Siva K. Balasubramanian

Beyond Advertising and Publicity: Hybrid Messages and Public Policy Issues

Abstract This research explores a growing genre of marketing communication, labeled hybrid messages, which creatively combine key advantages (and avoid key disadvantages) inherent in advertising and publicity messages. Several types of hybrid messages are discussed, including those with long established histories (product placements, program-length commercials, program tie-ins), and those with a relatively recent origin (masked-art, masked-news, and masked-spokesperson messages). To obtain integrative insights on hybrid messages, this study: (a) reviews their historical/current regulatory status, (b) discusses their pros and cons, theoretical rationales and practical implications, and (c) delineates an extensive agenda for future research. Several important public policy questions raised by hybrid messages are addressed.

Audience Response to Product Placements: An Integrative Framework and Future Research Agenda

This study comprehensively reviews the literature on product placements to develop an integrative conceptual model that captures how such messages generate audience outcomes. The model depicts four components: execution/stimulus factors (e.g., program type, execution flexibility, opportunity to process, placement modality, placement priming); individual-specific factors (e.g., brand familiarity, judgment of placement fit, attitudes toward placements, involvement/connectedness with program); processing depth (degree of conscious processing); and message outcomes that reflect placement effectiveness. The execution and individual factors influence processing depth (portrayed as a high—low continuum), which in turn impacts message outcomes. The outcomes are organized around the hierarchy-of-effects model into three broad categories: cognition (e.g., memory-related measures such as recognition and recall); affect (e.g., attitudes); and conation (e.g., purchase intention, purchase behavior). This study integrates potential main and interaction effects among model variables to advance a series of theoretical propositions. It also offers an extensive research agenda of conceptual and empirical issues that future work can address.

Age Differences in Consumers' Search for Information: Public Policy Implications

We investigated whether consumers in their sixties (or older) can use nutritional information as accurately as younger consumers in a pair of studies, the first conducted in a supermarket setting, the second in a laboratory. Both studies indicate that, when shoppers are instructed to select a cereal according to specific nutritional criteria, elderly subjects are less likely than younger subjects to search intensely and to select an appropriate cereal. In the laboratory setting, however, the age-related differences diminished when subjects wrote down all the nutritional information acquired during their search. Age-related changes in information-processing ability may explain the findings. Implications for public policy are discussed.

The Effects of Expertise, End Goal, and Product Type on Adoption of Preference Formation Strategy

The global preference formation model identifies several preference formation strategies (i.e., own-based, other-based, or hybrid) that consumers use to select among alternative product offerings. This article examines how consumers’ expertise level (novice vs. expert), their end goals (satisficing vs. optimizing), and product type (search vs. experience product) collectively influence the preference formation strategy likely to be adopted. Results from an experiment indicate that the adoption of a given strategy is influenced by interactions between subjects’ expertise level and their end goals and the product type. Novice satisficers employed a higher proportion of own-based strategies than novice optimizers, but expert satisficers used a lower proportion of own-based strategies than expert optimizers. When compared to novices choosing a search product, novices selecting an experience product used a lower proportion of own-based and a higher proportion of other-based strategies. Similarly, when compared to experts choosing a search product, experts selecting an experienced product used a lower proportion of own-based strategies, but this was accompanied by a higher proportion of hybrid strategies. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Agro‐biotechnology and organic food purchase in the United Kingdom

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role of consumers’ perceived risks and benefits of agro‐biotechnology in shaping the purchase pattern for organic food among UK consumers.Design/methodology/approach – An on‐line household survey of UK consumers was conducted using household panels maintained by the National Panel Diary (NPD) group. The data included organic food purchase pattern, perceived risks and benefits of agro‐biotechnology, and socio‐demographic information about the respondents. A regression model was used to examine the impact of consumers’ general purchase behavior, perceived risks and benefits of GM technology, and socio‐demographic on organic food purchase.Findings – Only 4 percent of the respondents purchased organic foods all the time, while 26 percent never purchased. Perceived risks of agro‐biotechnology played a dominant role in influencing organic food purchase decisions. As the risk perception increased consumers were likely to buy organic food more often. Althou...

