Brand Advertising in an Access–Ownership World, How Marketing Channels Impact Message Persuasiveness: An Abstract

In light of the growing popularity of peer-to-peer sharing and other access-based consumption phenomena, firms are increasingly looking to expand beyond traditional ownership marketing channels by gaining entree into emerging access marketing channels. In contrast to ownership, access-based consumption does not involve the outright purchase of a product; rather, it involves market-mediated transactions in which consumers acquire the short-term right to use or “access” goods (Bardhi & Eckhardt, 2012). One way traditional ownership-based firms are responding to this shift is to gain entree into emerging access marketing channels. For instance, since Daimler launched the first manufacturer-driven car-sharing program, car2go, in 2009, other automobile manufacturers, such as BMW (DriveNow), Ford (Ford2go), Volkswagen (Quicar), and General Motors (attempted acquisition of Lyft), have followed suit (Baumeister et al., 2015). In fact, industry observers project that the car-sharing market will grow to $6.4 billion in retail sales by 2024 (Lorenz, 2016). Thus, an important challenge facing many ownership-based firms is how to promote themselves in an access marketing channel.