earticle

영어

Traditional markets in Indonesia play a vital role in the national economy, benefiting not only the government and the community but also traders. The Indonesian government has taken steps to revitalize traditional markets, making them more attractive by improving hygiene and comfort. However, the visit rate remains below expectations. Consumers’ attitudes toward the revitalized markets remain somewhat negative, leading to low visit intention. This study aims to enhance consumer attitudes toward traditional markets by utilizing the mental imagery concept. It explores how imagery-eliciting stimuli influence attitude change toward traditional markets. A 3 (imagery-eliciting stimuli: text and picture vs. text and picture (before-after) vs. text only) × 2 (memory of experience: high vs. low) scenario-based experiment was conducted with 305 Indonesian consumers. To test the hypotheses, this study employed ANOVA and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that the text and picture and text only formats are more effective in triggering mental imagery. However, in influencing attitude change, the text only format failed to impact attitude change through mental imagery and two other psychological states (epistemic value and self-efficacy) compared to the other stimuli. Furthermore, when memory of experience was involved as a moderating variable, only individuals with a high level of experience exhibited an effect of imagery-eliciting stimuli on attitude change. This research contributes to the growing body of research on mental imagery, particularly by identifying which types of stimuli are most effective in eliciting mental imagery and influencing attitude change. Additionally, introducing memory of experience as a moderating variable provides new insights into whether mental imagery can still shape consumer attitudes despite prior negative experiences.