Existing literature on consumer behavior has argued that an individual’s regulatory orientation interacts with message framing. If there is a match between regulatory orientation (promotion versus prevention) and message framing, this results in positive attitudes toward a given advertisement. Conversely, if there is a mismatch, the effect is opposite, i.e., attitudes toward that advertisement are less positive and less favorable. This research extends the term of compatibility by examining how regulatory focus moderates the impact of two aspects of message framing (attribute framing and risky choice framing) on customer perceptions. It also examines whether regulatory fit is created when there are interactions between individuals’ regulatory orientation and message framing and how the fit changes customer perceptions about a message. Specifically, this dissertation provides answers to the following questions: (1) does regulatory fit take place when regulatory focus is compatible with two aspects of message framing (attribute and risky choice)?; (2) does regulatory fit take place when one aspect of message framing (attribute) is compatible with the other (risky choice)?; and (3) how do customer perceptions change if customers experience regulatory fit? The results show that the effects of utilitarian attributes and national brands are dominating and that both promotion- and prevention-oriented customers have higher perceptions of these attributes and brands. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, this study should enhance our understanding of regulatory focus theory. Practically, the results should provide marketers with more insights into the correlation between message framing and regulatory orientation and the effect of fit on message persuasion, enabling them to develop more effective marketing strategies.

This research adds the growing body of literature on the role of celebrities as emergent spokespersons in climate advocacy and the process and consequences of its effects on public attitudes and behaviors to resolve the climate crisis. By applying social cognitive theory in conjunction with emotional appeals and language styles as message frames, the study examines the effects of role-modeling in adoption of eco-attitudes and behaviors. In a 2 x 2 design, the independent variables were emotion frame (fear, hope) and celebrity involvement frame (first person pronouns; FPP, non-first person pronouns; NFPP). For the manipulation check, the tweets were pilot tested. The main study was an experiment that asked participants to read tweets attributed to Leonardo DiCaprio or Pharrell Williams. Four main dependent variables were attitudes toward climate change mitigation and three behaviors, including support for government action, intention to engage in sustainable behavior, and intention to participate in activism for climate change mitigation. The role of two mediating variables (risk awareness, response efficacy) and one moderating variable, parasocial interaction (PSI) with the celebrity, were also examined. First, one-way ANCOVAs compared the effects of emotion frames to the control group. No evidence of the effects of emotion frame over unrelated messages on any dependent variables was found. Second, 2 (fear vs hope) x 2 (FPP vs NFPP) ANCOVAs found that fear-framed messages were more effective than hope-framed messages in driving intention for participation in activism, but emotion frame did not affect any other variables. The results also found that FPP frames led to more positive attitude (compared to NFPP frames), but had no effect on behaviors. Third, regression analyses found no evidence that risk awareness or response efficacy mediated the effect of emotion frames on attitudes or behaviors. In addition, the study discovered that PSI was a strong positive predictor of attitudes and all behaviors, but PSI did not moderate the impact of the celebrity involvement frame. The findings provide empirical evidence of the potential for celebrities to serve as role models in climate advocacy by psychologically involving people, which can be translated to the adoption of attitudes and behaviors.

The debate about how to frame health messages to maximize their effectiveness is ongoing. Research supports the use of both positive and negative frames under different conditions. This project was developed to further clarify the circumstances under which a negative frame may be harmful, or even backfire. In Study 1 it was proposed that past drinking behavior would moderate the relationship between message frame and behavioral intention to drink alcohol in the future such that people with a heavy drinking past would react to a negatively framed message by increasing their intention to consume alcohol. A total of 212 students participated in the study where they completed a questionnaire to provide information on some of the key variables, such as drinking history, and then were asked to read mock health materials with either a positive or negative frame. They concluded the study by responding to a final questionnaire where they provided feedback on the health materials and indicated their intentions to drink in the future. Results of this study supported the hypothesis. The goals of Study 2 were to replicate the findings of Study 1 and to test the hypothesis that self-esteem would be a second-order moderator of this effect such that people with a heavy drinking past and high self-esteem would be most likely to respond to a negatively framed message by increasing their intention to drink alcohol in the future. A total of 490 students participated in the study, which followed the same procedure as the first study. Results of Study 2 failed to replicate the findings from Study 1, and indicated that self-esteem did influence the relationship between past behavior, message frame and behavioral intention but not in the proposed direction. The marginally-significant effect found in Study 2 suggested that heavy drinkers with high self-esteem were actually more likely to decrease their intentions to drink alcohol after reading a negatively framed message. Because of the inconsistency in the results of the two studies presented, proposed directions for future research are discussed.

