"Wii will rock you!" The use and effect of figurative language in consumer reviews of hedonic and utilitarian consumption

Journal of Consumer Research

Volumn 40, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 726-739

  Kronrod, Ann ^a   Danziger, Shai ^b  

^a MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84887209143     PISSN: 00935301     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/671998     Document Type: Article

References (110)

1. Adaval, Rashmi (2001), "Sometimes It Just Feels Right: The Differential Weighting of Affect-Consistent and Affect-Inconsistent Product Information," Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (April), 1-18.
2. Aiken, Leona S., and Stephen G.West (1991), Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
3. Alba, Joseph W., and Elanor F. Williams (2013), "Pleasure Principles: A Review of Research on Hedonic Consumption," Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23 (January), 2-18.
4. Ameka, Felix K. (2002), "Cultural Scripting of Body Parts for Emotions: On 'Jealousy' and Related Emotions in Ewe," Pragmatics and Cognition, 10 (November), 27-55.
5. Angus, Lynne E. (1996), "An Intensive Analysis of Metaphor Themes in Psychotherapy," in Metaphor: Implications and Applications, ed. Jeffrey S. Mio and Albert N. Katz, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 73-84.
6. Ansari, Asim, Skander Essegaier, and Rajeev Kohli (2000), "Internet Recommendation Systems," Journal of Marketing Research, 37 (June), 363-76.
7. Arnold, Mark J., and Kristy E. Reynolds (2012), "Approach and Avoidance Motivation: Investigating Hedonic Consumption in a Retail Setting," Journal of Retailing, 88 (September), 399-411.
8. Austin, John L. (1962), How to Do Things with Words: The William James Lectures Delivered at Harvard University in 1955, ed. James O. Urmson, Oxford: Clarendon.
9. Babin, Barry J., William R. Darden, and Mitch Griffin (1994), "Work and/or Fun: Measuring Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Value," Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (December), 644-56.
10. Babin, Barry J., Yong-Ki Lee, Eun-Ju Kim, and Mitch Griffin (2005), "Modeling Consumer Satisfaction and Word-of-Mouth: Restaurant Patronage in Korea," Journal of Services Marketing, 19 (3), 133-39.
11. Botti, Simona, and Ann L. McGill (2011), "Locus of Choice: Personal Causality and Satisfaction with Hedonic and Utilitarian Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (April), 1065-78.
12. Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson (1987), Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13. Bryant, Gregory, and Raymond Gibbs (2002), "You Don't Say: Figurative Language and Thought," Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25 (December), 678-79.
14. Burgoon, Judee K., and Lynn Aho (1982), "Three Field Experiments on the Effects of Violations of Conversational Distance," Communication Monographs, 49 (June), 71-88.
15. Caillies, Stephanie, and Kirsten Butcher (2007), "Processing of Idiomatic Expressions: Evidence for a New Hybrid View,", 22 (December), 79-108.
16. Campbell, Margaret C., and Amna Kirmani (2000), "Consumers' Use of Persuasion Knowledge: The Effects of Accessibility and Cognitive Capacity on Perceptions of an Influence Agent," Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (June), 69-83.
17. Cenfetelli, Ronald T., Izak Benbasat, and Sameh Al-Natour (2008), "Addressing the What and How of Online Services: Posi-tioning Supporting-Services Functionality and Service Quality for Business-to-Consumer Success," Information Systems Research, 19 (June), 161-83.
18. Chang, Chun-Tuan, and Ching-Ting Yen (2013), "Missing Ingredients in Metaphor Advertising: The Right Formula of Metaphor Type, Product Type, and Need for Cognition," Journal of Advertising, 42 (1), 80-94.
19. Chaudhuri, Arjun, and Mark Ligas (2006), "The Role of Emotion and Reason in Brand Attitude Formation," 2006 American Marketing Association Winter Educators' Conference Proceedings, 17, 195-201.
20. Chevalier, Judith A., and Dina Mayzlin (2006), "The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews," Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (June), 345-54.
