Brands: culture, leadership and differentiation: testing the effectiveness of highly performance-oriented appeal in four European countries.

This study examined the effectiveness of global consumer culture positioning strategy executed via highly performance-oriented appeal across four European countries. An advertising appeal that is favourably perceived in different markets should be a suitable candidate for use as part of a standardised strategy. The results indicate homogeneous acceptance of examined appeal. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Contemporary issues in branding on 04/12/2019, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Contemporary-Issues-in-Branding-1st-Edition/Foroudi-Palazzo/p/book/978113836854

How are we tempted into debt? Emotional appeals in loan advertisements in UK newspapers

Purpose: This study examined the use of emotional appeals in advertisements for loans and explored consumers’ perceptions of advertisements featuring such appeals in order to explore how emotional meanings are transferred to consumers via advertising. Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 employed content analysis to examine the use of emotional appeals in loan advertisements. Over 2900 editions of eight British newspapers were monitored for advertisements for loans containing emotional appeals. Study 2 employed 33 semi-structured interviews to explore consumers’ perceptions of emotional appeals in loan advertisements. Findings: Loans were positioned as services providing relief, security, and excitement. The use of negative emotional appeals such as guilt, fear, and sorrow was sporadic. Loans that carried the most risk were advertised with positive emotional appeals the most frequently. Five dimensions of perceptions of emotional loan advertisements were conceptualised from the reported data in Study 2. Originality: This is the first study in the UK to examine the use of emotional appeals in loan advertising and to explore consumers’ perceptions of loan advertisements featuring emotional appeals. The study identified five dimensions of perceptions of emotional appeals

Global consumer culture positioning: the use of global consumer culture positioning appeals across four European countries

This study proposes a framework of advertising appeals which could be used to express global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) strategy in advertising. The paper examines the use of such appeals in print advertising from four European countries comparing 847 advertisements for durable and non-durable goods from Poland, Hungary, Ireland and the UK. Contrary to expectations, GCCP appeals were more often used in advertisements for non-durable goods than durable goods. The study confirmed the expectation that GCCP appeals would be more frequently used in advertising in less developed markets than in more developed markets. The proposed framework of GCCP appeals may be useful to practitioners wishing to use this positioning strategy

How are we tempted into debt? Emotional appeals in loan advertisements in UK newspapers

Purpose: This study examined the use of emotional appeals in advertisements for loans and explored consumers’ perceptions of advertisements featuring such appeals in order to explore how emotional meanings are transferred to consumers via advertising. Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 employed content analysis to examine the use of emotional appeals in loan advertisements. Over 2900 editions of eight British newspapers were monitored for advertisements for loans containing emotional appeals. Study 2 employed 33 semi-structured interviews to explore consumers’ perceptions of emotional appeals in loan advertisements. Findings: Loans were positioned as services providing relief, security, and excitement. The use of negative emotional appeals such as guilt, fear, and sorrow was sporadic. Loans that carried the most risk were advertised with positive emotional appeals the most frequently. Five dimensions of perceptions of emotional loan advertisements were conceptualised from the reported data in Study 2. Originality: This is the first study in the UK to examine the use of emotional appeals in loan advertising and to explore consumers’ perceptions of loan advertisements featuring emotional appeals. The study identified five dimensions of perceptions of emotional appeals

How well does GLOBE predict values in advertising? A content analysis of print advertising from the UK, Ireland, Poland amd Hungary.

This cross-cultural comparative study investigated differences in the frequency and types of value appeals used in print advertising from Poland, the UK, Hungary and Ireland. The methodological approach was content analysis; Pollay‟s (1983) value appeals were linked to the GLOBE dimensions (House et al 2004). While there were some consistent value appeals across the four countries, there were also marked differences. The differences did not vary consistently with, and could not be explained by, the GLOBE cultural dimensions. Further research is needed to determine how the differences and similarities between the four countries may be explained

Edible High Town: Assessing the value of urban community gardens.

This report is the joint product of evaluation by a London South Bank University academic (Dr Barbara Czarnecka) and Edible High Town coordinator (Konni Deppe). This report presents an evaluation of an urban community gardening initiative, Edible High Town. Community gardens, including urban community gardens such as Edible High Town, involve: “the communal cultivation of plants, varying in form according to local contexts and the needs and desires of gardening spaces and local residents. It includes collective gardening undertaken for community development, food production, health promotion, horticultural therapy, collective action, and environmental and permaculture education.” In the past, urban community gardens have been identified as providing a model for promoting sustainable urban living. At present, community gardens, especially those located in deprived urban areas such as High Town in Luton, have been used as a public health tool to foster particular health outcomes related to healthy eating, mental health and physical exercise. Moreover, such gardens are also seen as initiatives that contribute to community cohesion by cultivating connections between neighbours and contributing to the regeneration of deprived areas and hence improving the well-being of residents. Hence, this evaluation focuses on assessing the social, health, economic, and environmental benefits of Edible High Town initiative. The report is divided into the following sections: 1) What is Edible High Town? 2) How did we evaluate Edible High Town? Evaluation framework and evaluation methodology; 3) Evaluation results; and 4) Recommendations and conclusion

