You Look Marvelous: The World of Flattery in Marketing

Recent research in marketing has identified the importance of flattery (e.g., Chan and Sengupta 2010, 2013), as has research in other areas of social science (e.g., Gordon 1996; Vonk 2002). For example, dual attitudes theory implies that “even when ulterior flattery by marketing agents is accompanied by an obvious ulterior motive that leads targets to discount the proffered compliments, the initial favorable reaction (the implicit attitude) continues to coexist with the discounted evaluation (the explicit attitude)” (Chan and Sengupta 2010, p. 122). In any interpersonal marketing activity, social strategies will be important contributors to results. Although consumer and business ingratiation process is shaped by culture and social values, only a few studies have examined consumer ingratiation processes in cross-national settings. Increasing interactions between the world’s largest economies calls for an increased mutual understanding of ingratiation strategies in the major countries.