Enterprises can adopt branding extension strategies to decrease the expense on developing the awareness of new products as well as to attract consumers. However, not all of them succeeded. From previous researches, most of them focus on brand extensions of tangible products and regard Fit as the main driver to the success of brand extensions. Overall, the higher the Fit between parent brands and extension products, the more possibly brand extensions succeed. However, if Goal Congruency can be a substitute factor for Fit between them, maybe the different goals they possess offer more value to Consumers. Thus, I extend the scope of brand extensions to service industry, studying on the effect of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ on brand extensions and further on the interaction of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨. This research uses situation experiment to manipulate well-known brand to extend new service products. In experiment 1, the real enterprises Friday restaurant and 104 job bank separately launch new extended products to study the effects of ¡§goal congruency" on ¡§perceived value¡¨,¡¨ brand extension attitude¡¨ and ¡§consumers¡¦ mood¡¨. In experiment 2, it adds one more factor, advertisement framing, to study the two- way interaction of consumers¡¦ mood influenced by ¡§goal congruence¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨ on ¡§brand extension attitude¡¨. First, it shows the incongruent brand extensions are perceived higher brand extension evaluation than congruent ones. Second, when compared with negative advertisement framing, positive advertisement framing with incongruent brand extensions receives higher brand extension evaluation. The consuming goal can be an important factor on evaluation of brand extensions.

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With great growth of the use of internet ,the communication based on computer-mediated system or so called electronic word-of-mouth becomes more important. In these ways to exchange information, forward mail is unique and powerful especially. In this research, we would like to know what factors make people to decide to forward a e-mail or not, and what kind of roles these factors play in the process to make decision. Three factors were discussed in this research, including¡Gmessage framing, source credibility and product involvement, and the theory of reasoned action was applied to explain the behavior of forwarding e-mail. Through ANOVA and regression analysis to analyze 472 effective samples, the findings are outlined below¡G 1. E-mail users hold better attitude to forward negative message, and have more intention to forward it. 2. E-mail users hold better attitude to forward the message which has high source credibility, and have more intention to forward it. 3. The effect of subjective norm on intention to forward the email is greater than the effect of attitude.

The debate about how to frame health messages to maximize their effectiveness is ongoing. Research supports the use of both positive and negative frames under different conditions. This project was developed to further clarify the circumstances under which a negative frame may be harmful, or even backfire. In Study 1 it was proposed that past drinking behavior would moderate the relationship between message frame and behavioral intention to drink alcohol in the future such that people with a heavy drinking past would react to a negatively framed message by increasing their intention to consume alcohol. A total of 212 students participated in the study where they completed a questionnaire to provide information on some of the key variables, such as drinking history, and then were asked to read mock health materials with either a positive or negative frame. They concluded the study by responding to a final questionnaire where they provided feedback on the health materials and indicated their intentions to drink in the future. Results of this study supported the hypothesis. The goals of Study 2 were to replicate the findings of Study 1 and to test the hypothesis that self-esteem would be a second-order moderator of this effect such that people with a heavy drinking past and high self-esteem would be most likely to respond to a negatively framed message by increasing their intention to drink alcohol in the future. A total of 490 students participated in the study, which followed the same procedure as the first study. Results of Study 2 failed to replicate the findings from Study 1, and indicated that self-esteem did influence the relationship between past behavior, message frame and behavioral intention but not in the proposed direction. The marginally-significant effect found in Study 2 suggested that heavy drinkers with high self-esteem were actually more likely to decrease their intentions to drink alcohol after reading a negatively framed message. Because of the inconsistency in the results of the two studies presented, proposed directions for future research are discussed.

