BRETT A. S. MARTIN1 *, CHRISTINA KWAI-CHOI LEE2 , CLINTON WEEKS1 and MARIA KAYA1 1 QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia 2 School of Business, Monash University, Sunway Campus, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, 46150, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia
ABSTRACT
How can marketers stop speeding motorists and binge drinking? Two experiments show that the beliefs consumers have about the degree to which they define themselves in terms of their close relationships (i.e., relational-interdependent self-construal (RISC)) offer useful insights into the effectiveness of communications for two key social marketing issues—road safety (Study 1, New Zealand sample) and alcohol consumption (Study 2, English sample). Further, self-referencing is a mechanism for these effects. Specifically, people who define themselves in terms of their close relationships (high-RISCs) respond most favorably to advertisements featuring a dyadic relationship (two people), and this favorable response is mediated by self-referencing. In contrast, people who do not include close relationships in their sense of self (low-RISCs) respond most favorably to self-reference advertisements featuring solitary models. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Binge drinking and excessive speeding have both been highlighted as issues that marketing, and specifically advertising, has had mixed or limited success in reducing (Lewis et al., 2007; Wechsler et al., 2003). Preventive health advocacies on these issues both fall within the domain of social marketing. Social marketing seeks to voluntarily influence the behavior of certain consumers for the benefit of society as a whole (Andreasen, 2002). Frequently, social marketing involves an advocacy, for example, calls to stop smoking. Social marketing is challenging because it can involve a short-term cost to consumers (e.g., not smoking) for an intangible long-term gain (e.g., a possibly increased life span).
Because of these difficulties, limited academic progress has been made to assist social marketers compared with research on products and services. To this end, this article responds to Andreasen’s (2002) call for investigating strategies to increase the effectiveness of social marketing communications. The study shows that considering a consumer’s relational-interdependent self-construal (RISC) and self-referencing can improve social marketing advertising effectiveness. The purposes of this article are to introduce RISC into the social marketing literature and to explore the role of RISC and self-referencing in terms of social marketing communication effectiveness. RISC relates to an individual’s beliefs about the degree to which they define themselves in terms of their close relationships (Cross et al., 2000).
Thus, the study offers three contributions. First, the study shows that consumer responses to social marketing messages are moderated by RISC. Although past consumer research has examined individualism–collectivism (e.g., Gürhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000), this research uses RISC, which relates to Western societies and which focuses on a person’s intimate relationships with close others rather than a collective relationship with generalized others (e.g., one’s ethnic group). Second, the study reveals how self-referencing acts as a mediator of these effects. Third, the study examines visual self-referencing manipulations in a social marketing context and introduces a new way of inducing self-referencing through the use of models in advertising, which are depicted in a manner consistent with the target market’s level of RISC.
BACKGROUND
Relational-interdependent self-construal Self-construal relates to a person’s self-concept or self-view (Guimond et al., 2006). For RISC, a person’s self-concept is defined in terms of close relationships (Cross et al., 2002). High-RISC individuals are more likely to regard close relationships as important for self-expression and their sense of self. In contrast, lowRISC individuals are less socialized to attend to personal relationships and to consider the needs and wishes of close others (Cross et al., 2003). RISC relates to a person’s close dyadic relationships (e.g., close friend and spouse) rather than a person’s relationship with generalized others (e.g., people of the same ethnicity). Consequently, Cross et al. (2002) suggest that RISC is suited to studies of individuals from Western, individualist cultures where people are more likely to include individual relationships (e.g., best friend) in their sense of self than more general in-groups.
Research indicates that high-RISCs give more importance than low-RISCs to the needs and wishes of signifi- cant others when making decisions (Cross et al., 2000). Further, high-RISCs have a richer cognitive network of relationship associations than low-RISCs. As these associations are part of the self for high-RISCs, they can be more easily primed and result in high-RISCs paying attention to relational stimuli (Cross et al., 2002). Specifically, high-RISCs are more likely to pay attention to information about others’ relationships. For example, the couple (e.g., a married couple) serves as useful memory tool for high-RISCs to implicitly organize information in memory around relationships (Cross et al., 2002). Thus, high-RISCs should be more likely than low-RISCs to pay attention to social relationship cues in advertising.