Cultural Meaning, Advertising, and National Culture: A Four-Country Study

This document is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Global Marketing on 9 October 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 9 April 2019. The final, published version is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08911762.2017.1376364.Cultural meaning transfer theory and GLOBE dimensions were employed in this comparative study to examine the extent to which cultural meaning presented in advertisements reflected national cultures of the target countries. Content analysis was applied to advertisements from four countries to investigate whether the use of advertising appeals presented in these advertisements mirrored variations in cultures as described by GLOBE Society Values. Results revealed that, in line with the hypotheses, there were similarities and differences in the use of appeals, and only some of them mirrored the cultural variations. GLOBE Society Values were more likely to predict the use of appeals than GLOBE Society Practices, but not for all appeals. Advertisers can draw on national cultures for cultural meanings to be used in advertisements only to a limited extent. It may be that advertisements mold rather than mirror societal values, or that only certain cultural traits are important for advertisers.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

How values of individualism and collectivism influence impulsive buying and money budgeting: the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Czarnecka, B, Schiviniski, B and Keles, S (2020) How values of individualism and collectivism influence impulsive buying and money budgeting: the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, which will be published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14791838. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions This study examined the effects of individual-level cultural values of individualism and collectivism on impulsive buying and money budgeting, and the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture. By applying the person-environment fit theory and acculturation theory, we argue that people who hold cultural values congruent with the culture they come into contact with are more likely to acculturate to it, and that those who acculturate to global consumer culture (GCC) are more likely to display consumption behaviors stimulated by GCC, namely impulsive buying and poor money budgeting. The findings show that consumers acculturated to GCC report higher impulsive buying and lower money budgeting, and that it is not the distinction between individualism and collectivism, but rather between the vertical and horizontal values that determines the acceptance of GCC and the studied consumption behaviors. Results revealed that vertical individualists (those who believe in competition between individuals and who prioritize their needs over the needs of others) and vertical collectivists (those who believe in the subordination of individuals to groups) were more likely to be acculturated to GCC. Thus, the acceptance of inequality between individuals amongst other individuals, or within groups, is related to the acceptance of GCC and impulsive buying and money budgeting. The level of acculturation to GCC mediates the relations between vertical individualism and collectivism values and impulsive buying and money budgeting. Theoretical contributions to the research on horizontal/vertical individualism/collectivism, acculturation to GCC, and person-environment fit theory, as well as practical implications for marketers are discussed

Mathematical images in advertising: constructing difference and shaping identity, in global consumer culture

Mathematics educators have long emphasised the importance of attitudes and feelings towards mathematics, as crucial in motivating (or not) its learning and use, and as influenced in turn by its social images. This paper is about images of mathematics. Our search for advertisements containing such images of in UK daily newspapers, during 2006-2008, found that 4.7% of editions included a ‘mathematical’ advert, compared with 1.7% in pilot work for 1994-2003. The incidence varied across type of newspaper, being correlated with class and gender profiles of the readership. Three-quarters of advertisements were classified as containing only very simple mathematics. ‘Semiotic-discursive’ analysis of selected advertisements suggests that they draw on mathematics not to inform, but to connote qualities like precision, certainty and authority. We discuss the discourse on mathematics in advertising as ‘quasi-pedagogic’ discourse, and argue that its oversimplified forms, being empty of mathematical content, become powerful means for regulating and ‘pedagogising’ today’s global consumers

Variation in the timing of Covid-19 communication across universities in the UK.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, universities in the UK used social media to raise awareness and provide guidance and advice about the disease to students and staff. We explain why some universities used social media to communicate with stakeholders sooner than others. To do so, we identified the date of the first Covid-19 related tweet posted by each university in the country and used survival models to estimate the effect of university-specific characteristics on the timing of these messages. In order to confirm our results, we supplemented our analysis with a study of the introduction of coronavirus-related university webpages. We find that universities with large numbers of students are more likely to use social media and the web to speak about the pandemic sooner than institutions with fewer students. Universities with large financial resources are also more likely to tweet sooner, but they do not introduce Covid-19 webpages faster than other universities. We also find evidence of a strong process of emulation, whereby universities are more likely to post a coronavirus-related tweet or webpage if other universities have already done so