When to Appeal to Cultural Capital in Advertisements? Cultural Capital Appeals Increase Purchase Intentions for High- But Not Low-priced Products

Cultural capital refers to a set of socially distinctive knowledge and practices. While cultural capital is prevalently appealed to in advertisements to increase product desirability, the effectiveness of this advertising strategy, including when and how it works, remains under-researched. A cultural capital appeal and high-priced products share social status implications. Three studies consistently revealed that a cultural capital appeal increases purchase intentions only for high- but not low-priced products. The effect is mediated by processing fluency. The findings contribute to the literature on appeal-product congruence in strategic communications and inform practitioners about when to adopt a cultural capital appeal.

MANAGEMENT SLANT

• Appealing to cultural capital increases purchase intention when the products are high-priced.
• Cultural capital and high-priced products both imply social status. This increases processing fluency and persuasion effectiveness.
• The effect holds across cultural contexts (the UK and China) and product types (hedonic, utilitarian, experiential, and material).