Temperature and emotions: Effects of physical temperature on responses to emotional advertising

Pascal Bruno, Valentyna Melnyk and Franziska Völckner

International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2017, vol. 34, issue 1, 302-320

Abstract: In colloquial speech, people frequently link emotions to temperature (e.g., “warm love” or “cold fear”). Likewise, in the business world, the use of emotionally warm and cold appeals reflects an ongoing trend in advertising. However, the conditions in which emotionally warm versus cold appeals are more effective remain unclear. Drawing on homeostasis theory, the authors investigate whether and why feeling physically warm versus cold influences the effectiveness of emotional advertising appeals. Using both laboratory experiments and field data, they show that emotions play a homeostatic role. Specifically, they demonstrate that the effects of particular emotional stimuli depend not only on physical temperatures per se but on homeostasis/thermoregulation. Namely, when consumers are below their homeostatic optimum (i.e., physically cold), they perceive emotionally cold stimuli less favorably (than emotionally warm stimuli) as these stimuli bring them further away from the optimum. Likewise, when consumers are above their homeostatic optimum (i.e., physically hot), they perceive emotionally warm stimuli less favorably (than emotionally cold stimuli) as these stimuli bring them further away from the optimum. Finally, once consumers are at their homeostatic optimum, they perceive both emotionally warm and cold stimuli similarly favorably. These results have implications for a wide range of marketing activities (in particular advertising) across seasons and international markets.

Keywords: Emotional advertising; International advertising; Environmental effects; Ambient temperature; Homeostasis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811616301148
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:34:y:2017:i:1:p:302-320

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.08.005

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Research in Marketing is currently edited by Roland Rust

More articles in International Journal of Research in Marketing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().