Business Commons^™

Exploring The Effect Of Logos With Animals, Can Trinh

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2024

Even though the use of logos that feature animals is prevalent (e.g., Porsche, Lamborghini, Hollister), there is a scant number of empirical works that examine the effect of such logos on marketing outcomes. This research represents a pioneering attempt to address this critical theoretical gap. We propose that logos that feature animals (i.e., animal logos) can influence product perceptions. Empirical evidence from two studies supports our propositions. The findings provide meaningful implications for both theory and practice.

Guinness Is The "Pumpkin Spice Latte" Of St. Patrick's Day, Jin-A Choi, Yi Luo, Bond Benton

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

This study by a team of faculty from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University shows that Guinness was the most-discussed brand on social media leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, and not just in the traditional ways people share how they drink the popular beer brand. The volume of social media conversations related to Guinness beer and St. Patrick’s Day saw a 25% increase. Most social chats exhibited a happy mood as evidenced by a 62% joyful sentiment.

While the Shamrock Shake …

An Investigation Of Social Media Discussion On Valentine's Day 2024 Trends: Money Can Buy Love And Chocolates, Jin-A Choi, Bond Benton, Yi Luo

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

Valentine’s Day, typically defined by expression of love and affection, has been celebrated as a symbolic day to exchange gifts among lovers. The expression of love has been firmly tied with the act of giving material things, such as gifts. However, over the years, discomfort and even anger has grown around the over-commercialization of Valentine’s Day, creating a deep divide between those who gift and those who criticize and denounce the holiday as nothing but a “Hallmark card holiday” to push consumerism. Our center’s study from the previous year indicated that over-commercialization of Valentine’s Day found that love is not …

Taylor-Made Super Bowl: Taylor Swiftmania On Social Media Regarding The Big Game, Yi Luo, Jin-A Choi, Bond Benton

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

Celebrity couples occupy a unique space in popular culture. Similar to the royal unions of history and the present, the combination of notoriety and the voyeuristic appeal of watching a relationship play out in public spaces, celebrity couples energize popular discourse and invite public commentary and interest. The opportunity to become a spectator in ongoing celebrity coupling invites a level of perceived intimacy in what feels like a relationship with famous people.

Data collected for this study suggests Taylor Swift’s connection to Super Bowl LVIII has elevated the meaning of the game beyond the stratospheric levels of cultural significance the …

Health Disparities: The Influence Of Black Celebrity Endorsers And Social Media Influencers On Consumption Habits Among African American Consumers, Dale A. Cake, Wooyang Kim

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2024

This study examines the impact of celebrity and social media influencer endorsements on the dietary choices of African Americans, a group disproportionately affected by obesity and diabetes. It focuses on the role of limited access to healthy foods in impoverished communities and cultural influences. Using the source credibility model, the research assesses endorsements based on the endorser's attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness. The methodology involves a two-step approach: conducting semi-structured interviews with African American students to understand perceptions of food-related celebrity endorsements, followed by an experimental design using eye-tracking and galvanic skin response (GSR) technology. This design will evaluate reactions to …

Beyond The Pixelated Mirror: Understanding Avatar Identity And Its Impact On In-Game Advertising And Consumer Behavior, Kyle Coble, Jay Ratican, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the complex dynamics between avatars and in-game advertising, probing how virtual representations influence consumer behavior within digital environments. It delves into the psychological interplay between self-perception and avatar embodiment, suggesting that while younger users may treat avatars as accessories showcasing personal interests, adults tend to opt for idealized selves, affecting their interaction with and responsiveness to virtual marketing. The study contemplates the avatar’s function as both a consumer and influencer in the expanding metaverse, considering the escalating integration of branded items in games. It also highlights potential shifts in consumption patterns as digital and physical realities converge. …

De-Influencers And Social Media Trends, Misha Harneja, Emma Han

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Influencers are content creators who collaborate with brands to promote a brand image or specific products to their followers.

In a new social media trend, influencers have also become “deinfluencers” who advocate against certain behaviors or products. Throughout this project, we aim to understand the new “trend” of “deinfluencers”.

The diversity of opinions and motivations for deinfluencers makes it challenging to uncover their motivations for creating this type of content. Our project combines secondary data research on popular press articles and primary data collection on Instagram and TikTok.

