Narrative-transportation storylines in luxury brand advertising ...

JBR-08514; No of Pages 10 Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

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Journal of Business Research

Narrative-transportation storylines in luxury brand advertising: Motivating consumer engagement☆ Jae-Eun Kim a,1, Stephen Lloyd b,⁎, Marie-Cécile Cervellon c a b c

AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand Business School, AUT University, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand EDHEC Business School, Nice and Lille, France

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 1 September 2014 Received in revised form 1 December 2014 Accepted 1 January 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Luxury brand advertising Engagement Narrative transportation Implicit Cross-cultural

a b s t r a c t This research advances the theory and practice of luxury brand advertising effectiveness by decoding brand–consumer engagement grounded in narrative transportation. An online semi-structured qualitative questionnaire incorporates a modified thematic apperception testing projective technique and is administered in three target countries for luxury brands: France, Korea and Australia. Respondents were exposed at random to global ads from one of four brands: Hermès, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Narratives produced are analyzed with thematic and text analysis. The research contributes to luxury brand advertising research by identifying a route to persuasion based on the level of implicit narrative transportation engendered by the brand's advertising. While respondents express cultural differences in the way they script their experiences, an implicit route to engagement is equally effective across cultures. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction European countries like France, Italy, and the UK are the birthplace of many high-profile luxury brands: country of origin is etched deeply into the DNA of fashion brands like Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Chanel (France), Gucci (Italy), Burberry (England), Swiss watch brands, and German and Italian luxury car brands. Luxury brands seek to manage their equity in emerging luxury markets by building on their European heritage and legitimacy (Dion & Arnould, 2011). Luxury brands of European origin account for approximately two-thirds of the total global luxury goods market (European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance, 2014) and lead the world's fashion industry by creating trends. Yet the growth in luxury brand sales worldwide is no longer driven solely by Europe. In 2012 Greater China, including Hong Kong, became the major driver of luxury brand sales growth and the world's number two luxury market after the United States (Bain and Company, 2012). The globalization of luxury brands makes it more important for marketing management to understand customer perceptions of, and experiences with, their brands. Yet, while research exists on the components

☆ The authors acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of guest editors, anonymous JBR reviewers, Ken Hyde, and Jungkeun Kim. The authors also thank Vogue Korea for donating the magazines used for data analysis. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +64 9 921 9999. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.-E. Kim), [email protected] (S. Lloyd), [email protected] (M.-C. Cervellon). 1 Tel.:+64 9 921 9999.

of luxury brands, and on purchaser values and motivation (Catry, 2003; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004), insights are needed into the socially and culturally constructed “why” and “how” of luxury brand engagement. Cross-cultural studies of luxury brands focus primarily on the comparison of attitudes and motivations to buy luxury brands in a Western cultural context (Dubois & Laurent, 1996; Dubois & Paternault, 1997; Wang & Waller, 2006; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). Luxury brands engage consumers through the force of enchantment or charisma. Charisma may be orchestrated by the creative director at flagship stores and boutiques (Dion & Arnould, 2011) and by storytelling in advertising (Megehee & Woodside, 2010). Luxury brand advertising often employs as its message strategy a rich imagery portraying the lifestyle, values and attitudes of people who live a life associated with the world of luxury. Researchers show how consumers engage with advertising by being transported into a story world as a result of becoming involved with advertising imagery (Phillips & McQuarrie, 2011). Research on luxury brand advertising is limited to examining grotesque or surreal images (Phillips & McQuarrie, 2011), the narrative transportation engendered by such images (Freire, 2014) and the perception and experience of aesthetic values (Venkatesh, Joy, Sherry, & Deschenes, 2010). This study goes further and explores, in a cross-cultural context, how the implicit meaning of luxury brands, while socially and culturally constructed, is conveyed through narrative transportation and engagement with luxury brand advertising. The paper here, thereby, makes an important contribution to luxury brand research by uncovering narratives for luxury brands in different countries as a route to engagement with brands.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.002 0148-2963/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Kim, J.-E., et al., Narrative-transportation storylines in luxury brand advertising: Motivating consumer engagement, Journal of Business Research (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.002

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J.-E. Kim et al. / Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

This research addresses three research questions: RQ1: How are consumers from different countries transported into advertising images as a route to engagement with luxury brands? RQ2: To what extent does cultural distance increase (or decrease) empathy with the characters, the extent of narrative transportation and hence, advertising engagement? RQ3: What differences are there between brands in the ways their advertising engages with luxury consumers? 2. Literature review 2.1. Advertising and engagement A perspective on engagement has relevance for the consumer–brand, advertising communications orientation of this study (Higgins & Scholar, 2009). Higgins and Scholar (2009, p. 100) propose that strength of engagement contributes to value intensity which is “a motivational force of attraction to or repulsion from something”. If the goal pursuit activity is embedded in highly motivating, implicit (narrative) messaging, the advertising message may be more effective in generating value intensity. The concept of engagement is a current focus in the advertising research literature (Calder & Malthouse, 2008; Calder, Malthouse, & Schaedel, 2009; Lloyd & Woodside, 2013; Wang, 2006; Wang & Waller, 2006). Calder and Malthouse (2008) identify two forms of engagement. Firstly, engagement occurs with the advertising medium: the journalistic or entertainment content of a medium which provides a context for the advertisement and which may affect reactions to it. Secondly, engagement occurs with the advertised brand. In addition, engagement comes from experiencing, for example, media content and media context (Calder et al., 2009). Calder et al. (2009) identify two types of engagement with respect to online media: personal (stimulation and inspiration; social facilitation; temporal; self-esteem and civic mindedness; intrinsic enjoyment) and socialinteractive (utilitarian; participation and sociating; community). Phillips and McQuarrie (2011) provide five modes of engagement with fashion advertising, each of which serves as a distinct route to persuasion: to act, identify, feel, transport, or immerse. In contrast to liking, a hedonic experience, engagement is a motivational experience (Ewing, 2009). Engagement is a source of experience that: “involves the experience of a motivational force to make something happen…or not happen…” (Higgins, 2006, p. 441). Calder and Malthouse (2008) see engagement as a sense of involvement, of being connected to something. Engagement is different from involvement in that involvement refers to an individual's interest in a product category or brand; engagement refers to individual's commitment and connection to an active relationship with various marketing offers such as advertising and brands (Abdul-Ghani, Hyde, & Marshall, 2011). Thus, this paper uses the following working definition of engagement: a participant's emotionally motivating experience of interaction with a brand and with its advertising. 2.2. The power of narratives and of narrative transportation “Transportation” is an experience with great relevance to engagement (Baek & Morimoto, 2012; Green & Brock, 2000). Transportation is “a convergent process, where all mental systems and capacities become focused on events occurring in the narrative” (Green & Brock, 2000, p. 701). The authors define “narrative” as the consumption of a story through which a consumer does not just read the story but also makes it readable in the first place. Consumers interpret brand stories through ads and other communication media and transform them into a memorable experience. Narrative transportation occurs, therefore, when the consumer is absorbed into the narrative, becomes part of the story and lives the story from the inside (Green & Brock, 2000). Narrative transportation, in addition to being an alternative route to persuasion, may have long-term consequences with respect to changes

