This research draws on regulatory focus theory to explore how to effectively advertise technology-based hospitality services. In an experiment, we compare four types of service ads: narrative-comparative, narrative-noncomparative, list-comparative, and list-noncomparative. Results reveal that narrative-comparative ads, portraying a superior service experience with the advertised brand against its competitors, can elicit gain perceptions, and therefore, they are more effective among promotion-focused individuals than their more prevention-focused counterparts. Conversely, list-comparative ads, presenting attributes of the advertised brand and its competitors side-by-side, can induce either gain or loss perceptions, thus being effective among both promotion-focused and prevention-focused individuals. With no mention of a reference brand, noncomparative ads fail to generate regulatory fit thereby being less persuasive. Managerial implications for hospitality marketers are discussed.
AakerJ. L.LeeA. Y. (2001). “I” seek pleasures and “we” avoid pains: The role of self-regulatory goals in information processing and persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research, 28, 33-49.
2.
AakerJ. L.LeeA. Y. (2006). Understanding regulatory fit. Journal of Marketing Research, 43, 15-19.
3.
AdavalR.WyerR. S. (1998). The role of narratives in consumer information processing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7, 207-245.
4.
AvnetT.HigginsE. T. (2003). Locomotion, assessment, and regulatory fit: Value transfer from “how” to “what.”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 525-530.
5.
AvnetT.HigginsE. T. (2006). How regulatory fit affects value in consumer choices and opinions. Journal of Marketing Research, 43, 1-10.
6.
BarneyJ. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17, 99-120.
7.
BettmanJ. R.LuceM. F.PayneJ. W. (1998). Constructive consumer choice processes. Journal of Consumer Research, 25, 187-217.
8.
BloseJ. E.MackR. W.PittsR. E. (2015). The influence of message framing on hotel guests’ linen-reuse intentions. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 56, 145-154.
9.
BollerG. W. (1988). Narrative advertisements: Stories about consumption experiences and their effects on meanings about products (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
10.
BoltonL.E.AlbaJ. W. (2006). Price fairness: Good and service differences and the role of vendor costs. Journal of Consumer Research33, 258-265.
11.
BuhrmesterM.KwangT.GoslingS. D. (2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data?Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3-5.
12.
CarterT. J.GilovichT. (2010). The relative relativity of material and experiential purchases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 146-159.
13.
CarterT. J.GilovichT. (2012). I am what I do, not what I have: The differential centrality of experiential and material purchases to the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1304-1317.
14.
CesarioJ.GrantH.HigginsE. T. (2004). Regulatory fit and persuasion: Transfer from “feeling right.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 388-404.
15.
ChoiC.MattilaA. S. (2014). The effects of promotion framing on consumers’ price perceptions: The moderating role of a personal sense of power. Journal of Service Management, 25, 149-160.
16.
CroweE.HigginsE. T. (1997). Regulatory focus and strategic inclinations: Promotion and prevention in decision-making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 69, 117-132.
17.
EscalasJ. E. (2004). Imagine yourself in the product: Mental simulation, narrative transportation, and persuasion. Journal of Advertising, 33, 37-48.
18.
GreenM. C.BrockT. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 701-721.
19.
GrewalD.KavanoorS.FernE. F.CostleyC.BarnesJ. (1997). Comparative versus noncomparative advertising: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marketing, 61, 1-15.
20.
HigginsE. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280-1300.
21.
HigginsE. T. (1998). Promotion and prevention: Regulatory focus as a motivational principle. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 1-46). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
22.
HigginsE. T. (2000). Making a good decision: Value from fit. American Psychologist, 55, 1217-1230.
23.
HigginsE. T. (2002). How self-regulation creates distinct values: The case of promotion and prevention decision making. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12, 177-191.
24.
HigginsE. T.IdsonL. C.FreitasA. L.SpiegelS.MoldenD. C. (2003). Transfer of value from fit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1140-1153.
25.
HigginsE. T.RoneyC. J.CroweE.HymesC. (1994). Ideal versus ought predilections for approach and avoidance: Distinct self-regulatory systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 276-286.
