Sales Messages Research Articles

Understanding the use of celebrity endorsers for hospitality firms

Promotional clutter makes it extremely difficult for hospitality firms to capture the attention of prospective buyers with sales messages. One way firms attempt to penetrate clutter is by utilizing an effective celebrity endorser. When the proper celebrity endorser is selected to represent a firm, sales and brand image can be significantly bolstered. Conversely, selecting an inappropriate celebrity endorser severely reduces sales and brand reputation. This research study collected data from a convenience sample of 213 adults in the USA and found that trustworthiness, expertise, and genuine support are important characteristics for an effective celebrity endorser to possess. Further, the findings confirm that a match between the celebrity's and company's image and values and the celebrity being perceived by the buyer as part of his/her reference group are also statistically significant characteristics of an effective endorser.

Global Imagery in Online Advertisements

A WELL-DESIGNED ONLINE advertisement is essential for effective communication with potential customers and contributes to successful e-commerce. However, creating online sales messages that appeal to a broad range of cultures can pose unique challenges (Tsotra, Janson, & Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2004). Internet ads must offer both a globally appealing and a culture-specific message that in turn “enables localization of marketing communication” (Luna, Peracchio, & de Juan, 2002, p. 399). These authors also suggest that “cultural congruity” is essential for effective Internet Web sites. Thus, the inclusion of verbal and nonverbal content that is congruent with a range of cultures allows for ad elements that will be successful both locally and globally. In order to examine cultural congruity in various cultures, we conducted consumer interviews of individuals of six nationalities about their reactions to two online Internet advertisements to reveal how the underlying meanings of ad elements vary from culture to culture.

Winning Hearts and Minds: Business-to-Business Branding and the Role of the Salesperson

Many business-to-business firms recognise that strong brands can be a valuable resource in today's competitive business environment. To realise the potential of B2B brands, effective communication of brand values is essential. In most B2B markets, the primary form of brand communication is through the sales force and their ability to adapt sales strategies and messages to accommodate customer interactions. There are gaps in the literature regarding the brand value communication process in the customer-salesperson dyad. We argue that successful B2B brand communication requires sales strategies that incorporate brand values appealing to the emotional and the rational concerns of organisational buyers. This paper examines the brand communication process in the salesperson-customer dyad and the extent to which adaptive selling based on a brand platform of rational and emotional brand values could better respond to buying centre members.

Advertising for All by the Year 2000: Public Health Implications for Less Developed Countries

This paper argues that the development of global advertising has significant implications for the public health of less developed countries. These implications can be seen in three areas. First, it is clear that advertising and marketing of lethal or health-compromising products like alcohol and tobacco not only can increase the level of death and disease, but can also produce serious indirect effects upon families, communities, and entire societies. Second, advertising promotes a consumption ethic which can have far-reaching effects that go beyond individual behavior, significantly altering social relationships, and influencing public policies and allocation of scarce resources. Third, advertising can restrict the public's knowledge about health issues by substituting distorted and manipulative sales messages for vital, accurate health information. In addition, revenues from advertising are a primary support for many mass media systems and this further limits the presentation of critical information.

Erratum

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000002520. When citing the article, please cite: Robert W. Boozer, David C. Wyld, James Grant, (1990) “Using Metaphor to Create More Effective Sales Messages”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 4 Iss: 3, pp. 63 - 71.

Erratum

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000002520. When citing the article, please cite: Robert W. Boozer, David C. Wyld, James Grant, (1990) “Using Metaphor to Create More Effective Sales Messages”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 4 Iss: 3, pp. 63 - 71.

Using Metaphor to Create More Effective Sales Messages

Explores the use of metaphor as a particular feature of language for making sales messages more effective. Examines the concept of metaphor, its use in advertising and its use by marketing practitioners. Concludes that the effective use of language and particularly metaphor is vital for successful marketing and sales performance. Outlines a ten‐point strategy for developing metaphor skills in order to improve marketing messages and sales effectiveness.

Effects of sales presentation topic on cognitive responses in industrial buying groups

This article presents results of an experiment which tested the effects of sales messages on cognitive responses in industrial buying groups. Results suggest that matching sales presentations to buyers’ job responsibilities leads not only to higher levels of message involvement and attention, but also to increases in arousal and greater extremity in buyers’ evaluations of the sales presentation, the salesperson, and the represented vendor. Implications of these results for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Effects of Targeted Sales Messages on Subscription Sales and Retention

Effects of Targeted Sales Messages on Subscription Sales and Retention

Persuasive effects of sales messages developed from interaction process analysis.

Persuasive effects of sales messages developed from interaction process analysis.

Estimating Dynamic Effects of Market Communications Expenditures

This paper is concerned with the problem of measuring market response to a “communications mix”—the various means which a firm employs to transmit sales messages to potential buyers. Distributed lag models are applied to time series data for an ethical drug to estimate the short-run, intermediate, and long-run effects on market share of expenditures made for journal advertising, direct mail advertising, and samples and literature. Important differences were found among the communications variables with respect to the magnitude and over-time pattern of effect each had on market share. Significantly, the results indicate that the average historic allocation of resources to alternative communication vehicles has been in inverse relation to measured market response. A variety of econometric checks on the models lends credibility to the results. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

Are Your Messages Getting Through?

What happens to an advertising or sales message after it has been received by the consumer? Findings from a number of studies are reviewed in this article to show that sales messages have a considerable chance of being blocked, modified, or of having no direct motivating effect. Some significant elements of the communication process and forces operating to block mass media messages are explained.