The effectiveness of advertising images in promoting experiential offerings: An emotional response approach

This research examines the role of advertising images in promoting experiential offerings. In particular, it investigates the congruence effect between the emotional responses evoked by advertising images and experiential offerings on consumers’ purchase likelihood in the tourism context. This congruence effect is tested in a series of four experimental studies using different advertising stimuli and manipulations of perceived certainty associated with the offerings. The findings show that advertising images eliciting awe have a more positive impact on purchase likelihood when combined with an experiential offering communicating a low level of certainty, whereas advertising images eliciting contentment have a more positive impact on purchase likelihood when combined with an experiential offering communicating a high level of certainty. Both the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.