Medical Tourism & Communication, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Medical tourism (MT), sometimes referred to as health tourism or medical travel, involves both the treatment of illness and the facilitation of wellness, with travel. Medical tourism is a multifaceted and multiphase process involving many agents and actors that requires careful planning and execution. The coordinated process involves the biomedical, transportation, tourism, and leisure industries. From the communication perspective, the process can be viewed as a 5-stage model consisting of the: (a) orientation, (b) preparation, (c) experiential and treatment, (d) convalescence, and (e) reflection phases. Medical tourism is uniquely situated in a nexus of academic literature related to communication, business …

No Sex For Me: Female Influence And Power Through The Lens Of Hrotsvitha, Madison Patoto

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

No Sex for Me: Female Influence and Power Through the Lens of Hrotsvitha

Madison Patoto

Male playwrights dominated the theatre world until Hrotsvitha, a German nun and playwright, broke the silence of The Dark Ages. She adapted the works of the ancient Roman playwright, Terence, with a more favorable depiction of faith and women. In the midst of a patriarchal world, Hrotsvitha explored the theme of sexuality through strong female characters who gained power and influence in a world that degraded them and considered them impotent. This essay dives into the main differences between Terence’s Roman secular views and Hrotsvitha’s …

Increasing The Acceptance Of Cultivated Meat, Mark Chong

Asian Management Insights

Factors to consider when designing communication strategies for diverse nations.

Halloween 2023: It’S A Barbie World!, Jin-A Choi, Yi Luo, Bond Benton

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

Encapsulated in pink, Barbie epitomizes a dreamland that stimulates feelings of nostalgia, joy, and imagination, fulfilling individuals’ desire to escape. Mattel, the parent company of Barbie, and Warner Bros. through 100 or more brand collaborations (del Barco, 2023), has relentlessly swept the world with a blitz of Barbie-themed merchandises, such as Barbie dreamhouse rentals, Barbie gaming consoles, Barbie pasta, Barbie pink suitcases, Barbie apparels, bright fuchsia Xbox, Barbie boat cruise, pink burger, etc. Staggering surge for online sales of Barbie-themed products affirms the impressive upswing of online consumers’ interest in Barbie.

With the significance of Halloween, the popularity of Barbie, …

Curating A Consumption Ideology: Platformization And Gun Influencers On Instagram, Jenna M. Drenten Ph.D., Lauren Gurrieri, Aimee Dinnín Huff, Michelle Barnhart

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study explores how a platform enables social media influencers to promulgate a consumption ideology. We show how gun influencers, or “gunfluencers,” use Instagram to link products, activities, and meanings to Second Amendment ideology – a gun-centric belief system in the United States colloquially known as “2A ideology.” Through a qualitative study of 25 Instagram gunfluencers, we identify a process of curating a consumption ideology wherein social media influencers employ four curatorial tactics: glamourizing, demystifying, victimizing, and tribalizing. Findings suggest gunfluencers extend audiences and leverage algorithms to prescribe and model how supporters of 2A ideology should look, act, speak, feel, …

Deciphering Consumer Commitment: Exploring The Dual Influence Of Self-Brand And Self-Group Relationships, Brittney Bauer, Brad D. Carlson, Mark J. Arnold

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Consumer-brand relationships are highly valued as brand-committed consumers are thought to deliver many positive outcomes for affiliated brands. However, in addition to connections between individuals and brands, consumer-brand relationships also involve relationships between individuals and other brand users. Little attention has been given to the potential consequences associated with commitment to other brand users as compared to the brand itself. Therefore, our framework establishes two distinct types of consumer-brand relationships (i.e., self-brand relationships vs. self-group relationships) that differentially influence brand commitment versus group commitment, leading to contrasting effects on both desirable and undesirable brand outcomes. Specifically, our studies illuminate …

More Voices Persuade: The Attentional Benefits Of Voice Numerosity, Hannah H. Chang, Anirban Mukherjee, Amitava Chattopadhyay

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The authors posit that in an initial exposure to a broadcast video, hearing different voices narrate (in succession) a persuasive message encourages consumers’ attention and processing of the message, thereby facilitating persuasion; this is referred to as “the voice numerosity effect.” Across four studies (plus validation and replication studies)—including two large-scale, real-world datasets (with more than 11,000 crowdfunding videos and over 3.6 million customer transactions, and more than 1,600 video ads) and two controlled experiments (with over 1,800 participants)—the results provide support for the hypothesized effect. The effect (1) has consequential, economic implications in a real-world marketplace, (2) is more …

