Date of Award
Spring 2019
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Advisor(s)
Dawn Lerman
Abstract
Increasingly, consumers across the country and across the political spectrum are seeking brands that share and exemplify their political values. However, as brands debate about whether or not to jump into the increasingly divisive political arena, there is still little to no research about how marketing and messaging techniques can help impact consumer brand attitude and purchase intention within the process. The Negativity Effect suggests that negatively framed messages are often perceived as stronger, more persuasive, and of greater weight, highlighting the potential for negatively framed messages to alter brand attitudes and consumer behavior more than positively framed messages. Research also suggests that consumer’s consumption is often regulated by each person’s perceived congruence (or incongruence) with a brand to his or her self image. Through surveys, I attempted to assess how consumer’s brand attitude and purchase intention are altered after political stances are made, and how framing, as well as political ideological congruence (or incongruence), impacted that change. Ultimately, I found that framing does not alter brand attitude for either population - ideologically congruent and ideologically incongruent. Framing also did not alter purchase intention for congruent groups, but approached a significant relationship for incongruent groups.
Recommended Citation
McCullen, Molly, "Researching the Impact of Message Framing on Brand Attitude when Brand’s Take Political Stances" (2019). Gabelli School of Business Honors Thesis Collection. 107.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/gabelli_thesis/107
