Intimacy in Advertising

Pepperdine University

MKTG 677 – Consumer Behavior Professor: David Florence

Fall 2016

Midterm Paper - MKTG 677

Name: Ibrahim Alkhadhar

One of the methods that firms used to communicate and thereby build a relationship with

their consumers is via advertising. Advertising can be defined as “any paid form of nonpersonal

communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor” (Belch

& Belch 2011). This project exploring the influence of using and showing intimacy in

advertising on consumer perception toward the advertising and the sponsoring brand. Sternberg

(1986) described the intimacy as the “feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in

loving relationships.” The assumption is that if a particular a brand shows the sense of

connection and intimacy through advertising, the consumers will positively feel and understood

the perceived intimacy, which likely drives to generate favorable attitude toward the brand and

increase the purchase intention.

The first articles will be analyzed in this paper is The Effects of Intimacy on Consumer-

Brand Relationships. Guess and Haelg (2009) conducted an experimental study to investigate 1)

the effects of intimacy on consumer brand perception; and 2) determining whether the consumer

can feel intimate and connection with anthropomorphized brand. The concept

“anthropomorphization” had been described as viewing human characteristics in non-human

forms (Guthrie, 1993). Drawing from the literature review, the intimacy seems like an essential

component of human relationship; therefore, it can be characterized to create brand meaning for

the customer. Therefore, the authors build their hypotheses by 1) assuming that customers tend to

establish relationships with brands as with human beings, so consumer tends to elaborate

relationships with brands; 2) assuming that consumers tend to feel more trust toward the brand if

it is perceived as having human characteristics.

The findings of the experimental study indicate the following:

•!For the first hypothesis, the results show that the using of intimacy in creating Consumer-

Brand Relationship (CBR) generate a higher level of trust toward the brand, comparing to the

use of traditional non-intimate cues.

•!For the second hypothesis, the authors could not get a result because the manipulation did not

present the expected results.

As mentioned above, the primary purpose of the study was to examine the influences of intimacy

and anthropomorphization on building brand trust and brand relationship. The study

successfully demonstrated that participants who received the intimate and non-

anthropomorphized content of brand description presented a higher level of intimacy than

participants in the non-intimate and non-anthropomorphized content.

Finally, the first contribution of this study is that marketers can establish an intimate

relationship between consumer and brand is affirmed. Secondly, the authors suggest that

intimacy plays a pivotal role building a good Consumer-brand relationship so that the intimacy

can help in creating a competitive advantage for brands.

The second article that will be analyzed in this paper is Advertising Intimacy: Relationship

Marketing and The Services Consumer. Stern (1997) had proposed the intimacy theory as the

basis of services relationships communicated by advertising and suggest that intimacy approach

is more suitable for services marketing situations than others theories (e.g. seduction theory).

The author focused the attention on the attributes or features that can be shared by intimate

relationship including; communication (self-disclosure), comfort (compatibility), commitment

(bonding with the consumer), conflict resolution (trust), and caring (giving). He argues that the

intimacy attributes exist no matter the degree of the relationship between consumer and brand,

and they appear in services advertising as message themes and consumer benefits.

After the author presented a brief description of the five attributes, he proposes a model of the

intimate relationship cycle. It consists four stages that the consumer follow:

1) acquaintance, which the stage where the consumer attention has to be attracted;

2) build up, which means if interaction from the previous stage is perceived satisfying,

the positive interactions will be repeated and encourage from the buildup of an intimate

relationship;

3) continuation, which means that advertising strategy for this stage should aim to keep

the customer satisfied and tried to be motivated to maintain the relationship;

4) and dissolution, which means that the relationship may break due to some factors such

as changes in pairing dynamics, personal characteristics or needs.

Moreover, the author demonstrated the importance of keeping the intimate relationship between

brand and consumers and explained that ending stage “dissolution” lead to a multidimensional

phase that includes four consumer responses. These responses are constructive and destructive

responses. The first group is constructive responses which include:

a) Voice: it is an action rather than avoidance when consumers complain to the firm. The

consumers attempt to change the relationship rather than to escape from it; and

b) Loyalty: it occurs when consumers first detect problems, they may decide to hang in

there for a while and see if things can get better. In this case, the relationship remains

extant because the consumer is waiting and hoping that the situation will improve.

In contrast, the destructive responses include:

a) Exit action is when the consumers switch to another firm.

b) Negative word of mouth to complain about the firm.

The author suggests some implications for marketers related to intimacy skills and differences in

intimacy needs, and how they can use information about the attributes and developmental cycle

of intimate relationships. The author proposes that as the interest in increasing satisfaction in

human relationships of full intimacy, it can be also too interesting in marketing relationships,

between brands and consumers, stimulate greater understanding of satisfaction in relationships of

limited intimacy.

References

Belch, G., & Belch, M. (2011). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 9th Edition Guese, K. & Haelg, K. (2009). The Effects of Intimacy on Consumer-Brand Relationships, in NA -Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 1001-1001. Guthrie, S. (1993). Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion, New York: Oxford University Press. Stern, B. (1997). Advertising Intimacy: Relationship Marketing and The Services Consumer. Journal of Advertising. Vol XXVI, (4) Sternberg, Robert J. (1986), “A Triangular Theory of Love” Psychological Review, 93 (2), 119-135.!