Multichannel personalization: Identifying consumer preferences for product recommendations in advertisements across different media channels

摘要

Nowadays, many retailers use personalization in advertising to increase customers' awareness and interest in their offers. Product recommendations are a common form of personalization used in various communication channels. However, previous studies have focussed on particular design aspects of product recommendations on a retailer's website, without considering other communication channels. Therefore, this study examines the ideal design of personalized product recommendations in advertisements from a consumer's perspective by relying on a choice-based conjoint experiment in the apparel industry. The findings of two studies for young male (n=170) and female (n=162) consumers show that the advertising channel is the most important attribute for determining the participant's intentions to adopt the respective product recommendations, followed by the number of recommendations. While banner advertising is the least preferred channel for both samples, males prefer smaller recommendation sets than females. In addition to exploring consumer preferences, the reasons for rejecting the advertisements are also analysed. Finally, design recommendations for advertisers and retailers regarding personalized product recommendations are derived.