The print ad in Study 1 is about road safety and highlights the dangers of speeding. The ad features a picture of either a solitary male driver, or a driver and his terrified female passenger. Study 2 is about binge drinking featuring a picture of either a solitary male drinking alcohol, or a drinker and his male companion. For high-RISCs, the presence of a companion should remind them of the negative consequences of their actions in relation to people whom they are close to. As they value close relationships, they should be more responsive than low-RISCs to advertisements portraying a companion with the driver or drinker. On the other hand, close relationships are less important for low-RISCs. Thus, they should produce more favorable attitudinal responses toward advertisements portraying a solitary driver or drinker, as this type of ad should help them concentrate on the consequences of their own actions to themselves.
H1: RISC and model depiction interact to affect evaluations and behavioral intention. Specifically, high-RISCs have more favorable evaluations and behavioral intention than low-RISCs for exposure to ads showing a model in a dyadic relationship. Low-RISCs have more favorable evaluations and behavioral intention than high-RISCs for exposure to ads portraying a solitary model.
Self-referencing This research posits that the effects of H1 are mediated by self-referencing. Self-referencing is defined as a cognitive processing strategy where consumers relate message information to their individual self structures (Burnkrant and Unnava, 1989, 1995). For example, a consumer may relate ad information to his or her life, such as recalling a similar consumption experience. Self-referenced information is more easily associated with previously stored information because the self is a frequently accessed construct in memory. In marketing, research suggests that self-referencing can be induced by exposure to pictures of models.
For example, Martin et al. (2004) find that Asian consumers self-referenced ads showing an Asian model as compared with ads featuring a White model. Further, Martin et al. (2007) find people who believe they could control their own weight show more self-referencing in response to seeing ads featuring slim models, than people who do not believe their weight is within their control. This research suggests that high-RISCs should engage in self-referencing in response to the ad featuring two models. Low-RISCs, with their non-relationship view, should engage in self-referencing in response to advertisements featuring the solitary model.
This research uses path analysis to examine the mediation of RISC on ad model depiction effects by selfreferencing (Baron and Kenny, 1986). High-RISCs are expected to self-reference the dyad ad, resulting in a positive association between model depiction (dummy variable: solitary model = 0, dyad = 1), and self-referencing. As low-RISCs should self-reference the solitary model, they should show a negative model depiction-selfreferencing association.
H2: Self-referencing acts as a mediator between the effect of model depiction on evaluations and behavioral intention. Specifically,
H2a: Model depiction positively associates with selfreferencing for high-RISC individuals, which in turn associates positively with evaluations and behavioral intention.
H2b: Model depiction negatively associates with selfreferencing for low-RISC individuals, which in turn associates positively with evaluations and behavioral intention.
STUDY 1
Choice of social issue
Speeding in terms of road safety is chosen as the social issue for this study on the basis of two criteria. First, speeding is a serious social problem in New Zealand. In 2009, speeding contributed to 100 deaths and 1635 injuries. The social cost of speed-related crashes is estimated at $810 million (New Zealand Ministry of Transport, 2010). Second, speeding is a relevant issue for all road users. For every 100 drivers killed in road crashes from speeding, 59 passengers and 19 other road users die with them (New Zealand Ministry of Transport, 2010).
Method
Participants, design, and procedure Two hundred and eighty-five undergraduate business students from a business school in New Zealand were randomly assigned to the cells of a 2 (model depiction: solitary, two people) 2 (ad copy wording: second-person wording, third-person wording) between subjects design. RISC (high and low) is used as a measured independent variable, following a median split (median = 5.18, 7-point scale). Participants were informed that a study was being conducted on print advertisements. Next, they read a booklet containing an ad and the questionnaire. Participants were asked to read the materials at their own pace. The procedure lasted approximately 20 minutes.
Advertising stimuli
Model depiction is varied so that one group of participants viewed ads congruent to their RISC levels, whereas other participants viewed RISC-incongruent messages. Although this is the first time that RISC is employed to induce selfreferencing, this practice is consistent with prior research. Meyers-Levy and Peracchio (1996) manipulated audiences’ self-referencing levels by using photos from the perspective of an active participant or as a detached onlooker. In the study, the solitary depiction ad has the male driver traveling alone. In the dyad ads, the driver has a female passenger traveling with him.
