The Understanding of Sad Appeal in Emotional Advertisement among Audiences in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Mohd Shahnawi Muhmad Pirus, Sara Yazmin Zulqahar

Abstract


The rise in emotional advertising comes at a time when brands are making every effort in creating contents rather than just making advertisements. The aim of this study is related to advertisements that contain sad emotional appeals, and its impact on the viewers and their purchasing decisions. The research methodology of qualitative method and phenomenological approach were applied. The data of this study was then collected by conducting in-depth interview. The data from the interview session was transcribed verbatim to ensure the words and sentences are transcribed accordingly. The findings discuss the attitude shown by the audiences towards the emotional contents in advertisements. The attitude shown by the audiences was observed closely on their reactions after watching advertisements that contains emotional appeals; particularly sad appeals. In point of fact, this research has managed to reveal on the pattern involved among advertisement audiences in navigating the content from advertisements with emotional appeals. This study is predominantly a study of emotional advertisements; Sadvertisement, as catchy as it sounds, as a popular culture terminology that describes an advertising trend for consumers in which advertisers are using a certain set of game plan to jockey on people's emotions and galvanise feelings of sadness, melancholy or wistfulness. The study adheres to the idea of a growing number of emotional advertisements and its effect on the advertisement audiences.

 

Keywords: Advertising, emotional advertisement, sad appeal, emotional appeal, attitude.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Aaker, D. A. (1996). Building stong brands. Free Press.

Akgün, A., Keskin, H., Ayar, H., & Erdoğan, E. (2015). The influence of storytelling approach in travel writings on readers’ empathy and travel intentions. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 577-586.

Albers‐Miller, N., & Stafford, M. (1999). An international analysis of emotional and rational appeals in services vs goods advertising. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 16, 42-57.

Argo, J. J., Zhu, R., & Dahl, D. W. (2008). Fact or fiction: An investigation of empathy differences in response to emotional melodramatic entertainment. Journal of Consumer Research, 614–623.

Aristotle. (1926). Rhetoric (Vol. 22; J. Freese, Trans.). Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

Bailey, J. (2008). First steps in qualitative data analysis: transcribing. Family Practice, 25(2), 127–131.

Baker, W., Hutchinson, J., Moore, D., & Nedungadi, P. (1986). Brand familiarity and advertising: Effects on the evoked set and brand preference. Advances in Consumer Research, 637-642.

Baron, R. A., & Byrne, D. (1997). Social psychology. US: Allyn and Bacon.

Bodenhausen, G., Sheppard, L., & Kramer, G. (1994). Negative affect and social judgment: The differential impact of anger and sadness. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45-62.

Bolatito, O. (2012). Linkage between persuasion principles and advertising. New Media and Mass Communication, 2224-3275.

Brehmer, B. (1988). Human judgment the SJT view. Advances in Psychology, 13-40.

Brown, M. (2009). Should my advertising stimulate an emotional response?. New York: American Association of Advertising Agencies. Retrieved from http://www.aaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy-pdfs/Millward%20Brown%20-%20Should%20My%20Advertising%20Stimulate%20an%20Emotional%20Response%20-%202009.pdf

Carnevale, M., Yucel‐Aybat, O., & Kachersky, L. (2017). Meaningful stories and attitudes toward the brand: The moderating role of consumers' implicit mindsets. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 17(1), e78-e89.

Caudle, S. (2010). Qualitative Data Analysis. In J. Wholey, H. Hatry, & K. Newcomer (Eds.), Handbook of practical program evaluation (pp. 417-437). John Wiley & Sons.

Chaudhuri, A., & Holbrook, M. (2001). The chain of effects from brand trust and brand affect to brand performance: The role of brand loyalty. Journal of Marketing, 81-93.

Choi, Y., & Lee, J.-G. (2012). The persuasive effects of character presence and product type on responses to advergames. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 503-506.

Cohen, J., & Areni, C. (1991). Affect and consumer behavior. Handbook of Consumer Behavior, 188-240.

