Advances in Advertising Research, Volume 2

Shintaro Okazaki (Ed.) Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2)

GABLER RESEARCH European Advertising Academy Executive Board Members: Sandra Diehl, University of Klagenfurt Robert Heath, University of Bath Tobias Langner, University of Wuppertal Peter Neijens, University of Amsterdam Shintaro Okazaki, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Patrick de Pelsmacker, University of Antwerp Edith Smit, University of Amsterdam Ralf Terlutter, University of Klagenfurt

The objective of the European Advertising Academy (EAA) is to provide a professional association to academics and practitioners interested in advertising and its applications that will promote, disseminate and stimulate high quality research in the field.

Shintaro Okazaki (Ed.)

Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2) Breaking New Ground in Theory and Practice

RESEARCH

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

1st Edition 2011 All rights reserved © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011 Editorial Office: Ute Wrasmann | Nicole Schweitzer Gabler Verlag is a brand of Springer Fachmedien. Springer Fachmedien is part of Springer Science+Business Media. www.gabler.de No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Registered and/or industrial names, trade names, trade descriptions etc. cited in this publication are part of the law for trade-mark protection and may not be used free in any form or by any means even if this is not specifically marked. Umschlaggestaltung: KünkelLopka Medienentwicklung, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany ISBN 978-3-8349-3134-4

Preface

It is my great pleasure to present Advances in Advertising Research Vol. II— Breaking new ground in Theory and Practice, published by the European Advertising Academy (EAA). This volume consists of extended versions of papers presented at the 9th ICORIA (International Conference on Research in Advertising) held at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, from June 24-26, 2010. The conference was sponsored by the European Advertising Academy. The editor served as chairperson of the conference. The authors of this book chose the papers, which examine a wide-ranging view of issues that address how we can understand advertising and its role in our society. Both distinguished and junior scholars from around the globe contributed to this book. As the subtitle indicates, the book is intended to provide a unique opportunity to stimulate and generate new ideas in a diverse range of research topics. I believe that such efforts will help us, both directly and indirectly, to guide the future research of both present and emerging advertising scholars. The book has five sections. Part 1 examines one of the hottest topics, product placement and gaming; Part II addresses generational issues in advertising; Part III examines the interaction between social issues and advertising; Part IV examines issues related to corporate organization, publicity and reputation; Part V explores branding issues in advertising; Part VI explains the roles of media and agency; and, finally, Part VII scrutinizes advertising content, appeals and execution. All these chapters consider cutting-edge issues that offer important insights that advance our knowledge. This book would never have been possible without the willingness of the contributors who traveled to Madrid to participate in the 9th ICORIA, and later agreed to make generous extensions and refinements of their work. I owe them a great deal of gratitude, for making this volume so exceptional. I would like to thank the Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation (Tokyo, Japan) for their generous financial support of the publication of this book. A special mention of appreciation must go to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation EC02008-

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Preface

01557), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and the KDDI Foundation (Tokyo, Japan), for their financial support for the 9th ICORIA. I am also indebted to my colleagues, Sara Campo, Javier Oubiña, and Natalia Rubio for their superb job of planning, coordinating, and implementing the numerous tasks that made the conference successful. Finally, my grateful appreciation goes also to my student employee, Anne Schmitz, who compiled and formatted the chapters. I strongly hope this volume will prove to be a useful, enjoyable, and stimulating reference for academics, practitioners, and graduate students in this field.

Shintaro Okazaki Editor Madrid, April 2011

The European Advertising Academy (EAA)

The objective of the European Advertising Academy (EAA) is to provide a professional association to academics and practitioners interested in advertising and its applications that will promote, disseminate and stimulate high quality research in the field. The association particularly serves as a meeting and communication forum for its members. It offers a network for the exchange of knowledge on an international level and constitutes a framework allowing for a better dissemination of information on research and teaching. The EAA is closely related to the yearly International Conference on Research in Advertising (ICORIA). The purpose of this conference is to create a forum where people studying advertising in the academic world could exchange ideas, and where they could meet with practitioners who have experience with advertising in the commercial world. Every natural person that I professionally concerned with or interested in research or teaching in the field of advertising is, irrespective of nationality, eligible to become a full member of the organization. The EAA was founded in 2005. The current board members are: Peter Neigens (president, University of Amsterdam), Ralf Terlutter (president elect, University of Klagenfurt), Sandra Diehl (treasurer, University of Klagenfurt), Robert Heath (School of Management, Bath), Shintaro Okazaki (Autonomous University of Madrid), Patrick De Pelsmacker (University of Antwerp), Edith Smit (information manager, University of Amsterdam) and Tobias Langner (University of Wuppertal).

For further information please visit our website: www.icoria.org

Table of Contents

Preface

I.

Product Placement and Gaming Enrique Bigné, Inés Küster, Asunción Hernández, Torpong Suemanotham and Natalia Vila Product Placement in Video Games as a Marketing Strategy: An Attempt to Analysis in Disney Company

II.

VI

3

Yves Van Vaerenbergh, Dieneke Van de Sompel, Neal Van Loock and Iris Vermeir The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes: Does the Attitude toward the Artist Matter?

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Martin K. J. Waiguny and Ralf Terlutter Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

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Social Issues and Advertising Martine Lewi and Patrick De Pelsmacker Affect is an Important Factor in Processing Alzheimer Disease Awareness Messages

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III.

Contents

Nieves García de Frutos and José Manuel Ortega Egea Environmental Information Influences on Pro-environmental Behavior Aimed at Fighting Climate Change: Main and Moderating Effects

75

María José Miquel-Romero and Franco Manuel Sancho-Esper The Influence of Alcohol Advertising in Underage versus Overage Alcohol Consumption: Affective Responses and Advertising Effectiveness

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Erlinde Cornelis, Leen Adams and Verolien Cauberghe The Effectiveness of Emotional and Rational Regulatory (In)congruent Messages for a Fair Trade Campaign

107

Marlize Terblanche-Smit and Nic S. Terblanche The Impact of Personality Differences on Efficacy, Attitude and Behavioural Intention in HIV/AIDS Fear Appeal Advertising

119

Generation Katarina Panic, Verolien Cauberghe and Delphine Verhoye The (B)old and the Beautiful: Investigating the Preference of Senior Consumers Concerning (the Age of) Models Used in Advertising

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Julia Spielvogel and Ralf Terlutter Children’s Advertising Literacy: Do BMI, Body Shape Perception, Self-Esteem and TV Exposure Matter?

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Andrea Leopold and Sandra Diehl The Relevance of Life Changing Situations for Media Usage and their Relevance as a Segmentation Strategy for Media Companies and Advertisers

IV.

V.

161

Social Interaction and Advertising Shu-Chuan Chu and Sara Kamal An Investigation of Social Media Usage, Brand Consciousness, and Purchase Intention towards Luxury Products among Millennials

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Rafael Currás-Pérez, María José Miquel-Romero, Carla Ruiz-Mafé and Silvia Sanz-Blas The Role of Parasocial Interaction and Teleparticipation on Teleshopping Behavior

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Manuela Lopez and Maria Sicilia The Impact of e-WOM: Determinants of Influence

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Shintaro Okazaki and María Ángeles NavarroBailón Who’s Afraid of Ubiquitous Promotion? Exploring the Effects of Privacy Concerns

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Organization, Publicity and Reputation An-Sofie Claeys, Verolien Cauberghe and Patrick Vyncke Determinants of the Impact of Crises on Organizational Reputation: An Experimental Test of Crisis Communication Strategies and the Moderating Impact of Locus of Control

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VI.

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Luisa Andreu, Anna S. Mattila and Joaquin Aldás Effects of Message Appeal when Communicating CSR Initiatives

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Martin Eisend and Franziska Küster The Effectiveness of Publicity versus Advertising: A Meta-Analysis

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Branding Sophie C. Boerman, Edith G. Smit and Lex van Meurs Attention Battle; the Abilities of Brand, Visual, and Text Characteristics of the Ad to Draw Attention versus the Diverting Power of the Direct Magazine Context

295

Marieke L. Fransen and Thomas J. L. Van Rompay Living Brands: Consumer Reactions toward Online Experienced-based Marketing Communication

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María Ángeles Navarro-Bailón What is the best Communication Strategy (Integration vs. Repetition) to persuade Consumers? An Analysis across Levels of Brand Familiarity

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Nathalie Dens, Patrick De Pelsmacker and Bianca Puttemans Text or Pictures? Effectiveness of Verbal Information and Visual Cues in Advertisements for New Brands versus Extensions

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VII.

VIII.

Media and Agency Sheila Sasser, Scott Koslow and Mark Kilgour Assessing the Quality of Self-reported Measures and the Reliability of Empirical Findings: Exploring Creativity Differences across Worldwide Agency Creatives and Managers

359

Charles R. Taylor and George R. Franke Public Opinion towards Digital Billboards in the United States: An Analysis of Recent Polls

373

Edward C. Malthouse and Don Schultz The Response Surface Process for Optimal Allocation of Media Budgets

393

Shintaro Okazaki, Morikazu Hirose and Hairong Li QR Code Mobile Promotion: An Initial Inquiry

405

Advertising Content, Appeals and Execution Lotte M. Willemsen, Peter C. Neijens and Fred E. Bronner Perceived Expertise vs. Perceived Trustworthiness: The Suppressed Effect of Source Type on Review Attitude

423

Günther Silberer, Sascha Steinmann, Inga Blohm and Julia Vetter A Study on the Impact of TV Advertising Contacts During Dinner

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XIV

Contents

Tobias Langner and Martin Eisend Effects of Celebrity Endorsers’ Attractiveness and Expertise on Brand Recall of Transformational and Informational Products

451

Sandra Diehl, Shintaro Okazaki, and Barbara Mueller A Procedure for the Development of Fictitious Advertisements in Multi-country Research: Crafting Messages with Hard-sell and Soft-sell Appeals

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Ioannis G. Theodorakis and Christos Koritos Figuratively Bleeding or Just Bleeding? Exploring Consumers’ Personal Values and Emotions within Simple and Rhetorically Constructed Violent Ad Contexts!

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Part I

Product Placement and Gaming

Product Placement in Video Games as a Marketing Strategy: An Attempt to Analysis in Disney Company

Enrique Bigné, University of Valencia, Spain Inés Küster, University of Valencia, Spain Asunción Hernández, University of Valencia, Spain Torpong Suemanotham, University of Valencia. Spain Natalia Vila, University of Valencia, Spain

1

Introduction

What is the best marketing strategy in video games? The literature is not unanimous in upholding the best strategy. Researchers investigating advertising effectiveness disagree on the value of product placement in video games and the methods firms should use with product placement strategies. The state of the question now must figure out the dichotomy between two perspectives: to identify the differences in the effectiveness of product placement in video games when using “traditional placement approaches” compared to the “branded entertainment approach”. The “traditional approach” to product placement in video games involves the product appearing as a visual object that is passive, used by characters and players or mentioned in the audio, which functions as an advertisement for the product (Shrum, 2004). The “branded entertainment approach” to product placement in video games involves integrating a proprietary character into the theme or plot, with the branded product anthropomorphised (Winkler and Buckner, 2006). “Branded entertainment” differs from the “traditional approach” because the plot of the entertainment is fully focused on the branded product. Because of the growth in popularity of video games, advertisers are increasingly attracted to the medium as a means of reaching targeted age demographics that include children, young adults and adults between the ages of 18 and 34. Advertising expenditures for product placement in video games is forecasted at $733 million by 2010, with the majority of the advertising aimed at the target market of adult males who are the most common users of video games (Gerdes, 2006).

S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_1, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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Nevertheless, while advertisers are increasingly attracted to video games, the effectiveness of the medium and placement strategy remains uncertain. Also, even some evidence suggests that product placement in video games can increase brand and product awareness, previous results support that theses kind of product placement strategies are not useful to motivate the final purchasing the product (Nelson et al., 2004; Winkler and Buckner, 2006). The general attitude of the consumer toward advertising may also influence the effectiveness of product placement in video games (Beirne, 2008). In addition, the effectiveness of “branded entertainment approaches” to developing video game content used by the large multimedia firms, has not been extensively investigated (Winkler and Buckner, 2006). However, and despite what is mentioned in the preceding paragraph, we can assert that the way in which the placement occurs in a video game may be more critical for achieving the desired outcomes of increased awareness and motivating purchase decisions than with product placement in other types of media. The case study will focus on the Walt Disney Corporation (Disney), which uses product cycling in branded entertainment types of video games. Disney was selected for the case study because it has created numerous proprietary characters that can be considered product franchises because the characters appear in many different media and types of products. Because of the increased popularity in video games, Disney has also produced video games incorporating these characters. The product placement strategy of the firm in its video games is part of its integrated advertising and marketing strategy (Gilbert, 2005). So, the research design used a case study approach, which is suitable for investigating research questions intended to provide exploratory or descriptive information about a topic (Yin, 2003). The purpose of this research is to investigate the perceptions of marketing staffs and consumers towards product placement in video games and the effectiveness of the placement. The purpose of the research is exploratory and intended to determine whether marketing staffs and consumers perceive differences in the effectiveness of traditional product placement strategies and branded entertainment.

3

The Product Placement in Marketing. What’s the Effectiveness in Video Games?

Product placement is traditionally defined as ‘a paid product message aimed at influencing movie (or television) audiences via the planned and unobtrusive entry of a branded product into a movie (or television programme)’ (Balasubramanian, 1994: 29). It is a composite type of messages involving visual, auditory (Newell et al., 2006), and plot components that can potentially

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overcome some of the problems associated with traditional advertising in media such as television in which the viewer can delete or avoid advertising with zipping or zapping (Kuhn et al., 2004). From this perspective, product placement is related to branding theory because it is intended to increase awareness of the product and knowledge about product attributes (Haugtvedt et al., 2005). The implication of branding theory for product placement is the opportunity for the consumer to gains greater awareness of the subjective product attributes. Linking the product with the consumers’ positive perception about the entertainment character’s use of the product increases the subjective knowledge of the consumers’ about the product’s non-functional attributes (Shrum, 2004). The consumer is generally aware of the persuasive purpose of an advertising message and can easily ignore the message or engage in mental counterarguments reducing the effectiveness of the persuasion (Panda, 2004). With product placement advertising, however, the consumer theoretically has greater difficulty ignoring the message because it is intertwined with an entertainment communication in which the consumer has interest. Actually, the development of new forms of entertainment media requires an extension of the definition to include video games and other forms of computermediated entertainment. A video game can be broadly defined as a game based on software played on an electronic device allowing the presentation of graphical imagery and the interaction of the player with the software (Wolf, 2008). When the player becomes fully engaged with the gaming experience, the video game is considered as an immersive virtual environment (IVE) (Grigorovici and Constantin 2004). Galician (2005) indicated that the level of brand immersion within the IVE can range from associations to illustrations about use of the product depending on the way the brand is integrated into the tasks required for game play. The perceived quality of the video game by the player can affect the general attitude towards the game, which is analogous to the attitude of individuals towards other entertainment products (Ozer et al., 2009). Russell (1999) proposed a three-tiered framework for assessing the way in which a product is placed in a video game. The first tier involves screen placement in which the brand or product is visible in the screen frame. The second tier uses script placement in which the audio content mentions the brand or product. The third tier involves plot placement in which the brand or product is incorporated into the plot. These placements are analogous to the way in which product placement occurs in film. Because of the nature of the video game, a fourth tier to the

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framework includes the degree of interaction between the game player and the brand. In effect, the video game adds an additional dimension to product placement by allowing the user to interact with the product, which theoretically increases engagement and awareness. While the traditional approach to product placement in video games is to embed the product in the game play, content or motif, it is also possible to create a game solely around a brand or a branded character. These types of video games are referred to as ‘branded entertainment’ and ‘advergames’ (Winkler and Buckner, 2006). These games are often provided to consumers without cost and are played on the internet, although sometimes the firm owning the brand makes a nominal charge for the product (Mathieson, 2005). Yang et al. (2006) identified an emerging practice in video games played on the internet or requiring a periodic internet connection of rotating product placement. In effect, the branded products placed in the background of the game can change over time as the promotional contracts with the game sponsors change. This type of approach has also been used to promote new gaming products in the run-up to launch based, with the relatively short life-cycle of video games requiring firms to continuously develop new gaming products.

3.1

Effectiveness of Product Placement in Video Games

The evidence from research investigating product placement in video games has produced mixed findings. Effectiveness for product placement in video games is defined in various ways, which may account for the mixed findings. It is defined in terms of improving brand equity or the favourable impression of the brand (Nelson et al., 2004). Effectiveness is also defined as prompting the consumer to take an action such as an information search or the purchase of the product (Beirne, 2008). The approaches to determining effectiveness of product placement in video games are similar to the approaches used to assess product placement effectiveness in other media (Galician, 2005; Haugtvedt et al., 2005). Several researches have been made in this sense (Beirne 2008, Yang et al., 2004; Nelson et al., 2004) with different and contradictory results. Research conducted by Lee and Faber (2007) determined that many different factors can influence brand awareness with product placement in video games. The position of visual placements in the game must be sufficiently prominent to attract the notice of the gamer when engaged in a high involvement task. Experienced players are more likely to observe and assimilate the product placement message because they are less engaged with gaming tasks. The findings also showed that the degree of continuity or relationship between the

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product and the game content was a critical factor for the gamer to become aware of the placement. Hernandez et al. (2004) also determined that product placements in video games involve a fantasy or a deviation from the simulated reality of the game had a negative effect on the player’s attitude toward the brand. Grigorovici and Constantin (2004) determined that the level of engagement of the video game player with the IVE influences brand recall, with greater involvement reducing recall. Brand preference tends to increase with greater player engagement. The finding of Grigorovici and Constantin (2004) suggest that a subliminal process occurs during high engagement video game play increasing brand preference without increasing awareness or knowledge about the brand. According to Mathieson (2005), firms offering branded entertainment products via the internet to fixed or mobile playing platforms measure effectiveness based on the number of downloads. This approach solely examines the reach of the advertising and branding effort, with a download considered a customer contact. In addition, ratings agencies such as Nielson and game producers such as Activision have established tracking methods for internet game players to obtain information about the degree of engagement with the game and the type of brand information they have been exposed to because of play. This approach for determining effectiveness adopts the premise that exposure to the product information will lead to greater brand awareness and a favourable image.

4

Research Questions and Objectives

In view of above, the objective of this qualitative research is to answer the main research question: RQ: What are the differences in the effectiveness between” traditional product placement in video games” and the “branded entertainment approach to product placement in video games”? The question of this study aims to address the differences between two types of products placement: a traditional strategy (Winkler and Buckner, 2006) commonly used by advertisers, and a new one based on the central role that brand plays in entertainment (Hudson and Hudson, 2006). To compare the degree of effectiveness between both types of product placement, it is necessary to asses a subsidiary research question: RQ1: What are the strategies used for product placement in video games?

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In this sense, for product placement in film media, placement strategies include visual placement allowing the viewer to observe the produce, mention of the brand or product, and use of the brand or product by a character (Russell, 2009). These traditional techniques have been used in video games, but may involve different approaches to factors such as prominence or repetition (Yang et al., 2006). Video games may include other types of placement strategies including branded entertainment in which the game is played using a branded product as a theme or character (Mathieson, 2005). The different types of strategies may have an influence on the effectiveness of product placement in video games. Additionally, a second subsidiary research question is: RQ2: What are the perceptions of marketing staffs and consumers of the effects of “traditional product placement strategies” versus “branded entertainment in video games” on the general brand awareness? Product placement has influences on brand awareness, although uncertain exists in research concerning the degree of the influence (Beine, 2008; Ivory and Kalyanaraman, 2007; Shrum, 2004). Brand awareness has been assessed through recall measures (Galician, 2005; Law and Braun, 2000). Variability exists, however, in the way in which recall is assessed, with some approaches examining independent recall of the placement with no secondary stimulus (Law and Braun, 2000) and other approaches examining recall following a stimulus (Lehu and Bressoud, 2007). The branded entertainment approach to product placement may result in differences in perceptions concerning awareness of the brand in addition to merely recalling or recognizing the brand after the entertainment product has been used. Also, and as a consequence of the main research question, a third subsidiary research question could be: RQ3: What are the perceptions of marketing staffs and consumers of the effects of “traditional product placement strategies” versus “branded entertainment in video games” on the awareness of specific brand attributes? This aspect of product placement has not been extensively examined in previous research. Winkler and Buckner (2006) as well as Yang et al. (2004) determined that product placement in video games increased brand knowledge, but did not examine the difference in effects between traditional placement and branded entertainment. The “branded entertainment approach” to product placement may provide the consumer with greater knowledge about the range of attributes the company desires to associate with a product.

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A final research question is: RQ4: How do demographic factors influence perception of the effectiveness of “traditional product placement strategies” versus “branded entertainment in video games”? Demographic factors can influence responsiveness and attitudes toward product placements in entertainment media (Galician, 2005). Culture can also influence attitudes towards product placement and the effectiveness of various placement strategies (Gould et al., 2005). The general theoretical model is based on the assumption that a relationship exists between product placement strategies in video games and the effectiveness of the placement for increasing brand recognition, awareness of the brand’s attributes, and a favourable impression of the brand. The theoretical model also presumes that many intervening factors can influence the relationship between product placement strategies and effectiveness such as the perceived entertainment value of the game, the degree of immersion in game play, and the thematic content of the game. As a result demographic factors function as moderating variables, influencing the relationship between product placement strategies and effectiveness.

5

Methodology

The selection of Disney for the case study was based on defined criteria and the information-oriented selection process recommended by Flyvbjerg (2006). The criteria included the use of product placement by the firm as a marketing strategy, the use of “branded entertainment approach” as part of the product placement approach, and sufficient video game products to allow consumers to be familiar with the content and product placement in the products. An additional criterion was the willingness of marketing staffs from the firm to provide data for the study. The information-oriented selection process sorts firms meeting the initial inclusion criteria based on a specific characteristic intended to provide the desired type of information. Because of its size and planned marketing procedures, Disney was considered a critical case in which conclusions about the use of product placement in the firm could be considered representative of product placement in the video gaming industry. The data collection consisted of (1) interviews with marketing staffs from the firm, (2) a focus group conducted with consumers of Disney video games, and (3) review of information available to the public from secondary sources about Disney video games. The interview is appropriate for data collection in qualitative research because it allows the interviewees to establish the direction taken when answering open-ended questions (Darlington and Scott, 2002). The

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focus group is also appropriate for gathering qualitative data because it allows the participants to discuss theoretical issues using the language and terms that construct meaning from their perspective (Darlington and Scott, 2002). Defined criteria were used to identify individuals to participate in the interview and focus group segments of the study. Because of the inclusion criteria, a purposive sampling approach using a snowball methodology was used to identify participants in the study (Gliner and Morgan, 2000). The selection process resulted in four interviewees agreeing to participate in the study and nine participants in the focus group. Table 1 and Table 2 shows some information related to the participants. Table 1. Demographic Information Interviewees

________________________________________________________________ Interviewee Number 1 2 3 4 ________________________________________________________________ Date of Interview 7/7/2009 7/7/2009 9/7/2009 12/7/2009 Position Marketing Product Production Marketing Team Manager Team Team Assistance DIMG DIMG DIMG DIMG Gender M M M M Age 37 41 29 33 Exper. at Disney 8 years 3 years 4 years 6 years ________________________________________________________________

The data analysis procedure involved synthesising the data obtained from the interviews, focus group, and secondary sources to create the case study. The primary data from the interviews and focus group was initially analysed using a thematic content approach. Content analysis is an appropriate method for analysis when the research design is qualitative and the purpose of the research is to obtain information about factors that may be causally related to the phenomenon under investigation (Creswell, 2007). The content analysis identified the themes and patterns within the data related to the research questions. It consisted of the three stages of open coding, axial coding and narrative as recommended by Daymon and Holloway (2002). The findings of the content analysis was combined with the secondary data to develop the case study of Disney’s use and perceived effectiveness of product placement and branded entertainment in video games. The reliability and validity of the data was established based on the trustworthiness criteria used in qualitative research as recommended by Daymon and Holloway (2002). Trustworthiness in

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qualitative research is composed of the elements of credibility and dependability of the methods, and applicability to the research problem, and ability to confirm the findings of the study. Table 2. Participants in the Focus Group

________________________________________________________ Participant Age Gender Occupation ________________________________________________________ 1 32 F Shop Worker 2 37 F County Council Employee 3 27 M Shop Worker 4 39 F Estate Agent 5 42 M IT specialist 6 23 M Student 7 29 F Junior School Teacher 8 36 F Shop owner 9 34 F Chef ________________________________________________________

5

Results and Discussion

The results of the study were organised in four sections (1) a description and content analysis of the interviewees from Disney staff, (2) a description and content analysis of the focus group participants, (3) the case study of Disney based on a synthesis of the data, and (4) the discussion linking the findings to the literature review. Only some results from fourth section are shown due to space limitations. In this sense, the findings suggest that Disney uses a subtle approach to product placement involving the use of branded characters rather than placing specific products into the background or incorporating the product into the game play. Based on the framework for assessing product placement developed by Russell (1999), Disney uses the most sophisticated product placement strategy by incorporating the product, which is the branded character, into the action of the game play. The effect is to create closer alignment between the entertainment product in the form of the video game and the branded product in the form of the character, which is the outcome of branded entertainment proposed by Hudson and Hudson (2006).

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The interviewees indicated that the current strategy is to use video games as an extension of a branded entertainment product based on the assumption that increasing the number of game players increases the general market awareness of the branded character, and therefore leads to sales of other products associated with the character. The results also suggest that the “branded entertainment approach” to product placement may be more effective for increasing brand awareness and a favourable impression of the brand than the more “traditional product placement approaches” of depicting a product in the background or the use or mention of a product by a character. Previous researchers have also found that carefully managed product placement in video games can increase brand awareness among gamers (Kuhn et al., 2004; Winkler and Buckner, 2006; Yang et al., 2004). The concern of many focus group participants that product placement in all entertainment media including video games has a stronger effect on children conforms to the findings of Calvert (2008). The participants suggested that children do not recognise a product placement incorporated into the theme or content of the game as advertising or marketing. The results further suggest that Disney does not excessively use product placement in video games (is not intrusive); with the participants in the focus group indicating that the use of branded characters in the game is appropriate. The findings also suggested that determining the effectiveness of product placement strategies in video games is complex because product placement interacts with other variables such as the degree of general engagement with the game. These results are similar to those of Grigorovici and Constantin (2004) who determined that the perceived entertainment value of the video game influences the gamers’ attitudes toward product placement. The participants of the focus group reached no conclusion concerning the perceived effect of the video game on the purchase intentions of the children playing the games. The participants also suggested that the purchase intentions are driven by the affinity of the child for the branded character, with any product associated with a likeable character considered desirable. The results provide evidence to refute the argument of Winkler and Buckner (2006) that branded entertainment should be considered an advergame under all situations. The interviewees and participants in the focus group considered the video games to be primarily an entertainment medium with some advertising or branding elements incorporated into the game. The participants in the focus group distinguished between a video game created around an existing product and a video game using a character created for entertainment purposes.

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13

Conclusions and Recommendations

The findings of the study supports the conclusion that the branded-entertainment approach to product placement in video games is more effective for achieving greater brand awareness and positive brand perceptions than the traditional product placement approach of placing the product into the content of the video game. The traditional approach to product placement in video games is to embed an audio or visual reference to the brand in the game or to have the player use a branded product to perform a task associated with game play (Russell, 1999). This approach appears to be a direct transfer of the techniques used in film, television and other passive entertainment media. In the brandedentertainment approach in video games, the entire game functions as a product placement, with the gamer interacting with the branded character (Winkler and Buckner, 2006). The findings of the study indicated that Disney, the producer of the video games using the branded entertainment approach, believed that it was more effective for increasing awareness among consumers of the attributes associated with both the branded character and the overall Disney brand. The findings of the study also indicated that consumers of the video games find the use of a branded character less objectionable than the use of a direct product placement as occurs in other entertainment media and video games that do not use branded entertainment. The findings of the study also support the conclusion that the strategy used for product placement in video games can have an influence on brand awareness. Prior research has determined that product placement in video games affects brand awareness because the gamer becomes immersed in play of the game and reduces mental barriers to processing advertising and brand information (Yang et al., 2006). The findings of the study suggested that branded entertainment in which the brand is the subject of all video game activities may be highly effective for indirectly or implicitly communicating information about brand attributes to the game player. The interviewees from Disney indicated that the approach was effective for communicating the attributes of both the character and the Disney brand. The participants in the focus group also indicated that they had a positive perception of the Disney brand because of its use of branded characters in video games. An additional conclusion of the study is that product placement in video games has the potential to generate negative brand equity if the placement is intrusive or perceived as a deceptive advertising practise. If the brand placement is incongruent with the content of the video game and if the brand is excessively repeated in the game, it contributes to the perception that the brand placement is intrusive (Hernandez et al., 2004). The perception of intrusiveness results in negative attitudes toward the brand and an ultimate reduction in brand equity. In

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a worst-case situation, gamers become so annoyed with the brand placement that they avoid purchasing the brand. The findings of the study, however, indicated that this type of problem with the perception of intrusiveness is less likely to occur with branded entertainment. The gamer has an expectation that the brand in the form of the character will be an integral aspect of game play. In effect, the gamer accepts that a character product will be part of the gaming activity before engaging in play. The study, however, did not provide sufficient information to determine the degree that this expectation of encountering a branded character during the course of play affects the way in which the gamer processes the implicit marketing message. Theoretically, consumers process product placement information differently from other forms of advertising (Shrum, 2004). The mechanisms that consumers used to process branded entertainment messages may also differ from the mechanisms used to process information conveyed by traditional product placements. The issue of greater acceptability among consumers of product placement in video games by using a branded entertainment approach is particularly relevant to large multinational firms that create video game products for international distribution. Cultural differences can have a significant influence on the perception of the appropriateness of product placement strategies (Stafford and Faber, 2005). As a result, the branded character approach with no other brands placed in the video game may provide multinational firms developing products for international sales with a general product placement strategy that is acceptable across cultures. Disney uses only a branded entertainment approach to product placement in video games and very sparingly places brands not already associated with the branded character into the video game. As a result, the firm increases the marketability of the product in all geographic regions where the video game is distributed. The conclusion that can be drawn from the findings is that a branded entertainment approach in which the only placement involves a branded character may be more effective for firms in international markets for increasing acceptance of the product than the traditional approach of video or audio insertions of a product into a video game. An additional conclusion of the study is that the demographics of the target market for a video game should influence the product placement strategy. The Disney video games are targeted at a child and young adolescent demographic. In theory, this demographic is more susceptible to marketing messages using product placement (Calvert, 2008). At the same time, video games aimed at this market have to ensure they conform with regulations in different nations concerning marketing to children as well as the perceptions of the adults that often make the purchases of video games. The findings of the study support the conclusion that the adults involved with video gaming with children find the

Product Placement in Video Games as a Marketing Strategy

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branded entertainment approach an acceptable marketing method. Although playing the video game reinforces the interest of the child in the entertainment and other products related to the character, the adults perceive the marketing aspects as secondary or subordinate to the entertainment value. In addition, findings indicated that Disney designs its video games to market its branded characters to children in a manner that adults deem acceptable. The findings of the study also support the conclusion that the branded entertainment approach to product placement can be used to increase existing brand knowledge and to introduce the brand to consumers that have no prior knowledge of the brand. In theory, product placement in video games as well as other media functions as a means to communicate information about the attributes of the brand by associating the brand with the content of the game (Pardun and McKee, 2000). The purchase or internet play of a video game with a specific character depends to some degree on the prior awareness of the consumer of the attributes of the branded character. In most cases, the consumer is initially attracted to the branded entertainment video game because of a preexisting affinity for the branded character as well as the presumed entertainment value of the game. As a result, the consumer often has some level of knowledge and awareness of the attributes associated with the character. The video game functions to reinforce and build on an existing knowledge base. Ideally, the outcome is for the consumer to have a positive gaming experience, increasing awareness and affinity for the branded character. At the same time, the video game has to be designed to provide some information about character attributes to consumers that have no prior knowledge of the character. This dual process suggests that the branded entertainment approach to video game content is more complex than the traditional approaches in which products are merely placed into the game environment. As noted by the interviewees from Disney, the development of a video game using a branded character requires close coordination among software developers, game content planners, and marketing.

6.1

Limitations of the Research

The findings and conclusions of this research are limited by the use of the case study approach, which focused on the video game products produced by Disney. The Disney brand is well-established in the market for children’s and young adult entertainment products. As a result, the firm has a strong emphasis on protecting its existing brand equity and avoids using product placement strategies that the firm perceives as representing a risk to its brand equity. The findings and conclusions of the study may not reflect the attitude of consumers towards product placement and branded entertainment products of firms that do not have a well-established reputation in the marketplace. In addition, the

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conclusions and findings of the study may not reflect the perspectives of adult gamers toward product placement in video games. In addition, Disney does not use a range of different product placement strategies in video games, which limits the ability to assess the perception of differences among consumers of the product.

6.2

Recommendations for Future Research

While the findings and conclusions of this study indicated that the branded entertainment approach to product placement in video games is more effective in a children’s target market than the traditional approaches to product placement, it did not assess product placement strategies among other demographic groups. Future research should examine the specific attitudinal, awareness, and recall responses of consumers through a direct comparison of the different types of product placement strategies used in video games. This type of research should assess the response of consumers in carefully defined demographic segments to products placed in video games using various combinations of audio, visual and character use of the product to more carefully determine the differences between these product placement strategies and the branded entertainment product placement strategy. Future research should also examine the extent that branded entertainment approaches to product placement in video games can be linked to traditional product placement methods. The combination of branded characters and traditional product placement has been successful in film for creating brand awareness for the product when it is associated with the branded character and the product is relevant to the plot of the film. It is not certain, however, whether this same effect would occur with a video game.

7

References

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Chiou, J. (2000). Antecedents and moderators of behavioural intention: Differences between U.S. and Taiwanese students. Genetic, Social and General Psychology Monographs, Vol. 26, No. 1, 105-124. Cowley, E. & Barron, C. (2008). When product placement goes wrong: The effects of program liking and placement prominence. Journal of Advertising, Vol. 37, No. 1, 89-98. Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications Croteau, D. & Hoynes. W. (2005). The business of media. Thousand Oaks CA: Pine Forge Press. Darlington, Y. & Scott, D. (2002). Qualitative research in practice. Crows Nest NSW: Allen & Unwin. Daymon, C. & Holloway, I. (2002). Qualitative research methods in public relations and marketing communications. London: Routledge. Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case study research. Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 2 Galician, M. (2005). Handbook of product placement in the mass media. Binghamton NH: Haworth Press. Gerdes, L. (2006). Ads People Play. Business Week, No. 401. Gilbert, J. (2005). Jazz, gestalt and the year ahead for marketers. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 45, No. 3, 294-295. Gliner, J. & Morgan, G. (2000). Research methods in applied settings. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Grigorovici, D. & Constantin, C. (2004). Experiencing interactive advertising beyond rich media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 5, No. 1. Available at: http://jiad.org/article53. [Accessed 12 July 2009]. Gould, S., Gupta, O. & Grabner-Krauter (2000). Product placement in movies: A cross-cultural analysis of American, French and Austrian consumer attitudes. Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29, No. 4, 41-58. Haugtvedt, C., Machleit, K. & Yalch, R. (2005). Online consumer psychology. New York: Routledge. Hernandez, M., Chapa, S., Minor, M., Maldonado, C., & Barranzuela, F. (2004). Hispanic attitudes toward advergames. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 5, No. 1. Available at: http://jiad.org/article57. [Accessed 13 July 2009]. Hill, L. (2007). From one franchise to another: CSI spawns video game series. Television Week, Vol. 26, No. 18. Homer, P.M. (2009). Product placements: The impact of placement type and repetition on attitude. Journal of Advertising, Vol.38, No. 3, 21-32. Hudson, S. & Hudson, D. (2006). Branded entertainment: A new advertising technique of product placement in disguise? Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 22, nos. 5-6, 489-504. Ivory, J. & Kalyanaraman, S. (2007). The effects of technological advancement and violent content in video games on players’ feeling of presence, involvement, physiological arousal and aggression. Journal of Communications, Vol. 57, 532-555. Keller, K. (2003). Brand synthesis: The multidimensionality of brand knowledge. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.29, No.4, 595-600. Kreuger, R.A. (1998). Analysing and reporting focus group findings. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications. Kuhn, K., Love, A. & Pope, N. (2004). Brand placements in video and computer games: An overview and research questions. Available at: http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/10072/2325/1/26471_1.pdf. [Accessed 13 July 2009].

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Law, S. & Braun, K. (2000). I’ll have what she’s saying: Gauging the effect of product placement on viewers. Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 17, No. 12, 1059-1075. Lee, M. & Faber, R. (2007). Effects of product placement in on-line games on brand memory. Journal of Advertising, Vol. 36, No. 4, 75-90. Lenderman, M. (2006). Experience the message. New York: Carroll & Graf. Lehu, J.-M., & Bressoud, E. (2007). Viewers and brand placement in movies. La Londe Seminar in Marketing Communications and Consumer Behaviour, La Londe, 5-8 June. Available at: http://hal.archivesouvertes.fr/docs/00/34/45/35/PDF/Lehu_Bressoud_2007_Brand_PLacement_viewers_La_Londe .pdf. [Accessed 14 July 2009]. MacDonald, E. & Sharp, E. (2003). Management perceptions of the importance of brand awareness as an indicator of advertising effectiveness. Marketing Bulletin, Vol. 14, 1-11. Mathieson, R. (2005). Branding unbound. New York: Amacom. Milberg, S.J., Park, C.W. & McCarthy, M. (1997). Managing negative feedback effects associated with brand extension: The impact of alternative branding strategies. Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 6, No. 2, 119-140. Nelson, M., Keum, H., & Yaros, R. (2004). Advertisement or adcreep: Game players attitude toward advertising and product placement in computer games. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 5, No. 1. Available at: http://www.jiad.org/article52. [Accessed 19 June 2009]. Newell, J., Salmon, C., & Chang, S. (2006). The hidden history of product placement. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Vol. 50, No. 4, 575-603. Ozer, A., Argan, M., Suher, H., Akin, E., & Argan, M. (2009). Game Quality: A Study on Turkish Game Players. Available at: http://bildiri.anadolu.edu.tr/papers/bildirimakale/102_923y83.pdf. [Accessed 8 July, 2009]. Panda, T. (2006). Consumer responses to brand placement in films. South Asian Journal of Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, 7-25. Pardun, C. & McKee, K. (2000). Product placements as public relations. Public Relations Review, Vol. 25, No. 4, 481-493. Reijmersdal, E., Niejens, P., & Smit, E. (2007). Effects of television brand placement on brand image. Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 24, No. 5, 403-420. Rosini, J., Mash, M., & Rupp M. (2008). Hot licensing issues in the video game industry The Licensing Journal, (February), 14-23 Russell, C. (1998). Toward a framework for product placement: Theoretical propositions. In Alba, J. & Hutchinson, J. (Eds.) Advances in consumer research, Vol. 25. Provo UT: Association for Consumer Research. Sargent, J., Tickle, J., Beach, M., Dalton, M., & Ahearns, M. (2001). Brand appearances in contemporary cinema films and contribution to global marketing of cigarettes. The Lancet, Vol. 357, No. 9249, 29-32. Schultz, M., Antonini, Y., & Csaba, F. (2005). Corporate branding. New York: CBS Press. Shrum, L. (2004). The psychology of entertainment media. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stafford, M. & Faber, R. (2005). Advertising promotion and the new media. Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe. Turner, C. (2004). Product placement of medical products. Journal of Promotional Management, Vol. 10, No. 1, 159-170. Vorhaus, M. (2009). Ad presence in console games has little effect on purchase. Advertising Age, Vol. 80, No. 5. Walsh, P., Kim, Y. & Ross, S. (2008). Brand recall and recognition: A comparison of television and sport video games as presentation modes. Sport Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 17, 201-208.

