05), and only a marginally significant interaction of ‘message appeal’ × ‘social-adjustive function’ (b = 0.48; t = 1.76, p = .08). Thus, it was clear that the value-expressive function was a stronger predictor of the preference for benefit-based (versus attributebased) appeals than the social-adjustive function. When we probed the slopes of the two regressions further, the benefit-based appeal elicited significantly higher purchase intentions for strong value-expressive attitudes (one standard deviation above the mean) (b = 0.68, t = 2.44, p < .05), but not for weak value-expressive attitudes (one standard deviation below the mean) (b=. 17, t = 0.91, p = n.s.). The results support H2 by showing varying purchase intentions for benefit-based appeals for consumers who have strong value-expressive (rather than social-adjustive) luxury brand attitudes. 4.3. Discussion
5.2. Results
Study 2 extends the results of Study 1 by showing support for our second key hypothesis. That is, congruent pairing of luxury brands with benefit-based appeals is more evident when consumers have strong value-expressive rather than social-adjustive attitudes toward luxury brands. In particular, consumers holding strong value-expressive attitudes exhibit significantly higher purchase intentions for benefit-based appeals in social media advertising. We failed to find equivalent results
To test H3, we used PROCESS macros (Model 3, 5000 bootstrap samples) (Hayes, 2013), whereby we conducted the moderated-moderation (three-way) analysis of ‘country’ × ‘message appeal’ × ‘valueexpressive function’, and ‘social-adjustive function’ as a co-variate (F = 25.60, p < .000, R2 = 0.47). The results revealed a significant 5
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Fig. 3. Results of Study 3.
three-way interaction of ‘country’ × ‘message appeal’ × ‘value-expressive function’ (b = 0.57, t = 2.07, p < .05). When we further probed the conditional effect of a two-way interaction of ‘message appeal’ × ‘value-expressive function’ within each country, the effect was highly significant in Korea (b = 0.60, t = 3.10, p < .05), but not in Germany (b = 0.03, t = 0.19, p = n.s.). The results support H3. That is, the value-expressive function more strongly moderates the congruency between luxury brands and benefit-based appeals in Korea rather than in Germany. In other words, cultural variations occur in the relative effectiveness of using benefit-based over attribute-based appeals for consumers who hold strong value-expressive attitudes (Fig. 3). To account for alternative explanations and to corroborate the Study 2 results, we conducted an alternative moderated-moderation analysis of ‘country’ × ‘message appeal’ × ‘social-adjustive function’, and ‘value-expressive function’ as a co-variate. However, the alternative model revealed no significant main or interaction effects on purchase intentions, giving further support to H2. That is, value-expressive functional attitudes have more effect than social-adjustive functional attitudes on the congruency between social media luxury brand advertising and benefit-based appeals.
featuring benefits will be more persuasive for consumers who have value-expressive attitudes, causing them to use luxury brands to express important aspects of their beliefs and values (Wilcox et al., 2009). The effect is also culturally constituted. That is, we found that in Korea, where people tend to use more abstract and holistic communication styles, more positive effects occur when benefit-based luxury ads are matched with value-expressive attitudes. However, the effects were absent in Germany, where the emphasis is on explicit and clear communication (Hall, 1976). The findings offer important theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and avenues for future research regarding the broader research on luxury brand advertising, and particularly on social media.
