Mei-Ling Wei, Eileen Fischer, and Kelley J. Main
Executive Summary
Are people more likely to resist covert marketing appeals when they know that they are being used? In general, both those who use covert marketing, such as branded product placements, and those who attempt to help people cope with it assume that covert marketing is less effective if consumers suspect that it is being used. That is, it is assumed that triggering consumer awareness of an attempt at persuasion decreases the effectiveness of covert marketing. However, there has been little direct examination of the extent to which awareness of persuasion attempts actually affects the way consumers respond to brands engaged in covert marketing. This article presents three experimental studies that investigate the effects of activated knowledge about covert marketing on consumer evaluations of brands and media in which they are embedded. The findings indicate that disclosures of covert marketing can indeed diminish consumer evaluations; however, these effects are attenuated if brands are familiar and if tactics are viewed as appropriate. Further evidence indicates a condition under which disclosures can actually have a positive effect on consumer evaluations.
Biography
Mei-Ling Wei is an assistant professor in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. Her work has been presented at the Society for Consumer Psychology and the Association for Consumer Research.
Eileen Fischer is Professor of Marketing and Anne and Max Tanenbaum Chair in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise in the Schulich School of Business at York University. Her work has been published in such outlets as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Venturing, and Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice.
Kelley J. Main is an assistant professor and F. Ross Johnson Fellow in Marketing in the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba. Her work has been published in Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. She is grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for generous research funding.
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 27, No. 1, Spring 2008
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