Testing for a Synergistic Effect Between Online Publicity and Advertising in an Integrated Marketing Communications Context

This dissertation examined the relationship among four exposure conditions in marketing communications (pure advertising, advertising priming, publicity priming, and pure publicity) that include either advertising or publicity or both. Also, the indirect relationship between brand communication exposure condition and purchase intent was modeled via path analysis. 634 students participated in an online experiment. Repeated measures MANCOVA analysis results indicate that the two synergistic conditions, which included an ad-article or article-ad combination, were more effective in terms of brand communications impact than the pure advertising condition. The pure publicity condition was found to be more effective than any of the other three. Hence, brand communications managers are encouraged to include publicity in their strategic communication campaigns

Telling the Brand Story: Including News Articles in Online Promotional Strategies

Given the growing popularity of the Internet as a promotional medium, it is crucial for brand managers to examine the effects of combining the different brand communication sources online. According to social comprehension theory and knowledge from neuroscience, people exposed to a message spontaneously construct a mental simulation. People who are exposed to images or visuals are unlikely to assign verbal labels to their observations, whereas people who read a story may spontaneously form mental pictures of the narrative content. Mental processing of stories requires more extensive elaboration than processing of visuals. In a first study, survey results indicate online news articles about a brand are more likely to be acted upon by users than are advertisements. A second study considers integrating news articles and advertising when promoting new brands on the Internet in order to benefit from a synergistic effect. Previous studies examining a synergistic effect in marketing communications have looked at the increased effectiveness of combining multiple media or different tactics when promoting a brand. Experiment results from the second study indicate that when exposure to advertising combines with exposure to objective news about a new brand, effectiveness increases in terms of both ad and brand attitudes

After Ten Years: Tracing the 1997 Vatican Statements Regarding Ethics in Advertising in Today\u27s Advertising Textbooks

One responsibility of all educators, especially those in marketing and advertising, is to provide students with a proper perspective regarding professional ethics. In other words, it is to guide future managers in developing an ethical conscience as they perfect their decision-making competence. Today, the 1997 Pontifical Council’s statements on ethics in advertising are the top result of a Google search for “ethics and advertising.” The amount of scriptural reference contained in the statements is considerably less than that found in most Papal social encyclicals (i.e., social writings of the Catholic Church). This approach made the document more accessible to thoughtful laypersons. Hence, the statements were scrutinized by academics and practitioners alike. In helping carry out an education that develops students’ ethical conscience, marketing academics in particular, and the advertising establishment in general, welcomed the commentary offered in the Vatican\u27s essay on advertising. The morally sensitive perspective was injected into the ongoing debate regarding what the appropriate and understood social obligations of advertising practitioners should be. Echoes of the debate are present in today’s advertising textbooks and lectures. This manuscript assesses how the statements affected advertising textbooks’ chapters on ethics after ten years have passed since they were made public

In the mood for a commercial break? A model of consumer response to television commercials during sensitive news

Marketers decided to pull over $100 million worth of commercials from network, cable, local and syndicated TV outlets on the United States market in the first 48 hours of the 2003 Iraq war. Given this loss to advertisers and media, we looked at how consumers respond to commercials during wartime. Would they change their attitude towards products that are advertised during war coverage? Would they consider advertising during such coverage inappropriate? Consistent with previous mood theory study findings, the results suggest a positive relationship between the mood generated by the interest in the program content and support for advertisements during the program. We also found that factors influencing the mood induced by war coverage were support for the President’s decisions and for the war. These findings open the door to a completely new line of research on attitudes towards media contents. Future research could explore the relationship between political ideology of viewers and their mood when watching sensitive news content.advertising context, attitude toward commercials, interest in program content, mood theory, news.

Integrating Advertising and News about the Brand in the Online Environment: Are All Products the Same?

This research compares the effects of paid advertising (banner ad plus banner ad) and publicity (news article plus banner ad) on attitude toward the brand in the context of different product categorization approaches. The authors utilize both the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the economics of information theory to test the mechanism through which different electronic communication modes impact consumers\u27 attitude toward the brand for various product categories. Findings indicate that the product categorization based on the level of involvement (ELM) to be superior to the one distinguishing search from experience goods (economics of information). Including news about the brand in the online brand communication mix generates higher brand attitudes for low- and moderate-involvement products while for high-involvement products, brand attitudes become more favorable with increasing credibility of the added news message

Leveraging News and Advertising to Introduce New Brands on the Web

Previous studies using the integrated marketing communications framework have examined the increased effectiveness of combining either multiple media or different tactics when promoting a brand. This study considers integrating advertising and publicity to promote an unknown brand on the Internet. Experiment results indicate that when exposure to advertising combines with exposure to objective news about a new brand, effectiveness increases in terms of both brand attitudes and behavioral intentions. For sequencing exposures for technical brands, the news-then-advertising condition offers more effectiveness than the reverse sequence. When introducing non-technical brands on the Web though, using advertising first is more effective in terms of brand attitudes

An Economic Model of Permission Marketing: Win-win-win Relationship Building Among Marketers, ISPs, and Internet Users

A model is proposed for ISP customers to accept e-mail marketing in exchange for a discount on the Internet fee. Adherence to the model appeared to vary with age, number of e-mails received per day, and with the amount of the current fee. Authors recommend marketers send fewer, better-targeted, and personalized e-mails

The Shape of Marketing Research in 2021

From an organizational strategy perspective, attributing changes to sweeping environmental triggers or long-term strategic planning means taking either an ecological or strategic viewpoint. The ecological-versus-strategic debate centers on the issue of environmental determinism versus strategic choice. Marketing research, as an industry, is faced with having to adapt to environmental changes (mostly technology-driven) with autonomous processes that vary from one company to another. Marketing research paves the way to customer relationship building, through which the marketing function introduces the customer to the firm. There is an increasing body of both academic and trade literature that addresses the strategic role of marketing and how marketing contributes to a firm\u27s performance. Marketing researchers will have to adapt beyond adjusting their skills and highlighting the newly gained powers to senior leaders

How Did This Ad Get in My Browser? A Theoretical Examination of Online Targeting and Segmentation Practices as They Relate to Media Planning on the Internet

Using technological advances, the world of Internet targeting, segmenting, and media planning evolved, giving new meaning to old terms such as behavioral targeting and contextual marketing (Fadner 2004c). Behavioral targeting has nothing to do with direct mail as it used to (De Wulf, Hoekstra, and Commandeur 2000) and contextual marketing happens in the marketspace as opposed to the marketplace where physical buyers and sellers meet (Rayport and Sviokla 1996). Online targeting tactics can be used individually or in combination to place ads on the pages viewed by a brand\u27s target segments. The factors determining the choice of tactics are part of the brand\u27s media planning strategy and are detailed later in this paper. Using established theoretical frameworks and concepts from advertising, media planning, and relationship marketing, this paper takes a close look at Internet targeting and segmenting tactics as they help in selecting Internet vehicles. The author also outlines the major players involved in an online media buy and develops a list of factors that determine an Internet ad to appear in a user\u27s browser. By providing theory-driven explanations to the online media planning market developments, the paper proposes a research agenda for studying Internet media planning and buying practices and the effectiveness of targeting and segmenting on the Internet