It Is All in the Name: A Study of Consumers' Responses to Personalized Communication

ABSTRACT

Personalized communication is believed to be an effective persuasion strategy. However, few studies have examined the underlying processes responsible for its effects. This study investigates the role of perceived personalization as a mediating process. Three personalization strategies are compared: raising expectation, identification, and contextualization. The results confirm that perceived personalization mediates the effects of personalized advertising on attention, cognitive responses, and attitude toward the message. The increased attention caused by perceived personalization stimulates both positive and negative thoughts about the message. The findings imply that personalized advertisements have stronger effects when receivers are aware of the personalization elements.

KEYWORDS:

• Personalization
• advertising
• perceived personalization
• message processing

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ewa Maslowska

Ewa Maslowska (PhD, University of Amsterdam) is a postdoctoral research associate of the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital and Database Research Center, Northwestern University. She earned her doctorate in persuasive communication in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. Her research is grounded in consumer behavior and focuses on consumer engagement, persuasive message processing, and psychological aspects of new media use.

Edith G. Smit

Edith G. Smit (PhD, University of Amsterdam) is dean of the Graduate School of Communication and full professor of persuasive communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. She has been actively involved with the Erasmus Mundus Journalism program, the European Advertising Academy, the Dutch Dialogue Marketing Association Privacy Authority, and The Foundation for Scientific Research on Brands and Brand Communication (Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Commerciële Communicatie). Her research focuses on the effectiveness of (hidden) persuasion tactics and examines to what extent people are able to make informed decisions when confronted with these tactics. Her research aims to disentangle persuasion and resistance mechanisms, to inform users about strategies, and to develop tools to empower (vulnerable) consumers.

Bas van den Putte

Bas van den Putte (PhD, University of Amsterdam) is full professor of health communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. His chair is sponsored by the Trimbos Institute, the national institute of mental health and addiction. Van den Putte is an expert on sociocognitive theories of health behavior and is an experienced researcher in the field of formative and evaluative studies on media campaigns and school interventions. His aim is to initiate and conduct research that increases theoretical and practical insight into the relationship between exposure to health interventions, social influences (especially interpersonal communication), and (determinants of) health behavior, which can be used by practitioners to increase the effectiveness of health interventions.