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Walt Disney Company. (2009). Annual report 2008. Available at: http://amedia.disney.go.com/investorrelations/annual_reports/WDC-AR-2008.pdf. [Accessed 18 June 2009]. Winkler, T. & Buckner, K. (2006). Receptiveness of gamers to embedded brand messages in advergames. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol.7, No. 1. Available at: http://jiad.org/article85. [Accessed 19 June 2009]. Wolf, M. (2008). The video game explosion. Westport CT: Greenwood Press. Yang, M., Roskos-Ewolden, D., Dinu, L. & Arpan, L. (2006). The effectiveness of in-game advertising. Journal of Advertising, Vol. 4, No. 4, 143-152. Yaveroglu, I. & Donthu, N. (2008). Advertising repetition and placement issues in online environments. Journal of Advertising, Vol. 37, No. 2, 31-43. Yin, R. (2003). Case study research: design and methods. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.

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Appendix A. Interview Questions 1. What is Disney’s approach to product placement in its entertainment products? 2. How does Disney’s approach to product placement in video games differ from product placement in its films or other entertainment products? 3. How does Disney use branded entertainment? (Explain: Branded entertainment refers to the use of a branded character as the central character of the story line or content in a video game.) 4. How does Disney assess the effectiveness of product placement and branded entertainment in video games? 5. What is the relationship between product placement in video games and consumer awareness of the Disney brand and its attributes? 6. In what ways can product placement in video games create negative attitudes towards brands among the players of the games? 7. What methods does Disney use to ensure that product placement and branded entertainment video games result in a positive attitude toward the Disney brand among players?

Appendix B. Focus Group Guidelines Moderator will initially define the meaning of the product placement and branded entertainment concept. The moderator will also ensure that the participants understand the concepts. 1. What is your attitude toward product placement in video games? 2. Do you have a different attitude towards product placement in video games than in films or television shows? 3. What type of product placement in video games do you find annoying? 4. Have you ever played a Disney video game online? If so, which ones? 5. What do you remember about your experiences playing these games? 6. Have you ever played a Disney video game offline? If so, which ones? 7. What do you remember about your experiences playing these games? 8. What is your attitude towards Disney games that are based on a Disney character such as Hannah Montana or Bolt? 9. If you played a Disney video game with children, do you think that the characters or products used in the game had an influence on their attitudes? 10. Did playing a Disney video game motivate you to purchase another Disney product related to the character in the video game?

The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes: Does the Attitude toward the Artist Matter? Yves Van Vaerenbergh, University College Ghent, Belgium Dieneke Van de Sompel, University College Ghent, Belgium Neal Van Loock, University College Ghent, Belgium Iris Vermeir,Ghent University, Belgium

1

Introduction

As the overload of advertising in traditional media is causing annoyance with the audience (Fennis and Bakker, 2001) leading to advertising avoidance (Woltman-Elpers et al., 2003), marketers are exploring various new ways to convey brand-related messages to consumers. One of the proposed techniques is product or brand (name) placement, which is defined as the incorporation of a brand name into an entertainment vehicle (Ferraro and Avery, 2000). Past research concerning product placement mainly focused on product and brand name placement in movies (Babin and Carder, 1996; d’Astous and Chartier, 2000; Wiles and Danielova, 2009; Yang and Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2007), television programs (Gould and Gupta, 2006; La Ferle and Edwards, 2006; Matthes et al., 2007; Russell, 2002; Russell and Stern, 2006; Van Reijmersdal et al., 2007), music videos (Schemer et al., 2008), games (Lee and Faber, 2007; Mackay et al., 2009; Nelson, 2002; Schneider and Cornwell, 2005) or novels (Brennan, 2008; Friedman, 1985). Recent academic research suggests that brand placement can be implemented by including brand names in song lyrics (Delattre and Colovic, 2009), which often occurs in practice. Agenda Inc. created the American Brand Stand, which tracked all the mentions of brand names in the lyrics of the Billboard Top 20 singles chart in 2003 and 2004. In 2003, Mercedes was the most-mentioned brand name with 114 mentions in lyrics, and in 2004 Cadillac was mentioned 70 times. Other oftenmentioned brands were Hennessy, Rolls Royce, Gucci, to name but a few (Agenda Inc, 2004). These results indicate that the use of brand names in song lyrics is a common practice. For example, McDonald’s cooperated with Maven Strategies, a professional agency which sought rappers to incorporate “Big Mac” in their texts. McDonald’s was prepared to pay 1 to 5 dollar each time the brand name was mentioned on the radio in their song lyrics (Graser, 2005). On the other hand, the hip-hop band Outkast advised their audience to “Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture” and Busta Rhymes wrote a song called “Pass the CourS. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_2, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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voisier”, which led to a significant increase in sales for the Courvoisier brand. Important to note is that these artists were not paid at first for this action, but a settlement was arranged afterwards (Debruyne, 2007, Holloway, 2002). Consequently, organizations cannot always exert control over which artists include their brand name in song lyrics. If organizations select the artists themselves, they can pick artists who are positively perceived by the audience, whereas artists who include brand names freely might be negatively perceived by the audience. In this paper, we investigate the moderating role of the attitude toward the artist on the relationship between the amount of brand name repetitions in song lyrics and the attitude toward the brand. Our study contributes to the literature in the following ways. First, prior research only demonstrated a link between the amount of brand name repetitions in song lyrics on brand recall and recognition (Delattre and Colovic, 2009). Second, we extend prior research by examining the moderating role of attitude toward the artist. To date, research on brand name placement in song lyrics did not yet address this issue, although highly relevant given that organizations are faced with the potential danger that their brand name is included in a song by an artist which is negatively evaluated by the audience. Prior research demonstrated evaluative conditioning effects for product placement in music videos. Schemer et al. (2008) found that the pairing of a brand with positively evaluated artists produces positive attitudes toward the brand, while the pairing of a brand with negatively evaluated artists produces negative attitudes toward the brand. However, to date it remains unknown whether the same evaluative conditioning effects hold for brand name placement in song lyrics instead of music videos. Moreover, Schemer et al. (2008) did not investigate evaluative conditioning effects across a different number of pairings, although research on evaluative conditioning shows that evaluative conditioning effects become stronger across multiple pairings (De Houwer et al., 2001, 2005; Hoffman et al., 2010). In order to assess the impact of the amount of brand name placement in song lyrics on brand attitudes and the moderating role of attitude toward the artist, we rely on an experimental design making use of a song especially developed for the purpose of this study. In order to test whether brand placement effects become stronger with different numbers of brand exposures, three different versions of the song were created, with zero, two or five brand name placements.

The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes

2

23

Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Development

To the authors’ knowledge, only one study investigated the effectiveness of brand name placement in song lyrics. Delattre and Colovic (2009) selected two well-known songs (over 300,000 units sold) for the purpose of their research, namely ‘Tes Parents’ by Vincent Delerm and ‘Wonderbra’ by MC Solaar. In both songs, 17 brand names were included. Their results indicate that listeners recalled and recognized brands in both songs, especially in cases where the brand name placement was prominent (occurred at least twice) and pronounced slowly. However, their research did not address the impact of brand name placement in song lyrics on brand attitudes. Addressing this issue is important given that past literature often found an absence of correlations between memory (brand recall and recognition) and attitude measures (Cowley and Barron, 2008; Petty et al., 1983). Therefore, recall and recognition measures might be poor predictors of persuasion (Mackie and Asuncion, 1990). As a result, investigating brand attitudes might enhance our understanding of the effectiveness of brand name placement in song lyrics. In a broader context, research in the area of product and brand name placement found that a placement has the ability to positively influence brand attitudes. For example, Matthes et al. (2007) found that the frequency of placement has a positive impact on the evaluation of the brand in a TV show: the more frequent a brand is placed within a television show, the more favorable the attitudes toward that brand become. In a similar vein, Van Reijmersdal et al. (2007) showed that the image of brands placed in a TV show changed after two or more exposures. These results indicate that the brand attitudes should become more favorable with an increasing number of repetitions. This paper proposes that the effect of brand name repetition on brand attitude in song lyrics will vary depending on audiences’ attitude toward the artist. Theoretical anchoring for this expected effect can be found in conditioning theory. The most well-known experiment in classical conditioning is the one from Pavlov, who paired an unconditioned stimulus (dog food) with a conditioned stimulus (a ringing bell). After repeated pairings of unconditioned and conditioned stimulus, responses which only occur after the unconditioned stimulus also occur after the conditioned stimulus. That is, the dogs in Pavlov’s experiment already started salivating when hearing bell ringing (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2006). A variation on classical conditioning theory is evaluative conditioning, which is defined as the changes in the evaluation of a stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli (De Houwer et al., 2001, 2005; Hoffman et al., 2010). The basic idea is that if a certain object is associated with a positive stimulus, a person might have a

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positive evaluation of that object. In contrast, if a certain object is associated with a negative stimulus, a person’s evaluation of that object might become negative. Consumer research investigated how evaluative conditioning can be used to influence brand attitudes. For example, an experiment by Sweldens et al. (2010) paired a brand with positive and neutral images and found that a brand associated with positive images was evaluated more positively by the participants than the same brand which was associated with neutral images. In an advertising context, conditioning has been applied to explain the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement (Till et al., 2008). If a product is paired with a fameous celebrity, it is expected that the celebrity can transfer meaning to the product (McCracken, 1989). In contrast, if a product is paired with a negatively perceived celebrity, this might have a negative impact on the brand attitude (Till and Shimp, 1998). To date, only one study investigated the impact of evaluative conditioning in a product placement context. Schemer et al. (2008) investigated how the evaluation of a brand placed in a music video differed depending on the audience’s attitude toward the artist. Their findings indicated that the pairing of a brand with a negatively perceived artist led to lower brand attitudes than the pairing of a brand with a positively perceived artist. In this research, we aim to replicate the findings of Schemer et al. (2008) in a different product placement context (song lyrics versus music video) and extend them by investigating different amounts of brand exposures. Prior research on evaluative conditioning indicated that evaluative conditioning effects become stronger when multiple pairings of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli occur (Baeyens et al., 1992; McSweeney and Bierley, 1984). In our research context, we might expect that the more a brand name is mentioned in a song lyric by a positively evaluated artist, the more positive the brand attitude might become. In contrast, the more a brand name is mentioned in a song lyric by a negatively evaluated artist, the more negative the brand attitude might become. This leads to the following hypothesis: H1: The attitude toward the artist moderates the relationship between brand name repetition in song lyrics and the brand attitude.

3

Method

Two hundred and two undergraduate students (43.6% male, Mage=19.94) participated in a 3x2 between-subjects experiment, in which we manipulated the occurrence of a brand name (mentioned zero, two or five times) and the attitude toward the artist (positive or negative). As Martin and Collins (2002) found that brands or products were mostly depicted in hip-hop and rap music videos, we

The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes

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used a hip-hop song as stimulus in our research. A study by Herd (2005) indicated that between 1979 and 1997, the number of hip-hop songs that include alcohol beverage brand name references increased from 0% to 71%, indicating that brand name placement is common in hip-hop songs. Given that youngsters are the privileged targets of the music industry (Delattre and Colovic, 2009; Schemer et al., 2008) and thus students represent a large part of the hip-hop audience, the use of a student sample in this study is justified. In this research, we applied the Theater Methodology as introduced by Russell (2002). This involved the creation of a stimulus (in this case, a song) that is completely under the experimenters’ control instead of using existing songs. This way, we rule out unwanted noise which might challenge the internal validity of results. Consequently, a hip-hop song was especially developed for the purpose of this study, for which we cooperated with an experienced but to the participants’ unknown hip-hopper. Three identical versions of the song were recorded which only differed on the number of brand name repetitions. All three versions of the song were sung in the native language of the hip-hopper (and respondents) and had duration of 2’13. The production of the stimulus material applied to professional standards, which ensured that the song did not raise the audiences’ suspicion of lacking authenticity (Yang and Roskos-Ewoldson, 2007). In the song, the artist sang about his life as hip-hopper and his devotion to hip-hop music. In case no brand name was added to the text, the artist mentioned listening to music on a “MP3 player”. In case a brand name was added to the text, “MP3 player” was replaced by “Jo-Box!”, which acts as a fictitious brand name for a MP3 player. By using an unknown brand name, potential confounding elements such as prior brand knowledge, attitude and usage could not influence our results. In a procedure similar to Schemer et al. (2008), participants’ attitude toward the artist was manipulated by using two different texts which provided background information about the artist. In the “negative attitude toward the artist”condition, the hip-hopper was depicted as greedy by exploiting his fans and overpricing his CDs. Moreover, he has been arrested for several crimes such as acts of violence and the use of drugs. In the “positive attitude toward the artist”condition, the hip-hopper was depicted as authentic, altruistic and loyal to his fans. Moreover, he gives donations for projects of public utility and gives guidelines to other young hip-hoppers who want to make a career. A pretest (n=71 undergraduate students) was conducted to assess whether the developed scenarios induced a positive or a negative attitude toward the artist. This variable was measured using a three-item seven-point Likert scale (α=0.94) adopted from Till and Shimp (1998). Results demonstrated that our manipulation was successful, as respondents who read a positive scenario had a significantly higher attitude

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Van Vaerenbergh, Van de Sompel, Van Loock and Vermeir

toward the artist (M=5.21, SD=0.75) in comparison to respondents who read the negative scenario (M=2.43, SD=1.39) (t(23.94)= 7.356, p<0.001).

3.1

Measures

Dependent variables Respondents rated their attitude toward the brand (α=0.86) on a seven-item seven-point semantic differential scale developed by Stuart et al. (1987). Manipulation checks Similar to the pretest, the attitude toward the artist (α=0.95) was measured by using a three-item 7-point Likert scale adopted from Till and Shimp (1998). Covariates As attitude toward the music genre might be a confounding factor, we decided to measure the respondent’s attitude toward hip-hop music using a single-item measure as in Schemer et al. (2008). Furthermore, as the song was sung in a local dialect, we found this might potentially confound our results. As such, we controlled for this potential bias by calculating the distance between the hip-hoppers’ and respondent’s hometown which was added as covariate to our analysis. Therefore, the postal code of the respondent’s hometown was asked.

3.2

Procedure

Questionnaires were administered in small groups (+/- 20 respondents per group). Participants were first randomly assigned to one of the two scenarios, in which a positive or negative description about the artist was given. After reading the scenario, respondents were questioned about their attitude toward the artist. Afterwards, the respondents listened twice to one of the three versions of the song and subsequently were asked to rate their attitude toward Jo-Box!, their attitude toward hip-hop and to provide some socio-demographic data. After completing the experiment, respondents were debriefed and thanked for their participation.

27

The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes

4 4.1

Main Study Manipulation Check

A manipulation check revealed that respondents who read the positive scenario had a positive attitude toward the artist (M=5.34, SD=0.95); respondents who read the negative scenario had a negative attitude toward the artist (M=2.08, SD=0.95) (t(198)=24.229, p<0.001). Hence, we conclude that the manipulations of the attitude toward the artist work as intended.

4.2

Results

Our hypothesis predicted that the attitude toward the artist would moderate the relationship between brand name repetition in song lyrics and the brand attitude. We expect that the evaluation of a brand which is paired with a positively perceived artist will become more and more positive as the number of brand name repetitions increases, whereas the evaluation of a brand which is paired with a negatively perceived artist will become more and more negative as the number of brand name repetitions increases. An ANCOVA was run in order to test our hypothesis, of which results are provided in Table 1. First, attitude toward hip-hop significantly influences the attitude toward the brand (p<0.001), while distance between the hip-hopper’s hometown and the respondent’s hometown was marginally significant as covariate (p=0.071). However, it is important to note that our results, which will be discussed in subsequent section, did not alter with the inclusion or exclusion of both covariates. In the remainder of this manuscript, we report results using both attitude toward hip-hop and distance as covariates. Table 1: ANCOVA results of brand attitude

Source Attitude toward hip-hop Distance Level of placement Attitude toward the artist Level of placement x Attitude toward the artist

F 16.532 3.296 3.567 10.648

df 1 1 2 1

p <0.001 0.071 0.030 0.001

η² 0.079 0.017 0.035 0.052

0.145

2

0.865

0.001

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Van Vaerenbergh, Van de Sompel, Van Loock and Vermeir

Table 1 reveals that the main effects of brand name placement and attitude toward the artist had a significant impact on brand attitude, but the interaction between the brand name placement and the attitude toward the artist was not significant (p=0.865). The interaction was plotted in Figure 1.

4,2

Brand attitude

4,0

Negative attitude toward artist

3,8 3,6

Positive attitude toward artist

3,4 3,2 3,0 0

4

10

Number of brand name repetitions Figure 1: Interaction between brand name placement and attitude toward the artist

Our results indicate an evaluative conditioning effect: if a brand name is associated with an artist who is negatively perceived by the audience, this will result in lower brand attitudes. Contrary to our hypothesis, an increasing number of brand repetitions or associations between the brand name and the artist has a positive impact on the brand attitude regardless of the attitude toward the artist. Figure 1 shows that when a brand is associated with an artist who is negatively perceived, the brand attitude of respondents was lowest with zero (M=3.46) or four repetitions (M=3.37) but increased with ten repetitions (M=3.73). A similar pattern was found for associations between a brand name and artists who are positively perceived. The brand attitude was higher after ten repetitions (M=4.02) when compared to zero (M=3.75) or four repetitions (M=3.83).

The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes

29

Interesting to note is that the amount of repetitions of the brand name has a significant impact on brand attitude. More specific, when the brand name was not mentioned, respondents had a mean brand attitude of 3.60. Respondents who heard the brand name four times did not have a significant higher brand attitude (M=3.62). If the brand name was mentioned ten times, the mean brand attitude increased significantly to 3.87. These findings suggest that overall, brand name placement in song lyrics can be an interesting advertising strategy, when the brand is sufficiently repeated.

5

Discussion

This study experimentally explores the impact of the amount of brand repetitions in song lyrics on the brand attitude and tests whether this relationship is moderated by the attitude toward the artist. Contrary to our expectations, our results indicate that for both artists who are either positively or negatively perceived by the audience, higher repetitions of the brand name have a higher positive influence on the brand attitude. These results contradict prior research on the moderating effects of attitudes toward the artist in a product placement context. Research by Schemer et al. (2008) on product placement in music videos found that pairing a brand with positively evaluated artists produced positive attitudes toward the brand, whereas pairing a brand with negatively evaluated artists produced negative attitudes toward the brand. A possible explanation for these contradictory results could be that our pairing with a negatively evaluated artist did not result in a negative brand attitude, although the brand attitude was less positive compared to the positive pairing condition. This could be explained by the context in which this research was conducted. Given the high prevalence of brand name placements in hip-hop and rap songs (Herd, 2005; Martin and Collins, 2002), we examined the effectiveness of brand name placement in song lyrics in a hip-hop context. However, many people in the hip-hop nation were condemned by the government or have been locked up (Butler, 2004). As a result, it might be the case that respondents took the negative attitude toward the artist into account to a lesser degree when evaluating the brand name placement, as a negatively perceived artist is an integral part of the hip-hop scene. Our results are in line with mere exposure research. Mere exposure research shows that repeated exposure to a stimulus enhances attitudes toward that stimulus (Zajonc, 1968) often explained by perceptual fluency or ease of processing (Lee and Labroo, 2004). Respondents had positive brand attitudes in both posi-

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Van Vaerenbergh, Van de Sompel, Van Loock and Vermeir

tive and negative ‘attitude toward the artist’ conditions resulting in enhanced attitudes after repeated exposure. When considering the main effect of brand name repetitions in song lyrics, our findings demonstrate that the attitude toward the brand significantly increases after ten brand name placements. This provides further support for the impact of repetition on brand attitudes, an issue which received only very limited attention in prior product placement research (Van Reijmersdal et al., 2009). Following our results, managers might consider brand name placement in song lyrics as a potential context for product or brand name placement, next to more researched areas as movies, television shows, games or novels. When considering brand name placement in song lyrics as an advertising strategy, managers should be aware of the differential effects of brand name placement on brand recall, recognition and attitudes. Delattre and Colovic (2009) argued that at least two repetitions of a brand name should be included in the song lyrics, as this has a positive impact on brand recall and recognition. Results of our research clearly demonstrate that the brand name should be repeated at least ten times in order to enhance brand attitudes. This finding also differs from prior research on the number of repetitions that is necessary in order to increase brand evaluations with product placements. Van Reijmersdal et al. (2007) found that in a TV show, at least two repetitions were necessary in order to increase brand attitudes. The reason for this difference might be due to the use of visual versus auditory stimuli. In Van Reijmersdal et al.’s (2007) study, the product placement was both auditory and visual, while in our study the brand name placement was only auditory. Research shows that visual images or pictures tend to be more memorable than their verbal counterparts, because pictures are coded with both pictorial and verbal codes (dual coding theory, Paivio, 1986). The extra code associated with pictures gives them an advantage during retrieval. This stronger memory trace could also explain why fewer exposures are necessary for visual versus auditory product placement in order to influence respondents’ attitudes. Another important managerial implication emerges from this study. We did not find a significant interaction between brand name placement in song lyrics and the attitude toward the artist, leading to the conclusion that the impact of brand name placement in song lyrics on brand attitudes is similar for artists who are positively evaluated by the audience and artists who are negatively evaluated by the audience. As a result, marketers benefit from brand name placement in song lyrics, regardless of the artist who mentions the brand name. Given our current findings, managers can try to stimulate artists to include brand names in their song lyrics, even if the artists are not always positively perceived.

The Impact of Brand Name Placement in Song Lyrics on Brand Attitudes

5.1

31

Limitations and Future Research

Although our research provides evidence for the effectiveness of brand name placements in music songs, some limitations remain. First, our research is situated within the specific context of hip-hop- and rap songs which opens up the question whether our results would also apply in other music genres. Second, the number of brand name repetitions was limited to ten in our manipulations. Future research might explore whether an overload of brand name repetitions might cause irritation with respondents (see Cowley and Barron, 2008), resulting in negative effects of brand name placement in song lyrics on brand attitudes. Third, in our manipulation the hip-hopper sang about his life as hiphopper, while the brand we included involved a MP3 player. As such, congruence between song lyrics and the brand name might exist. Future research might also explore whether incongruent brand name placements might yield different results. Fourth, given that some artists voluntarily include brand names in their song lyrics whereas others include brand names based on a contract with an organization, question remains whether different effects might be obtained if the audience is aware of the fact that an artist might be paid to include brand names. Finally, brand name placement in song lyrics differs from product placement in movies or television programs because songs might be broadcasted multiple times a day. As such, future research might explore whether time intervals between the exposure to the brand name (for example, five times a day versus once a day for five sequential days) influence the effectiveness of brand placement in song lyrics.

6

References

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Debruyne, B. (2007), “Hiphopmarketing is bling bling”, in: Bizz, March 2007, 30-31. Delattre, E. & Colovic, A. (2009) “Memory and perception of brand mentions and placement of brands in songs”, in: International Journal of Advertising, 28(5), 807-842. De Houwer, J.; Baeyens, F. & Field, A.F. (2005), “Associative learning of likes and dislikes: Some current controversies and possible ways forward”, in: Cognition and Emotion, 19, 161-174. De Houwer, J.; Thomas, S. & Baeyens, F. (2001), “Associative learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning”, in: Psychological Bulletin, 127(6), 853-869. Fennis, B.M. & Bakker, A.B. (2001) “Stay tuned - We will be back right after these messages: Need to evaluate moderates the transfer of irritation in advertising”, in: Journal of Advertising, 30(3), 15-25. Ferraro, R. & Avery, R.J. (2000) “Brand appearances on prime-time television”, in: Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 22(2), 1-15. Friedman, M. (1985) “The changing language of a consumer society: Brand name usage in popular American novels in the post-war era”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 11(4), 927-938. Gould, S.J. & Gupta, P.B. (2006) “Come on down: How consumers view game shows and the products placed in them”, in: Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 65-81. Graser, M. (2005), “McDonald’s buying way into hip hop song lyrics”, in: Advertising Age, March 23, 2005. Herd, D. (2005), “Changes in the prevalence of alcohol use in rap song lyrics, 1979-1997”, in: Addiction, 100, 1258-1269. Hoffman, W., De Houwer, J., Perugini, M., Baeyens, F. & Crombez, G. (2010), “Evaluative conditioning in humans: A meta-analysis”, Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 390-421. Holloway, L. (2002), “Hip hop sales pop: Pass the Courvoisier and count the cash”, in: New York Times, September 2, 2002. La Ferle, C. & Edwards, S.M. (2006) “Product placement: How brands appear on television”, in: Journal of Advertising, 35(4), 65-86. Lee, A. & Labroo, A.A. (2004), “The effect of conceptual and perceptual fluency on brand evaluation”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 151-165. Lee, M. & Faber, R.J. (2007) “Effects of product placement in on-line games on brand memory: A perspective of the limited-capacity model of attention”, in: Journal of Advertising, 36(4), 75-90. Mackay, T., Ewing, M., Newton, F. & Windisch, L. (2009) “The effect of product placement in computer games on brand attitude and recall”, in: International Journal of Advertising, 28(3), 423-438. Mackie, D.E. & Asuncion, A.G. (1990) “On-line and memory-based modification of attitudes: Determinants of message recall-attitude change correspondence”, in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(1), 5-16. Martin, B.A.S. & Collins, B.A. (2002) “Violence and consumption imagery in music videos”, in: European Journal of Marketing, 36(7/8), 855-873. Matthes, J., Schemer, C. & Wirth, W. (2007) “More than meets the eye – Investigating the hidden impact of brand placements in television magazines”, in: International Journal of Advertising, 26(4), 477-503. McCracken, G. (1989), “Who is the celebrity endorser? Cultural foundation of the endorsement process”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), 310-321. McSweeney, F.K. & Bierley, C. (1984), “Recent developments in classical conditioning”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 11, 619-631. Nelson, M. R. (2002) “Recall of brand placements in computer/video games”, in: Journal of Advertising Research, 42(2), 80-92. Paivio, A. (1986) “Mental representations”. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Petty, R.E., Cacioppo, J.T. & Schumann, D. (1983) “Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 10(2), 135-146. Russell, C.A. (2002) “Investigating the effectiveness of product placements in television shows: The role of modality and plot connection congruence on brand memory and attitude”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 29(3), 306-318. Russell, C.A. & Stern, B.B. (2006) “Consumers, characters and products: A balance model of sitcom product placement effects”, in: Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 7-21. Schemer, C., Matthes, J., Wirth, W. & Textor, S. (2008) “Does ‘Passing the Courvoisier’ always pay off? Positive and negative evaluative conditioning effects of brand placements in music videos”, in: Psychology & Marketing, 25(10), 923-943. Schiffman, L.G. & Kanuk, L.L. (2006), “Consumer behavior”, ninth edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Schneider, L.-P. & Cornwell, T.B. (2005) “Cashing in on crashed via brand placement in computer games”, in: International Journal of Advertising, 24(3), 321-343. Stuart, E.; Shimp, T.A. & Engle, R.W. (1987), “Classical conditioning of consumer attitudes: Four experiments in an advertising context”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 334-349. Sweldens, S.; Van Osselaer, S.M.J. & Janiszewski, C. (2010), “Evaluative conditioning procedures and the resilience of conditioned brand attitudes”, in: Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 473489. Till, B.D. & Shimp, T. (1998) “Endorsers in advertising: The case of negative celebrity information”, in: Journal of Advertising, 27(1), 67-74. Till, B.D., Stanley, S.M. & Priluck, R. (2008), “Classical conditioning and celebrity endorsers: An examination of belongingness and resistance to extinction”, in: Psychology & Marketing, 25(2), 179-196. Van Reijmersdal, E.A., Neijens, P.C. & Smith, E.G. (2007) “Effects of television brand placement on brand image”, in: Psychology & Marketing, 24(5), 403-420. Van Reijmersdal, E.A., Neijens, P.C. & Smith, E.G. (2009) “A new branch of advertising: Reviewing factors that influence reactions to product placement”, in: Journal of Advertising Research, 49(4), 429-449. Wiles, M.A. & Danielova, A. (2009) “The worth of product placement in successful films: An event study analysis”, in: Journal of Marketing, 73(4), 44-63. Woltman-Elpers, J.L.C.M., Wedel, M. & Pieters, R.G.M. (2003) “Why do consumers stop viewing television commercials? Two experiments on the influence of moment-to-moment entertainment and information value”, in: Journal of Marketing Research, 40 (4), 437-453. Yang, M. & Roskos-Ewoldson, D.R. (2007) “The effectiveness of brand placements in the movies: Levels of placements, explicit and implicit memory, and brand-choice behavior”, in: Journal of Communication, 57(3), 469-489. Zajonc, R.B. (1968), “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure”, in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monographs, 9, 1-27.

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials Martin K. J. Waiguny, University of Klagenfurt, Austria Ralf Terlutter, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

1

Introduction

Advergames are a new and fast-growing category of interactive advertising tools (Faber et al, 2004). Most of the common advergames can be described as casual browser games constructed around one particular brand, and in most cases they are available for free either on the manufacturer’s own site or on a high-traffic website (Lee and Youn, 2008; Svahn, 2005; Waiguny and Terlutter, 2009). Like TV advertising, advergames are part of marketing communications and usually promote only one brand. From the advertisers’ point of view, the main objectives of marketing communications are to foster brand awareness, to emotionalize brand attitude, and to foster brand relationships. However, advergames are different from TV advertising in several key ways (active vs. passive reception, non/low vs. high interactivity while exposed to the brand, exposure time etc.).The basic research question addressed by this study is: In terms of advertising effects, how do advergames differ from traditional TV advertising? A further research aim was to gain a better understanding of the ways in which children recognize the commercial and persuasive intent of marketing media (Eagle, 2007; Singer and Singer, 1998). Children from age 8 or so start to develop cognitive defense capabilities against commercial persuasion (Nairn and Fine, 2008). But little is known as to whether these defense mechanisms are effective when children are confronted with new and convergent forms of persuasive media (Wright, Friestad and Boush, 2005). The insights into this question gained from this research would have implications for media literacy education (Turnipseed and Rask, 2007; Wollslager, 2009). Therefore a further research focus of this study is: Do children understand the commercial intent of advergames as compared to TV adverts? Does children’s persuasion knowledge influence their perception of advergames?

S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_3, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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Differences between Advergames and TV Commercials

Playing an advergame is very different from watching television. Nakatsu et al. (2005) characterize playing games as an integrated experience of physical and mental presence which leads to a higher degree of activation and arousal than is the case with regular TV advertising (Nakatsu et al., 2005). While playing an advergame, children are likely to be more active and their cognitive efforts will be greater than when watching a TV commercial (Grodal, 2000). Hence, we propose our first hypothesis: H1: Advergames will be perceived as more exciting than TV ads. With regard to cognitive efforts, the cognitive process is constrained by individuals’ limited information processing capacity (Eyseneck and Keane, 2000; Kahneman, 1973; Annie Lang, 2000; A. Lang, 2006). Gamers have to use this limited capacity to process the gameplay and anticipate the ongoing gaming situation (Grodal, 2000), which might distract players from the featured brand (Grigorovici and Constantin, 2004; Nelson, 2005). TV ads are constructed around a single strong brand message supported by audiovisual elements (Maher et al., 2006) which are probably not as distracting as the gameplay. A comparison between sponsorship (brand placement) in a gaming environment and in a TV setting of an NASCAR race found that brand recall in the TV setting was higher than brand recall in the game setting (Walsh et al., 2008). Hypothesis H2 reads: H2: Brand recall will be lower in the advergame setting than in the TV ad setting. However, encouraging brand recall is not the only aim of an advergame. Fostering associations with the brand or the product is a further important objective as the brand will become embedded in a network of mental associations (e.g., Sutherland and Sylvester, 2000). Games thus make it possible to convey messages through simulation and direct interaction (Ritterfeld and Weber, 2006) as well as through the rhetoric of the gameplay (Bogost, 2007). In consequence, an incidental and implicit learning effect occurs (Auty and Lewis, 2003; Ritterfeld and Weber, 2006) as the associative networks in children’s procedural memories are extended or strengthened by the showing of a brand or a product in a special scene (Auty and Lewis, 2003). Thus it is not only brand recall which is important, various episodes, characters, rhetorical scenes (like scenes of what you can do when consuming the product) assume a significance. Gamers spend much more time on and have more exposure to message elements than is the case when viewers watch a scripted TV commercial. Moreover, gamers pay a lot of attention to the game as learning the gameplay is the major

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

37

task in this situation (van Lankveld et al., 2010). As a consequence, if elements of the brand or product are placed within the gameplay area rather than outside the main gameplaying area, these elements will be recognized to a higher extent than from watching a TV commercial although in the case of TV no distracting elements feature in the commercial. H3: The recognition of product related elements will be higher in the advergame setting than in the TV ad setting. In most cases, entertainment leads to positive emotions and a feeling of control of and excitement regarding the situation (Früh, 2003). It can be expected that such feelings will tend to be stronger with advergames than in the TV viewing situation (Grodal, 2000). Gamers are active and are more likely to enter into a flow experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; Sherry, 2004), whereas watching TV is more likely to be a passive task (Nakatsu et al., 2005). According to the excitation transfer theory (Zillmann, 1971; Zillmann et al., 1972), this excitement is likely to be transferred to the current situation and to other stimuli (i.e. the brand). Hence, we expect that gamers will like an advergame more than a TV ad (treatment liking, i.e. the attitude towards the ad). Given the fairly robust link between attitude towards the ad (in terms of cognitive and affective judgement) and attitude towards the brand (Edell and Burke, 1987; MacKenzie and Lutz, 1989; Shiffman and Kanuk, 2007, p. 247f), especially in the fast-moving consumer goods markets (FMCG), we also expect that gamers will thus have a more positive attitude towards the brand. Youn and Lee (2005) have already demonstrated this relationship in the context of advergames. Ahn (2008) showed that liking the game positively influenced perception of the brand (brand beliefs, brand personality). Hence, also a choicepreference for the brand directly after watching or playing should be influenced more strongly by an advergame than by a TV commercial. We further analyze WOMI (Word Of Mouth Intention) – the intention to recommend the advergame/TV ad - as well as the intention to reuse the advergame or the intention to view the TV ad again. Most children at elementary school level do not actually make buying decisions themselves, but rather influence their parents’ buying decisions through pestering (McNeal, 1992; Valkenburg and Cantor, 2001). Pestering intention on behalf of the brand is included in the study and we expect higher pestering intention in the advergame setting than in the TV ad setting due to more positive brand attitudes. Thus we derive the following hypotheses: H4: Children in the advergame setting as compared to children in the TV ad setting will show higher values in all of the following areas:

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Liking of the treatment (TL) Intention to recommend the treatment to others (WOMI) Intention to reuse the treatment (RUI) Attitude towards the promoted brand (ATTB) Intention to pester for the brand (PI) Preference for the brand (PREF)

In this study, research is conducted not only into the affect-driven effects of the entertainment provided by the different media, but also into children’s more cognition-driven persuasion knowledge (PK). Children develop their PK of advertising as they grow older and receive more education (Boush et al., 1994; Friestad and Wright, 1994; John Roedder, 1999a; John Roedder and Cole, 1986; Roedder and Whitney, 1986). According to the Persuasion Knowledge Model (Friestad and Wright, 1994), individuals typically understand the persuasive purpose of a message if they recognize the agent, if they have a general awareness that a message is being delivered with the intention of persuading them, and if they know about the tactics and structures employed by the persuasive message. PK is also related to attitudes towards advertising in general: PK comes into play as skepticism and counterargument if an individual’s attitude towards advertising is more negative (Campell and Kirmani, 2008). In an advertising context, PK only then becomes activated and leads to coping behavior if the ad is recognized as such (Wei et al., 2008). However, very young children are not able to distinguish between the different forms and intentions of commercial, informational or entertaining TV programs. This type of cognitive ability develops between the ages of 4 and 7. Children aged from 8 to 10 are more likely to identify commercials and understand both the commercial content and the persuasive intent. At 10, they will probably be able to understand both the persuasive intent and various persuasion tactics which are being employed, whereas children older than 12 will generally understand the full range of advertising tactics (John Roedder, 1999b; John Roedder, 2002; John Roedder and Whitney, 1986; Robertson and Rossiter, 1974; John Roedder, 1981; Valkenburg and Cantor, 2001). However, PK is not only influenced by children’s physical and cognitive development but also by the education they have received regarding media and media impact (Friestad an Wright, 1994; Kunkel, 2001). Above all, training in media literacy, i.e. a special educational focus that encourages children to review TV programmes critically (Singer and Singer, 1998), especially commercials (Eagle, 2007), influences their PK. Hence, we expect that children’s PK will negatively influence their liking of the treatment and the outcome variables related to brand attitude. H5: Active persuasion knowledge will negatively influence the

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

   

39

Liking of the treatment (TL) Intention to recommend the treatment to others (WOMI) Intention to reuse the treatment (RUI). Attitude towards the promoted brand (ATTB)

However, most media literacy training is tailored to support understanding of the persuasive intent of TV commercials. New forms of persuasive techniques and subliminal communication tools such as advergames are frequently not included in children’s media literacy education. Hence, we expect that PK will have less of an impact on responses to advergames than is the case with TV advertising. An expected consequence is that psychological coping behaviors such as a more negative and skeptical evaluation of the message sender or the brand which is being promoted (Brown and Krishna, 2004; Campbell and Kirmani, 2000; Wood, Nelson, Atkinson, and Lane, 2008) will have a lower impact on advergames than on TV advertising. The expectation is that children are likely to have been educated to decode TV advertising, but not to decode advergames. In addition, as a result of the more engaging gaming situation the cognitive resources available to identify commercial content in a game are more limited (Annie Lang, 2009; Nairn and Fine, 2008). Hence we expect practically no PK influence, even when it is activated, on the variables analyzed in this study in the advergame setting. Recent studies focusing on advergames and PK indeed have found no PK influence on the evaluation of the advergame and the brand in question (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski, 2007), or only very weak influence (Waiguny et al., 2010). This means that children - even if they already have high PK - will evaluate the treatment (advergame vs. TV), the brand, and the behavioral measures more favorably in the advergame setting than in the TV ad setting. H6: Active persuasion knowledge will moderate the dependent variables. In the TV ad setting, children with high persuasion knowledge will evaluate the game and subsequently all game-related and brand-related attitudinal and intentional variables less favorably than children with low persuasion knowledge, whereas in the advergame setting, persuasion knowledge will not have a moderating effect.

