M37 - AdvertisingReturn

This study aims to statistically investigate the effects of an infodemic as an external stimulus on consumer decision processes based on the stimulus-organism-response theory (SOR). An infodemic is known as an epidemic of misinformation, and the literature on infodemics in marketing is quite limited. With the research model created for this purpose, the mediating role of brand trust (organism) in the relationship between both infodemic and positive word-of-mouth marketing (stimulus) and consumers' store visit intentions (response) is examined. The findings suggest that infodemic news and positive word-of-mouth marketing influence consumers' shopping behaviour. Being influenced by infodemic news does not have a significant effect on store visit intention directly, but it has a positive effect through the mediation of brand trust. In addition, both direct and indirect effects of positive word-of-mouth marketing on store visit intention are positive. This suggests that brand trust functions as a coping mechanism for consumers to deal with the uncertainty or negative impact of infodemic news and that consumers' store visit intentions can be increased by enhancing their trust in the brand. As a result, it emphasises the importance of brands developing various communication strategies to increase their credibility and influence consumer decision-making mechanisms.
Implications for Central European audience: The study aims to investigate the effects of infodemic posts and positive word-of-mouth marketing on consumers' trust in a brand and their intention to visit a store. By doing so, it seeks to provide strategic recommendations that companies can apply in their communications with customers. Data analyses show that being influenced by an infodemic does not have a significant direct effect on store visit intention, but it does have a positive impact through brand trust. Additionally, positive word-of-mouth marketing has both direct and indirect positive effects on store visit intention. The study highlights brand trust as a critical element that can mitigate the negative effects of infodemic news. It is recommended that businesses focus on sustainability projects, ethical practices and the principle of transparency to enhance brand trust.

Cork is a natural, recyclable, non-toxic and renewable resource with unique functional characteristics that is part of a self-sustaining sector. It is increasingly being applied to fashion brands from its traditional use in the wine and construction sectors. This shift is posing new challenges, starting with the determination of the positioning axes that are viable to create brands with value. To answer this question, the methodology used consists of a three-step sequence that includes a series of interviews to identify potential positioning axes, a questionnaire with 152 answers to confirm the validity of these axes and then applying partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) pyramid model is used as the brand equity model. The results show that fashion brands of cork products can position themselves on the functional and symbolic axes. The axes are sustainability, Portugal, ecology, nationalism, heritage, lightness, creativity, biodiversity, softness, innovation, waterproofness and resistance. The application of PLS-SEM to the CBBE pyramid model has shown that brand equity can be built on the foundation of the validated positioning axes.
Implications for Central European audience: This study establishes a framework for the development of sustainable cork fashion brands, which are representative of the traditions or heritage that symbolically are a nation's identity. It comprises a structured sequence of interviews (to identify the positioning axes), a questionnaire (to ensure brand equity) and the application of PLS-SEM to the CBBE (to verify the compliance of the framework). Based on empirical evidence, this framework can be applied to other industries or products that want to create brands with value.

In the days when the notion of “keeping up with Joneses” is stepping back to “keeping up with the network”, it is of great importance to seek an understanding of how classical theories and thoughts (such as Veblen’s conspicuous consumption theory from 1899) are potentially affected as a result of the development of social media (SM). Nowadays, social media catalyses conspicuous consumption while expanding what is considered a social group and social classes and fuelling the aspirant group influence and social comparison. This paper provides a theoretical framework of the conspicuous consumption school of thought and characteristics of premium luxury fashion goods. It traces deep-rooted consumption patterns from Bulgaria's background and argues the potential underlying motives of conspicuous consumption. It further investigates consumer behaviour and addresses the existing gaps in the extant academic literature by discussing the results of an online survey among 130 respondents (53.1% of the respondents were 25 years of age or less, and 46.9% were above 25). The main objective of the paper is to study the relationship between variables of conspicuous consumption, the symbolic value of images displayed online, social media intensity and the fulfilment of social needs in the context of Instagram as a selected social media. The study data demonstrate that Instagram intensity fosters social comparison, which leads to an increased need for uniqueness. Younger individuals and females, in general, have the desire to project a conspicuous image online, and they would most likely post their luxurious premium fashion products online. Our findings confirm that social media fosters social comparison, resulting in an increased need for differentiation, uniqueness and social conformity. The findings add to a growing body of literature on social media and substantially to our understanding of Bulgarian customers’ perception of premium luxury fashion products.
Implications for Central European audience: The paper builds on extant literature in the field of conspicuous consumption, which is a common phenomenon in post-socialist countries. It provides a custom methodology for studying the conspicuous display of fashion items on Instagram, which is one of the most used communication media on a regular basis among young people in CEE (Eurostat, 2022) and the second most popular social media in Europe (Statcounter, 2022). The distribution of global social media users accounts for 5.7% in Central Europe and 5% in Eastern Europe (Statista, 2022). The results can be used by companies in the sector, new entrants, influencers, opinion leaders, etc.

