Exploring Nostalgic Advertising Effects on Social Media: A Case of UK Retail Bank Brand

While practitioners have adopted nostalgia-based marketing and advertising strategies, consumers’ responses have also been empirically considered, the theoretical argument of this paper is how the brand context affects these outcomes. No doubt, nostalgia can evoke positive emotions, but can that be same for a retail bank, taking into consideration the utilitarian nature of financial service and unprecedented turbulence, uncertainty and lack of trust in the sector. Based on the pre-existing knowledge about these characters and the banking industry, this study aims to explore the emotional reaction towards the nostalgia advertisements and the Halifax brand within the digital sphere. As social media is transforming how consumers interact with brands and how brand-related content is consumed, this research analysed user-generated contents in the form of comments on the advertisements; as previous studies have either used fictitious advertisement or scale measurement, these comments are considered a unique data set. This place a lot of importance on the visuals used in service advertisements and further highlighting the possibilities of different meanings transferred from the visual elements of advertisements to the brand

Making the brand appealing: advertising strategies and consumers’ attitude towards UK retail bank brands

Purpose: The present state of the financial services industry suggests the need for banks to appeal to consumers’ emotions with the aim of improving their reputation; this study aims to explore how UK banks are using emotional appeals in their advertisements and how this shapes consumers’ attitudes towards their brands. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in a two-stage study – Study 1 analysed the content of 1,274 UK bank advertisements to understand how the banks convey emotional appeals, whereas Study 2 elicited consumers’ perceptions of these advertising appeals and how they influenced their attitudes through semi-structured interview with 33 UK retail bank customers in London and Luton. Findings: UK banks are using emotional appeals in their marketing communication strategies. The qualitative findings highlight the bi-dimensional nature of feelings towards the advertisements and how this relates to the brand. There is a lacklustre attitude towards the brands; there was no sense of pride in associating with any bank, even with though there are possibilities of switching; and consumers feel there is no better offer elsewhere as all banks are the same. Practical implications: Bank brands should present distinct values about their services to the target audience, endeavour to build relationships with existing customers and reward loyalty. Importantly, financial brands need to engage in and highlight charitable activities and any corporate social responsibility as this can help to improve consumers’ attitudes as they often consider bank brands greedy and selfish. Originality/value: Qualitative research methodology was adopted to better understand consumers’ attitudes towards UK retail bank brands

Sportswomen as Brand Ambassadors: Prospects, Challenges and Possibilities

Research has shown that sportswomen are not being given the same opportunities as sportsmen to earn sponsorships from brands to become brand ambassadors. Sportsmen appear to be more favoured by brands as they have higher profiles, can attract a larger audience and increase profit margins. The challenges, opportunities and prospects for sportswomen to have equal opportunities to improve their commercial viability and boost their revenue with brand sponsorships are investigated in this study. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 5 brand managers, 15 sportswomen and 10 consumers to explore attitudes and opinions. Results revealed there are opportunities for women to become brand ambassadors, however, there are several key challenges facing the sportswomen including the physical restrictions of being a woman, the cycle of popularity, media coverage, being aware, having the look, a strong media team and a strong moral compass. Opportunities for various stakeholders (including the sportswomen themselves, brand, the media, the government and the public) are discussed to give sportswomen sufficient opportunities to become brand ambassadors

Growth response of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed graded levels of sun-dried cassava peel meal