3

The Role of Challenge in Influencing Children through Games

To gain a deeper insight into what actually happens when children are playing advergames and its relationship to persuasion, we finally investigate the role of challenge in the game. In general, we predict that advergames will be more entertaining than TV commercials; but it is also necessary to understand what

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happens if an advergame itself is not complex enough to truly challenge the gamer. On the one hand, if the level of game challenge is low, gamers will not pay full attention to the gameplay, and will also need less time and feel bored by the game (Chen, 2007; van Lankveld et al., 2010). On the other hand, if a game is too challenging or hard to use or interact with, children might feel overchalleged and even feel negative emotions. However, as they engage in trying to understand the game, they will have a much longer exposure time. If the challenge of a game matches kids’ expectations and skills, they will feel positive emotions, and the time spent on playing the game will be perceived as passing very quickly (Gilleade et al., 2005). In terms of persuasion, the level of challenge is important as it, firstly, regulates the focused attention and the time spent on the advergame. As mentioned previously, learning effects via advergames are somewhat incidental, not conscious (Bogost, 2007), and the more a player engages with the game the stronger such effects are. Hence we predict that if the challenge level is low, children will need less time to finish the advergame and subsequently will remember fewer elements of the game since they do not focus on the gameplay to the same extent as optimallychallenged or over-challenged children. Drawing on the perceptual fluency theory (e.g., Reber et al., 2004; Reber et al., 1998) and the mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968, 2001; Zajonc et al., 1974), attitudes will increase by the repetition of exposure and an associative learning effect will occur. Secondly, attitude towards the brand is also regulated by the affect transfer, as only in the case of optimal challenge do positive affects occur. Over- and underchallenged children will thus show a negative affect transfer (Lazzaro, 2008). To sum up, optimally challenged children will show the highest level of influence on the attitude towards the brand. As over-challenged children need more time to complete the advergame, they will remember most of the game elements. However, the persuasive effect will be diminished by the negative affect. The last hypothesis therefore reads: H7: The level of challenge is related to time, recognition and attitude towards the brand. Under-challenged children will need less time, remember the fewest elements and will have the least favourable attitude towards the brand. Optimally-challenged children will display the most favourable level of attitude towards the brand, needing a moderate amount of time for the game and subsequently exhibiting a moderate degree of recognition of gaming elements. Over-challenged children will need much more time and recognize the most elements, but will only have a moderately favourable attitude towards the brand.

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

4

41

Study

In order to test the proposed hypotheses, a study involving 51 children was carried out in January 2010 in an elementary school. To control for developmental factors in the understanding of the intentions underlying advertising, only children aged between 8 and 10 were included in the study, all of whom, according to the literature, can be expected to be at roughly the same developmental stage of knowledge about advertising (John Roedder, 2002; Livingstone and Helsper, 2006).

4.1

Method and Measures

Design and Treatment: A 2 (TV vs. advergame) x 2 (high vs. low PK) quasiexperimental design was chosen. First demographic questions about gaming, TV and eating habits were asked by trained interviewers in one-to-one interviews. Afterwards the children were randomly divided into two groups: one group (29 children) was asked to play an advergame and the second group (22) children were shown a TV advertisement. The brand “Nesquik Duo” was chosen for the purposes of the study. Nesquik Duo broadcasts a TV spot in which the Nesquik mascot runs on a brown-and-white (brown and white chocolate) colored table, finds a package of the product, which it jumps into using a spoon made of chocolate. Then the cereal is poured into a bowl and the mascot also falls into the bowl, whereupon everything turns into a swirl and the mascot wakes up from a dream and starts a breakfast featuring the product and children. The corresponding advergame uses the same content elements. The player has to collect the product in the brown-and-white environment of a table with a breakfast bowl. This part of the game is offered at 4 levels with time limits (between 35 and 25 seconds); each level ends when the player locates a swirl, which is the exit to the next level. At the end, the player is allowed 3 chances to jump into a package with the aid of a brown spoon. The children were to play the game to the end in order to exclude the negative influence of interrupting a pleasurable experience. Afterwards the children were questioned by the interviewers about their perceptions of the game and then about their knowledge of advertising tactics. The time taken to complete the game was recorded for the individual gamers. During the questioning of the children, terms such as advergame or advertisement were deliberately not used to refer to the treatment. Measures of independent variables: Knowledge about the persuasive tactics employed in advertising and beliefs about advertising in general were measured using a simplified version, specially adapted for this age group, of the scale of beliefs about advertiser tactics used by Boush et al. (1994), This scale consists of beliefs about how credible advertising is, beliefs about the intention and

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persuasive character of advertising, and the selling intent of advertising. Identification of commercial character was measured by asking: “Did any brand appear in the game/film?” If the child named any brand, this was coded as 1, and if not as 0. In addition, general attitude towards advertising was measured by asking: “Please indicate how much you like advertising in general!” In addition, in the case of the advergame group, the level of challenge was measured by four variables, namely “The time passed rather quickly”, “The game was difficult”, “I quickly understood what I was meant to do in the game”, “I quickly found out how to handle the game”. Measures of the dependent variables: Brand recall (BR) was measured by asking the children an open-ended question: “Did any brand appear in the game?” If the child named Nesquik, this was coded 1, any other or no brand was coded 0. Brand attitude (ATTB) was measured using the brand attitude scale for children (Pecheux and Derbaix, 1999). Excitement (EX) was measured by asking whether “The game/film was exciting.” Recognition was measured by 18 elements, some of which appeared in the game/ TV ad, whereas others did not. If the child recognized the element correctly (i.e. correctly identified whether or not it had been featured in the game or ad) it was coded with +1. If recognized incorrectly, it was coded -1. An index (RECOG) ranging from -18 to +18 was calculated, the higher the index score the higher the correct recognition of elements. The time taken was measured in seconds. All question-scales were measured on a 6-point Likert scale supported by a visual classification of the end-points of the scale continuum by using a hook and a cross (indicating right or wrong) (Tinson, 2009). Liking advertising (AL) in general and liking the treatment (TL) were measured by using a 6-point smiley scale, ranging from “like it very much” to “don’t like it at all”.

4.2

Results

26 male and 25 female children aged 8 (33.3%), 9 (45.1%), and 10 (21.5%) took part in the study. 98% of the children stated that they have access to a computer. Table 1 provides an overview of the children’s TV viewing and computergaming habits. First, after correcting the data for input errors and missing values, it was checked whether there are significant differences in the independent variables in the groups with regard to gender, age, TV viewing and videogame habits. These checks indicated that there was no significant difference on p<.1. Due to low loadings, three items of the attitude scale had to be removed. From the remaining items, a mean index was calculated.

43

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

4.2.1

Results of the Mean Comparisons

On average it took the children 4:50 minutes (min: 3:06, max: 13:50) to complete the advergame. The length of the TV ad was 0:31 minutes, hence the average exposure to brand-related stimuli is 8½ times longer in the advergame setting. To test the first set of hypotheses (H1-H4) one-way ANOVA and χ²analysis were conducted. Table 1 reports the findings that hypotheses H1, H2, H3 and H4 are all supported by the data at least at p<.1 level. Children perceive the advergame as more exciting (Madvergame: 4.72; MTV: 2.68) but in the advergame setting significantly fewer children (advergame: 44.8%, TV: 81,8%) were able to recall the brand unaided. Furthermore, as demonstrated in Table 1, both liking the treatment and brand-related measures are higher in the advergame setting than in the TV ad setting. This indicates that children’s perception of the advergame is more favourable than their perception of the TV ad and also the related behavioral intentions are higher. In terms of recognition (RECOG), children can remember far more elements correctly in the advergame setting (Madvergame: 7.03) than in the TV ad setting (MTV: 4.09). Table 1: Results of the One Way-ANOVA and Cross-Tabs Analysis Dependent Variable EX RECOG TL ATTB RI WOMI RC of brand PI PREF

4.2.2

M (overall)/ % (overall) 3.84 5.76 4.88 4.08 3.55 3.24 60.8% 26.5% 28.6%

M (TV)/ % (TV) 2.68 4.09 4.32 3.48 2.37 2.59 81.8% 13.6% 18.6%

M (Advergame)/ % (Advergame) 4.72 7.03 5.31 4.54 4.45 3.72 44.8% 37.0% 37.0%

F/ χ² 13.70 14.04 9.58 4.55 16.23 4.25 7.18 3.41 2.11

p .00** .00** .00** .04** .00** .05** .01** .06* .16n.s.

Results of the Interaction with Activated Persuasion Knowledge

To introduce PK in the context of the study, beliefs about the tactics employed in advertising (credibility of advertising, persuasive intent of advertising, selling intent of the advertiser), attitude towards advertising, and the identification of the commercial character of the game/ad were used to divide the group of subjects into an activated PK and a non-activated PK group by using two-step cluster analysis. The results indicate that for children with activated PK the knowledge about advertising tactics was higher and the attitude towards

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advertising in general was less favourable. Hence ability to identify the commercial character is related to the level of persuasion knowledge. A twoway MANOVA for the dependent variables was computed, with the grouping variable and the calculated cluster variable as independent variables. Table 4 reports the results. Table 2: Means of the dependent variables of the 2x2 design Grouping Variables TL TV ad PK act PK inact Total adver- PK act game PK inact Total total PK act PK inact Total ATTB TV ad PK act PK inact Total adver- PK act game PK inact Total total PK act PK inact Total

m std.dev. 4.06 1.11 5.50 0.58 4.32 1.17 5.38 0.77 5.25 1.34 5.31 1.11 4.61 1.17 5.30 1.22 4.88 1.23 3.03 1.86 5.50 0.61 3.48 1.95 4.62 1.52 4.48 1.74 4.54 1.62 3.69 1.87 4.69 1.62 4.08 1.83

n Grouping Variables 18 RUI TV ad PK act 4 PK inact 22 total 13 adver- PK act game PK inact 16 29 total 31 total PK act 20 PK inact 51 total 18 WOMI TV ad PK act 4 PK inact 22 total 13 adver- PK act game PK inact 16 29 total 31 total PK act 20 PK inact 51 total

m std.dev. 1.83 1.34 4.75 1.5 2.36 1.76 5.23 1.01 3.81 2.2 4.45 1.88 3.26 2.08 4.00 2.08 3.55 2.09 2.22 1.63 5.25 0.96 2.77 1.93 5.23 1.24 5.50 1.37 5.38 1.29 3.48 2.1 5.45 1.28 4.25 2.05

n 18 4 22 13 16 29 31 20 51 18 4 22 13 16 29 31 20 51

On the inclusion of PK in the model, the main effect of the grouping variable becomes insignificant except for recommendation intention and re-usage intention, which indicates that all brand-related dependent variables are significantly influenced by PK except for the beliefs that the brand is healthy, and the re-usage intention regarding the treatment. Hence, H5 is partly supported. The interaction effects between the treatment groups and PK showed that all dependent variables interact as predicted, indicating that children with activated PK who watch the commercial will evaluate it less positively and will also be more skeptical regarding the brand, whereas no differences are observable between high and low PK in the gaming group. Table 5 reports the means and tests of the MANOVA analysis.

45

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

Table 3: Main and Interaction Effects Source Group

PK

Group X PK

4.2.3

Dependent Variable TL ATTB RUI WOMI TL ATTB RUI WOMI TL ATTB RUI WOMI

df

F 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2.195 .260 5.239 11.910 3.235 4.353 1.944 12.192 4.701 5.382 16.270 8.535

p .15n.s. .61n.s. .03** .00** .08* .04** .17n.s. .00** .04** .03** .00** .01**

Results of the Influence of Challenge on Recognition and Persuasion

To analyze the level of challenge, a centroid cluster analysis was used to divide the children who played the advergame into three groups. Table 4 reports the distribution and the mean values. Using this grouping variable a MANOVA was calculated. As predicted under-challenged (M: 248 sec.), need significantly (F=5.867, p=.008) less time than optimally- (M: 411 sec.) and over-challenged (M: 607 sec.) children, to finish the game. In terms of recognition underchallenged subjects (M: 4.40) remember less than optimally- (M: 7.48) and over-challenged kids (M: 7.00), however this effect was only significant on p<.1 level (F=2.500, p=.100). Checking the influence of challenge on attitude towards the brand, the predicted pattern that the optimally-challenged (M: 4.58) will show higher values than under-challenged (M: 3.77) and over-challenged (M: 4.05) children was found, but the influence was not on a statistically significant level (F=.513, p=.605). Hence H7 is partially supported by our data.

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Table 4: Results of the Challenge Grouping Item

The time passed rather quickly I quickly found out how to use the game. The game was difficult. I quickly understood what I was meant to do in the game.

4.3

underchallenged (n=5) 2.80

optimallychallenged (n=18) 5.94

overchallenged (n=6) 3.33

5.80

5.44

3.33

1.40

1.94

4.67

5.80

5.61

3.17

Selected Limitations

This study is limited by several factors. First only one game (with the same content elements as the corresponding TV ad) was tested. Moreover the sample was very small and only from one school, thus factors like social environment, and peer and family influence on PK could not be evaluated. Finally, the lowPK group in the TV advertising setting was very small because of the high recognition rate of persuasive intent in the case of the TV ad.

5

Discussion and Implications

This is the first study which directly compares the effects of an advergame with the effects of a comparable TV commercial in the field of advertising to children. The results clearly indicate that children perceive the game as more exciting. Moreover, evidence was found of the impact of limited information processing capacity on responses as the children who played the game were less likely than those in the TV group to recall the brand promoted in-game because they had been distracted by the gameplay. Furthermore, the children indicated that in the advergame setting they tended to rate the advergame and subsequently also all brand-related measures more positively. This could be the end of the story, but this more positive evaluation of the advergame is not only a direct result of the entertainment provided by the game. It is also the result to some extent of the fact that some of the children were not aware that an advergame is a form of advertising. Even in the case of those children who did realize that they had encountered a type of advertising, commercial PK is not activated to anything like the same extent as with TV advertising. In the case of the TV ad, the activated PK leads to a more skeptical

Differences in Children’s Processing of Advergames and TV Commercials

47

evaluation as a coping behavior. An obvious conclusion is that effective education is needed to help kids cope with these new forms of branded entertainment which target children. As Wollslager (2009) and also Stern and An (2009) have demonstrated, even brief training/induction to product placement in games leads to enhanced rates of identifying the commercial character of the advergame. But merely identifying the underlying character of the game is not enough. Like persuasive games in education (Bogost, 2007), advergames employ a lot of hidden persuasive content. The more the gameplay conveys the brand message (congruence of game goals and brand communication goals) and the higher the integration of the product, the stronger the persuasive attempts become (Smith and Just, 2009). We also showed that exposure time to the advergame is much longer than exposure to a TV ad. With the advergame experience thus much stronger than the experiencing of a TV ad, the persuasive power of advergames could well be rather strong. Also the level of challenge relates to persuasion, as optimally challenged children play longer and remember more message elements. Thus associative networks are built. However, no evidence for the relationship between challenge and persuasion in terms of brand attitude was found in this data. This may well be due to the small sample size. The general tendency for the relationships followed the predictions. The results of the study have clear implications for media literacy issues. Thus it would seem advisable to train children to be able to identify the persuasive elements of advergames. In addition to being able to recognize the bare fact that a brand or product is being placed in a game, media literacy training should also aim to help clarify more complex relationships such as typical messages delivered by the gameplay like: “If you eat the product, you’ll be able to jump higher.”

6

References

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Part II

Social Issues and Advertising

Affect is an Important Factor in Processing Alzheimer Disease Awareness Messages Martine Lewi, University of Antwerp, Belgium Patrick De Pelsmacker, University of Antwerp, Belgium

1

Introduction

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating, incurable disease. The disease pathway is typically characterised by a long preclinical phase in which patients experience mild cognitive impairments (Visser et al, 2002). Medical research states that through early diagnosis of symptoms the disease process can be slowed down (Seltzer, 2007; Bain et al., 2008). The main concern is then to make the population at risk aware of the importance of early diagnosis and stimulate them to take responsible actions at the earliest stage of the onset of the disease. Very little is known about the efficacy of health communication in the domain of a fatal disease, where one can merely intervene in order to lengthen the time period in which the patient can still enjoy a reasonable quality of life. However, results of previous research on the emotional and cognitive responses to various message formats of (health) communication can serve as frameworks to analyze different types of health messages (Williams-Piehota et al., 2006; Morris et al., 2002; Bagozzi et al., 1999; Brown and Stayman, 1992; Petty et al., 1993; Mitchell, 1988; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Chaiken, 1980). The present study extends prior work in the area of emotional and rational persuasive communication to the domain of health communication, especially in the domain of Alzheimer’s disease. More particularly, this study aims at entangling the role of affect in the information processing and at investigating how affective reactions of older people to Alzheimer awareness messages varying in argument strength and affective tone of visuals are processed through affective and cognitive responses. Further, we investigate differences between men and women and between lowly and highly educated individuals.

2

Conceptual Framework and Research Questions

An Alzheimer awareness message may be processed either peripherally or centrally, depending on the involvement with the issue. Standard expectations (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) imply that in high-involvement situations people S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_4, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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would centrally process message arguments, while in low-involvement situations, peripheral processing would take place, and affective reactions to the message would drive responses. However, the question remains to what extent rational and affective message elements and affective and cognitive responses to these message formats play a role in central or peripheral message processing and judgment formation.

2.1

The Role of Affect in Developing Cognitive Responses about Alzheimer Awareness Messages

Forgas’ Affect Infusion Model (AIM) distinguishes four judgmental strategies, two low-affect infusion strategies (direct access and motivated processing) and two high-affect infusion strategies (heuristic and substantive processing). The AIM predicts that affect is unlikely to influence judgments during direct access or motivated processing. Affect should have an effect when heuristic or substantive processing is used (Schwarz and Clore, 2003; Fiedler, 1988, 1990; Fiedler et al., 1991; Forgas, 1991, 1992, 1995; Schwarz and Bless, 1991). Two underlying mechanisms of affect infusion are affect-as-information and affect priming. The affect-as-information theory suggests that rather than computing a judgment on the basis of recalled features of a target, individuals may ask themselves: 'How do I feel about it?' and in doing so, may be guided by their feelings to judge a message (Schwarz,1990; Schwarz and Clore, 2003). In the affect priming theory, affect can indirectly inform judgments by facilitating access to related cognitive categories (Bower, 1981; Isen, 1987). Hence, affect can prime the encoding, retrieval, and selective use of information in the constructive processing of judgments. Affect-priming is considered a broad and parsimonious principle that has implications for a variety of cognitive processes and suggests multiple avenues through which indirect affect infusion into judgments may occur (Forgas and Bower, 1988; Singer and Salovey, 1988). Within the AIM model, it is implied that it is in the course of substantive, constructive processing that affect is most likely to play a significant informational role in what is perceived, learned, and recalled and how stimulus information is interpreted. Thus stimuli that are perceived as positively affective should lead to paying closer attention to positive information, better learning such details, and making more positive interpretations of ambiguous information (Forgas, 1995). The AIM also implies that judgments about more complex stimuli (substantive processing context), requiring more elaborate processing and made without the benefit of objective evidence, should show greater affective effects. According to this research, substantive processing is more likely when the message is personally relevant or ambiguous. Previous research (e.g., Petty et al., 1993) reported that positive affect produces more positive judgments in both high- and

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low-elaboration conditions. Several studies have found significant affect congruence in judgments and thoughts about persuasive messages, mostly under conditions of substantive processing (i.e., high elaboration likelihood; Petty et al., 1993). The fact that cognitive approaches to persuasive messages are mediated by affective message components is a prominent theme in advertising research (e.g., Ray and Batra, 1983; Batra and Ray, 1986; Edell and Burke, 1987; Cohen and Areni, 1991; Geuens and De Pelsmacker, 1999; Raghunathan and Pham, 1999). Their results indicate that affectively valenced messages can be important triggers of cognitive responses to messages. Applied to the domain of health, Salovey and Birnbaum (1989) found that affective reactions had a major influence on people's perceptions of symptoms of illness, their health efficacy judgments, and their expectations of future disease. Salovey also concluded that these effects are due to affect-priming mechanisms operating during substantive processing (Salovey et al., 1991). Affective responses to messages that are processed in a heuristic or a substantive way are expected to at least partly mediate the effect of message components on the cognitive reactions (thoughts) about the message. Since the role of the message components studied her (argument strength and affective tone of the visual) are unclear, we formulate a research question: RQ1: Does the affective reaction to Alzheimer messages mediate the effect of message components (the strength of the arguments and the affective valence of the visual in the message) on thoughts about the message?

2.2

The Role of Cognitive Responses about the Message in Developing Responses to the Alzheimer Issue

Message-evoked affective responses can influence subsequent evaluations of the (Alzheimer) issue in different ways. On the one hand, message-evoked affect may directly transfer to the evaluation of and the responses to the message and the issue, due to peripheral transfer or assimilation processes, such as the Affect Transfer Mechanism (e.g., Coulter, 1998). On the other hand, a message may be processed more centrally, in which case message-evoked thoughts may play a greater role, leading to a more systematic evaluation of the ad. This systematic evaluation is often assumed to be objective, but could be biased as well. The latter is the case, for example, when message-evoked feelings bias the viewers’ message thoughts in a feeling-congruent way and the viewers base their evaluation of the message and the issue on these thoughts (Cfr. ELM, Petty and Ca-

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cioppo, 1981, 1986). The Alzheimer issue may for most people be a serious concern and therefore a simple transfer or assimilation effect seems less likely. People may be motivated to process the message more centrally because the message effectively transports them into a serious reality (Jeandrain 2001, 2004; Coyle and Thorson, 2001). Consequently, biased processing may be expected in which case message-evoked thoughts will substantially mediate the effect of message-evoked affect on the overall judgments about the message and the issue, and will bias these judgments in a communication-thoughts consistent way. Since it is unclear to what extent these mechanisms will prevail, we again formulate a research question: RQ2: Do thoughts about the Alzheimer awareness message mediate the effect of the affective response to the message on the attitude towards the message, perceived message substance and thoughts about Alzheimer disease? An overview of the mechanisms studied is given in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the study

Additionally, we explore to what extent these mechanisms differ across demographic groups. More particularly, we investigate whether men and women and low and high education segments of the population differ with respect to the mediating mechanism of affect and message thoughts.

Affect is an Important Factor in Processing Alzheimer Disease Awareness Messages

3 3.1

59

Method Stimulus Development

Six Alzheimer awareness messages were developed in which two levels of argument strength (weak and strong) were combined with three pictures of different affective valence, i.e. negative, neutral and positive. These messages were aimed at convincing people to seek early treatment. Initially, nine Alzheimerrelated images were selected eliciting positive, neutral and negative affective reactions and six weak (but still realistic) and strong message texts were prepared. The message texts were based on the medical literature (Lopez et al., 2002). In a first pre-test, these images and texts were tested among a group of 326 individuals. The objective of the first pre-test was twofold: 1) test what images were perceived as affectively most negative, positive and neutral; 2) test which message wordings and combination of arguments received the lowest and highest score on argument strength. In a second pre-test, we tested one extra fine-tuned weak message text and three additional strong message texts. The three images used in the main study obtained the following significantly different scores on a seven-point affective valence scale: negative image (M=3.44), neutral image (M=4.65), positive image (M=5.88). After the second pre-test, two message texts were selected that obtained the following significantly different ratings on the seven-point message strength scale: weak message (M=4.23) and strong message (M=5.68). The resulting three images and two texts were then combined into six Alzheimer’s disease awareness building messages and used in the main study (see Appendix for examples).

3.2

Procedure and Measures

A 2 (message strength: weak – strong) X 3 (affective valence of image: negative - neutral – positive) between subjects design was used to collect the data. The survey was conducted in Belgium and Spain (n=495). Two hundred and fifty Belgian and 245 Spanish individuals of between 55 and 65 years old were recruited by InSites, an Internet research company (240 females and 255 males). They received an e-mail with a link to a web survey. After answering a number of demographic questions, they viewed one of the six Alzheimer’s disease messages, to which they were randomly assigned. Subsequently, they answered questions on scales evaluating their responses to the message. The two independent variables, namely valence of the image in the message and argument strength, were manipulated in the experiment. Perceived message affect was measured on a 5-item 7-point scale (happy-sad, hopeful-desperate,

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assured-worried, warm hearted-cold hearted, secure-unsafe) (α=.805). Perceived message substance was measured with a 5-item 7- point scale (persuasive-not persuasive, informative-not informative, credible-not credible, strong-weak, important-unimportant) (α=.904). The attitude towards the ad (Aad) was measured through a 3-item 7-point scale (I find the health communication strong/weak; this communication makes a good/bad impression on me; I like/dislike this communication) (α=.915). After exposure to the message, participants were asked to freely elicit their thoughts about the message and Alzheimer’s disease. All thoughts were coded according to the valence (negative, neutral, positive) and the focus (message or Alzheimer’s disease) of the thoughts by two independent judges. They agreed on 94% of the ‘Message thoughts’ and 91% of the ‘Alzheimer thoughts’. Disagreement was solved by a third judge. The variables ‘Message thoughts’ and ‘Alzheimer thoughts’ used in the analyses were defined as the sum of the number of positive (+1), negative (1) and neutral (0) thoughts. Finally also gender and education level were measured. Education level was recoded into a dichotomous variable, with ‘low’ education defined as equal as or less than high school.

4 4.1

Results Analysis on the Complete Data Set

In the first part of the analysis (RQ1), the mediating role of the affective reaction to the message on the relation between argument strength (STR) and image valence (IMA) on message thoughts is investigated using the Baron and Kenny approach (1986).

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Table 1: Mediating role of message affect on the effect of argument strength and image valence on message thoughts (ANOVA) Baron &Kenny

Relation

F

Partial Eta2

Step1

Argument strength Image valence Strength x valence -> Message thoughts

F(1, 481) = 16.835 F(2,481) = 2.467 F(2,481) = .284

.034 .010 .001

<.001 .086 .753

Step2

Argument strength Image valence Strength x valence -> Message affect

F(1,489) = 6.043 F(2,489) = 3.553 F(2,489) = .029

.012 .014 .000

.014 .029 .971

Step3

Argument strength Image valence Strength x valence Message affect -> Message thoughts

F(1, 480) = 12.117 F(2,480) = 2.445 F(2,480) = .252 F(1,480) = 49.026

.025 .010 .001 .093

.001 .088 .778 <.001

p

In the first step, the effects of the independent variables STR and IMA on the dependent variable ‘message thoughts’ are estimated by means of ANOVA. The results show a significant main effect of STR (F(1,481)= 16.835, p<.001) and a marginally significant main effect of IMA (F(2, 481)= 2.467, p=.086). The interaction effect is not significant (F(2,481)= .284, p=.753) (Table 1). Strong messages (M=1.208) lead to a significantly better score on the thoughts about the message than weak messages (M=.351). Messages with a positive image (M=1.012) score as well as messages with a neutral image (M=.869). Both score marginally significantly better than messages with a negative image (M=.465). In the second step of the procedure, the effect of the independent variables on the mediating variable (message affect) is investigated. The ANOVA results show two significant main effects of STR (F(1,489)= 6.043 p=.014) (strong arguments generate more positive affective reactions than weak arguments) and IMA (F(2,489)= 3.553, p=.029). Messages with a neutral image (M=4.524) score significantly better than messages with a negative (M=4.251) or a positive (M=4.346) image. The latter two do not generate significantly different affective reactions. The interaction of affect and strength is not significant (F(2,489)=.029, p=.971). In the third step the effect of the mediating and the independent variables on the dependent variable is simultaneously esti-

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mated. Therefore, message affect was added as a covariate in the step 1 ANOVA. The results demonstrate that message affect has a strong significant positive effect on message thoughts (F(1,480)= 49.026, p<.001). The main effect of argument strength remains significant (F(1,480)= 12.117, p=.001). The main effect of affect remains marginally significant (F(2,480)= 2.445, p=.088). The interaction effect of STR and IMA is again not significant (F(2,480)= .252, p=.778). Partial eta squares show that the impact of message affect (.093) is substantially stronger than that of message strength (.025) and image affect (.010). Message affect thus partially but substantially mediates the effect of message strength and image valence on message thoughts. The mediating role of message thoughts on the relationship between message affect and the dependent variables Aad, perceived message substance and Alzheimer thoughts was tested by means of three regression analyses (RQ2) (Tables 2-4). Step 1 shows a significant positive effect of the independent variable (message affect) on the dependent variable Alzheimer thoughts (β=.153, p=.001). The second step shows a significant positive impact of message affect (independent variable) on message thoughts (mediator) (β=.318, p<.001). In the third step, the effect of message affect and message thoughts on Alzheimer thoughts are simultaneously assessed. The impact of message affect on Alzheimer thoughts is significant (β=.142, p=.003), while the effect of message thoughts is not significant (β=.060, p=.206). Message thoughts do not mediate the effect of message affect on Alzheimer thoughts. Table 2: Mediating effect of message thoughts on the effect of message affect on Alzheimer thoughts (regression analysis) Baron &Kenny

Relation

R2

E

P

Step1

Message affect -> Alzheimer thoughts

.023

.153

.001

Step2

Message affect -> Message thoughts

.101

.318

<.001

Step3

Message affect Message thoughts -> Alzheimer thoughts

.029

.142 .060

.003 .206

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Table 3: Mediating effect of message thoughts on the effect of message affect on perceived message substance (regression analysis) Baron &Kenny

Relation

R2

E

P

Step1

Message affect -> Perceived message substance

.181

.425

<.001

Step2

Message affect -> Message thoughts

.101

.318

<.001

Step3

Message affect Message thoughts -> Perceived message substance

.318

.298 .393

<.001 <.001

The same mediating analysis is conducted for the dependent variable perceived message substance. The results of step 1 indicate a significant positive effect of message affect on perceived message substance (β=.425, p<.001). In the previous analysis, we observed in the second step a significant positive effect of message affect on message thoughts (β=.318, p<.001). The third step shows that the effect of message affect on perceived message substance is significant (β=.298, p<.001). Also the effect of message thoughts is significant (β=.393, p<.001). Message thoughts partially mediate the effect of message affect on perceived message substance. Table 4: Mediating effect of message thoughts on the effect of message affect on the attitude towards the ad (regression analysis) Baron &Kenny

Relation

R2

E

P

Step1

Message affect -> Attitude towards the ad (Aad)

.269

.519

<.001

Step2

Message affect -> Message thoughts

.101

.318

<.001

Step3

Message affect Message thoughts -> Attitude towards the ad (Aad)

.390

.401 .368

<.001 <.001

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Finally, the test is carried out for the dependent variable Aad. The results of step 1 indicate a significant positive effect of message affect on Aad (β=.519, p<.001). The results of the third step show that the effect of message affect (β=.401, p<.001) and message thoughts (β=.368, p<.001) on Aad are significant. Message thoughts partially mediate the effect of message affect on Aad.

4.2

Gender Differences

We have tested for gender effects in these mediation mechanisms by conducting an additional analysis in which a gender dummy variable and interaction variables between gender and the original independent variables in the basic analysis are added. In the first step of analysis 1, gender does not have a significant main effect on message thoughts (F(1,477)=.085, p=.770). The interaction effects are not significant for gender with STR (F(1,477)=.190, p=.663) and for gender with IMA (F(2,477)=.285, p=.752). From step 2 we can conclude that gender does not have a significant main effect on the mediating variable message affect (F(1, 485)=.029, p=.864). In the third step, where we analyse the effect of the mediating and the independent variables on the dependent variable simultaneously, we observe that gender does not have a significant main effect (F(1,475)=.180, p=.672). In addition, the interaction effects between gender on the one hand and argument strength and image valence on the other, are not significant [STR*gender: (F(1,475)=.613, p=.434); IMA*gender: (F(2,475)= .529, p=.589)]. The overall conclusion is that there is no significant effect of gender on the mediation role of message affect between argument strength and image valence on message thoughts. To test the moderating role of gender in the second model, we also repeated the mediating analysis for the dependent variables Alzheimer thoughts, message substance and the attitude towards the ad, again by adding a gender dummy variable and interaction effects between this variable and the other independent variables in the equations. Gender has no significant main effect on Alzheimer thoughts (β=.065, p=.728) or message thoughts (β=.020, p=.913). There is no significant effect of gender on the relation between message affect and Alzheimer thoughts (β=.013, p=.947). The interaction effects of gender with message thoughts and message affect were also not significant [message thoughts*gender: (β=-.017, p=.800); message affect*gender: (β=.131, p=.521)]. The same mediating analysis is conducted for the dependent variable perceived message substance. Again, gender has no significant main effect on perceived message substance (β=-.060, p=.731) and on message thoughts (β=.020, p=.913). Gender has no significant effect on the relation between message affect and perceived message substance (β=-.116, p=.480). The interaction effects of gend-

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er with message thoughts and message affect were also not significant [message thoughts*gender: (β=-.082, p=.152); message affect*gender: (β=.157, p=.360). Finally, we test whether there is a difference between the gender groups when the analysis is carried out for the dependent variable Aad. Gender has no significant main effect on Aad (β=.152, p=.351) and on message thoughts (β=.020, p=.913). Gender has no significant effect on the relation between message affect and Aad (β= .123, p=.424). The interaction effects of gender with message thoughts and message affect were not significant either [message thoughts*gender: (β=-.048, p=.376); message affect*gender: (β=-.007, p=.968). Summing up, the mediating role of message thoughts for the relationship between message affect on the one hand and Alzheimer thoughts, message substance perception and Aad is not any different between men and women. All in all, the two mediating mechanisms of message affect and message thoughts found are not different between gender groups. They play the same role for men and women.

4.3

Differences in Education Level

We have tested for the effect of level of education in a similar way as for gender. The two defined groups consist of a low education group (high school or less) and a high education group (higher education) (variable EDU). First, we investigate the moderating effect of the education level on the mediating role of message affect (model 1). Education does not have a significant main effect on message thoughts (F(1,477)=.736, p=.392). The interaction effects are not significant for education with STR and for education with IMA either [STR*EDU (F(1,477)=.363, p=.547); IMA*EDU (F(2,477)=.066, p=.936)]. From step 2 we can conclude that education level does not have a significant main effect on the mediating variable message affect (F(1,485)=.179, p=.673). In the third step of the analysis, where we analyse the effect of the mediating and the independent variables on the dependent variable simultaneously, we observe that education level does not have a significant main effect (F(1,475)=.321, p=.571). In addition, the interaction effects are not significant [STR*EDU (F(1,475)=.307, p=.580); IMA*EDU (F(2,475)=.096, p=.909)]. In conclusion, there is no significant moderating effect of education on the mediating role of message affect on message thoughts. We now proceed with the analysis of the mediating role of message thoughts on the relationship between message affect and the dependent variables Alzheimer thoughts, perceived message substance and Aad. Again the education

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dummy variable and the interaction between this variable and the independent variables in the original analysis were added to the model. First, the analysis was carried out for the dependent variable ‘Alzheimer thoughts’. Education level has no significant main effect on Alzheimer thoughts (β=-.189, p=.313) nor on message thoughts (β=-.071, p=.629). In the third step, education level has no significant effect on Alzheimer thoughts either (β=-.131, p=.499), and none of the interaction effects with education is significant [message thoughts*EDU: (β=.037, p=.624); message affect*EDU: (β=.114, p=.573)]. Education does not significantly change the mediating role of message thoughts on the relation between message affect and Alzheimer thoughts. The same analysis is conducted for the dependent variable perceived message substance (Table 5). Education level has a marginally significant main effect on perceived message substance (β=-.325, p=.058). Also the interaction effect between education level and affect is significant (β=.391, p=.025). Education level has no significant main effect on message thoughts (β=-.071, p=.692), but in the third step has a significant main effect on perceived message substance (β=-.424, p=.008). The interaction effects of education level with message affect and of education level with message thoughts are also highly significant (message affect*EDU: β=.518, p=.002; message thoughts*EDU: β=.195, p=.002). Higher educated individuals generally perceive Alzheimer messages as having less substance than lower educated individuals. The mediating role of message thoughts is still there, but highly educated people appear to be less influenced by message thoughts and more by their affective reaction to the message than lowly educated ones in developing perceptions of message substance. Finally, we test whether there is a difference between the education level groups when the analysis is carried out for the dependent variable Aad (Table 6). Education level has a marginally significant main effect on Aad (β=-.267, p=.098). Also the interaction effect between education level and affect is marginally significant (β=.315, p=.057). Education level has no significant main effect on message thoughts (β=-.071, p=.692). In step 3, education level has a marginally significant main effect on Aad (β=-.277, p=.070).

Affect is an Important Factor in Processing Alzheimer Disease Awareness Messages

Table 5: Mediating effect of message thoughts on the effect of message affect on perceived message substance (regression analysis) – Moderating role of education level Baron &Kenny Step1

Step2

Step3

Relation Message affect EDU EDU x message affect -> Perceived message substance Message affect EDU EDU x message affect -> Message thoughts Message affect Message thoughts EDU EDU x message affect Edu x message thoughts -> Perceived message substance

R2

E

p

.191

.336 -.325 .391

<.001 .058 .025

.105

.289 -.071 .131

<.001 .692 .476

.339

.177 .532 -.424 .518 -.195

.001 <.001 .008 .002 .002

Table 6: Mediating effect of message thoughts on the effect of message affect on Aad (regression analysis) – Moderating role of education level Baron &Kenny Step1

Step2

Step3

Relation Message affect EDU Edu x message affect -> Attitude towards the ad Message affect EDU EDU x message affect -> Message thoughts Message affect Message thoughts EDU EDU x message affect EDU x message thoughts -> Attitude towards the ad

R2

E

p

.275

.446 -.267 .315

<.001 .098 .057

.105

.289 -.071 .131

<.001 .692 .476

.395

.327 .410 -.277 .317 -.060

.<.001 <.001 .070 .048 .316

67

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The interaction effect between education level and message thoughts is not significant (β= -.060, p=.316). Partially consistent with the results for message substance, higher educated individuals generally perceive Alzheimer messages as less positive. The partially mediating role of message thoughts is still there, but highly educated people are less influenced by message thoughts and more by their affective reaction to the message (message affect x EDU: β= .317, p=.048) than lowly educated ones in their attitude towards the message.

5

Conclusions, Implications and Further Research

The role of affective and cognitive responses in processing Alzheimer awareness messages is mixed. The first analysis reveals that message thoughts are strongly driven by people’s affective response to Alzheimer messages. The more positive the affective responses to the message, the more positive message thoughts are. This is consistent with the affect priming and the affect-asinformation principle (Isen, 1987; Schwarz, 2003; Forgas, 1995). However, argument strength also remains a strong determinant of message thoughts, regardless of the affective response it evokes. Stronger arguments evoke more positive message thoughts than weaker ones. All together, this suggests a process of substantive and central processing that is partly mediated by the affect infusion mechanism. Indeed, both image valence and argument strength appear to lead to affective reactions that shape message thoughts, above and beyond the direct impact of argument strength. A remarkable result is that messages with images of neutral valence lead to more positive affective reactions and message thoughts than negatively or positively valenced images. Negatively valenced images may cause fear and distress that subsequently lead to negative affect and thoughts. Apparently also a positively valenced image leads to more negative responses than a neutral one. An explanation could be that people feel that a positive image does not fit with a serious problem like Alzheimer disease and dismiss it as inappropriate. Affect transfers to evaluative judgments about the message and the Alzheimer issue in different ways, but again the process is largely affect-driven. One part of the second analysis suggests that the development of Alzheimer thoughts is a peripheral affect transfer process (Coulter, 1998), since communication thoughts do not mediate the impact of affective response on Alzheimer thoughts. However, the effect of message affect on Aad and perceived message substance is partially mediated by message thoughts which points at more centrally but biased processing (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986).

