Virtual influencers are gaining prominence as a way of attracting people’s attention on social media, but limited research has been conducted on this subject. In this research, we explore the effects of human-like virtual influencers (HVIs) vs. anime-like virtual influencers (AVIs) and sponsorship disclosure on message credibility perception and message attitudes. Conducted with a 2 (virtual influencer type: HVI vs. AVI) x 2 (sponsorship disclosure: absent vs. present) between-subjects experiment, our findings suggest that HVI endorsements produce greater perception of message credibility and message attitudes than AVI endorsements, but the superior effect of HVIs (vs. AVIs) vanishes when sponsorship is disclosed. The results also show that message credibility plays a significant mediating role only when sponsorship is not disclosed. We believe our research offers interesting insights to both researchers and practitioners on the topic of virtual influencers.

The current research examines consumers’ responses to sensory endorsements from virtual influencers. The authors reveal that consumers perceive virtual and human influencers to have similar distal sensory (i.e., visual and auditory) capacities. Consumers, however, perceive virtual influencers as having lower proximal sensory (i.e., haptic, olfactory, and gustatory) capacities. Consequently, when endorsements focus on proximal sensory experiences, consumers have lower purchase intention toward products and services endorsed by a virtual (vs. human) influencer. The findings further reveal that imagery difficulty and perceived sensory capacity serially mediate this effect. Importantly, this effect is mitigated when endorsements focus on distal sensory experiences, when sensory information is not explicitly mentioned, and when consumers are informed of new technology that enables virtual influencers to have proximal sensory experiences. These findings offer actionable insights for marketers to effectively utilize virtual influencers in sensory-driven campaigns, providing practical strategies to improve consumer responses to sensory endorsements and enhance marketing effectiveness.

According to a two-step account of the mere-exposure effect, repeated exposure leads to the subjective feeling of perceptual fluency, which in turn influences liking. If so, perceptual fluency manipulated by means other than repetition should influence liking. In three experiments, effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments were examined. In Experiment 1, higher perceptual fluency was achieved by presenting a matching rather than nonmatching prime before showing a target picture. Participants judged targets as prettier if preceded by a matching rather than nonmatching prime. In Experiment 2, perceptual fluency was manipulated by figure-ground contrast. Stimuli were judged as more pretty, and less ugly, the higher the contrast. In Experiment 3, perceptual fluency was manipulated by presentation duration. Stimuli shown for a longer duration were liked more, and disliked less. We conclude (a) that perceptual fluency increases liking and (b) that the experience of fluency is affectively positive, and hence attributed to positive but not to negative features, as reflected in a differential impact on positive and negative judgments.

基于自我建构理论和情绪理论, 本文探讨了自我建构与广告诉求对品牌认同的交互作用、影响机制及边界条件。通过3个实验, 我们发现对于独立自我建构的消费者来说, 能力广告诉求更能提高品牌认同感, 而对于相依自我建构的消费者来说, 热情广告诉求则更有效; 同时我们也验证了广告诉求到愉悦感到品牌认同最终到购买意向的因果链模型, 并确定了企业类型对该机制的调节作用。

This paper examines the influence of self-construal on the effectiveness of warm/competent advertising appeals on consumer-brand identification and purchase intention, its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Specifically, we propose that a warm (competent) advertising appeal should enhance consumer-brand identification and purchase intention among interdependent (independent) consumers through increased pleasure. In addition, this interaction effect between advertising appeal and self-construal should be mitigated when firm type (modern vs. traditional) is made salient. This is because for modern firms all consumers should prefer a competent advertising appeal, whereas for traditional firms all consumers should prefer a warm advertising appeal, regardless of their self-construal. Three experiments provide empirical support for these predictions, and rule out several rival explanations (including fluency, arousal and involvement).
Study 1 uses a 2 (advertising appeal: warmth/competence) × 2 (self-construal: independent/dependent) between-subject design. A fictitious shampoo brand “Pantam” is selected as the focal stimulus, and the experimental materials are in the form of a print advertisement. In order to minimize the confounds of experimental results by advertising design, both warm and competent ads adopt the same layout and text length. We recruit 116 participants, manipulate the advertising appeal by designing different patterns, backgrounds and ad copies, and measure participants’ self-construal using an existing scale. We confirm the proposed interaction between advertising appeal and self-construal on brand identification. While the results of Study 1 are supportive of our prediction by using a utilitarian product, in a follow-up study we replicate these results using a hedonic product (i.e., chocolate), demonstrating the robustness of our results for different product types.
Study 2 uses a similar between-subject design, using a toothpaste with a fictitious “MysPlant” brand name as the focal stimulus. In order to eliminate the possible confounds in Study 1, a new advertising copy is created. We recruit 149 participants, and manipulate advertising appeal and self-construal. Consistent with our prediction, we confirm the interaction between self-construal and advertising appeal on brand identification and purchase intention. We additionally support the proposed mechanism underlying the interaction effect that is due to an enhanced sense of pleasure, and rule out fluency, arousal, and involvement as possible rival explanations in this and a follow-up study.
Study 3 uses a 2 (advertisement appeal: warmth/competence) × 2 (self-construal: independent/dependent) × 2 (firm type: traditional/modern) between-subject design to further test the moderating effect of firm type. Advertising appeal and self-construal are manipulated in similar fashions as in Study 2. The focal stimuli are also similar to those in Study 2. To minimize confounds, we manipulate firm type and verify our manipulation in a pretest. We recruit 278 participants for this study. The results provide support to the moderating effect of firm type and re-confirm the mediation effect of enhanced sense of pleasure. Specifically, we find that for a modern firm all consumers prefer a competent advertising appeal, regardless of their self-construal. In contrast, for a traditional firm whereas interdependent consumers prefer a warm advertising appeal, independent consumers’ preference for a competent advertising appeal is mitigated and they are indifferent between warm and competent advertising appeals. In addition, these effects are mediated by the sense of pleasure.
Combined, the results from the three experiments (and the replications of Studies 1 and 2) provide strong empirical evidence for the interaction effect between self-construal and advertising appeal on consumer-brand- identification and purchase intention, the moderating effect of the salience of firm type on this interaction effect, and the underlying mechanism due to a sense of pleasure.