Revisiting Consumer-Responses Models: Are Suitable for Post-Millennials?

• Main Authors: Ricardo Leiva, David Kimber
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Navarra 2020-09-01
• Series: Communication & Society (Formerly Comunicación y Sociedad)
• Subjects: Digital ads; hierarchy of effects model; advertising effectiveness; smartphones; Generation Z; post-millennials
• Online Access: https://revistas.unav.edu/index.php/communication-and-society/article/view/37701

Some influential authors have hardly criticized the traditional marketing consumer-responses models because these approaches would be hypothetical. To test these consumer-responses models, we surveyed 539 Chilean post-millennials, asking them about their prime motivations at the time of clicking on digital ads on their mobile devices (phones, laptops, or personal computers). We displayed three possible outcomes/responses to respondents, based on the traditional marketing consumer-responses approaches: a) knowing about the characteristics of a product or service through an informative ad, b) feeling a pleasant sensation through an attractive ad, and c) making a rapid purchase through a temporary offer or price promotion, with expiration time. We asked subjects about how many times they bought something after receiving different digital advertising inputs. According to our results, respondents tended to click more on behavioural ads, designed to trigger a rapid purchase, than on informative or affective ones. Our regression analysis demonstrated that owning a smartphone increased significantly the number of times Gen Zers bought after being exposed to a digital ad.