in attitudes and intentions. Narrative transportation is different from the traditional dual-process models of persuasion in that attitude changes and persuasion occur through affective responses, fewer negative thoughts, and through realism of experience rather than logical evaluations of arguments (Escalas & Stern, 2003; Green & Brock, 2000). Narrative has an important role in judgment and product evaluation (Adaval & Wyer, 1998; Shank & Abelson, 1995). Consumers evaluate products and services more favorably when advertising describes product features and attributes in a narrative form versus reason-why copy. Also, consumers transported into a story are less resistant to persuasion: they display less-critical thoughts (Green & Brock, 2000). Recent research (Van Laer, de Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014) provides further insights into the phenomenon of narrative transportation whereby a recipient may enter a world evoked by a story. Van Laer et al. (2014) provide a model that includes antecedents and consequences of narrative transportation and which indicates the role of narrative in the process of persuasion. Narrative transportation can “cause affective and cognitive responses, beliefs, and attitude and intentional changes” (Van Laer et al., 2014, p. 800). As covered in the following discussion, the role of archetypal enactment by the storyteller and the story-receiver is a further consideration of the authors' extended transportation imagery model (Lloyd & Woodside, 2013). 2.3. Essential components of luxury brands An understanding of the nature of engagement and of narrative transportation of luxury brands requires consideration of their essential components. Research on luxury brands focuses on identifying product attributes that may constitute luxury (de Barnier, Rodina, & ValetteFlorence, 2006). While the luxury concept has been studied by many researchers, there is no consensus regarding what luxury brands constitute. Belk (1988), for example, considers luxury goods as something expensive, yet pleasurable to possess, and usually something hard to obtain, and bringing esteem to the owner. Nueno and Quelch (1998) define luxury goods from an economic perspective as “those whose ratio of functionality to price is low, while the ratio of intangible and situational utility to price is high” (p. 61). While there is lack of agreement about what constitutes a luxury brand (Miller & Mills, 2012), researchers agree that luxury is associated with important intangible attributes and benefits. While luxury is associated with tangible attributes like price, physical qualities, and craftsmanship (Nia & Zaichkowsky, 2000) luxury incorporates intangible and symbolic attributes such as cultural and artistic heritage (Dion & Arnould, 2011), authenticity and uniqueness (Turunen & Laaksonen, 2011), exclusivity and creativity (Phau & Prendergast, 2000), identity, association, and personality, and aesthetic experience (Venkatesh et al., 2010). Vigneron and Johnson (1999, 2004) incorporate intangible benefits from luxury brands and develop an integrative framework of the luxury concept and a Luxury Brand Index (BLI). The BLI model includes multiple dimensions of conspicuousness, uniqueness, quality, extended self, and hedonism. Luxury consumption is regarded as broader than the concept of status consumption (Goldsmith & Clark, 2012; Goldsmith, Flynn, & Daekwan, 2010; O'Cass & Siahtiri, 2013; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004) or of conspicuous consumption, which are applied often to luxury products (O'Cass, 2004; O'Cass & McEwen, 2004; O'Cass & Siahtiri, 2013). Conspicuous consumption is the signaling of status to others through luxury goods consumption (Veblen, 2009). Status consumption (Kilsheimer, 1993) is a motivational process whereby consumers seek to improve their social standing through the consumption of brands that confer and symbolize status both for the individual and for her significant others. A luxury brand may possess more than a social value. A luxury brand has an individual value grounded in self-identity, its use may enhance a consumer's self-identity or extend a sense of self (Hennigs, Wiedmann, & Klarmann, 2012). Luxury brands have a hedonic value related to sensorial pleasure, to aesthetic beauty and to emotional



