Content Analysis of Scarcity Promotional Messages

Scarcity refers to the limited supply of a commodity, a fundamental concept in economics (Lynn, 2008). Scarcity promotions have been frequently utilized in the marketplace, and their persuasive power has been acknowledged by both practitioners and academics (Gierl & Huettl, 2010). According to the commodity theory (Brock, 1968), a limited availability of goods, services, or opportunities influences consumers‟ perceived scarcity and results in purchase intention by influencing consumer value perceptions (Lynn, 1989)

Posters versus Lurkers: Improving Participation in Enterprise Social Networks through Promotional Messages

Enterprise social networks (ESNs) often fail if there are few or no contributors of content. Promotional messages are among the common interventions used to improve participation. While most users only read others’ content (i.e. lurk), contributors who create content (i.e. post) account for only 1% of the users. Research on interventions to improve participation across dissimilar groups is scarce especially in work settings. We develop a model that examines four key motivations of posting and lurking. We employ the elaboration likelihood model to understand how promotional messages influence lurkers’ and posters’ beliefs and participation. We test our model with data collected from 366 members in two corporate Google? communities in a large Australian retail organization. We find that posters and lurkers are motivated and hindered by different factors. Promotional messages do not – always – yield the hoped-for results among lurkers; however, they do make posters more enthusiastic to participate

Motive and responsibility as influences on graphic design outcomes

In the world of visual communication many message-making strategies are used to convey information to a defined audience. The ways in which these strategies are used can greatly impact the meaning and success of a graphic design solution. Often strong emotion is employed to intentionally influence a defined audience. In addition, the format and context in which facts are presented in a message are also greatly effective. When looking at the potential communication power that solutions can hold, it is important to assess the types of messages being communicated and related ethical responsibilities that accompany them. This thesis study focuses on single-page, printed promotional messages specifically created to have strong influences on their respective viewers. When creating promotional messages the client may have specific motives, responsibilities, content and requirements that the designer should be aware of. Both the client and designer may share the responsibility for how that content is represented. The audiences of these messages are also responsible to think critically about the messages being presented to them. This thesis aims to define clearly the ethical responsibilities of the client, designer and audience when examining promotional messages. These definitions are defined through research done within the areas of graphic design and related fields, and the analysis of the semantic and syntactic decisions made in relation to selected, relevant promotional messages. The analysis of existing promotional messages led to a design application that focuses on the development of multiple, potential symbols for a single entity in order to examine how the interpretation of a message varies when different message-making strategies are used. The strategies used in this application focus on specific syntactic decisions that relate to the diverse factual and emotional goals of each solution

Pengaruh Revolusi Digital terhadap Program Pemasaran

The digital revolution of the marketplace allows much greater customization of products, services, and promotional messages than older marketing tools. By doing so, it enables marketers to build and maintain relationship with customers but on much greater and more efficient scale

Evaluating audience responses to promotional messages

This study explored the guidelines advocated by selected media content analysis with the aim of identifying effective approaches to evaluate audience responses to promotional messages. Drawing from literature and documented deliberations by industry professionals, content-specific analysis protocols were applied and tested using a case study representing topic-specific responses to the Two Oceans Quay 5 product launch. In doing so, a logical observation of the communication in unpaid media placements and relevant discussions distributed in public media channels was completed. It is in this sense that this research enriches the study of public relations with a particular focus on output-driven evaluation. It provides insights into qualitative and quantitative publicity measurement and suggests how these methods can be useful to explicate the impact of media coverage as a public relations element. While it largely focused on discovering improved media content analysis solutions, this study revealed that content-driven analysis can only be useful when its protocols are aligned with the context of the data and if communication practitioners remain aware and transparent of its subjectivity. In this regard, this study helps to generate an understanding of the subjective dynamic of public relations and the importance of in-depth and adaptable publicity assessments to help distinguish public relations as a purposeful branding function next to advertising and marketing

Los Medios Sociales como una herramienta estratégica para la Comunicación Corporativa

Companies around the globe are embracing and adapting social media for many different intentions: customer service, marketing, internal communications, public relations or corporate social responsibility, etc. It is now a reality that social media is channging the way stakeholders and companies communicate daily, providing opportunities for collaboration, participation, interactivity, and engagement. Therefore, social media is conceived today in the corporate world as a strategic communication partner, driving new and unique possibilities for organizations to engage stakeholders in conversations. We are witnesses of a new digital era where consumers are becoming active users rather than passive individuals, changing dramatically how society operates. But these useful technological tools are employed widely and precisely by corporations in order to facilitate and improve communications? This research aims to discover the usage of different social media platforms by Puerto Rican companies. A content analysis was performed to the Facebook and Twitter official profiles of the top 400 locally owned Puerto Rican companies of 2009. The principal objective was to find if social media sites were mainly used as a strategic tool for corporate communication that can enhance stakeholder participation and engagement. Results showed that Puerto Rican companies are not employing social media platforms for improving communications with different stakeholders, failing to take advantage of the enormous possibilities that social media has for communication.Instituto de Investigación en Relaciones Pública

Manipulating ethos and pathos: Accents, product complexity, and promotional messages in Chile

This dissertation is motivated by fundamental questions about source effects in persuasive communications: Do receiver attributes influence perceptions about the source and about the object of the message? Do source and object cues influence receiver perceptions about the source? Do source and object cues influence receiver perceptions about the object of the message? Traditional conceptions of receiver responses to a source have focused on character trait inferences. Of these character trait inferences, the literature on source credibility appears to converge on two categories: source expertise and source trustworthiness. A more recent stream of research has grown around the concept of homophily, a term coined by Lazarsfeld and Merton (1954) to refer to the tendency of individuals to associate with others similar to themselves. This dissertation conceptualizes as social traits those source attributes associated with receiver perceptions of similarity between themselves and sources. This study tested whether inferences about the social and character traits of a source are separately significant predictors of overall assessments by receivers. The study was conducted in central Chile. Respondents were classified according to socioeconomic background and asked to answer questions about their impressions of a recorded promotional message. Each of the 450 respondents in the study heard only one of six recorded messages. Individual messages promoted one of two products and were recorded in one of three local accents, corresponding to the socioeconomically differentiated neighborhoods in the community. The results of the study imply affirmative answers to each of the basic questions guiding this research. Both social and character trait inferences are found to be significant predictors of overall assessments of source credibility. Of the traditional character traits, expertise is found to play a conditional rather than a permanent role in receiver evaluations of a message. Signals of source-receiver similarity, at least with respect to accent, may elicit unfavorable assessments from lower status receivers

Help Me Help You! Employing the Marketing Mix to Alleviate Experiences of Donor Sacrifice

Nonprofit organizations often rely on individuals to execute their mission of addressing unmet societal needs. Indeed, one of the most significant challenges facing such organizations is that of enlisting individuals to provide support through the volunteering of time or donation of money. To address this challenge, prior studies have examined how promotional messages can be leveraged to motivate individuals to support the missions of nonprofit organizations. Yet promotional messages are only one aspect of the marketing mix that may be employed. The present study examines how donor-based nonprofit organizations can employ the marketing mix—product, price, promotion, place, process, and people—to influence the experiences of sacrifice associated with donation. The authors do so through an ethnographic study of individuals participating in living organ donation. First, they identify the manifestation of sacrifice in donation. Next, they define three complementary and interactive types of sacrifice: psychic, pecuniary, and physical. Then, they articulate how the marketing mix can be employed to mitigate experiences of sacrifice that emerge through the donation process. The authors conclude by discussing implications for marketing practice and identifying additional research opportunities for sacrifice in the realm of donation