The issue of advertising is widely analysed in relevant literature; however, the emphasis is mainly on its commercial part. Advertising-related aspects in regard to domestic tourist behaviour still lack scholars’ attention. Therefore, outdoor advertising and its possibilities of attracting domestic tourists are under-assessed. The purpose of the study is to determine the effective advertising layouts to be used in static outdoor domestic tourism advertisements. Accordingly, this study contributes to the literature by analysing the peculiarities of static outdoor advertising layouts and determining the most effective compositions of its creative elements. The most appealing advertising layouts are determined. Applying the principles of conjoint analysis, the main elements (i.e., attributes) of the advertising layout are established and composed into profiles, encompassing different element levels. The attributes used in the analysis are “headline position” (4 levels), “picture” (4 levels), “text” (3 levels) and “colour scheme” (4 levels). The results (based on profile rankings) allow determining relative attribute importance and attribute level performance. To verify the results, eye-tracking is performed. The study allows modelling recommended advertising layouts to be used in outdoor advertisements in domestic tourism. 
Implications for Central European audience: Visual elements of tourism advertising are the most important for attracting consumer attention compared to textual ones. The visual elements should contain pictures of people or nature and should use a warm/mixed colour scheme. The headline should be placed in the upper position. The absence of text is the most attractive for consumers. For further research, the effect of different elements of advertising can be analysed, more levels of the same attributes might be included, and different compositions, colour mixing schemes and mediums might be chosen. Replication of the research in other countries or other types of tourism might broaden the researchers’ understanding of the scope.

There is very little research in the extant literature on the asymmetry that may exist in consumers reactions to changes in the aggregate level of advertising in the marketplace. Aggregate levels of advertising act as a signal to consumers regarding the health of the economy. In this study, we investigate the extent of this asymmetry in terms of how consumer confidence, which is a proxy for future consumer spending, responds to upturns and downturns in advertising revenues. We find that consumers react with higher levels of confidence to upturns in advertising revenues. However, consumers do not react to downturns in advertising revenue with commensurate reductions in consumer confidence. They ignore the signaling effects of a downturn in advertising revenues, displaying asymmetric behavior in response to changes in advertising revenue. The increase in consumer confidence resulting from an increase in advertising revenue is a delayed response effect and comes after two quarters lag. It is statistically significant at conventional levels for the following two quarters as a response to a one-time upturn in advertising revenues. The results provide important information to practitioners and researchers on the asymmetric signaling and ratchet effects of advertising on consumer behavior. The implication for practitioners and policy makers is that aggregate increases in advertising has a delayed positive effect on consumer confidence with positive implications for consumer spending. The implications for researchers is another example of asymmetry in human decision-making and specifically the tendency to embrace positive and ignore negative economic signals. The implication for investors is a better understanding of how macro advertising expenditures function as a leading indicator for consumer confidence, consumer spending, and economic growth.

The axiom “unseen – unsold” implies that marketing communication cannot be effective if it does not bypass the filter of attention, which is difficult in today’s information clutter. As internet has emerged as powerful channel for marketing communication, the same axiom applies to the online marketing communication. In this research the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature as well as two eye tracking experiments are applied for the analysis of internet context-related elements influencing consumer visual attention and as a consequence having influence on consumer behavior. As a result, the guidelines for the selection of advertising message-related factors and advertisement’s position in the internet news portals are provided. Moreover, recommendations for the attraction of consumer visual attention in the search engines are presented.

This paper aims to define the consumer journey of children through their childhood stages and provide specific touchpoints relevant for a given age, which could be integrated into the marketing communication of car brands to start building this young audience as future buyers. A qualitative study of children in different age brackets was used to identify their current and potential touchpoints with the car industry. The results of the study present specific stands on the prepurchase stage of the children’s consumer journey where the brand might interact with children and build the long-term positive attitudes of this group of potential customers. Specific implications for the industry in terms of understanding the language of the mobile game applications, computer games, YouTubers and integrating those specific activities into the brand’s marketing communication are highlighted for the car industry marketers.

Comparative advertising had been traditionally banned in most EU countries and was allowed by the European law just relatively recently. That is why in the EU this form of advertising is relatively new, as opposed to the situation in the US, where comparative advertising has been widely used and well accepted by consumers for decades. The literature has been silent on the topic of the effectiveness of comparative advertising in the Czech Republic, as well as in other Central and Eastern European countries. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of comparative advertising campaigns in the Czech Republic. Using an online survey with 160 Czech respondents, we found that the attitude towards comparative advertising is rather positive in the Czech Republic. We also identified that the gender of the recipient influences the general perception of comparative advertising. On the other hand, the age of the recipient does not seem to be a moderator of the attitude towards comparative advertising, in general. The results also do not signal any impact of the gender and the age of the recipient on the change of the perception of any of the brands involved in the campaign. Managerial implications target mainly marketing and advertising managers responsible for Central European markets.

In recent years the luxury industry has been strongly affected by the rapid evolution of digital technology and the internet. The use of the internet and the new digital technologies has contributed to the growth of the market and its different sectors. This meant an advantage for others, but for the luxury sector, it has been a challenge and the adaptation process slow. The online participation - in certain cases incipient - of some brands in the sector has been directed by new consumption habits, which had an impact in the marketing and communication strategies on a managerial level. Based on a theoretical review, this paper proposes a central concept known as brand expression, from which elements involved in the phenomenon of the digital era, some significant for the development of the study, are described. The resulting relations between them, together with findings obtained in interviews of consumers in the sector, describe the reason for the adaptation in content and approach of the current strategies; that in turn sets the guidelines for continuing and future developments.

