Ejm 03 2013 0148 PDF

European Journal of Marketing
Exploring the effectiveness of consumer creativity in online marketing

communications
Jintao Wu Na Wen Wenyu Dou Junsong Chen
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Jintao Wu Na Wen Wenyu Dou Junsong Chen , (2015),"Exploring the effectiveness of consumer
creativity in online marketing communications", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49 Iss 1/2 pp.
262 - 276
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EJM
49,1/2
Exploring the effectiveness of
consumer creativity in online
marketing communications
262 Jintao Wu
Department of Management (Lingnan College), Sun Yat-Sen University,
Received 14 March 2013
Revised 4 January 2014
Guangzhou, China
12 May 2014
Accepted 25 June 2014 Na Wen and Wenyu Dou
Department of Marketing (College of Business), City University of Hong Kong,
Kowloon, Hong Kong, and
Junsong Chen
Department of Business Administration (School of Business),

East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Abstract
Purpose – This research aims to investigate effect of consumer creativity on their evaluations of
brands. Consumers’ creative participation is often used by online retailers as a promotional tool
nowadays. The authors propose that consumer creativity exerts a positive impact on brand attitudes by
affecting their attitudes toward the creative activity itself. Furthermore, consumer creativity moderates
the effect of consumers’ perceived level of fit on their acceptance of brand extensions, such that creative
consumers will show a higher level of acceptance of distant brand extensions.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors test their hypotheses in three laboratory
experiments. Study 1 examines the effect of consumer creativity on brand evaluations. Study 2
explores the moderating effect of consumer creativity on perceived level of fit on acceptance of
brand extensions. Study 3 replicates the authors findings in Studies 1 and 2 using a better
representative sample and a different type of creative task.
Findings – Study 1 finds that consumer creativity results in a positive attitude toward brand; this
effect is mediated by attitude toward the creative activity. Study 2 shows that creativity leads to a
greater level of brand acceptance when the brand extension has a low fit with the focal brand. Study 3
further provides evidence of proposed effects using a different type of creative task with a more
representative sample.
Research limitations/implications – In the experiments, this study examined three types of online
creative marketing communication activities. Future research could examine other types of consumer
creative activities so as to enhance the generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications – Our results provide important implications for firms that intend to exploit
the promises of online creativity-themed marketing communications. First, because consumers’
attitudes toward the focal brand hinge on their attitudes toward the creative activity, it is important that
firms design their creativity-themed activities carefully, so that they are attractive to the users. Second,
This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 71272195), the
European Journal of Marketing Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (no. 11YJC630221), Philosophy &
Vol. 49 No. 1/2, 2015
pp. 262-276 Social Science Foundation of Guangdong (no. GD11YGL10), a Fundamental Research Fund from
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0566
Sun Yat-Sen University and GRF Grant no. 141912 from Research Grants Council of the HKSAR
DOI 10.1108/EJM-03-2013-0148 Government.
firms can exploit the creativity edge by launching new brand extensions that target creative consumers. Consumer
This effect is even more pronounced when the brand extension exhibits a low fit with the focal brand.
These guidelines suggest that firms’ investments in online creativity-themed marketing
creativity
communications can pay off in terms of improved consumers’ attitudes toward the firms’ brands and
brand extensions.
Originality/value – This research makes several theoretical contributions. First, the authors explore the
important role of creativity in the context of brand attitudes and brand extensions. This study adds to extant
consumer creativity literature by documenting the consequences of consumer creativity in terms of positive 263
outcomes for firms. Second, by examining the mediating effect of attitude toward the creativity task, the
authors broaden the scope of attitude-toward-the-site and attitude-toward-the-sponsorship-event research to
the online marketing communications setting. Third, by showing that consumer creativity can facilitate the
acceptance of distant brand extensions, this study also enriches extant brand extension literature.
Keywords Online advertising, Marketing communications, Customer engagement, Brand attitude,
Brand extension, Consumer creativity
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Germany company Tipp-ex ran a creative game called “A hunter shoots a bear” on
YouTube a few years ago (Wasef, 2010). This game allows participants sufficient
creative freedom to write the story themselves. The event was simple, fun, addictive and
also linked to the product benefit. It has since generated more than ten million views and
created a lot of media buzz.
As an open, interactive advertising platform, the Internet provides ample
opportunities for consumers to participate in firms’ online marketing communications
(Bruner and Kumar, 2000; Doren et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2013; Liu and Shrum, 2009;
Macias, 2003; Singh and Dalal, 1999). In particular, an increasing number of companies
have been encouraging consumers to unleash their creativity and contribute to firms’
online marketing activities. These online marketing communication programs put a
heavy emphasis on consumers’ creativity to produce innovative ideas or output; e.g. in
the case of Tipp-ex, consumers were encouraged to produce their own creative endings
for advertisements.
Despite the rising popularity of these online communication programs, which rely
heavily on consumer creativity, evidence of their effectiveness as marketing tools
remains largely anecdotal. Virtually no academic study has assessed the usefulness of
this phenomenon rigorously. To fill this void, this study draws on creativity and
advertising theory (especially attitude toward the advertisement literature) to determine
if making customers creative can improve their attitudes toward the firm’s brand, and if
so, through which underlying mechanism.
Consumer creativity is defined as the consumer’s general ability to generate
innovative ideas in the consumption context; and it includes two dimensions: novelty
