The appeal of blurred imagery: Enhancing advertising and brand attitudes for luxury goods

Blurred imagery is a commonly employed tactic by luxury marketers. Yet, there has been little research on how blurred imagery in advertising is processed by consumers and whether it yields positive results. To address this gap, we look at whether the effect of the use of blurred imagery depends on the type of luxury goods being promoted and on the degree to which an individual consumer is motivated by social influence motives. We first conduct an image-analytics study to examine whether the level of blurring in a luxury-goods images influences the liking of images. Using a theoretical framework based on perceptual fit, two additional studies examine the impact of blurred imagery on ad and brand attitudes. The results show that for luxury products consumed privately and among consumers with low conspicuity, there is a stronger perceptual fit for blurred imagery in an advertisement, thereby resulting in more positive attitudes toward the ad and the brand.