Unlike previous research, the present work focuses on how to reduce consumer skepticism and increase corporate social responsibility(CSR)communications. This authors mainly make an analysis of how to override the advertising skepticism by the aid of images and claim concreteness.According to the research led by the authors, the results shows that consumers who have high skepticism towards advertising would show less supports than these who have low skepticism towards advertising.
Advertising skepticism leads consumers to dislike advertising appeals and predictive validity studies uncover that highly skeptical consumers are less likely dependent on and exposed to advertising because they can believe that advertising is not real and they can’t agree with the content of advertising. Additional studies also prove that highly skeptical consumers believe emotional ads over information ads.
Then, the authors introduce that the combination of claim concreteness and images consolidate the truthiness of advertising and reduce the advertising skepticism of consumers. The present work conducts an exploration for the reasons why ad skepticism has associated with the concrete claims. At the same time, the article gives consumers some insight and makes the audiences learn that the reason why customers have high skepticism towards advertising because these customers have weaker ability to visualize the concrete claims involved in advertising. Based on conceptual model and studies, the authors note that the combination of concrete claims and images consolidates the credibility of advertising and reduce ad skepticism.
In order to test these hypotheses, the authors distinctively explore the effects of images to support the claim concreteness. In Study 1, the authors make analysis of 519 US consumers, consisting of about 290 females and 420 Caucasians. With the aim to ensure the accuracy of results, the authors evaluate the measurement model and implement the two-factor model. In addition, the authors conduct a three-step hierarchical regression analysis and find that the three-way interaction was significant on attitude toward the ads and also affects consumers’ intentions to purchase products.
Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the significance of images on overriding the advertising skepticism. In Study 2, the authors conduct an analysis of 201 US consumers, including 92 female and 160 Caucasians. Like in Study 1, the Study 2 depends on measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis to test the relationship between ad skepticism and trait visualization ability. By using structural equation modeling, the Study 2 reveals that CSR activities that contain images would be favored by consumers who have high skepticism because of the ability to visualize advertising claims.
According to the two studies, the authors prove that ad skepticism can be decreased and a company’s CSR initiatives can be promoted if the claim concreteness of the advertising is coupled with the presence of images.The Study 1 finds that claim concreteness, coupled with images, can reduce consumers’ ad skepticism. Then, the Study 2 tests the explanation for why the presence of images add impacts on consumers’ response to advertising promotion a company’s CSR initiatives due to the capacity to visualize advertising claims. Generally speaking, these studies give some insights to companies for how to promote their CRS initiatives, achieve their goals and affect customers’ intentions.
In essence, this article provides a particular perspective to think of how advertising brings impacts on consumers’ purchasing intention. Most of us prefer to focus on the relationship between advertising and consumer’s purchasing intention. While we likely ignore the content of advertising. The content of advertising adds great impacts on consumer’s feeling. Consumers would hold advertising skepticism and can’t believe the truth of advertising. As a result, CSR communication would not reach its goal to promote the products.
Therefore, companies need to make some changes for the forms of communications to capture consumer’s attention. For these consumers who have high skepticism, the companies should generate the proper content to meet their needs and provide meaningful insights into how to make these consumers who have high skepticism believe the promotion led by advertising. The combination of verbal and visual advertising element should be prioritized into override advertising skepticism.
Then, as noted in the article, visualization play an essential role in eliminating advertising skepticism. So, companies need to make efforts to improve the ability to visualize the concrete claims with the aim to produce more favorable attitude towards advertising and eventually make more consumers believe that advertising is real. Besides, CSR communication aims to minimize stakeholder skepticism and trigger intrinsic motives to purchase the companies’ products.
When companies conduct the advertising to convict skeptical consumers through CSR communication, they should focus on the visualization of advertising claims. Otherwise, these skeptical consumers would not believe that these advertising is real and then these CSR communication activities will bring negative impacts on the CSR initiatives and give a bad impression to consumers. Even, these negative impacts would misguide consumers’ behavior and threaten the public image and public relations with stakeholders, like consumers, employee and partners. As a result, it is necessary for a company pay much attention to the visualization of concrete claims involved in advertising
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