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These processes do not seem to be moderated by gender differences. The mediating role of message affect and message thoughts is essentially the same for men and women. However, the level of education does seem to have a significant moderating effect, at least on the perception of message substance and the appreciation of the message (Aad). In general, more highly educated individuals like the messages less and are less convinced about their substance. Highly educated people may be more prone to scrutinizing the message, and as a result may be more critical and skeptical about them. In developing perceptions about messages, these highly educated people appear to be significantly more influenced by their affective reactions to the message than by their thoughts about the message than their more lowly educated counterparts. This is, in a way, surprising. One might expect highly educated individuals to be more thought-oriented and cognitive in developing message evaluations. The contrary appears to be the case. The results of the present study have implications for health communication professionals. Processing health messages and forming health issue judgments following these messages is largely an affect-driven process. Positive affective reactions are an important prerequisite for the development of positive attitudes and thoughts. Nevertheless, argument strength remains an important driver of positive message processing too. Second, various message components may evoke positive affective reactions. Argument strength is one of them, but also the type of visual is an important driver of affective responses. Remarkably, there is no straightforward relationship between image valence and affective message response. On the basis of the present study, neutrally valenced images seem to be the optimal choice in this type of message. On the basis of these results, the same communication strategies can be used for different demographic groups based on gender and education, albeit that in case of highly educated groups, there could be more focus on the affective quality to the message. However, this result needs further confirmation. Further research should confirm these findings for different types of health messages. Target groups other than seniors, such as caregivers or doctors, may process various types of messages differently. Individual differences have been shown to moderate the effects of persuasive communication (e.g., Haughtvedt et al., 1992; Geuens and De Pelsmacker, 1999). Next to socio-demographic differences, a particularly important factor may be the level of experience an individual has with the disease. Caregivers, or people who have experience with Alzheimer due to contacts with a member of the family or a close friend developing Alzheimer may process Alzheimer messages differently from people who only have a vague idea of what Alzheimer does to people. One might assume that

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more experienced people would also be more affectively involved, thus increasing the role of affect in processing Alzheimer messages. On the other hand, they might know more about the disease, and pay more attention to the arguments and thoughts about it. This is an avenue for further research. Another next step is to study the impact of message components, and affective and cognitive responses to messages on various aspects of behavioural intention and behaviour, such as visit to a doctor, search for more information, vigilance about early warning signals, etc.

6

References

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Zanna (Ed.): Advances in experimental social psychology, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Vol. 25, 227-275. Forgas, J.P. (1995), “Mood and Judgment: The Affect Infusion Model (AIM),” in: Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 117, 1, 39-66. Forgas, J. P. & Bower, G. H. (1988), “Affect in social judgments,” in: Australian Journal of Psychology, 40, 125-145. Geuens M. & De Pelsmacker, P. (1999), “Individual differences and the communication effects of different types of emotional stimuli: "affect intensity" revisited,” in: Psychology and Marketing, 16(3), 195-209. Haugtvedt, C. P., Petty, R. E. & Cacioppo, J.T. (1992), “Need for cognition & advertising: Understanding the role of personality variables in consumer behavior,” in: Journal of Consumer Behavior, 3(1), 239-260. Isen, A. (1987), “Positive affect, cognitive processes and social behaviour,” in L. Berkowitz (Ed.): Advances in experimental social psychology, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Vol. 20, 203253. Jeandrain, A.C. (2004), “Why and how do the telepresence dimensions influence persuasive outcome?,” in: Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Presence, Valencia, 73-79. Lombard, M. & Ditton, T. (1997), “At the heart of it all: The concept of presence,” in: Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 3 (2), 1-42. Lopez, O.L., Becker, J.T., Wisniewski, S., Saxton, J., Kaufer D.I. & DeKosky, S.T (2002), “Cholinesterase inhibitor treatment alters the natural history of Alzheimer’s disease,” in: Journal of Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 72: 310–314. Mitchell, A.A. (1988), “Current perspectives and issues concerning the explanation of feelings advertising effects,” in: Hecker, S., Stewart, D.S. (eds.): Non-verbal communication in advertising, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 122-144. Morris, J.D., Woo, C., Gaeson, J.A. & Kim, J. (2002), “The power of affect: predicting intention,” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 42(3), 7-17. Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo J.T. (1981), “Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches,” Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown. Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo J.T. (1986), “Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change,” New York: Springer-Verlag. Petty, R.E.; Schumann, D.W., Richman, S.A. & Strathman, A.J. (1993), “Positive mood and persuasion: Different roles for affect under high and low elaboration conditions,” in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(1), 5-20. Raghunathan, R. & Pham, M.T. (1999), “All negative moods are not equal: Motivational influences of anxiety and sadness on decision making,” Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 79(1), 56-77. Ray, M. L. & Batra, R. (1983), “Emotion and persuasion in advertising: What we do and don't know about affect,” in: Advances In Consumer Research, 10. Salovey, P. & Birnbaum, D. (1989), “Influence of mood on health-related cognitions,” in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 539-551. Salovey, P., O'Leary, A., Stretton, M., Fishkin, S., & Drake, C.A. (1991), “Influence of mood on judgments about health and illness,” in: J.P. Forgas (Ed.): Emotion and social judgments, Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press, 241-262. Schwarz, N. (1990), “Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states,” in: Higgins, E.T., Sorrentino R. (Eds.): Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior, New York: Guilford Press, Vol. 2, 527-561.

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Schwarz, N. & Bless, H. (1991), “Happy and mindless, but sad and smart? The impact of affective states on analytic reasoning,” in: J. P. Forgas (Ed.): Emotion and social judgments, Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press, 55-71. Schwarz, N. & Clore G.L. (2003), “Mood as information: 20 years later,” in: Psychological Inquiry, 14 (3&4), 296-303. Seltzer, Ben (2007), “Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease,” in: Aging Health, 3(4), 449-456. Singer, J.A. & Salovey, P. (1988), “Mood and memory: Evaluating the network theory of affect,” in: Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 211-251. Visser, P.J., Verhey, F.R.J., Scheltens, Ph., Cruts, M., Ponds, R.W., Van Broeckhoven, C.L. & Jolles, J. (2002), “Diagnostic accuracy of the Preclinical AD Scale (PAS) in cognitively mildly impaired subjects,” in: Journal of Neurology, 249, 312-319. Williams-Piehota, P., Pizarro, J., Navarro Silvera, S.A., Mowad, L. & Salovey, P. (2006), “Need for cognition and message complexity in motivating fruit and vegetable intake among callers to the cancer information service,” in: Health Communication, 19(1), 75-84.

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Appendix

Translation Tr rannsllat ation ion fr ffrom rom om Dutch Dut utch ch to to English: Engl Engl En glish: Alzheimer Alz zhei eiimer m disease d sea di eaasee – Treeatm ment ent im mpro p ves pr veess daily d il da ily ly y fu funct n ion nc nct ioning oning ing and an and alleviates alleviatess behavioural beehav av viou io oural raal symptoms. syympt mptoms mp om oms ms. ms. Treatment improves functioning Eldderlly Elderly

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Environmental Information Influences on Pro-environmental Behaviour Aimed at Fighting Climate Change: Main and Moderating Effects Nieves García de Frutos, University of Almería, Spain José Manuel Ortega Egea, University of Almería, Spain

1

Introduction

Climate change arguably represents the most challenging environmental threat of our time, owing to its magnitude, complexity, and irreversible effects (European Commission, 2008; Moser, 2010). This issue has garnered increased attention since the late eighties (Nerlich et al., 2010). At first, a great deal of media and public debate centered on the existence of climate change; later, the discussion shifted to the origins of climate change and global warming, be it anthropogenic (ie, human-induced) or part of the natural cycle of the Earth’s climate (Moser, 2010). Nowadays, there is general agreement in the scientific community regarding the existence and anthropogenic causes of climate change (Nerlich et al., 2010). In the last decade, intensified media coverage of climate change and global warming issues has substantially raised public awareness and concern for global environmental degradation (Mobley et al., 2010). For the most part, perhaps best exemplified by the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, communication efforts have been directed towards the dissemination of scientific knowledge on the existence, wide-ranging consequences, and human causes of climate change to the general public. Recent data from the European Union (EU) suggest that, despite continued attempts to promote more environmentally-friendly citizen and consumer behavior, there is still much room for improvement in most EU countries (European Environment Agency, 2010). This situation warrants further work (especially cross-national studies) into the precursors of environmentally responsible behaviors (Maibach et al., 2008). Individual ecological behavior is a function of a wide variety of internal and external influences. Psychographics consistently stand out as (direct or indirect) determinants of pro-environmental behavior (Bamberg and Möser, 2007). However, the predictive value of psychological factors can vary significantly across situations and population groups (Thøgersen, 2007). The links in proenvironmental behavior models may be contingent upon various sorts of “nonvolitional, socio-cultural” factors (Kaiser et al., 1999), including demographics (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003), risk perceptions (O’Connor et al., 1999), nationality (Franzen and Meyer, 2010), or the type of behavior assessed (Barr, 2007). Relatively few studies have examined individual actions specifically aimed at fighting climate change. S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_5, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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The present study provides a better understanding of the factors that lead EU citizens to fight climate change. For this purpose, citizens’ level of information, motivations, and attitudes towards climate change are evaluated as potential determinants of pro-environmental behavior. Based on expectancy-value theory (Ajzen 1991; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), the research model proposes a direct link between environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior, and examines the role of (altruistic and egoistic) ecological motivations and level of information about climate change in developing favorable attitudes towards the environment. Four additional influences (threat perceptions, gender, age, and country value orientation) are examined as possible moderators of the hypothesized effects of (externally controllable) environmental information on ecological motivations and attitudes towards climate change. Hence, this work extends the available evidence in environmental research by assessing both the main and moderating effects of internal and exogenous factors on an ‘aggregate’ measure of pro-environmental behaviors. 2

Theory and Hypotheses

‘Green’ behavior is usually conceptualized as a mixture of self-interest and prosocial concerns (Bamberg and Möser, 2007). Researchers seeing individual ecological behavior as motivated by the desire to ‘do good’ for society often use Schwartz’s norm-activation model (NAM) (Schwartz, 1977) as a theoretical framework. In contrast, researchers regarding self-interest as the most important factor driving pro-environmental behavior tend to rely on Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991; Bamberg and Möser, 2007). In addition, the TPB and NAM frameworks have been successfully combined to provide a more thorough analysis of pro-environmental decisions (Bamberg and Möser, 2007). 2.1

‘Core’ Research Model

A considerable amount of research has been devoted to assessing the impact of psychological variables on ecological behavior (eg, Leiserowitz, 2006). The predictive importance of psychographics has remained fairly stable over time (Bamberg and Möser, 2007), suggesting their potential role as determinants of individual pro-environmental behaviors. In the ‘core’ research model, three psychographics (i.e., level of information / knowledge, motivations, and attitudes towards climate change) are modeled as interrelated precursors of proenvironmental behavior aimed at fighting climate change.

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Figure 1. Research model: main and moderator effects

Attitude represents an individual’s positive o negative feelings about a psychological object (Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). Such psychological objects comprise a wide array of discriminable aspects of the physical world, such as a physical entity, a person or group of people, an abstract concept, or a behavior (Ajzen and Gilbert, 2008). Environmental studies often include attitude as a contributing factor to ecological intention and behavior (Bamberg and Möser, 2007; Kaiser et al., 1999). Consistent with expectancy-value models (eg, Ajzen, 1991) and previous analyses of the ‘attitude–environmental behavior’ linkage (Bamberg and Möser, 2007; Kaiser et al., 1999), individuals with positive attitudes towards the environment will be more likely to engage in environmentally responsible behavior (Kaiser, et al., 1999; Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). Nonetheless, the association between environmental attitudes and proenvironmental behavior is rather inconsistent (at best, moderate) across studies (Bamberg and Möser, 2007; Kaiser et al., 1999). Two factors suggest the importance of direct attitude effects on ecological behavior: the corresponding level of measurement generality in attitudes and behaviors, both being linked to the climate change issue; and the moderate to high degree of volitional control over performance of the behaviors, which are modeled as the ‘aggregate’ of eleven self-reported pro-environmental activities (Ajzen, 1991). H1: Attitudes towards climate change will have a positive effect on proenvironmental behavior aimed at fighting climate change. Motivation is understood as the inner driving force behind behavior (Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). Environmental studies have explored a number of values underlying people’s motivation for environmentally responsible behavior (Schultz and Zelezny, 1999). Following Schwartz’s value model

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(Schwartz, 1977), many authors have distinguished between altruistic and egoistic values. Stern et al., (1993) further separated altruistic values into social and biospheric values. Gagnon-Thompson and Barton (1994) made a distinction between ecocentric and anthropocentric values. Ecocentric individuals are concerned about the environment for its own sake, and tend to undertake proenvironmental actions, even if it involves some sacrifice on their part (Gagnon Thompson and Barton, 1994); to a large extent, this behavioral pattern is anchored in biospheric values (Stern et al., 1993). Anthropocentric people’s behavior is grounded more in egoistic and social-altruistic values; accordingly, these individuals would engage in pro-environmental activity, to the extent it has positive consequences for mankind and does not decrease their quality of life or wealth (Gagnon-Thompson and Barton, 1994). Different motivational mechanisms (eg, altruistic and egoistic environmental motivations) may be operative in a person’s environmentally responsible decision-making (Maibach et al., 2008; Schultz and Zelezny, 1999). The available empirical evidence suggests that both ecocentric (biospheric) and anthropocentric (social or egoistic) values can result in pro-environmental behavior (Stern et al., 1993), particularly when different types of ecological values come into play in a coherent way (De Young et al., 1993). However, the motivational complexity of environmentally-friendly behavior may cause conflicts between an individual’s selfish and altruistic motives. Based on expectancy-value theory (Ajzen 1991; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), which postulate that attitude develops from salient beliefs about the outcomes of the behavior (eg, altruistic vs. selfish beliefs), and considering the ‘value/belief’ nature of ecological motivations (Grunert and Juhl, 1995), attitude will mediate the effect of (altruistic and egoistic) ecological motivations on proenvironmental behavior aimed at combating climate change. H2. Motivations to combat climate change will have a positive effect on attitudes towards climate change. The level of information or knowledge about environmental issues is regarded as a necessary (but not sufficient) antecedent of ecological awareness and behavior (Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). Attitudes are not innate, but are acquired and altered in response to external stimuli, such as people’s access to various sources and types of information (Ajzen and Gilbert, 2008). The level and type of environmental information (and knowledge) can affect the attitudinal and behavioral responses to environmental information (Kaiser and Fuhrer, 2003; Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). Basic knowledge is necessary to correctly interpret environmental threats and motivate pro-environmental actions (Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). However, excessive information or very detailed technical data, concerning a complex and global-scale environmental issue such as climate change, can bring about frustration or denial of the issue (Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). With respect to the type of environmental information or knowledge, information about the nature and causes of environmental problems, and information on ecological action strategies, appear

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to be especially useful in promoting pro-environmental behavior (Kaiser et al., 1999). Consequently, it seems reasonable to expect that better-informed citizens concerning the causes, ways of fighting, and consequences of climate change will behave in more environmentally responsible ways, compared to badlyinformed individuals. In line with social psychology literature (Ajzen and Gilbert, 2008) and most environmental studies (Bamberg and Möser, 2007; Kaiser et al., 1999), the ‘core’ model posits that respondents’ level of information about climate change has indirect effects on pro-environmental behavior, through environmental attitudes. H3a: Environmental information level will have a positive effect on attitudes towards climate change. Environmental information is also hypothesized to exert a significant effect on individual motivations for engaging in ecological behaviors (Thøgersen, 1994). Previous studies suggest that the ‘information–motivation’ linkage will be stronger for people with lower environmental concern, lacking the internal motivation to act ecologically (Schultz et al., 1995). Thus, providing highquality information about relevant climate change issues should be a powerful instrument for raising people’s levels of environmental motivation (Schultz et al., 1995; Young et al., 2010). Environmental information and messages appealing to both egoistic and altruistic ecological motivations should be more effective in encouraging pro-environmental behaviors (De Young et al., 1993). H3b: Environmental information level will have a positive effect on motivations to combat climate change. 2.2

Moderating Effects on ‘Environmental Information’ Linkages

The importance of analyzing moderation effects has been acknowledged in environmental research (Kaiser et al., 1999). Moderation analyses are consubstantial to social science; their abundance reflects the degree of maturity and sophistication of a research field (Frazier et al., 2004). Moderating effects are often examined when there are unexpectedly weak or inconsistent relationships between predictor and outcome variables across settings and population groups. In particular, moderation analyses help to clarify the questions of ‘when’ and ‘for whom’ a given variable is significantly or more strongly predictive of an outcome variable (Frazier et al., 2004). As depicted in Figure 1, the present study examines moderating effects on ‘environmental information’ linkages; that is, the moderation analyses will clarify some conditions and socio-demographic segments for which the hypothesized effects of environmental information on ecological motivations and attitudes towards climate change vary in magnitude. A deeper understanding of the predictive conditions of environmental information (about climate change) is important for interventions aiming to promote environmentally-friendly behavior patterns, owing to the ‘externally

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controllable’ character of environmental information and messages. The consistency of ‘environmental information–attitudes’ and ‘environmental information–motivation’ links is likely to be contingent on a variety influences (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003; Kaiser et al., 1999; O’Connor et al., 1999). Potential moderators include not only information traits (e.g., type of environmental content, or tone of messages), but also psychological and sociodemographic characteristics of the target audience (von Borgstede and Anderson, 2010). In this work, three external traits (gender, age, and country value orientation) and one internal constraint (perceived threat of climate change) are examined as moderating variables. Perceived threat of climate change. Many studies on pro-environmental behavior have included some measure of perceived risk or threat of environmental problems (eg, climate change or global warming) to explain differences between more and less environmentally proactive people (Leiserowitz, 2006; O’Connor et al., 1999). Theoretical and empirical evidence exists to suggest moderating influences of perceived threat of climate change: environmental knowledge and value orientations may relate to increased and lowered risk perceptions (O’Connor et al., 1999; Withmarsh, 2008); research also suggests that the relative importance of internal reasons (eg, ecological motivations) for pro-environmental behaviors, such as those aimed at fighting climate change, will be higher for people high in perceived environmental threat (Schultz et al., 1995). This latter argument suggests, somewhat exploratively, that individuals rating climate change as a more serious problem (ie, high threat perceptions) will be less influenced by external stimuli in their proenvironmental decision-making. H4a: For respondents with ‘high’ perceived threat of climate change, the effect of environmental information level on attitudes towards climate change will be ‘attenuated’. H4b: For respondents with ‘high’ perceived threat of climate change, the effect of environmental information level on motivations to combat climate change will be ‘attenuated’. Gender. In most analyses of gender differences in pro-environmental behavior, women have displayed lower levels of environmental knowledge than men (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003; Kollmus and Aygeman, 2002). This pattern has been attributed to women’s traditional roles and socialization process (Straugham and Roberts, 1999); for instance, the traditional ‘wife and housekeeper’ role has kept women away from scientific and technological fields (Olli et al., , 2001). However, women have been found to be more responsive to ‘green’ advertising (Haytko and Matulich, 2010). Hence, female respondents will more likely be influenced by environmental information than men (von Borgstede and Anderson, 2010). Consistent with this pattern, gender should be an important moderator of the environmental information links in the ‘core’ research model.

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H5a: For female respondents, the effect of environmental information level on attitudes towards climate change will be ‘intensified’. H5b: For female respondents, the effect of environmental information level on motivations to combat climate change will be ‘intensified’. Age. There is much controversy concerning the effects of age on environmental knowledge, attitudes, and pro-environmental behavior. There is some agreement that younger people tend to be more aware and concerned about environmental issues (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003; Olli et al., 2001; Straugham and Roberts, 1999), mostly due to overlapping lifecycle and cohort effects (Franzen and Meyer, 2010). Regarding environmental knowledge, it is not possible to find clear age patterns, with age having either non-significant (Cottrell, 2003), or weak negative relations to knowledge (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003). In line with these findings, younger individuals were found to be more knowledgeable about an environmental problem such as acid rain, compared to their older counterparts (Arcury et al., 1987). Based on the available evidence, two preliminary hypotheses are developed for the moderating effects of age on ‘environmental information/knowledge’ linkages. H6a: For younger respondents, the effect of environmental information level on attitudes towards climate change will be ‘intensified’. H6b: For younger respondents, the effect of environmental information level on motivations to combat climate change will be ‘intensified’. Country value orientation. It is widely believed that differences in environmental knowledge, concern and behavior may be a consequence of shared values within a culture (Schultz and Zelezny, 1999). Thereby, most studies have relied on ‘postmaterialism’ to explain country differences (see Franzen and Meyer, 2010). Postmaterialist theory posits that environmental concern emerges only once basic individual needs are fulfilled (Dunlap and Mertig, 1995). Consistent with this, people from countries with a predominant postmaterialist value orientation would be more concerned and engage more often in pro-environmental behaviors (Franzen and Meyer, 2010). ‘Postmaterialist’ countries are also expected to show higher levels of environmental knowledge; these societies put greater emphasis on immaterial resources, such as providing citizens with improved education and freedom of information (Dunlap and Mertig, 1995). On this basis, the following hypotheses are proposed suggesting a greater predictive importance of respondents’ environmental information level in countries with predominant postmaterialist values. H7a: For ‘postmaterialist’ countries, the effect of environmental information level on attitudes towards climate change will be ‘intensified’. H7b: For ‘postmaterialist’ countries, the effect of environmental information level on motivations to combat climate change will be ‘intensified’.

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Methods Sample

The empirical analyses are conducted on the survey database ‘Eurobarometer 69.2 – Europeans’ attitudes towards climate change’. This cross-national dataset covers a representative sample of the population (aged 15 and over) of the EU27 member states, plus three candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and the Turkish Cypriot Community. The fieldwork was carried out between March 25th and May 4th 2008 through face-to-face interviews in people’s homes, and in the appropriate national language. In all countries, a stratified, multistage probability design was used for selection of sampling units. A total of 30,170 responses were collected (with few exceptions, approximately 1000 per country). The questionnaire addressed European citizens’ attitudes, motivations, level of knowledge, and engagement in proenvironmental behaviors aimed at fighting climate change; other relevant measures were available, including materialist/post-materialist values, perceived seriousness of climate change, and socio-demographic indicators, such as gender, age, education level, political ideology, and country. Access to the Eurobarometer data was provided by the GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences (Cologne, Germany). 3.2

Statistical Procedures

3.2.1

‘Core’ Model Tests

First, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to check the dimensional structure of the ‘core’ research model. Next, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), using the EQS v6.1 statistical software, are respectively applied to examine the psychometric properties of the scales and test the hypothesized relations in the ‘core’ model. In addition, several statistical tests and criteria (such as Cronbach’s alpha values, composite reliabilities, the average variance extracted (AVE), and chi-square difference tests) are used to analyze measurement reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. 3.2.2

Moderation Analyses

Two common methods for testing moderating effects have been described: multiple regression and multi-group analysis (multi-group SEM). Owing to the characteristics of the ‘core’ research model and moderator variables (i.e., perceived threat of climate change, gender, age, and country value orientation), the multi-group SEM approach is used in this work. Hence, differences in the hypothesized ‘environmental information / knowledge’ effects were assessed

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between the following groups of respondents: ‘high’ vs. ‘low’ perceived threat of climate change (median split defined groups); ‘male’ vs. ‘female’ gender categories; three age groups split into terciles: ‘15–38 years’, ‘39–56 years’, and ‘more than 57 years old’; and three country groups based on materialist vs. postmaterialist values: ‘materialist countries’, ‘countries with mixed values’, and ‘post-materialist countries’. 4

Results

From the initial sample of 30,170 cases, the authors selected those respondents who ‘agreed’ or ‘tended to agree’ with the statement ‘You personally have taken actions aimed at helping to fight climate change’, with the aim of testing the hypotheses of the study. In the year 2008, EU citizens undertaking some form pro-environmental activity accounted for 51.7% of the sample (n=17,233); only these individuals were included in subsequent analyses. 4.1

‘Core’ Model Results

4.1.1

Psychometric Properties of the Scales

The dependent factor (pro-environmental behavior) captures respondents’ level of individual environmental proactivity, through the aggregation of eleven specific pro-environmental actions into a single, unidimensional construct. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested the distinction between positive and negative attitudes toward climate change. Consistent with previous literature (eg, Thøgersen, 2007), the analyses supported a second-order factor of motivations to combat climate change, formed by altruistic and egoistic ecological motivations. The obtained Cronbach’s alpha and Raykov’s rho coefficients were well above 0.8 for the construct of ‘environmental information level’ (Straub, 1989). For both positive and negative attitudes towards climate change, and ecological motivations, Cronbach’s alphas were around 0.5, but all Raykov’s rho coefficients exceeded the more lenient cut-off of 0.6 (Hair et al., 1998). These results were expected, owing to the use of Eurobarometer data with ‘predetermined indicators’. Thus, the internal consistency of the multi-item scales may be acceptable in this study (Hair et al., 1998). Two separate tests were sequentially performed to assess the discriminant validity of each pair of constructs. First, following Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) recommendations, a confidence interval test was used to assess the discriminant validity of each pair of factors. Next, chi-square difference tests were applied only to those pairs of factors showing problems of discriminant validity, according to the confidence interval test. All tests indicated that discriminant validity exists between the analyzed pairs of factors.

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Explaining Pro-environmental Behavior

The results provided support for all the hypothesized relationships in the ‘core’ model (see Figure 2). Despite accounting for only 15.3% of the variance, positive attitude towards climate change was the single direct predictor of proenvironmental behavior (std. β=0.389; p<0.01), thus providing support for H1. Conversely, negative attitude did not significantly detract from ecological behavior aimed at fighting climate change. The results also supported the positive, direct effects of ecological motivations and environmental information level on respondents’ attitudes towards climate change (support for H2 and H3a); these effects were larger on positive than on negative environmental attitude. Motivation had a greater impact than information level on positive attitude (std. β=0.758; p<0.01 vs. std. β=0.438; p<0.01), both explaining a large percent of the variance. As expected, ecological motivations exerted a negative influence on negative environmental attitude (std. β=-0.265; p<0.01). Surprisingly though, the effect of information level (about climate change) on negative attitude was positive, but weak (std. β=0.093; p<0.01). In line with H3b, the level of information about climate change had a positive, though modest, impact on (altruistic and egoistic) motivations to combat climate change (std. β=0.189; p<0.01). The final version of the ‘core’ model showed a very good fit to the data. The final version of the ‘core’ model showed a very good fit to the data. The assessment of absolute fit revealed that the scaled chi-square (S-B χ2) was significant at p<0.01. Owing to the sensitivity of the chi-square statistic to large sample sizes, alternative indices were assessed (Hair et al., 1998). RMSEA (0.033) fell below the recommended level of 0.08. Incremental fit measures also indicated a good model fit, with all values (NNFI, NFI, CFI, IFI, and MFI) exceeding the rigorous threshold of 0.95. 4.2

Moderation Results

The four moderating variables examined here (threat perceptions, gender, age, and country value orientation) significantly intensified or attenuated at least one causal effect flowing from ‘environmental information level’, according to chisquare difference tests between constrained and unconstrained pairs of models – ie, paths constrained to be equal vs. paths freely estimated across subgroups. Moreover, two variables (age and country value orientation) moderated all three structural paths from environmental information level to positive and negative attitudes, and to ecological motivations, as included in the final ‘core’ model (see Figure 2).

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Table 1: Multi-group results Information level → Moderating Positive attitude variables / subgroups Std. β t-value Perceived threat of climate change High threat 0.301 18.792*** Low threat 0.321 18.792*** Gender Male 0.305 12.288*** Female 0.336 16.600*** Age 15–38 years 0.318 15.007*** 39–56 years 0.292 15.007*** 57+ years old 0.352 13.521*** Country value orientation Post-materialist 0.380 12.090*** Materialist -0.004 -0.062 n.s. Mixed values 0.448 12.090***

Information level → Negative attitude Std. β t-value

Information level → Ecological motivations Std. β t-value

-0.001 0.156

-0.002 n.s. 8.795***

0.163 0.198

10.956*** 10.956***

0.082 0.085

6.772*** 6.772***

0.190 0.194

11.865*** 11.865***

0.038 0.113 0.116

1.787 n.s. 7.555*** 7.555***

0.142 0.231 0.212

5.251*** 11.636*** 11.636***

-0.020 -0.042 0.103

-0.807 n.s. -1.477 n.s. 5.109***

0.193 0.371 0.200

9.462*** 5.825*** 9.462***

*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.

As shown in Table 1, perceived threat of climate change moderated only the non-hypothesized and, unexpectedly, positive relationship between environmental information level and negative attitude towards climate change. This path became non-significant for respondents with ‘high’ threat perceptions; thus, neither H4a nor H4b were supported. Concerning gender differences, the ‘information level–positive attitude’ effect was intensified for female respondents (partial support for H5a), but no significant differences were found between men and women in the paths from environmental information level to negative environmental attitude and to ecological motivations (lack of support for H5b). The environmental attitudes (particularly, negative ones) and ecological motivations of younger EU citizens appear to be shaped, to a lesser extent, by their level of environmental information or knowledge; the opposite effects were preliminarily proposed in H6a and H6b. As for respondents’ country, the path from environmental information level to positive environmental attitude was significantly attenuated in the ‘materialist’ country group, compared to the ‘post-materialist’ and ‘mixed’ countries; this finding is partly in line with H7a. Non-significant influences of information level on negative environmental attitude were observed both in ‘materialist’ and ‘post-materialist’ countries. By contrast, negative attitude was most strongly (positively) influenced by environmental information in countries with a ‘mixed’ value orientation. Finally, the ‘information–motivation’ linkage was attenuated in the ‘postmaterialist’ country group; this pattern is contrary to that hypothesized in H7b.

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Figure 2: Assessment of the final ‘core’ model and moderation results. Note: The figure shows the standardized path coefficients and t-values in the final ‘core’ model and depicts the significant moderation effects.

5

Discussion

The findings of this study shed light on individual pro-environmental behavior aimed at fighting climate change. The analyses examined the role of EU citizens’ level of information, motivations, and attitudes towards climate change in their pro-environmental decision-making. Moreover, three external traits (gender, age, and country value orientation) and one internal constraint (perceived threat of climate change) were examined as possible moderators of ‘environmental information level’ influences. The ‘core’ research model was consistent with expectancy-value theory (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), and supported the idea that environmental attitudes are important precursors of individual behavior aimed at fighting climate change. Unlike most other studies, two attitudinal factors were differentiated –ie, positive and negative attitudes; on the positive side, only positive environmental attitude was significantly (and positively) predictive of pro-environmental behavior. The modest explained variance (approximately 15%) points to unmodeled antecedents of pro-environmental activity (most notably, behavioral intentions). Respondents’ (altruistic and egoistic) ecological motivations and level of information about climate change were respectively identified as internal and external factors influencing both positive and negative attitudes towards climate change. Environmental information level was also found to have a positive direct effect on ecological motivations to combat climate change. Based on the findings, informing about environmental issues, such as climate change, may undesirably contribute to negative environmental

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attitudes. Although this effect was rather weak, it suggests that not all types of environmental messages and information (eg, information about the causes, ways of fighting, and consequences of climate change) can be assumed to be equally effective in promoting environmentally responsible behaviors. Further understanding of the predictive conditions and socio-demographic segments for which environmental information and messages (about climate change) are more or less effective is important for interventions and campaigns aimed at promoting more environmentally-friendly citizen and consumer behavior. The analyses provided preliminary evidence of significant moderating influences of various internal and exogenous variables on ‘environmental information’ linkages (ie, ‘information level–attitudes’ and ‘information level– motivations’). Variations in environmental information effects between respondent groups, defined by threat perceptions, gender, age, and country value orientation, may be partly attributed heterogeneous interest and concern about environmental issues –eg, women typically show higher levels of environmental concern (Haytko and Matulich, 2010). Moderation results also highlight the importance of carefully designing environmental information and messages to account for socio-demographic and psychological influences (Leiserowitz, 2006). In this regard, there may be special challenges in environmental awareness campaigns targeted at ‘younger’ population segments and ‘materialistic’ countries. 5.1

Implications for Environmental Awareness Campaigns

The assessment of main and moderating effects on ‘environmental information level’ linkages provides important insights for promoting pro-environmental activity at the individual level. Overall, environmental information and knowledge appear to be necessary, but not sufficient, preconditions for environmentally responsible behavior. To a lesser extent, the findings warn of unintended effects of environmental information and messages, eliciting negative environmental attitudes. The effectiveness of environmental messages (and information) is dependent on its alignment with people’s attitudes, motivations and current goals (Maibach et al., 2008; von Borgstede and Anderson, 2010). However, a great deal of environmental communication appeals to ‘global well-being’ and the ‘preserving the Earth for the young and future generations’. Such environmental messages will be adequate for population segments with predominant altruistic and self-transcendent values, but not for individuals with an egoistic value orientation. Targeting environmental messages to egoistic ecological motivations, such as climate change dangers to personal health and safety or the monetary benefits of saving resources, may have greater effect on certain population groups, such as countries with a predominant ‘materialistic’ value orientation.

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In climate change communication, ‘what’ is said is as important as ‘how’ is it said (Moser, 2010). Thus, visual imagery, colors, music, and other non-verbal cues can be very effective in eliciting motivational and attitudinal responses towards climate change and global warming issues. The choice of communication channel and spokesperson can be used to target tailored environmental information and messages to the characteristics of specific sociodemographic and psychographic segments, in accordance with the identified moderating effects on ‘environmental information level’ relationships. Widely available reports on international media use will greatly aid in this process. Finally, environmental awareness campaigns on climate change and global warming issues should avoid vague, contradictory, and complex ecological messages. On the contrary, the arguments used in environmental information and messages need to be clear and simple; in addition, different kinds of environmental information (eg, about the causes, ways of solving, and consequences of climate change) “must work together in a convergent manner” (Kaiser and Fuhrer, 2003). Research on climate change communication has found that environmental messages tend to be more effective when focused on the serious environmental consequences from climate change, while at the same time clarifying that each person can do something about it (Maibach et al., 2008). 5.2

Limitations and Future Research

This study is not free of limitations. Maybe the most important one relates to the use of Eurobarometer data. Despite its benefits, such as providing a rich, crossnational source of information, using this type of data had restrictive effects on research design. Thus, the authors could not participate in the development of questionnaire items. In addition, the use of Eurobaromenter data precluded the inclusion of other relevant factors, such as behavioral intentions, subjective norm, or perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991). A social desirability effect may also bias the results of survey research focusing on ecological behavior –ie, respondents might have exaggerated their responses to project a socially desirable image of themselves. The proposed research model aims to explain complex and dynamic human behaviors with ethical and ecological implications. Thus, future studies should consider including ‘unmodeled’ factors such as citizens’ perceptions of selfrelevance or involvement with environmental issues. In addition, alternative theoretical frameworks, such as Fazio’s MODE model (Fazio, 1990), could be used to assess the consistency of the links between motivations, attitudes, and pro-environmental behavior. Further research should also considerate additional socio-demographic variables as moderators; among other traits, political ideology and level of education tend to be related with higher commitment to

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pro-environmental behaviors. For instance, political ideology may be useful in selecting the most appropriate spokesperson and media (Straugham and Roberts, 1999).

6

References

Arcury, T.A.; Scollay, S.J. & Johnson, T.P. (1987), “Sex Differences in Environmental Concern and Knowledge: the Case of Acid Rain,” in: Sex Roles, Vol. 16 (9/10), 463-472. Ajzen, I. (1991), “The Theory of Planned Behavior,” in: Organizational behavior and human decision processes, Vol. 50 (2), 179-211 Ajzen, I. & Gilbert, N. (2008), “Attitudes and the Prediction of Behavior,” in: W. D. Crano and R. Prislin (eds.): Attitudes and Attitude Change, Psychology Press, New York, NY, 289-311. Anderson, J.C. & Gerbing, D.W. (1988), “Structural Equation Modelling in Practice: A Review and Recommended Two-step Approach,” in: Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 103 (3), 411-423. Bamberg, S. & Möser, G. (2007), “Twenty Years after Hines, Hungerford and Tomera: a New Meta-analysis of Psychosocial Determinants of Pro-environmental Behavior,” in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 27 (1), 14-25. Barr, S. (2007), “Factors Influencing Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors: a U.K. Case Study of Household Waste Management,” in: Environment and Behavior, Vol. 39 (4), 435-473. Cottrell, S. P. (2003), “Influence of Sociodemographics and Environmental Attitudes on General Responsible Environmental Behaviour Among Recreational Boaters,” in: Environment and Behavior, Vol. 35 (3), 347-375. De Young, R.; Duncan, A.; Frank, J.; Gill, N.; Rothman, S.; Shenot, J.; Shotkin, A. & Zweizig, M. (1993), “Promoting Source Reduction Behavior. The Role of Motivational Information,” in: Environment and Behavior, Vol. 25 (1), 70-85. Diamantopoulos, A.; Schlegelmilch, B. B.; Sinkovics, R. R. & Bohlen, G. M. (2003), “Can sociodemographics Still Play a Role in Profiling Green Consumers? A Review of the Evidence and an Empirical Investigation,” in: Journal of Business Research, Vol. 56, 465-480. Dunlap, R. E. & Mertig, A. G. (1995), “Global Concern for the Environment: Is Affluence a Prerequisite?” in: Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 51, 121-137. European Commission (2008). Europeans’ Attitudes Towards Climate Change. Available as 30112009 from http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_300_full_en.pdf European Environment Agency (2010). Tracking Progress Towards Kyoto and 2020 targets in Europe. EEA Report No 7/2010. EEA, Copenhagen, 2010. Available as 16102010 from http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/progress-towards-kyoto/at_download/file Fazio, R. H. (1990), “Multiple processes by which attitudes guide behavior: The MODE model as an integrative framework,” in: M. P. Zanna (ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 23, Academic Press, New York, NY, 75-109. Fishbein, M. & Ajzen, I. (1975), “Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research,” Addison-Wesley Reading, MA. Franzen, A. & Meyer, R. (2010), “Environmental Attitudes in Cross-national Perspective: A Multilevel Analysis of the ISSP 1993 and 2000,” in: European Sociological Review, Vol. 26 (2), 219-234 Frazier, P.; Tix, A. P. & Barron, K. E. (2004), “Testing Moderator and Mediator Effects in Counseling Psychology Research,” in: Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 51 (1), 115-134 Gagnon Thompson, S. & Barton, M. (1994), “Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes Toward the Environment,” in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 14 (2), 149-157. Grunert, S.C. & Juhl, H.J. (1995), “Values, Environmental Attitudes and Buying of Organic Foods,” in: Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 16 (1), 39-62.

