Current Issue Summary
Dec 2023 (Vol. 64, Issue 4)
How Does Retargeting Work for Different Gen Z Mobile Users? Customer Expectations and Evaluations of Retargeting via the Expectancy-Theory Lens
There’s an abundance of research on retargeting, but the findings are mixed. Some researchers advocate for complex and prolonged retargeting campaigns that would prompt customer acquisition or conversion to occur. Others argue a second round of retargeted ads isn’t necessary and could even backfire. This disagreement leaves yet two other critical issues unresolved, according to authors Yllka Azemi (Indiana University Northwest) and Wilson Ozuem (Anglia Ruskin University). “The findings do not provide insight into customers who are at an early stage of decision making,” the authors of this study write. Nor do these previous studies address the many factors—such as emotions, critical thinking, communication devices—that influence consumers’ perceptions.
Addressing these two issues, Azemi and Ozuem used (the late) Canadian psychologist Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory to discern customers’ motivations to engage with the first retargeted ad and convert after the second retargeted ad. They conducted in-depth interviews with 40 Gen Z mobile phone customers 18-to-24 years old in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland and Kosovo, about their experiences of retargeted, luxury fashion ads. “Results show that customers share similarities in their evaluation of the first retargeting advertisement,” but differences emerge in evaluating the second retargeted ad. Among the takeaways:
- “This study provides a model that supports practitioners’ application of retargeted advertisements as a dyadic process that leads to customer engagement with the first retargeted advertisement and conversion with the second.
- “The model serves as a set of guidelines for luxury fashion retailers to successfully acquire Gen Z customers.
- “The authors decipher differing expectations and evaluations for three types of customers (indifferent, seeker, and meticulous) that luxury fashion retailers should retarget.”