transportation, an ability to transport the consumer from the mundane and into the magical world of the brand (Dion & Arnould, 2011). Those few researches who have studied luxury consumption from a cross-cultural perspective investigate the role of luxury consumption as an other-directed status-enhancer and as a self-directed pleasureenhancer, based on a self-construal orientation and on an individualist or collectivist orientation, which maps differences between western and eastern cultures. Yet, within western cultures, different religious orientations impact the perception of psychological costs and benefits attached to luxury consumption. Morand (2004) mentions that guilt might be attached to both status and hedonic consumption in Roman Catholic cultures whilst in Calvinist cultures, rewarding hard work with expensive possessions is socially-accepted behaviour. Cervellon and Shammas's (2013) comparison of sustainable luxury value across mature European and North-American markets highlights the importance of guilt-free pleasures and hedonic experiences in France and Italy, a value which is less central in Britain and in Canada. 2.4. The influence of culture on narrative transportation European luxury brands communicate globally with little adaptation to their creative strategy (Cervellon & Coudriet, 2013). They build on their brand origin and cultural heritage through reference to their heritage and craftsmanship, to myths and to tradition, and to a portrayal of a westernized ideal of female beauty using mostly north-western European models. Consumers may be culturally-influenced when they engage with luxury brands. Consumers from varying cultures and exposed to Western luxury advertisements may create different, culturally-constituted and socially-developed narratives, and may engage with a luxury brand advertisement through varying routes. A diachronic cultural perspective (Durkheim & Mauss, 1967; Lévi-Strauss, 1963, 1968; Mauss, 1990) provides a route to transportation based on the formation of myth over time. Such a route may be based on deep memories which develop into archetypes (Jung, 1940, 1969), and which provide a vehicle for personal transportation or individuation. Projective research techniques have been employed to explore the transformational power of myths and fairy tales in modern marketing (Levy, 1985). The power of archetypes in luxury brand transportation is documented with respect to the Versace brand (Megehee & Woodside, 2010) and the brand's use of the Medusa and Siren archetype in its brand properties and implicitly in its brand communications. A synchronic cultural perspective may be influenced by concepts such as social distance, social aspirations and journeys through upward social mobility (Lipset & Bendix, 1963). Social advancement has been a rich source of narrative transportation. From a horizontal cultural perspective, country of origin effects (Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004; Gürhan-Canli & Maheswaran, 2000), especially geographic distance, are an important contributor to, and an enhancer of narrative transportation. Such narrative transportation is not new to storytellers of a place or centre of experience “out there” (Turner, 1973) that draws a follower to a powerful centre of identity formation. Such culturally-constituted and socially-developed narrative routes to engagement will be explored further in the paper. 3. Method 3.1. Overview A self-administered questionnaire is utilized in Australia, France and Korea, through a dedicated online site, by a professional market research company. The three countries were selected to portray differences that might impact narrative transportation with luxury ads: France for its dominant role in the manufacturing and marketing of luxury goods. Luxury in France has a collective cultural meaning which induces unique relationships between consumers and luxury brands, based on cultural attachment for French brands and a rivalry with Italian brands. France,

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while possibly highly secularized, remains predominantly Roman Catholic. A developing market was selected: South Korea, a predominantly Confucian and collectivist culture, is already the eighth largest luxury market with annual growth of 13% in 2012 (Bain and Company, 2012). The third country, Australia, is a culture which while possibly highly secularized remains predominantly Protestant. Australia is a promising potential country for international luxury brands which deploy flagships and boutiques in key cities. A new generation of wealthy consumers is developing a taste for luxury brands and is driving the market, with annual growth of 17% in 2012 (Bain and Company, 2012). Quotas are pre-established to ensure that respondents are luxury consumers (i.e. owning at least one authentic luxury fashion brand product provided in a list). The questionnaire is semi-structured and includes a modified version of the Thematic Apperception Test (McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989). Respondents were exposed randomly to one of four pairs of ads for a luxury fashion brand. The concept and scope of fashion in this study refers to the “most admired style in clothes and bodily adornments” (Venkatesh et al., 2010, p. 460). The luxury brands selected for this study include Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel. These brands are selected based on their recognition in the three countries, through reports such as Interbrand's 2011 Best Luxury Brands, Millward Brown's 2011 luxury brand list, and the World Luxury Association's 2011 brand list. All brands are ranked in these reports among the top five luxury brands. Vogue magazine was chosen because of its high-circulation and high-reputation for luxury brands in all three countries. Full-page or double-page ads (available at http://qualtrasia.asia.qualtrics.com/SE/? SID=SV_9FxqhxO91dlTspf) in 24 issues during the period 2009 to 2011 were identified. All advertisements are global print ads with no verbal messages beyond brand name and a simple caption. Identical advertisements were identified that had all appeared in Vogue Korea, Vogue Australia, and Vogue France. Three researchers reviewed the advertisements and agreed on the best two advertisements for each brand based on their potential for creating diverse narratives from the advertisements. 3.2. Sample Only women were invited to participate in the study; women account for the largest proportion of luxury goods sales and for the greatest product purchasing growth (Fionda & Moore, 2009; Miller & Mills, 2012). A total sample of 270 women participated in the study: 84 from Australia, 106 from France and 80 from South Korea. The primary qualifier for participation is primary enculturation in one of the three countries. Participants were asked to identify the country in which they had spent most of their lives. In order to investigate luxury cultural meaning across samples, those who indicated countries other than Australia, France, or Korea were not included. All sampled women are aged between 25 and 55, with the same distribution per country (χ2(4) = 1.4, p = 0.85). Table 1 provides a description of the samples. 3.3. Thematic apperception testing method (TAT) TAT is a projective technique that is designed for surfacing implicitly held answers to questions from respondents (Lundy, 1985). The TAT technique provides a means for interpreting the thematic content of consumer narratives, or stories (Doerfel, 1998). Originally, TAT (McClelland et al., 1989) was employed as a measure of the need for achievement and used picture cards from which a respondent is asked to make up a story. Modified forms of TAT (M-TAT), with an improved range and quality of visual stimuli, have proven to dig deeper into respondents' internal states (van der Doesa, Edelaara, Gooskensa, Lieftinga, & van Mierloa, 1992). The form of M-TAT applied in this study uses advertising images as stimuli to foster consumers' storytelling accounts. The framing of questions adheres closely to the TAT approach. Reassurance of anonymity


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Table 1 Descriptive statistics of respondents.

