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When the going gets tough, ads become straightforward but multi-appealed: The influence of the recession on financial services advertising appeals

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Abstract

Although many scholars and researchers have contributed to the sizeable literature on the relationship between advertising and society, few have examined economic circumstances as a meaningful force shaping advertising. This study provides the empirical evidence that changes in economic conditions, the recession in particular, can transform advertising appeals. The analysis of 1488 financial services ads placed in two popular US magazines showed that the patterns of appeals have turned to direct assertive styles in the wake of the economic crisis of the period 2008–2009. At the same time, however, ads during this recession period have used a far wider variety of strategic and tactical appeals than those in pre-recession era.

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... Over time, studies have thus documented changes in advertising execution due to changing market conditions (e.g., Seldon 1963;Pollay 1985). During tumultuous economic times, such as the 2008 financial crisis, advertisers have traded emotional appeals for more rational claims (Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011), adjusted ad-casting practices to reach increasingly international and multicultural audiences (Lee 2019), and sought ways to adapt to the prevalence of mobile devices in recent years (Okazaki, Katsukura, and Nishiyama 2007;Okazaki and Barwise 2011). These changes have led scholars to suggest that advertising is a variable field (Nan and Faber 2004). ...
... Under this view, brands often echo cultural factors that shape daily life to connect with their publics (Williamson 1978). This line of research has shown that ad execution is often altered in response to social issues (e.g., Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011;Ahn and Mundel 2018;. Bush and Boller (1991) noted the influential role of advertising and mass media in health interventions promoting safe behaviors when there was no treatment for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS) in the United States. ...
... It was found that ads became sources of information for those who had lost family members during the attacks, while others aimed to breach racial divides among Americans and offered guidelines for encouraging others to face the challenges of the aftermath. Ahn, Song, and Sung (2011) showed that, during the 2008 economic recession in the United States, advertisers adopted strong patriotic appeals to keep the economy going. In general, extant scholarly evidence indicates that brands often take precise market positions on social matters to help consumers understand how the brand fits into the current environment (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore, and Hill 2006). ...
Article
While the trade press has started to report on consumer responses to brand messaging about the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, empirical results have yet to emerge. In this study, we investigated how consumers in the United States responded to Instagram ads containing COVID-19 claims based on the perceived brand–social issue fit, which is determined by whether the brand’s product was considered essential or nonessential. Results showed perceived brand–social issue fit to be of dual nature, where stronger perceptions of fit (i.e., essential products advertised with COVID-19 claims) resulted in more positive ad evaluations, brand attitudes, and consumer engagement intentions. Lower perceptions of fit (i.e., nonessential products with COVID-19 claims) led to perceptions of brand opportunism, which we conceptualized as a negative evaluative outcome that negatively impacted ad/brand attitude and consumer engagement intentions. The findings provide insights for brands interested in placing ads addressing the changing environmental conditions resulting from COVID-19 and advances the literature on pandemic messaging.
... Although financial services were included in several cross-service industry studies (Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996;Ha, 1998;Albers-Miller and Stafford, 1999a, b;Décaudin and Lacoste, 2010), only after 2000 have researches been focused more on financial services advertisement appeals (Anderson and Golden, 1984;Andrus, 1994;Albers-Miller and Straughan, 2000;Jørgensen and Isaksson, 2008;Haque et al., 2010;Lee et al., 2011Lee et al., , 2012Ahn et al., 2012;Alt et al., 2017;Mogaji et al., 2018;Alt and Săplăcan, 2019). ...
... While in many cases financial service advertisements are required to disclose messages regarding the risk, safety, price, yield, duration, and many other features of the offer (EU-Directive 2014/17/EU), coders were asked to register at most three dominant appeals if necessary, those which are evidenced in the headline and main product presentation, not in the disclosure. Multi-appealed messages have been identified widely in financial service advertising literature (Ahn et al., 2012;Underwood et al., 2015). In the end, the average message number per advertisement identified in the present sample was 1.67. ...
