how relationships with consumer ad creators develop and affect viewer response

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How Relationships with Consumer Ad Creators Develop

and Affect Viewer Response

Colin CampbellSimon Fraser University

Vancouver, Canada

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A Definition of CGA

• “any publicly disseminated, consumer generated advertising messages whose subject is a collectively recognized brand”

- Berthon et al. (2008, p. 3)

• Refers to videos consumers create, about brands or products, and share

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CGA vs. Traditional AdsTraditional Ads CGA

Creator Firm, ad agency Unknown, consumer

Purpose Persuade, inform, remind Unclear

Distribution Television, movies, internet Internet, viral

Style Carefully honed, consistent Varies

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Growth in Consumer Generated Advertising

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Research on CGA

• Hints of advertiser benefit (Freeman and Chapman, 2007a, 2007b)

• Demonstrated ingenuity, skill, and determination of consumers in constructing CGA (Muniz and Schau, 2007)

• Consumer creativity has been discussed, yet solely within the realm of consumption experiences (Burroughs and Mick, 2004; Dahl and Moreau, 2007; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Holbrook, et al., 1984; Moreau and Dahl, 2005)

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• Larger goal is to look at how consumer-brand relationships are important to both creation and consumption of consumer generated ads

• First steps: examining motivations of creators as well as response of consumers

• This paper proposes a new theory of why consumers might respond differently to consumer generated ads

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Overview• Goal is a framework for response to CGA

• How do viewer perceptions of an advertisement’s creator affect viewer responses?

• Propose a new theoretical approach to conceptualizing endorsement (Friedman and Friedman, 1979; McCracken, 1989)

• Draw on social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979, 1986)

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Research on Endorsers

• Source credibility (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 1999; Sternthal, Dholakia and Leavitt, 1978; Sternthal, Phillips and Dholakia, 1978)

• Source attractiveness (Chaiken, 1979; Kahle and Homer, 1985)

• Source-product “fit” (Friedman and Friedman, 1979; Kamins and Gupta, 1994; Kamins, 1990; Till and Busler, 2000)

• Current approach limiting (McCracken, 1989)

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Traditional Ads

EndorserEndorserEndorserEndorser

Product Product or or

BrandBrand


BrandBrand

AdAdAdAd ConsumerConsumerConsumerConsumerCompanyCompany(Sponsor) (Sponsor) CompanyCompany(Sponsor) (Sponsor) CreatorCreatorCreatorCreator

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Proposed Approach

EndorserEndorserEndorserEndorser


BrandBrand


BrandBrand

AdAdAdAd ConsumerConsumerConsumerConsumerCompanyCompany(Sponsor)(Sponsor)CompanyCompany(Sponsor)(Sponsor)

CreatorCreatorCreatorCreator

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Creator as Endorser

• Hints in existing literature that endorser-consumer fit is what matters (McCracken, 1989)

• Celebrity as referent (Kamins and Gupta, 1994)

• Expertise vs. trustworthiness in credibility (Sternthal, Dholakia and Leavitt, 1978)

• Applying existing framework to CGA might not work and could miss a crucial characteristic of CGA: that it’s made by other consumers

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Proposed ModelConsumer-Consumer Perceived SimilarityConsumer-Consumer Perceived SimilarityConsumer-Consumer Perceived SimilarityConsumer-Consumer Perceived Similarity

Consumer-Consumer AttractionConsumer-Consumer AttractionConsumer-Consumer AttractionConsumer-Consumer Attraction

Consumer-Group IdentificationConsumer-Group IdentificationConsumer-Group IdentificationConsumer-Group Identification

Group influence in the form of:Group influence in the form of:1. Public support1. Public support

2. Ad rating2. Ad rating



Perceived Creator MotivationsPerceived Creator MotivationsPerceived Creator MotivationsPerceived Creator Motivations

Perceived Group PrestigePerceived Group PrestigePerceived Group PrestigePerceived Group Prestige

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Similarity Leads to Attraction

• Theories (e.g. Fiske, 2004; Heider, 1958; Rushton, 1989) link similarity and attraction

• Supported by findings for both perceived and actual similarity (Cronbach, 1955)

1. Viewers will be more attracted to advertisement creators that viewers deem similar

2. Perceived motivations of creator will moderate this perceived-creator similarity and attraction

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Social Identity Theory• Primarily from Tajfel and Turner (1986)

• Individuals have social identity rooted in their membership in social groups

• Role of social categories, social groups, social identity, self-categorization, self-enhancement

• Importance of ranking, hyperbolized similarity and differences, negative groups, self-esteem

• Contrast with internalization

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Attraction Leads to Identification

3. The more a viewer considers an ad creator’s perceived social group’s identity to match their own, the greater the attraction, and hence the greater the identification with the social group.

4. The more prestigiously an ad creator’s perceived social group is perceived by others, the greater the attraction, and hence the greater the identification with the social group.

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Identification and Influence

• Kelman (1961, p. 63) describes social influence: “when an individual adopts behavior derived from another person or a group because this behavior is associated with a satisfying self-defining relationship to this person or group.”

• Act publicly and privately in line with group’s expectations - purely to retain membership

• Links suggested (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Dutton et al., 1994; Curras-Perez et al., 2009)

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Identification and Influence

5. The more a viewer identifies with an ad creator’s perceived social group, the more likely the viewer is to engage in activities that demonstrate and support this identification, either privately or publicly (e.g. forward link to ad, comment on ad, rate ad, book ad).

6. The more a viewer identifies with an ad creator’s perceived social group, the higher the perception of the advertisement and the brand.

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Conclusion

• Proposed a new approach to understanding endorsement so as to help explain consumer response to CGA

• Currently testing parts of the theory

• Future research in looking at negative ads, the effect of ensuing consumer discussions, ads with multiple brands, and more ambiguous videos.

how relationships with consumer ad creators develop and affect viewer response

Marketing

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