and usefulness (Burroughs and Mick, 2004; Moreau and Dahl, 2005). The concept of
consumer creativity has been an intriguing topic for marketing researchers. For
example, previous studies have examined the role of consumer creativity in solving
consumption-related problems, such as how creative consumers cleverly mix different
food ingredients to make a special dish (Finke et al., 1992; Jay and Perkins, 1997;
Treffinger et al., 1994), and its application for designing and developing new products
(Burroughs and Mick, 2004; Burroughs et al., 2011; Moreau and Dahl, 2005; Sellier and
EJM Dahl, 2011). While existing research in consumer creativity has mainly focused on the
49,1/2 antecedents and boundary conditions surrounding consumer creativity – typically in a
product consumption context with a well-defined goal, there remains a significant lack
of research on the impact of consumer creativity on consumer attitudes toward the
brand that is behind the creative activity – particularly in non-consumption contexts.
For example, when the creative activity is not related to a purchase decision, such as in
264 online creativity-themed marketing promotions, consumers engage in the creative
activity (e.g. developing a creative advertisement for Tipp-ex) for the sake of the activity
itself, with no particular consumption goal. Hence, a gap arises as guidance from
existing consumer creativity research seems limited.
One stream of advertising research, which centers on attitude toward the advertisement
(Aad) and its effects on brand attitude (MacKenzie et al., 1986), seems more pertinent here.
This research posits that consumers’ attitudes toward an advertisement can influence their
evaluations of the brand featured in that advertisement. The underlying affect transfer
mechanism (Shimp, 1981) states that the advertisement viewer’s liking for the advertisement
may generate arousal, which can then be carried over to the liking of the brand (Brown and
Stayman, 1992). This line of logic seems applicable to our present investigation: an online
creativity-themed marketing promotion is akin to an advertisement, in that both are
marketing stimuli that seek to inspire consumers’ interest and engagement through brand
exposure.
Previous research in online marketing shows that consumers accept the notion that
the Internet can serve as a marketing communication medium (e.g. Ghose and Dou,
1998). For example, if consumers like a firm’s Web site, they may be more receptive to its
contents, including its advertisements (Bruner and Kumar, 2000; Stevenson et al., 2000).
Extending this attitude-toward-the-advertisement logic to online communication
programs that incorporate consumers’ creative contributions, we posit that if consumers
enjoy the creative process in the platform enabled by the brand, they carry over their
liking of the creative activity to an appreciation of the brand that facilitates their creative
endeavors.
In addition to its impact on attitude toward the focal brand, creativity may enable
consumers to embrace new brand offerings, such as brand extensions. This prediction
reflects the argument that creativity influences consumers’ propensity to try new
offerings (Hirschman, 1980). While less creative consumers could only relate Toblerone
to chocolate, highly creative consumers, with their denser interconcept network, may be
able to associate Toblerone with excellence in household products, thus more likely to be
open toward a Toblerone-branded face cream. According to this line of reasoning, when
consumers become more creative, they more readily accept distant brand extensions,
which are a special form of new products (Aaker and Keller, 1990). Xie (2008) proposes
that consumer innovativeness relates positively to brand extension acceptance – though
without empirically testing this prediction. In turn, we seek to contribute to brand
extension literature by examining whether activating consumers’ creativity in online
creativity-themed promotions improves their acceptance of new brand extensions. In
particular, because creative consumers likely embrace risks (Rogers, 1983), we consider
whether making consumers creative, through creativity-themed online promotions, also
helps them embrace “risky” (i.e. distant) brand extensions; that is, those with minimal
“fit” with the focal brand (Pitta and Katsanis, 1995).
In the next section, we elaborate on these conceptual arguments. In turn, we describe Consumer
the design and outline the results of three studies. Finally, we conclude with some creativity
implications and suggestions for future research.
2. Conceptual foundation
2.1 Consumer creativity
The creativity of consumers has long been an intriguing topic for marketing researchers 265
(Hirschman, 1980 and 1983). After more than three decades of consumer creativity
research, the prevailing view holds that consumer creativity is not a trait bestowed on a
chosen few, but rather a general ability to generate novel ideas (Burroughs and Mick,
2004; Moreau and Dahl, 2005). Consumer creativity shares two characteristics – novelty
(e.g. originality and uniqueness) and appropriateness (e.g. usefulness and effectiveness) –
with other types of creativity (Amabile, 2001; Gardner, 1993; Sternberg and Lubart,
1999).
Extant research also indicates that various factors can affect how creative consumers
can be. Hirschman (1980 and 1983) focuses on personal psychological factors, such as
intelligence, modernity and cognitive complexity. Moreau and Dahl (2005) instead
emphasize on external factors, including task input restriction, input requirements, and
time constraints, that can influence consumers’ information processing strategies and
thus their creativity in a consumption task.
Although the antecedents of consumer creativity have received ample attention,
relatively fewer works denote its consequences (Burroughs et al., 2008). A few studies
explore participants’ psychological responses, such as a sense of accomplishment,
satisfaction, pride, confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy (Burroughs and Mick, 2004;
Dahl and Moreau, 2007), to creative engagements in a consumption task (e.g. knitting a
sweater with novel patterns). It is not clear though whether these responses will hold up
in a situation where the main task goal is not related to a purchase decision, such as for
creativity-themed online marketing promotions focused on the creative activity itself.
Furthermore, because responses associated with the creative activity are important, it
should be of great interest to firms to find out whether affective responses have spillover
effects on the focal brand and its possible new offerings (brand extensions).
2.2 Attitude toward the advertisement (Aad)