In Canada, parental acceptance and uptake of the HPV vaccine has been low. There is a need for more effective HPV vaccination health messages for parents. Whether a message is framed in terms of the benefits of engaging in the behaviour (gain frame), the costs of failing to engage in the behaviour (loss frame) or both the benefits and the costs (mixed frame) has potential to impact parents’ decision making. The appropriate frame of a message may depend on the recipient’s sex and involvement with the health issue. The purpose of this study was to investigate the persuasiveness of gain-, loss- and mixed-framed messages on mothers’ and fathers’ intentions to have their young son or daughter vaccinated against HPV. The study used a 3 Frame x 2 Sex of Parent x 2 Sex of Child design. We randomly assigned participants (n=367) to read a framed message and then complete a 29-item questionnaire assessing theoretical determinants of parental consent for vaccination. ANCOVAs revealed a three-way interaction for intentions to speak to a doctor about the HPV vaccine, F(2, 342)=3.66, p =.03, perceived severity of HPV, F(2, 347) = 3.10, p = .05, and for anxiety about their child contracting HPV, F(2, 342)=3.58, p=.02. Effect size comparisons revealed that gain-framed messages seem to persuade parents who are the opposite sex to the child for whom they are considering the vaccine. In turn, loss- and mixed-framed messages may persuade parents who are the same sex as the child for whom they are considering the vaccine. Perceived severity of HPV and anxiety about HPV mediated the relationship between message frame and intentions for some parent-child dyads. Findings have implications for constructing effective messages encouraging parents to consider having their child vaccinated against HPV. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-07-07 23:06:25.757

Physical inactivity is a national issue affecting more than half of all Canadian adults (Colley et al., 2011). Health messaging, including message framing, has been a popular medium for encouraging individuals to adopt recommended health behaviours such as physical activity. Previous research has demonstrated that gain-framed messages, which emphasize the benefits of a behaviour, are more effective at promoting physical activity (PA) than loss-framed messages which emphasize the costs. However, the mechanism through which this facilitating effect occurs is unclear. The current study examined the effects of message framing on attention, attitudes, recall, decision to be active and behaviour as well as the mediating effects of these variables on the frame-behaviour relationship in accordance with the communication behaviour change (CBC) model (McGuire, 1989). Sixty moderately active women, aged 18-35 viewed 20 gain- or loss- framed ads and 5 control ads while their eye movements were recorded via eye tracking. Attitudes towards PA, message recall, decision to become active and PA behaviour during an acute bout of exercise were measured immediately following ad exposure. Self-reported PA was measured one week later. Univariate ANOVAs, ANCOVAs and logistic regressions were conducted to examine the effects of message framing on each level of the CBC model. The gain-framed ads attracted greater attention, ps<0.05, produced more positive attitudes, p = .06, were better recalled, p < .001, influenced decisions to be active, p = .07, and had an immediate and delayed impact on behaviour, ps < .05, compared to the loss-framed messages. However, mediation analyses failed to reveal any significant effects suggesting that alternate mechanisms may be influencing framing effects on behaviour. This study demonstrates the effects of framed messages on several novel outcomes; however the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-08 16:50:51.877

Women from across the globe purchase and consume cosmetics in order to achieve their appearance goals and it is generally agreed that a consumers’ goal orientation may influence their interpretation of advertising materials and thus the purchase decision-making process. The cosmetics industry promotes their products using almost exclusively images of attractive, young, highly idealised women, and thus has a significant influence on female appearance ideals worldwide. Extensive research connects viewing idealised images to negative outcomes for consumers’ self-concept, however there are mixed results regarding the effectiveness of idealised models in advertising. Moreover, there are mixed results regarding the effectiveness of different message frames. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the effects of possible selves and cosmetic advertising on the consumption of cosmetic products. This research draws together areas of literature which have been studied in varying settings in order to determine the individual and collective effects of these independent variables; possible selves, model idealisation and message framing, on women’s attitude toward cosmetic advertisements and purchase intentions in the cosmetic product context. To understand the effects that goal orientation, as well as the images and text of cosmetic advertisements have on cosmetics consumption, an online experiment was conducted using a 2x3x2 between-subjects factorial design. The study manipulated three independent variables, namely, salient possible self (hoped-for and feared), model idealisation (more idealised model, less idealised model and no model) and regulatory message framing (desired reference and undesired reference) and measured the impact of these variables on attitude toward the ad and resulting purchase intention. The final data set was comprised of 420 responses from 18-35 year old females. A series of ANCOVA analyses were used to determine the effects of possible selves, model idealisation and message frames on consumers’ attitude toward the ad and their purchase intention. The results indicate hoped-for selves, no model advertisements and desired message frames are independently the most effective in the cosmetics context. However, the goal-compatibility hypothesis was not supported. Furthermore, findings indicate an interaction between the image and the message of cosmetics advertising, which suggests cosmetic advertisers must carefully consider the combination of the images and messages they use to promote their brand and products. The theoretical and managerial implications, as well as direction for future research are discussed.