Does Disclosure Of Advertising Spending Help Investors And Analysts?, Sungkyun Moon, Kapil R. Tuli, Anirban Mukherjee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Publicly listed firms have the discretion to disclose (or not) advertising spending in their annual (10-K) reports. The disclosure of advertising spending can provide valuable information because advertising is a leading indicator of future performance. However, estimates of advertising spending are available from data providers, arguably mitigating the need for its formal disclosure. This study argues that firms’ disclosure of advertising spending provides more complete and public information and therefore lowers investor uncertainty about future firm performance (idiosyncratic risk). Empirical analyses show this effect is largely driven by the negative effect of disclosure of advertising spending on analyst uncertainty. Consistent …

Social Acceptance Vital To Success Of Novel Food Technologies, Mark Chong, Mark Chong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a joint commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Communication Management (Practice) Mark Chong and Andrew Powell , CEO of Asia BioBusiness Pte Ltd, discussed how social acceptance is vital to the success of novel food technologies. They also explained how companies should be guided by the science of risk perception and behavioural science, and why a risk communication and engagement strategy is an essential component of risk management.

More Than Just A Game? The Impact Of Athletic Team Performances Of Advertisement Appeal, Matthew Cook

Honors Projects in Marketing

The goal of this study was to determine the effects that an athletic team's performance may have on the ways in which their fans view advertisements. Conducted using a 2 (game: basketball vs. baseball) x 2 (outcome: win vs. loss) x 2 (score: blowout vs. close game) experimental study created within Qualtrics, we set out to determine how the type of game, outcome, and score may all affect advertisement appeal. Using clips from a Celtics vs Lakers game as well as a Red Sox vs Yankees game, we created short video clips that were designed to replicate the experience of …

Marriott Short-Term Rentals For Digital Nomads - A Campaign Aimed At Advertising Marriott Homes To Nomads And Remote Workers, Guethshina Valexia Altena

Global Strategic Communications Student Work

Marriott International is one of the most renowned travel companies in the world. They consider themselves a travel program with hotel brands and experiences. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Marriott suffered a great loss of revenue similar to other companies in the hospitality industry. Fortunately, the pandemic also brought along some changes to the American way of life and opportunities for people to travel and work remotely. The number of people who reported being digital nomads nearly doubled in the United States from 2018 to 2021, one year after the pandemic (Patterson, 2022). This new demographic of …

Why Industry Professionals Should Care About Fandom, Abigail Minzer

Student Publications

A fandom is a community of people who share a common interest and interact with each other on the basis of that common interest. When a fandom comes together on the basis of a creative work, it allows a mutually beneficial relationship to form in which the fandom will eagerly consume existing content, allowing new content to be produced for their consumption. Thus, professionals in industries such as publishing, theater, and television and film should be aware of the integral role fandoms play in the consumption of their content and how to nurture fandoms through the means discussed in this …

Analysis Of Collegiate Athlete Social Media Engagement On Instagram, Noelle Magann

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2023

Since its founding in 2010, Instagram has developed into one of the world's largest social media platforms. In 2022, $33.3 billion was spent on instagram advertising by companies, firms, etc. Additionally, almost $5 billion was spent on Influencer marketing in 2022, a 27.8% increase from 2021 and a 34.7% increase from 2019. These statistics show the vast importance influencers have on marketing in today's business world and society as a whole. For this project, I looked into the engagement rates of SunBelt Football athletes. I used at least 2 athletes from each university that had over 1,000 followers on instagram, …

The Relative Importance Of Appearance And Language In Consumers’ Evaluations Of Multicultural Models In Television Commercials, Neleen S. Leslie-Piper

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2023

ABSTRACT

This study aims to expand the literature on source effects by examining the relative importance of appearance and language in consumers’ evaluations of multicultural models in televisions commercials. Specifically, using accommodation theory as a framework, the study explores how multicultural models affect customers’ perceptions of the source’s credibility, attractiveness as well as overall attitudes toward the commercial, the brand and intent to purchase.

Tracking The Donor Dollar: A Critical Examination Of Ngo Impact, Joshua Werth

Senior Honors Theses

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) comprise the backbone of civilization. Whether intended or not, governments fail to improve social situations, financial standings, and spirituality comprehensively. NGOs attempt to cover these areas. From Angola to Zambia, countless NGOs exist around the world; however, many fail due to a misplaced focus internally on the annual donations received rather than externally on the disenfranchised. Additionally, even if NGOs manage to stay afloat, they will need help procuring funds and then distributing those resources with the most effective impact for the impoverished. The honors thesis proposed will attempt to determine more effective impact measurements for NGOs, …

Role Of Social Media On Travel Destination Decision-Making: Young American’S Motivation, Attitude, And Behavioral Intention, Wooyang Kim, Dale A. Cake, Hyun Sang An

