IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03603041.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How rich is too rich? Visual design elements in digital marketing communications

Author

Listed:
  • Yashar Bashirzadeh

    (ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business)

  • Robert Mai

    (EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management)

  • Corinne Faure

    (EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management)

Abstract

Companies are increasingly including innovative visual design elements such as animations and pictographs in digital communication. While both elements can be beneficial in exchanges with their customers, we propose that combining them can have negative effects on communication effectiveness. Animations and pictographs enhance digital communication, essentially through increased perceptions of enrichment, but these elements also raise perceptions of clutter. As they enrich a message in unique ways, processing these different types of visual design elements requires distinct cognitive resources such that, when combined, clutter perceptions dominate the recipient's perceptions and behaviors, thus paradoxically offsetting their positive effects. This interplay may not only undermine message outcomes but even spill over to downstream behavioral outcomes. In a large-scale randomized field experiment in cooperation with a mobile app company, we find that including animations (GIFs) and pictographs (emojis) together damages message outcomes (increasing unsubscriptions) and downstream outcomes (reducing in-app time) compared with what happens when these elements are deployed separately. We elaborate on the processing of the text and visual elements from this field experiment in two lab experiments, including an eye-tracking study. Finally, in two further online studies, we seek to establish whether the proposed mechanisms depend on the number of visuals or the types of pictographs employed.

Suggested Citation

  • Yashar Bashirzadeh & Robert Mai & Corinne Faure, 2022. "How rich is too rich? Visual design elements in digital marketing communications," Post-Print hal-03603041, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03603041
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2021.06.008
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://rennes-sb.hal.science/hal-03603041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rennes-sb.hal.science/hal-03603041/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2021.06.008?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. S. Adam Brasel & Henrik Hagtvedt, 2016. "Living brands: consumer responses to animated brand logos," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 639-653, September.
    2. Brett R. Gordon & Florian Zettelmeyer & Neha Bhargava & Dan Chapsky, 2019. "A Comparison of Approaches to Advertising Measurement: Evidence from Big Field Experiments at Facebook," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 193-225, March.
    3. Kevin L. Sample & Henrik Hagtvedt & S. Adam Brasel, 2020. "Components of visual perception in marketing contexts: a conceptual framework and review," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 405-421, May.
    4. Navdeep S. Sahni & Dan Zou & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2017. "Do Targeted Discount Offers Serve as Advertising? Evidence from 70 Field Experiments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2688-2705, August.
    5. Daniel Zantedeschi & Eleanor McDonnell Feit & Eric T. Bradlow, 2017. "Measuring Multichannel Advertising Response," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2706-2728, August.
    6. King, Gary & Zeng, Langche, 2001. "Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 137-163, January.
    7. Smith, Leah Warfield & Rose, Randall L., 2020. "Service with a smiley face: Emojional contagion in digitally mediated relationships," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 301-319.
    8. Navdeep S. Sahni & S. Christian Wheeler & Pradeep Chintagunta, 2018. "Personalization in Email Marketing: The Role of Noninformative Advertising Content," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(2), pages 236-258, March.
    9. Das, Gopal & Wiener, Hillary J.D. & Kareklas, Ioannis, 2019. "To emoji or not to emoji? Examining the influence of emoji on consumer reactions to advertising," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 147-156.
    10. Jeffrey L. Jenkins & Bonnie Brinton Anderson & Anthony Vance & C. Brock Kirwan & David Eargle, 2016. "More Harm Than Good? How Messages That Interrupt Can Make Us Vulnerable," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 880-896, December.
    11. Franziska Günzel-Jensen & Anna B. Holm, 2015. "Freemium Business Models as the Foundation for Growing an E-business Venture: A Multiple Case Study of Industry Leaders," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 11(1), pages 77-101.
    12. Choi, Jungsil & Li, Yexin Jessica & Rangan, Priyamvadha & Yin, Bingqing & Singh, Surendra N., 2020. "Opposites attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness of emotional charity appeals," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 644-660.
    13. Mai, Robert & Hoffmann, Stefan & Schwarz, Uta & Niemand, Thomas & Seidel, Jana, 2014. "The Shifting Range of Optimal Web Site Complexity," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 101-116.
    14. Rutz, Oliver & Aravindakshan, Ashwin & Rubel, Olivier, 2019. "Measuring and forecasting mobile game app engagement," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 185-199.
    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. Tobias Maiberger & David Schindler & Nicole Koschate-Fischer, 2024. "Let’s face it: When and how facial emojis increase the persuasiveness of electronic word of mouth," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 119-139, January.
    2. Volodymyr Nesterenko & Radoslaw Miskiewicz & Rafis Abazov, 2023. "Marketing Communications in the Era of Digital Transformation," Virtual Economics, The London Academy of Science and Business, vol. 6(1), pages 57-70, March.

