Viral Marketing
Societal Spillovers of TV Advertising -- Social Distancing During a Public Health Crisis
Ayan Ghosh Dastidar, Sarang Sunder & Denish Shah
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Can TV Advertising affect societal outcomes beyond traditional marketing outcomes such as sales and brand awareness? The authors address this question in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by analyzing daily advertising and mobility data for 2,194 counties across 204 Designated Market Areas in the US. By employing a border identification strategy that exploits discontinuities across television markets, the authors find a significant positive causal relationship between TV ads from brands containing COVID-19 narratives, and people's social distancing behavior while controlling for government policy interventions (e.g., shelter-in-place, mask mandates). The estimated effects are almost 11 times larger in counties without government policy interventions (compared to counties with policy interventions). Notably, while the overall impact of government ads on social distancing behavior is non-significant, the effect becomes significantly negative (positive) in the presence (absence) of policy interventions. The results are robust to alternative model specifications, variable operationalizations, and other data considerations. The findings underscore the critical role that spillover effects from brand-sponsored TV ads can play during major public crises, including mitigating the lack of local governments' policy interventions. The findings bear substantive implications for managers and policymakers regarding how advertising strategies may help improve public health outcomes or advance social good.
How Support for Black Lives Matter Impacts Consumer Responses on Social Media
Yang Wang et al.
Marketing Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We scrutinize the direct and moderated impact of brands' support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) on consumer responses. Our empirical strategy exploits Blackout Tuesday as a natural experiment in which BLM support occurred on Instagram (treated platform) but not on Twitter (control platform) to perform a within-brand crossplatform difference-in-differences (DID) analysis. We also combine econometric models with machine learning techniques to analyze the unstructured data of the social media content. Based on a unique multiindustry, multiyear, and multiplatform data set of 435 major brands and 396,988 social media posts, we find a negative impact of BLM support on consumer responses, such as followers and likes. Furthermore, our analyses uncover a multifaceted set of heterogeneous DID effects across brands. (1) Although lone-wolf BLM support leads to negligible effects, large-scale BLM support from many brands can lead to strong negative effects (i.e., the bandwagon effect). (2) Posting self-promotional content exacerbates the negative effects of BLM support. (3) Historical prosocial posting on social media attenuates the negative effects. (4) Brands with socially oriented missions suffer less from the negative effects. (5) Customers' political affiliation also matters; the negative effects of BLM support are amplified/attenuated for brands with mostly Republican/Democratic customers. Additionally, (6) slacktivism (showing BLM support in words but without financial donations) can mitigate the negative effects for brands with mostly Republican consumers but amplify the negative effects for brands with mostly Democratic consumers.
Mysterious Consumption: Preference for Horizontal (Versus Vertical) Uncertainty and the Role of Surprise
Eva Buechel & Ruoou Li
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mysterious consumption items represent products that are chosen or purchased without knowing the exact nature of the product(s). In contrast to what we know about uncertainty aversion, the present research shows that consumers prefer uncertainty over certainty in the context of mysterious consumption. Across a variety of products (stress-balls, ice cream, songs, teas, snacks, hotel rooms, masks, rental cars), participants preferred mysterious consumption items over non-mysterious consumption items of equal expected value. The value of mysterious consumption lies at least in part in the uncertainty about the nature of the outcome among objectively similar outcomes. Specifically, the uncertainty around horizontally differentiated outcomes (i.e., outcomes that differ as a matter of taste) in the case of mysterious consumption focuses consumers on the positive side of uncertainty: the opportunity to be surprised. The preference for uncertainty is not observed when the possible outcomes are vertically differentiated (i.e., outcomes that differ in objective superiority, as is the case in existing demonstrations of uncertainty), or when horizontal uncertainty is reduced to a degree that diminishes the ability to be surprised. The findings reconcile literatures on surprise and uncertainty aversion, and help explain mysterious consumption as a substantive phenomenon in the marketplace.
The Effects of Content Ephemerality on Information Processing
Uri Barnea, Robert Meyer & Gideon Nave
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many marketing communications, from verbal conversations to messaging and content sharing via apps such as Snapchat, limit the number of times people can view content. How do such restrictions affect consumers' information processing? Building on the proposition that people strategically allocate cognitive resources, we hypothesize that consumers of content that cannot be viewed repeatedly consider the risk of failing to process it sufficiently, and consequently allocate more cognitive resources to its processing (e.g., by increasing viewing time). We test this hypothesis in ten pre-registered online studies (total N = 17,620), an exploratory analysis of eye tracking data, and a field study on Facebook's advertising platform. Across the studies, we find that making content ephemeral elevates consumers' perceived risk of missing information; consequently, it increases attention allocation, prolongs voluntary viewing time, and magnifies focus on relevant information. These effects have important downstream consequences, including improved content comprehension and recall, enhanced positive attitudes, and increased efficiency of sponsored content placement on social media. Taken together, our findings indicate that marketers can communicate information more effectively by restricting consumers from viewing it again.
Paying Twice for Aesthetic Customization? The Negative Effect of Uniqueness on a Product's Resale Value
Matthias Fuchs & Martin Schreier
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Customers frequently gravitate toward unique products, and firms increasingly utilize mass customization strategies allowing customers to self-customize products according to their unique preferences. While existing research shows that customers are willing to pay extra for this uniqueness, the present investigation points to a potential cost of self-customization that has been largely overlooked thus far. Specifically, the authors argue that what creates value for the individual consumer-designer (i.e., the original customer of the self-customized product) might conversely be detrimental to potential customers on the second-hand market, particularly in the context of aesthetic (vs. functional) customization. Results of three distinct data sets (including an analysis of more than 500,000 pre-owned car sales listings) support this uniqueness-hurts-resale hypothesis and provide a series of more nuanced findings. Consistent with the theorizing and empirical studies, three follow-up experiments show that while consumer-designers' valuations are positively affected by uniqueness, uniqueness indeed negatively affects second-hand market customers' willingness-to-pay. This is because the more unique a given configuration to a given consumer-designer, the lower the likelihood that said design will meet second-hand market customers' taste preferences. The findings point to a tension between maximizing utility at first purchase and minimizing the related cost of aesthetic customization at resale.
Does Topic Consistency Matter? A Study of Critic and User Reviews in the Movie Industry
Eunsoo Kim et al.
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Online review platforms often present reviews from both critics and general users. In this research, the authors propose a measure named "topic consistency" to capture the degree of overlap between critic and user review content. High topic consistency suggests greater information recall due to repeated presentation of the same topics, which may increase the memorability of movie attributes and therefore positively affect movie demand. The authors measure the topic consistency between critic and user reviews using topic models and further study the financial consequences of this measure using data for movies released in the United States. Topic consistency is positively associated with subsequent box office revenue, suggesting a positive relationship between topic consistency and movie demand. Furthermore, the effect of topic consistency on demand is the greatest for movies with mediocre review ratings and when the review ratings from critics are close to those from users. Using lab experiments, the authors provide evidence of the causal link between topic consistency and consumers' willingness to watch a movie, and support for the potential mediation through the information recall of reviews. Movie producers and advertisers should consider highlighting or inducing a central theme for critics and users to discuss, as the more review content between critics and users overlaps, the higher a movie's revenue.