Looking back is better than looking forward: visualization, temporal frames, and new product evaluation in China

Visualization, whereby brands encourage consumers to mentally picture interacting with products, is a common advertising technique. Existing research, mostly conducted in the U.S. and Western Europe, demonstrates the effectiveness of future-oriented product visualizations. However, in East Asian countries (e.g., China), consumers are past-oriented. We argue that such temporal orientation has a vital impact on the effectiveness of visualization. We conducted two experiments, which reveal a significant influence of temporal-framed visualization on new product evaluation among Chinese consumers. Retrospective (past-oriented) visualization leads to higher new product evaluation than anticipatory (future-oriented) visualization, with processing fluency identified as the underlying mechanism. Further, spokesperson type moderates the effect of temporal-framed visualization. Retrospective visualization is more beneficial when adopting a human spokesperson, whereas anticipatory visualization is more effective when adopting a cartoon spokesperson. We recommend marketers in past-oriented cultures use temporal-framed visualizations, but also, be cognizant of the type of spokesperson employed.