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본 연구에서는 승자보다는 패자, 일등보다는 이등에 대해 동정심을 갖거나 그 처지를 공감하면서 심리적으로 지지를 보내는 성향 즉, 언더독 효과(underdog effect)를 탐구하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 상표를 언더독으로 포지셔닝하는 광고가 제시되었을 때 형성되는 소비자의 상표태도 및 시장에 출시되어 있는 언더독 상표에 대한 소비자 선호도 측면에서 나타나는 언더독 효과의 심리적 과정을 언더독에 대한 소비자의 감성적 반응 측면에서 설명하고 있다. <연구 1>에서는 언더독 포지셔닝 광고 효과 측면에서 언더독 효과를 살펴보았는데, 소비자의 감정이입 성향(empathic concern)이 강할수록 언더독 포지셔닝 상표에 대해 긍정적인 상표태도가 형성된다는 점과 그 효과는 언더독 광고를 통해 경험한 공감적 반응(empathic response)을 통해 매개된다는 점을 주장하고 있다. 가상의 상표를 대상으로 언더독 포지셔닝 광고를 제시한 실험을 수행한 결과, 감정이입 성향이 언더독 상표에 대한 태도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 그 영향은 광고에 대한 공감적 반응에 의해 매개되는 것으로 나타났다. <연구 2>에서는 시장에 출시되어 있는 언더독 상표에 대한 선호도 측면에서 언더독 효과를 살펴보았다. 상표 지명도에 바탕을 두고 경쟁우위에 있는 일등 상표에 비해 경쟁력이 열악한 언더독 상표를 구분했을 때, 감정이입 성향이 강한 응답자일수록 언더독 상표에 대해 선호도가 높은 것으로 나타났으며 그 효과는 사회적 약자에 대한 동정심(sympathy)에 의해 매개되는 것으로 나타났다. 더불어, 물질주의 성향은 언더독 상표에 대한 선호에 부정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 마케팅 영역에서 나타나는 언더독 효과와 관련하여 자아일체감(self-identification) 측면에서 그 심리적 과정을 설명한 기존 연구와 비교하여 감성적 반응 측면에서 언더독 효과를 탐구한 본 연구 결과에 대해 논의하고 시사점을 도출하였다.
People often distance themselves from losers or those who are viewed negatively and associate with winners or those who are viewed positively, known as the tendency to bask in reflected glory. On the other hand, people tend to support those who are not expected to succeed against advantaged competitors, referred to as the “underdog effect”(Simon 1954). Underdogs are prevalent in the marketplace, as in the examples of mom-and-pop stores competing against huge discount stores. In line with pervasive underdog effects, underdog positioning may be alternative effective appeal to consumers as its potential was evidenced by the well known campaign of Avis: “We are number two. so, we try harder.” The present study examines underdog effect in the consumer context such as in terms of attitude toward and preference for underdog brand, which is less privileged in the market place but is persevering in its efforts. From a traditional perspective, the tendency to associate with a successful group is explained by social identity theory(Tajfel and Turner 1986), which posits that the accomplishments of the groups with which we identify are a crucial source of self-esteem. Corresponding to the social identify theory, recent research that was conducted in the context of marketing suggested self-identification with underdog as a psychological mechanism underlying consumers' support for underdog brand(Paharia, Keinan, Avery, and Schor 2011). On the other hand, the present study emphasizes consumer's affective response to underdog as an alternative psychological process to produce underdog effect. We suggest that empathy elicits altruistic motivation to root for underdog effect, resulting in favorable response to underdog-positioning(vs. top-dog- positioning) brand as well as preference for underdog brands in the market. Specifically, we argue that consumer's personal trait of empathic concern, which refers to the tendency to experience feelings of warmth, compassion, and concern for other people(Davis 1983a), influences the arousal of other-oriented emotion such as empathic response and sympathetic response, which in turn enhances support for underdog brand. We conducted two studies. The first study aims to investigate the underdog effect in terms of consumer attitude toward brand that is positioned as underdog through advertising, with the following hypotheses: H1a:Attitude toward an underdog stimulus is more likely to be positive for consumers who have higher levels of empathic concern. H1b:Enhanced attitude toward an underdog stimulus for consumers who have higher levels of empathic concern will be mediated by the empathic response to the underdog positioning advertisement. An experiment was designed to test the hypotheses for 85 Korean college students. Two print advertisements for a fictitious dental clinic were created such that one is an underdog positioning ad and the other one is a top-dog positioning advertisement. The participants were randomly assigned to either the underdog or top-dog group, resulting in 45 students in the top-dog group and 40 students in the underdog group. Band attitude was subjected to a general linear model with independent variables of ad type, empathic concern, and their interaction. The main effect of ad type was marginally significant(F(1, 81)=3.94, p<0.10), and that of empathic concern was significant(F(1, 81)=4.94, p<0.05). However, the main effects are qualified by the significant interaction effect(F(1, 81)=4.44, p<0.05). Empathic concern was correlated with brand attitude in the positive direction for underdog positioning(r=0.40, p<0.01), whereas it was not for top-dog positioning. The result supports H1a. Further analyses showed that the interaction effect of empathic concern and ad type on empathic response was significant(F(1, 81)=4.33, p<0.05). Empathic response was significantly correlated with brand attitude (r=0.41, p<0.001). When empathic response was included in the general linear model in addition to empathic concern, ad type, and their interaction effect on brand attitude, the effect of empathic response was significant(F(1, 80)= 12.17, p<0.001), whereas the interaction effect of empathic concern and ad type was not significant(F(1, 80)=2.26, p>0.10). These results support H1b. The second study aims to investigate the underdog effect stemming from empathic concern with respect to consumer preference for underdog brands in the marketplace, with the following hypotheses: H2a:Empathic concern has a positive effect on the preference for underdog brands, but the effect is mediated by sympathetic response to the minority in society. H2b:Materialism has a negative effect on the preference for underdog brands, but the effect is mediated by brand loyalty in terms of repetitive purchase tendency. We conducted a field survey for 166 Korean adult consumers who were enrolled at the evening MBA programs of two private universities in Seoul. Hypotheses were tested with a structural equation modeling as is shown in Figure 2. The structural model fits at a moderate level of acceptance in overall such as χ2 of 50.9(d.f.=49, p=0.40), GFI of 0.95, AGFI of 0.93, and RMSR of 0.08, which is slightly higher than the traditional level of acceptance. Given this structural model, each hypothesis was tested with the path coefficient using one-tailed t-test. Empathic concern had a positive relationship with the sympathetic response to the minority in the society(β=0.45, t=2.78, p<0.01), which in turn had a positive relationship with the preference for the underdog brand(β=0.19, t=1.98, p<0.05). When the direct path from empathic concern to the preference for the underdog brand was added to the model, the goodness-of-fit of the model was not improved(∆χ2 =-0.16, d.f.=1, ns) nor the coefficient was significant(t=0.41, ns). This results provide support for H2a, predicting the indirect effect of empathic concern on the preference for the underdog brand. The path coefficient between materialism and loyalty in terms of repetitive purchase was 0.47(t=3.96, p<0.01), but the one between loyalty and preference for the underdog brand was not significant(β=-0.09, t=0.91, ns). Thus, H2b is not supported. On the other hand, the direct effect of materialism on the preference for the underdog brand was significant in the negative direction(β=-0.22, t=1.81, p<0.05).
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underdog effect, underdog positioning advertising, empathic concern, empathic response, sympathetic response