Luxury Brand Ads

Age

Annual fashion spending (AU$)

Income (AU$)

Ethnicity

Marital Status

No. of Luxury Items Transportation Scale (Mean)

Hermès Louis Vuitton Gucci Chanel 25–34 35–44 45–55 Less than $5 K $5 K–$10 K $10 K–$20 K $20 K–$30 K More than $30 K Total (mean) Less than $50 K $50 K–$80 K $80 K–$100 K $100–150 K More than $150 K No answer White Black Asian Pacific Islander Other Single Married Divorced Separated Living with partner Mean (Max 14) Total Hermès Louis Vuitton Gucci

Australia

France

Korea

(n = 84)

(n = 106)

(n = 80)

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

13 21 24 26 33 26 25 27 24 24 8 1 $125,321 14 15 9 20 26 – 64 0 12 4 4 19 46 5 2 12 6.8 2.90 3.56 3.32 2.19

16 25 29 31 39 31 30 32 29 29 10 1

26 22 26 32 37 31 38 63 25 12 4 2 $52,700 48 20 5 5 1 27 – – – – – 19 58 6 3 20 4.6 2.91 3.56 2.89 2.34

24 21 24 30 35 29 36 59 24 11 4 2

22 20 17 21 26 27 27 30 36 8 6 0 $75,293 7 35 27 9 2 – 0 0 80 0 0 18 60 1 1 – 5.4 3.07 3.18 2.99 2.67

28 25 21 26 33 34 34 38 45 10 8 0

mitigates the possibility of respondents using socially-acceptable answering tendencies. 3.4. Procedure The questionnaire and images were pre-tested based on established guidelines. Questionnaires were administered in the local language (English, Korean and French) after translation from English and backtranslation by professional translators. Brand meaning is probed at the beginning of the questionnaire. Then respondents are exposed to two print ads for one of four luxury brands selected at random (The advertisements are available online). The distribution of brands is not significantly different between cultures (χ2(6) = 4.66, p = 0.59). Respondents have to consider this as part of a creative exercise and to tell a brief story about the people in the ads. Three M-TAT questions were asked (McClelland et al., 1949, pp. 245-246): Q1: Who are the people in the story? What are they doing? Are they related to each other? If yes, how? Q2: What is

17 18 11 24 31 – 76 0 14 5 5 23 55 6 2 14

45 19 5 5 1 25 – – – – – 18 55 6 3 19

9 44 34 11 3 – 0 0 100 0 0 23 76 1 1 –

happening in the story? What is each person in the story doing? Q3: What is going to happen next to and by the people in the story? Demographics were gathered with responses to the Green and Brock (2000) transportation scale and a fashion involvement scale (O'Cass, 2004). 3.5. Data analysis Participants' responses were analyzed independently per country, and then grouped together. First, thematic content analysis was conducted on the emic content of consumers' storytelling in the three cultures. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses methods were employed to provide descriptive statistics of the incidence of themes that emerged across countries. The three researchers read several times, independently, all consumer storytelling and then created central and meaningful themes as these emerged. The themes were then refined until all three researchers were in agreement (Spiggle, 1994). When themes were finalized the relative proportions of themes that are used for transportation

Table 2 Comparison of themes across countries. Total

Australia

France

Korea

Themes

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

Status and beauty aspirations Romance and seduction Involvement with a fantasy Other-directedness Self-esteem, power and success Sensory and aesthetic world Activation Total

69 52 58 47 38 51 27 342

20.2 15.2 17.0 13.7 11.1 14.9 7.9 100.0

23 20 15 8 10 13 5 94

24.5 21.3 16.0 8.5 10.6 13.8 5.3 100.0

29 21 26 18 17 25 12 148

19.6 14.2 17.6 12.2 11.5 16.9 8.1 100.0

17 11 17 21 11 13 10 100

17.0 11.0 17.0 21.0 11.0 13.0 10.0 100.0



are compared between cultures. Two judges from each country classified each response according to the seven themes developed. Each response could be coded along one or more themes, which makes the gross number of counts higher than the number of participants (see Table 2). Text analysis, employing TextAnalyst 2.1 software, was use in the second research stage to provide semantic weights and semantic structures, and to detect meaningful themes in qualitative data and to analyze the data quantitatively (Fournier & Yao, 1997). TextAnalyst 2.1 provides a semantic network (Leong, Ewing, & Pitt, 2002), a tree structure of concepts and the relationships between them. The frequency and weight of concepts is available. Storytelling responses to four questions were analyzed, in English, to identify the key themes across samples. Themes that emerged from thematic analysis, therefore, are triangulated. 4. Results In Step 1, text and thematic analysis identify seven dominant themes that emerge from the stories women tell about their interaction with luxury brand ads: status aspirations; romance and seduction and porn-chic; involvement with a fantasy world or adventure; other-directedness; selfesteem, power and success; sensory world of beauty, nature, body and feelings; activation. Step 2 of text analysis provides a comparison of key terms and concepts for each country.

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attractiveness and beauty (Buss, 1998; Hill, Rodeheffer, Griskevicius, Durante, & White, 2012). Women invest significantly to make their appearance attractive (Daly, Hogg, Sacks, Smith, & Zimring, 1983; Hill et al., 2012). Status is gained by the acquisition of unique, rare, or innovative items of fashion and design (e.g., newly-released goods, exclusive). Ownership of unique or rare luxury items demonstrates success or status in a social hierarchy (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). Text analysis shows that, for all countries, “elegant”, “chic”, “classic”, “beautiful”, “feminine”, “trendy”, “fashionable” are highly weighted concepts that describe beauty aspirations. I have the body all other women desire and I am the one everyone will be envying today. I bet everyone is staring at me and thinking, “Isn't she beautiful? Who is she? Look at her dress, it is stunning? The colour and the design, it's all standing out because of her. I wish I could do the same…. You think you can pull this off? In your dreams…. This is not common…. (Respondent 31, Chanel, Korea, Public Officer) People would watch me and envy me; they would think “let us go to Chanel and see the new collection”. (Respondent 57, Chanel, France, Housewife) 4.2. Theme 2. Romance, seduction and porn-chic