... The initial cluster membership was saved as a new variable, and a series of χ 2 tests were performed to investigate the homogeneity of the clusters in terms of appeals and product types. χ 2 testing is often used in content analysis-based researches (Huhmann and Bhattacharyya, 2005;Lee et al., 2011;Ahn et al., 2012). ...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to create a managerial framework for selecting the most effective bank advertisement appeal for different financial services. Financial services were classified based on the FCB grid: high/low involvement and think/feel decision. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 62 banks with content analysis based on 1,514 unique print advertisements, published between 2006 and 2014 in national newspapers in Romania and Hungary. The ads were coded, based on Pollay’s appeals, and then a cluster analysis was performed to identify appeal and financial service clusters. Findings The results revealed ten bank-specific appeals which can be used for advertising four different banking services categories. All type of savings and loans for B2B are advertised with quality appeals (safety, productivity); current account and card, personal/home loans are advertised with financial value appeals (convenient, cheap); corporate branding with emotional appeals (affiliation, distinctive, enjoyment); and services with mixed appeals. Research limitations/implications The study could be extended for different target market, creative strategy, other media and more countries. Practical implications The paper provides guidelines on how the FCB grid could be extended for bank services to recommend specific appeals for each category. Originality/value The financial service literature proposes guidelines regarding bank advertisements. However, the recommended advertisement appeals were not linked to different bank services. This paper creates a comprehensive managerial framework in order to match the bank’s specific appeals with different bank services.
... Abundant research has examined the values shown in ads in times of war, particularly in North American and European propaganda. Results have shown that advertisers have turned to strong patriotic appeals to encourage consumers to keep the market running when the going gets tough (Ahn et al., 2011), to recruit troops (Gross and Sheth, 1989) and/or stress the sacrifices the armed forces were making for the country (Pollay, 1985). Some of the propaganda used in the USA during the Second World War and the Cold War were so powerful that they survived their purpose and became popular culture symbols. ...
... Advertising expression and content during war time Research shows that in times of war, it is common for companies to adjust their advertising style in different ways to reflect changes in society (Mundel and Nieves-Pizarro, 2017). Given that emotions are easier to be elicited during times of crisis and economic downturn (Ahn et al., 2011), marketers tend to place ads showing patriotism and loyalty for a country in an attempt to build brand loyalty. This practice responds to the need for tapping into consumers' desires to support both their country and companies (because they stimulate the economy). ...
... Advertisers adjust their communication strategies according to changes in the current market conditions (Ahn et al., 2011). In addition to changes in values, Gross and Sheth (1989) showed that advertisements in the USA during World War II underwent changes in copy, mostly to highlight a sense of efficiency in the use of time and scarce resources. ...
Article
Design/methodology/approach: 3707 ads were analyzed from La Nación and The Times from April 1, 1982, to December 31, 1982. Appeals, advertised products, cultural values, and code-switching were studied.  Findings: The war resulted in marginal changes to advertising in Argentina and England. Interestingly, while the use of national symbols was scarce across both countries, Argentina accounted for the majority of the references to the war. A number of Argentine brands that adapted their names from English to Spanish are accounted.
... An (2003) showed that, as socioeconomic and political conditions have the ability to influence a society, advertisers seek to adapt their messages to reflect these alterations. Looking back as far as the early 1900s, a number of studies have discussed the relationship between major events in American history and advertising (e.g., Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011;An 2003;Pollay 1985). In the 1940s, ads were shaped in response to war conditions. ...
... Other lines of research also indicated that advertisers tend to adjust their communication strategies according to changes due to current market conditions (Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011). For example, Seldon (1963) demonstrated that, in the 1920s, ads were likely to depict an imagery related to prosperity, a phenomenon that changed with the adverse conditions following the United States' stock market crash of 1929. ...