A Comparative Analysis of Three Communication Formats: Advertising, Infomercial, and Direct Experience

Abstract We develop a theoretical framework around the simple proposition that infomercials are similar to ads in some respects and also reflect characteristics inherent in direct experiences (i.e., trial use of branded goods). Using a real infomercial for a rock music album, we conducted two experiments to investigate the relative effectiveness of three different communication formats of research interest: ad, infomercial, and direct experience. Results were consistent across the two studies and indicated that both direct experience and infomercial formats produced greater impact on recall, attitudinal, and purchase intent variables when compared to the ad format. However, few significant differences emerged between direct experience and infomercial formats, suggesting that infomercials are closer to direct experiences than they are to ads. Of the three audio-visual conditions examined (1-minute long ad, 15-minute long infomercial, and 30-minute long infomercial), evidence indicated that the 15-minute long infomercial was most effective for attitudinal and direct-response measures. Thus, from the perspective of both persuasion and behavioral response, the popular 30-minute long infomercial format may not be optimal; the 15-minute long infomercial format appears to deserve more research scrutiny.

The impact of high-quality firm achievements on shareholder value: Focus on Malcolm Baldrige and J. D. Power and associates awards

Marketing managers face increasing pressure to justify any strategic action with financial metrics that facilitate comparative evaluations with alternative options. Using event study method, the authors focus attention on the impact of high-profile quality achievement awards on the stock prices of the award-winning firms. Two types of awards are investigated: the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and J. D. Power and Associates Awards (JDPAA). Previous event studies found no major impact of MBNQA announcements on the stock price of MBNQA winners; in contrast, this study’s results show that these awards generate significant shareholder value for MBNQA winners. With respect to the JDPAA, the authors— analyses did notfind any such impact in the Automotive, Travel, and Finance categories. Multiple regression analyses suggest that firms with higher amounts of intangible assets are more likely to create shareholder value. Implications of the results for different decision horizon perspectives are derived.

Simple approaches to evaluate competing non-nested models in marketing☆

Abstract In marketing contexts where no economic or behavioral theory exists to guide researchers, or where there are several competing theories, it is important to explore approaches to compare competing model alternatives. These alternatives are often non-nested; in such cases, recourse to recently developed econometric approaches facilitates comparisons between rival models. Using empirical illustrations (involving sales response, innovation diffusion, and market share models), we highlight the relative simplicity of implementing statistical tests to evaluate competing non-nested model alternatives. This expository review also outlines the focus, scope, merits, and demerits of various tests to compare non-nested models, thereby providing a broad basis for selecting an appropriate test for a given non-nested model-comparison context.

Labelling Genetically Modified Food Products: Consumers Concern in the United Kingdom

An online survey method was used to collect data regarding the concern and attitude of UK consumers towards genetically modified (GM) food labelling. Questionnaires were sent to 9000 participants of the online panel via emails, and 2568 consumers completed the online survey. The response rate was 29%. This study found that more than 75% of the consumers questioned were concerned about the labelling of food products with GM ingredients. Eight perceived risks and benefits of agro-biotechnology were identified to be associated with consumers’ attitude towards GM food labelling. Among them, three were perceived benefits, such as reduced use of chemicals in crop production, improved nutritional content, and increased yields. The five perceived risks were health risks, environmental risks, moral considerations, image of multinational corporations as the primary beneficiaries of biotechnology, and growing control of multinational corporations over farming. While all five perceived risks from GM food played a statistically significant role in shaping the overall attitude towards GM labelling, improved nutritional content due to application of biotechnology was the only benefit that was statistically significant. Age of the respondents was the only demographic variable playing a statistically significant role in shaping the attitude of respondents towards GM food labelling. Older respondents were more likely to be concerned about the existing GM labelling practices than younger respondents.