Abstract
From billboards to newspapers, from TV to Yellow Pages, business
owners of retail establishments and services frequently include their
face-shots in their advertising to the public. Clearly, their face-shot
takes up space which, in turn, costs money. Thus, an important
question to ask is: are advertisers who include their face-shots receiving
a benefit that justifies their cost? Accordingly, in this research, we
develop the notion that the utilization of the service provider’s face is
able to credibly signal product quality via a bonding mechanism. In
particular, we examine if the signaling ability of the face-shot is higher
for credence goods, services that typically exhibit higher demand for
quality signals. In addition, we also investigate the ability of the face-shot to serve as a logo for the service. Analyzing a dataset containing
3299 yellow pages advertisements culled from seven city-pairs, we find
support for the bonding hypothesis but not for the logo hypotheses.
Implications for the design of marketing communications are also
discussed From billboards to newspapers, from TV to Yellow Pages, business
owners of retail establishments and services frequently include their
face-shots in their advertising to the public. Clearly, their face-shot
takes up space which, in turn, costs money. Thus, an important
question to ask is: are advertisers who include their face-shots receiving
a benefit that justifies their cost? Accordingly, in this research, we
develop the notion that the utilization of the service provider’s face is
able to credibly signal product quality via a bonding mechanism. In
particular, we examine if the signaling ability of the face-shot is higher
for credence goods, services that typically exhibit higher demand for
quality signals. In addition, we also investigate the ability of the face-shot to serve as a logo for the service. Analyzing a dataset containing
3299 yellow pages advertisements culled from seven city-pairs, we find
support for the bonding hypothesis but not for the logo hypotheses.
Implications for the design of marketing communications are also
discussed KCI Citation Count: 0