... Additionally, there was an increase in the presence of ad copy depicting feelings associated with happiness, excitement, and gladness (i.e., cheerful emotions) in the war era. These findings deserve further exploration since previous studies suggested that during challenging socioeconomic conditions the use of positive emotions decreased in both Argentina (Ahn and Mundel 2015) and in the United States (Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011;Pollay 1985). Furthermore, the risky market conditions triggered changes in the nature of the advertiser. ...
Article
In the plethora of literature that investigates how the advertising industry reacts to changes in society, very few studies are concerned with regions outside of North America and Europe. For this study, we were interested in testing whether the conclusions of North American research in marketing communications would transfer to an understudied market. The ever-changing Argentine economy is a fertile ground to analyze changes in advertising strategies and tactics during times of turmoil. Thus, this study considered changes in appeals and strategies in print advertisements across two eras for the Latin American country: prewar (1981) and war (1982). With the advancement of the war efforts, results indicated that there were changes in (1) the tactical intent of the ads, (2) the nature of the advertiser, and (3) the products advertised. Additionally, our study shows that discursive strategies employed by advertisers were consistent with those emphasized by other media, such as television and print journalism.
... Así pues, el relato publicitario es "un discurso hegemónico, portador de ideología, al servicio de los intereses comerciales y, por tanto, determinado y determinante por y para el sistema" (García, 2015, p. 16). Teniendo en cuenta la actual situación de recesión económica que se inició en 2008 en España, la publicidad ha estado transmitiendo mensajes y valores acerca de la crisis y de cómo hacerle frente (Ahn, Song & Sung, 2011;Castelló-Martínez et al., 2013). ...
... Más allá del análisis de los efectos de la crisis sobre las estrategias publicitarias y de marketing, como los identificados en las empresas de finanzas y servicios financieros estadounidenses (Ahn, Song & Sung, 2011;Lee, Chung & Paik, 2011; o en la industria alimentaria griega (Notta & Vlachvei, 2015), la presente investigación se centra en aquellos análisis que exploran el significado cultural de la crisis. ...
Article
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Narratives of the Economic Crisis: National Neoliberalism in Spanish Advertising (2008-2017) Narrativas da crise econômica: o neoliberalismo nacional na publicidade espanhola (2008-2017) La publicidad, además de difundir discursos sobre productos y marcas, genera representaciones específicas de la sociedad. Teniendo en cuenta la crisis económica que atraviesa España desde 2008, esta investigación tiene como objetivo identificar cuáles son las narraciones que se han desarrollado acerca de dicha crisis en la publicidad española durante el periodo de 2008 a 2017. Mediante un cuestionario realizado a 45 profesionales del sector publicitario en España, se han identificado 31 spots que hacen referencia directa a la crisis. Estos spots han sido analizados mediante un análisis de contenido cualitativo inspirado en la semiótica narrativa. Los resultados muestran tres narrativas prototípicas dominantes que se articulan alrededor de dos ejes ideológicos: el nacionalismo y el neoliberalismo. No aparecen líneas argumentales acerca de las causas de la crisis ni de sus responsables y se traslada su solución a los ciudadanos, que deben salir de ella a través de cambios de tipo cognitivo y emocional, y ejerciendo la solidaridad con sus allegados. Aquellos elementos potencialmente críticos con el neoliberalismo son desactivados al enlazarse con los discursos de las élites políticas y económicas. Para citar este artículo / to reference this article / para citar este artigo Ruiz, F. X. y Sánchez-Sánchez, C. (2019). Narrativas de la crisis económica: el nacionalneoliberalismo en la publicidad española (2008-2017). Palabra Clave, 22(2), e2228. DOI: 10.5294/pacla.2019.22.2.8 Recibido: 05/03/2018 Aceptado: 06/11/2018
... d neatness) and the financial value (cheapness and convenience). Transformational ad- The recent financial crisis has determined changes in the advertising strategy of financial institutions in the USA. The number of financial ads declined significantly (32% between 2005 and 2008 in the USA) and informational appeals were more dominant than before (Ahn et. al. 2011;Lee et al. 2011 b). The use of financial value appeals increased significantly to the detriment of service quality (Lee et al. 2011 b). There was a shift to using prevention-focused appeals and away from promotion-focused appeals. Time expression was also emphasized in financial ads suggesting the future benefits of the product (Ahn et.a ...
