Empathetic responses to advertising: Testing a network of antecedents and consequences
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Empathetic responses to advertising: Testing a network of antecedents and consequences Todd A. Mooradian & Kurt Matzler & Lisa Szykman
Published online: 15 February 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract It has been proposed conceptually that viewers respond to certain advertisements via Empathetic Responses; that is, by feeling with depicted characters. Such deep viewer engagement is especially valued in today’s media environment and is central to dramatic advertising strategies. Nevertheless, Empathetic Responses remain relatively understudied. We situate Empathetic Responses within a model comprising high-level personality domains (within the “Big Five”), lower-level personality facets (multidimensional Trait Empathy), and Perceived Ad Vividness, all as antecedents, as well as consequent Ad-Evoked Feelings. Our findings clarify the composition and function of Empathetic Responses, adding to both basic and applied understandings. Keywords Advertising effects . Ad-evoked emotions . Personality . Empathy . Vividness
1 Introduction As clutter and media alternatives proliferate, as consumers’ ability to avoid and to select messages increases, and as the tracking of viewership to specific advertisements expands, advertisers are challenged to make advertising more engaging and to better connect with consumers (e.g., Hampp 2007; Hoggard 2006). One way advertisers are “breaking through” the clutter is the use of dramatic advertising strategies that engage the consumer emotionally (Elliott 2007; Ives 2004). For example, ESPN has blurred
T. A. Mooradian (*) : L. Szykman Mason School of Business, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA e-mail: [email protected] K. Matzler Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
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Market Lett (2008) 19:79–92
the distinction between advertisement and content with “ESPN Shorts,” 6-minute dramas shown in 90-second ‘episodes’ featuring sponsors’ products with dramatic storylines and characters (Ives 2004). The rapid growth of dramatic advertising strategies makes it increasingly important to understand the composition, causes, and consequences of consumers’ deeper and thereby more compelling responses to such content—that is, to better understand their Empathetic Responses. In the current research, we propose and test a model of consumer engagement with dramatic messages in which the person and the situation (i.e., the consumer and the ad), as well as their interaction, influence important advertising outcomes (feeling responses to ads). Such person-situation syntheses are common in attitudes and social psychology (see, e.g., Funder 2001) and in consumer research (e.g., Escalas et al. 2004). To extend basic and applied understandings of these crucial consumer responses to advertisements, we model Empathetic Responses as the essential, central node capturing the interaction of consumer differences (i.e., personality) and attributes of the advertisement (specifically, ad
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