Imagery Fluency Research Articles

The visual effects of emoji in social media travel sharing on user engagement

Emojis in social media travel sharing are an effective tool for enhancing emotional expression or promoting semantic interpretation. However, the visual appeal of emojis as small icons remains uncertain. This study shows that using facial emojis in desirability travel sharing enhances tourists' visual attention and social media engagement. In contrast, using non-facial emojis in feasibility travel sharing leads to more effective visual attention and social media engagement. These relationships are mediated by imagery fluency and influenced differently depending on the emoji's position within a sentence (mid-sentence vs. end of sentence). Our research contributes to the study of emojis' visual appeal by providing a theoretical explanation of how and why the interaction effects of emoji visual types and travel sharing content occur. This study also offers practical implications for how tourists, travel marketers, and social media platforms can use emojis appropriately to increase engagement.

Effect of advertisement focus on donation intention

ABSTRACT This study examined whether different types of focus in donation advertisements affected potential donors’ mental imagery fluency and donation intention. Construal level theory was employed in the research framework to explore how fundraising period and advertisement focus (process or outcome) affect consumers’ mental imagery fluency and donation intention. Participants recruited from a marketing research company panel were asked to read process- or outcome-focused donation advertisements and answer questionnaires. The mental imagery of some participants was assessed in a product design scenario. This study revealed that consumers’ construal level was likely to affect their mental imagery fluency in terms of imagining how raised funds are used; this in turn affected their donation intention. Furthermore, individuals’ imagination visual mental imagery affected their donation intention. This study fills a gap in the literature related to advertisement focus and provides a valuable reference for those designing advertising campaigns for charitable organizations.

Short video marketing and travel intentions: The interplay between visual perspective, visual content, and narration appeal

Social media short videos represent a powerful tool for tourism destination promotion. However, little research has investigated their effect on tourist travel intentions. Drawing on the construal level theory and the elaboration likelihood model, this study investigates the interactive effects between visual and verbal framing of promotional tourism short video on travel intention through two scenario-based experiments. Study 1 examined the interaction effect between visual perspective and visual content. The results indicated that the match between first-person (versus third-person) perspective and activity-centric (versus site-centric) content fosters higher travel intention through enhancing imagery fluency. Study 2 further examined the moderating role of narration message appeal and revealed that first-person perspective with activity-centric content leads to higher travel intention when paired with rational (versus emotional) narration messages, with affect intensity playing a significant mediating role. These findings contribute to knowledge on short video marketing and provide valuable insights for tourism marketers.

The role of need for cognition in consumers' mental imagery: a study of retail brand's Instagram

PurposeDrawn from the concepts of processing fluency and mental imagery, the present study aims to fill the void by developing the mechanism underlying consumers' cognitive processing of visually appealing digital content in social media (i.e. Instagram) of retail brands.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered using a web-based survey method with consumers residing in the USA (N = 328). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to investigate the proposed hypotheses. In addition, measurement invariance and multigroup analyses were conducted to test the moderation effect of need for cognition (NFC).FindingsThe results supported the pivotal role of mental imagery when consumers process visual messages in the context of a retail brand's Instagram. Both comprehension fluency and imagery fluency positively influence mental imagery, which in turn cultivates positive attitude towards the brand. The mediating role of mental imagery is confirmed. Furthermore, individuals' NFC interacts with imagery fluency but not with comprehension fluency such that high NFC strengthens the effect of imagery fluency on mental imagery. That is, when high-NFC consumers process information on Instagram, their perceptions of ease of generating imagery likely evoke visual representation of the brand's messages on Instagram in their minds.Practical implicationsThis research provides feasible ways for brands to increase the effectiveness of digital marketing communications in social media (e.g. optimising of the contextual features of visual information and employing interactive features such as filters of social media to enhance processing fluency).Originality/valueWithin the context of digital retailing, this study provides a new perspective of consumers' imagery processing to investigate the effectiveness of visual-focussed messages.