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Hair, J.F.Jr., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., Black, W.C. (1998). “Multivariate data analysis,” 5th edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Haytko, D. L. & Matulich, E. (2010), “Green Advertising and Environmentally Responsible Consumer Behaviors: Linkages Examined ,” in: Journal of Management and Marketing Research, Vol. 1, 1-11. Kaiser, F.G. & Fuhrer, U. (2003), “Ecological behavior’s dependency on different forms of knowledge,” Applied Psychology: An International Review, Vol. 52 (4), 598-613. Kaiser, F. G.; Wölfing, S. & Fuhrer, U. (1999), “Environmental Attitude and Ecological Behavior,” in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 19 (1), 1-19. Kollmuss A. & Agyeman, J. (2002), “Mind the Gap: Why do People act Environmentally and What are the Barriers to Pro-environmental Behavior?,” in: Environmental Education Research, Vol. 8 (3), 239-260. Leiserowitz, A. (2006), “Climate Change Risk Perception and Policy Preferences: The Role of Affect, Imagery, and Values,” in: Climate Change, Vol. 77, 45-72. Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C. & Leiserowitz, A. (2008), “Communication and Marketing as Climate Change Intervention Assets: A Public Health Perspective,” in: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 35, 488-500. Mobley, C., Vagias, W.M., & DeWard, S.L. (2010), “Exploring Additional Determinants of Environmentally Responsible Behavior: The Influence of Environmental Literature and Environmental Attitudes,” in: Environment & Behavior, Vol. 42 (4), 420-447. Moser, S.C., (2010), “Communicating Climate Change: History, Challenges, Process and Future Directions”, in: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Vol. 1 (1), 31-53. Nerlich, B.; Koteyko, N. & Brown, B. (2009), “Theory and Language of Climate Change Communication,” in: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Vol. 1 (1), 97-110. Olli, E.; Grendstand, G. & Wollebaek, D. (2001), “Correlates of Environmental Behaviors: Bringing Back Social Context,” in: Environment and Behavior, Vol. 33 (2), 181-208. O’Connor, R. E.; Bord, R. J. & Fisher, A. (1999), “Risk Perceptions, General Environmental Beliefs, and Willigness to Address Climate Change,” in: Risk Analysis, Vol. 19, 461-471. Schultz, P. W.; Oskamp, S. & Mainieri, T. (1995), “Who Recycles and When: a Review of Personal and Situational Factors,” in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol., 15 (2), 105-121 Schultz, P.W. & Zelezny, L. (1999), “Values as Predictors of Environmental Attitudes: Evidence for Consistency Across 14 Countries,” in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 19 (3), 255265. Schwartz, S. H. (1977), “Normative Influences on Altruism,” in: L. Berkowitz (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 10, Academic Press, New York, 221-279. Stern, P. C.; Dietz, T. & Kalof, L. (1993), “Value Orientations, Gender and Environmental Concern,” in: Environment and Behavior, Vol. 25 (5), 322-348. Straub, D.W. (1989), “Validating Instruments in MIS Research” in: MIS Quarterly, Vol. 13(2), 147168. Straughan, R.D. & Roberts, J.A. (1999), “Environmental Segmentation Alternatives: a Look at Green Consumer Behavior in the New Millennium,” in: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 16, 558-575. Thøgersen, J. (1994), “A model of recycling behaviour, with evidence from Danish source separation programmes,” International Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 11 (2), 145-163. Thøgersen, J. (2007), “The Motivational Roots of Norms for Environmentally Responsible Behavior,” in: Proceedings of the Nordic Consumer Policy Research Conference. von Borgstede, C. & Andersson, K. (2010), “Environmental Information. Explanatory Factors for Information Behavior,” in: Sustainability, 2 (9), 2785-2798. Whitmarsh, L. (2008), “Are flood victims more concerned about climate change than other people? The role of direct experience in risk perception and behavioural response,” in: Journal of Risk Research, Vol. 11 (3), 351-374. Young, W., Hwang, K., McDonald, S., & Oates, C. J. (2010), “Sustainable consumption: Green consumer behaviour when purchasing products,” Sustainable Development, Vol. 18 (1), 20-31.

The Influence of Alcohol Advertising in Underage versus Overage Alcohol Consumption: Affective Responses and Advertising Effectiveness Mª José Miquel-Romero, University of Valencia, Spain Franco Manuel Sancho-Esper, University of Alicante, Spain

1

Introduction

It is widely accepted that a framework is necessary to regulate advertising activities. Advertising has a responsibility within our economic system, to provide information on new and existing products and services. Economic health of both buyers and competitors is affected if the advertising system is injected with false or misleading claims. Thus, Government and self-regulation associations should create a set of rules which define and control the behaviour of the advertising companies. Taking into account the power attributed to advertising for influencing consumer behaviour, some of those mentioned rules are established to protect the audience. In this sense, broad social issues have been raised for decades, concerning the role of advertising. Questions such as whether it is ethical to advertise cigarettes or to engage in alcohol advertising, which might persuade young people to start smoking or drinking, have become topics of controversial debate for years. For these products in several countries, severe measures have been applied, like tax increase, prohibition of broadcasting tobacco/alcohol advertising in specific mass media or specific public places, prohibition of its consumption and/or sale in specific public places, or even a clear identification in the product packaging of the health problems caused by the consumption of the product (tobacco), or the recommendation of a responsible consumption (alcohol). Alcohol consumption is nowadays a generalised behaviour, and although its consumption has occurred for thousands of years, many of the varied health effects have been discovered fairly recently (WHO, 2010). It has health and social consequences via intoxication (drunkenness), dependence (habitual, compulsive and long-term drinking), and other biochemical effects, and its harmful use causes an estimated 2.5 million deaths every year, of which a significant proportion occur in the young.

S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_6, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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According to the World Health Organization (2010), globally alcohol consumption has increased in recent decades, especially in developing countries. It is the third leading risk factor for poor health globally. The consideration of “risky” factor is even more notorious among youth: automobile crash injury and death, suicide and depression, missed classes and decreased academic performance, loss of memory, blackouts, fighting, property damage, and so forth, are some of the consequences directly related to drinking in adolescents (Bonomo et al., 2001). Adolescents are frequent users of alcohol and they increasingly consume it in a risky fashion. In the Spanish context, and according to the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumption (2007), alcohol consumption has been trivialized and the perceived risk associated to its consumption has diminished. Two main reasons are identified for this situation: easy access to alcoholic drinks by adolescent and under eighteen young people, and a higher presence of stimulus promoting its consumption, such as advertising. A lot of studies have demonstrated the relationship between persuasive messages through mass media (alcoholic drinks ads) and young people consumption decision (e.g. Atkin et al., 1984; Wallack et al., 1990; Collins et al., 2003). Anderson et al. (2009) concluded that alcohol advertising and promotion increases the likelihood that adolescent will start to use alcohol, and to drink more if they are already drinking alcohol. However, there is not enough research about how these messages affect their decisions. Although in different countries law protects adolescents forbidding advertising targeting this group, we cannot obviate that youths are exposed to ads, and in some way, ads influence them. In fact, several studies have shown that alcohol advertising contains elements that appeal to underage youth (Austin et al., 2006; Chen et al., 2005; Waiters et al., 2001). This reality makes necessary to analyse how this advertising influences on both, adolescents and young adults, in order to work on their effect to minimize the likelihood of having potential future problems. From these evidence, the purpose of this study is to analyse how alcoholic beverages advertising can influence young people consumption, and whether that influence is the same between people over and under eighteen years old, the legal age in Spain to buy and drink alcoholic drinks, as well as to target alcohol advertising. The specific advertising measures into consideration are ad liking, ad recognition, brand recall and slogan recall.

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Literature Review

Although the study of factors determining alcohol consumption among young people comes from different fields, it could be argued that it is the psycho-social perspective the one that has shed light towards understanding how the social context affects the young person decision. There are three main key agents, parents, peers and mass media (Moore et al., 2002), that influence the social development of an individual (Hurrelman, 1988). In this paper, we focus our analysis on the influence of alcohol advertising, as part of the mass media influence. If we take into account that adolescents spend less time with their parents in favor of media - what makes them vulnerable to any commercial message -, that they have greater vulnerability to alcohol than adults - as they have no context or reference point for assessing or regulating their drinking -, and, furthermore, that they have built up no tolerance to alcohol (Anderson et al., 2009; Dotson and Hyatt, 1994), it is imperative that law protects this segment of population.

2.1

Advertising Influence: Affective Responses and Ad Effectiveness

Consumer’s affective responses to ads have increased its interest to both academics and practitioners in advertising. Ad liking experienced by the individual is an affective response which contributes to the efficient delivery of the message, leveraging the advertiser’s media investment (Walker and Dubitsky, 1994). Likeability of an advertisement may be attributed to its creativity (Stone et al., 2000), its perception as meaningful and relevant (Biel and Bridgewater, 1990), or by using special elements such as the characters, action, storyline, music, and visual elements (Walker and Dubitsky, 1994). In the specific case of alcohol advertising, Chen et al. (2005) found that youth’s perceived likeability of beer ads was a function of the positive affective responses evoked by elements more closely related to humour and story than to music, animal characters, and people characters, cues also identified in other researches (eg. Waiters et al., 2001). There is a solid and positive relationship between ad liking and persuasion. Research evidence has offered strong support to the belief that better liked ads lead to more positive evaluations of what it is engaged in them, and even a higher purchase intention of the advertised brand. In fact, literature suggests that ad liking is one of the best indicator of advertising effectiveness (Biel, 1990; Haley and Baldinger, 1991). According to this and considering that if people

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like an ad become involved with it (Brown, 1991), we propose the following hypotheses: H1: There is a positive relationship between the ad liking of alcoholic beverages and the brand recall of alcoholic beverages. H2: There is a positive relationship between the ad liking of alcoholic beverages and the advertising recognition of alcoholic beverages. H3: There is a positive relationship between the ad liking of alcoholic beverages and the slogan recall of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol advertising is one of the many factors that can potentially encourage youth drinking, as recent studies have evidenced (e.g., Anderson et al., 2009; Collins et al., 2007; Henriksen et al., 2008; Smith and Foxcroft, 2009; Snyder et al., 2006). Much of this existing literature derives from a pioneer research developed by Grube and Wallack in 1994. In that study, the authors showed that alcohol advertising does have effect on the brand and slogan knowledge, the expectancies (beliefs), the consumption intention, and consequently on the actual alcohol consumption of young people, but only if it is attended and recalled. Grube and Wallack’s ideas about the relationship between alcohol advertising and brand knowledge are supported by the increasing role that brands play on young people daily life. Brand knowledge and preferences are becoming fundamental, even for very young children (Dotson and Hyatt, 2000). In fact, brand awareness is usually one of the main goals that advertisers look for, and that awareness is reinforced by the use of a slogan, which tries to tie the name of the brand in the memory of the consumer, associating the brand, in many cases, with positive feelings. Based on these ideas, the following two hypotheses are proposed: H4: There is a positive relationship between the advertising recognition of alcoholic beverages and the brand recall of alcoholic beverages. H5: There is a positive relationship between the advertising recognition of alcoholic beverages and the slogan recall of alcoholic beverages. If alcoholic beverage advertising is analyzed, it is easy to identify in their messages that social acceptance achieved by means of consuming alcohol is related with several successful roles, values and traits (sexual success, sex appeal, romance, adventure, rebelliousness, elegance, sociability, and so forth) Those roles, values and traits (many of them explicitly forbidden by law) are admired by young adults but also by adolescents. As mentioned before, brands

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would try to associate their products with these values or ideas by means of the brand names or brand slogans, in order to increase the positive expectancies and reduce the negative expectancies of alcohol consumption. So, we propose that: H6: There is a positive relationship between alcoholic beverage brand recall and the positive expectancies towards alcohol consumption. H7: There is a negative relationship between alcoholic beverage brand recall and the negative expectancies towards alcohol consumption. H8: There is a positive relationship between alcoholic beverage slogan recall and the positive expectancies towards alcohol consumption. H9: There is a negative relationship between alcoholic beverage slogan recall and the negative expectancies towards alcohol consumption. In addition, in most alcohol beverages advertising, human roles are young attractive people. Hence, it could be stated that these alcohol advertisements try to communicate young people the social value of drinking (Henrinksen et al., 2008); values that the young individual will try to adopt in order to “behave properly” in the marketplace (social legitimacy). Departing from the process explained by Grube and Wallack (1994), that has been largely contrasted in several contexts (e.g. Smith et al., 1995; Williams and Clark, 1998; Dunn and Yniguez, 1999; Fleming et al., 2004), the positive expectancies towards alcohol consumption have an influence, both direct and positive, over the final alcohol consumption intention. In spite of the fact that there is less empirical support for stating the direct relationship between the negative expectancies and the consumption intention (Austin et al., 2006; Armeli et al., 2005), it is finally considered since this relationship plays a key role at the classical low-involvement information processing model (Krugman, 1965; Ray, 1982). In those cases, cognitive changes, for instance over expectancies or beliefs, have direct effect on behavioral aspects, such as purchase or intention to do it. For these reasons, the following hypotheses are stated: H10: There is a positive relationship between the positive expectancies towards alcohol consumption and the actual alcohol consumption (over 18 years) / consumption intention (under 18 years) of the young man/woman. H11: There is a negative relationship between the negative expectancies towards alcohol consumption and the actual alcohol consumption (over 18 years) / consumption intention (under 18 years) of the young man/woman.

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Evidence shows that children who are more aware of alcohol advertising have greater intention to drink (Grube, 1999). In fact, one of the main goals of alcoholic beverage companies is to create valuable brand equity, and one of the main tools for achieving this objective is by means of advertising, where they try to create positive associations between their brands (and slogans) and the final product consumption. This idea supports the last two hypotheses: H12: There is a direct and positive relationship between alcoholic beverage brand recall and the actual alcohol consumption/consumption intention of the young man/woman. H13: There is a direct and positive relationship between alcoholic beverage slogan recall and the actual alcohol consumption/consumption intention of the young man/woman. The stated framework previously described is depicted in figure 1. Moreover, a further research question is proposed: The analysis of the possible difference in terms of influence, in the specific variables considered (ad liking, advertising recognition, brand and slogan recall, positive and negative expectancies, and alcohol consumption/consumption intention) according to the age of the audience: underage versus overage individuals.

3

Methodology

To obtain data, a self-administered questionnaire was used. The two populations were defined, on one hand as underage students (12-17 years old) and, on the other hand, overage students (18-40 years old). Convenience quota sampling methods were used1, which intended to reflect the socio-economic diversity of the young people of the city under study. The questionnaires were administered, for the underage sample at two private highschools and one public high-school and, for the overage sample at the Main Public University of the Province. The total sample size was 667 questionnaires, 304 among under aged and 363 among over aged students.

1

The relevant control variables which defined the quotas were: sex and age. The selected sample did not statistically differ from the population proportions in any of them (Source: INE, Spanish National Statistics Institute).

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Figure 1.- Suggested model

The procedure was as follows: in a classroom, the individuals were shown a set of images, of five alcoholic beverages ads, which were representative of each alcoholic beverage ad or brand (without showing either the brand or the logo); for each ad, the subjects had around ten seconds to recall if they had seen the ad, and if the answer was positive, to write the corresponding brand and slogan. After that, two 5-likert scales were used to measure both the positive and the negative expectancies towards alcohol consumption. Consumption intention was measured by means of a dichotomous variable (yes/no) one for each alcoholic beverage studied (beer, liquor). In order to measure ad liking, five ads of alcoholic beverages were broadcasted to the students. Afterwards, they had to rate them into a 5-item likert scale. The final consumption intention indicator was an ordinal variable which derived from the addition of two dichotomous variables. Given that it is not legal and ethically possible to ask for actual alcohol consumption to people under eighteen, for the youngest sub-sample, the alcohol consumption intention was considered, and for the oldest, the actual alcohol consumption. All the scales used (table 1) had been widely used within the literature.

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Table 1: Variables and scales used in the questionnaire: underage and overage Variables: Indicators and Constructs

Authors

Scale description

Brand Recall (indicator)

Grube & Wallack, 1994

Aggregation of two items of suggested brand recall: beer and spirits (range 010)

Slogan Recall (indicator)

Grube & Wallack, 1994

Aggregation of two items of suggested slogan recall: beer and spirits (range 0-10)

Ad Recognition (scale)

Grube & Wallack, 1994

Three items related to ad recognitions: ad, product and brand. 5-likert scales.

Ad Liking (scale)

Chen, Grube, Bersamin, Waiters & Keefe, 2005

Five items to assess ad liking: music, actors, humour, and so on. 5-likert scales.

Positive Expectanc. Austin, Chen, & Grube, (scale) 2006

Ten items related to positive expectancies towards consuming alcohol. 5likert scales.

Negative Expectanc. (scale)

Austin, Chen, & Grube, 2006

Seven items related to negative expectancies towards consuming alcohol. 5likert scales.

Consumption Intention* (scale)

Flemming, Thorson & Atkin, 2004

Two-items of consumption intention: beer and spirits. 5-likert scales.

Actual Consumption** (scale)

Flemming, Thorson & Atkin, 2004

Two-items of consumption intention: beer and spirits. 5-likert scales.

Source: Own elaboration. * only at underage model, ** only at overage model.

4 4.1

Results Validation of the Measurement Instruments

For assessing reliability and validity of measurement instruments, several steps were followed. Firstly, the maximum-likelihood estimation of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis over the four factors previously defined was done. Those items with factorial loadings lower than 0.6 (Bagozzi and Baumgartner, 1994;

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Bagozzi and Yi, 1988), or those suggested by the Lagrange multiplier test (Hatcher, 1994), were deleted in order to assure the convergent validity of the instrument. Almost all the factorial loads were statistically significant and greater than 0.6 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988), which confirms the convergent validity of both instruments. Related to the reliability, Cronbach Alphas (Cronbach, 1951), the Compound Reliability Index and the Average Extracted Variance (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), were calculated for each factor, supporting that used instruments presented acceptable levels of reliability and convergent validity. The discriminant validity was also analyzed and supported2.

4.2

Hypotheses Testing

After identifying the models (underage and overaged), they were estimated by the maximum likelihood procedure using EQS 6.1. The results of the initial model estimation for the two groups are presented in table 2, and show a reasonable adjustment level in each sub-sample. In table 2 is shown that, for the under aged audience, all the hypotheses are supported except those connecting slogan recall with expectancies (positives and negatives), and with alcohol consumption intention. When considering the over aged audience, positive as well as negative expectancies are influenced only by brand recall; there is no relationship between slogan recall and positive or negative expectancies on the one hand, and actual alcohol consumption, on the other hand. The main differences compared to under aged audience arise when analyzing the effect of advertisement liking on recognition and recall. While all the relationships hold for under aged students, there is only a direct and positive relationship between ad liking and ad recognition, but neither there is relationship between ad liking and brand recall nor slogan recall for over aged students. According to these results and the analysis of the standardized loadings, we can affirm that the way advertising influences on young audience varies depending on the age of the individual. Advertisement liking (affective response) has a higher influence on recall and recognition at a younger age. Moreover, advertising recognition influences more on brand recall and less on slogan recall for under aged students than over aged; in addition, the influence of positive expectancies on alcohol consumption intention/actual consumption is higher for under 2

Contact the correspondence author for further details on validation process.

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aged than over aged individuals, but the influence of the negative ones on alcohol consumption intention/actual consumption is higher for over aged individuals With these comments the research question proposed is also answered.

Table 2: Hypotheses testing Under aged samplea

Over aged sampleb

Standard loading

t-value

Standard loading

t-value

H1: Ad likingÆBrand recall

0.242**

4.11

0.041ns

0.76

H2: Ad likingÆAd recognition

0.147*

2.35

0.245**

4.45

H3: Ad likingÆSlogan recall

0.161*

2.86

0.073ns

1.40

H4: Ad recognitionÆBrand recall

0.292**

5.20

0.208*

3.92

H5: Ad recognitionÆSlogan recall

0.397**

7.07

0.349**

6.94

H6: Brand recallÆPositive expectancies

0.165*

2.65

0.137*

2.533

H7: Brand recallÆNegative expectanc.

-0.333**

-5.15

-0.248**

-4.54

H12: Brand recallÆConsump. intention

0.161*

2.69

0.231*

3.90

H8: Slogan recallÆPositive expectanc.

-0.065ns

-1.05

-0.089ns

-1.65

H9: Slogan recallÆNegative expectanc.

0.001ns

0.01

0.049ns

0.90

H13: Slogan recallÆConsump. intention

-0.050ns

-0.91

-0.037ns

-0.72

H10: Positive expect.ÆConsum. intent.

0.445**

7.04

H11: Negative expect.ÆConsum. intent.

-0.189*

-2.95

H10: Positive expect.ÆActual consump.

0.168*

2.95

H11: Negative expect.ÆActual consum.

-0.309**

-4.69

Hypotheses

2

(a) Adjustment under age model: Chi : 609.3 (288 dof, p<0.01); BBNFI: 0.839; BBNNFI: 0.895; CFI: 0.907; AGFI: 0.840; RMSEA: 0.061 (b) Adjustment over age model: Chi2: 746.1 (241 dof, p<0.01); BBNFI: 0.882; BBNNFI: 0.904; CFI: 0.916; AGFI: 0.820; RMSEA: 0.076 ** p<0.1; *p<0.05; ns non-significant

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5

101

Discussion and Conclusions

The present research has shown the role of advertising as a key factor which determines youth alcohol consumption and consumption intention. According to our results, it is possible to affirm that this influence is different depending on the age of the audience. Although alcohol beverages advertisers are not legally able to target their products and commercials to under aged individuals, several studies have previously shown that young children are aware of alcohol advertising and this awareness increases with age (Aitken. 1989; Aitken et al.,1988). These results become more relevant if we consider one of the realities identified in the Global Strategy To Reduce The Harmful Use Of Alcohol report (WHO, 2010), which exhibits that the degree of risk for harmful use of alcohol varies with age. One of the main conclusions to be mentioned is that alcohol advertising has a clear positive influence in alcohol consumption/consumption intention, through expectancies, an those expectancies play an important role in alcohol consumption. However, it is really important to point out that the influence of advertising is more powerful for under aged audience (which is not the legal target of the product) than for over aged. As a starting point and taking into consideration the affective responses to advertisements, the role of the ad execution is very important. It could be affirmed that the influence of ad liking has, in general, much more power on underage individuals; in this sense, ad liking for younger people influences the three advertising effectiveness measures analyzed (brand recall, ad recognition and slogan recall), whereas for older people only influences in one of them (ad recognition). Although the influence of ad liking on ad recognition is higher for older ones, the direct influence on expectancies comes from brand recall, which is only influenced by ad liking in underage people. Moreover, the influence of advertising recognition on brand recall is higher for underage students, and that brand recall influences in both types of expectancies, positives and negatives, as well as on alcohol consumption intention in both sub-samples. It has to be taken into consideration that brand recall, for both types of audiences, has a higher influence on negative expectancies than on the positive ones; but when comparing the sub-samples, the influence of brand recall on both types of expectancies is higher for younger people. It is also necessary to add that the direct relationship between brand recall and consumption is higher for older audience. Considering the task played by expectancies, it is especially relevant to mention that the influence of those expectancies (determined by brand recall) in

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alcohol consumption/consumption intention is different depending on the audience; for underage people, positive expectancies have a higher positive influence in alcohol consumption intention than for over age students. However, negative expectancies have a higher negative influence in alcohol consumption than that for underage individuals. Moreover, positive expectancies have a higher influence than negative expectancies for underage people, and the opposite happens to over age individual: negative expectancies have a higher influence in alcohol consumption than positive expectancies. This can be due to the fact that under age audience likes to emulate the roles and lifestyles presented at alcoholic beverages advertising (Austin and Knaus, 2000), what makes them to assign higher positive expectancies to alcohol drinking; but they have less experience with alcohol what decreases their negative expectancies. On the other hand, older people are used to have more experience with alcohol, what makes them judge what advertisements show (imageries, roles, and so forth); for this reason, their positive expectancies influences alcohol consumption in a less extent than the negative ones. Although brand recall becomes an essential mediating variable between advertising recognition and actual consumption/consumption intention, given that it has a direct influence on them, and also an indirect influence through expectancies, this cannot be said with respect to slogan recall; although there is a clear influence from ad recognition to slogan recall for both audiences considered, no other hypotheses related to slogan recall stand statistically significant for none of both groups, what lead us to say that slogan plays a poor role in alcohol consumption. On the light of this evidence, there are many ideas and proposals to be made. Firstly, it is shown that advertising restrictions undertaken by public regulators on media are useful for reducing alcohol consumption intention among young people. In fact, in many countries there should be much more restrictive regulation, as it is extended the time and ways that underage individuals are exposed to mass media. The significant relationship between advertising and brand recall increases the likelihood of youth alcohol consumption, both enhancing motivations which increase positive expectancies of younger people, and reducing the constraints that generate the negative expectancies for both, younger and older individuals. Therefore, unless it is obvious that advertising is not the only socialization agent, a responsible self-control among professional and creative executives should be implemented in order to restrict the different roles shown at advertisements, and also a wider restriction on the media and contexts where alcohol ads can be displayed. Secondly, for advertisers, creative executives and product managers whose target group is individuals over eighteen years old, the marginal role of slogan recall on the attitude modification process does not have

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a direct effect on alcohol consumption but is a useful tool for positioning a brand at the mind of the customer. Since alcohol advertising processing, in this product category, seems to be peripheral (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981; 1986), slogans should emphasize tactical aspects and associate the brand with positive aspects of execution, such as roles, locations, colors, special effects, and so on. Nevertheless, and considering that for underage people the level of ad liking influences in all advertising effectiveness measures analyzed in this paper, creative executives should separate from cues specially relevant for adolescents and towards which they respond positively, such as animals, humor or musical elements as Waiters et al (2001) have proved. To conclude, it is worthy to remark the fact that although law throughout different countries gives special attention to protecting young consumers from alcoholic beverages advertising, parents should explain, as much as possible, what are the goals of advertising and how they have to be interpreted. Moreover, information programs should be implemented in both primary and secondary schools, in order to reduce positive expectancies and increment the negatives ones related to alcohol consumption. The results obtained in this study, as well as the proposed actions, are in line of the suggestions made by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2010) about the policy options and interventions wished for reducing the harmful use of alcohol, in the marketing context (Area 6 of the policy options and interventions, pp.15). The WHO considers the necessity to reduce the impact of marketing, particularly on young people and adolescents, and recognizes the difficulty to target young adult consumers without exposing cohorts of adolescents under the legal age to the same marketing, so the content of alcohol marketing as well as the amount of exposure of young people to that marketing are crucial issues. The World Health Organization (2010, pp.15) proposes setting up regulatory or co-regulatory frameworks, preferably with a legislative basis, and supported when appropriate by self-regulatory measures for alcohol marketing by: (i) regulating the content and the volume of marketing, as well as (ii) regulating direct or indirect marketing in certain or all media, between other measures.

6

References

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The Effectiveness of Emotional and Rational Regulatory (In)congruent Messages for a Fair Trade Campaign Erlinde Cornelis, Ghent University, Belgium Leen Adams, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Verolien Cauberghe, Ghent University, Belgium

1

Introduction

According to research on message framing, messages that are factually equivalent, but framed differently, often lead to differences in persuasion (Yi and Baumgartner, 2009). Most previous research on message framing has compared message frames that differ in overall valence, i.e., positive frames versus negative frames (Rothman and Salovey, 1997; Levin et al., 1998). Message framing in terms of a prevention versus promotion outcome focus lately received an increased academic interest. This way of framing is based on the self-regulatory focus theory of Higgins (1997), stating that people can be classified as either relatively more promotion-focused or relatively more prevention-focused. Furthermore, this theory proposes that message (frame) effectiveness depends on consumers’ underlying motivational orientations (e.g., Aaker and Lee, 2001). That is, when the message frame is congruent to the viewer’s self-regulatory focus, the message is assumed to be more effective (Higgins, 2002). Although ample evidence supporting this regulatory congruency principle has been found (e.g., Latimer, et al., 2007; Yi and Baumgartner, 2008), the boundaries of this principle are still insufficiently studied. So far, studies have mainly focused on differently framed rational messages. To our knowledge, no studies were conducted yet to scrutinize the effectiveness of differently framed emotional messages despite the importance of emotions in consumer decision-making and their use in realistic ads (Pham, 1998). Therefore, the current study wants to complement prior academic research by examining the moderating role of message type (i.e., rational vs. emotional) on the effectiveness of regulatory congruent versus incongruent messages.

2

Hypotheses

Higgins’ self-regulatory focus theory (1997) describes a promotion focus as a tendency to focus on the presence or absence of positive outcomes and a prevenS. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_7, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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tion focus as a tendency to focus on the presence or absence of negative outcomes. The self-regulatory focus can be either measured as a personality trait or can be temporarily induced (Higgins, 1997). An important finding in the framework of the self-regulatory focus theory is the congruency principle (Higgins, 2000). That is, people experience regulatory congruency when exposed to a message that matches with their inner selfregulatory focus (Higgins, 2000). Regulatory congruency has been found to boost message effectiveness (e.g., Zhao and Pechmann, 2007; Aaker and Lee, 2001). However, it is questionable whether a congruency effect always holds. Previous studies did found mixed results concerning the congruency effect: in certain contexts, an incongruency effect or no effect at all was found. For example, schema congruity theory argues that sometimes, incongruency between the message and its receiver can be more effective than congruency (Mandler, 1982). Also, building on the self-regulatory focus, Wang and Lee (2006) found a regulatory congruency effect in a low involvement context, but not in a high involvement context. Moreover, previous studies have mainly addressed the regulatory congruency principle in a merely rational context (e.g., Yi and Baumgartner, 2009), while, to our knowledge, an emotional context has been neglected so far. Therefore, the current study will assess the moderating role of the message type (i.e., rational versus emotional messages) on the effectiveness of regulatory congruent versus incongruent messages. According to the ‘affect-as-information’ heuristic, when a message is emotional, respondents can use emotions as a valuable input for their subsequent evaluations (Pham, 1998; Schwarz, 1990). However, not all people are naturally inclined to rely on their emotions. It has been shown that reliance on affect (versus cognition) depends on one’s self-regulatory focus (Pham and Avnet, 2004). More precisely, prevention-focused individuals are less likely to rely on affect than promotion-focused individuals. They tend to be more vigilant and externally rather than internally focused (Pham and Avnet, 2009). As a result, it is expected that affect is less salient to prevention-focused than to promotion-focused individuals (Kramer and Yoon, 2007). However, the salience of emotional arguments could also be determined by the characteristics of the message itself. More precisely, affect could be more salient by making the message frame incongruent to the self-regulatory focus of the receiver (Kramer and Yoon, 2007). This is in line with schema congruity theory, postulating that people make judgments by evaluating new stimuli against existing expectations (Mandler, 1982). While congruency results in little arousal, incongruency results in higher

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levels of arousal (Mandler, 1975, 1982) and, as a result, attracts more attention and is more salient than congruent information (Mandler, 1982). Based on the above, we expect that salience, created by regulatory incongruency, will be especially important for prevention-focused people when processing an emotional message, as they are not used to rely on affect (Pham and Avnet, 2004, 2009; Kramer and Yoon, 2007). Therefore, we hypothesize the following: H1: When the message is emotional, prevention-focused individuals will indicate a more positive Aad, Ab and PI when the message is incongruent with their self-regulatory focus than when the message is incongruent with their self-regulatory focus. This effect will be less pronounced for promotionfocused individuals. When a message is rational (instead of emotional), comprehensibility, rather than salience, will be of crucial importance for message effectiveness (Eagly, 1974). Prior research has found that messages being congruent (versus incongruent) with one’s self-regulatory focus could enhance comprehensibility, processing fluency and subsequently result in more favourable judgments (Lee and Aaker, 2004). Following this reasoning, we can expect that, when exposed to a rational message, people will prefer a message to be congruent (as opposed to incongruent) to their self-regulatory focus. In line with this, Avnet and Higgins (2006) suggested that the regulatory congruency effect might be especially important in a rational condition. Again, we expect a difference between promotion- and prevention-focused individuals, as Pham and Avnet (2004, 2009) found that prevention-focused individuals are naturally more inclined to rely on message substance than on affect, whereas the reverse is true for promotion-focused individuals. So, we could assume that promotion-focused individuals rely less on message substance than prevention-focused individuals. Therefore, when exposed to a rational message, there will be stronger congruency effects for promotion-focused people (as opposed to prevention-focused people), as promotion-focused people are not used to rely on message substance (Pham and Avnet, 2004, 2009; Lee and Aaker, 2004). Hence, we hypothesize the following: H2: When the message is rational, promotion-focused individuals will indicate a more positive Aad, Ab, and PI when the message is congruent with their regulatory focus than when the message is incongruent with their regulatory focus. This effect will be less pronounced for prevention-focused individuals.

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Method Design and Stimuli

A 2 (chronic self-regulatory focus: prevention vs. promotion) x 2 (message’s regulatory focus: prevention vs. promotion) x 2 (message type: rational vs. emotional) between-subject factorial experimental design was used. Message frame and message type were manipulated into four different messages. In addition, each respondent’s chronic self-regulatory focus was measured using a selfreported scale. The stimuli were pretested among 53 respondents. The results show that the emotional message (M = 5.21) scored significantly higher on the emotionality (versus rationality) scale than the rational message (M = 2.84), (t (51) = 5.83, p < .001). Similarly, respondents rated the promotion focused message (M = 5.96) significantly higher on promotion focus (versus prevention focus) scale than the prevention focused message (M = 2.75), (t (51) = 7.26, p < .001). For this study, ads for fair trade bananas were chosen, because fair trade is a suitable topic for developing rational as well as emotional campaigns. In reality, both rational and emotional fair trade campaigns have been launched with success, indicating that fair trade is a topic fitting both in a rational as well as an emotional persuasion context.

3.2

Participants and Procedures

Data were collected from 284 participants by an online questionnaire. The sample consisted of 54.6 % women, with an average age of 33.12, ranging between 16 and 74 years. The participants were randomly assigned to the four experimental conditions.

3.3

Measures

Chronic self-regulatory focus was measured using the 18 items seven-point Likert scale of Lockwood et al. (2002), containing a promotion dimension (e.g., “I typically focus on the success I hope to achieve in the future.”) (α = .73) and a prevention dimension focus (e.g., “I often imagine myself experiencing bad things that I fear might happen to me.”) (α = .64). Message’s regulatory focus was measured by means of one single item on a seven-point semantic differential scale (i.e., “This advertisement mainly focuses on the avoidance of negative results for the farmers in the South.” versus “This advertisement mainly focuses

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on the achievement of positive results for the farmers in the South.”). Message type (rational versus emotional) was measured by a four-item seven-point semantic differential scale by Liu and Stout (1987) (e.g., “I think this advertisement is logical versus emotional.”) (α = .801). Aad was measured by the semantic scale of Mitchell and Olson (1981) (e.g., “I like versus dislike this message”) (α = .92). Ab was assessed by seven bipolar items of Bower and Landreth (2001) (e.g., “I consider the brand to be good versus bad”) (α = .94). The scale of Petrevu and Lord (1994) was used to asses purchase intention (e.g., “It is very likely that I will purchase Oxfam Fairtrade”) (α = .89).

4 4.1

Results Manipulation Check

The manipulation check revealed that the emotional message (M = 4.37) was considered significantly more emotional (versus rational) than the rational message (M = 2.91), (t (282) = 12.51, p < .001). In addition, the respondents rated the promotion focused message (M = 5.58) significantly higher on promotion focus (versus prevention focus) scale than the prevention focused message (M = 4.27), (t (282) = 7.49, p < .001).

4.2

Test of the Hypotheses

To assess the hypotheses, three one-way ANOVA’s were performed. A significant three-way interaction effect appeared among respondents’ regulatory focus, the message’s regulatory focus, and message type on Aad (F (1, 262) = 6.29, p < .05), on Ab (F (1, 262) = 3.92, p < .05), and on PI (F (1, 262) = 9.68, p < .005).

4.2.1

Emotional Messages

Prevention-focused respondents reported a significantly higher Aad towards the incongruent (i.e., promotion-focused) emotional message (M = 5.47) than towards the congruent (i.e., prevention-focused) emotional message (M = 4.53), (t (69) = 4.29, p < .001), while for promotion-focused respondents, no distinct preference for the incongruent (M = 5.32) over the congruent emotional message (M = 5.38) was found (t (62) = 0.27, p = 0.78) (see figure 1). Preventionfocused people also indicated a significantly higher Ab after exposure to the incongruent (i.e., promotion-focused) emotional message (M = 5.74) than to the congruent (i.e., prevention-focused) emotional message (M = 4.89), (t (69) =

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3.84, p < .001), while for promotion-focused respondents, no different response was found after exposure to the incongruent emotional message (M = 5.49) versus after exposure to the congruent emotional message (5.75), (t (62) = 1.03, p = 0.31) (see figure 2). Finally, prevention-focused people also indicated a significantly higher PI after being exposed to the incongruent (i.e., promotionfocused) emotional message (M = 4.69) than after being exposed to the congruent (i.e., prevention-focused) emotional message (M = 3.56), (t (69) = 3.96, p < .001). While again, for promotion-focused respondents, no difference in reaction was found after seeing the incongruent emotional message (M = 4.75) versus after seeing the congruent emotional message (M = 4.41), (t(62) = -0.94, p = 0.35) (see figure 3). Hence, hypothesis 1 was fully supported.

Figure 1: Attitude toward the ad (Aad) for an emotional message

The Effectiveness of Emotional and Rational Regulatory (In)congruent Messages

Figure 2: Attitude toward the brand (Ab) for an emotional message

Figure 3: Purchase intention (PI) for an emotional message

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Rational Messages

Promotion-focused respondents reported a significantly higher Aad towards the congruent (i.e., promotion-focused) rational message (M = 5.10) than towards the incongruent (i.e., prevention-focused) rational message (M = 4.51), (t (66) = 2.10, p < .05). While for prevention-focused respondents, no preference between the congruent rational message (M = 4.40) or the incongruent rational message (M = 4.59) was found (t (58) = 0.69, p = 0.49) (see figure 4). Promotion-focused people also indicated a significantly higher Ab for the congruent (i.e., promotion-focused) rational message (M = 5.55) than for the incongruent (i.e., prevention-focused) rational message (M = 4.96), (t (66) = 2.18, p < .05), while for prevention-focused respondents, no preference between the congruent rational message (M = 4.85) or the incongruent rational message (M = 5.00) was found (t(58) = 0.59, , p = 0.56) (see figure 5). Furthermore, promotion-focused people indicated a significantly higher PI towards the congruent (i.e., promotionfocused) rational message (M = 4.50) than towards the incongruent (i.e., prevention-focused) rational message (M = 3.75), (t (66) = 2.58, p < .05), while for prevention-focused respondents, no preference between the congruent rational message (M = 4.23) or the incongruent rational message (M = 4.46), (t(58) = 0.69, p = 0.49) was found (see figure 6). Hence, hypothesis 2 was fully supported.

Figure 4: Attitude toward the ad (Ad) for a rational message

The Effectiveness of Emotional and Rational Regulatory (In)congruent Messages

Figure 5: Attitude toward the brand (Ab) for a rational message

Figure 6: Purchase intention (PI) for a rational message

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Discussions and Conclusions

The regulatory congruency principle (Higgins, 2000) emphasizes the importance of regulatory congruency in order to obtain more effective messages. However, this study found that the effectiveness of regulatory congruency depends on the message type (i.e., rational or emotional messages). For emotional messages, the results show that, an incongruency effect appeared for prevention focused individuals, who do not generally monitor their internal states. For them, in order for emotions to be relied on by and to be effective for prevention-focused individuals, these emotions should be made salient by making the message’s regulatory frame incongruent to the viewers’ chronic self-regulatory focus (Kramer and Yoon, 2007). In line with schema congruity theory (Mandler, 1982), this result appears to be driven by the salience of incongruent versus congruent information. Furthermore, our finding that promotion-focused people have no significant preference in terms of Aad, Ab, or PI for congruent or incongruent emotional messages, supports the idea that promotion-focused individuals tend to rely on emotions in general, regardless of the message’s regulatory frame (Pham and Avnet, 2004; Kramer and Yoon, 2007). Looking at rational messages, we rather found the opposite. Promotionfocused people reacted more favourably to a rational message that is congruent (versus incongruent) with their self-regulatory focus, whereas congruency or incongruency was of no importance for prevention-focused people. We believe that, as promotion-focused people are less used to rely on the substance of a message, it is more difficult for them to process rational messages (Pham and Avnet, 2004). Matching the rational message’s regulatory focus with viewers’ self-regulatory focus enhances comprehensibility, processing fluency and could, therefore, result in more positive evaluations. Hence, the finding that promotionfocused individuals indicate a more positive Aad, Ab, and PI when a rational message is congruent (as opposed to incongruent) to their self-regulatory focus, supports earlier found congruency effects (Latimer, et al., 2007; Zhao and Pechmann, 2007). Our finding that prevention-focused people have no distinct preference in terms of Aad, Ab, or PI for congruent or incongruent rational messages, supports the idea that prevention-focused people have less difficulties with processing and relying on substance, and are, therefore, also less influenced by the message’s regulatory frame (Pham and Avnet, 2004; Kramer and Yoon, 2007).