    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. Yashar Bashirzadeh & Robert Mai & Corinne Faure, 2022. "How rich is too rich? Visual design elements in digital marketing communications," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-03603041, HAL.
    2. Bashirzadeh, Yashar & Mai, Robert & Faure, Corinne, 2022. "How rich is too rich? Visual design elements in digital marketing communications," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 58-76.
    3. Paul B. Ellickson & Wreetabrata Kar & James C. Reeder, 2023. "Estimating Marketing Component Effects: Double Machine Learning from Targeted Digital Promotions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 704-728, July.
    4. Rodriguez, Virginie & Sangle-Ferriere, Marion, 2023. "Do supermarkets’ emails have any value for their customers? The effect of emails’ content and interestingness on customers’ attitude and engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Goic, Marcel & Rojas, Andrea & Saavedra, Ignacio, 2021. "The Effectiveness of Triggered Email Marketing in Addressing Browse Abandonments," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 118-145.
    6. Hongshuang (Alice) Li, 2022. "Converting free users to paid subscribers in the SaaS context: The impact of marketing touchpoints, message content, and usage," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(5), pages 2185-2203, May.
    7. Arun Gopalakrishnan & Young-Hoon Park, 2021. "The Impact of Coupons on the Visit-to-Purchase Funnel," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 48-61, January.
    8. Tobias Maiberger & David Schindler & Nicole Koschate-Fischer, 2024. "Let’s face it: When and how facial emojis increase the persuasiveness of electronic word of mouth," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 119-139, January.
    9. Ma, Ruijing & Wang, Weisha, 2021. "Smile or pity? Examine the impact of emoticon valence on customer satisfaction and purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 443-456.
    10. Nguyen Nguyen & Joseph Johnson & Michael Tsiros, 2024. "Unlimited Testing: Let’s Test Your Emails with AI," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 419-439, March.
    11. Davide Christian Orazi & Bhoomija Ranjan & Yimin Cheng, 2023. "Non-face emojis in digital marketing: Effects, contingencies, and strategic recommendations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 570-597, May.
    12. Garrett Johnson & Julian Runge & Eric Seufert, 2022. "Privacy-Centric Digital Advertising: Implications for Research," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 9(1), pages 49-54, June.
    13. Brett R Gordon & Kinshuk Jerath & Zsolt Katona & Sridhar Narayanan & Jiwoong Shin & Kenneth C Wilbur, 2019. "Inefficiencies in Digital Advertising Markets," Papers 1912.09012, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2020.
    14. Kurt P. Munz & Minah H. Jung & Adam L. Alter, 2020. "Name Similarity Encourages Generosity: A Field Experiment in Email Personalization," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(6), pages 1071-1091, November.
    15. Thomas W. Frick & Rodrigo Belo & Rahul Telang, 2023. "Incentive Misalignments in Programmatic Advertising: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1665-1686, March.
    16. Campbell, Colin & Runge, Julian & Bates, Kenneth & Haefele, Stacey & Jayaraman, Neeraj, 2022. "It’s time to close the experimentation gap in advertising: Confronting myths surrounding ad testing," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 437-446.
    17. Geoffrey Fisher & Matthew McGranaghan & Jura Liaukonyte & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2023. "Price promotions, beneficiary framing, and mental accounting," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 147-181, June.
    18. Darima Fotheringham & Michael A. Wiles, 2023. "The effect of implementing chatbot customer service on stock returns: an event study analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 802-822, July.
    19. F. Gauthier & D. Germain & B. Hétu, 2017. "Logistic models as a forecasting tool for snow avalanches in a cold maritime climate: northern Gaspésie, Québec, Canada," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 89(1), pages 201-232, October.
    20. Douglas Cumming & Lars Hornuf & Moein Karami & Denis Schweizer, 2023. "Disentangling Crowdfunding from Fraudfunding," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1103-1128, February.

    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:hal:journl:hal-03603041. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.