Department of Prime Minister Malaysia. (2010, January 28). Government transformation proggramme: The roadmap. Putrajaya: Unit Pengurusan Prestasi Dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU), Department of Prime Minister Malaysia.

DiMauro, V., & Bulmer, D. (2010). Social media’s role in decision making by business professionals. Society for New Communications Research.

Escalas, J. E., & Stern, B. B. (2003). Sympathy and empathy: Emotional responses to advertising dramas. Journal of Consumer Research, 566–578.

Farrell, B. G. (2018). FAMILY the making of an idea, an institution, and a controversy in American culture. New York: Routledge.

Fog, K., Budtz, C., Munch, P., & Blanchette, S. (2010). Storytelling - Branding in Practice (2nd Ed.). Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L. A. (2011). Who are the social media influencers?. A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90-92.

Friestad, M., & Thorson, E. (1986). Emotion-eliciting advertising: Effects on long term memory and judgment. Advances in Consumer Research, 13, 111-116.

Gustafson, T., & Chabot, B. (2007). Brand awareness. Cornell Maple Bulletin.

Heath, R. (2007). Emotional Persuasion in advertising: A hierarchy-of-processing model. School of Management Working Paper Series, 1-52.

Herskovitz, S., & Crystal, M. (2010). The essential brand persona: storytelling and branding. Journal of Business Strategy, 31(3), 21-28.

Hoffman, M. L. (1984). Interaction of affect and cognition in empathy. In C. E. Izard, J. Kagan, & R. B. Zajonc (Eds.), Emotions, cognition, and behavior (p. 620). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hoffmann, M. (2007). Academic’s dictionary of mass communication. New Delhi: Academic (India) Publishers.

Holbrook, M., & O'Shaughnessy, J. (1984). The role of emotion in advertising. Psychology & Marketing, 45–64.

Hoyer, W., & Brown, S. (1990). Effects of brand awareness on choice for a common, repeat-purchase product. Journal of Consumer Research, 141-148.

Jean, B., & Burton, S. (2011). Towards a better understanding of factors affecting transfer of brand associations. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 57-66.

Jensen, R. (1999). The dream society: How the coming shift from information to imagination will transform your business. USA: McGraw Hill Professional.

Kalachyova N. S. (2011). Types of advertising.

Kenechukwu S. A., Asemah, E. S., & Edegoh, L. O. N. (2013). Behind advertising: The language of persuasion. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 951-959.

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (1994). Principles of marketing. US: Prentice Hall.

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2013). Principles of marketing. London, UK: Pearson.

Lean, M. L. (2011). A visual analysis of festive television commercials in Malaysia. Multilingua, 305-317.

Len, T. W., Millman, C., & Martin, L. M. (2010). Research issues in building brand equity and global brands in the PC market. Journal of Marketing Management, 137-155.

Lester, S. (1999). An introduction to phenomenological research. Stan Lester Developments.

Lin, L. C. (2009). Data management and security in qualitative research. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 132-137.

Macdonald, E., & Sharp, B. (1996). Management perceptions of the importance of brand awareness as an indication of advertising effectiveness. Marketing Research On-Line, 1-15.

Macdonald, E., & Sharp, B. (2000). Brand awareness effects on consumer decision making for a common, repeat purchase product: A replication. Journal of Business Research, 5-15.

Macdonald, S. (2015, December 17). 7 feel-good examples of 'joy marketing' campaigns. Retrieved from Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/joy-marketing-campaigns

Malik, M. E., Ghafoor, M. M., Iqbal, H. K., Riaz, U., Hassan, N., & Mustafa, M. (2013). Importance of brand awareness and brand loyalty in assessing purchase. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 167-171.

Mattila, A. S. (1999). Do emotional appeals work for services? International Journal of Service Industry Management, 10, 292-307.

Mccormack, K. (2014). Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: The Benefits of Aristotelian rhetoric in the courtroom. Washington University Jurisprudence Review, 7(1).

