Winning hearts, minds and sales: How marketing communication enters the purchase process in emerging and mature markets

Abstract

Consumers differ in the way their minds and hearts respond to marketing communication. Recent research has quantified effectiveness criteria of mindset metrics, such as brand consideration and liking, in the purchase process for a mature market. This paper develops and illustrates our conceptual framework of how mindset effectiveness differs in an emerging and a mature market. We propose that the responsiveness, stickiness and sales conversion of mindset metrics depend on the regulative, cultural and economic systems that provide structure to society. In particular, we focus on regulative protection, collectivism and income. First, we propose that a lack of regulative protection leads consumers to be more attentive to, and thus more aware of marketing communication. Second, we propose that consumers living in a collectivist culture are less responsive to advertising in their consideration and liking of the advertised brand. Finally, we propose that lower income reduces the sales conversion of brand liking. We examine our predictions empirically with data for the same brands in the same time period in Brazil and the United Kingdom. First, we find that brand liking has a higher responsiveness to advertising, a higher stickiness and a higher sales conversion in the U.K. versus Brazil. Thus, the advice to focus on the emotional brand connection is more appropriate in the analyzed mature versus the emerging market. In contrast, knowing the brand is more important to purchase in Brazil, and is more responsive to advertising. These first findings set up an intriguing research agenda on winning hearts and sales in emerging and mature markets.