21. Christmann, Ursula, and Christoph Mischo (2000), "The Efficacy of Communicative Fairness and Rhetorical Aesthetics in Contributions to Argumentation," Language and Speech, 43 (September), 229-59.
22. Clark, Margaret S., and Judson Mills (1993), "The Difference between Communal and Exchange Relationships: What It Is and Is Not," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19 (December), 684-91.
23. Coleman, Linda (1990), "The Language of Advertising," Journal of Pragmatics, 14 (February), 137-45.
24. Daugherty, Terry, Hairong Li, and Frank Biocca (2008), "Consumer Learning and the Effects of Virtual Experience Relative to Indirect and Direct Product Experience," Psychology and Marketing, 25 (July), 568-86.
25. Dhar, Ravi, and Klaus Wertenbroch (2000), "Consumer Choice between Hedonic and Utilitarian Goods," Journal of Marketing Research, 37 (1), 60-71.
26. Drewnowska-Vargane, Ewa (2001), "A Linguistic Text Comparison of Emotionality and Narration in German, Polish, and Hungarian Readers' Letters," Studia Linguistica, 20, 49-64.
27. Drolet, Aimee, Patti Williams, and Loraine Lau-Gesk (2007), "Age-Related Differences in Responses to Emotional vs. Rational Ads for Hedonic vs. Utilitarian Products," Marketing Letters, 18 (April), 211-21.
28. Edwards, Steven M., Hairong Li, and Joo-Hyun Lee (2002), "Forced Exposure and Psychological Reactance: Antecedents and Consequences of the Perceived Intrusiveness of Pop-Up Ads," Journal of Advertising, 31 (Fall), 83-95.
29. Fainsilber, Lynn, and Andrew Ortony (1987), "Metaphorical Uses of Language in the Expression of Emotions," Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 2 (November), 239-50.
30. Ferrara, Kathleen (1994), Therapeutic Ways with Words, New York: Oxford University Press.
31. Fitzsimons, Gavan J. (2008), "Death to Dichotomizing," Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (1), 5-8.
32. Fogelin, Robert J. (1988), Figuratively Speaking, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
33. Forgas, Joseph P. (1999), "Feeling and Speaking: Mood Effects on Verbal Communication Strategies," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25 (July), 850-63.
34. Forman, Chris, Anindya Ghose, and Batia Wiesenfeld (2008), "Examining the Relationship between Reviews and Sales: The Role of Reviewer Identity Disclosure in Electronic Markets," Information Systems Research, 19 (September), 291-317.
35. Fussell, Susan R. (1992), "The Use of Metaphor in Written Descriptions of Emotional States," unpublished manuscript, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
36. Fussell, Susan R. (2002), The Verbal Communication of Emotions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
37. Fussell, Susan, and Mallie Moss (1998), "Figurative Language in Emotional Communication," in Social and Cognitive Approaches to Interpersonal Communication, ed. Susan R. Fussell and Roger J. Kreuz, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, chap. 6.
38. Gallois, Cynthia (1994), "Group Membership, Social Rules, and Power: A Social-Psychological Perspective on Emotional Communication," Journal of Pragmatics, 22 (October), 301-24.
39. Ghose, Anindya, and Panagiotis Ipeirotis (2009), "The Econo-Mining Project at NYU: Experimenting the Economic Value of User-Generated Content on the Internet," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 8 (March), 241-47.
40. Gibbs, Raymond, Jr. (1985), "Situational Conventions and Requests," in Language and Social Situations, ed. Joseph P. Forgas, New York: Springer, 97-113.
41. Gibbs, Raymond, Jr. (1994), The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding, New York: Cambridge University Press.
42. Gibbs, Raymond, Jr. (2001), "Evaluating Contemporary Models of Figurative Language Understanding,", 16 (June), 317-33.
43. Gibbs, Raymond, Jr. (2007), "Experimental Tests of Figurative Meaning Construction," in Meaning Construction: A Festschrift for Klaus-Uwe Panther, ed. G. Radden, P. Siemed, K-M. Kopche, and T. Berg, Berlin: Mouton.
44. Gibbs, Raymond, Jr. (2008), "Feeling Moved by Metaphor," in The Language and Literature Reader, ed. R. Carter and P. Stockwell, London: Routledge, 209-18.