The woman is a similar age, and her facial expression suggests that she is terrified. All ads show a young White male driver. An ethnic majority model is used to avoid differences in self-referencing caused by ethnic minority models (Lee et al., 2002; Martin et al., 2004). A male model is shown as the driver, as the majority of speeding drivers are male (85% in 2007 to 2009; New Zealand Ministry of Transport, 2010). A pretest (n = 21 undergraduates) was run to assess whether women would not self-reference a male model driver as highly as men. The results indicate no gender difference in self-referencing (p > 0.15). Ad copy wording is varied so that one group viewed the text worded in the second person and another group viewed the text worded in the third person.
The following text is used: “You are driving (He is driving) along an open road. You don’t (he doesn’t) notice you’ve (he’s) exceeded the speed limit. By the time you notice (he notices), it’s too late.” Ads featuring the passenger also include the sentence: “You don’t (He doesn’t) notice that your passenger is terrified.” The slogan “SPEED KILLS!” appeared in the bottom right-hand side of all ads. An example of the advertising stimuli is shown in Appendix A. As no significant RISC model ad wording interaction on self-referencing exists (p > 0.55), ad wording was not pursued any further in this research.
Measures
All measures use 7-point scales. Participants evaluated the ad on three items (bad–good, unconvincing–convincing, and uninteresting–interesting; Cronbach’s a = 0.90). Behavioral intention items are “I am now less likely to speed than I was before seeing the ad” and “I am now more interested in learning about the consequences of speeding than I was before seeing the ad” anchored by strongly disagree to strongly agree (r = 0.76). RISC was measured using the 11-item scale of Cross et al. (2000), which included statements such as “My close relationships are an important reflection of who I am” (a = 0.88, scale items displayed in Appendix B). Self-referencing was assessed on four items (“The ad made me think of my personal experiences in similar scenarios,” “The ad seemed to relate to myself,” “The ad seemed to relate to people who are close to me,” and “I can easily picture myself in the situation portrayed in the ad”; a = 0.85) anchored by strongly disagree to strongly agree. Factor analyses were performed on multi-item measures. As all groups load on single factors, mean scores are calculated and used in the analyses. Measures were also included for cognitive responses, involvement, driving habits, and demographics. However,as these are beyond the scope of this paper, they will not be discussed further.
Results
Manipulation checks and confound check First, the analyses support the assumption that model depiction affects self-referencing. An ANOVA on the selfreferencing index revealed a significant RISC model depiction interaction (F(1, 267) = 7.97, p < 0.05). As expected, high-RISCs display higher self-referencing when viewing two models (M = 3.26) rather than a solitary model (M = 2.9, p = 0.05). In contrast, low-RISCs show higher selfreferencing for the solitary model (M = 3.4) than the ads featuring the dyadic relationship (M = 3.0, p < 0.05). Ad believability is measured using two scales (highly believable–not at all believable and totally acceptable–not at all acceptable; r = 0.68), adapted from Gürhan-Canli and Maheswaran (2000). These scales were averaged to create an ad believability index. ANOVA analyses on the confound check measure show no significant differences (ps > 0.17), suggesting that the advertising stimuli do not differ in believability.
Hypothesis testing
Hypothesis 1: A MANOVA revealed a significant interaction for 2 (RISC: high, low) 2 (model: solitary, two people) on evaluations (F(1, 267) = 9.74, p< 0.01) but not for behavioral intention (p> 0.22). Follow-up contrasts for this interaction are consistent with Hypothesis 1 (Table 1). High-RISCs have more favorable evaluations for dyad model ads (M = 3.6) than solitary model ads (M = 3.0, p< 0.01). Low-RISCs evaluate the solitary model ads (M = 3.8) more favorably than dyad ads (M = 3.3, p = 0.05).
Hypothesis 2: The mediating effect of self-referencing on evaluation and behavioral intention was tested using regressions for high-RISCs and low-RISCs (Baron and Kenny, 1986). First, evaluation was regressed on model depiction. Second, self-referencing was regressed on model depiction. Third, evaluation was regressed on model depiction and self-referencing. These analyses were repeated for behavioral intention.
