Investigating the nexus between the types of advertising messages and customer engagement: Do customer involvement and generations matter?

Abstract

Through the theoretical lenses of the Elaboration likelihood model, this research develops an experimental study to examine the cause-and-effect relationship of two advertising message types, drawn from the two routes of persuasion (peripheral route and central route), on consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs) and its three key behavioral types of customer engagement, namely, consuming, contributing, and creating. The moderating effect of generations and the mediating role of personal relevance (involvement) were investigated in the proposed research model. Drawing on a sample of 202 students from a University in North Cyprus, the results of the study revealed that consumer engagement level differs between the two message types, in particular, when the cognitive copy ad is shown, the three COBRA engagement levels tend to be higher than when the emotional copy is given. The findings indicate different levels of personal relevance between the two messages with higher involvement in the cognitive appeal. Further, consumer generation served as a moderator in the study, and that people from generations X, Y, and Z evaluated the advertising stimulus differently. The findings of this research extend the literature with theoretical and managerial contributions to social media marketing.