A study was conducted at the farm section of the department of fisheries technology, Federal polytechnic Nekede, Owerri in Factorial design of five treatments of cassava peel meal at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% graded levels were formulated. The casssava peel meal was sun-dried for 48 hours, ground, and added to the feed fed to 150 fingerlings of Oreochromis niloticus into 10 tanks in triplicates, and fed twice daily at 5% body weight for 60 days. The result shows that fish fed with 100% cassava peel meal had the highest mean weight gain of 10.46 ~c 0.0l and specific growth rate of 1.23 ~c 0.04. The second best result was shown in fish fed with cassava peel meal with weight gain of 9.93 ~c 0.03 feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 1.75 ~c 0.04 and specific growth rate of 1.24 ~c 0.02. The poorest result was shown by fish fed 25% cassava peel meal with the lowest survival rate, weight gain,feed intake and specific growth rate respectively. This connotes that diet with 100% fed graded level of sun-dried cassava peel meal can best be utilised at a ratio of 75% to 15% CPM, and second best diet with 75% fed graded level of sund-ried cassava peel meal could also be utilized at 11.25% reduction due to its survival rate parameter over the best. Moreover, this proportion should be utilised for improved growth of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) for profit maximization

Insights into online reviews of hotel service attributes: A cross-national study of selected countries in Africa

Online travel reviews are paramount to trip planning because they help consumers’ form images of destinations. Despite ample studies on hotel service attributes, knowledge is scarce regarding culturally nuanced attributes, including security perceptions. This study examines consumers’ perceptions of service attributes and security/safety concerns of hotels in Africa. Data were extracted from three hotel categories (3, 4, and 5-stars), which were based on TripAdvisor rankings from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. A hybrid analysis revealed that hotel service attributes and security/safety are cardinal evaluation criteria for visitors to Africa. Additionally, our study reveals that most negative reviews were from 5-star hotels and Egypt received more positive reviews in all the service attributes than other countries

Factors shaping attitudes towards UK bank brands: an exploratory analysis of social media data

Social media provides a huge amount of data and rich market insight, and has changed the way customers interact with brands. This interaction is of great concern for any organisation as it transfers the power to shape brand image from advertisers to consumers. In light of the global financial crisis and the ensuing negative attitudes towards bank brands, this study has extracted 1176 comments on bank advertisements from the verified Facebook pages of 10 UK banks. These comments have been thematically analysed to identify seven key factors that shape customer attitudes to bank brands. The study presents the power of social media as a platform for brands and customers to engage and build relationships, especially bank–customer relationships in the UK, providing managers with important insights that can guide the development and execution of their brand-relationship campaigns. The fact that this study is based on real-life advertisements and real-life responses from social media network users can be considered as one of its strengths, as it does not suffer from various issues relating to experimental studies. Nonetheless, the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research directions are provided

Could there be an alternative to the undergraduate marketing student's dissertation?

While recognising the emotional rollercoaster for students embarking on their dissertation and their struggle in selecting research topics, this reflective piece offers a short and thought-provoking reflection on the dissertation topic and support for undergraduate marketing students. The paper raises the question of alternative methods towards supporting undergraduate marketing students with their dissertation. The piece identified key issues that have warranted the questions and provide alternatives for consideration by tutors and academic staff supporting the students. Also, the paper presented the challenges to adopting the alternative methods

How are we tempted into debt? Emotional appeals in loan advertisements in UK newspapers

Purpose: This study examined the use of emotional appeals in advertisements for loans and explored consumers’ perceptions of advertisements featuring such appeals in order to explore how emotional meanings are transferred to consumers via advertising. Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 employed content analysis to examine the use of emotional appeals in loan advertisements. Over 2900 editions of eight British newspapers were monitored for advertisements for loans containing emotional appeals. Study 2 employed 33 semi-structured interviews to explore consumers’ perceptions of emotional appeals in loan advertisements. Findings: Loans were positioned as services providing relief, security, and excitement. The use of negative emotional appeals such as guilt, fear, and sorrow was sporadic. Loans that carried the most risk were advertised with positive emotional appeals the most frequently. Five dimensions of perceptions of emotional loan advertisements were conceptualised from the reported data in Study 2. Originality: This is the first study in the UK to examine the use of emotional appeals in loan advertising and to explore consumers’ perceptions of loan advertisements featuring emotional appeals. The study identified five dimensions of perceptions of emotional appeals