45. Gibbs, Raymond, and Herbert L. Colston (2012), Interpreting Figurative Meaning, New York: Cambridge University Press.
46. Gibbs, Raymond, Jr., John Leggitt, and Elizabeth Turner (2002), "Why Figurative Language Is Special in Emotional Communication," in The Verbal Communication of Emotions, ed. S. Fussell, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
47. Giora, Rachel, Ofer Fein, Jonathan Ganzi, and Natalie Alkeslassy Levi (2005), "On Negation as Mitigation: The Case of Irony," Discourse Processes, 39 (June), 81-100.
48. Godes, David, and Dina Mayzlin (2004), "Using Online Conversations to Experiment Word-of-Mouth Communication," Marketing Science, 23 (Fall), 545-60.
49. Grice, Paul (1975), "Logic and Conversation," in Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3, ed. Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan, New York: Academic Press, 41-58.
50. Hahn, H. Hazel (2009), "Le Courrier Français, Géraudel Cough Drops, and Advertising as Art," in Scenes of Parisian Modernity: Culture and Consumption in the Nineteenth Century, chap. 10, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
51. Hansen, Robert A., and Carol A. Scott (1976), "Comments on 'Attribution Theory and Advertiser Credibility,'" Journal of Marketing Research, 13 (April), 193-97.
52. Harris, Richard Jackson, Michael R. Tebbe, Gary E. Leka, Reina Coral Garcia, and Raquel Erramouspe (1999), "Monolingual and Bilingual Memory for English and Spanish Metaphors and Similes,", 14 (November), 1-16.
53. Hayes, Andrew F. (2013), "PROCESS: A Versatile Computational Tool for Observed Variable Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Modeling," White paper. http://www.afhayes.com/public/process2012.pdf
54. Heath, Chip, Chris Bell, and Emily Sternberg (2001), "Emotional Selection in Memes: The Case of Urban Legends," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81 (December), 1028-41.
55. Holbrook, Morris B., and Elizabeth C. Hirschman (1982), "The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun," Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (September), 132-40.
56. Homer, Pamela Miles (2008), "Perceived Quality and Image: When All Is Not 'Rosy,'" Journal of Business Research, 61 (July), 715-23.
57. Ireland, Molly E., and James W. Pennebaker (2010), "Language Style Matching in Writing: Synchrony in Essays, Correspondence, and Poetry," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99 (September), 549-71.
58. Junker, Marie-Odile, and Louise Blacksmith (2006), "Are There Emotional Universals? Evidence from the Native American Language East Cree," Culture and Psychology, 12 (September), 275-303.
59. Kivetz, Ran, and Itamar Simonson (2002), "Earning the Right to Indulge: Effort as a Determinant of Customer Preferences toward Frequency Program Rewards," Journal of Marketing Research, 39 (May), 155-70.
60. Kronrod, Ann, and Orit Engel (2001), "Accessibility Theory and Referring Expressions in Newspaper Headlines," Journal of Pragmatics, 33 (May), 683-99.
61. Kronrod, Ann, Amir Grinstein, and Luc Wathieu (2012), "Enjoy! Hedonic Consumption and Compliance with Assertive Messages," Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (June), 51-61.
62. Lascarides, Alex, and Nicholas Asher (2001), "Indirect Speech Acts," Synthese, 128 (July-August), 183-228
63. Leigh, James H. (1994), "The Use of Figures of Speech in Print Ad Headlines," Journal of Advertising, 23 (June), 17-35.
64. Lewis, David K. (2002), Convention: A Philosophical Study, Oxford: Blackwell. (First published in 1969 by Harvard University Press.)
65. Li, Xinxin, and Lorin M. Hitt (2008), "Self Selection and Information Role of Online Product Reviews," Information Systems Research, 19 (4), 456-74.
66. McCabe, Allyssa (1988), "Effect of Different Contexts on Memory for Metaphor,", 3 (November), 105-32.
67. McMullen, L., and J. Conway (1996), "Conceptualizing the Figurative Expressions of Psychotherapy Clients," in Metaphor: Implications and Applications, ed. Jeffrey S. Mio and Albert N. Katz, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 59-71.