... Regarding the first research question (RQ1), the most frequent advertising appeals were examined (Albers-Miller/Straughan 2000;Ahn et. al. 2011; in the case of loan products in each country, and then separately for the offers in Swiss franc. In Hungary 45 (29.4%) of the total loan offers were in CHF, while in Romania just 10 (8.9%) of all the loan products were related to CHF. However, in Romania the loan products in Euro were more popular, and the CHF loans were launched on the ...
Article
The main objective of this study is to determine social responsibility through social responsiveness in bank communication with costumers before the economic crisis in the case of Swiss franc loans in Hungary and Romania. A special method to measure responsiveness in banks’ advertisements was developed. In total, 679 unique print advertisements were analyzed out of 3,089 published between 2004 and 2007, through content-analysis. Unexpectedly, the results show that in Hungary the CHF loans ads' responsiveness is significantly higher than the non-CHF loans and that they are mostly proactive. In Romania this difference could not be seen, while also the reactive strategy dominates. Das Hauptziel der Studie liegt darin, ein Niveau der sozialen Verantwortung durch soziales Verhalten der Banken kommunikation gegenüber den Kunden bevor der Wirtschaftskrise gegenüber der Kredite in Schweizer Franken in Ungarn und Rumänien zu kommunizieren. Es wurde eine spezielle Methode entwickelt, das Verhalten der Banken anhand von deren In-formationsmaterial zu bestimmen. 679 spezielle schriftliche Informationen aus 3089 Vorgän-gen, die zwischen 2004 und 2007 stattfanden wurden inhaltlich analysiert. Es überrascht, dass die soziale Reaktion in Ungarn bezüglich der CHF-Kredite deutlich ausgeprägter war als auf nicht-CHF-Kredite. Dies drückt eine vorrangig proaktive Strategie aus. In Rumänien domi-niert die reaktive Strategie. Ein Unterschied zwischen CHF und nicht-CHF-Krediten konnte nicht nachgewiesen werden.
... RUNNING HEAD: War Advertising: Themes in Argentine Print Advertising During the Malvinas / Falklands War Looking back as far as the early 1900s, a number of studies have discussed the relationship between major events in American history and advertising (e.g. Ahn,Song, Sung 2011; Pollay 1985). In the 1940s, ads were shaped in response to war conditions. ...
... cheerful emotions) in the war era. These findings deserve further exploration, as previous studies suggested that during challenging socio-economic conditions the use of positive emotions decreased (Ahn & Mundel 2015; Ahn, Song, & Sung 2011; Pollay 1985). Furthermore, the risky market conditions triggered changes in the nature of the advertiser. ...
Conference Paper
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This study explores the extension of discursive war strategies to print advertisements in 1981 and 1982. A content analysis on newspaper advertising before and after the war supports the notion that advertisements reflect changes in market conditions. With the advancement of the war efforts, there was a change in (1) the tactical intent of the ads, (2) the nature of advertiser, and (3) products advertised. Additionally, our study show that the discursive strategies employed by advertisers were consistent with those emphasized by other media, such as television and print journalism.
... Since Potter's landmark article, a considerable numbers of studies have supported this claim in various contexts. These studies investigated the effects of the Great Depression on advertising , the relationship between socialist economic systems and advertising (Hanson 1974), the manifestation of Nigerian economy in advertising (Alozie 2005), the effect of recessions on advertising (Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011), and the effect of capitalism in Hong Kong on advertising (Wong 2000). ...
