The relational benefits of personalized communications in an online environment

• Date: 01 September 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1254
• Author: Danilo C. Dantas,François Carrillat
• Published date: 01 September 2013

The relational benefits of personalized

communications in an online environment

Danilo C. Dantas*and François Carrillat

HEC Montréal

Abstract

This research investigates how personalized communica-

tions enhance customer-company relationships, which ultimately

produce favourable marketing outcomes. Two factors were

manipulated in an online experiment: the perceived effort

made by customers to obtain a personalized newsletter (high

vs. low) and the level of relevance of the message (high vs.

low). The results indicate that perceived effort positively

affects calculative commitment (even more so for highly

involved customers), while the level of relevance of the

messageincreases affectivecommitment. In addition,the inter-

action between perceived effort and message relevance has

signif‌icant effects on calculative and affective commitment.

Finally, affective commitment partially mediates the relation-

ships between relevance and both loyalty and word-of-mouth

intentions. Managerial implications regarding the best usage

of personalized communications are discussed. Copyright ©

2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

JEL Classif‌ications: M3

Keywords: personalization, commitment, loyalty, word of

mouth, newsletter

Résumé

Cette étude examine la manière dont les communications

personnalisées améliorent les relations entreprise-client et

produisent des résultats commerciaux favorables. Deux

facteurs sont manipulés dans une expérience en ligne :

l’effort investi par les clients pour recevoir une infolettre

personnalisée (fort vs faible) et le niveau de pertinence du

message (fort vs faible). Les résultats montrent que l’effort

investi inf‌luence positivement l’engagement calculé (surtout

chez les clients fortement impliqués), tandis que le niveau

de pertinence du message augmente l’engagement affectif.

Par ailleurs, l’interaction entre l’effort perçu et la pertinence

du message a des effets signif‌icatifs sur l’engagement calculé

et l’engagement affectif. Enf‌in, l’engagement affectif joue un

rôle de médiateur partiel dans les relations entre la perti-

nence et, d’une part, la f‌idélité et, d’autre part, l’intention

de faire du bouche-á-oreille. L’étude s’achève par une ana-

lyse des implications pratiques consécutives à un meilleur us-

age des communications personnalisées. Copyright © 2013

ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés : personnalisation, engagement, loyauté, bouche-

à-oreille, infolettre

Personalized messages are a powerful tool to communi-

cate with various audiences at an individual level. Companies

can improve the effectiveness of their communication efforts

by adapting their websites, newsletters, emails, and pr int

advertising to f‌it the customer’s unique needs and preferences

(Liebermann & Stashevsky, 2009). For example, Postma and

Brokke (2002) provided evidence that personalized e-newsletters

are more effective than standardized ones in terms of click-

through rates. Furthermore, Ying, Korneliussen, and Grønhaug

(2009) showed that personalized ads (i.e., those related to the

interests of the viewer) are perceived as less intrusive

In the literature, marketing outcomes that can be derived

from personalized messages are often based on a narrow

conception of personalization. In this perspective, personali-

zation is a company-originated feature of messages that

provides value to customers and either enhances customer

appreciation of the message itself or leads to favourable

dispositions toward the company (Montgomery & Smith,

2009; White, Zahay, Thorbjornsen, & Shavitt, 2008). How-

ever, this view is limited because it does not fully account

for the process-like nature of personalization (Vesanen &

Raulas, 2006). On the one hand, it is true that a personalized

We wouldlike to thank the anonymousreviewer and Dr. KelleyMain for their

helpfulcomments and suggestionsin the revision of this article.We also thank

Suzanne Rivard and Ana Ortiz de Guinea for their comments on a previous

version of this manuscript. Part of this work was completed when the second

author wasa visiting research scholarat the Business Schoolof the University

of Adelaide, Australia. Funding for this research was provided by HEC

Montréal’sstart-up grant for the f‌irst author of this article.

*Please address correspondence to: Danilo C. Dantas, Assistant Professor of

Marketing, HEC Montréal, 3000, Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine,

#4.754, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3T 2A7. Email: danilo.dantas@hec.ca

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

30: 189–202 (2013)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1254

Can J Adm Sci

30(3), 189–202 (2013)Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 189