Advertising literature pertaining to attitude toward the advertisement is pertinent for
understanding how consumers’ responses to a creative activity influence their attitudes
toward the focal brand that provides the platform for that creative activity. Attitude
toward the advertisement refers to a consumer’s predisposition to respond favorably or
unfavorably to a particular advertising stimulus (MacKenzie et al., 1986; Mitchell and
Olson, 1981). Substantial research supports the notion that Aad influences brand attitude
(Abrand) through two mechanisms:
(1) A direct effect through affective transfer.
(2) An indirect effect through brand cognitions (Brown and Stayman, 1992; Homer,
1990).
The robustness of this mechanism (i.e. Aad ¡ Abrand) has been established in other
marketing communication media, such as attitude toward pictures (Mitchell and Olson,
1981), attitude toward the Web site (Chen and Wells, 1999; Chen et al., 2002), and attitude
EJM toward the sponsorship event (Speed and Thompson, 2000; McDonald, 1991). These
49,1/2 extensions of the Aad construct demonstrate that consumers’ responses to marketing
communication media can influence their attitudes toward the focal brand.
Accordingly, we extend the Aad construct to online creativity-themed marketing
programs, for which the focus typically is the activity itself, with minimum brand
messages. Thus, we focus on the affective transfer component of Aad that captures a
266 consumer’s favorable or unfavorable feelings toward the creative activity. When a
brand is paired with an emotionally rich marketing show, viewers may transfer their
affect from the show to the brand (Russell, 1998). These conceptualizations have been
proposed in the context of a classical media environment and new media environment
such as advergames (Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker, 2010). This line of logic seems also
applicable to the consumer creative activity context. Because creativity-themed online
marketing communications are generally packaged as fun, participatory activities for
consumers, their playful nature may engender positive feelings and Aad. The positive
Aad associated with creative promotion should, in turn, enhance consumers’ attitudes
toward the focal brand. Formally, we posit:

