How to easily facilitate consumers’ mental simulation through advertising: the effectiveness of self-referencing image dynamics on purchase intention

Abstract

This current research consists of two studies that employ the psychological construct of self-referencing with the goal being to identify an optimal means by which ad viewers are able to generate mental simulation through advertising. In Study 1 we identify that the ad, when incorporating a self-referencing cue, enables consumers to easily generate mental simulation resulting in marginally greater purchase intention than that generated by the same ad but without the self-referencing cue. We also find that there is a significant moderating role of prior direct product experience on the relationship between self-referencing and mental simulation, but not on that between self-referencing and purchase intention. In Study 2 we confirm the superiority of dynamic self-referencing to static self-referencing from diverse consumer evaluation perspectives to reveal the underlying mechanism that explains the serial mediating role of arousal and mental simulation in generating intention to purchase. More findings and implications are discussed in the discussion section.

Keywords:

• Self-referencing
• static self-referencing
• dynamic self-referencing
• ease of mental simulation
• prior product experience

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Dr. Paul Sauer at Canisius College and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).