4.1. Theme 1. Status aspirations in terms of exclusivity and uniqueness This theme relates more to the snobbish side of luxury brand associations. This theme accounts for the need to be seen as special and may relate to what has been termed narcissism with respect to minor differences: the idea that it is precisely the minor differences between people who are otherwise alike that form the basis of feelings of strangeness and hostility between them (Blok, 1998; Bourdieu, 1984). The concept of social distance (Corrigan, 2001) or social prestige value (Eastman, Goldsmith, & Flynn, 1999) are relevant here. Status theory assumes that each person has a place in the social hierarchy (Han, Nunes, & Dreze, 2010). The largest proportion of participants across the three countries created stories relating to status-enhancement through the possession of luxury branded products (Australia 25%, France 20% and Korea 17%). This theme emerged relatively more in Australia than in France or Korea. Text analysis indicates that “wealth”, “money”, “rich” and “famous” are high semantically-weighted concepts associated by women with luxury. The following excerpts from storytelling by respondents from all three countries depict stories related to status attributes (wealth, social class and exclusivity). Here I am on the way to a garden tea party where there will be influential people. I'm so glad I have such a generous patron who wants me to fit in to the 'with money' crowd. I'm stepping out of a high-end Mercedes-Benz - black and waxed. I see my reflection staring back at me and I sheepishly approve. (Respondent 31, Louis Vuitton, Australia, Customer Care) I was invited to a VIP party. We children from high or top-ranking officials would meet first and check fashion and styles before the party. We try not to be too fancy but try our best to show off our elegance and beauty. We join the party, browse around, and enjoy narcissism. (Respondent 14, Louis Vuitton, Korea, Professional) Young women and young men, they are part of a higher social class and they are very sexy, they feel powerful and superior. (Respondent 53, Louis Vuitton, France, Administrative assistant) Status-related comments reported include not only social status or wealth but also attractive physical appearance and beauty aspirations. Researchers in evolutionary psychology indicate that the most effective and frequent tactic to attract a good mate is by enhancing physical

Romance and seduction are themes rich in narrative for all three countries. The more competitive aspect of male and female relationships suggests conflict, for example between Anima and Animus, a conflict which is associated with the birth of guilt (Jung, 1959). Respondents comment on meeting a lover and falling in love; on seducing a man; having sex; preparing a marriage; having romantic moments, or having a love affair. The large proportion of participants across the three countries engage with advertising by being transported into romantic and seductive stories. Australian participants were more engaged in romance and seduction (21%) than France (14%) or Korea (11%). Text analysis shows strong links, for all countries, between the concept of youth with romance and love. There are interesting differences, however, across countries in descriptions of romance and seduction as vehicles for transportation. French participants used the terms “relationship”, “romantic”, “lover” and “young”; they tend to define in their stories the specific type of relationship between men and women (e.g., “They have no relationship just a game of seduction”, “It is an ambiguous relationship”, “Cute romantic relationship”). Australian participants used terms such as “men”, “great”, “sex”, “flirting”, “young” in their narratives. Both French and Australian participants describe stories about having sex or of sexual fantasies. Korean participants, however, do not create stories about sexual intercourse and often create stories about a wedding and marriage (e.g., “Women about to be married are out shopping for their wedding”). Korean participants used “boyfriend”, “wedding”, “young” in their narratives. Australian women think of the men in the advertisements as “great”; French women as “lover”; Korean women as a “boyfriend”. Australian women are transported by the advertisements to a world of trendy “parties”; French women to a “romantic evening” at a restaurant with a lover; Korean women are transported to “gatherings” with friends or family. The people in the first advertisement are friends, all at a very elite club or at a high society party. All the people will just lazily sit around the pool drinking cocktails. In the second advertisement the man is about to make love to both women on the bonnet of his car…the women will succeed in seducing the man on the bonnet of his car. (Respondent 60, Gucci, Australia, Lawyer) Women wear clothes and make poses to seduce men. The man has to make a choice between two women, and the women are


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showing their appealing charm. The man makes his choice and falls in love. (Respondent 1, Gucci, Korea, Office Worker) I would be overdressed to seduce men; I would be trying to attract their attention; it would be very hot; the man would try to conquer me. I would be with a friend, also in a seductive mood. I wonder if the three of us will finish having sex together or not. (Respondent 73, Gucci, France, IT assistant)

4.3. Theme 3. Involvement with a fantasy world of adventure, travel, and grounded in good luck Recourse to a myth can be highly sustaining (Eliade, 1963). Theme 3 includes responses grounded in a rich world of myth, dreams and fantasy. The dreams and fantasies focus on wish fulfilment mediated by narrative transportation. This theme emerged equally in all three countries (Australia 16%, France 18% and Korea 17%). Fantasies or dreams often related to wish-fulfilment for luxury products (e.g., car, jewellery, handbags, couture clothes), a luxurious environment (e.g., restaurant, dinner, party, casino, hotel, airplane), and luxurious people. Dreams come true for all participants by being part of a fairy tale and becoming a princess; by escaping from everyday life and traveling around beautiful places in a fantasy world. These dreams were often grounded in good luck. Concepts such as “fantasy”, “Cinderella”, “princess”, “traveling”, “happiness”, “jewellery”, “restaurant” were highly weighted for this theme in all three countries. Well, all of my dreams have become true: beautiful fashion, people, cars and homes, the likes of which was always out of my reach. Look at me now, I have it all…. Don't let me wake up yet. (Respondent 16, Gucci, Australia, Secretary) Once upon a time a woman had a dream, to escape her mundane life. She felt asleep on a mountain of colourful clouds, rocked by the great wild sea. While she was falling asleep, she was living again the fairy tales of her childhood. She was feeling she was Cinderella…. (Respondent 99, France, Hermès, Naturopath) She was very exhausted thus she took a trip feeling very comfortable and relaxed. After plenty of rest she will get back to her normal life. (Respondent 8, Chanel, Korea, Office worker)

