Browsing by Author "Drummond, Mark"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A quantitative analysis of Augmented Reality visual merchandising on online purchase intention: A consumer neuroscience approach
    (2022) Abbott, Lara Elizabeth; Pillay, Pragasen; Rosenstein, David; Drummond, Mark
    The rapid evolution of e-commerce has led retailers to fixate on how to differentiate themselves and provide an enhanced and engaging experience for their customers. In this dynamic industry, emerging technologies and innovation have become crucial for maintaining a competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to explore how newer methods of visual merchandising can influence consumer purchase intentions, paying particular attention to Augmented Reality (AR) and how its inclusion in the online shopping industry could mark a pivotal change. The study addresses present difficulties in online retail such as the lack of touch and feel aspect, customer uncertainty and cart abandonment. It is proposed herein that Augmented Reality as a visual merchandising technique will mitigate these difficulties and allow South African online retail to grow in accordance with global standards. Given the recent developments in online retail in South Africa due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is an opportune moment to investigate consumers and invest in meeting their ever-changing needs, enhancing their experiences, and formulating insight-driven digital marketing strategies. This paper serves to break new ground in nascent AR literature within the field of market research, and particularly in the South African and Neuroscience context. By examining the real-time Emotion and Attention of respondents using Neuroscience technology, this study provides a practical approach for marketing executives to optimize their customers' online experience and thus drive conversion rates. The objectivity of neuroscience methods presented more reliable, evidence-driven insights by accessing unconscious consumer responses that complement traditional measures. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a robust and frequently used model for new technology adoption and the Model of Emotion Regulation were also used, providing the explicit measures for the study. Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness and Purchase Intention were all rated favorably, indicating a positive likelihood of AR adoption by the South African market. The positive feedback regarding Purchase Intention is also a significant finding given it has proven previously to be an indicator of actual buying behaviour. Higher levels of arousal in the AR group present a promising indication of the consumers' cognition of the product and ultimately its impact on the consumer decision making process. Therefore, this study suggests the incorporation of AR into marketing strategies to remain successful in a dynamic retail environment.
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    Implicit and explicit attitudes: an examination of the efficacy of anti-sugar public health campaigns
    (2022) Kaplan, Michael; Chohan, Raeesah; Rosenstein, David; Drummond, Mark
    The current obesity epidemic is prevalent, and its potential growth is concerning. Moreover, obesity-inducing food products have become more accessible to consumers, with increases in sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption necessitating SSB-related taxation. The purpose of this study is to examine whether social-marketing efforts, in the form of an anti-sugar public health campaign (PHC), influence consumer attitudes toward SSBs. In this context, one's self-reported attitude (ie, conscious, explicit attitude) may not accurately reflect one's ‘true' attitude (ie, subconscious, implicit attitude). Therefore, the focus of this study concerns consumers' explicit and implicit attitudes toward SSBs. There are three core objectives of this study: to determine whether anti-sugar PHCs influence consumers' (1) explicit and (2) implicit attitudes toward SSBs, and (3) to determine whether changes in explicit attitudes mediate changes in implicit attitudes, and vice-versa. To examine the efficacy of an anti-sugar PHC, this quantitative and causal research adopts a pre- and post-test control group design. Prior to, and following exposure to an anti-sugar PHC, young adult consumers' explicit attitudes were assessed through self-report surveys, and their implicit attitudes assessed using neuromarketing-based evaluative priming tasks (EPTs). Data were analysed using a combination of paired sample t-tests and structural equation modelling (SEM). This study provides evidence that anti-sugar PHCs influence consumers' explicit and implicit attitudes toward SSBs, and that changes in explicit attitudes mediate changes in implicit attitudes, and vice-versa. Specifically, following exposure to the anti-sugar PHC, less favourable explicit and implicit attitudes toward SSBs demonstrates the usefulness of considering explicit and implicit attitudes when designing and implementing PHCs. The study contributes to the Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) model, through the lens of dual-process theory (DPT), by bridging the gap between PHC research and implicit consumer cognition. This study contributes to practice by advocating for marketers' application of neuromarketing techniques in evaluating campaign effectiveness, such as implicit attitudinal measures. Further, this study contributes to policymaker practices by highlighting the effectiveness of anti-sugar PHCs as a supplementary or complementary tool in addressing the obesity epidemic and enhancing societal wellbeing and health.
