IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v67y2014i2p50-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Appealing to the imagination: Effective and ethical marketing of religion

Author

Listed:
  • Abela, Andrew V.

Abstract

This paper defines and develops the concept of ‘appealing to the imagination,’ a type of marketing communication designed to engage the imagination of the target audience, which presents aesthetic, poetic, and truthful characteristics. The paper proposes ‘appealing to the imagination’ as an effective and ethical technique for marketing religion, arguing that appeals to the imagination persuade audiences effectively and communicate religious claims with authenticity and tolerance. The case of the Focolare, a rapidly growing religious movement that uses appeals to the imagination extensively and successfully, illustrates these propositions.

Suggested Citation

  • Abela, Andrew V., 2014. "Appealing to the imagination: Effective and ethical marketing of religion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 50-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:67:y:2014:i:2:p:50-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.03.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296313001057
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.03.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sherry, John F, Jr & Schouten, John W, 2002. "A Role for Poetry in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(2), pages 218-234, September.
    2. Sherman Ann & James F. Devlin, 2000. "American and British Clergy Attitudes Towards Marketing Activities: A Comparative Study," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 47-61, October.
    3. Murray, Jeff B & Ozanne, Julie L, 1991. "The Critical Imagination: Emancipatory Interests in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(2), pages 129-144, September.
    4. Patricia Werhane, 2008. "Mental Models, Moral Imagination and System Thinking in the Age of Globalization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 78(3), pages 463-474, March.
    5. Martin, Drew, 2010. "Uncovering unconscious memories and myths for understanding international tourism behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 372-383, April.
    6. Burroughs, James E & Rindfleisch, Aric, 2002. "Materialism and Well-Being: A Conflicting Values Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 348-370, December.
    7. van Laer, Tom & de Ruyter, Ko, 2010. "In stories we trust: How narrative apologies provide cover for competitive vulnerability after integrity-violating blog posts," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 164-174.
    8. Merchant, Altaf & Ford, John B. & Sargeant, Adrian, 2010. "Charitable organizations' storytelling influence on donors' emotions and intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(7), pages 754-762, July.
    9. Werhane, Patricia H., 1998. "Moral Imagination and the Search for Ethical Decision-Making in Management," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(S1), pages 75-98, January.
    10. Barbara J. Phillips & Edward F. McQuarrie, 2010. "Narrative and Persuasion in Fashion Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(3), pages 368-392, October.
    11. Scott Vitell & Jatinder Singh & Joseph Paolillo, 2007. "Consumers’ Ethical Beliefs: The Roles of Money, Religiosity and Attitude toward Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 73(4), pages 369-379, July.
    12. Murray, Jeff B & Ozanne, Julie L & Shapiro, Jon M, 1994. "Revitalizing the Critical Imagination: Unleashing the Crouched Tiger," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 559-565, December.
    13. Scott Vitell, 2009. "The Role of Religiosity in Business and Consumer Ethics: A Review of the Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 155-167, November.
    14. McVea, John F., 2009. "A field study of entrepreneurial decision-making and moral imagination," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 491-504, September.
    15. Gartner, William B., 2007. "Entrepreneurial narrative and a science of the imagination," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 613-627, September.
    16. Paul M. Leonardi, 2011. "Innovation Blindness: Culture, Frames, and Cross-Boundary Problem Construction in the Development of New Technology Concepts," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 347-369, April.
    17. Hsu, Shih-Yun & Dehuang, Ning & Woodside, Arch G., 2009. "Storytelling research of consumers' self-reports of urban tourism experiences in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 1223-1254, December.
    18. Woodside, Arch G., 2008. "Using the forced metaphor-elicitation technique (FMET) to meet animal companions within self," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 480-487, May.
    19. Vidaver-Cohen, Deborah, 1998. "Moral Imagination in Organizational Problem-Solving: An Institutional Perspective," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(S1), pages 123-148, January.
    20. MacInnis, Deborah J & Price, Linda L, 1987. "The Role of Imagery in Information Processing: Review and Extensions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 473-491, March.
    21. Cathy Driscoll & Margaret McKee, 2007. "Restorying a Culture of Ethical and Spiritual Values: A Role for Leader Storytelling," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 205-217, June.