H1. Consumer creativity (a) positively affects brand attitudes in creativity-themed
online marketing programs, and (b) this effect is mediated by consumers’
attitude toward the creative activity itself.
2.3 Effect of consumer creativity on attitude toward brand extensions

If creativity-themed online marketing communications can stimulate a positive attitude
toward the focal brand among participating consumers, does it also facilitate their
adoption intentions toward new offerings from that brand, such as brand extensions
into new categories? A brand extension uses established brand names to enter new
product categories (Keller and Aaker, 1992), and it represents one of the most important
brand strategies firms use to expand their market coverage (Völckner and Sattler, 2006).
When consumers become more creative because of their participation in
creativity-themed online communications, they tend to use more flexible, divergent
thinking styles (Moreau and Dahl, 2005), and thus should be more open to unusual items
in their product choices. Because consumers’ inclination to consider new products in
consumption choice tasks can facilitate brand extensions (Aaker and Keller, 1990), these
consumers should display higher adoption intentions toward brand extensions.
Specifically, this study evaluates a key construct in the brand extension literature,
perceived product category fit, which refers to the perceived similarity between an
extension category (e.g. pens) and the existing product categories of the parent brand
(e.g. correction fluid), on consumers’ attitudes toward brand extensions. When the level
of perceived fit is low, the extension brand is considered a distant extension (e.g. juice),
and such distancing can reduce the strength of positive associations (e.g. Tipp-ex is a
strong stationery brand) (Pitta and Katsanis, 1995; Buil et al., 2009), as well as stipulate
more adoption risk due to its unfamiliarity (Smith and Park, 1992). The general
conclusion from extant brand extension studies is that higher perceived fit leads to more
positive consumer attitude toward the brand extensions.
Creative consumers tend to embrace risk (Rogers, 1983) in new product adoption and
may deliberately seek offerings with low fit with existing products (Klink and Smith,
2001). Therefore, creative consumers could be more receptive to product extensions that
show a low level of fit because they discount or ignore the risk associated with a low-fit
brand. In comparison, consumers who are less creative are prone to be more concerned Consumer
about the high risk associated with a low-fit extension brand. This argument implies an creativity
interactive effect of consumer creativity and perceived fit on adoption intentions toward
the extension brand. Therefore, we predict:
H2. Consumer creativity moderates the effect of perceived level of fit on acceptance
of the brand extension, such that creative (as compared with non-creative)
consumers show a greater level of acceptance of distant brand extensions. 267
3. Study 1
In Study 1, we test H1a and H1b, that is, whether consumer creativity positively affects
brand attitudes in creativity-themed online marketing programs and whether this effect
may be mediated by consumers’ attitudes toward the creative activity itself.
3.1 Design and procedure