This paper is primarily focused on analyses of the research undertaken to understand the awareness of food advertising's self-regulation authority (Council for Advertising) and of the Czech Code of Conduct in the context of the growing issue of child obesity. The objective is to find out the perception of food advertising to children and awareness of regulation and industry self-regulation amongst Czech mothers. Our theoretical framework presumes dependence between the awareness levels and selected demographic variables. We conclude several actions to overcome low awareness of the Council of Advertising and its Code of Conduct and to transfer the industry's self-regulation into an efficient and recognized tool of shaping the culture of responsible advertising in the Czech Republic. The conclusions lead towards stronger protection of children.

The purpose of this work is to show the economic conditions of the postal market in Poland. The pace of economic transformation and growing competition in the postal market means that Polish Post is somehow forced to take new measures to improve the effectiveness of communication with their market environment. The focus points of this study are the economic mechanisms of the effectiveness and efficiency of the process of communicating specified value to the customer, and an attempt to identify the factors boosting an increase in efficiency. The reflections contained in the paper do not have definite characteristics and should be treated as an opinion in the discussion.

The type of customer who buys luxury is continuing to evolve. This research investigates the value and service-dominant theory effects on the value co-creation process between a service provider and service consumer within the luxury retail environment. The goal of the paper is two-fold: first, to offer a new view on value co-creation and second, to suggest potential in-store target segments based on experiential drivers in order to improve value sharing within luxury stores for diverse luxury shoppers. In other words, the author noticed a gap between the existing writing and practice - customer involvement has become interactive, and not neglected. The paper, thus, introduces four groups of customers: Experts, Popular, Exclusive and Aspirational. The methodology used combines analyses of four value creation denominators within the luxury setting: actor's role, aesthetics, networks and luxury brand with findings from secondary research to integrate into the existing writing in this field.
The managerial implications mainly target brand managers of luxury and premium brands with the objective to offer insights on how to address, with higher precision, the types of clients visiting and shopping for luxury products.

In the race to get the attention of the target audience, advertisers often use special attention-getting devices. This in turn exposes them to a higher risk of creating a vampire effect when the core message about the brand or a product is "eaten up" by such devices. The concept of a vampire effect in advertising appears to be under-researched in the current literature. Therefore, this paper provides deeper insights into the vampire effect occurrences in printed advertisements using celebrity endorsement. The paper is based on a qualitative study with an eye-tracking device with 12 participants and on the following experiment with 60 university students. The research found that a significantly higher risk of creating a vampire effect exists when using an unrelated celebrity as an attention-getting device than when using a related celebrity or no celebrity at all. Marketers are advised to use related celebrities if choosing to stick to this attention-getting approach. However, the concept of "relatedness" should be pre-tested prior to launching an advertising campaign.

This paper explores the approach of the food industry towards the issue of rising children obesity in the context of the external regulatory environment and industry self-regulation. It presents the roles and positions of the industry associations, self-regulation and industry representatives through a case study of best practices in applying self-regulation rules. It proves that companies, acting in accordance with the long-term strategy of social responsibility, approach the self-regulation respectfully, because its absence would be a cause for development and implementation of stricter legislation over the long run.

The article presents the idea of gaining a position of competitive advantage by companies operating in the knowledge-based economy and in the age of modern technology. The rate of change in companies' environments forces organizations to react quickly to clients' needs. In recent years, there has been an observed systematic increase in the importance of communicating customer value in Poland. This paper shows changes (trends) in the system of market communication in the age of modern technology and changes in the economy. The author presents the mechanisms and effects of communication in age new technology in Poland. Modern technologies enable the collection, storage and transmission of information. Reflections contained in the paper do not have definite characteristics and should be treated as an opinion in the discussion.

A lot has been said and written about online communication in the past several years, and just as any new phenomenon, online communication is a disputable topic in many companies. The objective of this article is to analyse the behaviour of Czech consumers online and their preferences for the different online communication channels in the consumer goods category. We have examined what digital media are and how companies can use them, including a close examination of the Czech Internet population. As many of the research studies and data lead to different conclusions, especially concerning communication on social media, we have decided to apply the theoretical knowledge on a case of the Tassimo brand, a capsule coffee machine maker. This study lead us to the conclusion that consumer relevant online communication is about ensuring easily accessible clear information, especially via websites, reviews and recommendations, while social media play a minor role at the moment.

This paper provides an overview of key stakeholders involved in food marketing to children in Europe and in the Czech Republic. It analyzes the role of the legislation as well as voluntary codes of conduct in the food industry. The industry part of the issue is also covered by an explanation of their role and position in the obesity issue. The form of food industry cooperation in the Food Chamber through a working group of involved companies is analyzed and an example of a corporate responsibility program is shown. The paper serves as a review of the issue for further exploration needs.