Camelia C. Micu

The evolution of consumer knowledge and sources of information: Hungary in transition

The authors’ research in Hungary during the period of transition to a market economy provides an opportunity to examine the evolving relationships between consumer product knowledge and its antecedents, including advertising, personal search, interpersonal sources, and brand experience. Their findings, based on survey data collected in Budapest in 1992 and 1998, indicate that the market information variables explain more variance in consumer knowledge later rather than earlier in the transition. Advertising is an important predictor of consumer knowledge later but not earlier in the transition, personal search is important at both times, and interpersonal sources are not important in either time period; brand experience is negatively related to knowledge earlier in the transition and positively related later in the transition. This study allows one to begin to understand the boundary conditions associated with studies conducted in developed economies. Managerial implications for firms investing in transitional economies are presented.

How Product Trial Alters The Effects of Model Attractiveness

Our research in the developing market economy of Romania employs in-depth interviews and an advertising-trial experiment to examine the effects of attractiveness in advertisements on product evaluations and self-judgments. Our qualitative data indicate that attractive (versus average-looking) models yield favorable ad and product evaluations, but generate both negative and positive self-judgments. Our post-ad exposure experimental data corroborate immediate positive product evaluations and negative self-judgments. The subsequent two-week trial equalizes product evaluations across model conditions (attractive versus average-looking versus no model) and mitigates the negative effect of attractiveness on womens satisfaction with their own attractiveness. Moreover, women who use products advertised by attractive models report more favorable self-attractiveness and self-confidence.

The effect of aging and time horizon perspective on consumers' response to promotion versus prevention focus advertisements

This research investigates the influence of ageing and its associated time horizon perspective on responses to promotion versus prevention focus advertisements. The results show that both older and younger adults had more favourable reactions to prevention versus promotion focus advertisements when they were asked to think about time as limited. When older and younger adults were asked to think about time as expansive, they had better liking of the promotion focus appeal. In the absence of time horizon manipulation, older adults preferred the prevention message, whereas younger adults expressed similar liking for both promotion and prevention messages. Theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research are also discussed.

The effect of hedonic and utilitarian verbal descriptions and pictures on willingness to try an innovation: Do emotions matter?

This research investigates the role of a pictorial stimulus on initial exposure to either a hedonic or utilitarian description of an innovation and whether positive (optimism) or negative (anxiety) emotion is responsible for the effect of a picture and the type of verbal description on willingness to try (WTT) the innovation. In two studies, using the hydrogen fuel cell car as the focal product, we find a significant interaction between the type of description and the presence of a visual image of the innovation with regard to WTT. However, positive and negative emotions do not mediate the effect of this interaction. Implications for communication management are discussed.

The Effect of Attractiveness in Advertising and Comparison Motives on Self-Judgments and Product Evaluations: A Cross-National Perspective

ABSTRACT The research conducted in the U.S. and in the developing market of Romania examines the effect of the motive for social comparison on self-judgments and ad/product evaluations. Our findings show that, if featuring an attractive model (AM) in advertising, the U.S. young womens self-esteem is mostly affected when women engage in self-evaluation, which also detrimentally impacts ad/product evaluations. In Romania, young womens self-judgments did not differ among comparison motive conditions, but the ad/product evaluations were positively affected when women were encouraged to discount the beauty of the model. When an average-looking model (ALM) is featured in advertising, the U.S. womens self-perceptions do not differ among comparison motive conditions, but Romanian womens self-perceptions are most negative when self-improvement is the motive for comparison and most positive in the downward comparison condition. Ad/product evaluations are also more positive if women engage in downward comparison, both in the U.S. and Romania. Implications of our findings for advertisers are discussed.