68. McQuarrie, Edward F., and David Glen Mick (1999), "Visual Rhetoric in Advertising: Text-Interpretive, Experimental, and Reader-Response Analyses," Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (June), 37-54.
69. McQuarrie, Edward F., and David Glen Mick (2003), "Visual and Verbal Rhetorical Figures under Directed Processing versus Incidental Exposure to Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (August), 579-87.
70. McQuarrie, Edward, and Barbara Phillips (2005), "Indirect Persuasion in Advertising: How Consumers Process Metaphors Presented in Pictures and Words," Journal of Advertising, 34 (June), 7-20.
71. Moe, Wendy W., and David A. Schweidel (2012), "Online Product Opinions: Incidence, Evaluation, and Evolution," Marketing Science, 31 (3), 372-86.
72. Moore, Sarah G. (2012), "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid: How Word of Mouth Influences the Storyteller," Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (April), 1140-54.
73. Mothersbaugh, David L., Bruce A. Huhmann, and George R. Franke (2012), "Combinatory and Separative Effects of Rhetorical Figures on Consumers' Effort and Focus in Ad Processing," Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (December), 589-602.
74. Murken-Altrogge, C. (1978), "Art as Advertising-Advertising as Art," Du-Europaische Kunstzeitschrift, 446, 20.
75. Nilsen, Don L. F. (1976), "Teaching English through the Language of Advertising," English Journal 65.2 (February), 29-38.
76. Ortony, Andrew (1975), "Why Metaphors Are Necessary and Not Just Nice," Educational Review, 2 (January), 45-53.
77. Ortony, Andrew, Diane L. Schallert, Ralph E. Reynolds, and Stephen J. Antos (1978), "Interpreting Metaphors and Idioms: Some Effects of Context on Comprehension," Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17 (August), 465-77.
78. Patrick, Vanessa M., and Henrik Hagtvedt (2012), "'I Don't' versus 'I Can't': When Empowered Refusal Motivates Goal-Directed Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (August), 371-81.
79. Pennebaker, James W. (1997), "Writing about Emotional Experiences as a Therapeutic Process," Psychological Science, 8 (March), 162-66.
80. Phillips, Barbara J., and Edward F. McQuarrie (2009), "Impact of Advertising Metaphor on Consumer Belief: Delineating the Contribution of Comparison vs. Deviation Factors," Journal of Advertising, 38 (March), 49-62.
81. Pollio, Howard R., and Jack M. Barlow (1975), "A Behavioral Analysis of Figurative Language in Psychotherapy: One Session in a Single Case Study," Language and Speech, 18 (3), 236-54.
82. Reece, William S. (1989), "Why Is the Bishops' Letter on the U.S. Economy So Unconvincing?" Journal of Business Ethics, 8 (July), 553-60.
83. Roberts, Richard M., and Roger J. Kreuz (1994), "Why Do People Use Figurative Language?" Psychological Science, 5 (May), 159-63.
84. Rotfeld, Herbert J., and Kim B. Torzoll (1980), "Is Advertising Puffery Believed?" Journal of Advertising, 9 (June), 16-31.
85. Schellekens, Gaby Anna Catharina, Peeter W. J. Verlegh, and Ale Smidts (2010), "Language Abstraction in Word of Mouth," Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (August), 224-37.
86. Schwarz, Norbert (1996), Cognition and Communication: Judgmental Biases, Research Methods and the Logic of Conversation, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
87. Searle, John (1969), Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, Oxford: Cambridge University Press.
88. Sela, Aner S., Christian Wheeler, and Gülen Sarial-Abi (2012), "We Are Not the Same as You and I: Causal Effects of Minor Language Variations on Consumers' Attitudes toward Brands," Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (October), 644-61.
89. Sen, Shahana, and Dawn Lerman (2007), "Why Are You Telling Me This? An Examination into Negative Consumer Reviews on the Web," Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21 (November), 76-94.