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Limitations and Further Research

In this study, only one type of emotions, namely positively valenced emotions, are examined. This limitation provides possibilities for further research to assess the effect of different types of emotions, including negatively framed emotions. Also, the use of mixed-emotions within prevention- or promotion framed messages could be an interesting direction for further research. Secondly, only one message topic is examined in the current study, namely “fair trade”. Further research can look at other topics as well. For instance, an advertisement for products that are considered more utilitarian versus hedonic could evoke different preferences in terms of regulatory orientation of the ad (Pham and Avnet, 2006). Next, based on Feldman and Lynch’s (1988) accessibility-diagnosticity model, further research should also measure the ‘accessibility’ and the ‘perceived diagnosticity’, to examine the underlying mechanism of the congruency effect. In addition, it would also be highly relevant for further research to unravel the underlying mechanism supporting the incongruency effect. Lastly, the sample in this study was based on the snowball method. Further studies should enlarge the sample size and use different sampling methods.

7

References

Aaker, J.L. & Lee, A.Y (2001). “I” Seek Pleasures and “we” Avoid Pains: The Role of SelfRegulatory Goals in Information Processing and Persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research, 28, 33-49. Avnet, T. & Higgins, E.T. (2006). How Regulatory Fit Affects Value in Consumer Choices and Opinions. Journal of Marketing Research, 43, 1-10. Bower, A. B. & Landreth, S. (2001). Is Beauty Best? Highly versus Normally Attractive Models in Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 30, 1-12. Cesario, J. & Higgins, E.T. (2008). Making Message Recipients “Feel Right”. How Nonverbal Cues Can Increase Persuasion. Psychological Science, 19 (5), 415-420. Chandy, R.K., Gerard, J.T., Macinnis, D.J. &. Thaivanich, R. (2001). What to Say When: Advertising Appeals in Evolving Markets. Journal of Marketing Research, 38, 399-414. Eagly, A.H. (1974). Comprehensibility of Persuasive Arguments as a Determinant of Opinion Change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29 (6), 758-773. Feldman, J.M. & Lynch, J.G.Jr. (1988). Self-Generated Validity and Other Effects of Measurement on Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 421-735. Higgins, E.T. (1997). Beyond Pleasure and Pain. American Psychologist, 52 (12), 1280-1300. Higgins, E.T. (2000). Making a Good Decision: Value From Fit. American Psychologist, 55, 121-1230. Kramer, T. &. Yoon, S. (2007). Approach-Avoidance Motivation and the Use of Affect as Information. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17 (2), 128-138. Latimer, A.E. Rivers, S.E., Rench, T.A., Katulak, N.A., Hicks, A., Hodorowski, J.K.; Higgins, E.T. & Salovey, P. (2007). A Field Experiment Testing the Utility of Regulatory Fit Messages for Promoting Physical Activity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 826-832.

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Lee, A. & Aaker, J. (2004). Bringing the Frame into Focus: The Influence of Regulatory Fit on Processing Fluency and Persuasion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 86, 205-218. Liu, S. S. & Stout, P.A. (1987). Effects of Message Modality and Appeal on Advertising Acceptance. Psychology & Marketing, 4 (3), 167-187. Lockwood, P.; Jordan, C. H. & Kunda, Z. (2002). Motivation by Positive or Negative Role Models: Regulatory Focus Determines Who Will Best Inspire Us. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 83, 854-864. Mandler, G. (1975). Mind & Emotions, New York: Wiley. Mandler, G. (1982). The Structure of Value: Accounting For Taste, in Margaret, H.; Clarke, S. and S. T. Fiske (eds). Affect and Cognition: The 17th Annual Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, 336. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Petrevu, S. & Lord, K.R. (1994). Comparative and Noncomparative Advertising: Attitudinal Effects Under Cognitive and Affective Involvement Conditions. Journal of Advertising, 23 (2), 77-90. Pham, M. T. & Avnet, T. (2004). Ideals and Oughts and the Reliance on Affect versus Substance in Persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research, 30, 503-517. Pham, M. T. & Avnet, T. (2009). Contingent Reliance on the Affect Heuristic as a Function of Regulatory Focus. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108 (2), 267-278. Pham, M. T. & Avnet, T. (2009). Rethinking Regulatory Engagement Theory. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29 (2), 115-123. Schwarz, N. (1990). Feelings as Information: Informational and Motivational Functions of Affective States. In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition (521- 561). New York: Guilford. Wang, J. & Lee, Y.A. (2006). The Role of Regulatory Focus in Preference Construction. Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (1), 28-38. Yi, S. & Baumgartner, H. (2008). Motivational Compatibility and the Role of Anticipated Feelings in Positively Valenced Persuasive Message Framing. Psychology & Marketing, 25 (11), 10071026. Yi, S. & Baumgartner, H. (2009). Regulatory Focus and Message Framing: A Test of Three Accounts. Motivation & Emotion, 33 (4), 435-443. Zhao, G. & Pechmann, C. (2007). The Impact of Regulatory Focus on Adolescents’ Response to Anti Smoking Advertising Campaigns. Journal of Marketing Research, 44, 671-687.

The Impact of Personality Differences on Efficacy, Attitude and Behavioural Intention in HIV/AIDS Fear Appeal Advertising Marlize Terblanche-Smit, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Nic S. Terblanche, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

1

Introduction

Social advertising campaigns address anti-social behavior and pandemics, like HIV/AIDS, with the intention to bring about social change. The effectiveness of advertising is strongly influenced by its ability to target a specific, preferably homogeneous, target market. Advertising in South Africa is often targeted at a heterogeneous audience with a standardized message. The HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa is a major concern, especially amongst adolescents, and the main advertising campaign LoveLife does not seem to be producing the desired results. The use of fear as an advertising appeal raises the question on the appropriate severity of the threat. Furthermore theory points out that external influences should be included when evaluating beliefs. These influences include cultural background, perceived vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection and personality traits, which may have a mediating influence on attitudes, norms and selfefficacy beliefs (Fishbein, 2000). This study investigated whether the use of fear in HIV/AIDS communication increases the likelihood of adopting appropriate behavior amongst adolescents. The influence of personality traits on efficacy beliefs, attitude and behavioral intention were examined.

2

Contextualisation and Literature Overview

Fear is one of the most important secondary drivers of human action (Hergenhahn and Olson, 2003). Fear appeal literature indicate that fear can be described by mood adjectives, including feeling frightened or anxious, and also via ratings of concern or worry (Henthorne et al., 1993; LaTour and Tanner, 2003; LaTour and Rotfeld, 1997; Rogers, 1983). Fear is caused by a threat that is perceived to S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_8, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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be substantial and personally relevant to individuals (Easterling and Leventhal, 1989; Ortony and Turner, 1990). The question often raised in fear appeal advertising is the appropriate severity of the threat. (Rotfeld, 2000). Different models to improve the effectiveness of fear appeal have been proposed. Tay, Ozanne and Santiono (2000) recommend the utilization of fear appeals should be segment specific as fear appeals have been found to influence various population segments differently (Burnett and Wilkes, 1980; Burnett and Oliver, 1979; Quinnet al., 1992). According to the EPPM (Extended Parallel Process Model), based on previous fear appeal theoretical approaches (Janis, 1967; Leventhal, 1971; Rogers, 1983), threat motivates action, and perceived efficacy determines whether the action taken controls the danger (protective behavior) or controls the fear (inhibits protective behavior), as indicated in Figure 1. Perceived response efficacy refers to an individual's beliefs that a response effectively prevents the threat (i.e. “I believe condoms prevent HIV contraction”), and perceived self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her ability to perform a recommended response (i.e. “I think that I can use condoms to prevent HIV contraction”) (Rogers, 1983). If the results of a survey indicated high threat and high efficacy, then it could be stated that the intervention was producing the desired actions (Witte and Allen, 2000). Individual differences however influence the assessment of threat and efficacy. Individuals evaluate the components of a message relative to their prior experiences, culture, and personality characteristics (Witte, 1992). Fishbein (2000) pointed out that self-efficacy is one variable that can be seen as a function of underlying determinants that include beliefs about the outcome of behaviour, social and normative prescriptions within a population, and specific barriers to such actions. Therefore, external influences should be included when evaluating the following beliefs: cultural background, perceived vulnerability to HIV infection and personality traits that may have a mediating influence on attitudes, norms and self-efficacy beliefs.

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Action: Control danger Control fear

Threat

Perceived efficacy

Figure1: The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) (adapted from Witte and Allen, 2000)

HIV/AIDS research shows that about 50 percent of HIV infections in South Africa are transmitted to people before the age of 20, with more than 5 million HIV positive people in a country with a population of 48 million (Avert, 2008). LoveLife is South Africa’s foremost multi-million dollar HIV/AIDS prevention campaign (US$12 million/annum) that does not seem to be producing the desired results in changing social behaviour. Subsequently, the campaign became the world's first organisation to have its funding discontinued by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, during December 2005. The discontinuance of monetary support reflects debate about the effectiveness of LoveLife's HIV-prevention programme and the viability of behaviour-changing AIDS education (Peng, 2006).

3

Purpose of the Study

The focus of this research study is on the use of fear appeal advertising pertaining to HIV/AIDS and whether the use of fear increases the likelihood of adopting appropriate safe sexual behavior among adolescents. It examines the influence of high, medium, and low/no fear appeal based advertising on fear for HIV/AIDS infection. The influence of personality traits as an external influence on efficacy beliefs, attitude and behavioral intention are also examined. Based on the research objectives, the following hypotheses were proposed when using low-, medium- and high-fear appeal advertising stimuli respectively. H01 Fear arousal is positively influenced by the level of fear appeal; H02 Attitude towards the advertisement is positively influenced by the level of fear appeal; H03 Intention to adapt sexual behaviour is positively influenced by the

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level of fear appeal; H04 Efficacy level is negatively influenced by the level of fear appeal. H05 Personality characteristics positively influence efficacy, fear, attitude and intention.

4

Research Method

Exploratory qualitative research was conducted to select appropriate advertisements to be used in the study. This was followed by an experimental research study to measure individual constructs.

4.1

Exploratory Qualitative Research

Advertisements selection was made from various sources including fifty different websites using a key word search for ‘HIV/AIDS advertising’. The age of the actors in the advertisement (18-30 years) were used as principle selection criteria. Nine print advertisements and ten television commercials were selected for the qualitative research, and used as experimental stimuli. The different advertisements were ranked on a continuum of low/no fear to high fear by the respondents, and shown from low to high fear to prevent desensitizing respondents.

4.2

Experimental Research

Based on the results from the qualitative research three advertisements including low, medium and high fear appeals for print and television were selected for use in the experimental research. The advertisements were tested for face validity by senior academics, as well as advertising and marketing research practitioners. A pre-test post-test, 3 X 2 between subjects, experimental design was used to collect data from 360 respondents. A 17 item self-completion questionnaire (5 point Likert type scale) with statements based on risk behavior diagnosis (Witte, 1998) was completed prior to intervention and post-intervention. Three experimental groups were exposed to print, and three to television advertisements, as an intervention, with each cell exposed to only one type of fear appeal. Fear arousal was measured postintervention by ratings of six mood adjectives to indicate the fear experienced. Adapted instruments of LaTour and Tanner (2003) and LaTour and Rotfeld (1997) were used to measure attitude towards the various fear appeal advertisements (5 statements on a 5 point Likert type scale), and behavioural intent (4

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statements of a 5 point Likert type scale), after the intervention. Efficacy measurements included response efficacy (effectiveness of suggested response, i.e. “Using condoms is effective in preventing HIV infection”) and self efficacy (ability to carry out the suggested response, i.e. “I am able to use condoms to prevent getting HIV infection”). The Single-Item Measures of Personality (SIMP) scale, were used to measure five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness and openness/ intellect) of respondents. The SIMP demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in previous research (Woods and Hampson, 2005) and its use is specifically recommended for research studies where time is limited, for pilot research, and for other research that require respondents to provide multiple personality ratings of themselves (Saucier and Goldberg, 1996; Smith and Snell, 1996; Van der Zee et al., 2002; Woods and Hampson, 2005).

4.3

Data Collection and Sample

Adolescents between the ages of 18 and 24 years, from the three main racial groups in South Africa were identified as the research population, and were invited to participate in the research via an independent fieldwork research company. Quota sampling was used to draw respondents from the target population. Respondents represented educated, middle to upper income groups who had access to television and print media and advertising. The sample size for the four focus groups included 10 respondents per group. The experimental research (n=360) included 60 respondents per experimental cell with an equal male and female split, and 20 respondents per racial group, namely Black African, White and Coloured.

5

Major Findings

The following major findings have been derived at based on the qualitative and experimental research.

5.1

Fear, Attitude, Intention and Efficacy

Reliability of summed scales used to measure fear, attitude and behavioral intention was confirmed with Cronbach alphas of 0.81, 0.72 and 0.71 respectively.

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Analysis of variance (ANOVA) comparisons indicated significant mean differences for type of fear appeal (p<0.0001), namely low, medium and high fear appeals. This showed that respondents were more afraid of contracting HIV after exposure to medium fear appeals than low fear appeals, as well as for high fear appeals than low fear appeals, confirming H01. Attitude and behavioral intention constructs’ ANOVA comparisons indicated significant mean differences for fear appeal (p < 0.01). This revealed that respondents’ attitude toward the advertisements, as well as their intention to adapt behavior was more positive after exposure to medium fear appeals than low fear appeals, as well as for high fear appeals than low fear appeals, confirming H02 and H03. A smaller change in attitude was evident from the medium to high groups than from the low to medium groups, as depicted in Figure 2. Interestingly the Black respondents’ attitude was more negative after exposure to high than medium fear appeal advertisements. This could indicate that their perceived efficacy made them feel less in control at the highest fear level, and they could possibly react by controlling the fear, which inhibits protective behavior.

Current effect: F(4, 326)=2.7033, p=.03053 Vertical bars denote 0.95 confidence intervals 5

attitude

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3

2

1 low fear

medium fear appeal

high fear

Race black Race coloured Race white

Figure 2: Means plot for attitude and fear appeal type per respondent group

Pre- and post-test response- and self-efficacy measures were conducted for both condom usage and safe sexual behavior. Cronbach’s alpha scores for individual items ranged between 0.6 and 0.7 for both pre- and post-tests. ANOVA

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comparisons indicated that pre-and post-tests for all groups pertaining to efficacy for condom usage resulted in a significant interaction for time with fear (p=0.007). Respondents’ efficacy showed a downward movement after exposure to medium and high fear appeals, and an upward movement when exposed to low fear appeals. Medium and high fear appeal exposure thus caused respondents to be more afraid of HIV/AIDS and less in control (lower efficacy) in terms of condom usage in general and believing they can easily use condoms to prevent HIV infection, confirming H04. ANOVA comparisons denoted no significant time effect for efficacy in terms of safe sexual behavior, which indicated that respondents’ response efficacy in terms of safe sexual behavior didn’t change after exposure to the various fear appeal advertisements.

5.2

Personality

Respondents rated themselves as average to more extraverted ( x = 4.3) on the reversed extraversion scale (1=highest; 9=lowest). The agreeableness score ( x = 6.2), indicated that respondents viewed themselves as generally trusting and forgiving, interested in people, but can sometimes be taken for granted, as per the description of this trait. The emotional stability score ( x = 4.6) illustrated that respondents saw themselves as average in terms of emotional stability, thus somewhat sensitive and relaxed, somewhat excitable and unemotional, somewhat tense and rarely irritated. Respondents’ conscientiousness score ( x = 4.7), was average for the reversed scale for conscientiousness (1=highest; 9=lowest), revealing somewhat diligent and precise, and somewhat inflexible personality traits. The openness/intellect score ( x = 5.9) was slightly above average for openness/intellect, and respondents were therefore somewhat more reflective, with an active imagination (Smith and Snell, 1996; Van der Zee et al., 2002; Woods and Hampson, 2005). Since this research study was based on the fear emotion, it was decided to investigate the emotional stability of respondents to ascertain whether there were any differences among the different respondent groups. A one-way analysis of variance for emotional stability indicated significant mean differences for race (p < 0.02). The means plot, Figure 3, illustrates a downward trend for white respondents. White respondents thus felt less emotionally stable than black and coloured respondents, and saw themselves as below average in terms of emotional stability. This finding was confirmed with Bonferonni tests indicating significant differences between black and white respondents, as well as between coloured and white respondents. Both black and coloured respondents rated themselves as average in terms of emotional stability.

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In this instance, white respondents felt more sensitive and excitable and indicated that they can be tense. Black and coloured respondents rated themselves as somewhere in between, thus somewhat sensitive and relaxed, somewhat excitable and unemotional, somewhat tense and rarely irritated (Woods and Hampson, 2005:388).

Current effect: F(2, 335)=4.0297, p=0.02 Kruskal-Wallis p=0.03 Vertical bars denote 0.95 confidence intervals 9 8

emotional stability

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 black

coloured

white

Race

Figure 3: Means plot for emotional stability and race

5.2.1

Personality Correlations

The correlation coefficients between the personality variables and fear, attitude, intention, self-efficacy (use of condoms) and response efficacy (safe sexual behavior), were calculated. Spearman’s ps were used as a measure of nonmetric correlation to examine the correlations between the said variables. The measures relied on rankings and varied between -1.0 and +1.0 (Malhotra and Birks, 2007). It is important to note that the correlations were not strong, however they were still deemed useful to indicate the relationships between variables. The following relationships between variables were evident, thus confirming a slightly positive relationship as indicated in H05.

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A positive correlation (r = 0.10) was found between agreeableness and selfefficacy (belief that I can use condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS). This pointed out that respondents’ agreeableness was associated with their efficacy levels for condom usage; consequently, the higher respondents measured on agreeableness, the higher their efficacy levels for condom usage. Emotional stability and attitude returned a negative correlation (r = -0.09). This finding indicated that the higher respondents measured on emotional stability, the lower their attitude towards the various fear appeal advertisements. A negative correlation (r = -0.10) was also found for emotional stability and intention, which points to a decrease in intention to adapt sexual behavior when emotional stability increased. Conscientiousness and attitude towards the advertisements presented a negative correlation (r = -0.14). A low score for conscientiousness, on the reversed scale, indicated that respondents were highly conscientious. This indicated that respondents’ conscientiousness influenced their attitudes towards the various advertisements positively. A negative correlation (r = -0.10) was found for openness/intellect and fear. Consequently, the higher respondents measured on openness/intellect, the lower their fear experienced.

6

Implications and Conclusions

Fear as an approach to increase vulnerability is an important element in HIV/AIDS communication that should be considered for future advertising development. The results of this study support the notion that respondents will change their attitude and behavior (safe sex and abstinence) after exposure to medium and high fear advertisements. Self-efficacy levels for condom usage was high even after exposure to medium and high fear appeal messages, and suggests that adolescents believe they can use condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS infection. High response-efficacy levels pertaining to safe sexual behavior highlights that respondents would weigh their risk of actually experiencing the threat (high fear appeal) against actions they can take that would minimize or prevent the threat of HIV/AIDS infection and in this instance revert to safe sexual behavior. Results of the personality correlations support the notion that HIV/AIDS advertising can be tailored to specific combined personality profiles for adolescents. Adolescents’ agreeableness added to their self-efficacy belief that they can use condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS infection. Conscientiousness also influences their attitudes towards advertisements positively. The openness/intellect of this group is also high and this aspect causes them to experience slightly less fear.

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Furthermore, when adolescent’s emotional stability is higher their attitude and intention to adapt their sexual behavior is less. White respondents, however, felt less emotionally stable than Black and Coloured respondents. If adolescents feel above average in terms of emotional stability, this could drive them to be over confident and less scared of contracting HIV/AIDS. A key issue of this research study concerns the overall implications of the outcomes for future advertising. Future HIV/AIDS advertising campaigns targeted at adolescents should be developed to communicate the target audiences’ susceptibility to the disease and should ensure that adolescents experience relevant fear levels. This will drive them to change the way they think about HIV/AIDS, which will ultimately influence them to modify their sexual behaviour to safe sexual behaviour. The understanding of behaviour remains the key for advertising specialists to take up the challenge to curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic in a scientifically responsible manner. From this study it is evident that racial characteristics also play a role in reaction to fear appeals. It is however important to note that different approaches can be used to develop HIV/AIDS communication that is effective in changing behaviour. The problem is not easily solved and when this approach is placed in a larger societal context other approaches apart from targeted advertising campaigns aimed at specific racial groups can be used. Other approaches could include investigating adolescents’ susceptibility to HIV/AIDS or investigating message content to improve effectiveness. Emotional development in adolescence could play a role in young people’s responses to fear appeals. Therefore a replication of this study among younger adolescents, and comparison of different age groups, could prove to assist further development of fear appeal advertising. Furthermore, to see how the different dependent variables interrelate a model could be designed and tested using structural equation modeling.

7

References

Avert (2008), “The South African national HIV survey.” Available via ww.avert.org/safricastats.html.Accessed 10 Mar 2008. Burnett, J.J. & Wilkes, .E. (1980), “Fear appeals to segments only,” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 20(5), 21-24. Burnett, J.J. & Oliver, R.L. (1979), “Fear appeal effects in the field: a segmentation approach,” in: Journal of Marketing Research, 16, 181-190. Easterling, D.V. & Leventhal, H. (1989), “Contribution of concrete cognition to emotion: Neutral symptoms as elicitors of worry about cancer,” in: Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 787-796.

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Fishbein, M. (2000), “The role of theory in HIV prevention,” in: AIDS Care, 12(3), 77-278. Henthorne, T.L., LaTour, M.S. & Nataraajan,R. (1993), “Fear appeals in print advertising: an analysis of arousal and ad response,” Journal of Advertising, 22(2), 59-68. Hergenhahn, B.R. & Olson, M.H. (2003), “An introduction to theories of personality,” (6th ed.) Pearson Education, New Jersey. Janis, I.L. (1967), “Effects of fear arousal on attitude change: recent developments in theory and experimental research,” in Berkowitz, L. (ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (3rd ed.), Academic Press, New York, 166-225. LaTour, M.S. & Rotfeld, H.J. (1997), “There are threats and (maybe) fear-caused arousal: Theory and confusions of appeals to fear and fear arousal itself,” Journal of Advertising, 26(3), 45-59. LaTour, M.S. & Tanner,J.F. (2003), “Radon: Appealing to our fears,” Psycholology and Marketing, 20(5), 377-394. Leventhal, H. (1971), “Fear appeals and persuasion: the differentiation of a motivational construct,” American Journal of Public Health, 61(6), 1208-1224. Malhotra, N.K. & Birks, D.F. (2007), “Marketing research: An applied approach,” (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall, London. Ortony, A. & Turner, T.J. (1990), “What's basic about basic emotions!,” Psychological Review, 97, 315-331. Peng, T. (2006), “South Africa: LoveLife Faces Up to Funding Cuts And Critics,” In: Business Day. Available via. http://allafrica.com/stories/html, Accessed 12 Jun 2008. Quinn, V., Meenaghan, T. and Brannick, T. (1992), “Fear appeals: segmentation is the way to go,” International Journal of Advertising, 11, 355-366. Rogers, R.W. (1983), “Cognitive and physiological processes in fear appeals and attitude change: A revised theory of protection motivation,” in: L. Cacioppo and R. Petty (eds.), Social Psychophysiology, Guilford, New York, 153-176. Rotfeld, H.J. (2000), “The textbook effect: Conventional wisdom, myth, and error in marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 64(2), 122-127. Saucier, G. and Goldberg, L.R. (1996), “Evidence for the Big Five in analyses of familiar English personality adjectives,” European Journal of Personality, 10(1), 61-77. Smith, D.R. & Snell, W.E. (Jr.) (1996), “Goldberg's bipolar measure of the Big-Five personality dimensions: reliability and validity,” European Journal of Personality, 10(4), 283-299. Tay, R.; Ozanne, L. and Santiono, J. (2000), “Advertising and road safety: a segmentation approach,” Proceedings of ANZMAC 2000 Conference Visionary Marketing for the 21st Century: Facing the Challenges, 1248-1251, Australia. Van der Zee, K., Thijs, M. & Schakel, L. (2002), “The relationship of emotional intelligence with academic intelligence and the Big Five,” European Journal of Personality, 16(2), 103-125. Witte, K. (1992), “Putting the Fear Back into Fear Appeals: The Extended Parallel Process Model,” Communication Monograms, 59, 329-349. Witte, K. (1998), “Theory-based interventions and evaluation of outreach efforts,” Seattle, WA. in: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region. Available via http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/pnr/eval/witte.html, Accessed 17 May 2008. Witte, K. & Allen, M. (2000), “A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals: Implications for Effective Public Health Campaigns,” Health Education and Behavior, 27 (5), 591-615. Woods, S.A. & Hampson, S.E. (2005), “Measuring the Big Five with single items using a bipolar response scale,” European Journal of Personality, 19, 373-390.

Part III

Generation

The (B)old and the Beautiful: Investigating the Preference of Senior Consumers Concerning (the Age of) Models Used in Advertising Katarina Panic, Ghent University, Belgium Verolien Cauberghe, Ghent University, Belgium Delphine Verhoye, Ghent University, Belgium

1

Introduction

Today, it is estimated that 7.6 per cent of the world population is aged over 65 (CIA, 2009), making it the fastest-growing age segment in the world. Considering that older citizens do not only grow in number, but also in life expectancy and economic power, one would expect the elderly to receive a great amount of attention from advertisers. But even though marketing executives are aware of the importance of senior consumers, older models are rarely used in mainstream advertising. When they appear in advertisements, elderly are primarily depicted in a negative, stereotypical way (Gunter, 1998; Sikkel, 2004). Older models are mainly found in ads for ‘senior products’ like health products, often suggesting some form of physical impairment. However, these cliché images are far from the current reality. Today’s seniors are socially active, living an active and dynamic life. They are also a powerful consumer group with the means and the willingness to try out new things (Hanson, 1998). Nevertheless, almost no models older than 50 can be found in advertisements for general, age-universal products. This underrepresentation and stereotyping evokes feelings of dissatisfaction, frustration and even insult (Dutta-Bergman, 2006). Many older consumers become alienated from and disinterested in advertisements because they do not identify with the models used in advertisements. These emotions can negatively influence seniors’ attitudes towards advertising (and brands) and affect their purchase intention. While a series of studies revealed that older consumers would like to see more models of their own age in ads (e.g. Long, 1998), other research suggests that seniors do not wish to be confronted more models of their age group in advertisements (Greco, 1989; Carrigan and Szmigin, 1999). Therefore, the main question addressed in this study is: do senior consumers prefer seeing models of their own age, models who match their subjective age, or even younger models in advertising?

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Past research has found that the age of the model used in advertisements also has an influence on the models' credibility (Gunter, 1998). In this study, the relationship between the age of the models used in advertising and the perceived credibility is investigated for older consumers. In addition, the moderating influence of gender is studied to determine whether preferences regarding model likeability and credibility differ for male and female seniors. To conclude, the impact of model likeability and credibility on the advertising effectiveness (measured through attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions) is explored.

2 2.1

Conceptual Framework and Hypothesis Development Understanding the Older Consumer

After recognizing the potential of the growing group of senior consumers, the next step is to develop advertising campaigns that actually appeal to the elderly. This appears to be more complex than many marketers expect. Older consumers have different motivations and needs than the younger, mainstream audience that marketers are used to target. As consumers grow older, their preferences, taste and priorities change. Therefore, communication needs to be adjusted accordingly. Some authors (e.g., Chingching, 2008) state that it is best to use older models when targeting the more mature market. Others advise the use of models who are ten to fifteen years younger than the target audience (Loro, 1989; Sikkel, 2004), or argue that one should portray the target audience in the same way as they see themselves (e.g., Tréguer, 1998). So the question arises: how ‘old’ do older people see themselves? Who do they identify themselves with? In order to answer these questions, we investigate the role of models used in advertisements since they set an image of the product user and his or her lifestyle. After seeing a certain product being advertised by a certain model, consumers will categorize it as ‘something for me’ or ‘not something for me’. This way, the age of the model has an important influence on the consumers’ interest in the product and eventually on the purchase decision (Chingching, 2008).

2.2

The Role of Subjective Age

To disentangle the impact of the model’s age on advertising effectiveness, it is necessary to look at the concept subjective age or “the age one perceives one’s self to be” (Stephens, 1991, p.37). Subjective age considers how old people feel and how they perceive themselves, as opposed to how old they actually are (the

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objective or chronological age). Research shows that 60 to 75% of the people aged over 60 tend to see themselves ten to fifteen years younger than they actually are (Sudbury and Simcock, 2009). Accordingly, a study by the NCOA (2002) revealed that nearly half of the people aged over 65 actually consider themselves middle-aged or young. As consumers tend to buy brands and products that reflect their aspirational identity rather than their objective identity (Wolfe and Snyder, 2003), subjective age helps to achieve better targeting and more effective advertising content than objective age. According to Chingching (2008), people will evaluate products as less appropriate for them to use if the estimated age of the model in the advertisement differs too much from their own subjective age, making subjective age a much better criterion for predicting consumer responses to advertisements and purchase intention than the consumer’s objective age. The age of the model used in advertisements can also influence the perceived credibility of the message. The use of older characters can, for example, increase credibility of an advertisement (Gubernick, 1996). Since seniors identify themselves most with models who’s age matches their own subjective age (i.e. models who are ten to fifteen years younger than they are), we expect that seniors will like these models most and also perceive them as the most credible spokesperson. This leads to the following hypothesis: H1: “An advertisement showing a model from the subjective age category will lead to a higher model likeability and a higher perceived credibility than an advertisement showing a younger model, or a model from the objective age category” According to Seccombe and Ishii-Kuntz (1991), both men and women consider women as ‘old’ at an earlier age than men. Also, negative social stereotypes define women as unattractive and sexually inactive after a certain age (Gannon, 1994). As they try to reject this stigma of old age, maintaining a young identity becomes much more important to women than to men. For men, maturity is associated with power and social prestige. Their sexual attractiveness is less likely to be linked to appearance and they are more likely to change their subjective age identity to ‘being old’ after retirement (Pliner et al., 1990). In order to preserve a positive self-image, older women are more eager to look younger than older men. Therefore, they are more attracted to the use of younger models in advertisements than to models of their subjective, or objective age. Thus, we expect the respondents’ gender to have an effect on his or her model likeability and the perceived model credibility: H2a: “For male respondents, the model likeability and credibility will be higher for the model of the subjective age category than for the model of the younger, or the objective age category.”

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H2b: “For female respondents, the model likeability and credibility will be higher for the youngest model than for the model of the subjective or objective age category” Past research has demonstrated that model likeability and credibility have a positive impact on advertising effectiveness in terms of attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 1999). There are no reasons to expect differences for older consumers. This leads to the following hypothesis: H3: “Both model likeability and credibility have a positive impact on the attitude-toward-the-ad, attitude-toward-the-brand and purchase intention”

3

Materials and Methods

A between subjects 2 (model’s gender: male – female) x 3 (age category: young – subjective age – objective age) factorial design was used. Six different advertisements were created using photographs of models (3 males and 3 females). The ads were constructed using either a picture of a model who was 25 to 30 years younger than the respondents (young model), a picture of a model who was about 10 years younger than the respondents (subjective age category) or a picture of a model who was the same age as the respondents (objective age category). Since we wanted to measure self-perception, male respondents were asked to evaluate an advertisement showing a male model and female respondents were shown an advertisement with a female model. To make the picture look like an advertisement, a package shot of a bottle of water was added across all six conditions. We used bottled water because this is a neutral product which is frequently used by senior consumers, but not exclusively by them. Further, a nonexistent brand name (Givet) and a self-invented slogan (‘purifies body and soul’) were added to the advertisement. The advertisements were all of the same size, had the same background color and showed a close up of a model looking into the lens of the camera. None of the models wore glasses and they were all shown in a stagnant pose to keep the advertisements as neutral and similar as possible (cf. figure 1-6).

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Figure 1-3: Male models (shown to male respondents)

Figure 1: Young model

Figure 2: Subjective age model

Figure 3: Objective age model

Figure 4-6: Female models (shown to female respondents)

Figure 4: Young model

Figure 5: Subjective age model

Figure 6: Objective age model

The respondents for the main study were recruited from different senior organizations and events. After they received information about the general purpose of the study, each participant was asked to take a close look at the advertisement he or she was given and fill in a standardized questionnaire. The seniors were randomly exposed to one of the six conditions (see table 1 for an overview). In total, 185 respondents participated in the study (48.6% male, average age of 67.38).

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Table 1

Gender

N

Mean objective age (respondents)

Self-reported subjective age

Estimated age of the model

Respondents who saw the model from the first age category ( young model): Males 30 67.03 55.18 42.07 Females 31 67.06 55.49 39.45 Respondents who saw the model from the second age category (subjective age): Males 29 67.93 57.93 58.11 Females 28 67.25 58.14 57.79 Respondents who saw the model from the third age category (objective age): Males 30 67.60 58.80 70.67 Females 29 67.45 57.11 67.11 Attitude towards the spokesperson likeability was measured using the scale of Whittler and Dimeo (1991) (α=.910) and the credibility of the model using the scale of Ohanian (1991) (α=.915). To measure the level of attitude toward the ad, the scale of Simons and Carey (1998) (α=.886) was used. Brand attitude was measured using the scale of Mahnnis and Park (1991) (α=.867) and purchase intention by the scale of Baker and Churchill (1977) (α=.876). To exclude confounding effects, model attractiveness for controlled for. The attractiveness of the model was measured by the scale of Ohanian (1990) (α=.932). Although various previous studies (e.g. Markides and Boldt, 1983; NCOA, 2002; Sudbury and Simcock, 2009) show that the subjective age of an 65+ year old individual indeed differs approximately 10 years from his or her chronological age, this assumption was tested in this study. To measure the respondents’ subjective age, Barak and Schiffman’s (1981) scale was used (α=.814).

4 4.1

Results Pretests

In the first pretest, the estimated age of 56 models was measured to define the age manipulation. Ten randomly selected respondents (50% male, 65 to 70 years old) were shown 28 pictures of models of their own gender and were asked to

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estimate the age of these models. The pictures were all coloured and equal in size, composition and background colour. Based on the mean estimated age of each model, three male and three female models were selected to represent each of the three age categories. Also, involvement with the advertised product (bottled water) was pretested. Results show no significant difference in involvement between male and female seniors for bottled water (Mmale= 3.06 vs. Mfemale= 3.16, t(183)=.699; p=.485). To assess the success of our manipulations, a second pretest was conducted. 20 randomly selected respondents (50% male, 65 to 70 years old) were asked to estimate the age and rate the attractiveness of the 18 models (9 male and 9 female) selected in pretest 1 on a 5-point Likert scale. Male respondents rated the pictures of the 9 male models, female respondents were asked to do the same for the 9 female models. Results confirm the age estimations made in the first pretest. Finally, one picture of a male and one picture of a female model was selected for each of the three age categories, making sure that the perceived attractiveness did not differ significantly between the models.

4.2

Manipulation Check

The manipulation checks confirmed that the perceived age of the models matched the age categories they were assigned to (male models: M young= 42.07 years; Msubj= 58.11 years; Mobj= 70.67 years. Female models: Myoung= 39.45 years; Msubj= 57.79 years; Mobj= 67.11 years). Also, the respondent’s mean subjective age was measured. Based on past studies, we estimated that the subjective age of the respondents should be approximately ten years younger that the objective age (which means 57 years for our respondents). This was confirmed by the manipulation check (Msubj.age= 57.09). There were no significant differences in subjective age between male and female respondents (Mmale= 57.3 vs. Mfemale= 56.9; t(182)=.426, p=.671).

4.3

Analysis

The effect of two independent variables (the respondents’ gender and age of the models) on model likeability and credibility was analyzed using two separate ANOVA’s. There appeared a main effect of the model’s age on the model likeability (F(5, 184)= 7.699, p=.001). The results show that the model of the subjective age category was liked significantly better than the model of the objective age category (Msubj=3.623 vs. Mobj=3.276; t(120)=1.976, p=.050).

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However, model likeability did not differ significantly between the younger model and the model of the subjective age category (Msubj= 3.623 vs. Myoung= 3.922; t(121)=1.887, p=.062). The results show a trend: respondents tend to like the younger model more than the model of the subjective age. The same results were found for credibility. Results show a significant main effect of the models' age on the perceived credibility of the model (F(5, 184)= 5.547, p=.005). The model of the subjective age category is perceived as more credible than the model of the objective age category (Msubj= 3.348 vs. Mobj=3.006; t(120)=2.323, p=.022). However, the model of the subjective age category is not perceived as more credible than the youngest model (Msubj= 3.348 vs. Myoung= 3.483; t(121)=.883, p=.379). H1 is partly supported. Gender appeared to have a moderating influence on the relation between the models' age and model likeability F(5, 184)= 3.226, p=.042) as well as the relation between age and model credibility (F(5, 184)= 3.373, p=.036). The results of the interaction effect (cf. Figure 7) show that male respondents like the model of the subjective age category (M= 3.75) more than the objective age category (M= 3.07, t(58)=2.964, p=.004). However, they did not like model of the subjective age category (M= 3.75) more than the youngest model (M= 3.65, t(58)=.413, p=.681). The same trend occurred for model credibility (cf. Figure 8). H2a is partly supported.

Figure 7: Perceived model likeability

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As expected, female respondents liked the youngest model (M= 4.17) more than the model of the subjective age category (M= 3.49) and the objective age category (M= 3.47; t(46.401)=3.539, p=.001). There was no significant difference in liking between the subjective and the objective age category (t(60)=.090, p=.928) (cf. figure 7). Again, results show the same trend for model credibility (cf. figure 8). H2b is supported.

Figure 8: Perceived Model Credibility

In the last analysis, the impact of model likeability and credibility is measured on advertising effectiveness. Correlation analyses shows a strong, positive relation between model likeability and attitude towards the ad (r=.608; p<.001), attitude-towards-the-brand (r=.603; p<.001) and purchase intention (r=.467; p<.001). There also appears a strong, positive relation between model credibility and attitude towards the ad (r=.565; p<.001), attitude towards the brand (r=.550; p<.001) and purchase intention (r=.535; p<.001). H3 is thus supported.

5

Discussion, Conclusion and Further Research

In this study, we investigated the impact of the age of models used in advertisements on advertising effectiveness for older consumers. We found that seniors evaluate the youngest model and the model who match with their subjective age

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significantly more likeable and also more credible than models of their own age. In addition, the results show that older men liked the model from the subjective age category and the youngest model significantly more - and perceive these models as more credible – than the model of their own age. Elderly women like the youngest model significantly more - and evaluate this model as more credible – than the older models. These results confirm that maintaining a young identity is much more important to women than to men. In addition, both model likeability and credibility appear to have a positive impact on consumer’s attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand and purchase intention. These results confirm previous findings that senior consumers prefer models who match their aspirational (or subjective) identity, rather than their objective identity. Also, results confirm that seniors are more likely to buy products when these are shown in advertisements that reflect this aspirational identity (e.g., Wolfe and Snyder, 2003). Further, Chingching’s (2008) statement that subjective age is a much better criterion for predicting consumer responses to advertisements and purchase intention than objective age is confirmed, although using 25-years younger models seems to be even more effective when targeting elderly women. From this overall preference for younger models, we can conclude that older people do not look for a representative view of the world in advertising. An explanation for these results may be the trend in today’s society, characterized by a fear of aging and a strong need to stay and look youthful. Not only do seniors like models who match their subjective age more, they also find them more credible. The limitations of the current study suggest directions for further research. First, this study used only one model per age category. Although perceived attractiveness was taken into account during the selection, further research should use more models per age category. Second, for the young age category, we used models who were 25 to 30 years younger than the respondents (resp. 45 years old). These models were perceived as highly likeable and credible, especially with the female seniors. However, it is possible that this preference for younger models does not hold for extremely young models. Gunter (1998) already found that senior consumers perceive models younger than 35 as less credible than older models. Therefore, it would be interesting to include pictures of models who are, for example, 40 to 50 years younger than the respondents. Finally, we only tested one product category. It is possible that the use of older models is more lucrative when designing advertisements for certain product categories, while younger models may be better for promoting products associated with youth and rejuvenation.