McMahon, C. (2017, December 25). How evergreen, tearjerker Christmas ads tap into our 'primal programming'. thejournal.ie. Retrieved from http://www.thejournal.ie/christmas-ads-secret-2-3759875-Dec2017/

Mehta, A., & Purvis, S. (1995). When attitudes towards advertising in general influence advertising success.

Melgar, L., & Elsner, R. (2016). A review of advertising in the 21st century. International Journal of Business Administration.

Meyers-Levy, J., & Malaviya, P. (1999). Consumers’ processing of persuasive advertisements: An integrative framework of persuasion theories. Journal of Marketing, 45–60.

Miles, M., Huberman, A., & Saldaña, J. (2013). Qualitative data analysis. UK: SAGE.

Mitchell, A. A., & Olson, J. C. (2000). Are product attribute beliefs the only mediator of advertising effects on brand attitude?. Advertising & Society Review, 318–332.

Mogaji, E. (2015). This advert makes me cry: Disclosure of emotional response to advertisement on Facebook. Cogent Business & Management.

Moore, D. J., & Homer, P. M. (2008). Self-brand connections: The role of attitude strength and autobiographical memory primes. Journal of Business Research, 707-714.

Morgan, G., & Smircich, L. (1980). The case for qualitative research. Academy of Management Review.

Motoki, K., & Sugiura, M. (2018). Disgust, sadness, and appraisal: Consumers dislike food more than sad ones. Frontiers in Psychology.

O’Barr, W. M. (2006). Advertising and Christmas. Advertising & Society Review, 7(3).

Puccinelli, N., Wilcox, K., & Grewal, D. (2013). When your ads can hurt your brand: Sadness and consumers’ negative response to highly energetic positive stimuli. Columbia Business School Research Archive.

ReadWriteThink. (2009). Persuasive techniques in advertising. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/

Richards, J. I., & Curran, C. M. (2012). Oracles on “advertising”: Searching for a definition. Journal of Advertising, 63-77.

Richards, L., & Morse, J. (2012). README FIRST for a user's guide to qualitative methods. UK: SAGE.

Roozen, I. (2011). The impact of emotional appeal and the media context on the effectiveness of commercials for not-for-profit and for-profit brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 198-214.

Roth, G. (2008). Personality, decision and behavior. Stuttgart, Germany: Klett-Cotta.

Sasmita, J., & Suki, N. M. (2015). Young consumers’ insights on brand equity: Effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 276-292.

Schwandt, T. A. (1997). Qualitative inquiry: A dictionary of terms. UK: SAGE Publications.

Seers, K. (2012). Qualitative data analysis. Evidence-Based Nursing.

Shrimp, T. A. (1981). Attitudes towards the ad as a mediator towards consumer brand choice. Journal of Advertising, 9-15.

Siddiqui, A. N. (2014). TV ads impact on consumer purchase intention. International Conference on Marketing.

Sinclair, S., Beamer, K., Hack, T. F., McClement, S., Bouchal, S. R., & Chochinov, H. M. (2017). Sympathy, empathy, and compassion: A grounded theory study of palliative care patients’ understandings, experiences, and preferences. Palliative Medicine, 437–447.

Small, D. A., & Verrochi, N. M. (2009). The face of need: Facial emotion expression on charity advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research, 46, 777-787.

Steensma, D. P. (2015). Key opinion leaders. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 33(28).

Subhani, M. I., & Osman, A. (2011). A study on the association between brand awareness and consumer/brand. South Asian Journal of Management Sciences, 11-23.

Techopedia Inc. (2018). Sadvertising. Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30252/sadvertising

Triandis, H. C. (2018). Individualism and collectivism. New York: Routledge.

Tsai, W.-H., & Men, L. (2013). Motivations and antecedents of consumer engagement with brand pages on social networking sites. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 76–87.

Tsang, M. M. Ho, S. C., & Liang, T. P. (2014). Consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising: An empirical study. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 65-78.

Voorveld, H. A., Noort, G., Muntinga, D., & Bronner, F. (2018). Engagement with social media and social media advertising: The differentiating role of platform type. Journal of Advertising, 38-54.


Refbacks



e-ISSN: 2289-1528