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2023

This study aims to examine how social media influences American Millennials’ and Gen Zers’ travel destination decision-making process in an integrative theoretical framework of the Uses and Gratification Theory and Theory of Reasoned Action. Young generations, who desire escapism and entertainment in order to relax through their everyday lives, are looking for value brought to their lives from vicarious out-of-routine experiences through social media, which engenders process gratification. This process evokes the desire to experience and explore the destination they viewed on social media, inducing vicarious pleasure that leads to affective responses toward the travel destination. Notably, a positive …

El Vínculo Entre La Literatura Y La Buena Publicidad En Varios Anuncios Del Mundo Hispanohablante (2017 - 2022), Carter Kane

World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters

El anunciante más conocido en todo el país de España, cuyo nombre es Luis Bassat, es el fundador de la agencia más prestigiosa Ogilvy España. Bassat escribió el Libro Rojo de la Publicidad, una guía de la disciplina publicitaria que resume todo de lo que Bassat ha aprendido a través de su carrera distinguida de más de 47 años. Asimismo de muchos otros temas, este libro denota 10 consejos a los anunciantes del día actual para mantener la buena publicidad. Este ensayo va a utilizar esos consejos como una rúbrica para examinar el uso de la literatura en la creación …

Social Media: Enabling Touchpoints Beyond Advertising, Kapil R. Tuli, Sheetal Bhardwaj

Asian Management Insights

An effective customer service platform and a strategic communication channel.

Harnessing The Power Of Video Ads, Linyi Li

Asian Management Insights

In digital advertising, video ads as a top-of-funnel function have a longer-lasting efect than display and search ads on a consumer's consciousness.

The Challenge Of Measuring Traditional And Digital Audiences In A Global Market, Jorge Gallardo-Camacho, César García, Belén Puebla-Martínez

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Arts and Humanities

This monograph titled Audiences and new forms of broadcast: linear, on-demand, streaming and/or social has five articles that represent the complexity of the phenomenon of audiences across fields and from different perspectives: Traditional television consumption, viewing of Netflix, the social audience of video platforms, the new tastes of viewers for vertical formats driven by mobile phones, and the relationship of influencers with their audiences. This number raises the problem of audience measurement, quantification, and comparison in the new digital age. The measurement of audiovisual audiences faces the problem of the lack of a measurement system accepted in all regions and …

Typology Of Tweets And User Engagement Generated By U.S. Companies Involved In Developing Covid-19 Vaccines, Priyanka Khandelwal, Leslie Ramos Salazar, Soni Khandelwal

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

This study analyzes 295 tweets by four U.S. companies engaged in discovering a vaccine for COVID-19. Tweets were analyzed to understand how their Twitter feeds balanced corporate and product branding (vaccine, medicines, etc.) and disseminated scientific information relating to COVID-19. The results suggest that these companies were actively embedding technical information about COVID-19 in their corporate and product branding. Tweets providing technical and scientific information about the progress made toward developing a COVID-19 vaccine garnered high levels of user engagement from their target audience. Findings from this study indicate the growing importance of technical communication in corporate settings during a …

Detecting Deceptive Dark-Pattern Web Advertisements For Blind Screen-Reader Users, Satwick Ram Kodandaram, Mohan Sunkara, Sampath Jayarathna, Vikas Ashok

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Advertisements have become commonplace on modern websites. While ads are typically designed for visual consumption, it is unclear how they affect blind users who interact with the ads using a screen reader. Existing research studies on non-visual web interaction predominantly focus on general web browsing; the specific impact of extraneous ad content on blind users' experience remains largely unexplored. To fill this gap, we conducted an interview study with 18 blind participants; we found that blind users are often deceived by ads that contextually blend in with the surrounding web page content. While ad blockers can address this problem via …

Exploring Zero-Shot And Joint Training Cross-Lingual Strategies For Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis Based On Contextualized Multilingual Language Models, Dang Van Thin, Hung Quoc Ngo, Duong Ngoc Hao, Ngan Luu-Thuy-Nguyen

Articles

Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) has attracted many researchers’ attention in recent years. However, the lack of benchmark datasets for specific languages is a common challenge because of the prohibitive cost of manual annotation. The zero-shot cross-lingual strategy can be applied to solve this gap in research. Moreover, previous works mainly focus on improving the performance of supervised ABSA with pre-trained languages. Therefore, there are few to no systematic comparisons of the benefits of multilingual models in zero-shot and joint training cross-lingual for the ABSA task. In this paper, we focus on the zero-shot and joint training cross-lingual transfer task for …