Abstract
Digital advertising has been frequently used for the promotion of e-commerce among individuals. However, little is known about the function of cultural factors that can outline the effectiveness of digital advertising practices to alter attitude and consumer behavior toward clothing brands. This research examines how norm-congruent attitudes toward digital advertising (hereafter ADA) may operate as a process variable that mediates the relationship between perception about digital advertising (hereafter PDA) and online purchase intention of fashion brands (hereafter OPI). We propose a gender egalitarianism (hereafter GE)-moderated mediation model whereby ADA mediates the relationships between PDA and OPI in two culturally diverse nations: Malaysia and Pakistan. The model was tested by using 2 (GE appeal: present vs. absent) × 2 (nation: Pakistan vs. Malaysia) × 2 (no exposure to ads/exposure to ads) experimental design with data obtained from a sample of 260. Findings show that there is a significant difference in the relationship between PDA and OPI that is mediated by the attitude in both nations. However, the mediation implication of the attitude is significantly dependent on the interaction of the GE. In this way, the study provides some practical recommendations for the marketers by highlighting the salient advertising features that may be more useful in both nations.
Highlights
Tailoring advertising campaigns to local culture has more leeway for brands [1]
The separate descriptive analysis was conducted in two countries and both groups (Malaysia and Pakistan) comprising the sample (n = 260), while individually, each group contained half that number (n = 130)
The findings suggest that two Muslim nations, Pakistan and Malaysia, which are generally assumed as similar enough to practice the commonly standardized digital advertising, is not a workable strategy
Summary
Tailoring advertising campaigns to local culture has more leeway for brands [1]. This regionalization approach has its useful facets because cultural sensitivities vary from culture to culture [2,3]. The use of displaying the women models is quite common practice for clothing brands and at times disapproved by consumers owing to the culturally mismatched depiction of women [10]. From the standpoint of advertisers, gender is a prime segmentation variable in evolving digital advertising strategies [11] and in terms of detecting cultural patterns [12,13]. The overwhelming body of available work [17] in advertising focuses on standardization and advertising strategy standpoints without an explicit deliberation of the consumer response on egalitarianism norms from different Asian or Muslim markets
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