    22. Mohammed Rawwas & Ziad Swaidan & Jamal Al-Khatib, 2006. "Does Religion Matter? A Comparison Study of the Ethical Beliefs of Marketing Students of Religious and Secular Universities in Japan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 69-86, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Engelland, Brian T., 2014. "Religion, humanism, marketing, and the consumption of socially responsible products, services, and ideas: Introduction to a special topic section," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 1-4.
    2. Keel, Astrid L. & Tran, An T.K., 2023. "Increasing small nonprofits’ influence through strategic storytelling," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 359-370.
    3. Jiménez, Alfredo & Jiang, Guoliang Frank & Petersen, Bent & Gammelgaard, Jens, 2019. "Within-country religious diversity and the performance of private participation infrastructure projects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 13-25.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Denni Arli & Fandy Tjiptono, 2014. "The End of Religion? Examining the Role of Religiousness, Materialism, and Long-Term Orientation on Consumer Ethics in Indonesia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 385-400, September.
    2. Merchant, Altaf & Rose, Gregory & Martin, Drew & Choi, Sunmee & Gour, Mohit, 2017. "Cross-cultural folk-tale-elicitation research on the perceived power, humanistic and religious symbolisms, and use of money," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 113-119.
    3. Stylos, Nikolaos & Bellou, Victoria & Andronikidis, Andreas & Vassiliadis, Chris A., 2017. "Linking the dots among destination images, place attachment, and revisit intentions: A study among British and Russian tourists," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 15-29.
    4. Yong You Nie & Austin Rong Da Liang & Dun Ji Chen, 2017. "Assessing the effect of organic-food short storytelling on consumer response," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(15-16), pages 968-985, December.
    5. Mortimer, Gary & Fazal-e-Hasan, Syed Muhammad & Grimmer, Martin & Grimmer, Louise, 2020. "Explaining the impact of consumer religiosity, perceived risk and moral potency on purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    6. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2012. "Does Religion Matter to Equity Pricing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 491-518, December.
    7. Elodie Gentina & Carole Daniel & Thomas Li-Ping Tang, 2021. "Mindfulness Reduces Avaricious Monetary Attitudes and Enhances Ethical Consumer Beliefs: Mindfulness Training, Timing, and Practicing Matter," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 301-323, October.
    8. Rafi Chowdhury & Mario Fernando, 2013. "The Role of Spiritual Well-Being and Materialism in Determining Consumers’ Ethical Beliefs: An Empirical Study with Australian Consumers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 61-79, March.
    9. Yuh-Jia Chen & Thomas Tang, 2013. "The Bright and Dark Sides of Religiosity Among University Students: Do Gender, College Major, and Income Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 531-553, July.
    10. Tom Laer, 2014. "The Means to Justify the End: Combating Cyber Harassment in Social Media," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 85-98, August.
    11. Abhijit Patwardhan & Megan Keith & Scott Vitell, 2012. "Religiosity, Attitude Toward Business, and Ethical Beliefs: Hispanic Consumers in the United States," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 61-70, September.
    12. Hajer Bachouche & Ouidade Sabri, 2019. "Empowerment in Marketing: Synthesis, Critical Review, and Agenda for Future Research," Working Papers 2019-001, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    13. Lee, Woojin & Gretzel, Ulrike, 2012. "Designing persuasive destination websites: A mental imagery processing perspective," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1270-1280.
    14. Rafi M. M. I. Chowdhury & Denni Arli & Felix Septianto, 2024. "How Religiosity Affects Attitudes Toward Brands That Utilize LGBTQ-Themed Advertising," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 193(1), pages 63-88, August.
    15. Yunxia Zhu, 2015. "The Role of Qing (Positive Emotions) and Li 1 (Rationality) in Chinese Entrepreneurial Decision Making: A Confucian Ren-Yi Wisdom Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(4), pages 613-630, February.
    16. Dessart, Laurence & Pitardi, Valentina, 2019. "How stories generate consumer engagement: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 183-195.
    17. Fahri Karakas & Emine Sarigollu & Selcuk Uygur, 2017. "Exploring the Diversity of Virtues Through the Lens of Moral Imagination: A Qualitative Inquiry into Organizational Virtues in the Turkish Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 731-744, April.
    18. Marjorie Cooper & Chris Pullig, 2013. "I’m Number One! Does Narcissism Impair Ethical Judgment Even for the Highly Religious?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(1), pages 167-176, January.
    19. Yim, Mark Yi-Cheon & Baek, Tae Hyun & Sauer, Paul L., 2018. "I See Myself in Service and Product Consumptions: Measuring Self-transformative Consumption Vision (SCV) Evoked by Static and Rich Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 122-139.
    20. Ardelet, Caroline & Slavich, Barbara & de Kerviler, Gwarlann, 2015. "Self-referencing narratives to predict consumers' preferences in the luxury industry: A longitudinal study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 2037-2044.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:67:y:2014:i:2:p:50-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.