Sleep deprivation is a widespread phenomenon that has a profound impact on behavior. Given that many consumers are exposed to advertisements when sleep deprived, it is important to understand how sleep deprivation influences consumers' reactions to marketing communications. This article addresses this under-researched area and shows that visualization appeals lead to enhanced brand evaluations for sleep deprived individuals. Specifically, study 1 finds that individuals who are sleep deprived express more positive brand attitudes after exposure to an imagery appeal relative to a non-imagery appeal. Additionally, study 1 also shows that imagery appeals cause sleep deprived individuals to express more positive brand attitudes compared to individuals who are not sleep deprived. Study 2 extends these findings and demonstrates that in addition to higher brand attitudes, sleep deprived individuals also express greater purchase intentions after exposure to a visualization than a non-visualization appeal. Brand managers and marketers can benefit from the knowledge that sleep deprived consumers react positively toward visualization appeals. Our research suggests that brand managers and marketers should create advertisements that feature imagery appeals as a way to enhance advertising effectiveness for sleep deprived consumers.
We explore how shopping could contribute toward the regulation of negative feelings and engender, what we call, therapeutic utility. Building on and synthesizing prior research on motivation theory, emotion regulation, and compensatory consumption, we propose a conceptual framework that illuminates the different sources of therapeutic utility in shopping based on four primary motives in consumption—affective-preservation, affective-growth, cognitive-preservation, and cognitive-growth. Importantly, our framework acknowledges that consumers can engage in retail therapy without pursuing any concrete purchase goals or any actual purchases. Taking a needs perspective, we discuss potential mechanisms for therapeutic utility through shopping and propose directions for future research.
