Exploring the effects of mood states, cultural background, and the congruity between ad appeal and product type on consumers’ attitudes and purchasing intentions

This paper examines the interactive effects of mood, culture and message appeal (i.e., congruity/incongruity between ad appeals and product types). Two online experiments were conducted with 438 participants from both U.S. and China. All participants (i.e., Americans and Chinese) were randomly assigned to either a positive or negative mood condition and were asked to read either a greeting card ad (Study 1) or a household printer ad (Study 2) that contained either experiential or functional verbal claims. The results showed that people from different cultural backgrounds and in different mood states had different ad preferences. There were main effects of culture as well as main effects of ad congruity on persuasion outcomes. However, the three-way interaction of mood, culture and message appeals on persuasion outcomes was not significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in regard to how American and Chinese consumers in different mood states process different types of ad message appeal.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Advertising

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Shen, Doreen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sar, Sela

• Mood
• culture
• product type
• message appeal
• information processing
• incongruity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Doreen Shen

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101183

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101183