Metaphors appear frequently in marketing communications. Prior literature evokes various positive outcomes of using metaphors to promote products but offers relatively limited insights into the potentially negative effects of this rhetorical figure on product perception, product choice, and adoption intention. Building on processing fluency theory, the authors investigate benefits and drawbacks of using metaphors to promote products. The results of eight studies reveal that, compared with literal claims, metaphors can make products appear more innovative but also less socially responsible. A dual process explains these effects on product perception: consumers tend to view products promoted with metaphors as more unfamiliar and thus innovative, but also as more untrustworthy and thus less socially responsible. In a further step, by examining whether using metaphors to promote products increases or decreases product choice and adoption intentions, the authors find increased product choice for brands with innovative personalities but diminished product choice for brands with socially responsible personalities. Using metaphors also boosts the adoption intentions of consumers who value innovativeness in products but lowers these intentions among consumers who value social responsibility. These findings offer novel insights into the effects of metaphors, along with actionable recommendations for practitioners.

中文翻译：

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更具创新性但社会责任感更低：在营销传播中使用隐喻对产品感知、选择和采用意图的影响

隐喻经常出现在营销传播中。先前的文献唤起了使用隐喻来推广产品的各种积极结果，但对这种修辞形象对产品感知、产品选择和采用意图的潜在负面影响提供了相对有限的见解。作者以加工流畅性理论为基础，研究了使用比喻来推销产品的利弊。八项研究的结果表明，与字面上的声明相比，隐喻可以使产品看起来更具创新性，但同时也降低了社会责任感。一个双重过程解释了这些对产品感知的影响：消费者倾向于认为用比喻推销的产品更陌生，因此更具创新性，但也更不值得信任，因此对社会责任感更小。在进一步的步骤中，通过检查使用隐喻来推广产品是否会增加或减少产品选择和采用意图，作者发现具有创新个性的品牌的产品选择增加，但具有社会责任感的品牌的产品选择减少。使用比喻还可以提高重视产品创新的消费者的采用意愿，但降低重视社会责任的消费者的采用意愿。这些发现为隐喻的影响提供了新的见解，并为从业者提供了可行的建议。使用比喻还可以提高重视产品创新的消费者的采用意愿，但降低重视社会责任的消费者的采用意愿。这些发现为隐喻的影响提供了新的见解，并为从业者提供了可行的建议。使用比喻还可以提高重视产品创新的消费者的采用意愿，但降低重视社会责任的消费者的采用意愿。这些发现为隐喻的影响提供了新的见解，并为从业者提供了可行的建议。