One hundred and forty undergraduate students (88 females and 52 males) from a university
in Hong Kong participated in this study for a nominal payment of HK$50 (equivalent to
USD7 or €5) each. Ninety-one per cent of the participants were aged between 18 and 27 years
old. A real online creativity-themed marketing program run by New Zealand kiwi fruit was
chosen as our study stimulus – as it is a habitually purchased product and familiar to most
college students in Hong Kong. Participants developed creative, virtual wish cards, using a
variety of graphical symbols provided by the Web site (http://kiwipower.zespri.com.cn/).
They were assigned randomly to a creativity or a control condition. Those in the creativity
condition designed a wish card, using as many graphical components on the screen as they
wished, and then they wrote down their wishes. Participants in the control condition instead
read a list of wishes, and then typed them into the virtual wish cards. As a manipulation
check, all participants answered the following question: “I was trying to be creative while
creating my wish card” on a 7-point scale (1 ⫽ “strongly disagree”, and 7 ⫽ “strongly
agree”). Participants’ attitude toward the brand was measured with three items: “bad/good”,
“negative/positive” and “unfavorable/favorable” on a 9-point scale (Bolls and Muehling,
2007). Participants’ attitude toward the task was measured with seven items: “unattractive/
attractive”, “depressing/refreshing”, “unappealing/appealing”, “unpleasant/pleasant”, “dull/
dynamic”, “not enjoyable/enjoyable” and “strongly not recommend/strongly recommend to
my friends” again on a 9-point scale (Bolls and Muehling, 2007). A reliability analysis was
conducted across three items of attitude toward the brand (Cronbach’s alpha ⫽ 0.92) and
seven items of attitude toward the task (Cronbach’s alpha ⫽ 0.96). Finally, participants were
probed regarding the purpose of the study; they revealed no insights into the hypothesis.
They then were thanked and debriefed.
3.2 Results
3.2.1 Manipulation check. Participants felt a higher degree of creativity in the creativity
condition than in the control condition (Mcreativity ⫽ 5.76, Mcontrol ⫽ 4.73; t[138] ⫽ ⫺4.61,
p ⬍ 0.001). There were no significant differences between the creativity and control
conditions on time spent, motivation, interest or involvement in the task, or brand
familiarity (all ps ⬎ 0.05).
3.2.2 Brand attitude. As predicted, participants in the creativity condition showed a
more positive attitude toward New Zealand kiwi (Mcreativity ⫽ 7.20) than those in the
control condition (Mcontrol ⫽ 6.64; t[138] ⫽ ⫺2.52, p ⬍ 0.05), in support of H1a.
EJM 3.2.3 Mediation analysis. Following the bootstrapping approach of mediation effect
49,1/2 (Preacher and Hayes, 2004; Zhao et al., 2010; Hayes, 2013), we conducted a mediation
analysis to examine the mediating role of attitude toward the task in the relationship
between consumer creativity and attitude toward the brand. The bootstrap estimate of
the overall indirect effect (i.e. path through the mediator; effect value ⫽ 0.35, SE ⫽ 0.11)
was significant, shown by a 95 per cent confidence interval excluding 0 (95 per cent
268 CI ⫽ 0.16 to 0.60). After controlling for the mediator (i.e. attitude toward the task), the
direct path between consumer creativity and attitude toward the brand was no longer
significant (95 per cent CI ⫽ ⫺0.21 to 0.63). These results suggest that attitude toward
the task fully mediated the effect of creativity on attitude toward the brand, and thus
support H1b.
3.3 Discussion
Study 1 provides evidence that consumer creativity leads to a more positive brand
attitude. In addition, people involved in a creative task display a positive feeling about
the creative task, which in turn affects their attitude toward the brand. This finding
echoes the results of previous research on attitude toward the advertisement as a
mediator for attitude toward the brand both in the traditional (e.g. Brown and Stayman,
1992) and the new media setting (e.g. Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker, 2010).
4. Study 2
The purpose of Study 2 is to test H2, namely, that creativity moderates the effect of
perceived fit on brand acceptance such that creative consumers (as compared to
non-creative consumers) are more likely to embrace distant brand extensions.
4.1 Study design

