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Since 2008, the implementation of free admission to exhibitions in national and public museums and art galleries in South Korea has led to an increase in visitors. However, this has also resulted in deteriorating visitor behavior and financial constraints, leading to a lack of cultural content and educational programs. To address these issues, the Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing strategy has been proposed as a solution that minimizes the financial burden on visitors while requiring a nominal payment. PWYW allows buyers to have control over the price and encourages higher payments from those who recognize the value beyond a fixed price. However, there is a risk of low or no payment because buyers set the price and sellers must accept it. Therefore, this study aims to explore ways to mitigate the risk of low admission payments in museums by leveraging consumers’ self-construal. Specifically, it investigates the impact of independent and interdependent self-construal on the willingness-to-pay (WTP) under PWYW and PWYW+charity strategies. Respondents were divided into four groups, primed with either independent or interdependent self-construal, and subjected to a 2×2 experiment. A survey was conducted with 187 participants in their 20s and 30s who had visited an exhibition at least once in the past year. Results indicated that the PWYW+charity strategy led to higher WTP than the simple PWYW strategy. Moreover, interdependent self-construal priming induced higher WTP in the charity combined condition. This study suggests that by using self-construal priming in public museums employing the PWYW pricing strategy, museums can increase WTP, thereby reducing the likelihood of too low payments and mitigating financial risks. This contributes to the development of effective marketing strategies for museums.
Search advertising is a major area of the online advertising market that is growing rapidly every year. Despite the importance of search queries entered by consumer, few studies have examined the influence of search queries based on real consumer data. In this study, we categorize search queries entered by real consumers into three main categories based on their characteristics (brand-query, category-query, search journey), and we compare the differences in the number of clicks, payments, and pay-per-click (conversion) rates for specific level of the search query categories. The results show that for brand-queries that include the target brand name in the query, the more specific the queries, the lower the number of clicks and payments, but the higher the conversion rates. However, for category-queries, which are searches within a product category without a target brand name in the query, we found that the more specific the queries, the lower the number of clicks, payments, and conversion rates. Finally, for search terms that reflect the consumer decision journey (i.e., search journey), we found that the later in the journey, the higher the conversion rates. These findings extend the decision journey and query research by showing the differential impact of the new search query taxonomy and each level of concreteness of different query characteristic, and suggest effective search advertising strategies.
The internet’s influence on consumers is significant, making it increasingly critical to understand internet memes, a key element of modern digital culture. Recently, both domestically and internationally, the use of internet memes in marketing has become commonplace, prompting research into the effectiveness of meme marketing. Previous studies have recognized the necessity of understanding the phenomenon of internet memes and have attempted to identify their characteristics from various perspectives, including content, form, and function. Efforts have also been made to identify the success factors and diffusion processes of internet memes. However, comprehensive studies that integrate the various characteristics of internet memes are still lacking, and a detailed understanding of how internet memes diffuse among a large number of users remains insufficient. This study builds on the suggestions and empirical findings of previous researchers by describing the concept of internet memes and examining trends in meme search volumes using search data. The results are as follows. First, internet memes receive a surge of interest during the initial stages of diffusion but gradually enter a decline phase. Interest in memes increased more rapidly among younger age groups in their 20s and 30s, and over time, interest spread to other age groups, eventually diffusing across all age groups. Second, during the early stages of meme diffusion, interest was higher among a specific gender, but over time, interest from the other gender increased. Third, the proportion of search volume for internet memes was higher in large cities compared to small towns, and this proportion was higher than the actual population ratio of these areas. Based on these findings, this study provides theoretical and practical implications for understanding internet memes and proposes a diffusion model encompassing the stages of outbreak, acceleration, slowdown, and erosion of memes.
How well does the smiley emoji inserted in the text message reflect the sender’s real expression? This study conducted experiment to answer this question through the psychological factor, Social Status Perception(SSP). Participants were divided into a group with low SSP and a group with high SSP. Then, when they received a text message with a smiley emoji from an acquaintance in a neutral(everyday) vs. negative(failure) vs. positive(success) emotion situation, they inferred the similarity between the emoji and the person’s actual facial expression(facial expression similarity, FES). After experiment, participant described why they reasoned that way(post-questionnaire). As a result, the group with low SSP inferred FES low in negative situation, high in positive situation, and inferred not to know in neutral situation. However, the group with high SSP reasoned that they did not know in all emotional situations and responded that they inserted a smiley emoji to soften the atmosphere. Through this study, it was confirmed that those with low SSP are more sensitive to the facial expressions of others than those with high SSP.
Based on regulatory focus and life history theories, this study intends to examine the potential interaction effects of the types of ad message and economic conditions on ad messages by adopting attitude toward ad and purchase intention for eco-friendly products as dependent variables. Furthermore, the possible interaction effect of two independent variables are examined with respect to ad attitude and purchase intention by adding two socio-psychological variables that affect the consumption behavior of eco-friendly products. Two experiments were conducted with a sample 346 people and the summary research results are as follows. First, under poor economic condition, the respondents showed more positive ad attitude when a prevention-focused message was presented, while under flourishing economic condition, the respondents showed more favorable ad attitude and a high level of purchase intention when a promotion-focused message was presented. Second, the individual's socio-psychological characteristics can make a difference in the influence of the economic situation and regulatory-focused ad messages on ad attitude and purchase intention. In other words, when consumers' environmental involvement is low or high, and when the future-oriented time perspective is medium or high, the interaction effect between the economic situation and regulatory-focused ad messages disappears, while the advertising effect of the prevention-focused message is more positive during a recession when the environmental involvement level is moderate and the future-oriented time perspective is low. These findings imply that it is necessary to fully consider consumers' socio-psychological characteristics with the economic situation when trying to increase the ad effects through the regulatory-focused messages in the ad of eco-friendly products. Lastly, this study is theoretically important in that it broadens the knowledge of consumption behavior on eco-friendly products by verifying the comprehensive effects of economic conditions that encompass the effect of ad messages and individual socio-psychological characteristics. Also, these results provide practical implications to marketers and advertising managers in dealing with fluid economic conditions, and it is expected to provide new implications that will help establish market segmentation and effective advertising strategies given socio-psychological variables.