4.4. Theme 4. Other-directedness as expressed by needs for attraction, attention, acceptance, comparison, and competitiveness Theme 4 focuses on expressed needs for self-definition and reinforcement outside the self. The other-directed person sees life as shaped in large part by peer groups—people of similar age, social class, lifestyle and values, and to whom a person adjusts her values (Riesman, Glazer, & Reuel, 1963). Other-directed comments included a feeling of awe and envy from other people; attracting visual attention from other people; standing out from groups of people; comparing or competing with others. Some participants were annoyed, yet at the same time enjoyed, the moment of getting attention from peers. Interaction with a luxury brand may provide a segue into new social possibilities. I'm wearing Gucci and I've become confident and desirable. Everybody thinks I stand out…. They're in awe of me. (Respondent 5, Gucci, Australia, Housewife) I am getting ready, dressing up; people are watching me with insistence. I am annoyed but I like it at the same time. I show my irritation—but I show my dress first! (Respondent 13, Louis Vuitton, France, Office worker)

Social comparison and competition often are used to express comparative attraction to others. Social comparison involves comparing oneself to others better or worse off than oneself (Festinger, 1954). Comparative-culture studies show that an interpersonal orientation in a collectivist culture is highly correlated with interest in social comparison that enables self-improvement (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999; White & Lehman, 2005). While theme 4 emerged for all three countries, Korean participants mentioned other-directedness more frequently (21%) than Australian (8%) or French (12%). Korean participants tend to compare themselves in the presence of others. Often they were transported into competitive situations by showing off their appearance. The following excerpts from storytelling illustrate social comparison and competition. People in the party are trying to be pretty comparing their styles with one another. They look around and sometimes give out some compliments. At the same time, they hold each other in check. Even though they complement one another, they exaggerate their manner to stand out from the rest. (Respondent 56, Louis Vuitton, Korea, Office Worker) They are fashion models participating in a fashion show. Also they are long time colleagues and chill out for a while in the backstage room. Even though they talk each other, they have competitive spirit with one another. (Respondent 65, Louis Vuitton, Korea, Beautician)

4.5. Theme 5. Self-esteem, power and success Theme 5 suggests a strong, inner-directed, sense of personal legitimation expressed by the L'Oréal positioning statement: “I am worth it”. The concept of me-centeredness has been described in modern journalism (Wolfe, 1984). Inner feelings of self-esteem, power, and success were reported to come from the possession or presentation of luxury goods. Luxury goods boost self-esteem and power in the presence of others, including men. This theme emerged equally in all three countries (Australia 11%, France 12% and Korea 11%). Text analysis supports the theme of self-esteem by showing the same highly-weighted term “confidence” in all countries. For French and Australian participants, success and power were often described in a business context, as a business women or leader. Men often were described as subordinates: a driver or employee. Just being the model for Chanel, I greatly appreciate the wonderful opportunity, and to put these Chanel sunnies on I just feel so like a celebrity and my confidence and self-esteem have gone through the roof. (Respondent 29, Chanel, Australia, Receptionist) Everyday women become more confident when they possess a Louis Vuitton handbag. Louis Vuitton connects these women and helps them become fond of each other. (Respondent 70, Louis Vuitton, Korea, Office Worker) They are really elegant but very stressed…Isabelle says: he cannot do this to us! Our driver is so late! Elisabeth says: he is fired…and Bella says calm down he is just late two minutes late…. (Respondent 4, Louis Vuitton, France, Nail Stylist)

4.6. Theme 6. Sensory world of body feelings, nature, beauty, and heritage Consideration of multi-sensory experience is missing in the luxury brand literature (Nowak & Phelps, 1994). Researchers confirm continually that consumers are motivated to buy luxury products for an emotional experience such as sensory satisfaction and pleasure, excitement, and aesthetic beauty (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). This theme emerged in all three countries (Australia 14%, France 17% and Korea 13%), although



relatively more in France than in Australia or Korea. Comments relating to Theme 6 included sensory pleasure and satisfaction stemming from bodily relaxation; mental release; a feeling of softness, warmness, comfort; nature, wellness and health; from connoisseurship, and a sense of history and heritage. Text analysis shows that “feeling”, “world”, “peace”, “romantic” are highly-weighted terms of engagement with the sensory world. But here I am, enjoying my life on this luxurious island…. They love their family and care for their environment. They, like me, are artistic and romantic people who value quality over quantity. They live their lives to the fullest. They enjoy art, colour and culture. Physical health and wellness is a priority. The people in this story are all women who have made friends with one another based on their passion for wellness, nature and the environment. (Respondent 49, Hermès, Australia, Medical Receptionist) This is my first time traveling to the Mediterranean coast. I am in my mid-40s yet I am beautiful and relaxed. I wake up from the warmness of the sun. The soft feelings of silk I can feel without opening my eyes. The splendid and bright colors that I see when I open my eyes. Nothing can match or compare with this luxurious and happy feeling. (Respondent 62, Hermès, Korea, Doctor) Time has stopped. I am alone. No more problems. Just relaxation. I am worth it. I have only one life and this life is mine. Enjoy! I am in paradise. (Respondent 35, Hermès, France, Housewife) A blend of historical periods; authenticity, soul, and elegance built on years of experience. (Respondent 22, Louis Vuitton, France, Salesperson)

