Subject choice as an advertising strategy: 'We' or 'brand name'
(A2025-125870)

AUTHORS

Hyeyeon Park, Sungkyunkwan University; Youngjee Han, Sungkyunkwan University; Jerry Han, Sungkyunkwan University; Geonho Sim, Sungkyunkwan University

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how the way a brand is referenced in an advertisement, combined with the message focus, influences brand evaluation. Across three experiments, we demonstrate that using pronoun subjects (e.g., we, us) enhances brand evaluations in warmth-focused advertisements, while using brand name subjects improves evaluations in competence-focused advertisements. Our findings show that these effects are mediated by processing fluency, as the alignment between the message subject and focus facilitates easier processing. These insights offer valuable contributions to the message-framing literature and provide practical implications for designing more effective advertising strategies.