6.1. Theoretical contributions Our research responds to calls to develop novel insights about the determinants of contemporary luxury brand advertising effectiveness in light of the changing consumption patterns characterizing global luxury markets (Kim et al., 2016; Kwon et al., 2016). We synthesize previous findings from CLT (Hansen & Wänke, 2011; Trope & Liberman, 2010); functional theories of attitudes (Katz, 1960; Wilcox et al., 2009), and cultural contexts (Hall, 1976; Mattila, 1999), and develop a novel perspective that explains how luxury consumers evaluate advertising messages using the context of social media. Social media and luxury branding research has focused largely on the positive and negative effects that social media exerts on luxury consumer behaviors (e.g., Jin, 2012; Kim & Ko, 2012; Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). Considerably less attention has been paid to specific techniques that may improve the effectiveness of luxury advertising messages on social media. To address this gap, we show how persuasiveness can be predicted and improved by using attribute-based or benefit-based appeals according to the underlying mechanisms of psychological distance, social-attitude functions, and cultural context. In particular, we contribute to luxury consumption research that has explored variations in social-function attitudes (Bian & Forsythe, 2012), but has not provided conclusive insights regarding the way value-expressive and social-adjustive functions differ in relative importance for predicting luxury consumption. We reveal that value-expressive attitudes are more explanatory than social-adjustive attitudes for determining the effectiveness of luxury advertising on social media. Our results resonate with recent tenets of luxury democratization, which suggest that the modern concept of luxury is more about creativity and self-expression rather than about conveying status (Seo & BuchananOliver, 2017). Further, we show that cultural context moderates the influence of value-expressive attitudes (Hall, 1976). That is, luxury appeals are more or less congruent depending upon how consumers express themselves in different countries (Katz, 1960; Overby et al., 2004). Overall, the results
5.3. Discussion Study 3 corroborated Study 2 by showing that value-expressive attitudes are stronger than social-adjustive attitudes for predicting effectiveness in social media luxury advertising. More importantly, we explored how cultural context moderates the relationship between social-function attitudes and social media luxury message appeals. Consistent with our predictions, high-context consumers had more positive reactions when benefit-based appeals were matched with value-expressive attitudes toward luxury brands (Choi & Miracle, 2004; Pae et al., 2002). Accordingly, a particularly effective strategy for luxury brand advertising in high-context cultures would be to use benefit-based appeals that reinforce the value-expressive properties of luxury consumption. We found no significant interaction effect between message appeals and value-expressive attitudes in Germany, perhaps because Germany is an extremely low-context culture compared with Korea and even with the United States (Cyr & Trevor-Smith, 2004). 6. General discussion We conducted three empirical studies – in Korea, the United States, and Germany – to develop novel insights into the ways consumers evaluate luxury brands using social media advertising messages. We demonstrate that luxury advertising messages featuring benefit-based appeals are generally more effective than messages featuring attributebased appeals. However, several boundary conditions increase the effectiveness of this advertising strategy. First, advertising messages 6
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separate measures for social-function attitudes because the scales were designed specifically to measure attitudes toward luxury brands, and because consumers are likely to hold simultaneous value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes. However, future studies could corroborate our results using a self-monitoring construct (Snyder, 1974). Another related limitation is that we measured rather than manipulated chronic social-function attitudes toward luxury brands. Future studies could replicate our results by priming value-expressive and social-adjustive attitude functions in the context of luxury brand consumption and advertising. Such an approach would reveal additional insights about whether temporarily activating different attitude functions alters the way consumers process luxury advertising messages. Furthermore, paratextual features of social media, such as a higher number of ‘likes’ for an advertising message, can strengthen the influence of narrative engagement on consumer decisions to share viral messages (Seo et al., 2018). Considering that social media environments include various paratextual features that convey influences from other consumers, future research might explore whether these features vary across cultures in influencing the primacy of attitude functions on social media. Finally, we found a significant interaction between message appeal types and value-expressive attitude functions in the United States and Korea, but not in Germany. We attributed these results to benefit-based appeals, eliciting higher-level abstract thinking, being more congruent with self-expression in high-context cultures such as Korea and the United States, in contrast with Germany (Cyr & Trevor-Smith, 2004). However, while we found significant cross-cultural differences in our study – in addition to the cultural context of communication – other cultural differences could be also relevant in explaining our results. Therefore, future research is needed to explore these issues in more detail. Furthermore, the question remains as to how to increase the effectiveness of luxury advertising in extremely low-context cultures, such as Germany, where value-expressive attitudes may be incongruent with benefit-based appeals. Despite increasing interest in the study of luxury advertising, the literature lacks examinations of how consumers evaluate luxury advertising on social media. We suggest that our emphasis on psychological distance, social-function attitudes, and cultural context offers new insights for researchers and practitioners with a strong interest in the most effective ways to advertise luxury brands on social media.