4.7. Theme 7. Activation: Consumption, ownership, spending, and shopping This theme is expressive of a communication's motivation to action; of energy and activation, and focuses on an anticipated outcome of advertising. Participants reported a materialistic need for luxurybranded products through their consumption, possession, spending, and shopping activity. This theme emerged relatively more in Korea (10%) than in Australia (5%) or France (8%). Text analysis shows that, for all countries, “shopping” is a highly-weighted term linking to luxury and women. I won a trip to Melbourne and wanted to go shopping. So the first thing I bought was a Chanel shopping bag and away I went. The outfit I chose was perfect and I also found the accessories I needed. (Respondent 14, Chanel, Australia, Clerical staff)The two European girls are very interested in clothes, handbags and shoes. They find each other as they are on the beach. The two girls that met on the beach realise they like the same brand clothes. Attracted by each other's clothes, they run towards each other. They want to buy what the other is wearing as they were attracted by it. (Respondent 43, Hermès, Korea, Dietician)Me, alone on a beach, isolated. I only brought my luggage and my precious Hermès scarves. I will protect them because these scarves are the most important thing in my life. (Respondent 3, Hermès, France, Web designer)

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Results show that while the number of luxury fashion items owned is not a significant covariate (F(1, 232) = 0.48, p = 0.49), fashion involvement is (F(1, 232) = 40.42, p b 0.00). This suggests that narrative transportation may be a more effective process at higher levels of fashion involvement and is not dependent on the extent of respondents' heavy (or light) luxury product consumption. There is no significant effect of age (F(2, 232) = 0.38, p = 0.68). Nor is there a main effect of culture (F(2, 232) = 0.62, p = 0.54). These findings and results from thematic analyses are consistent. The themes that emerged from thematic analyses are equally present across cultures (χ2(12) = 13.09; p = .36). There are no significant differences in transportation effects across the three cultures. The seven themes emerged equally as important routes to luxury brand advertising engagement. Yet the “how” and “why” of participant transportation with themes do vary. The theme most frequently mentioned across cultures is status and beauty aspirations, which indicates a shared motivation to possess luxury branded products to enhance personal identity. Other results may link to cultural differences, particularly between Australia and Korea. The importance of romance and seduction in the Australian sample (20% of responses) may suggest, more than for other cultures, the value of a luxury brand as a vehicle for seduction. The theme of otherdirectedness is particularly present in the Korean (collectivist culture) sample (22%); the theme does not account for as many cues in the Australian (individualist culture) sample (8%). Koreans project themselves as being seen with luxury products, being admired, capturing the attention of the group more so than Australians or French who portray themselves alone or in a one-on-one relationship. Finally, there is the effectiveness of specific luxury brands (F(3, 232) = 10.27, p b 0.00). Post-hoc tests using Bonferroni (Bland & Altman, 1995) procedures indicate that the Gucci advertising (M = 2.4, SD 1.13), overall, leads to less transportation than do the other three brands (p b 0.00). This result is consistent across the three cultural samples. Gucci ads are the most explicit in their message of sexual attraction. In France, for instance, these ads lead to strong comments on their vulgarity and lack of class. Gucci ads are too literal and fail to engage the consumer in a relationship with the brand. Text analysis indicates brand-specific differences in the depth of storytelling involvement with advertising. Brand-specific analysis is provided here in order of nodal complexity and thereby richness of advertising involvement with dominant themes. For Chanel advertising, responses show the greatest of depth in range of response content and in which all seven themes are enacted, possibly through transference of respondent's own self-perceptions onto the model in the ads. Simple ads with no verbal anchoring are young-woman focused; men are peripheral. The ads are “all about me”, yet evoke the brand Chanel, involvement with a “sister” relationship and with associations of Audrey Hepburn. Stylized, fin de siècle, Berlin 1936 advertisements for Louis Vuitton may have appeal to a fantasy life, travel, status aspirations, and other-directedness. Hermès ads provide a story depiction with fairy tale references linking to a brand theme: life as a tale. Images are surreal; there are references to women, life, fantasy, the sensory aesthetic world, and associations with the brand name. Gucci advertisements were, of the four brands, the most explicit with their primary evocation of malefemale sexuality, seduction, wealth and luxury. Yet levels of involvement and engagement appear restricted linguistically (Vygotsky, 1986). 5. Conclusions and implications

4.8. Effects of culture and brands on narrative transportation A univariate analysis of variance was conducted to examine the influence of culture and brands on narrative transportation. The transportation scale (M = 2.96, SD 1.06) was entered as the dependent variable. Fashion involvement (M = 5.4, SD 1.29) and the number of luxury items owned (M = 5.5, SD 3.19) were entered as covariates, and the four luxury brands, the three cultures and age groups were fixed factors.

This study makes an important contribution to luxury brand marketing communications by examining how the implicit meaning of luxury brands is conveyed through narrative transportation and engagement with luxury advertising imagery in different cultural contexts. In accomplishing this, the study advances the theory and practice of advertising effectiveness by surfacing and decoding brand–consumer engagement through narrative transportation. The study has illustrated the theory and method through analysis of varying levels of engagement with


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Implicit symbolism Transference into narrative

Advertising message

Cultural schema

Activation via narrative transportation

Sourceconsumer attachment

Fig. 1. Theoretical model of consumer engagement through narrative transportation.

