Juan Mundel, associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, and Patricia Huddleston, professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations have published new research in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture titled “Personalized Horticultural Advertising in Social Media: Investigating Consumer Evaluations and Purchase Intent for Plants.”
Revolving around the mechanisms of advertising and algorithms, the research dives into a “for me or not for me” consumer mindset when viewing products ads. The study focuses on whether models in plant ads that reflect the age and demographics of the consumers lead to a more favorable response and lead consumers to buy more plants.
Personalization leads to higher positive engagement
Mundel and Huddleston’s research goes into detail on how horticultural business can benefit from representing a wide range of demographics when producing their ads on plants as it creates more effective marketing, since horticulturists often rely on using the plants as the main visual point of their advertisements.
Using a sample of 480 women to conduct this experiment, the researchers found that when the models in the ads mimicked the audience's demographic, the ads became more personal for the consumers, making the ad more relatable. This allows the plant business to reach more diverse consumers, increase sales, and positively reach their target audiences.
“This project is one of a series of similar projects we conducted, funded by the Horticulture Research Institute, that provide insights into how people process horticultural marketing in stores and online,” Huddleston said. “When businesses better understand how their customers react to marketing messages and images, they can modify their marketing efforts to elicit better outcomes, such as increased purchases and stronger store loyalty.”
Future Horticulture research and additional projects
With initial and additional funding from the Horticulture Research Institute (HRI), Mundel and Huddleston continue to analyze how advertising research connects with real world problems, like those that face the horticulture industry, demonstrating how scholarly insight provides information about effective marketing practices.
Looking ahead, both professors are engaging in more extensive research through new projects and student collaborations. Collaborating with students in the Media & Advertising Psychology (MAP) Lab at MSU, research projects focusing on the growing use of artificial intelligence and its impact on consumers visual engagement and attitude towards ads, using eye-tracking as a data collection process.
“We absolutely see this study as a roadmap for future investigations,” Mundel said. “Which is why we are excited to have received an additional grant from the Horticultural Research Institute to examine how emerging AI advertising practices may shape horticultural marketing moving forward.”