... This finding is consistent with the empirical evidences from developed countries. That is, the previous research has shown that depressed economic situations, such as Great Depression and World War II, resulted in the decreases in the use of ad appeals and emotional appeals but the increases in factual, simple tactics of ads (Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011;Pollay 1985). ...
Article
This study explores how the change of an economic policy affects advertising practices in Argentina. A content analysis of luxury brand ads placed in fashion magazines in Argentina was conducted to investigate changes in the ads in the wake of the import restrictions. The data supports the notion that some ads reflect societal changes. After the restrictions, ads were more likely to be factual, less likely to convey emotional messages, and ad appeals tended to be simple. Additionally, findings indicate that ads used different visual cues to evoke stronger exclusivity, luxuriousness, and global feelings. Ad components that are deeply rooted in local cultures, however, were not influenced by the restrictions.
... Autores como Ahn, Song, & Sung (2011) y Castelló, Ramos, & Del Pino (2013 constatan que, desde el inicio de la crisis económica, la publicidad ha estado transmitiendo mensajes y valores acerca de ésta y acerca de cómo hacerle frente. ...
Chapter
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El presente artículo desarrolla un análisis de impacto y modalidad de comunicación publicitaria del grupo de teatro Aquelarre de la Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi en los espacios públicos de la ciudad de Latacunga, el objetivo es identificar la participación de la comunidad en la producción y circulación de la información, además de reconocer las dinámicas particulares que promueven las obras teatrales, mediante el rescate de la memoria histórica y las formas en que fluye la comunicación publicitaria o de bien público, dicha práctica de expresión escénica puede ser referida como una alternativa de aplicación comunicacional en beneficio de la comunidad, es decir, genera un nuevo principio axiológico de conducta desarrollado a través de la vida cotidiana. El proyecto social que fue seleccionado generó una gran aceptación en la población de la ciudad de Latacunga, al mismo tiempo que se logró revalorizar la cultura y el estímulo a los valores a través del rescate de las tradiciones populares locales. La publicidad y su relación con el arte genera una disertación más justa y equitativa, en este sentido la investigación se basa en los presupuestos teóricos de reflexión establecidos por Juan Benavides Delgado, quien analiza a la publicidad como apoyo a la sociedad y como práctica comercial y María Cruz Alvarado, quien agrega que la finalidad publicitaria es servir a un proyecto social sin ánimos de lucro, además, se establece el contexto de la acción dramática en escena como una acción social y cultural.
... On the competitive market, even large and well-known banks solve a rather difficult task of retaining their positions in the market and preserving the effectiveness of their business. As a rule, the bank's management develops a few measures that would reduce costs and increase its market share for price competition (Ahn et al., 2011;Thalassinos et al., 2012;. ...
... ALT és szerzőtársai (2017) a 2008-as pénzügyi válság kapcsán kimutatták, hogy válsághelyzetben a bankok különböző kommunikációs stratégiákat, illetve stratégia-kombinációkat alkalmaznak: reaktív, védekező, alkalmazkodó és proaktív. A korábban bemutatott 13 érvről elmondható, hogy a válságok hatására azok relatív mennyisége növekszik a pénzügyi szolgáltatások hirdetéseiben, amelyek közül a biztonság, népszerűség és teljesítmény esetében szignifikáns változást mutattak ki (AHN et al., 2011). ...
... In a review of both financial services advertising and financial literacy literature, concern has mostly been focused on the presentation of information regarding investment options, suboptimal economic decisions by investors, and, more recently, ad disclosures by financial services (Lee, Chung, and Haley 2011), as well as changes in ad tactics before and during the economic crisis (Ahn, Song, and Sung 2011;Lee, Chung, and Taylor 2011). Research to date has focused very little on consumer preferences for ad appeals or effective messaging strategies in the financial services ad domain. ...