Overall, the results support H2a and partially support H2b. For high-RISCs (H2a), a significant effect for model depiction is evident for evaluations (b = 0.23, p < 0.01) and behavioral intention (b = 0.17, p < 0.05). Model depiction also has a significant effect on self-referencing for high-RISCs (b = 0.17, p < 0.05). Further, the effect of model depiction is eliminated when self-referencing is included in the model for evaluations (b = 0.14, NS) and behavioral intention (b = 0.11, NS). These results support H2a (Table 2). For low-RISCs, the effect for model depiction is significant for evaluations (b = 0.21, p < 0.05), but is not significant for behavioral intention (b = 0.02, NS). Yet model depiction resulted in a negative association with self-referencing (b = 0.19, p < 0.05). The effect of model depiction is eliminated when self-referencing is included model for evaluations (b = 0.12, NS), but has no effect when included for behavioral intention. These results partially support H2b.
Discussion
Study 1 shows that RISC and model depiction interact to affect evaluations (H1). Further, self-referencing mediates the effects of RISC and model depiction on attitudes (H2). Study 2 replicates and extends Study 1 by using a different social issue to test the generalizability of the results of Study 1.
STUDY 2
Overview
Study 2 replicates and extends Study 1 by using a different social issue and a sample from a different country (England). This study also measure attitudes toward binge drinking as a covariate.
Choice of social issue
Alcohol consumption was chosen as a relevant topic for England. In 2009, alcohol was associated with 8664 deaths in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2011). Further, in England, the social cost of alcohol has been estimated at £20 billion a year (USD$32.19 billion), with binge drinkingby people under the age of 25 years highlighted as a key concern (Cabinet Office Report, 2004). Binge drinking is defined as drinking to get drunk.
Method
Participants, design, procedure, and measures A total of 136 undergraduates participated. The design, procedure, and measures are identical to those of Study 1 (RISC: a = 0.91, evaluations: a = 0.81, behavioral intention: r = 0.63, self-referencing: a = 0.87, involvement: a = 0.86). Attitude toward binge drinking is measured on two 7-point scales (like–dislike and desirable–undesirable; r = 0.92).
Advertising stimuli
Model depiction was varied in a similar manner to Study 1. The solitary model ads show a male drinking. In the dyad ads, the drinker has a male friend lacking enthusiasm. A pretest (n = 31 undergraduates) found no gender differences in levels of self-referencing (p > 0.49), suggesting that the ad is equally applicable to both sexes. Ad copy wording was varied in a similar manner to Study 1 by using the following text: “You go out (He goes out) most nights. You (He) drink to get drunk. You (He) get so drunk you (he) can’t remember the night before. If you keep (he keeps) this up, you run (he runs) an increased risk of heart disease and brain damage.” Ads featuring the companion included the sentence: “Your (his) friend resents having to cancel their night short because of your (his) behavior.” The slogan “Regular Binge Drinking can Harm You” appeared in all ads (Appendix C). Similar to Study 1, no significant RISC model ad wording interaction on self-referencing is present (p > 0.32); therefore, ad wording is not pursued any further in this research.
Results
Manipulation checks and confound check An ANCOVA on the self-referencing index with attitude toward binge drinking as a covariate yielded a significant RISC model interaction (F(1, 116) = 17.19, p < 0.001). Attitude toward binge drinking was used as a significant covariate for these analyses (F(1, 116) = 18.24, p < 0.001) but not for the hypothesis testing where it was not correlated with the dependent variables (p > 0.14). HighRISCs have higher self-referencing for the dyad (M = 4.2) than the solitary model (M = 3.1, p < 0.01). Low-RISCs have higher self-referencing for the solitary model (M = 3.6) rather than the dyad (M = 2.6, p < 0.01). ANOVA analyses on the ad believability confound check measure show no significant difference (ps 0.20), suggesting that the advertising stimuli do not differ in believability.
Hypothesis testing
Hypothesis 1: A MANOVA revealed a significant interaction for RISC model on evaluations (F(1, 117) = 6.43, p< 0.05) and behavioral intention (F(1, 117) = 13.51, p< 0.001). Follow-up contrasts generally support Hypothesis 1 (Table 1). High-RISCs have more favorable intentions after viewing the dyad ads (M = 3.4) than the solitary model ads (M = 2.5, p < 0.05). Yet no such difference is evident for evaluations (MDyad = 4.4, MSolitary = 4.0, p > 0.25). Low-RISCs have more favorable intentions after viewing the solitary model ads (M = 4.2) than the dyad ads (M = 3.6, p < 0.05). A similar pattern is evident for evaluations (MSolitary = 3.2, MDyad = 2.20, p < 0.01).