Study 2 is a 2 (creativity vs control) ⫻ 2 (high- vs low-fit brand extension) ⫻ 3 (three items in
each brand extension category) mixed design, with the latter two factors as within-subjects
factors. In a pretest, 68 undergraduate students helped us select high- vs low-fit brand
extensions for Toblerone chocolate, the focal brand for this study given its low-involvement
nature and participants’ high familiarity. They rated candidate extension categories on a
7-point perceived fit scale (“Would the people, facilities, and skills used in developing,
refining, and making the original products be helpful if the manufacturer were to make the
product extension?” 1 ⫽ “not at all helpful”, 7 ⫽ “very helpful”; Aaker and Keller, 1990). The
pretest results suggest that potato chips (M ⫽ 4.25), gelatin dessert (M ⫽ 4.03) and beef jerky
(M ⫽ 3.29) are high-fit extension categories, whereas face cream (M ⫽ 1.88), mobile phones
(M ⫽ 2.09) and laptops (M ⫽ 1.96) constitute low-fit extension categories with Toblerone
chocolate.
4.2 Procedure
One hundred eighty-four students (92 females and 92 males) from a University in China
participated in this study for extra course credits. Ninety-nine per cent of the
participants were aged between 18 and 22 years old. They were randomly assigned to a
creativity condition or a control condition. In the creativity condition, participants were
asked to create a “silly love”–themed collage (Amabile, 1996), using as many
triangle-shaped Toblerone chocolate icons as they wished (http://marketing.tudou.com/
kraft/toblerone). In the control condition, participants were told to produce a collage
with a “silly love” theme by following a design provided to them. After answering
manipulation check questions, the participants indicated the appeal of a Toblerone Consumer
brand extension into one of the following new product categories: potato chips, gelatin creativity
dessert or beef jerky vs face cream, mobile phone and laptop, on a 5-point scale (1 ⫽ “not
at all appealing”, 5 ⫽ “extremely appealing”, Bhat and Reddy, 2001).
4.3 Results
4.3.1 Manipulation check. As in Study 1, participants felt more creative in the creativity 269
condition than in the control condition (Mcreativity ⫽ 6.13, Mcontrol ⫽ 3.98; t(182) ⫽ ⫺9.56,
conditions on time spent, motivation, interest or involvement in the task, or brand
familiarity (all ps ⬎ 0.05).
4.3.2 Attitude toward brand extensions. To test H2, we used repeated measure
general linear modeling (GLM) as the analysis procedure. The result indicates a
significant two-way interaction between creativity and the type of brand extension on
purchase intentions (F(1, 182) ⫽ 4.28, p ⬍ 0.05). The pairwise comparison results also
show that when the brand extension offers low fit, creativity leads to greater purchase
intentions (Mcreativity ⫽ 1.70, Mcontrol ⫽ 1.33; t(184) ⫽ 3.62, p ⬍ 0.0001), whereas when
brand extensions offer high fit, the effect is not significant (Mcreativity ⫽ 2.61, Mcontrol ⫽
2.57; t(184) ⬍ 1, ns; see Figure 1). We also find a significant main effect of the type of
brand extension on purchase intention (Mhigh-fit ⫽ 2.59, Mlow-fit ⫽ 1.51; F(1, 182) ⫽
181.65, p ⬍ 0.001). The main effect of creativity on purchase intension also is significant
(Mcreativity ⫽ 2.15, Mcontrol ⫽ 1.95; F(1, 182) ⫽ 4.26, p ⬍ 0.05), whereas the other effects
are not significant. These results fully support H2.
4.4 Discussion
Study 2 results reveal that when a brand extension demonstrates high fit, consumers in
both the creativity condition and the control condition are more likely to accept the
brand extension. However, when the brand extension demonstrates low fit, creative
consumers (as compared non-creative consumers) are more likely to accept the brand
extension. This finding confirms that creativity may influence whether consumers will
accept brand extensions, especially when such extensions are novel.
Figure 1.
Two-way interaction
effect: brand
extension fit and
creativity on
purchase intentions
(Study 2)
EJM 5. Study 3
49,1/2 Studies 1 and 2 suggest that creativity leads to a positive attitude toward a
creative-themed marketing program due to the positive attitude toward the creative
activity; and creativity moderates the effect of perceived level of fit on the acceptance of
brand extension such that creative consumers are more likely to accept distant brand
extensions. In Study 3, we attempt to replicate these findings using a new creative task:
270 NikeID “Designing Your Own Shoes”, with a more representative sample to enhance the
generalizability of our findings from Studies 1 and 2.
5.1 Design and procedure