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Although using social norms has been effective in changing behaviors in various areas, including pro-environmental behavior, pro-health behavior, and financial decisions, possible gender differences in response to norm effects have seldom been tested. With an understanding of the orientation differences of genders, this research proposes that men and women will respond differently to social norm information varying in the proximity of reference groups and information valence, which are two core elements of social norm information. Two experiments are conducted to test for this proposition using social marketing advertising campaigns promoting pro-savings behavior. The findings provide theoretical implications for differential norm effects on gender and practical implications for social marketing campaigns that incorporate social norm information.
... Previous studies (Lord and Putrevu, 2009;Ahn et al, 2011;Fennis et al, 2012;Cui et al, 2013) have categorized advertising strategies into informational and transformational strategies. The notion of informational advertising strategy is based on the welldocumented information processing concepts (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). ...
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This study explores the role of advertising strategies (informational versus transformational) in consumers’ purchase intentions related to mutual funds. Moreover, this study investigates the possible moderating role of gender and financial literacy in advertising strategy. Findings of the experimental approach applied in this study suggest that advertisement strategy does influence investment intention related to the mutual funds. We also found that females are less likely to purchase mutual funds when exposed to transformational advertisements. Moreover, investors with higher financial literacy prefer informational advertisements. The results also indicate that the informational advertisements are more useful and increase awareness levels among investors.
... Some other more recently published studies focused on financial services advertising in the US (Ahn, Song, & Sung, 2011;Pontari, Stanaland, & Smythe, 2009) but none was found relating to the UK sector's advertising. Thus, there is a clear gap in research with a focus on UK financial services. ...
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This study investigates the effects of diurnal variation on immediate and delayed response (recall, recognition, and purchase intention) to television commercials. Results show that immediate recall and recognition decline across the day and the scores on delayed recognition of advertisements are significantly higher in the late afternoon than in the early morning. Time-of-day had no effect on response to the purchase intention measure. Results are attributed to diurnal rhythms in individual arousal.
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Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs is a widely discussed issue in health care. However, little is known about the characteristics of the motivational themes used in this type of advertising. The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent presentation of motivational themes in DTC print and television advertisements. The content analyses focused on advertisements of 2 targeted drug classes (cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme inhibitors and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors) in magazines and on television. Targeted print advertisements (for celecoxib, rofecoxib, atorvastatin, pravastatin, and simvastatin) from September to December 2001 and targeted television advertisements (for celecoxib, rofecoxib, and simvastatin) from November 2001 were investigated. The motivational themes were assessed using a theoretical framework based on self-regulatory focus theory and cultural orientation. Self-regulatory focus was examined in terms of goal orientation (promotion vs prevention) and emotional aspects, (e.g., cheerfulness, dejection, quiescence, agitation). The cultural orientation was examined in terms of individualism versus collectivism. The visual-verbal match was categorized as direct if the audio and visual information was semantically redundant, as partial if it was partially related, and as no match at all if it was different or conflicting. Twelve print advertisements in 10 magazines and 4 television advertisements on 4 television networks were examined; the interrater reliability scores from 3 independent, trained judges ranged from 0.93 to 0.99. The score was low (0.57) in the visual-verbal match measurement for television advertisements. Products in the same category appeared to be promoted using different self-regulatory foci. For example, celecoxib and atorvastatin advertisements tended to be promotion oriented, whereas pravastatin advertisements tended to be prevention oriented. Motivational themes were found throughout the print advertisements (e.g., pictures, headlines, main text). Only a few advertisements illustrated factual information about a product in a pictorial format. The cultural orientation of the advertisements was similar across brands, with individualistic appeals being common. On television, visual-verbal matches (either direct or partial matches) were generally found, except in the section where risk information was presented. In this content analysis, prescription drugs in the same class appeared to be promoted using different self-regulatory foci, but individualistic appeals were found more often than collectivistic appeals across brands.
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