Sukki Yoon

When environmental messages should be assertive: examining the moderating role of effort investment

The research reported in this article examined whether environmental advertisers who use assertive language can expect to have varying persuasive impacts depending on how much effort message recipients invest in completing environmentally friendly requests. The findings indicate that assertive messages cause individuals to show more favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions toward recycling when they invest significant effort in following the requests. In contrast, nonassertive messages are more effective for individuals who invest little effort. Furthermore, perceived issue importance mediates the interaction between message assertiveness and effort investment for predicting attitudes toward recycling, and in turn enhances intentions to recycle.

Advertising Creativity in Korea

The authors develop and validate a measure of advertising creativity that is intended for a collectivistic, holistic population. Scale-development procedures result in a four-factor correlated model comprising originality, considerateness, clarity, and product relevance. The second dimension, considerateness, appears to mirror the culturally unique propensity to value the collectivistic Confucian norms of the society and the contextual elements of the advertisement. Reliability and validity of the scale are examined.

E-WOM messaging on social media: Social ties, temporal distance, and message concreteness

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the intentions to share electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM) messages on social media websites depending on tie strength, perceptions of temporal distance and the concreteness of promotional messages. Design/methodology/approach A 2×2×2 mixed design is used. Temporal distance (near vs distant) and message concreteness (text vs picture) are between-subjects factors; sharing intentions (close friends vs general public) is a within-subjects factor. Findings Findings indicate that consumers are more likely to share promotional messages with their strong rather than weak ties. If they perceive that purchases will occur soon, concrete promotional messages will more strongly motivate them to share the message with their friends. However, if they perceive that purchases will occur in the distant future, abstract messages are more motivating. The difference occurs because construal-level theory is more effective among strong E-WOM ties. Originality/value By studying senders’ perspectives, the authors make a new theoretical and practical contribution to the emerging literature on E-WOM communication. Specifically, the authors show how senders are persuaded to share information with their strong- or weak-tie audiences according to the concreteness of a message and temporal distance. The authors add construal-level theory and advertising message processing to the domain of E-WOM and social ties research.

Conceptualizing Communication Capital for a Changing Environment

With rapidly evolving technologies, boundaries between traditional modes of communication have blurred, creating an environment that scholars still describe from viewpoints as researchers in interpersonal, organizational or mass communication. This manuscript looks at the social capital literature and argues for conceptualizing “communication capital” to help understand the impact of communication phenomena in a changing environment. The literature has treated interpersonal communication variables as components of social capital and mass communication variables as factors affecting social capital, but scholars long ago recognized their reinforcing nature, leading us to develop a concept of communication capital merging symbolic activity across domains in its potential for impacting civic engagement, defined as persistent communication patterns that facilitate social problem solving in the community. Analysis of survey data shows that 4 dimensions of communication capital explain variance in civic engagement beyond that accounted for by traditional measures of social capital, media use, neighborhood communication, and efficacy.

Effort investment in persuasiveness: a comparative study of environmental advertising in the United States and Korea

The authors of this article compare American and Korean reactions to the persuasiveness of environmental advertising campaigns that are preceded by environmental pledges. Findings indicate that environmental advertising effectiveness depends on how much effort recipients put into making environmental pledges prior to viewing the advertisements. Study 1 demonstrates that when environmental pledges requesting more effort precede ad messages, Americans are more persuaded but Koreans are less persuaded. Study 2 extends the findings and rules out an alternative explanation – mere-effort effect – by showing that the results are replicated only with an issue-relevant pledge, but not with an issue-irrelevant pledge.

Introduction to the special issue on social and environmental issues in advertising