One hundred and seven MBA students (42 females and 65 males) from a university in
China participated in this study for CNY40 (equivalent to USD7 or €5). The average age
was 29 years old and the average working experience was 7 years. We consider this
group of participants a more representative sample than undergraduate students (used
in previous two studies) because of the broader range of distributions in age, income
level, industry type and number of years of work experience. All participants were
instructed to participate in a NikeID “Design Your Own Shoes” activity
(http://nikeid.nike.com/), in which they were asked to design a pair of Nike sneakers for
themselves, under the theme “Unforgotten Youth”. This task was chosen because this
sports brand is highly familiar and relevant to our participants, and the creativity theme
was based on a popular movie among young professionals, what was played at the time
of our data collection. They were assigned randomly to a creativity or a control
condition. In the creativity condition, participants were told to use the graphics, color
and materials provided on the screen to design the sneakers. In the control condition,
participants were asked to follow the instructions on the screen to make the sneakers.
Dependent measures and manipulation check question of creativity was identical to
those in Studies 1 and 2. Participants’ overall time spent, interest, involvement,
motivation and mood were also measured. Finally, participants were probed regarding
the purpose of the study; they revealed no insights into the hypothesis.
5.2 Results
5.2.1 Manipulation check. Participants felt a higher degree of creativity in the creativity
condition than in the control condition (Mcreativity ⫽ 6.08, Mcontrol ⫽ 4.73; t(105) ⫽ ⫺4.50,
conditions on time spent, interest, involvement, motivation or mood (all ps ⬎ 0.05).
5.2.2 Main effect of creativity on brand attitude. A reliability analysis was conducted
across three items of attitude toward the brand (Cronbach’s alpha ⫽ 0.97) and seven
items of attitude toward the task (Cronbach’s alpha ⫽ 0.97). As in Studies 1 and 2,
participants in the creativity condition showed a more positive attitude toward the Nike
sneakers they designed (Mcreativity⫽ 8.05) than those in the control condition (Mcontrol⫽
7.01; t[105] ⫽ ⫺3.15, p ⬍ 0.01), in support of H1a.
5.2.3 Mediation effect. As in Study 1, we conducted a bootstrapping mediation
analysis following previous research (Preacher and Hayes, 2004; Zhao et al., 2010;
Hayes, 2013). The bootstrap estimate of the overall indirect effect (i.e. path through the
mediator; effect value ⫽ 1.05, SE ⫽ 0.26) and a 95 per cent confidence interval excluding
zero (95 per cent CI ⫽ 0.59 to 1.59) suggest the positive indirect effect is significant. After
controlling for the mediator (i.e. attitude toward the task), the effect of consumer
creativity on attitude toward the brand was no longer significant (95 per cent CI ⫽ ⫺0.58 Consumer
to 0.56). Taken together, these results reveal a full mediation role of attitude toward the creativity
task, in the effect of creativity on attitude toward the brand. Thus, H1b is fully
supported.
5.2.4 Moderation effect of creativity on brand extension. We followed the same
procedure as in Study 2 to select brand extension categories in a pretest. Forty-seven MBA
students participated in the pretest and were instructed to select high- vs low fit of brand 271
extension products for Nike Sneakers. The pretest results suggest that skate shoes
(M ⫽ 4.91), snow boots (M ⫽ 4.85), running machine (M ⫽ 4.55) and bicycle (M ⫽ 4.13) were
high-fit extension products, whereas beef jerky (M ⫽ 1.43), airlines (M ⫽ 1.62), life insurance
(M ⫽ 1.66) and suits (M ⫽ 1.72) were low-fit brand extension products.
To test H2, we used a 2 (between: creativity vs control) ⫻ 2 (within: high- vs low-fit
brand extension) ⫻ 4 (within: four products in each brand extension category) mixed
design. We used the repeated measure GLM and results indicate a significant two-way
interaction between creativity and the type of brand extension on purchase intentions
(F(1, 105) ⫽ 6.32, p ⬍ 0.05). The pairwise comparison results show that when the fit of
brand extension was low, creativity led to a greater purchase intention (Mcreativity ⫽ 2.36,
Mcontrol ⫽ 1.60; t(107) ⫽ 5.10, p ⬍ 0.001), whereas when the fit of brand extension was
high, this effect was not significant (Mcreativity ⫽ 3.31, Mcontrol ⫽ 3.05; t(107) ⫽ 1.66, ns;
see Figure 2). We also find a significant main effect of the type of brand extension on
purchase intention (Mhigh-fit ⫽ 3.18, Mlow-fit ⫽ 1.98; F(1, 105) ⫽ 151.44, p ⬍ 0.001). The
main effect of creativity on purchase intension was also significant (Mcreativity ⫽ 2.84,
Mcontrol ⫽ 2.32; F(1, 105) ⫽ 17.96, p ⬍ 0.001). No other effects were significant. Taken
together, these effects support H2. In general, using more representative sample and
different type of creative task, Study 3 replicates the findings of Studies 1 and 2.
6. General discussion
6.1 Summary
Despite their rising popularity, little research has explored the effectiveness of online
creativity-themed marketing communications. This study seeks to fill that gap by
Figure 2.
Two-way interaction
effect: brand
extension fit and
creativity on
purchase intentions
(Study 3)
EJM investigating whether such activities improve consumers’ attitudes toward the focal
49,1/2 brand, and whether such activities also facilitate consumers’ acceptance of brand
extensions. Results from three studies show that creativity enhances positive attitude
toward the brand, and this effect is mediated by positive attitude toward the creative
task. Furthermore, consumer creativity lifts attitude toward brand extensions – an effect
that is more pronounced for distant ones.
272
6.2 Theoretical contributions
This research makes several contributions to extant literature. First, substantial
consumer creativity research explores the outcomes of creativity for consumers, such as
accomplishment, satisfaction, pride, confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy
(Burroughs and Mick, 2004; Dahl and Moreau, 2007). This study adds to extant
literature by documenting the consequences of consumer creativity in terms of positive
outcomes for the firm that organizes online creativity-themed promotions.
Second, by examining the mediation effect of attitude toward the task on the effect of
creativity on attitude toward the brand, we broaden the scope of extant research on
attitude toward the advertisement by identifying new application boundaries. That is,
in addition to attitude toward the traditional advertisement (e.g. Brown and Stayman,
1992), attitude-toward-the-site (Chen and Wells, 1999; Chen et al., 2002) and
attitude-toward-the-sponsorship-event (Speed and Thompson, 2000), we establish that
attitude toward a creativity-themed task (in the marketing context) can improve
consumers’ attitude toward the brand.
Third, extant brand extension research has investigated a broad range of factors that
may affect consumers’ acceptance of distant brand extensions, but, to the best of our
knowledge, no study has considered the possible role of consumer creativity. By
integrating creativity literature, and showing that consumer creativity can facilitate the
acceptance of brand extensions, our study also enriches brand extension literature.
6.3 Limitations and further research

