Narrative-transportation storylines in luxury brand advertising: Motivating consumer engagement

This research advances the theory and practice of luxury brand advertising effectiveness by decoding brand-consumer engagement grounded in narrative transportation. An online semi-structured qualitative questionnaire incorporates a modified thematic apperception testing projective technique and is administered in three target countries for luxury brands: France, Korea and Australia. Respondents were exposed at random to global ads from one of four brands: Hermès, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Narratives produced are analyzed with thematic and text analysis. The research contributes to luxury brand advertising research by identifying a route to persuasion based on the level of implicit narrative transportation engendered by the brand's advertising. While respondents express cultural differences in the way they script their experiences, an implicit route to engagement is equally effective across cultures.