The magic of imagination – quantitative exploration of an untapped gem

Imagination. A concept that has captured the interest of Greek philosophers, geniuses and rock stars. In this study an overview of the concept of imagination is provided, indicating the prevalence of conceptual research and... [ view full abstract ]

Imagination. A concept that has captured the interest of Greek philosophers, geniuses and rock stars. In this study an overview of the concept of imagination is provided, indicating the prevalence of conceptual research and the lack of general and marketing communication-related empirical findings about the concept. The study proceeds to partially assess an existing imagination framework by Hunter (2013) by measuring the influence of different types of imagination messages on consumer attitudes toward the brand, attitudes toward the advertisement and behavioural intentions. Qualitative focus groups and a quantitative pre-test post-test experiment formed the methodology of the study. Three different television advertisements by a well-known investment management firm were employed as stimuli in the experiment. Findings indicated that strategic and emotional imagination positively impacted attitude toward the brand and toward the advertisement. These types of imagination also resulted in the most positive behavioural intentions. The results further indicated that fantasy imagination exerted a significantly lower positive impact on attitude than strategic and emotional imagination and no significant impact on behavioural intention. It is recommended that firms strategically align the imagination type portrayed in their advertising with their product/service and consider the emotional impact of various imagination formats throughout campaign planning.