Symbolic Consumption of Advertisements for Male Perfumes: Effects of Advertising Appeals and Product Involvement on Advertising Effectiveness

Abstract

Because of the trend of metrosexual men, numerous cosmetic brands that originally focused on female customers have extended their product lines to cover the male market, and symbolic consumption in advertisements for male perfumes has flooded society. This study adopted a 3 × 2 between-subjects experiment method to examine the effect of two independent variables, namely the appeal of various types of male perfume advertisement (vanity appeal, admiration appeal, and sexual appeal) and the product involvement of consumers (high and low), on attitudes toward the advertisement (A_ad), attitudes toward the brand (A_b), and purchase intention (PI). This study revealed the following: (1) The types of advertising appeal do affect the A_ad, A_b, and PI of consumers; (2) consumers’ product involvement also affects their A_ad, A_b, and PI; (3) vanity appeal and admiration appeal both result in optimal A_ad, A_b, and PI of consumers with high product involvement; and (4) sexual appeal results in optimal A_ad and A_b for consumers with low product involvement but has no effect on their PI. In today’s advertising and marketing business, how a product is made to carry certain symbolic meanings has become particularly crucial; company owners must not overlook the influence of symbolic consumption. This study’s results can serve as a reference for company owners and advertisers when planning future advertising and marketing strategies.