Les publicités narratives sont-elles plus efficaces que les publicités factuelles dans l'industrie horlogère ? Analyse de l'influence du transport narratif et de l'identification sur le développement d'intentions et d'attitudes chez le consommateur

Abstract

This thesis compares factual advertising to narrative advertising and their effects on consumer intentions and attitudes within the watch industry, an industry that through its advertisements generally depicts a world of dreams and pleasure, thus attempting to get closer to the myth. In this context, this thesis focuses on the role of narrative transport and identification with the protagonists of a watch advertisement on the development of intentions to share the advertisement, intentions to recommend viewing the advertisement, intentions to purchase and the development of brand attitude. Several variables were also taken into account: familiarity with the theme of the advertisement, the attention that the individual paid to it, the empathy that he or she feels for the protagonists of the story and his level of transportability, this level being itself influenced by the gender, age and level of education of the individual. After the quantitative study carried out with respondents who randomly viewed a factual advertisement or narrative, it was not shown that narrative transport and identification had a positive effect on the development of intentions and attitudes towards the brand. On the contrary, although respondents were transported in the narrative advertisement, they did not identify with the characters in the advertisement. Neither did they develop favourable intentions and brand attitude towards the watchmaking company. This can be explained by the fact that narrative transport has a negative effect on identification and on the development of brand attitude. It can also be explained by the fact that some people may be hermetic to advertising in general and therefore to the messages that advertisements contain, whether narrative or factual. Finally, a final source of explanation may be that the theme depicted in the narrative advertising was not joyful but rather stressful. As a result, viewers of the latter would not have enjoyed the experience of narrative transport and therefore would not have developed positive intentions or brand attitude. From this study, it also emerged that the empathy felt for the characters in the story, the attention paid to the advertisement and the level of transportability favorably influence the narrative transport of the recipient of the narrative advertisement. It would also appear that empathy and the level of transportability positively influence identification. Moreover, the level of transportability is well associated with the gender and age of the individual. However, given the lack of literature on narrative advertising in the field of the watch industry, future research should be conducted to further detail and flesh out these findings.