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References

Baker, M. & Churchill, G. (1977), “The impact of physically attractive models on advertising evaluations” in: Journal of Marketing research, 14, 538-555. Barak, B. & Schiffman, L.G. (1981), “Cognitive age: a nonchronological age variable” in: K.B. Monroe (ed.). Advances in consumer research, 8. Ann Arbor: Association for consumer research. Carrigan, M. & Szmigin, I. (1999), “The portrayal of older characters in magazine advertising” in: Journal of Marketing Practice, 5 (6/7/8), 248-261. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (2009, October 5). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/theworld-factbook/ geos/xx.html Chingching, C. (2008), “Chronological age versus cognitive age for younger consumers” in: Journal of Advertising, 37 (3), 19-32. Dutta-Bergman, M. (2006), “The demographic and psychographic antecedents of attitude toward advertising” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 46 (1), 102-112. Gannon, L. (1994), “Sexuality and menopause” in: Choi, P., Nicolson, P. (Eds). Female sexuality: psychology, biology and social context. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Greco, A.J. (1989), “Representation of the elderly in advertising: crisis or inconsequence?” in: Journal of Consumer Marketing, 6 (1), 37-44. Gubernick, L. (1996), “Gray Hair Is Cool” in: Forbes, 157 (9), 116-118. Gunter, B. (1998), “Understanding the older consumer: the grey market”, London: Routledge Lafferty, B. & Goldsmith, R. (1999), “Corporate Credibility’s Role in Consumers’ Attitudes and Purchase Intentions When a High versus a Low Credibility Endorser Is Used in the Ad“ in: Journal of Business Research, 44, 109–116. Long, N. (1998), “Broken down by age and sex: exploring the ways we approach the elderly consumer,” in: Journal of the Market Research Society, 40 (2), 73-91. Loro, L. (1989), “Reaching 50-plus market without alienating younger consumers takes finesse,” in: Advertising Age, May 22, S7. Markides, K. & Boldt, J. (1983), “Change in subjective age among the elderly: a longitudinal analysis” in: The Gerontologist, 23 (August), 422-427. NCOA, (2002), “American perceptions of aging in the 21st century. The NCOA’s continuing study of the myths and realities of aging”. Washington DC. Ohanian, R. (1990), “Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers’ perceived expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness” in: Journal of Advertising, 19, 39-52. Ohanian, R. (1991), "The Impact of Celebrity Spokespersons' Perceived Image on Consumers' Intention to Purchase," in: Journal of Advertising Research, 31,1, 46-54. Pliner, P., Chaiken, S. & Flett, G.L. (1990), “Gender Differences in Concern with Body Weight and Physical Appearance over the Life Span” in: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16(2), 263-273. Seccombe, K. & Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1991), “Perceptions of problems associated with aging: Comparisons among four older age cohorts” in: The Gerontologist, 31, 527–533. Sikkel, D. & Keehnen, E. (2004), “Ervaren maar veranderlijk: Het consumentengedrag van de vijftigplusser.“ Amsterdam: Kluwer. Simons, J. & Carey, K. (1998), “A Structural Analysis of Attitudes Toward Alcohol and Marijuana Use” in: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24 (7), 727-35. Stephens, N. (1991), “Cognitive age: a useful concept for advertising?” in: Journal of Advertising, 20 (4), 37-48. Sudbury, L. & Simcock, P. (2009), “Understanding older consumers through cognitive age and the list of values: A U.K.-based perspective” in: Psychology and marketing, 26(1), 22-38. Tréguer, J.P. (1998), “Le senior marketing,” Paris: Dunod.

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Whittler, T. & DiMeo, J. (1991), “Viewers’ reactions to racial cues in advertising stimuli” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 31 (December) 37-46. Wolfe, D., & Snyder, R. (2003), “Ageless Marketing,” USA: Dearborn Trade Publishing.

Children’s Advertising Literacy: Do BMI, Body Shape Perception, Self-Esteem and TV Exposure Matter? Julia Spielvogel, University of Klagenfurt, Austria Ralf Terlutter, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

1

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the body mass index (BMI), body shape perception (BSP) and self-esteem influence children’s development of TV advertising literacy. Given the present rise in overweight among children and the dominance of advertising for highly sugared, salted or fatty foods, the relationship between the three above-mentioned factors and advertising literacy deserves attention (e.g. Desrochers and Holt, 2007; Harker et al., 2007). Furthermore, the influence of TV exposure on advertising literacy as well as the relationship between advertising literacy and the effects of advertising on children are researched. Concerning the nature of these relationships a consensus has not yet been reached in the literature and further empirical research is required. Advertising literacy is seen as important in children’s maturation into responsible and competent consumers. For decades, the age of a child has been regarded as the most critical factor influencing the development of advertising literacy. Nevertheless, many empirical studies show significant differences between same-aged children in this respect (Oates et al., 2003; Roedder John, 1999). Obviously, there are other factors that might also make an impact, but their effects are far from clear today. While research has focused on the influence of the family, school or peers, little attention has been devoted to children’s personal characteristics and appraisal such as BMI, BSP and self-esteem. However, this study shows that these factors may drive or impede advertising literacy. Additionally, there are important inconsistencies in the results of existing studies concerning the influence of TV exposure on advertising literacy as well as a lack of empirical results concerning the relationship of advertising literacy and the effects of advertising. Therefore, this study wants to contribute to the state of research by methodically collecting and analyzing empirical data in this field. The focus of this study is on television advertising since television represents the medium that is most frequently and most preferably used by children aged 8 to 11 (Feierabend and Klingler, 2009). Due to this reason and S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_10, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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due to the low requirements related to TV consumption (e.g. no reading or writing skills necessary), television advertising also represents the kind of advertising that is most strongly perceived by children (Baacke et al., 1999).

2 2.1

Theoretical Background and Research Gaps Advertising Literacy and its Factors of Influence

To describe advertising literacy, different labels have been used in the literature ranging from attitude towards advertising (e.g. Rossiter, 1977) over knowledge and understanding of advertising (e.g. Roedder John, 1999) to advertising literacy (e.g. Livingstone and Helsper, 2006). However, when comparing the exact definitions, it appears that the authors are referring to similar constructs. The development of TV advertising literacy can be described as a progress in four steps that goes along with children’s maturation on a cognitive, social and experiential level (Roedder John, 1999). First, children gain the ability to distinguish TV commercials from the regular program. At the beginning, prominent visual and sound effects of advertisements help to differentiate since they lead to more attention and therefore a higher probability of recognizing a commercial as such (Gunter and Furnham, 1998; Wartella and Ettema, 1974). Second, children start to understand the persuasive intent of advertising. At this point commercials are no longer interpreted as a form of objective product information or entertainment (Roedder John, 1999). Often a very general, negative view of advertising emerges at the same time (Bever et al., 1975). Third, children acquire the ability to recognize specific instances of bias and deception in advertising. They start to evaluate individual advertisements and put the respective truthfulness into question, which usually leads to less trust and less liking (Robertson and Rossiter, 1974; Roedder John, 1999). Fourth, usually during early adolescence knowledge of advertising tactics and appeals manifests (Roedder John, 1999). While skepticism towards advertising is more or less formed and stable at the end of childhood, knowledge of tactics and appeals is developing over the following years (Boush et al., 1994). From a theoretical point of view, different concepts are necessary to explain the effects and processes of the development of advertising literacy (Robertson and Rossiter, 1974; Roedder John, 1999; Zigler and Child, 1969). First, Piaget’s (e.g. 1932, 1952) theory of cognitive development and its four stages are em-

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ployed to explain the gradual acquirement of abilities such as an advertising literate behavior. Cognitive development is understood as a psychological process, which leads to a logical conception and adjustment to the environment (Ginsburg and Opper, 1969; Roedder John, 1999). Second, Selman’s (e.g. 1980; 1975) stage model of social perspective taking is important. The ability to recognize certain characteristics and the perspective of others is the basis of interpersonal understanding and awareness, which plays an essential role for example in gaining the ability to understand advertisers’ motives and intent (Cooney and Selman, 1980; Roedder John, 1999). Third, social learning theories have to be considered. They focus on socialization agents (e.g. parents, teachers, friends, television), which supposedly transfer norms, attitudes, motivations and behaviors to children during interactions (Bandura, 1962, 1977; Moschis and Churchill, 1978). Over the last 40 years several factors have been researched that might influence the development of advertising literacy. In this regard, age is the factor that has been examined most extensively. In accordance with the stages of cognitive development, researchers have identified age groups indicating when the majority of children reach the different levels of advertising literacy. Beyond that, the following influencing factors can be found in the literature: family environment (interaction with parents and siblings, social class, parents’ education, parenting style, number of siblings), TV and advertising exposure, school and media education, format of advertisements, sex, peers, intelligence (for a more detailed analysis of the different factors see Terlutter and Spielvogel, 2010). The state of research varies widely between the factors and there has not yet been an attempt to survey them all at once. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further empirical research to contribute to an understanding of the complex development of advertising literacy. In addition, the question arises whether there are other factors that have not yet received attention in the literature. This study focuses on overweight and a possible relation to advertising literacy. These days, this issue is of crucial importance both to society and academic research (e.g. Harker et al., 2007; Robinson, 1999; Young, 2003). Although several studies have been conducted on the effects of TV/advertising exposure on food choice and obesity, little is known about the influence of BMI, BSP and self-esteem on advertising literacy especially concerning food advertising.

2.2

New Factors of Influence and Hypotheses

Rosenberg et al. (1995, p. 141) define global self-esteem as: “… the individual’s positive or negative attitude towards the self as a totality”. From a theoretical

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point of view, the self-enhancement theory serves as a basis and describes selfesteem as a fundamental human need and motive. To a certain degree, the selfesteem is responsible for the psychological wellbeing of a person. Therefore, every person strives for the protection and enhancement of the feelings of selfworth and suffers from psychological distress when this desire becomes frustrating (Rosenberg et al., 1995). As studies have shown, children feel this need the same way as anybody else, while at the same time different processes and influences shape their self-esteem (Piers and Harris, 1964; Rosenberg and Pearlin, 1978). The physical appearance is the aspect of the self that is available and recognizable at first sight. In our society, overweight imposes a social identity on the person that is often devaluated by the environment (Miller and Downey, 1999). Therefore, affected people often feel stigmatized (Crocker et al., 1993; Puhl and Brownell, 2002) and have a negative perception of their body (Collins, 1991; Lewis and Hill, 1998). In this context, Miller and Downey (1999) conducted a meta-analysis of more than seventy studies that examined the relationship of body weight or body dissatisfaction and self-esteem. They showed that lower self-esteem associates with higher weight whereby the correlation is stronger for studies that focus on the self-perceived weight or body shape perception than for those focusing on the actual body weight. Although the effect is stronger for adolescents than for children, the latter are also affected by it (Miller and Downey, 1999). This leads to the following hypotheses: H1: Children with a higher BMI have a more negative BSP (higher BSP score) than children with a lower BMI. H2: Children with a higher BMI have a lower self-esteem than children with a lower BMI. H3: BSP and self-esteem of children are negatively related. Individuals with low self-esteem tend to have less trust in their own abilities as well as to react more sensitively on failure and rejection (Epstein, 1979). Furthermore, studies have shown a negative relationship between persuasibility and self-esteem (Hovland et al., 1953; Leventhal and Perloe, 1962; Maile, 1977). Lesser and Abelson (1959) reported that this relationship is also applicable to children. The lower the self-esteem, the more likely a person will adopt someone else’s (more appreciated) opinion. In contrast to that, a person with high self-esteem and confidence is in general not as easily swayed (Neubauer, 1976). Therefore, we believe that on the one hand children with a negative BSP and on the other hand children with low self-esteem are at risk of being less

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skeptical and more easily persuaded by advertisements. If children do not dare or are too doubtful about themselves to take a skeptical position, the development of advertising literacy might be impeded. We do not only test the influence of self-esteem but also of BSP on advertising literacy since the latter might be a good indicator of children’s self-esteem in association with body weight. Therefore the following hypotheses are expected: H4: Children with a more negative BSP (higher BSP score) have a lower advertising literacy than children with a more positive BSP (lower BSP score). H5: Children with a lower self-esteem have a lower advertising literacy than children with a higher self-esteem. In addition to the new factors of influence that are described above, TV exposure of children is a much-discussed topic in the academic literature on advertising literacy. However, existing studies often resulted in contradictory findings. For instance, Mangleburg and Bristol (1999) as well as Moschis and Churchill (1978) found a positive influence of TV exposure on advertising literacy or consumer socialization, while Chan and McNeal (2006), Kapoor and Verma (2005) as well as D’Alessio et al. (2009) showed a negative influence. However, empirical studies resulting in the identification of a negative influence seem to prevail. In this regard, D’Alessio et al. (2009) reported that children, who more often watch television, believe more in advertising claims and exhibit a lower understanding of the nature and purpose of advertising. They use the cultivation theory (Gerbner and Gross, 1976) as a possible explanation for this relationship. Accordingly, television program and advertising may ‘cultivate’ a distorted view of one’s social reality on the basis of the reality shown on TV. With a more frequent exposure to television the credence increases that TV presents reality in the actual way. Additionally, the mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968) may explain the formation of a more positive attitude towards advertisements through repeated exposure (Eagle, 2007; Gorn and Goldberg, 1980; Gunter and Furnham, 1998). Following this perspective, a negative influence of TV exposure on advertising literacy is expected in hypothesis 6: H6: Children with higher TV exposure have a lower advertising literacy than children with lower TV exposure. According to Livingstone and Helsper (2006), the relationship between advertising literacy and the effects of advertising lacks integration in the research. On the one hand, a widespread assumption exists among researchers that this relationship is clear and well established. On the other hand, when examining

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the literature available, little empirical evidence can be found to substantiate this claim (Roedder John, 1999). In accordance to the theoretical background presented above, the development of cognitive abilities to understand advertising and its intent (often described as cognitive defenses or persuasion knowledge) is supposed to lead to lower susceptibility to advertising effects. Correspondingly, lower advertising literacy is expected to result in higher susceptibility to advertising effects. Therefore, hypothesis 7 is expected: H7: Advertising literacy and susceptibility to advertising effects are negatively related. Figure 1 shows the research model applied in this study.

Figure 1: Research model

3 3.1

Empirical Study Method, Sample and Measures

Two hundred face-to-face interviews with children aged 8 to 11 were conducted in three elementary schools in Austria. All children were in the third and fourth grade. The interviews were conducted outside the classroom in a separate setting with one interviewer asking one child at a time. The interviewers were trained and provided with a standardized questionnaire that is appropriate for children at this age. The interviewers read out the questions, presented colorful cards with the answer choices, explained the questions if necessary and wrote down the answers. The questions focused on food advertising and in case of comprehension problems interviewers asked the children to think of advertising for sweets. Additionally, they measured the children’s height and weight using

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portable scales and tape measures. Parents were informed and had agreed to the child’s participation in advance. The characteristics of the sample concerning age, grade and sex are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Characteristics of the sample Variable Age

Grade

Sex

Categories

Frequency

Percentage

8 years

53

26.5%

9 years

102

51.0%

10 years

42

21.0%

11 years

3

1.5%

3rd grade

101

50.5%

4th grade

99

49.5%

112

56.0%

88

44.0%

Male Female

Variables were measured using scales from the literature. The respective measurement is reported in Table 2 in the Appendix. With regard to the measurement of advertising literacy, Rossiter’s (1977) scale was employed since it is one of the few quantitative instruments in this field and has been frequently used in the literature for its brevity, objectivity and reliability. This monodimensional construct comprises different aspects such as the credibility and likeability of commercials as well as their persuasive power (D’Alessio et al., 2009). A test of internal-consistency reliability led to the elimination of the item “GOODONLY” for further analyses. The remaining six items resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha of .65 (Rossiter, 1977: .69) and a mono-dimensional structure.

3.2

Results of the Empirical Study

Children’s BMI was calculated from their height and weight. Following the recommendations of Kromeyer-Hauschild et al. (2001) for German and Austrian children, the sample was divided into groups by means of BMI percentiles considering variances due to age and gender. To define the weight groups the following percentiles were applied, which serve as a standard in medicine in Ger-

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man-speaking countries (Kiefer et al., 2006; Kromeyer-Hauschild et al., 2001): underweight: <10th percentile (24 children), normal weight: 10th – 90th percentile (140), overweight: 90th – 97th percentile (21), obesity: >97th percentile (14). In this study 10.6% of the children fall in the overweight and 7.0% in the obesity category. This result is in accordance with data from other Austrian studies (Kiefer et al., 2006). H1 expected that children with a higher BMI have a more negative BSP (higher BSP score) than children with a lower BMI. Means of BSP are presented in Table 3. Table 3: Means of BSP and self-esteem compared across BMI groups Underweight N

Normal weight

Overweight

Obesity

24

140

21

14

BSP

-.13

.44

.52

1.38

Self-esteem

6.92

6.71

6.71

6.07

Following Collins (1991), ANOVA was applied and revealed a significant influence of BMI on BSP (F(3, 194) = 7.88; p = .000). Post-hoc Scheffé tests showed significant differences between the obesity group and the underweight group (p = .000) and the normal weight group (p = .005). Differences between the obesity and the overweight group were not significant on a 5%, but on a 10%-level (p = .068). Thus, H1 is supported. H2 hypothesized that the BMI influences children’s self-esteem. Means of self-esteem are presented in Table 3. ANOVA was not significant on a 5%-level (F(3, 195) = 2.34; p = .075). However, pair wise tests using contrasts showed that the obesity group has significantly lower self-esteem than the underweight (p = .011) and the normal weight group (p = .020). Comparison of the obesity and overweight group was not significant on a 5%, but on a 10%-level (p = .058). Therefore, H2 receives at least partial support by the data. As the study focuses on children’s overweight, children with a negative score on BSP, meaning that they want to gain weight, are excluded from further analysis. This leads to a remaining sample of 184 children. H3 stated that a negative relationship is supposed between BSP and self-esteem. A Pearson correlation was used to test this prediction and resulted in a significant, negative correlation (r = −.24; p (1-tailed) = .000). This implies that more positive BSP

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(BSP score a 0) is associated with higher self-esteem as well as more negative BSP (BSP score > 0) with lower self-esteem. Hence, H3 is supported by the data. To test H4, the sample was divided into three groups by means of BSP (positive, negative, strongly negative BSP). The mean of advertising literacy of each BSP group can be found in Table 4.

Table 4: Means of advertising literacy compared across BSP groups

BSP score N Advertising literacy

Positive BSP

Negative BSP

Strongly negative BSP

0

1 or 2

3 or 4

111

67

11

18.45

18.36

14.50

ANOVA showed a significant influence of BSP on advertising literacy (F(2, 181) = 4.20; p = .017). Post-hoc Scheffé tests indicated significant differences between the strongly negative BSP group and the positive BSP group (p = .017) as well as the negative BSP group (p = .023). Additionally, the correlation between BSP and advertising literacy was calculated (r = −.13; p (1-tailed) = .044) in order to control for self-esteem. By comparing the original correlation to the partial correlation using self-esteem as control variable (r = −.10; p (1-tailed) = .085), it showed that the controlled correlation was not significant on a 5%, but on a 10%-level and the coefficients were almost the same. Therefore, we conclude that there is a direct, negative link between the BSP score and advertising literacy and H4 is supported. To examine the influence of self-esteem on advertising literacy as expected in H5, the sample was divided into a low and a high self-esteem group whose characteristics are presented in Table 5.

Table 5: Means of advertising literacy compared across self-esteem groups

N Advertising literacy

Low self-esteem

High self-esteem

23

161

16.96

18.48

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ANOVA revealed a significant influence of self-esteem on advertising literacy (F(1, 182) = 4.31; p = .039). Therefore, H5 is supported by the data. In H6 a negative influence of TV exposure an advertising literacy was expected. The means of advertising literacy of the four TV exposure groups are presented in Table 6.

Table 6: Means of advertising literacy compared across TV exposure groups

N Advertising literacy

Every day

Several times a week

Once a week

Less often

86

64

17

17

17.53

18.89

17.94

20.18

To test the hypothesis, ANOVA was used and resulted in a significant influence on advertising literacy (F(3, 180) = 4.30; p = .006). Post-hoc Scheffé tests showed a significant difference between the ‘every day’ and the ‘less often’ group (p = .026). The difference between the ‘every day’ and the ‘several times a week’ group was not significant on a 5%, but on a 10%-level (p = .095). Thus, H6 is supported by the data. H7 stated that a negative relationship exists between advertising literacy and susceptibility to the advertising effects. A Pearson correlation revealed a significant relationship between the variables (r = −.39; p (1-tailed) = .000), which supports H7. This means that children with higher advertising literacy are less vulnerable to the effects of advertising, i.e. are less susceptible or seduced by the advertisements in their desire and choice of (food) products.

4

Discussion and Implications

This is the first study that based on a theoretical deduction analyzes the interplay of BMI, BSP and self-esteem in the field of advertising literacy with a special focus on food advertising. Additionally, the influence of TV exposure on advertising literacy and the relationship between the latter and the effects of advertising were researched. The data from personal interviews with primary school children aged 8 to 11 lend support to the six hypotheses addressing the influence of BMI on BSP, the link between BSP and self-esteem and their respective influence on advertising literacy, the influence of TV exposure on avertising literacy as well as the relationship between advertising literacy and advertising

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effects. The hypothesized influence of BMI on self-esteem was at least partially supported. The results indicate that children with high BMI, negative BSP and low selfesteem, characteristics that often occur together, are at risk to lag behind concerning advertising literacy. Furthermore, advertising literacy might be impeded by heavy exposure to television. At the same time lower advertising literacy is associated with higher susceptibility to advertising effects. This might lead to a vicious circle since television advertisements for food are mainly for highly sugared, salted or fatty products. The findings of this study are of interest to companies as well as policymakers who decide about the regulation of advertising to children and the sponsorship of programs for media and advertising education. The at-risk group might need special enhancements and informing should be implemented. Thus, the existing initiatives for media and advertising education in primary schools might incorporate this knowledge and for example target possible traps of food advertisements in their programs. At the same time, centers for overweight and obese children might take up the point of the influence of advertisements and consider it in their counseling and treatments. The result concerning TV exposure emphasizes the importance of control and restriction of children’s time spent watching television through the parents. In addition, the family’s encouragement is essential to foster children’s self-esteem and BSP.

5

References

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6

Appendix

Table 2: Measures Measures Body mass index (BMI)

Scale

Items

Percentiles:  Height Kromeyer-  Weight Hauschild et al. (2001)

Evaluation

Scores

 BMI = kg/m2  BMI percentile rankings (age, gender)  Grouping by BMI percentile

 Underweight: <10th p.  Normal weight: 10th – 90th p.  Overweight: 90th – 97th p.  Obesity: > 97th p.

 Identification  Neutral: positive of sameBSP, no wish to gender Self change and Ideal  Negative: negaSelf tive BSP, wish to  Discrepancy gain weight score (Self –  Positive: negative Ideal Self) BSP, wish to lose weight

Body shape Collins perception (1991) (BSP)

7 child figures (both genders) illustrating body weight from very thin to obese

Self-esteem Rosenberg (1965) adapted by Boush et al. (1994)

 4 answer  Self-confidence choices in one’s own abilities  Sum score  Self-contentment  (Optimism: removed due to age groups in the sample)

TV exposure

Kutteroff et  Times usually al. (2009); spent watching Moschis & television Churchill (1978); Von Ploetz (1999)

 4 answer choices

 Possible scores: 2 –8  Higher score = higher self-esteem

 Possible values: 1 –4  Higher value = higher TV exposure

160 Measures

Spielvogel and Terlutter

Scale

Advertising Rossiter literacy (1977)

Items

Evaluation

Scores

 Possible scores: 6  Perceived truth-  4 answer fulness choices – 24  Perceived persu-  Sum score  Higher score = asive power higher advertising  Factor analyliteracy  Believability of sis: monocharacters dimensional structure  Potential annoying qualities  Overall likability  Trustworthiness as guides to product purchase  (Objectivity in describing advertised products)

 Desire to try Advertising Adapted  4 answer  Possible scores: 4 effects from Maradvertised prodchoices – 16 tensen and ucts (e.g. sweets)  Sum score  Higher score = Hansen  Propensity to higher susceptibil Factor analy(2002); feel hungry due ity to advertising sis: monoAufenanger to food advereffects dimensional (1997) tisement structure  Desire for advertised (food) product in store  Propensity for choice of advertised (food) product in store

The Relevance of Life Changing Situations for Media Usage and their Relevance as a Segmentation Strategy for Media Companies and Advertisers Andrea Leopold, University of Klagenfurt, Austria Sandra Diehl, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

1

Introduction

Nowadays it is impossible to go through daily life without the use of media; the patterns of our daily lives are determined by and intertwined with media use. But what happens to daily routines and media usage when an event occurs that drastically changes the circumstances of our lives? Peoples´ lives can be transformed by major changes: some might be intentional, such as occupational changes or relocations, e.g. leaving the parental home for the first time; other changes may happen unintentionally, e.g. illnesses or the death of relatives or loved ones. How can such a situation of change be understood or constructed? What happens to the daily routines of the people affected? What do they require in order to cope with the changed situation? Which challenges are they confronted with? How can life changing situations be operationalized by media companies and advertisers? How can they support individuals in life changing situations? These questions will be addressed by the authors in an ongoing research project with the underlying assumption that new needs arise in these life changing situations and that most of these needs can be met by the use of media respectively the media usage supports satisfying the arising needs. The underlying assumption states that media use and the appropriate equipment for it can help individuals deal with new situations. In this article, basic considerations in relation to the underlying assumption and first pre-studies are presented, and the relevance of life changing situations for people in those situations, for media companies and advertisers - as a possible segmentation strategy – are discussed; and further steps in this research project are presented. In the second section, the construct of “life changing situation” is theoretically discussed and a pre-study dealing with the understanding of life changing situations is presented. A diagram explains the life changing phase.

S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_11, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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The next section addresses existing segmentation strategies and the identified gap which could be closed by a more situational approach, i.e. considering life changing situations as a new segmentation strategy; and the resulting theses are presented. In section four, a possible win-win-win-situation is introduced: People in life changing situations, media companies and advertisers could all benefit from the situational approach of considering life changing situations as a segmentation strategy. In section five, the results of a first pre-study concerning the life changing situation of first-term university students is discussed. Further research steps are described in the last section.

2

The Construct of Life Changing Situations

As far as the authors know, the term “life changing situations” has not been defined yet. Before we define life changing situations, we discuss related terms and present a qualitative pre-study to further conceptualize the construct of life changing situations.

2.1

Life Events

The quite similar term life event was understood first in an epistemological way by Holmes and Rahe in 1967 as occurrences that were likely to bring about readjustment-requiring changes in people’s usual activities to determine how stressful life events could affect mental and physical health. This definition is still used in this way in later publications (see for example Dohrenwend, 2006). “Social readjustment includes the amount and duration of change in one’s accustomed pattern of life resulting from various life events. As defined, social readjustment measures the intensity and length of time necessary to accommodate to a life event regardless of the desirability of this event.” (Holmes and Rahe, 1967: 34) For Holmes and Rahe, the historical starting point was the Life Chart invented by Meyer (Lief, 1948), who was interested in the relationship of three open-ended disciplines – biology, psychology, and sociology – to the processes of health and disease in human beings, which means the relation between life situations, emotions and diseases. (Holmes, 1989) “The entries on the life chart

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describe life situations – experiences having to do with growth, development, maturation, and senescence – as well as the patient’s emotional responses to those situations.” (Holmes, 1989) In 1967, Holmes and Rahe developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to quantify human experience, which enabled them to measure “the amount of change that certain events require of people: the readjustment necessary in their coping style and life-style. Both ‘desirable’ and ‘undesirable’ events require readjustment.” (Holmes and David, 1989: 31) The SRRS combined with the later developed Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE) “[…] reflected the magnitude of change required in ongoing life adjustment by each event, and the values were defined in terms of life change units (LCU). The scale ranged from 11 LCU for a minor violation of the law to 100 LCU for death of spouse. The Social Readjustment Scale has since been validated by cross-cultural and by comparison with other scaling methods.” (Rahe and Holmes, 1989: 193) In this way, a “[…] life crisis was therefore stipulated to mean any clustering of life change events whose individual values summed to 150 LCU or more in one year. The duration of a life crisis was found to be generally 1 – 2 years; rarely, it was longer.1” (Rahe and Holmes, 1989 and see also Rahe, 1969) The term “life event” is mainly operationalized from a medical point of view (stress caused by life events and having impact on health) of changing situations. The authors, however, try to see the occurring events from a more psychic and psychological perspective – without disregarding diseases, which could cause a life changing situation. Yet, whereas Holmes and Rahe put their focus on diseases as a consequence of a life event, we consider diseases in themselves to be life changing situations.

2.2

Understanding of Life Changing Situations (Pre-Study)

In order to identify the most important life changing situations and to develop a concept of which events people regard or experience as a life changing situations, a pre-study focusing on the definition was conducted. The term “life changing situation” was described as mentioned above and easily understood by the respondents. 50 people (average age 36.3 years, 33 female, 17 male, 17 students and 33 non-students) were surveyed in an open questionnaire about the 1

For example, Rahe and Holmes (1989) detected that people with scores between 150 and 199 LCU, 37 % had an associated health change. This association rose up to 51 % for people with scores between 200 and 299 LCU and to 79 % for those with scores greater than 300 LCU. However, the authors concede that not all persons (21 % with a LCU greater than 300) experiencing a life crisis are facing a health change in the following two years. In these cases they assume a high resistance to health change.

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circumstances which had made their daily lives change profoundly. They were asked to name the three most important events that had triggered this change, which resulted in 137 answers. According to this survey, the changes which had the greatest impact on the respondents’ lives were the birth of a child (26), followed by the beginning of studies including being independent for the first time (14)2, the entrance into the first employment (13), the death of a loved person or relative (13) and marriage (13). Of course, it has to be taken into consideration that the respondents were aged 36.2 years on average. Life changing situations vary according to the age. For persons aged 50 plus (14), the most frequently mentioned life changing situations were childbirth (12) and wedding (7). An interesting finding was that women ranked the birth of a baby highest (9 out of 12) more often than men did (3 out of 12). Men tended to consider the birth of a baby as the second or third important event in their lives (7 out of 14 namings in second or third place).

Namings 30

26 21

25 20 15

14

13

13

13

10

10

7

5

5

5

5

5 0

Figure 1: Understanding of Life Changing Situations in a restricted region of Austria, n = 137 (own figure)

The named life changing situations are quite similar to the events in the SRRS, invented by Holmes and Rahe (1967). 2

Due to the fact that 17 students were asked.

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Based on these remarks and their own considerations, the authors understand a life changing situation as a special time in life, after a dramatic incident has occurred, which drastically changes the daily life of the person concerned. The occurrences can be intended or unintended, desirable or not desirable, can occur suddenly or slowly over time. In all instances, people must cope with the new situation as dictated by their new needs. This phase lasts until the person is able to re-establish a new daily routine and readjust daily patterns (see following figure).

Figure 2: Construct of a Life Changing Situation (own figure)

3

Theoretical Background and Development of the Thesis

People who are confronted with life changing situations typically adjust or reorientate their daily lives and routines. Old routines, which worked in the past and provided them with security, do not work anymore. They face new challenges, new problems and insecurities. They also experience strong negative or positive emotions and are forced to create new ways of life, leading to intensive cognitive processes as they are focused on creating their new life. In order to deal with their changed situation, people attempt to maintain their existing social relationships while developing new ones at the same time. In order to do so, the use of media plays an important role. The new situation can also lead to a change in media and equipment usage habits. The people concerned still use their old media sources when available, while at the same

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time they have to look for new services to satisfy their new needs. Other factors are the financial aspect and the changes in time management – both of which can also trigger modified media usage. Therefore, it can be assumed that people in life changing situations are characterized by a high degree of involvement in and attention for both adequate editorial information (media content) and information on products and services (advertisements) (see also Kroeber-Riel and Weinberg, 2003, Petty and Cacioppo, 1981). According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Petty and Cacioppo (1986), it could be assumed that people in life changing situations have a high involvement in relevant issues, so that they will elaborate the information by the central route. Involvement, according to Zaichowsky (1985), means that the relevance of the information on advertisement to a person is based on inherent needs, values and interests. High involvement is characterized by a high activation of the persons, combined with strong emotions and intensive cognitive processes, which lead to extensive buying behavior (Kroeber-Riel and Weinberg, 2003). Rahe and Holmes (1989: 197) describe them from a medical point of view, saying that “[…] the process of human reaction and readjustment to a variety of significant life situations, many body systems (for example, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and autonomic nervous) have been shown to become physiologically activated, some with sustained and eventually injurious effects. The findings […] suggest the possibility that, the greater the magnitude of the crises, the greater the probability that the involved subject’s psychophysiologic activation will result in tissue, organ and body system dysfunction,” which indicates the seriousness of the impact of life changing situations on the concerned persons and their activation. People in life changing situations are thus supposed to have an extensive buying behavior and they are furthermore expected to make extended problemsolving consumer decisions, meaning – according to Solomon et al. (2006) – that they have a high consumer involvement, are unfamiliar with product classes and brands, take more time to think, search and purchase a product, and that they buy more expensive products. High risk and high involvement are typical of this kind of buying decision (see also Peter and Olson 2008). For example, a student leaving the parental home actively searches for information on apartments, furniture, a new computer etc. He or she also looks for information on the city he or she is about to move to in order to study and on services available there, such as medical services etc. In order to find the desired information, the use of media is indispensable. The characteristics of people affected (high involvement, high interest for information) make them a very

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interesting target group for both media companies and advertising companies. But how do they fit into the typical variables for market segmentation?

3.1

Market Segmentation Strategy

“A market segment is simply a group of present or potential customers with some common characteristics which is relevant in explaining (and predicting) their response to a supplier’s marketing stimuli.“ (Wind and Cardozo, 1984: 209, see also Blackwell et al., 2006) Through segmentation „[…] a company can identify and group customers or countries according to common needs and wants.“ (Keegan and Green, 2005: 258; see also Blackwell et al., 2006) Therefore, they can use basic variables, like demographic segmentation (country, income, population, age, ethnic heritage), psychographic segmentation (attitudes, interests, opinions and lifestyles), behavioral segmentation (user status, usage rate) and benefits users seek (Keegan and Green, 2005; Kotler and Lee, 2008). Some segmentation variables have similarities to and can be combined with life changing situations. For example, Gilly and Enis (1982) suggest a recycled family circle, in which they describe stages in the life circle (e.g. bachelor stage, full nest, empty nest etc.). But Gilly and Enis do not consider what exactly happens within a family when a new situation occurs. The individuals´ feelings, their thoughts and needs in between these stages are neglected. The concept of life changing situations focuses on these exact points: The transitions, the breaks for the individuals, their needs, the changes of their media usage patterns are of interest to the authors. As defined before, every life changing situation turns into a daily routine after some time (threshold or immediate beginning of a new phase), but in a phase, e.g. in a family life circle stage, a situation which is part of the family life circle concept. Other commonly used segmentation criteria are lifestyles, defined “as patterns in which people live and spend time and money” (Blackwell et al., 2006: 277), as well as milieu, personality (Blackwell et al., 2006, Diehl and Terlutter, 2003, Sinus Sociovision, 2010) or affinity for advertising (Smit and Neijens, 2000). All these segmentation variables have in common that they only describe stable and enduring phases in life. The situational factor of breaks in life, life changing situations, is missing here as well. The following graphic shows the gap between the existing segmentation strategies:

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Figure 3: Life Changing Situations as new Segmentation Strategy (own figure)

Even though people in life changing situations can certainly be found in existing market segments, the characteristics of their special situation are not sufficiently covered by the discussed segments. A more situational approach is needed – as you can see in the diagram – because the specific situation should be taken into consideration. To summarize these theoretical remarks without making claims of being complete, there is no comparable research on people in life changing situations regarding to market segmentation. Their meaning for media companies, advertisers or marketers has not yet been researched. What makes people in life changing situations especially attractive for market segmentation is that they are characterized by high involvement and special needs; they actively and selectively search for information. Highly involved information seeking persons are very important to media companies and advertisers. Nowadays, recipients are usually suffering from information overload. Information overload adds up to 99 %, with only 1 % of the information from mass media being perceived by the recipients (Meffert, 2000). As early as in 1984 Ferber argues that “[...] we are presented with so much

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information in our daily lives that we cannot possibly receive it all effectively. What information does get perceived depends both on our attention level and on what we selectively notice of the stimuli that are received by our senses. […] This selectivity may be based on the consumer’s own characteristics, such as needs and values, expectations, and past experiences; or the selectivity may be determined by product characteristics, such as distinctiveness, intensity, and novelty.” (Ferber, 1984: 127).

3.2

Relationship between Advertisers and Media Companies and Individuals

For the relationship between advertisers and media companies and individuals the reader’s engagement with the media vehicle can be brought up. Calder and Malthouse (2008) defined it as “the collective experiences that a reader has with the editorial content.” They proved that “engagement of the audience as a whole with the media vehicle is reflected in the effectiveness of an ad for the entire audience.” (Malthouse and Calder, 2009: 5). They propose a reflection of the price of an ad according to the level of engagement with the editorial part of magazines. Also Bronner and Neijens (2006) examined the relationship between advertising experience and the experience in which these advertisements were embedded. They found a strong correlation between media and advertising experience for print media, which suggests that this “could be that print media titles are rather specific and target their audiences more accurately, making it possible to tailor the advertisements to profiles of these media.” (Bronner and Neijens, 2006: 97) Therefore, taking the target group “people in life changing situations” into consideration can extend and supplement the existing market segmentation in a useful way. The additional variable would be a situational one, depending on the specific life changing situation. Another aspect is that people in life changing situations try to handle their new daily lives with the help of a combination of various media. Consequently, an intermedia survey has to be carried out, as recommended by Smit and Neijens (2000) and Bronner and Neijens (2006) in their media context research. A study by Folkman Curasi, Hogg and Maclaran (2001) focuses on the changing role and identity of mothers entering the empty nest stage as a kind of transition. Folkman Curasi, Hogg and Maclaran (2001) showed that mothers were altering their media usage and started participating in a bulletin board to find ‘communitas’ and advice from other women who had already successfully coped with this transitional period or life changing situation. This indicates that

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media usage plays an important role in times of change and can fulfill new emotional and informational needs. Based on the theoretical remarks, especially the findings of Holmes and Rahe (1989) that life events mainly have an influence on the health of the people concerned, and the study by Folkman Curasi, Hogg and Maclaran (2001), the underlying assumption of the research project, which has also to be determined in further research, is: Media usage and media equipment help individuals to deal with new situations. In this way they, as well as the needs of people in these life changing situations, are subject to changes influencing them.