26.
HuH.-H. (2012). The effectiveness of environmental advertising in the hotel industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53, 154-164.
27.
JacksonD. W.BrownS. W.HarmonR. R. (1979). Comparative magazine advertisements. Journal of Advertising Research, 19, 21-26.
28.
JainS. P.AgrawalN.MaheswaranD. (2006). When more may be less: The effects of regulatory focus on responses to different comparative frames. Journal of Consumer Research, 33, 91-98.
29.
JainS. P.LindseyC.AgrawalN.MaheswaranD. (2007). For better or for worse? Valenced comparative frames and regulatory focus. Journal of Consumer Research, 34, 57-65.
KeinanA.KivetzR. (2011). Productivity orientation and the consumption of collectable experiences. Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 935-950.
32.
KimS.-B.KimD.-Y. (2014). The effects of message framing and source credibility on green messages in hotels. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 55, 64-75.
33.
LawR.LeungD.AuN. (2013). Progress and development of information technology in the hospitality industry: Evidence fromCornell Hospitality Quarterly. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54, 10-24.
34.
LeeA. Y.AakerJ. L. (2004). Bringing the frame into focus: The influence of regulatory fit on processing fluency and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 205-218.
35.
LeeS. A.OhH. (2014). Effective communication strategies for hotel guests’ green behavior. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 55, 52-63.
36.
LibermanN.MoldenD. C.IdsonL. C.HigginsE. T. (2001). Promotion and prevention focus on alternative hypotheses: Implications for attributional functions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 5-18.
37.
MattilaA. S. (2000). The role of narratives in the advertising of experiential services. Journal of Service Research, 3, 35-45.
38.
MattilaA. S. (2001). Do emotional appeals work for hotels? An exploratory study. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 25, 21-45.
39.
MattilaA. S.ChoiC. (2014). An analysis of consumers’ reactions to travel websites’ discrimination by computer platform. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 55, 210-215.
40.
MuehlingD. D.StoltmanJ. J.GrossbartS. (1990). The impact of comparative advertising on levels of message involvement. Journal of Advertising, 19, 41-50.
41.
O’ConnorP.MurphyJ. (2004). Research on information technology in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 23, 473-484.
42.
PadgettD.AllenD. (1997). Communicating experiences: A narrative approach to creating service brand image. Journal of Advertising, 26, 49-62.
43.
PaolacciG.ChandlerJ.IpeirotisP. G. (2010). Running experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 411-419.
44.
PiccoliG. (2008). Information technology in hotel management: A framework for evaluating the sustainability of IT-dependent competitive advantage. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 49, 282-296.
45.
PorterM. E. (2008). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
46.
RosenzweigE.GilovichT. (2012). Buyer’s remorese or missed opportunity? Differential regrets for material and experiential purchases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 215-223.
47.
ScholerA. A.OzakiY.HigginsE. T. (2014). Inflating and deflating the self: Sustaining motivational concerns through self-evaluation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 51, 60-73.
48.
SiguawJ. A.EnzC. A.NamasivayamK. (2000). Adoption of information technology in U.S. hotels: Strategically driven objectives. Journal of Travel Research, 39, 192-201.
49.
SwinyardW. R. (1981). The interaction between comparative advertising and copy claim variation. Journal of Marketing Research, 18, 175-186.
50.
ThompsonD. V.HamiltonR. W. (2006). The effects of information processing mode on consumers’ responses to comparative advertising. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 530-540.
WilkieW. L.FarrisP. W. (1975). Comparison advertising: Problems and potential. Journal of Marketing, 39, 7-15.
53.
WuL. L.MattilaA. S.HanJ. R. (2014). Territoriality revisited: Other customer’s perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 38, 48-56.
54.
YiY. (1993). Contextual priming effects in print advertisements: The moderating role of prior knowledge. Journal of Advertising, 22, 1-10.
55.
ZaubermanG.RatnerR. K.KimB. K. (2009). Memories as assets: Strategic memory protection in choice over time. Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 715-728.