confirm that consumers may possess globally similar motivations for luxury consumption and uses of social media, but that the drivers and their cultural expressions have greatly differing relative importance (e.g., Hennigs et al., 2012). 6.2. Managerial implications Our research offers several managerial implications. First, our results suggest that marketers should frame social media luxury brand advertising in terms of benefits rather than attributes, because luxury brands elicit higher-level abstract thinking, which is more congruent with benefit-based appeals (Hernandez et al., 2015). Second, we found that benefit-based appeals for luxury advertising are particularly effective when consumers are focused on value-expressive attitudes (Katz, 1960; Wilcox et al., 2009). Thus, managers should design advertising messages and adopt strategies that emphasize brand benefits and focus on value-expressive functions. For example, advertising copy could emphasize consumer individuality (e.g., “express yourself”, “there is only one you”). Moreover, social media enables marketers to personalize advertisements to individual consumers, so personalized approaches could increase the persuasiveness of benefit-based appeals in luxury advertising. Finally, we show that value-expressive attitudes determine luxury consumer behaviors across different markets, but that cultural context influences the congruence between benefit-based appeals and valueexpressive attitudes. That is, high-context cultures tend to favor abstract communication; low-context cultures prefer concrete self-expression (Overby et al., 2004). Thus, luxury brand managers should closely attend to the contextual topography and to cultural boundaries regarding self-expression. Simply put, managers must adjust their brand appeals to be congruent with how consumers express themselves. 6.3. Limitations and future research Despite important contributions, our studies have several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, we explored the influence of divergent advertising message appeals and attitude functions in the context of luxury branding on social media, but we did not determine whether our findings are unique to social media. That is, some of the findings could also apply to other media channels such as interactive videos, online communities, and virtual worlds. A cross-media comparative study could further investigate the effects. In Studies 2 and 3, we explored the relative importance of valueexpressive versus social-adjustive attitude functions using measures from Wilcox et al. (2009) that specifically measure social-function attitudes toward luxury brands. An alternative approach could be to adopt self-monitoring measures (Snyder, 1974) differentiating between low self-monitoring individuals whose attitudes serve predominantly a value-expressive function and high self-monitoring individuals whose attitudes serve a social-adjustive function (DeBono, 1987). We used two
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017S1A5A2A01025879, 2017). We would like to thank Dr. Jungkeun Kim from Auckland University of Technology for his helpful comments and assistance with data collection for an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Appendix A. Stimuli used in Study 1
Luxury and attribute appeal
Luxury and benefit appeal
This Rolex watch has a sapphire-covered dial window, polished This Rolex watch has a premium dial window covering for a sophisticated image and a stylish watchband that will never scratch. Titanium watchband, and a twin-lock double water process system with water resistance to 100 m. You can even swim with it.
Non-luxury and benefit appeal
Non-luxury and attribute appeal
This Swatch watch has a premium dial window covering for a This Swatch watch has a sapphire-covered dial window, polished sophisticated image and a stylish watchband that will never scratch. Titanium watchband, and a twin-lock double water process system with You can even swim with it. water resistance to 100 m. Appendix B. Stimuli used in Study 2 and Study 3
LA
LB
Luxury and attribute appeal
Luxury and benefit appeal
*For Study 3, product descriptions were translated into Korean and German.
Brioschi, A. (2006). Selling dreams. In J. E. Schroeder, & M. Salzer-Morling (Eds.). Brand culture (pp. 177–188). London: Routledge. Choi, Y., Seo, Y., & Yoon, S. (2017). E-WOM messaging on social media: Social ties, temporal distance, and message concreteness. Internet Research, 27(3), 495–505. Choi, Y. K., & Miracle, G. E. (2004). The effectiveness of comparative advertising in Korea and the United States: A cross-cultural and individual-level analysis. Journal of Advertising, 33(4), 75–87. Cyr, D., & Trevor-Smith, H. (2004). Localization of web design: An empirical comparison
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