More fluency of the mental imagery, more effective?

PurposeFear appeals in advertising communication are considered by advertisers when other types of advertising appeals do not achieve expected effects. Fear appeals, by arousing the fear that something may threaten consumers’ present lives, are often adopted to persuade individuals to take a particular action. Although this topic has been widely studied, the internal operation mechanism of fear appeals in consumers has not been fully understood or agreed upon.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments were conducted where the type of fear appeal was manipulated (i.e. physical fear appeal or social ear appeal), as well as consumers’ consideration of future consequences (CFC) and mental imagery approaches.FindingsThis study examined the effects of fear appeal on mental imagery fluency and how it affects advertising effectiveness and the moderating effect of consumers’ CFC were discussed. When receiving advertisements with physical fear appeals, consumers with low CFC had greater mental imagery fluency than did those with high CFC. Furthermore, consumers’ purchase intentions could be improved by increasing consumers’ mental imagery fluency on fear appeal. Therefore, the interaction between fear appeal and CFC on purchase intention was mediated by mental imagery fluency. This study found that consumers responded differently to fear appeal advertising when they engaged in different mental imagery approaches.Originality/valueThe present study adds to social marketing literature by showing how consumers’ mental imagery fluency influence the fear appeal effectiveness, and this study’s results also enable social marketers to understand the two factors (i.e. consumers’ CFC level and mental imagery approaches) that affect the influence of fear appeals on consumers’ purchase intentions. Moreover, social marketers are recommended to provide consumers with advertising information by using various message types to facilitate consumers’ imagination of advertising appeals. This heightens the importance of consumers’ acceptance and absorption of advertising content, in turn, strengthening their purchase intentions.

The Effects of Dynamic Product Presentation and Contextual Backgrounds on Consumer Purchase Intentions: Perspectives from the Load Theory of Attention and Cognitive Control

Dynamic imagery (e.g., frozen motion images) is widely used in high-imagery ads to enhance consumer engagement. However, little is known as to whether and how product presentation dynamism influences the effectiveness of ads with other visual stimuli. Given that different visual elements compete for finite attentional resources, this article proposes that product presentation dynamism interacts with contextual backgrounds and advertising slogans in a visual ad. Study 1 reveals that dynamic product presentation diverts attentional resources away from the background image, making contextual backgrounds less effective in enhancing imagery fluency than a plain background. Study 2 extends these findings by exploring the complicating effect of the presence of a slogan and revealing important product category differences. For hedonic products, congruent (incongruent) slogan–background meanings increase imagery fluency under stationary (dynamic) product presentation, which further increases purchase intentions. For utilitarian products, incongruent slogan–background meanings increase purchase intentions under dynamic product presentation. The conceptual and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

제품명의 개념적 유창성이 제품 호감도에 미치는 영향 : 상상적 유창성을 통한 권태성향의 조절된 매개효과

제품명의 개념적 유창성이 제품 호감도에 미치는 영향 : 상상적 유창성을 통한 권태성향의 조절된 매개효과

Seeing is believing: The role of imagery fluency in narrative persuasion through a graphic novel.

Seeing is believing: The role of imagery fluency in narrative persuasion through a graphic novel.

“I” or “she/he”? The effects of visual perspective on consumers’ evaluation of brands’ social media marketing: From imagery fluency perspective

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of visual perspective in a brand’s Instagram content on attitudinal and relational outcomes. This study particularly addresses how viewers’ perceived point of view in an image (i.e. first-person versus third-person perspective) influences their information processing, and, in turn, fosters more desirable attitudinal and behavioral outcomes for the brands’ social media communication. This study conducted two main experiments using a single-factor (visual perspective: first-person versus third-person) between-subject design. Study 1 examined the effect of visual perspective on social media advertising outcomes (i.e. attitude toward the brand’s Instagram, self-brand connection, and intention of extended information search). Additionally, Study 1 investigated the mediating effect of imagery fluency on the relationship between visual perspective and social media advertising outcomes. Study 2 verified the external validity by replicating the findings of Study 1 using a different product, stimuli, and participants. The results of two experimental studies demonstrated that viewers’ mental imagery is enhanced more when a brand’s visual content on Instagram presents a product from the first-person perspective than when the same image is presented from the third-person perspective.