Hypothesis 2: Mediation analyses show for high-RISCs a significant effect for model depiction on behavioral intention (b = 0.31, p < 0.05), but not for evaluations (b = 0.16, p > 0.25). Model depiction affects self-referencing for high-RISCs (b = 0.40, p < 0.01). Further, the effect of model depiction is eliminated when self-referencing is included in the model for behavioral intention (b = 0.25, NS) and remain non-significant for evaluations (b = 0.03, p > 0.80). These results partially support H2a (Table 2). For low-RISCs, model depiction is associated with evaluations (b = 0.27, p < 0.05) and behavioral intention (b = 0.34, p < 0.01). Further, model depiction results in a negative association with self-referencing (b = 0.30, p < 0.05). The effect of model depiction is eliminated when self-referencing is included in the model for both evaluations (b = 0.20, NS) and reduced when included for behavioral intention (b = 0.30, p < 0.05). These results support H2b. Discussion Study 2 replicates Study 1 for alcohol consumption. The predicted RISC model interaction is supported for both evaluations and behavioral intention. Simlar to Study 1, self-referencing mediates this interaction.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
This research examined how a consumer’s RISC and selfreferencing influence their evaluations and behavioral intention regarding social marketing advertisements. The results converged for Studies 1 and 2. High-RISC consumers are more persuaded by ads featuring two models (i.e., a dyadic relationship). Low-RISC participants prefer ads featuring solitary models. Mediation analyses reveal that evaluations for preferred ad types are mediated by self-referencing.
Theoretical contributions
This research makes several contributions. First, this research is the first to introduce RISC into the field of social marketing. The findings suggest that attitudes are most favorable when RISC and the models depicted in the social marketing ad are congruent, namely, a high-RISC person construing information in an ad featuring models in a dyad, and a low-RISC person construing information in an ad featuring a solitary model. This research also contributes to current social marketing research, which suggests that insights into effectiveness can be gained by considering personal aspects of consumers. For example, Cornelissen et al. (2008) suggested that social marketing messages can be enhanced by the use of cues that relate to personal norms rather than general social norms. This research builds on the research of Cornelissen et al. (2008) by suggesting that social marketing effectiveness can be enhanced by considering a consumer’s personal beliefs regarding close relationships rather than more general relationships. Indeed, RISC congruency is also relevant as research suggests that individual differences offer useful insights into social marketing effectiveness. For example, Christie et al. (1998) discussed the difficulty of having any impact on intentions to binge drink and speculated that individual differences offer a useful perspective for research on alcohol consumption. Likewise, this research shows that a key individual difference that influences evaluations of social marketing advertisements is RISC. Further, the intentions to binge drink can be influenced if RISC is taken into consideration. Thus, scholars researching social marketing should consider the role of RISC when developing social marketing communication. Another key contribution is revealing self-referencing as a mediator of attitudes for preferred ad types. Selfreferencing can favorably influence evaluations when a consumer’s RISC level and the models depicted in an ad are congruent. This research also builds on previous research (e.g., Martin et al., 2004; Meyers-Levy and Peracchio, 1996), suggesting the possibility of inducingself-referencing through the design of an ad. Thus, a self-referencing perspective represents a useful framework for future research in this area.
Managerial implications
How then do marketers stop speeding motorists and binge drinking? Our research suggests that the key is the RISC level of the target consumer. Instead of targeting a message only to the individual or to a wider group that has no relevance to the motorist or drinker (e.g., injuring unknown bystanders when speeding), the key is whether highlighting consequences to others who are socially close to the individuals (e.g., close friends) will be useful. Specifically, there are two strategies that social marketers could adopt. First, how people think about close relationships influences the way they react to social marketing messages. For highly relational individuals (high-RISCs), close others are an important part of their self-definition (Cross et al., 2003). Thus, social marketing communications are more effective if more emphasis is placed on interdependence with close others and how the consequences of actions can affect them (e.g., how passive smoking affects your children). On the other hand, lowRISCs should be more effectively targeted by messages focusing on self-relevant information. Second, the influence of self-referencing indicates that social marketers can improve the effectiveness of their advertising by increasing target consumer self-referencing levels. An approach to consider is RISC congruence, where the depiction of the model in the ad (solitary or dyadic) reflects the RISC level of the target consumer. Segmentation for such advertising can be achieved through studying the media or technology habits of consumers. A judgment can be made regarding the RISC level of the target consumer of a media vehicle or website where advertising is being considered on the basis of preferred content and featured articles. For instance, heavy users of social networking sites such as Facebook who keep in contact with close friends on the site are likely to be high-RISC and would suit dyad model ads.