four iconic luxury brands. While there were no significant differences in transportation effects across the three cultures, the “how” and “why” of participant transportation with themes do vary. The development, in this study, of seven themes in luxury brand advertising builds on the contribution of research into the luxury concept (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004), the hedonic value of luxury (Dion & Arnould, 2011), luxury and status consumption (Goldsmith & Clark, 2012; Goldsmith et al., 2010; O'Cass & Siahtiri, 2013; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004) and conspicuous consumption (O'Cass, 2004; O'Cass & McEwen, 2004; O'Cass & Siahtiri, 2013). The seven themes contribute to a fuller definition of the luxury brand construct. Consumers are transported through their enactment with deeply held, implicit myths and fantasies. Consumers engage when the images projected by luxury brand advertising offer a route to wish fulfillment (Sandler & Sandler, 1978) and the journey towards individuation which is a process of self-realization (Jung, 1940). Cultural distance does not impede empathy with the characters and the transportation to the ad story and hence, advertising engagement. Consumers from different countries and cultures create similar narrative themes for the same luxury brands, and are just as likely to engage in co-authoring of advertisement narratives (Lannon, 1993). The specific terms they employ, however, reflect their unique cultural backgrounds. For example, the ideal images of romance might be constructed in slightly different ways in three countries. The countries of origin of the luxury brands represented in the study (France and Italy) may be more mysterious for Australian and Korean consumers, but more realistic for French consumers who report a greater sense of history and heritage in their experience of luxury brands. Consumers from all three countries are involved with luxury brands in a journey of individuation (Jung, 1940). Korean consumers may, however, may be more likely to experience the journey through a collectivist orientation expressed through social and familial bonds or social comparison. For French consumers perhaps more familiar with French and Italian luxury brands, transportation is more imminent and expressed through affairs, dinners and parties. Transportation as a result of engagement with the advertising is as evident for all three cultures; the vehicle for transportation varies by cultural context. In addition, brand-specific differences in the depth of storytelling involvement with advertising showed that Gucci's explicit messaging mode yields to significantly lower ad engagement across cultures. 5.1. Implications for research and advertising strategy Researchers, so far, posit that consumers from different countries and cultures create different narratives: culturally constituted and socially developed (Phillips & McQuarrie, 2011). The study here identifies consumer storytelling and the researchers' etic analysis of consumers'

own emic interpretations (Woodside, Sood, & Miller, 2008) as a means for identifying even the slightest differences between luxury brand advertising and its effectiveness. The study suggests an opportunity for further insights into the dynamics of three key concepts in advertising research: engagement and involvement (McLaren, 2006; Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983; Wright, 2004), and into the value of elaboration (Cacioppo & Petty, 1984) as an indicator of the first two concepts. Fig. 1 visualizes a theoretical model of consumer engagement through narrative transportation; the model includes the following theoretical propositions for further empirical testing. P1: Implicit symbols and their images are a power force and can attract, engage and motivate. P2: A symbolic narrative is transferable into an effective advertising message. P 3: Consumers seek engagement, that is, interaction with brands and based on consumer-generated influence. P4: A powerful symbolic narrative is a route to narrative transportation. P5: Well-known brands become part of a cultural schema whereby their cultural symbolism influences their ability to leverage brand equity. P6: Once activated, narrative transportation is a means for consumer engagement. Insights into engagement and narrative transportation through advertising messages have relevance for building consumer–brand relationships through motivational message strategies and messagedelivery techniques. This paper identifies seven dominant themes in interaction with luxury brand ads: 1) status aspirations; 2) romance, seduction and porn-chic; 3) involvement with a fantasy world or adventure; 4) other-directedness; 5) self-esteem, power and success; 6) sensory world of beauty, nature, body and feelings; 7) activation. The identification of these themes extends the work of Calder et al. (2009) who have identified two types of engagement: personal (stimulation and inspiration; social facilitation; temporal; self-esteem and civic mindedness; intrinsic enjoyment) and social-interactive (utilitarian; participation and sociating; community). The themes extend the five modes of engagement with fashion advertising: to act, identify, feel, transport, or immerse, identified by Phillips and McQuarrie (2011). Engagement, as Higgins (2006) suggests, is a source of experience; a process that includes a powerful motivational force to make something happen. Hence the usefulness of the working definition of advertising engagement employed in this paper: a participant's emotionally motivating experience of interaction with a brand and with its advertising. Narrative transportation-storylines in luxury brand advertising, when based on implicit messaging, are more likely to motivate consumer engagement. These positive responses point to opportunities for greater psychological ownership (Folse, Guidry Moulard, & Raggio, 2012) of brand communications by consumers. Implicit messaging and engagement with a narrative may be a means for building brand value intensity (Higgins, 2006; Higgins & Scholar, 2009). Advertising practitioners can benefit from insights into transportation. Narrative has an important role in consumer judgment and decision making (Adaval & Wyer, 1998; Shank & Abelson, 1995). The cases of Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel suggest that consumers evaluate products more favorably when their features and attributes are described in an implicit narrative form versus the more explicit case of Gucci. This study proposes that the process of narrative transportation is similar between cultures and leads to equal levels of engagement with the ad. The Gucci explicit messaging mode yields to significantly lower ad engagement across cultures. Surprisingly, cultural distance between the ad story and the culture does not impede the transportation process, as proven by Korean processing of the Hermès ads. Most luxury brand advertising is applied globally with minimal local change-outs. The research here indicates that, if global luxury brand advertising employs powerful implicit imagery whereby consumers are able to project themselves into the storylines, luxury advertisements portraying European characters and referring to European contexts provides an effective vehicle for transportation and hence an effective route to persuasion and to brand engagement.



5.2. Limitations and future research This study has several limitations relevant for carrying out future studies. While we selected four of the best-known and popular luxury fashion brands, these brands are French and Italian. Additionally, while three countries were selected to explore the cultural differences or similarities of ad engagement for the same four luxury brands, the research does not explain the underlying mechanism or underpinning theories for the differences or similarities. Future research should examine empirically the findings of this study and provide an explanation of underlying cultural differences in the modes of engagement with the advertising narrative. Finally, this study provides an opportunity for further insights into the dynamics of important constructs including engagement, involvement, transportation, elaboration in advertising and persuasion. Future studies could explore further the interactions among the constructs. 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