Consumers respond best to vacation ads that match their current emotions

Washington, October 14 (ANI): The mood people are in when they come across a vacation ad influences their decision to go for a trip, a new study claims.

Hakkyun Kim (University of Concordia, Canada), Kiwan Park (Seoul National University, Korea), and Norbert Schwarz (University of Michigan) did the study the Journal of Consumer Research.

The researchers suggested that people evaluate vacation products with adventurous appeals more favorably when they feel excited rather than peaceful, and vice versa.

They wote: "Imagine you are sitting in a bathtub, listening to calm music with gentle candlelight. Add lavender aroma.

"Then as you flip through a magazine, you come across an advertisement from an amusement park, promising you an exciting place full of adventurous offerings.

"How appealing would you find the prospect of visiting this amusement park?"

According to the study, the main question that people ask themselves, while thinking of a vacation are: "Would this vacation really make me feel that way?"

Seemingly, incidental emotions influence the perceived likelihood that the product will deliver on its emotional promises.

When the current emotions match the promises of the product, people infer that it may really make them feel that way; but when the current emotions mismatch the promises, the discrepancy between their current feelings and the promises suggests that the product may fail to deliver what it promises.

The understanding can be useful for marketers by starting to facilitate the impression products will deliver on their promises by displaying them in contexts in which consumers' pre-existing feelings are likely to match the product's claims.

The authors wrote: "Exciting sports events are a better arena for advertising exciting vacations than for advertising serene vacations, not only because an exciting vacation may match the audience's general preferences, but also because an exciting vacation will match the audience's current feelings." (ANI)