It is important to point out two limitations of this work. First, this research was
conducted in a laboratory setting, using student subjects. Even though we conducted
Study 3 using a more representative sample (MBA students), creative consumers, in
particular young adults, may be more likely to embrace creative activities – as divergent
thinking abilities have been shown to decline with age (McCrae et al., 1987). Therefore,
it would be interesting to examine the effect of creativity on consumers’ attitudes toward
a brand or brand extensions in real online campaigns using a broader, more
representative sample of consumers. Second, these studies examine three particular
consumer creative activities. Future research could examine other scenarios of
consumer creativity and its implications for brand marketing. It would be also of
interest for future research to investigate the role of creative task in promotional games
for a brand or a new brand or product extension.
6.4 Managerial implications

Our results provide important implications for firms that intend to exploit the promise of
online creativity-themed marketing communications. First, because consumers’
attitudes toward the focal brand hinge on their attitudes toward a related creative
activity, it is important that firms design truly attractive activities, which may require
the close coordination between computer programmers, graphic designers and
marketers. Second, a direct benefit for the firms running these creativity-themed Consumer
promotions may come from the increase in brand attitude, but firms can further exploit creativity
creativity advantages by launching new brand extensions, and targeting creative
consumers who are likely to be more receptive. This effect is even more pronounced
when the brand extension exhibits a low fit with the focal brand. These guidelines in
combination suggest that firms’ investments in online creativity-themed marketing
communications can pay off in terms of improved consumer attitudes toward the firms’ 273
brands and brand extensions. Our findings may also have pertinent implications for
product placements in movies or video games. For example, in a creative dance game
about the two famous M&M cartoon characters, the brand image of M&M could largely
be enhanced through gamers’ favorable attitude toward the dance game.
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About the authors

Jintao Wu is Associate Professor of Marketing, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. His
current research focuses on consumer creativity, consumer behavior and waiting perceptions. In
addition to various Chinese journals, he has published in Journal of Marketing Science,
Management Journal, and Economic Management Journal. Jintao Wu is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: lnswjt@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Na Wen is Assistant Professor of Marketing, City University of Hong Kong. Her current
research interests include consumer behavior in online environments, consumer creativity, and
decision making.
EJM Wenyu Dou is Professor of Marketing, City University of Hong Kong. His current research
interests focus on e-commerce and advertising. He has published in various journals, including
49,1/2 MIS Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Advertising, and Journal of
Advertising Research, among others.
Junsong Chen is Associate Professor of Marketing, East China University of Science and
Technology, Shanghai, China. His current research interests include consumer behavior,
branding, and decision making.
276
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European Journal of Marketing

Exploring the effectiveness of consumer creativity in online marketing

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Department of Business Administration (School of Business),

2.2 Attitude toward the advertisement (Aad)

toward the focal brand. Formally, we posit:

2.3 Effect of consumer creativity on attitude toward brand extensions

3.1 Design and procedure

4.1 Study design

5.1 Design and procedure

6.3 Limitations and further research

6.4 Managerial implications

Marketing, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 27-41.

Machinery, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 42 No. 8, pp. 91-98.

About the authors

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