IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nms/nomsmr/10.15358-2511-8676-2020-2-3-84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

We're So Bad It's Funny - Effects of Using Humour in the Marketing Communication of Low-Quality Service Providers

Author

Listed:
  • Danatzis, Ilias
  • Möller, Jana
  • Mathies, Christine

Abstract

Low-quality service providers who are unable or unwilling to compete through superior performance increasingly use humour in their marketing communication to generate positive service outcomes. Yet it remains unclear whether using humour to communicate poor service quality is indeed effective. Based on an online experiment in the context of budget hotels, this study finds that using humour to deliberately communicate poor service quality leads to higher purchase intentions and service quality evaluations by reducing both technical and functional service quality expectations. Theoretically, this study extends humour and service research by providing first empirical evidence for the viability of using humour as an effective tool for leveraging customer expectations of service quality rather than improving service performance. Managerially, these insights highlight how reducing customer expectations is an alternative strategy for attracting new customers and for achieving superior quality evaluations.

Suggested Citation

  • Danatzis, Ilias & Möller, Jana & Mathies, Christine, 2020. "We're So Bad It's Funny - Effects of Using Humour in the Marketing Communication of Low-Quality Service Providers," SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 4(2-3), pages 84-99.
    • Handle: RePEc:nms:nomsmr:10.15358/2511-8676-2020-2-3-84
    DOI: 10.15358/2511-8676-2020-2-3-84
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.15358/2511-8676-2020-2-3-84
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.15358/2511-8676-2020-2-3-84?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas C. Soteriou & Richard B. Chase, 2000. "A Robust Optimization Approach for Improving Service Quality," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 264-286, May.
    2. Scott, Cliff & Klein, David M & Bryant, Jennings, 1990. "Consumer Response to Humor in Advertising: A Series of Field Studies Using Behavioral Observation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(4), pages 498-501, March.
    3. Martin Eisend, 2011. "How humor in advertising works: A meta-analytic test of alternative models," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 115-132, June.
    4. Tülin Erdem & Michael P. Keane, 1996. "Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Capturing Dynamic Brand Choice Processes in Turbulent Consumer Goods Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20.
    5. van Dolen, Willemijn M. & de Ruyter, Ko & Streukens, Sandra, 2008. "The effect of humor in electronic service encounters," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 160-179, April.
    6. Jerónimo García-Fernández & Pablo Gálvez-Ruíz & Jesús Fernández-Gavira & Luisa Vélez-Colón & Brenda Pitts & Ainara Bernal-García, 2018. "The effects of service convenience and perceived quality on perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty in low-cost fitness centers," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 250-262, July.
    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. Raithel, Sascha & Jacob, Frank & Benkenstein, Martin, 2020. "Tuning the Sounds of Service: Essays in Honour of Michael Kleinaltenkamp," SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 4(2-3), pages 70-74.

    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. Tung Moi Chiew & Christine Mathies & Paul Patterson, 2019. "The effect of humour usage on customer’s service experiences," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(1), pages 109-127, February.
    2. Giang Huong Duong & Wann-Yih Wu & Long Hoang Le, 2020. "The effects of brand page characteristics on customer brand engagement: moderating roles of community involvement and comedy production contents," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(5), pages 531-545, September.
    3. Noah Gans & George Knox & Rachel Croson, 2007. "Simple Models of Discrete Choice and Their Performance in Bandit Experiments," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 383-408, December.
    4. Andreas Lanz & Gregor Reich & Ole Wilms, 2022. "Adaptive grids for the estimation of dynamic models," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 179-238, June.
    5. Xiong, Siqin & Yuan, Yi & Yao, Jia & Bai, Bo & Ma, Xiaoming, 2023. "Exploring consumer preferences for electric vehicles based on the random coefficient logit model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    6. V. Srinivasan & G. Shainesh & Anand K. Sharma, 2015. "An approach to prioritize customer-based, cost-effective service enhancements," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(14), pages 747-762, October.
    7. Susumu Imai & Yuka Ohno, 2018. "Bridging Marketing and Economics: Introduction to Special Issue," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 255-257, September.
    8. Dan Horsky & Sanjog Misra & Paul Nelson, 2006. "Observed and Unobserved Preference Heterogeneity in Brand-Choice Models," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 322-335, 07-08.
    9. Baxendale, Shane & Macdonald, Emma K. & Wilson, Hugh N., 2015. "The Impact of Different Touchpoints on Brand Consideration," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 235-253.
    10. Mira Frick & Ryota Iijima & Tomasz Strzalecki, 2019. "Dynamic Random Utility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(6), pages 1941-2002, November.
    11. ILes, Richard, 2017. "Government Doctor Absenteeism And Its Effects On Consumer Demand In Rural North India," Working Papers 2018-9, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, revised 12 2018.
    12. Mark Coppejans & Donna Gilleskie & Holger Sieg & Koleman Strumpf, 2007. "Consumer Demand under Price Uncertainty: Empirical Evidence from the Market for Cigarettes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 510-521, August.
    13. Jie Bai, 2016. "Melons as Lemons: Asymmetric Information, Consumer Learning and Seller Reputation," Natural Field Experiments 00540, The Field Experiments Website.
    14. Khwaja, Ahmed & Sloan, Frank & Chung, Sukyung, 2006. "Learning about individual risk and the decision to smoke," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 683-699, July.
    15. Tat Y. Chan & Jia Li & Lamar Pierce, 2014. "Learning from Peers: Knowledge Transfer and Sales Force Productivity Growth," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 463-484, July.
    16. Azam, Nouman & Zhang, Yan & Yao, JingTao, 2017. "Evaluation functions and decision conditions of three-way decisions with game-theoretic rough sets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(2), pages 704-714.
    17. Vishal Narayan & Vithala R. Rao & Carolyne Saunders, 2011. "How Peer Influence Affects Attribute Preferences: A Bayesian Updating Mechanism," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(2), pages 368-384, 03-04.
    18. Andrew Ching & Susumu Imai & Masakazu Ishihara & Neelam Jain, 2012. "A practitioner’s guide to Bayesian estimation of discrete choice dynamic programming models," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 151-196, June.
    19. Yingjie Zhang & Beibei Li & Ramayya Krishnan, 2020. "Learning Individual Behavior Using Sensor Data: The Case of Global Positioning System Traces and Taxi Drivers," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1301-1321, December.
    20. Karsten Hansen & Vishal Singh & Pradeep Chintagunta, 2006. "Understanding Store-Brand Purchase Behavior Across Categories," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 75-90, 01-02.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nms:nomsmr:10.15358/2511-8676-2020-2-3-84. 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: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nomos.de/ .

    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.