IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v29y2018i4d10.1007_s11002-018-9471-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should donation ads include happy victim images? The moderating role of regulatory focus

Author

Listed:
  • Yael Zemack-Rugar

    (University of Central Florida)

  • Sona Klucarova-Travani

    (University of Central Florida)

Abstract

We examine how victim imagery interacts with ad messaging’s regulatory focus to determine the effectiveness of donation appeals. We predict and show that ads that combine a happy victim image with a promotion-focused message uniquely increase donation intentions. We demonstrate that this occurs because the combination of promotion-focused messaging, which makes gain goals salient, and a happy victim image, which signals gains are occurring, increases consumers’ perceived response efficacy. Four studies test the interaction of victim imagery and regulatory focus showing the predicted effect. We also test the mediating role of perceived response efficacy and rule out several alternative explanations. Our findings extend prior work which has overlooked the interactive effects of victim imagery and ad messaging and the effects of victim imagery on perceived response efficacy. By exploring these dimensions, we offer marketers and consumers guidance on how to construct effective fundraising ads.

Suggested Citation

  • Yael Zemack-Rugar & Sona Klucarova-Travani, 2018. "Should donation ads include happy victim images? The moderating role of regulatory focus," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 421-434, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:29:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s11002-018-9471-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-018-9471-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-018-9471-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-018-9471-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ryuhei Ueda & Kana Kuraguchi & Hiroshi Ashida, 2016. "Asymmetric Effect of Expression Intensity on Evaluations of Facial Attractiveness," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yunjeong Ahn & Jieun Lee, 2021. "The Role of Anthropomorphic Messengers in Sustainable Participatory Corporate Social Responsibility: Focusing on Messenger’s Facial Expression and Participation Effort," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, April.
    2. Li, Meng-Ran & Yin, Cheng-Yue, 2022. "Facial expressions of beneficiaries and donation intentions of potential donors: Effects of the number of beneficiaries in charity advertising," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Tajvarpour, Mohammad Hossein & Pujari, Devashish, 2022. "The influence of narrative description on the success of crowdfunding campaigns: The moderating role of quality signals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 123-138.
    4. Felix Septianto & Widya Paramita, 2021. "Sad but smiling? How the combination of happy victim images and sad message appeals increase prosocial behavior," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 91-110, March.
    5. Tejaswi Patil & Zillur Rahman, 2023. "Mapping the Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) field: document co-citation and bibliographic coupling approach," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 20(2), pages 491-520, June.
    6. Septianto, Felix, 2020. "Do past scandals influence the present performance? The moderating role of consumer mindset," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 75-81.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Söderlund, Magnus & Sagfossen, Sofie, 2017. "The depicted service employee in marketing communications: An empirical assessment of the impact of facial happiness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 186-193.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:29:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s11002-018-9471-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.