Fluent contextual image backgrounds enhance mental imagery and evaluations of experience products

Online shoppers rely on product images to gain information about products. Helpful product images allow a detailed mental imagery of the product and its use. Product images with a fitting contextual background, as opposed to a plain white background, increase such mental imagery and in turn product liking and purchase intent. This effect, however, is preceded by imagery fluency—the ease with which mental images come to mind in the first place. As a result, effective product images need to facilitate fluent perceptions, while also evoking fitting mental imagery. Two experimental studies confirm this pathway which links research on mental imagery with research on imagery fluency. Moreover, the experiments show that this effect of contextual backgrounds works for fitting but not for non-fitting backgrounds, better for ambiguous than unambiguous products, and for experience products, but not for search products. Online retailers could leverage contextual backgrounds in product images to enhance consumers’ evaluations of their merchandise as long as the beneficial effects via mental imagery outweigh the added photography costs.

Processing fluency effect of a leaflet for breast and cervical cancer screening: a randomized controlled study in Japan

ABSTRACTProcessing fluency (the inferred subjective ease with which people process information) has been a topic of increasing research attention in the field of psychology over the past decade. We examined the effect of improving written materials in terms of processing fluency with regard to encouragement for obtaining breast and cervical cancer screening. We randomly assigned 670 women to intervention or control conditions; the 215 who mailed back distributed questionnaires were the study participants. A standard leaflet for cancer screening was mailed to the control group, while the materials mailed to the intervention group were improved in terms of perceptual fluency (e.g., legibility), linguistic fluency (e.g., readability), retrieval fluency (e.g., reducing amount of information) and imagery fluency (having recipients imagine future behavior and events). The screening rate of the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group (29.4% vs. 14.2%, χ2 = 7.275, df = 1, p = .007, φ = .184). Improving the processing fluency of written materials may be useful for encouraging individuals to obtain breast and cervical cancer screening.

Narrative persuasion in social media: an empirical study of luxury brand advertising

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of social media communication in luxury brand advertising from a narrative persuasion perspective. Specific purposes are to examine how characteristics of a message giver (i.e. comprehension fluency, imagery fluency) and message receiver (i.e. transportability, need for affect) influence the narrative persuasion process which further affects consumers’ subsequent responses (i.e. positive affect, brand social networking services [SNS] attitudes and intentions) within the luxury hotel industry.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was performed via Amazon MTurk. A total of 193 usable responses from SNS users were obtained. The structural equation modeling approach was used to test the proposed model.FindingsResults show that comprehension fluency and imagery fluency as message-giver factors and transportability as a message-receiver factor positively affect narrative transportation. In addition, narrative transportation leads to positive affect, brand SNS attitudes and visit intentions, while positive affect also influences brand SNS attitudes and visit intentions. Furthermore, additional analyses indicate that narrative transportation mediates the effects of comprehension fluency on affect and brand SNS as well as the effects of transportability on positive affect, brand SNS attitude and visit intention.Originality/valueCharacteristics of a message giver and message receiver altogether are not well understood in the current literature. Empirical evidence in this study contributes to the social media marketing and brand advertising research fields.

The influence of online product presentation videos on persuasion and purchase channel preference: The role of imagery fluency and need for touch

The lack of physical contact between products and consumer represents a key characteristic of online environments that can influence consumer’s purchase behavior. In an effort to offer a close experience with the product, websites usually present vivid information in order to convince consumers about the goodness of their products. Vivid information is likely to prompt different aspects of the purchase process, like reduced feelings of uncertainty or a higher need for physical information. The goal of this research is twofold: first, we analyze how the presence and type of vivid information, in the form of product presentation videos (PPVs), affects consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions toward the product. Furthermore, we examine how the perceived ease of imagining the product evoked by vivid information mediates these effects. Second, we propose that individual differences, related to the consumer’s need of touching products, determine the impact of vivid information on the preferences toward the purchase channel (online or offline). The results of an experiment, which manipulated the presence and the style of PPVs, support the importance of vivid information in order to favor consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions, as well as to influence the relative preference for the purchase channel. Additionally, message and consumer characteristics are found as important factors that affect these relationships.