In the past few decades, attention has been turning to the need to apply commercial marketing concepts, knowledge, and techniques to promote goods, services, and actions that enhance consumer well-being and social welfare through socially and environmentally responsible advertising. Advertising campaigns such as recycling promotions promote socially beneficial ideas and actions, and campaigns such as anti-drunk-driving messages discourage socially detrimental ideas and actions. Critics argue, however, that for-profit advertisers who endorse social responsibility are inherently serving commercial purposes and diluting the value of socially responsible advertising. One research thread explores ways to encourage consumers, companies, and policymakers to adopt and encourage socially responsible behaviors (Taylor 2014), to provide theoretical and practical insights regarding effective applications of prosocial and proenvironmental marketing messages (e.g., Baek, Yoon, and Kim, 2015; Taylor 2014). Some of these articles may have appeared in various marketing, communications, and psychology journals, but advertising scholars and practitioners may lack exposure to the research and may find that it is relevant for further study or for practical managerial applications. In this special issue, we hope to introduce International Journal of Advertising readers to current and diverse research that compares, contrasts, and reconciles conflicting views regarding social and environmental advertising. This issue comprises 9 original empirical research articles that were among the best papers presented at the 2014 Global Marketing Conference in Singapore among 1149 papers submitted, only 441 papers (39%) were accepted for the conference. The nine articles selected for the special issue are rigorously selected, as all of the articles presented here have gone through a regular IJA peer review process. These articles contribute to advertising theory, research, and practice by (1) uncovering individual differences in perception of advertising messages and their consequences for social and environmental behaviors (Bhatnagar and McKay-Nesbitt, 2016; Kim et al., 2016), (2) reconciling societal and business interests (Kim, Williams, and Wilcox, 2016; Taylor and Sarkees, 2016), (3) identifying a message factor that determines eco-friendly behaviors (Chen, 2016; Yoon, Kim, and Baek, 2016), and (4) identifying source factors that enhance and weaken advertising effectiveness (Chu, Lee, and Kim, 2016; Kang et al., 2016; Orazi, Bove, and Lei, 2016).

Guilt and Shame: Environmental Message Framing Effects

The authors examine how two negative emotions—guilt and shame—influence responses to environmental ad messages framed as gains or losses. In Study 1, participants primed with guilt express higher intention to conserve water after they view a gain-framed water conservation ad; participants primed with shame express higher conservation intention after they view a loss-framed ad. Study 2 replicates and supports the proposed matching hypothesis using nonstudent adults. In Study 3, participants react to a recycling ad as they did in Studies 1 and 2 when they expend high effort by transcribing the recycle pledge before they view the ad, but not when they expend low effort by reading the pledge first. The findings overall provide converging evidence for the interplay between negative emotions and message framing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for developing environmental advertising message strategies.

Social marketing communication messages

Purpose – This paper examines how social marketing communication messages influence physical activity attitudes when a health organization is revealed as the message source. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines how social marketing communication messages influence physical activity attitudes when a health organization is revealed as the message source. Findings – Results from three studies using experimentally manipulated messages (Studies 1 and 3) and real TV commercials (Study 2) suggest that work-framed social marketing communication messages may be more effective than fun-framed messages when the sponsoring health organization is disclosed, versus not disclosed in the ad. Research limitations/implications – This research extends the literature on source-effects on message effectiveness by suggesting that the type of message sponsor (i.e. a health organization) may influence attitudes toward the physical activity promoted in the message content. Practical implications – The results suggest...

Structural Pluralism and the Community Context: How and When Does the Environment Matter?

Several long-standing theories intersect in discussing the impact of community characteristics and of the mass media. The structural pluralism model popularized by Tichenor and his colleagues says that social structure influences how mass media operate in communities because they respond to how power is distributed in the social system, whereas the linear model says that the increasing size of a communitys population leads to more social differentiation and diversity and corresponding increases in subcultures with their own beliefs, customs, and behaviors. Recently, there has been a concern about how changes in society have led to a decline in organizational activity and the network of relationships and trust that constitute “social capital.” This article examines the impact of population and diversity (using census data) on individuals’ media use, interpersonal discussion and civic engagement (measured in a national survey), and the relationship among these variables. Analysis of a structural model provides evidence that the “linear hypothesis” can be combined with structural pluralism, with size—measured by population—impacting diversity, which influences the relationships that people have with their community. Concurrently, social categories influence peoples communication patterns and community relationships, and communication impacts civic engagement.

Assertive Environmental Advertising and Reactance: Differences Between South Koreans and Americans

In three studies, the authors show that Americans and South Koreans react differently to environmental advertising campaigns featuring assertive messages that threaten autonomous freedoms. The findings uphold their hypothesis that cultural differences determine whether consumers will show reactance to assertive advertising campaigns. Study 1 demonstrates that Americans are less receptive to an assertive recycling message using imperatives such as should, must, and ought and more receptive to a nonassertive message using could, might, and worth. South Koreans do not show the reactance response. Study 2, an energy-saving campaign, conceptually replicates the findings and further shows that perceived threat to freedom mediates the effects. Study 3 uses a realistic setting (i.e., online magazine) to further support the hypothesis that cultural differences affect attitudes toward assertive messages, but adds perceived politeness as an underlying second mediator.