Abstract
Companies facing financial difficulties have resorted to a novel type of appeal in their communications. Instead of promoting the benefits of their brands, they promote messages displaying the vulnerable condition they are in and ask for help. The current study examines the effectiveness of this appeal, which became more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors show that when companies are experiencing the threat of going out of business, the vulnerability appeal proves to be effective because of the elicitation of personal norms. For the approach to be effective, two conditions are necessary: The company’s vulnerability should come from an uncontrollable external force, and consumers should have at least some identification with the company.
- Received June 24, 2022.
- Received (in revised form) April 11, 2023.
- Accepted April 14, 2023.
- Copyright © 2023 ARF. All rights reserved.
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Vol 63 Issue 3
Jump to
- Article
- Abstract
- MANAGEMENT SLANT
- INTRODUCTION
- THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT
- OVERVIEW OF THE STUDIES
- STUDY 1: THE MAIN EFFECT
- STUDY 2: FIELD EXPERIMENT
- STUDY 3: MEDIATING ROLE OF PERSONAL NORMS
- STUDY 4: BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
- STUDY 5: EXPLORING A POSSIBLE MODERATION EFFECT OF COMPANY SIZE
- GENERAL DISCUSSION
- ABOUT THE AUTHORS
- ACKNOWLEDGMENT
- REFERENCES
- Figures & Data
- Supplemental
- Info