Designing persuasive health materials using processing fluency: a literature review

BackgroundHealth materials to promote health behaviors should be readable and generate favorable evaluations of the message. Processing fluency (the subjective experience of ease with which people process information) has been increasingly studied over the past decade. In this review, we explore effects and instantiations of processing fluency and discuss the implications for designing effective health materials. We searched seven online databases using “processing fluency” as the key word. In addition, we gathered relevant publications using reference snowballing. We included published records that were written in English and applicable to the design of health materials.ResultsWe found 40 articles that were appropriate for inclusion. Various instantiations of fluency have a uniform effect on human judgment: fluently processed stimuli generate positive judgments (e.g., liking, confidence). Processing fluency is used to predict the effort needed for a given task; accordingly, it has an impact on willingness to undertake the task. Physical perceptual, lexical, syntactic, phonological, retrieval, and imagery fluency were found to be particularly relevant to the design of health materials.ConclusionsHealth-care professionals should consider the use of a perceptually fluent design, plain language, numeracy with an appropriate degree of precision, a limited number of key points, and concrete descriptions that make recipients imagine healthy behavior. Such fluently processed materials that are easy to read and understand have enhanced perspicuity and persuasiveness.

Facilitating imaginations through online product presentation videos: effects on imagery fluency, product attitude and purchase intention

The use of imagination is a dominant strategy for consumers to form evaluations in the e-commerce environments. Online Product Presentation Videos (OPPVs) are vivid information that can facilitate consumers this task. Following the imagery fluency approach, we analyze the impact of OPPVs on consumers’ quality of product-related thoughts, ease of imagining, and responses toward the product. A series of studies combining experimental- and survey-based procedures shows that the presence and type of OPPV improves consumers’ cognitive responses and facilitates imagination about the product, which becomes a strong determinant of attitude and purchase intention. We also control for the OPPV’s trustworthiness to isolate the effects of the content characteristics of video. Moreover, we consider the moderating role of the consumer’s motivation to process information. The results demonstrate that high and low motivated consumers use their imagination differently. In addition, when OPPVs are featured by the brand, ease of imagining does not relate to purchase intention.

Imagery Fluency and Narrative Advertising Effects

This article identifies important cognitive processes associated with processing narrative ads (comprehending narratives and generating mental imagery of depictions in the narratives) and related subjective experiences (perceptual/conceptual fluency, comprehension, and imagery fluency). In line with the idea that perceptual/conceptual fluency facilitates comprehension fluency and further improves imagery fluency, this study presents a model in which factors influence imagery fluency either indirectly through influences on perceptual/conceptual and comprehension fluency or directly. Findings from two experiments support the model; picture type (narrative versus product picture) and narrative type (highly versus less accessible) indirectly alter imagery fluency through their influence on comprehension fluency, whereas individual characteristics (experiential versus rational processing orientation) directly alter it, which further affects ad and brand attitudes.

Fluency of Consumption Imagery and the Backfire Effects of Imagery Appeals

Existing research and widespread commercial usage suggest that appeals urging consumers to imagine the product experience have powerful effects on product preferences. Three studies examined the mediating role of imagery accessibility and demonstrated that the difficulty of imagery generation can reverse the generally observed positive effects of imagery appeals. When participants were low in imagery abilities or when the product was not presented in a vivid way, imagery appeals were not only ineffective but even had a negative effect on product preferences. Providing evidence for its subjective nature, this imagery fluency effect was more likely for individuals attuned to their internal experiences.