Pets In Advertising or How to Influence Consumers?

Authors

  • Erika KULCSÁR Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: erika.kulcsar@ubbcluj.ro. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4295-0931
  • Anikó HARMATI Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: harmatianci@gmail.com.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbnegotia.2024.1.03

Keywords:

pets, advertisements, parameters, message

Abstract

Animals have always played an important role in the history of humanity. We only have to think of prehistoric cave paintings, or the relationship between our grandparents and animals, or recall the iconic films Alpha or Hachi, A Dog’s Tale. However, it is important to note that the nature of the relationship between animals and humans has changed over time. Whereas in the past their relationship was mainly characterised by respect: maintaining their personal independence; nowadays this relationship has taken on a different dimension, as pets – in most families – live in the same household, receiving the same level of attention as the rest of the family. The primary objectives of this study are (1) to identify the product/service categories that are not targeted at dogs and pets, but they appear as the primary communicators in the promotion of the product or service, (2) to identify the characteristics that fundamentally define this type of advertising.

Article history: Received: November 22, 2023; Reviewed: February 2, 2024;
Accepted: March 7, 2024; Available online: March 29, 2024.

JEL classification: M37.

References

Braunwart, N., (2015), Animals in Advertising: Eliciting Powerful Consumer Response, Resulting in Enhanced Brand Engagement, University Honors Theses: Portland State University, available at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1214&context=honorstheses.

Brooks, J., (2018), The Role of Narratives in Eliciting Strong Audience Response to Emotional Commercials, Degree Bachelor of Arts, San Louis Obispo: Faculty of the Communication Studies Department California Polytechnic State University, available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1256&context=comssp.

Darab, Á., Vígh, É., Buda, A., Barna, G. and co., (2016), Állatszimbólumtár [Animal symbol repository], Ballasi Publishing House, Budapest, available at: http://real.mtak.hu/93694/1/allatszimbolumtar_mtmt.pdf.

Hirschman, E. C., (2003), Men, Dogs, Guns, and Cars-The Semiotics of Rugged Individualism, Journal of Advertising, 32(1), 9–22, available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4622146.

James, W., McMellon, C. A., & Torres-Baumgarten, G., (2004), Dogs and cats rule: A new insight into segmentation, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 13, 70–77, https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740133.

Jia, L., Yang, X., & Jiang, Y., (2022), The Pet Exposure Effect: Exploring the Differential Impact of Dogs Versus Cats on Consumer Mindsets, Journal of Marketing, 86(5), 42–57, https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221078036.

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L., (2006), Marketingmenedzsment [Marketing management], Akadémiai Publishing House, Budapest.

Lancendorfer, K. M., Atkin, J. L., & Reece, B. B., (2008), Animals in advertising: Love dogs? Love the ad!, Journal of Business Research, 61(5), 384–391, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.busres.2006.08.011.

Lennklo, D., (2010), Anthropomorphic animals in commercials: Why fake animals tell good stories, Master’s thesis in visual culture, Sweden: Department of arts and visual culture, Lund University, available at: https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1601027&fileOId=1601028.

Lerner, J. E. & Kalof, L., (1999), The animal text: Message and meaning in television advertisements, Sociological Quarterly, 40(4), 565–586, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1999.tb00568.x.

McEwen, J. W., (2008), Forța brandului [Force of Brands], ALLFA Publishing House, București.

Mueller, T., Wingrove, T. and Murray, S., (2020), The human response to pet rescue TV commercials, Pet Behaviour Science, 9, 34–44, available at: https://helvia.uco.es/bitstream/handle/10396/19976/petbs_9_3.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1.

Myers, S., Sen, S., Syrdal, H., & Woodroof, P., (2022), The impact of Persuasion knowledge cues on social media engagement: a look at pet influencer marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 32(1), 43-60, https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2022.2093224.

Olins W., (2010), Despre brand [About brands], 2nd Edition, Publisher Comunicare.ro., București.

Spears, N. E., Mowen, J. C., & Chakraborty, G., (1996), Symbolic role of animals in print advertising: Content analysis and conceptual development, Journal of Business Research, 37(2), 87–95, https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(96)00060-4

Stone, S. M., (2014), The psychology of using animals in advertising. In Hawaii University International Conferences Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, 1–26, available at: http://huichawaii.org/assets/stone_sherril_the_psychology_of_using_animals_in_advertising_ahs2014.pdf.

Veres, Z., (2005), Szolgáltatásmarketing [Service marketing], KJK Kerszöv Publishing House, Budapest.

Online sources accessed between: 06. 02.2023. – 26. 02. 2023:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1349774/number-of-pets-in-poland-and-major-european-countries/?locale=en (Table 1)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1349909/number-of-pet-stores-in-selected-european-countries/?locale=en (Table 1)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1349847/value-of-retail-sales-of-pet-food-in-poland-and-major-european-countries/?locale=en (Table 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdfCyCt40xs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uATYxMydfoY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86oToV6ZHZA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koLrsIDaKrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I958KJ6kqBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t6bLugtJkQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzszijId81Q

https://youtu.be/w6KdpQhGcLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6KdpQhGcLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglHrUkY7dQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuzi6Ys-jNc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56b09ZyLaWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vERc4bg98X4&t=58s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk2B8988ws0.

Downloads

Published

2024-03-29

How to Cite

KULCSÁR, E. ., & HARMATI, A. . (2024). Pets In Advertising or How to Influence Consumers?. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Negotia, 69(1), 55–68. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbnegotia.2024.1.03

Issue

Section

Articles

Most read articles by the same author(s)