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    Quantifying the Impact of Message Framing on Consumer Attitudes Towards the Consumption of Meat Products in Cape Town: A Consumer Neuroscience Approach
    (2021) Zunckel, Caitlin; Pillay, Pragasen; Rosenstein, David; Drummond, Mark
    Is it more effective to evoke negative emotions in social advertisements than positive emotions? This study compared positive and negative message framing strategies in social marketing advertisements that aimed to encourage a reduction in meat consumption. This project explored how each strategy influences consumers' attitudes toward the recommended behaviour and investigated the role of emotional and attentional responses to each message framing strategy. The purpose of this research was to determine whether negatively framed messages are more effective than positively framed messages in influencing consumers' attitudes, emotions, and attention. The motivation of the study was to provide formative research for the design of social marketing interventions to effectively influence consumers' attitudes towards advertised causes with the use of message framing, and to advance theoretical understanding of how consumers respond to social marketing interventions. Furthermore, this research attempted to resolve differences between results obtained in previous framing research in the social marketing context. This study uniquely proposed the use of cutting-edge consumer neuroscience techniques to develop a clearer understanding of consumers' emotional and attentional responses to social marketing advertisements. The results were presented from a mixed-method approach, which combined quantitative and qualitative research methods. An experiment was conducted by using two social marketing print advertisements aimed at encouraging a reduction in meat consumption, by highlighting the impact of consuming meat products on animal welfare. Respondents involved in the experiment viewed an advertisement that was either positively framed or negatively framed. The research applied self-reporting methods, as well as consumer neuroscience methods, including facial coding, galvanic skin response (GSR), and eye-tracking, to explore the proposed research framework. The combination of these methods allowed the collection of data on attitudinal, emotional, and attentional responses. The results of this research demonstrated that negatively framed advertisements are more effective in changing consumers' attitudes towards reducing meat consumption than positively framed advertisements. Thus, messages aimed at encouraging a reduction in consumption should highlight the negative consequences of participating in certain behaviours. Neither emotion nor attention were found to mediate the relationship between message framing and attitude. However, positively framed advertisements elicit significantly higher levels of emotional valence; and negatively framed advertisements elicit significantly higher levels of disgust and attention. Social marketers should, therefore, leverage these feelings of disgust; and they should implement negative framing strategies to increase the attention paid to an advertisement. However, educational social marketing interventions should be considered, in combination with negative message framing, to effectively influence consumers' attitudes towards social issues. These findings have provided research for better developing message framing strategies for the communication of sustainable consumption. Furthermore, these strategies contributed to the existing social marketing literature by addressing the lack of information on marketing efforts aimed at reducing meat consumption. This research also filled important gaps in the literature regarding positive versus negative message framing strategies, and social marketing interventions can now be implemented with an increased understanding of how consumers respond to different message framing strategies.
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    The Effects of Native Advertising Disclosure and Advertising Recognition on Perceptions of News Story and News Website Credibility: A Consumer Neuroscience Approach
    (2021) Mule, Jessica Loko; Pillay, Pragasen; Rosenstein, David; Drummond, Mark
    The use of Native Advertising has sparked ethical concerns, due to its controversial nature inherent in its definition - a paid form of advertising that disguises persuasive communications as the editorial content of the publishing media outlet. The growing popularity of Native Advertising practices over the past decade in online news publishing has contributed towards the increasingly blurred lines between commercial and editorial content which in turn engenders feelings of deception in consumers and threatens to lower the trustworthiness of news publishers as an objective source. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to undertake theory testing guided by the tenets of the Persuasion Knowledge Model [PKM] (Friestad & Wright, 1994) to uncover insights on whether disclosure serves as an effective measure in publishers' efforts of mitigating the potential of consumer deception. In particular, this study investigated the relationships between: (1) effect of disclosure label positioning on advertising recognition; (2) mediating influence of visual attention on the aforementioned relationship; and (3) effect of advertising recognition on Inference of Manipulation [IMI] and perceptions of the online news publishers' credibility. The study used a quantitative multi-methodology research approach. An innovative Neuromarketing approach was undertaken through a psychophysiological-based analysis of visual attention to disclosure, measured as Fixation (ms/m) using eye-tracking technology, in addition to self-reported measures obtained via an online survey. In line with similar past studies, this study used convenience non-probability sampling and random assignment of participants to experimental groups, on a sample of 87 students between the ages of 20-29 years from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Findings showed no significant difference in the likelihood of advertising recognition, neither between the groups presented with a disclosure and those not, nor between the varying positions of disclosure. Additionally, advertising recognition had a positive influence on perceptions of credibility, contrary to theory and evidence from past studies (described in the Literature Review). Thus, it was concluded that disclosure and advertising recognition are necessary antecedents for critical processing and formation of judgement, but by themselves are not sufficient for perceived transparency and subsequent evaluations of the publisher's credibility. This study presents design implications for practitioners in the online news publishing industry and marketers: the perceived utility of the sponsored content, along with sponsorship transparency through disclosure, plays an important role in minimizing the negative influence of advertising recognition on perceived credibility.