About AMA

Executive Summary
Increasingly, brands sponsor online communications that do not identify their source as a way to break through advertising clutter and to circumvent consumer cynicism toward traditional advertising. However, the use of covert tactics may counteract efforts to develop emotional relationships with consumers in an effort to combat shrinking margins and commoditization of products. This research was designed to increase the understanding of the effects of covert marketing efforts on consumer–brand relationships. The article includes the results of two lab studies of student responses to NoScruf.org, an authentic covert marketing effort from Porter Novelli on behalf of Gillette shaving products (Procter & Gamble, consumer packaged goods/personal products). The results indicate that knowledge of Gillette’s covert action decreased trust, commitment, and repurchase intentions among Gillette brand users. Furthermore, the results indicate that this effect was strongest among emotionally attached brand users, who suffered a greater loss in brand trust and brand commitment than consumers with weaker emotional ties to the brand. Thus, using covert marketing campaigns to overcome challenges with advertising may be done at the expense of the strongest consumer–brand relationships. Given the potential for loss of trust and commitment in an environment in which brand relationships hold high value, brand marketers may have an incentive to discontinue covert marketing efforts without policy intervention. That is good news for policy makers who want to avoid interfering with market forces and who are challenged by the mere idea of monitoring and controlling communications, especially given the vast domain of the Internet. Alternatively, marketers could go to greater lengths to cover their tracks, which could have important implications for policy and consumer welfare.

Biography
Christy Ashley (PhD, University of Rhode Island 2006) is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the College of Business at East Carolina University. Her research interests include consumer engagement, advertising creativity, and consumer–brand relationships. She also has research forthcoming in Journal of Advertising.

Hillary A. Leonard is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the College of Business at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Leonard earned her PhD in Marketing from University of Utah. Her areas of research include consumer culture theory, consumer behavior, and public policy and marketing. Dr. Leonard has published in Journal of Public Policy & Marketing and Journal of Business Research. She has presented at the Marketing and Public Policy Conference, the Association for Consumer Research North America and European Conferences, and the Consumer Culture Theory Conference.

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Volume 28, Number 2, Fall 2009
View Table of Contents

Member Comments (0):

To rate or comment on articles, you must be a logged in AMA member. Click here to join