Showcase the smiles or the tears? How elicited perspectives determine optimal charity appeal content

Diogo Hildebrand, Rhonda Hadi, Sankar Sen

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · 2024 · Volume 52 · Issue 6

Abstract

Some charitable communications employdeprived beneficiary(DB) appeals (showcasing the distressing circumstances of suffering victims), while others featuresatiated beneficiary(SB) appeals (depicting the improved state of victims after receiving help). We propose and demonstrate that the relative efficacy of these appeals depends on the perspective viewers are prompted to take. Across three incentive-compatible experiments, we demonstrate that while DB appeals are more effective in increasing donation behavior when an ad evokes a beneficiary-perspective (i.e., asking viewers to imagine how a beneficiary feels), SB appeals are more effective when an ad evokes a self-perspective (i.e., asking viewers to imagine how they themselves would feel if they were in the beneficiary’s position). We also provide evidence for the affect-based mechanism theorized to underlie this basic interaction, and proffer a managerially actionable, ad copy-based moderator.

Keywords

Donation behavior, Charity appeal, Deprived beneficiary appeal, Satiated beneficiary appeal, Perspective taking, Affect management

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