90. Shen, Yeshayahu (2002), "Cognitive Constraints on Verbal Creativity," in Cognitive Stylistics: Language and Cognition in Text Analysis, ed. E. Semino and J. Culpeper, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 211-30.
91. Simashko, Tat'iana Vasil'evna (1994), "The Basic Principles of the Analysis of Figurative Expressions," Russkaya Slovesnost', 4, 61-66.
92. Simonson, Alexander, and Morris B. Holbrook (1993), "Permissible Puffery versus Actionable Warranty in Advertising and Sales Talk: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 12 (November), 216-33.
93. Sornig, Karl (2003), "'Metaphors We Love By': Surveying Our Filthy Vocabularies, Including Some Unrepressable Remarks on Certain of Mrs. J.'s Representation Means," Grazer Linguistische Studien, 59, 113-23.
94. Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson (1995), Relevance: Communication and Cognition, 2nd ed., Oxford: Blackwell.
95. Spiller, Stephen. A., Gavan J. Fitzsimons, John G. Lynch Jr., and Gary McClelland (2013), "Spotlights, Floodlights, and the Magic Number Zero: Simple Effects Tests in Moderated Regression," Journal of Marketing Research, 50 (2), 277-88.
96. Spitzer, Leo (1949), "American Advertising as Popular Art," in A Method of Interpreting Literature, Northampton, MA: Smith College, 102-49.
97. Spooky, Pradeep, and James Price Dillard (2002), "The Persuasive Effects of Metaphor: A Meta-Analysis," Human Communication Research, 28 (July), 382-419.
98. Stern, Barbara B. (1988), "How Does an Ad Mean? Language in Services Advertising," Journal of Advertising, 17 (March), 3-14.
99. Strahilevitz, Michal, and John G. Myers (1998), "Donations to Charity as Purchase Incentives: How Well They Work May Depend on What You Are Trying to Sell," Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (December), 434-47.
100. Sweldens, Steven, Stijn M. J. Van Ocular, and Chris Janiszewski (2010), "Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes," Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (October), 473-89.
101. Toncar, Mark, and Marc Fetscherin (2012), "A Study of Visual Puffery in Fragrance Advertising," European Journal of Marketing, 46 (January/February), 52-72.
102. Voss, Kevin E., Eric R. Spangenberg, and Bianca Grohmann (2003), "Measuring the Hedonic and Utilitarian Dimensions of Consumer Attitude," Journal of Marketing Research, 40 (June), 310-20.
103. Winton, Ward M. (1990), "Language and Emotion," in Handbook of Language and Social Psychology, ed. H. Giles and W. P. Robinson, Chichester: Wiley, 33-49.
104. Wyckham, Robert G. (1984), "The Language of Advertising-Copy Writers versus Pop Grammarians," International Journal of Advertising, 3 (November), 301-9.
105. Xie, Guang-Xin, and Ann Kronrod (2012), "Is the Devil in Details? The Signaling Effect of Numerical Precision in Environmental Advertising Claims," Journal of Advertising, 41 (4), 103-17.
106. Xu, Alison Jing, and Robert S. Wyer (2010), "Puffery in Advertisements: The Effects of Media Context, Communication, Norms, and Consumer Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (August), 329-43.
107. Ye, Zhengdao (2002), "Different Modes of Describing Emotions in Chinese: Bodily Changes, Sensations, and Bodily Images," Pragmatics and Cognition, 10 (1-2), 307-39.
108. Zemanova, Jana (2007), "About Some Semantic Starting-Points of Expressions Related to Anger in Czech and German," in Sbornik Praci Filosoficke Fakulty Brnenske University, ed. Rada Jazykovedna, Brno: Brnenské University, A55, 179-89.
109. Zhang, Y. Charles, and Norbert Schwarz (2012), "How and Why 1 Year Differs from 365 Days: A Conversational Logic Analysis of Inferences from the Granularity of Quantitative Expressions," Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (August), 248-59.
110. Zinkhan, George M., Hyokjin Kwak, Michelle Morrison, and Cara Okleshen Peters (2007), "Web-Based Chatting: Consumer Communication in Cyberspace," Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13 (January), 17-27.