Aparna Sundar

Place the Logo High or Low? Using Conceptual Metaphors of Power in Packaging Design

Across three studies, this research examines how marketers can capitalize on their brands standing in the marketplace through strategic logo placement on their packaging. Using a conceptual metaphor framework, the authors find that consumers prefer powerful brands more when the brand logo is featured high rather than low on the brands packaging, whereas they prefer less powerful brands more when the brand logo is featured low rather than high on the brands packaging. Furthermore, the authors confirm that the underlying mechanism for this shift in preference is a fluency effect derived from consumers intuitively linking the concept of power with height. Given this finding, the authors then demonstrate an important boundary condition by varying a persons state of power to be at odds with the metaphoric link. The results demonstrate when and how marketers can capitalize on consumers’ latent associations through package design.

The Influence of Repetitive Health Messages and Sensitivity to Fluency on the Truth Effect in Advertising

Although merely repeating a product claim does not influence the objective validity of the claim, it often increases the subjective validity of the claim (the truth effect). Research notes that the truth effect plays an important role in health advertising. The present research investigates the moderating role of sensitivity to feelings of fluency (or processing ease) on the truth effect. The truth effect was more pronounced when the need for affect was high rather than low (Study 1) and when consumers were primed to trust their feelings (Study 2). Finally, Study 3 and Study 4 replicate these findings using advertising appeals. Advertisements that encourage consumers to focus on their feelings increase susceptibility to the truth effect.

Synchronicity in Signage Promotes a Sense of Belonging

The role of synchronicity in signage is investigated in two studies. Synchronicity has been theoretically linked to solidarity or a feeling of unity. In this research, we empirically investigate the effects of depicting synchronicity in signage using the visual principle of rhythm. Rhythm in images to create synchronicity in signage increases entitativity and a sense of belonging. We demonstrate key effects that can be leveraged in shaping consumer inferences in community and commercial contexts. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy, but only when prior perceptions of belonging are absent. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

The Role of Team-Sponsor Logo Color Congruity in Sponsorship Effectiveness: An Abstract

Sports remains one of the few avenues for brands to reach mass market consumers in the context of a fragmented, on-demand, and commercial-free (e.g., Netflix) modern entertainment landscape. Accordingly, branding expenditures on sponsorship are growing faster than traditional advertising as brands seek to gain sports fans’ favor through visual signs of support for fans’ teams. The authors investigate the visual design element of color in sponsorship images. Study 1 matches 703 Major League Baseball fans’ evaluations of their team’s sponsors to observable characteristics of in-stadium sponsorship signage, which provides correlational evidence that fans evaluate a sponsor more positively when its colors coincidentally match the team. Furthermore, a brand without an inherent match to a team’s colors can enjoy even greater sponsorship efficacy by adopting the team’s colors. The peripheral cue from color congruence facilitates affect transfer, and created congruence—adopting the team’s colors—provides a further boost through fan appraisals of sponsor’s support. Study 2 offers experimental evidence from 200 fans who sampled a sports drink with brand team cobranding on the label in the brand logo’s original colors or the team’s colors. In the condition where the brand’s sincerity of support was uncertain, color change improved fans’ evaluation of the sponsorship, and perceived sincerity of support mediated the positive impact of created color congruence. While prior studies have shown that sponsorship fails to deliver positive returns (Mazodier & Rezaee, 2013) or works poorly in a lab experiment based on eye tracking when sponsor’s signage color matches the colors of the sport (Breuer & Rumpf, 2015), the current studies offer complementary real-world evidence that sponsor brands can enjoy greater sponsorship success without adding much cost by simply selecting teams to sponsor where they share colors or by adopting the team’s colors.