Impact of Economic Cycles on Consumer-Oriented Media Synergy

We investigate the role of consumer-oriented media influence on their purchase intentions, how this influence changes from a stable economic situation to a recessionary period and what are its repercussions on marketers’ media selection. We use survey data from the US in the clothing category for the 2008 economic recession to investigate the individual and synergy effects of Promotional and Informational Media and how this evolves with the economic cycle. In line with Construal Level Theory, we find that consumers are in a low-level mindset during recessions and hence value the feasibility of a purchase important, whereas they are in a high-level mindset during stable economic times and focus on the desirability of a purchase. This results in positive media synergy (across multiple media) during stable times, however during recessions, influence of individual media is stronger. We provide robustness checks with electronics and groceries categories. Insights from this research provide marketers with an approach for strategic media selection during economic fluctuations using survey data, that is robust across categories and hence can be implemented across other recession scenarios.