Future research directions
The study examines relational self-construal as an individual difference in two Western cultures; future research may investigate the influence of the collective self and “other referencing” on evaluation and behavioral intention of social marketing communication. Collective self, a predominant self schema in collectivistic, Eastern cultures, extends beyond the individual’s significant other (as in RISC), to encompass the larger social group, for example, the family or the community (Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1989). In such collective cultures, previous research (Cornelissen et al., 2008) that suggest social marketing effectiveness can be enhanced by personal norms rather than social norms may not hold true. For example, Verplanken et al. (2009) find that social norms are a better predictor than personal values when the collective self is primed. Instead of self-referencing, it will be interesting to examine other referencing as the mediator of favorable attitudes. Aaker and Williams (1998) coined the term other referencing to indicate information processing with reference to significant others rather than to self. The authors suggest that the ability to induce other referencing in collectivistic cultures is more effective in evoking favorable attitudes than self-referencing. Social marketers will be interested to determine if ads targeted at collective cultures, which portray that an in-group (e.g. extended family) setting is more likely to induce other referencing and have more favorable attitudes than an ad which portrays only two people or one person. Further, we examined the role of models depicted in ads, but future research could also examine the influence of ad wording such as message framing, which has proven to be a popular technique in advertising (Martin and Marshall, 1999; Pervan and Vocino, 2008). Similarly, RISC could be investigated in relation to product placement where drama featuring relational or independent themes as a context for products could be examined (Pervan and Martin, 2002, 2006). If one assumes that some consumers may automatically adopt a negative view of preventive health advocacies suggesting a change in behavior, an interesting approach could be to examine ways to interrupt this negative view through strategies such as counterstereotypical mental imagery (Martin et al., 2011).
Future research could explore the inclusion of selfregulatory goals as another individual difference, which may affect an individual’s response to social marketing messages. Aaker and Lee (1998) suggested that individuals favor messages that are compatible with their self-regulatory goals, such that those who are interdependent respond more favorably to prevention-focused messages, whereas those who are independent respond more favorably to promotion-focused messages.
The research question could examine whether the ad visual and copy for high-RISC individuals should emphasize the negative consequences of a health warning to one’s family and for low-RISC individuals, whether the ad visual and copy should promote the positive effects of adhering to a health warning to oneself.
An understanding of these differences extends this research to include another element, self-regulatory goals, into consideration when designing social marketing messages. Likewise for research on speeding and binge drinking, future work should consider the role of a consumer’s view of time and the future, such as their temporal orientation as present- or future-oriented (Martin et al., 2009), and how this influences their appreciation of the health consequences of their actions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Echo Guo, Stephen Dann, Jiri Mocicka, and Frank Xu for helpful comments and assistance in data collection and ad design. Clinton Weeks and Maria Kaya contributed equally to the manuscript and should be regarded as equal co-authors.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Brett A. S. Martin is professor of marketing at QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations. His research focus is on consumer research especially the study of individual differences, role of touch, and the role of fantasy in consumer behavior. His research work has been published in the journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Advertising Research. More information on his research is available at www.basmartin.com. Christina Kwai-Choi Lee is professor of Marketing at the School of Business, Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia.
Her research interests include self and identity, family decision making, sustainable consumption, marketing strategy, and social marketing. She has contributed to conference proceedings and publications in Australian, European, and American journals across disciplines, for example, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Service Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Property Research, Housing Studies, Australasian Marketing Journal, and Studies in Higher Education. Clinton Weeks is currently a lecturer in marketing at the QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His research focuses on consumer memory and cognition. His work has been published in journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Advertising, Psychology & Marketing, and Memory & Cognition.
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