Why Do Service Providers Employ Their Face-Shots in Marketing Communications?

From billboards to newspapers, from TV to Yellow Pages, business owners of retail establishments and services frequently include their face-shots in their advertising to the public. Clearly, their face-shot takes up space which, in turn, costs money. Thus, an important question to ask is: are advertisers who include their face-shots receiving a benefit that justifies their cost? Accordingly, in this research, we develop the notion that the utilization of the service provider’s face is able to credibly signal product quality via a bonding mechanism. In particular, we examine if the signaling ability of the face-shot is higher for credence goods, services that typically exhibit higher demand for quality signals. In addition, we also investigate the ability of the faceSeoul Journal of Business Volume 14, Number 1 (June 2008) * Corresponding author, Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business Administration, California State University (choibj@cba.csus.edu). ** Associate Professor of Marketing & Stockton Research Fellow, School of Business, University of Kansas (kjoseph@ku.edu). *** Associate Professor of Marketing, School of Business, University of Kansas (drosen@ku.edu). shot to serve as a logo for the service. Analyzing a dataset containing 3299 yellow pages advertisements culled from seven city-pairs, we find support for the bonding hypothesis but not for the logo hypotheses. Implications for the design of marketing communications are also discussed.