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Current Issue Summary
December 2021 (Vol. 61, Issue 4)

How to Use a Spokesperson’s Smile Effectively: Smile Intensity, Consumer Self-Construal, and Brand Relationship Determine Ad Effectiveness
This study seeks to help service brands find the right match between their type of consumer and their endorser’s smile. Authors Chun-Tuan Chang and Yu-Kang Lee (both at National Sun Yat-sen University [NSYU]), Hsiao-Ching Lee (National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology,  Taiwan), and Hui-Wen Chang (Cathay Life Insurance Co.; Hui-Wen coauthored the study when at NYSU) explored responses to two different types of smiles. The first was a broad smile inferring warmth and the second a slight smile, inferring competency. The focus: consumers’ self-construal level—how they see themselves versus others—as well as “relationship norms” to the brand. Drawing from self-construal theory, the researchers identified two types of consumers: interdependents (people who feel interconnected with others) and independents (people who carry out a more of a transactional relationship with others). In Study 1, self-construal was assessed using a 12-item scale with questions such as “My happiness depends on the happiness of those around me,” or “I enjoy being unique and different from others.” An online experiment was conducted with attitudes toward the brand and purchase as dependent measures.

Participants viewed an ad from a fictitious travel agency based on a particular combination of smile intensity and relationship norm. A “communal relationship norm” implies that the consumer sees the endorser as a friend and genuinely concerned about their well-being. By contrast, an “exchange relationship norm” implies a quid pro quo and the expectation of prompt repayment for received benefits. Study 2 used an ad for a fitness center, with the dependent measure being the number of tickets purchased as indicative of relationship norm. The researchers then used iMotion 6.4 software to evaluate the joy index for the smile intensity of both broad and slight smile conditions. Next, they objectively measured the smile with automated face recognition technology. Their methods suggest that service marketers could develop and test their spokesperson’s smile.

Among the takeaways:

  • An endorser’s broad smile is more persuasive for consumers with interdependent self-construal, as they perceive it to be warm and friendly, fitting with the communal relationship they have with the brand.
  • A slight smile is more persuasive for consumers with independent self-construal, who viewed the endorser as more competent, considering their exchange relationship with the brand.
  • Service marketers might be able to sway customers’ perceptions of the relationship norm and self-construal to match their spokesperson’s smile.

Read the full article here.