4

Win-Win-Win Situation?

The assumption is that media usage and media equipment play an important role in life changing situations as they help people deal with change. It provides them with orientation, information, entertainment and a kind of social life (Biagi, 2007). It can be argued that life changing situations lead to new needs resulting in a change in media usage patterns. Thus, it can be assumed that people affected by life changing situations are actively searching for useful information on products and services which help them. If a media company manages to satisfy the new needs of thus affected recipients, they in turn are likely to become permanent customers who remain loyal to the company’s products. Therefore, not only the recipients themselves benefit from appropriate offers by the media company, but also the media company benefits if it identifies them as an interesting group. By providing valuable information to people in life changing situations, media companies can also cooperate with advertising agencies which could advertise suitable products and services in their editorial section. Moreover, companies can offer an attractive setting for advertisers in which their ads are noticed, which in turn could lead advertisers to provide a higher budget. By addressing people in life changing situations and even define them as a new segment on the market, advertisers and media companies alike have a chance to target and win new consumers. The following diagram (figure 4) illustrates the possible win-win-win situation, with stronger relationships between the three partners being an additional beneficial outcome.

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Figure 4: Possible win-win-win situation for people in life changing situations, media companies and advertisers (own figure)

This theoretical framework as well as the underlying assumption will be determined in the ongoing research project. The starting point for these considerations are the results of a first pre-study, which are described and presented in the next chapter.

5

Methodology and First Results

At the beginning of this more comprehensive research project, the authors analyze this basic assumption for one specific life changing situation.

5.1

Methodology

This further pre-study analyzes a specific life changing situation: first year students at a middle-sized Austrian university are interviewed after having left their parental homes. The study consists of three methodical components: (1) a guided interview, (2) an observation of the living environment as well as the media equipment and (3) a questionnaire which pays attention to media equipment both at their former and their present homes. The reason for the

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trisection of the study is the perspective that media usage cannot be considered separately from people’s daily lives. (1) In guided interviews (between 45 minutes and an hour each) 14 students are asked about their past media usage – at their parental homes – and their media usage in their new homes as students (all students were living alone in the first term, in an apartment-sharing community or a dormitory). The guided interviews are held at the students’ homes, which makes (2) an observation of their living environments and their media equipment and placement possible. In addition to the guided interviews and the monitoring, the students are asked to fill out (3) a questionnaire about their media infrastructure, that is to say their media equipment at their parental home and at their student’s home. For the interpretation of the gained data, the grounded theory is used, which allows for a combination of qualitative and quantitative findings to generate a new theory concerning the people’s behavior in life changing situations (Glaser and Strauss, 2005).

5.2

Results: The daily patterns are changing

In this second pre-study, we find that students in the first semester are likely to change their media usage pattern and that they are searching for new media content. For example, they search for doctors, leisure facilities and events nearby, they stay in touch with their families and friends over the internet – something they did not have to do before the change. Also, these students do not need a conventional telephone landline at their place of study, but they tend to use the same cell phone network provider as their family or friends. Ten interviewees have also switched to another main medium, i.e. the most used medium with regard to time and content. This was due to new challenges in the student workplace and modified leisure time activities. Thus, the computer/laptop with internet access becomes the new main medium. In addition to that, the observation reveals that the main medium is placed centrally within the living arrangements. Television, radio and to some extent also the internet act as a substitute for the family and the old friends. They help combat feelings of loneliness. Students tend to use more than one medium at the same time. A special form of media usage – concerning its function as a substitute for the family and friends – occurs at the dinner table: Either the television or the radio is turned on during meals. In addition to that, the internet is used or newspapers or books are read in order to masquerade the absence of a vis-á-vis. The computer/laptop with internet access is increasingly used for reading the newspaper, as first-year students do not have a permanent subscription to a print newspaper.

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It is worth mentioning that students are not restricted in their media usage anymore, for they are neither bound by time nor content. This means that they no longer have to be considerate of other family members as opposed to their school time, when e.g. watching television or facing the problem of several people surfing the web with only one internet access point or limited access. At the beginning of their studies, students learn that university or college life places a certain demand. In order to work properly and to succeed as a student they are required to have access to both the internet and the university’s intranet. As far as time is concerned, the study demonstrates that the lives of people affected by change were getting back to normal at a certain point. They are able to establish new patterns of daily routine. Services and products which are used and prove to be helpful during their life changing situations are still being used, such as newspapers or internet services. As the study shows, the students become permanent users of the media they consider helpful during the transitional period. This is the case because they appreciate the familiarity as well as the support these products render.

6

Discussion and Further Research

The first pre-study concerning the understanding of life changing situations and the second pre-study about the specific life changing situation of students in their first term are the basic steps for further research. In additional studies, it will be necessary to determine media usage and the importance of advertisements. The first outcomes could show that people are changing their behaviour and their media usage pattern due to a specific life changing situation and that new needs are evolving as a consequence. The analysis of people affected by these changes seems to be a promising field of research. Media companies and their products can function as “companions” in life changing situations, provided they are able to supply people with suitable, helpful products in these situations. In order to offer appropriate and appealing products, market research has to be conducted in order to identify and describe the challenges that have to be met in the near future. This strategic planning could contribute not only to the company’s benefit, but could also benefit advertising agencies, because it ensures that demands are met and desires are fulfilled. It would be important to address people in life changing situations, and to acquire them as loyal customers before they re-establish their daily routines. After the reestablishment of the daily routines, people could be assigned to already existing segments (parallel segmentation).

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Further steps of the research project will involve the deeper analysis of other life changing situations (e.g. first employment, childbirth), with focus on the underlying psychological, emotional and cognitive processes of people in such situations. This includes people’s involvement, changes in their media usage, their decision making processes and their buying behavior. How products and services by media companies and advertisers should be tailored in order to meet the consumers’ needs will be analyzed. Additionally, it is worth investigating how involved people, who have become permanent and loyal users, are when they re-establish their daily routine. It might also be interesting to find out how male and female recipients respond to life changing situations and if there are gender-specific differences.

7

References

Blackwell, R.D., Miniard, P.W. & Engel, J. F. (2006), “Consumer Behavior”, International Student Edition, 10th ed, Mason, Thomson South-Western. Bronner, F. & Neijens, P. (2006), “Audience Experiences of Media Context and Embedded Advertising, A comparison of eight media,” in: International Journal of Market Research, 48 (1) 81 – 100. Biagi, S. (2007), “Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media”, 8th ed., Belmont, Thomson Wadsworth. Calder, B. J. & Malthouse, E., C. (2008), “Media Engagement and Advertising Effectiveness,” in Calder (ed.): Kellogg on Advertising and Media, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc . 1 – 36. Diehl, S. and Terlutter, R. (2003), “The Role of Lifestyle and Personality in Explaining the Attitude toward Ads and the Purchase Intentions,” in: Hansen, F.; Christensen, L.B. (eds.): Branding and Advertising, Copenhagen Business School Press, 306 – 331. Dohrenwend, B. P. (2006), “Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability,” in: Psychological Bulletin, Vol 132(3), May 2006, 477-495 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1584216/ [25.01.2011]) Ferber, R. (1984), “What do We Know About Consumer Behavior?”, in: Kotler, P., Cox, K. (ed.): Marketing management and Strategy, A Reader, 3rd Edition, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc, 125 – 136. Folkman Curasi, C., Hogg, M.K. & Maclaran, P. (2001), “Entering the empty nest stage: A multimethod Exploration of Women’s Life Experiences and Coping Strategies in Periods of Life Stage Transition,” in European Advances in Consumer Research, 5, 260 – 267. Gilly, M.C. & Enis, B.M. (1982), “Recycling the Family Life Cycle: A Proposal for Redefinition,” in Advances in Consumer Research, 9, 271 – 276. Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.L. (2005), “Grounded Theory,” 2nd Edition, Bern, Hans Huber. Holmes, T. H. & David, E.M. (ed.) (1989). “Life Change, Life Events, and Illness”, Selected Papers, New York, Westport, Connecticut, London, Praeger Publishers. Holmes, T.H. (1989), “It Was in This Setting …,” in: Holmes, T. H.; David, E. M. (eds.) (1989), Life Change, Life Events, and Illness, Selected Papers, New York, Westport, Connecticut, London, Praeger Publishers.

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Holmes, T.H. & Rahe, R.H. (1967), “The Social Readjustment Rating Scale,” in Journal of Psychosomatic Research 11, 213 – 218, printed In: Holmes, T. H.; David, E. M. (eds.) (1989), Life Change, Life Events, and Illness, Selected Papers, New York, Westport, Connecticut, London, Praeger Publishers. Keegan, W.J. & Green, M.C. (2005) “Global Marketing,” International Edition, 4th Edition. Kotler, P. & Cox, K. (eds.) (1984), “Marketing management and Strategy”, A Reader, 3rd Edition, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Kotler, P. & Lee, N.R. (2008), “Social Marketing, Influencing Behaviors for Good,” 3rd Edition, London, Sage Publications. Kroeber-Riel, W. & Weinberg, P. (2003). Konsumentenverhalten, 8th Edition, München, Vahlen Verlag. Lief, A. (ed) (1948), “The commonsense Psychaitry of Dr. Adolf Meyer”, New York, McGraw-Hill. Malthouse, E.C. and Calder, B.J. (2009), “Media Engagement is as important as advertising execution,” in Terlutter, R.; Diehl, S., Karmasin, M. and Smit, E. (eds.): Proceedings of the 8th ICORIA International Conference on Research, on CD-Rom. May, P.R.A. & Wittenborn, J.R. (eds.), “Psychotropic Drug Response: Advances in Prediction”, Springfield, Illinois, Thomas S.S. Meffert, H. (2000), „Marketing: Grundlagen marktorientierter Unternehmensführung, Konzepte – Instrumente – Praxisbeispiele,“ 9th Edition, Wiesbaden, Gabler. Peter, J.P. & Olson, J. C. (2008), “Consumer Behavior and Marketing,” 8th International Edition, Boston, McGraw-Hill. Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo, J.T (1981), “Issue Involvement as a Moderator of the Effects on Attitude of Advertising Content and Context,” in Advances in Consumer Research, 8, 20 – 24. Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986), “Communication and Persuasion, Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change,” New York, Springer. Rahe, R.H. & Holmes, T.H. (1989), “Life Crisis and Disease Onset: Qualitative and Quantitative Definition of the Life Crisis and Its Association with Health Change,” in Holmes, T. H., David, E. M. (eds.) (1989), in Life Change, Life Events, and Illness, Selected Papers, New York, Westport, Connecticut, London, Praeger Publishers, 193 – 201. Rahe, R.H. (1969), “Life Crisis and health Change,” in May, P. R. A.; Wittenborn, J. R. (eds.), Psychotropic Drug Response: Advances in Prediction, Thomas, S. S., Publisher: Springfield Illinois, 92 – 125. Sinus Sociovision (2010). Sinus-Mileus, http://www.sociovision.de/loesungen/sinus-milieus.html [30.01.11]. Smit, E.G. & Neijens, P.C. (2000), “Segmentation Based on Affinity for Advertising,” Journal of Advertising Research, (July/August), 35 – 43. Solomon, M., Bamossy, G.; Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M. K. (2006), “Consumer Behaviour,” A European Perspective, 3rd Edition, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc. Wind, Y. & Cardozo, R. (1984), “Industrial Market Segmentation,” in: Kotler, P.; Cox, K. (eds.): Marketing management and Strategy, A Reader, 3rd Edition, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc, 208 – 219. Zaichkowsdy, J.L. (1985), “Measuring the Involvement Construct,” in Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (December), 341 – 352.

Part IV

Social Interaction and Advertising

An Investigation of Social Media Usage, Brand Consciousness, and Purchase Intention towards Luxury Products among Millennials Shu-Chuan Chu, DePaul University, USA Sara Kamal, American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates*

1

Introduction

According to a recent report on the values, attitudes, behaviors and demographic characteristics of the Millennial generation (Pew Research, 2010a), the Millennial generation refers “those born after 1980 –the first generation to come of age in the new Millennium (p.4).” Compared to previous American generations, Milliennials (ages 18-33) are more likely to use the Internet wirelessly. They remain more likely to actively engage in a wide range of communication and entertainment-related activities online, such as using social networking sites and instant messaging, listening to music, reading blogs, and playing games online (Pew Research, 2010b). Among the many online activities, using social media (SM hereafter) such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter has appeared to be most popular among Millennials. A recent report by eMarketer (2008) forecasts that global advertising expenditures on SM will reach $ 2.6 billion by 2012. Given their potential impact on branding, marketers and advertisers have employed SM as a tool to develop positive brand relationships with young consumers by promoting advertising messages on these sites. In particular, the explosive growth of SM outlets represents huge opportunities for luxury brands in terms of demand (Okonkwo, 2005) and sales (Okonkwo, 2009). Recently, luxury brands are engaging with Millennials through increasingly sophisticated technology. For example, Giorgio Armani utilizes SM to target young consumers who want to be entertained and informed (Silverstein, 2010). Moreover, the increase of affluent Internet users, (defined as those with an annual income above $100,000) (eMarketer, 2007), highlights the importance of e-Retail of luxury goods (Okonkwo, 2009). This is particularly important as to the newly emerged online advertising formats, social media advertising (SMADV hereafter). SMADV may play a role in promoting luxury brands, serving as a source of brand aspiration for potential users (Balwani, 2009) such as Millennials. Of note is that the majority of Millennials are unmarried (Pew Research, 2010a), thus are more likely to have fewer finical responsi*All authors contributed equally, names are listed in alphabetical order. S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_12, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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bilities and more discretionary income to spend on themselves than previous generations. Millennials represents an emerging consumer segment for luxury products and are active users of SM (Lenhart et al., 2010; Silverstein, 2010). Thus SMADV may serve as a useful tool in developing attitudes and beliefs towards the luxury brand and will eventually influence behavior (Lavidge and Stiener, 1961; Palda, 1966). Given the rampancy of SM, luxury brands will have to adopt SMADV in order to maintain salience among the new and younger generation, namely Millennials. Despite many luxury brands have opened up to online advertising, particularly SMADV, research to date has not examined if SM usage might be related to consumption of luxury products among young generations. With the mounting growth of affluent Internet users, the online promotion of luxury products has become increasingly imperative and necessary. At the same time, SM usage and advertising spending on SM platforms are also on the rise. Along this line, this study empirically investigated millennial’s SM usage and two luxury related constructs: brand consciousness and purchase intention towards luxury goods. Demographic factors such as gender differences are also examined. As more and more luxury brands rely on SM to engage Millennials (New York Times, 2010; Silverstein, 2010), this study examines if SM usage, brand consciousness and intention to purchase luxury products relates to beliefs, attitudes and behaviors towards SMADV. Further, this study explores whether SM usage relates to brand consciousness and purchase intention. Findings of this study will provide theoretical insight by applying traditional advertising model (Pollay and Mittal, 1993) to the new SM context. Managerial implications are provided as well as directions for further research.

2 2.1

Theorectical Framework and Hypotheses Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors toward SMADV

Pollay and Mittal’s (1993) model of beliefs and attitudes about advertising has been widely used to assess consumer evaluation of advertising (Wang, et al., 2009; Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2003; Wolin et al., 2002). Within this model consumer’s attitudes towards advertising is determined by their beliefs toward advertising. For example, Wolin et al. (2002) applied the model to examine consumer evaluations of general advertising on the Web. This study posits that Pollay and Mittal’s model can be applied to the emerging Web for mats, namely SMADV. With respect to the online social sphere, the social nature of SM pro-

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vides advertisers with an ideal channel to develop messages that are relevant, personal, and engaging. The later examination has important implications for theory and practice—given the rapid adoption of SM by consumers and marketers. As a fundamental step towards understanding the impact of SMADV, this study first discusses beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors towards advertising in the SM context. Drawing from previous research, this study argued that an individual’s beliefs about SMADV are an important indicator of their overall attitude toward SMADV (Lavidge and Stiener, 1961; Palda, 1966; Ducoffe, 1996). Furthermore, researchers such as Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Wolin and Korgaonkar (2002), Stevenson et al. (2000) and Mehta (2000) noted that individual’s attitude towards advertising is an important antecedent of their behavioral response towards advertising, including their purchase intention. Thus, applying the same logic it is posited that SM users with favorable attitudes towards SMADV will tend to actively engage in advertising messages and seek information about the promoted products or brands.

2.2

Socail Media Usage

To explore the relationships among SM usage, brand consciousness, and purchase intention towards luxury products among the Millennial generation, SM usage was examined. Consumer beliefs towards advertising have often been associated with levels of media exposure. Specifically, previous studies (Churchill and Moschis, 1979; Richins, 1987) have noted that increased media usage is positively associated with high scores in advertising beliefs. Consumer beliefs and attitudes toward advertising involve the cognitive and affective evaluations of promotional messages. On the other hand, the behavioral responses toward advertising consist of online consumer actions in response to advertising stimulus (ad interaction, clicking through an advertisement and e-commerce activities). Millenials invest a significant amount of time on SM (Pew Research, 2010a), results from past research suggested that increased media usage is positively associated with high scores in advertising beliefs (Churchill and Moschis, 1979; Richins, 1987). Thus the time Millennials spend on SM may affect their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward advertising within these online social platforms. Along this line, this study hypothesizes that high levels of SM usage may lead to increased beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward SMADV. Thus, the first hypothesis posited: H1: Millennial SM users with a higher level of SM usage will indicate more favorable (a) beliefs, (b) attitudes, and (c) behaviors toward SMADV than will Millennial SM users with a lower level of usage.

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Brand Consciousness and Purchase Intention toward Luxury Products

Two important luxury related constructs were also examined, namely: brand consciousness and purchase intention toward luxury products. Brand consciousness, the degree to which a consumer is oriented toward buying well-known branded products (Shim and Gehrt, 1996; Sproles and Kendall, 1986), is an individual personality trait likely to affect consumer shopping orientation and product evaluation (Jamal and Goode, 2001). LaChance et al. (2003) noted that brands play an essential role in the psychological processes that influence buying decisions for brand conscious consumers. Further, past research suggested that brand-conscious individuals perceive well-known brands as a reflection of his/her own personalities (Jamal and Goode, 2001) and use the symbolic meanings of brands as a vehicle for self-expression (Belk, 1988; Sirgy et al., 1997). As brand consciousness indicates how oriented an individual is towards buying well-known branded products (Nelson and McLeod, 2005), it is argued that this construct may impact how users attend to and perceive commercial information in new media vehicles such as SM. Thus, the level of consumer brand consciousness may indicate individual differences in online social sphere and can be viewed as a discriminator of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward SMADV. As brand-conscious consumers tend to look to and appreciate the media for consumption-related information such as the latest fashions, trends and brands (Keum et al., 2004), it is argued that the perception of SMADV for highly brand conscious consumers will be will be favorable as compared to users with low levels of brand-consciousness. Thus, the following hypothesis was formulated: H2: Millennial SM users with a higher level of brand-consciousness will indicate more favorable (a) beliefs, (b) attitudes, and (c) behaviors toward SMADV than will Millennial SM users with a lower level of brandconsciousness. Past studies show that attitudes towards advertising had a positive and significant relationship with purchase intention. A few studies have looked into the relationship between online advertising attitudes and behaviors online. For example, Stevenson et al. (2000) found that attitude towards advertising on the Web and purchase intention was positively related. Similarly, Wolin and Korgaonkar (2002) reported that positive attitudes towards online advertising were significantly and positively related to higher levels of online spending and online purchasing frequency. Thus, the present study predicted that: H3: Millennial SM users with a higher level of purchase intention toward luxury products will indicate more favorable (a) beliefs, (b) attitudes,

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and (c) behaviors toward SMADV than will Millennial SM users with a lower level of purchase intention toward luxury products.

2.4

Social Media Usage, Brand Consciousness and Purchase Intention

Research on consumer socialization has noted the pivotal role of media consumption and commercial attitudes and behaviors (cf. Churchill and Moschis, 1979; Nelson and McLeod, 2005; Richins, 1987). Past studies examining the effect of commercial messages on consumption-oriented attitudes of young audiences, particularly teens and adolescents, found that increased media exposure lead to more positive consumption-oriented attitudes and behaviors (Brand and Greenberg, 1994). In two seminal studies Churchill and Moschis (1979) and Richins (1987) found a positive relationship between television consumption and consumption attitudes such as materialism. Similarly, in a later study, Nelson and McLeod (2005) noted that increased media consumption had a positive and significant relationship with consumer brand consciousness. As SM have become a popular destination for luxury campaigns (Balwani, 2009) and is widely used among users within the 18-28 age group (Pew Research, 2010a), there is a need for research examining the relationship between new media channels and brand-related values, particularly brand consciousness and luxury brand consumption among Millennials. Therefore the fourth hypothesis, predicted that: H4: Millennial’s SM usage is positively related to (a) brand consciousness and (b) purchase intention toward luxury products.

2.5

Gender, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors toward SMADV

Several studies have examined the relationship between demographic characteristics and attitudes toward advertising. Past research (Shavitt et al. 1998; Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2003) suggested that with respect to gender and beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward advertising, males tend to have more positive beliefs and attitudes toward advertising than females. Additionally, studies have noted that for Web advertising, male users had a higher level of behavioral response (e.g., Web purchases, click through rates, ad interaction) than compared to their female counterparts (Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2003). Accordingly, the following research question was put forth: RQ: How does gender of Millennial SM users relate to (a) SM usage, (b) beliefs, (c) attitudes, and (d) behaviors toward SMADV?

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Method

This study used an online survey to explore the relationships among the variables. Three hundred and six participants from a major university of the Midwest area in the U.S. completed the survey. The sample consisted of 131 males (42.8%) and 175 females (57.2%). More than two out of three respondents (65%) were between 21 and 30, and 34.3 percent were under 20 year old. As college students represent an important segment of millennial SM users, the use of student sample was deemed appropriate. First, SMADV was defined as “an online ad that incorporates user interactions that the consumer has agreed to display and be shared. The resulting ad displays these interactions along with the user’s persona (picture and/or name) within the ad content” (Interactive Advertising Bureau, p. 4). Next, Pollay and Mittal’s (1993) framework was applied to examine respondents’ beliefs toward SMADV (see Wolin et al. 2002). The measure included twenty-three items that tapped into the seven underlying belief factors: Good for Economy, Falsity/No Sense, Materialism, Value Corruption, Product Information, Social Role and Image, and Hedonic/Pleasure. Attitudes towards SMADV were examined by using the four items (Wolin, et al. 2002) developed by Mittal (1994) and Ducoffe (1996). In terms of behaviors towards SMADV, statements regarding participants’ behavioral interests, responses, and offence level (Wolin, et al. 2002) were used. Thus, four items were used to measure behavioral aspects of SMADV. A 5-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree) was used to measure beliefs and behaviors towards SMADV respectively. Attitudinal items were gauged on a 5-point semantic-differential scale. To measure brand consciousness, Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) 7-item scale was used. Another 5-item scale was utilized to examine purchase intention toward luxury products (Yoo and Lee, 2009). More specifically, purchase intention was measured by asking respondents how much they would like to purchase a luxury brand in the future. A list of luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Rolex, and Hermes was identified through The Leading Luxury Brands 2008 (Interbrand, 2008). Items concerning brand consciousness and purchase intention were measured on a 5-point Likert scale respectively (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree). Finally, SM usage was measured on a 6item scale by asking participants to indicate their media use from the previous day (LaFerle et al., 2000). As a result, a 10-point scale (1= 0, 10= more than 8 hours) was used to examine participants’ SM usage.

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Results

To examine the impacts of usage pattern on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward SMADV, a median split was used to divide the participants into those with high and low SM usage. A series of independent samples t-tests compared beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors between the two groups of SM users. The results showed that high usage respondents reported having a more positive attitude (Mhigh usage = 3.23; Mlow usage = 2.94, t(1,304) = -3.04, p < .005) and behavior (Mhigh usage = 2.53; Mlow usage = 2.25, t(1,304) = -3.67, p < .001) toward SMADV than did low usage respondents. Thus t-tests results lent support of H1b and H1c. However, no significant difference was found in beliefs toward SMADV (Mhigh = 3.13; Mlow = 3.04, t(1,304) = -1.42, p = .16). Thus, H1a was not supported. When participants spent more time on SM, they remained more favorable attitudes and behaviors toward advertising messages on these social sites. Another median split was used to categorize the respondents into those with high and low levels of brand consciousness and purchase intention toward luxury goods. The results indicated that highly brand-conscious SM users had a more favorable belief (Mhigh = 3.18; Mlow = 2.97, t(1,304) = -3.10, p < .01) and attitude (Mhigh = 3.25; Mlow = 2.87, t(1,304) = -4.03, p < .001) toward SMADV than did low brand-conscious individuals. Thus, H2a and H2b were confirmed. A marginally significant difference was observed in behaviors toward SMADV (Mhigh = 2.44; Mlow = 2.30, t(1,304) = -1.84, p = .07), supporting H2c. In terms of purchase intention toward luxury products, users with a higher level of purchase intention (M = 3.16) were found to have more favorable beliefs toward SMADV than did low purchase intention users (M = 3.01) (t (1,304) = -2.05, p<.05). Thus, H3a was supported. As for behaviors toward SMADV, a marginally significant difference was found (Mhigh = 2.45; Mlow = 2.31, t(1,304) = -1.91, p = .06), and thus H3c was marginally supported. On the other hand, the results showed no significant difference in attitudes toward SMADV (Mhigh = 3.14; Mlow = 3.02, t(1,304) = -1.23, p = .22), disconfirming H3b. Regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among SM usage, brand consciousness, and purchase intention. Specifically, brand consciousness and purchase intention were regressed respectively on SM usage. The regression models were found to be significant (Brand consciousness: ( 2 2 Radj = .14), F (1, 304) = 49.74, p < .001; Purchase intention ( Radj = .10), F (1,

304) = 34.75, p < .001). As predicted, usage of SM was a significant predictor of respondents’ brand consciousness and purchase intention toward luxury products. Hence, H4a and H4b were supported.

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The last research question focused on how gender of SM users affects their SM usage patterns and related beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward SMADV. To examine whether there are gender differences with regard to respondents’ usage and evaluation of SMADV, independent samples t-tests were computed. A significant difference was found in SM usage and behaviors toward SMADV. Male respondents (M = 2.62) were more likely to use SM than did their female counterparts (M = 2.20) (t (1,304) = 2.62, p<.01). In addition, male participants (M = 2.47) reported having more positive behaviors toward SMADV than did female respondents (M = 2.31) (t (1,304) = 2.17, p<.05). On the other hand, the results showed no substantial gender differences in terms of beliefs (Mmale = 3.09; Mfemale = 3.07, t(1,304) = .24, p = .81) and attitudes (Mmale = 3.14; Mfemale = 3.03, t(1,304) = 1.10, p = .28). Overall, these results suggested that gender was associated with SM usage and its impact on behavioral responses to SMADV. That is, male participants were more likely to actively engage in SM activities and they tended to maintain more positive behaviors toward SMADV through looking for brand information on SM or clicking social advertisements.

5

Discussion and Conclusions

Millennials represent the future generation of luxury consumers, these users have a penchant for digital content and social interaction—nearly 75 percent of Millennials engage in SM on a daily basis (Pew Research, 2010a). Yet, it can be argued that the main appeal of luxury goods is the sense of exclusivity which is absent in Internet based communication. As luxury brands target this new consumer market to sustain future growth, an important question arises: What are the implications of SMADV for luxury brands with respect to young consumers? The current study explored how SM usage, brand consciousness and purchase intention for luxury products relates to beliefs, attitudes and behaviors towards SMADV among Millennials. Results from this study indicated that users with high levels of SM usage displayed more positive attitudes and behaviors towards SMADV than those with lower levels of SM usage. From a theoretical perspective, these findings are consistent with past research which showed positive linkages between consumer attitudes and behaviors (Ducoffe, 1996; Lavidge and Stiener, 1961; Palda, 1966; Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2002). Further, these results suggest that the consumer’s level of usage may impact the effectiveness of SMADV. One of the possible reasons why heavy users of SM showed more positive SMADV attitudes and behaviors than their peers with lower levels of usage, may be due to the level of familiarity or expertise with these users have with this new medium.

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These results imply that heavy users of SM will respond more favorably than those who use the medium less frequently. Thus more traditional avenues of advertising will continue to play an important role in developing favorable attitudes and behaviors for novice and low level SM users. From the managerial perspective a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not likely to work in SMADV-- to be successful, advertisers must identify power users and target them with SMADV messages. Another finding from this study was that users with high levels of brand consciousness reported more positive beliefs and attitudes towards SMADV and are more likely to attend to SMADV messages compared to their peers with lower levels of brand consciousness. This finding is supported by previous research (Keum et al., 2004) that is, people with a keen interest in brands are responsive to gaining more knowledge about those brands and product through alternative media outlets. This means that the effectiveness of SMADV for Millenials is largely driven by user characteristics i.e. interest in brands. Advertisers may be well suited to use SM as a means of providing enhanced information about their products for brand conscious consumers who ‘seek out’ shopping and consumption oriented messages. Conversley, users with low brand conscious levels showed less favorable beliefs and attitudes towards SMADV compared to users with high brand consciousness—this suggests that SMADV is unlikely to have an effect on targets who do not care about brands, these consumers will require attention from other elements of the marketing communication mix such as promotions, public relations and personal selling. Additionally, results showed that users with high levels of purchase intention for luxury goods exhibited more positive beliefs about SMADV than those users with low levels of purchase intention. This finding suggests that for luxury brands, SMADV may serve as a useful tool within the promotional mix. These findings are also explained by past research on selective perception which notes that as consumers are intending or likely to buy a product they are more interested in receiving messages relevant to that purchase (Aaker et al., 1992). Furthermore, results from the regression analysis showed that SM usage was a significant predictor of consumer brand consciousness and purchase intention of luxury goods. Currently many leading luxury brands have allocated a growing proportion of their marketing budgets towards Internet platforms (Chadel, 2009; Okonkwo, 2009). Most notably, luxury brands including Burberry, Gucci, Chanel, Armani, and Van Cleef and Arpel have embraced SM technologies such as iPhone applications, Twitter and Facebook pages as part of their promotional efforts to reel in youthful audiences (New York Times, 2010). Results from this study provide empirical evidence that suggests the importance of SMADV for

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brand conscious consumers, who are likely targets for luxury brands. This finding is important, given that many luxury brands are expanding their distribution strategies by integrating e-Retail into their websites (Okonkwo, 2010). Additionally, industry reports approximate that 73 percent of luxury brands found that user traffic generated from Facebook to their brand sites had doubled in 2010 (L2 Digital IQ® Index: Luxury, 2010). In light of the positive linkages found in this study between consumer brand consciousness, purchase intention of luxury goods and SM usage, such initiatives are likely to benefit luxury brands in building their market within the Millennial generation. Lastly, while beliefs and attitudes towards SMADV were consistent across male and female respondents, gender differences were noted with respect to behaviors toward SMADV and SM usage. Specifically, male users were more likely to provide a behavioral response to SMADV compared to their female counterparts. Also, male users indicated a higher level of usage over female users. This implies that advertisers should consider male users as a prime target for SMADV. As such, ad-vertisers should consider products, messages and tactics (games, applications, and etc) that are appropriate for this target group. In conclusion, this research contributes to the advertising literature by linking consumption values with the emerging advertising formats, SMADV. More research needs to be conducted to further uncover the impact of SM usage on young users’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward promotional messages in SM, as these insights will provide valuable implications for advertisers engaging youthful segments with new technologies.

6

References

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eMarketer (2007). Affluent Internet users: how the rich live online. Retrieved Online at: http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000430 eMarketer (2008). Social network marketing: ad spending update. Retrieved from http://www.emarketer.com Interactive Advertising Bureau (2009). IAB Social Advertising Best Practices, Retrieved Online at: http://www.iab.net/media/file/Social-Advertising-Best-Practices-0509.pdf. Interbrand (2008). The leading luxury brands 2008. Retrieved online at: http://www.interbrand.com/en/news-room/press-releases/2008-12-12.aspx. Jamal, A. & Goode, M. (2001), “Consumers' Product Evaluation: A Study of the Primary Evaluative Criteria in the Precious Jewellery Market in the UK,” in Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 1(2) (November), 140-155. Keum, H., Devanathan, N., Deshpande, S., Nelson, M.R. & Shah, D.V. (2004), “The CitizenConsumer: Media Effects at the Intersection of Consumer and Civic Culture,” in: Political Communication, 21, 369-392. L2ThinkTank.com (2010). L2 Digital IQ® Index: Luxury. Retreieved Online at: http://l2thinktank.com/?page_id=7644 LaChance, J.J., Beaudoin, P. & Robitaille, J. (2003), “Adolescents’ Brand Sensitivity in Apparel: Influence of Three Socialization Agents,” in: International Journal of Consumer Studies, 27, 4757. La Ferle, C.; Edwards, S. M. & W-N Lee (2000), “Teens' Use of Traditional Media and the Internet,” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 4(3), 55-64. Lavidge, R. J. & G.A. Steiner (1961), “A Model for Predictive Measurements of Advertising Effectiveness,” in: Journal of Marketing, 25, 59-62. Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A. & Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social media & mobile Internet use among teens and young adults. Retrieved Online at: http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP_Social_Media_and_Young_Adults _Report.pdf Mehta, A. (2000), “Advertising Attitudes and Advertising Effectiveness,” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 40(3), 67-72. Mittal, B. (1994), “Public Assessment of TV Advertising: Faint Praise and Harsh Criticism,” in: Journal of Advertising Research, 34(1), 35-53. Nelson, M. & McLeod, L. (2005), “Adolescent Brand Consciousness and Product Placements: Awareness, Liking and Perceived Effects on Self and Others,” in: International Journal of Consumer Studies, 29(6), 515-528. New York Times (2010). Marketing to the Millennials. Retrieved Online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/fashion/03iht-rmil.html?_r=1 Okonkwo, U. (2005). Can the Luxury fashion brand store atmosphere be transferred to the Internet? Retrieved online at: http://www.brandchannel.com/images/papers/269_Lux_Goods_Online.pdf Okonkwo, U. (2009), “Sustaining the Luxury Brand on the Internet,” in: Journal of Brand Management, 16, 5(6), 302-310. Okonkwo, U. (2010). Luxury online: styles, systems, strategies. Publisher: Palgrave Macmilla, Hampshire, United Kingdom. Palda, K.S. (1966), “The Hypothesis of a Hierarchy of Effects: A Partial Evaluation,” in: Journal of Marketing Research, 3, 13-24. Pew Research Center (2010a). The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. Retrieved Online at: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1501/millennials-new-survey-generational-personalityupbeat-open-new-ideas-technology-bound Pew Research Center (2010b). Generations 2010. Retrieved Online at: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations-2010.aspx Pollay, R. & Mittal, B. (1993). “Here's the Beef: Factors, Determinants, and Segments in Consumer Criticism of Advertising,” in: Journal of Marketing, 57(3), 99-114. Richins, M.L. (1987), “Media, Materialism, and Human Happiness,” in: Advances in Consumer Research, 14(1), 352-356.

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The Role of Parasocial Interaction and Teleparticipation on Teleshopping Behaviour Rafael Currás-Pérez, University of Valencia, Spain María José Miquel-Romero, University of Valencia, Spain Carla Ruiz-Mafé, University of Valencia, Spain Silvia Sanz-Blas, University of Valencia, Spain

1

Introduction

Nowadays, television media has evolved into an important channel of direct selling that brands and advertisers are exploiting. Many technological changes (e.g., digital television appearance or the integration of Internet in the TV medium and mobile technology) have increasingly led to consumers see television as a channel for purchasing products and services and as a source of information (Beyer et al., 2007). However, researchers have put little interest on teleshopping, one of the consumer behaviour phenomena. Traditionally, media exposure, television media dependency or teleshopping genre dependency have been key antecedents of the teleshopping behaviour. Thus, it has been shown that the intensity of the relationship between consumer and media predicts the likelihood of a media message having some sort of effects on the individual’s behaviour (Ballantine and Martin, 2005; Ball-Rokeach et al., 1993; Grant et al., 1991). Media Dependency Theory (Ball-Rokeach, 1985, 1989; Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Loges, 1994) is one of the most useful theories to explain individual-media relations, and has been used as the conceptual framework for our study. The Media Dependency Theory makes possible to identify not only the needs and gratifications derived from using media but also the relationships between the goals pursued by the consumer and the available resources. The micro-level of this theory named as Individual Media Dependency (IMD) provides a concrete basis for measuring individual dependency relations with regard to a specific medium or genre (Grant et al., 1991; Loges, 1994). However, research has also shown that television viewers can develop a sense of social relationship with their favourite television personalities such as newscasters or soap opera characters (Perse and Rubin, 1989; Rubin et al., 1985). Later et al. (1998) also included the viewer-audience relationship in S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_13, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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genre personae relationships, which is different from the show-host parasocial interaction, on television shopping experience. On the basis of the Media Dependency Theory, Grant et al. (1991) and Skumanich and Kintsfather, (1998) presented and evaluated a teleshopping dependency model in which the ‘media dependency genre’ is a key variable in the purchase, integrating the genre personae relationships to capture the psychosocial dynamics of the dependency phenomenon. Indeed, interactivity comes as one of the deepest and revolutionary changes in the television media. Television is no longer seen as the device that only emits unidirectional messages given that television content managers are concerned with the fact that viewers should take part in the program by actively participating as well as empathizing with characters and hosts (Beyer et al., 2007). The search for a major interaction between individual-personae answers the fact that television consumerism is, every time to a larger extent, a vehicle for construction and expression of the personal identity of the subjects. It is throughout its token of link with programs and television characters that individuals can satisfy their self-definitional needs. This phenomenon encourages television content designers to create contexts and use tools to make consumer social relationship and integration with characters (host, guests) or other viewers that take part in the program easier. Some examples of such contexts are: choosing the host according to the audiences’ favourite profile, direct calls, SMS messaging, development of a social networks profile, starting up chats or web pages, etc. To sum up, both relationships individual-media and individual-personaeother viewers would determine the strong tendency towards teleshopping (Skumanich and Kintsfather 1998; Stephens et al., 1996). This study, looking at models proposed by Grant et al. (1991) and Skumanich and Kintsfather (1998), has the main objective to analyze the role of genre personae relationships (parasocial interaction and teleparticipation relationships) as well as media relationships (exposure and dependency) as antecedents of teleshopping behaviour. In order to achieve the objective this work is organized as follows: First, a conceptual review of both teleshopping key antecedents, the relationship with the people that get involved in the genre (parasocial interaction and teleparticipation) and media-genre dependency are presented. Next, hypothetical relationships between variables and the proposed theoretical model are explained in this research, allowing explaining integrally the phenomenon of teleshopping in terms of relations of the individual with media, the teleshopping genre and television genre personae. That is followed by a description of the methodology

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used and the results. Finally, we present the conclusion, managerial implications and study limitations.

2 2.1

Conceptual Framework: Relations with Television Media Individual Media Dependency

An important area of study within the sphere of communication is to explore the functions of mass media from the consumer perspective, including individual media relations and any derived effects. Previous research focussed on the study of television shopper (Bigné et al., 2006; Grant et al., 1991; Ruiz and Sanz, 2007, 2008; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), have identified the key variables of the shopping decision. These variables are exposure to the media-genre, dependency on the teleshopping media-genre, parasocial interaction and effects of teleparticipation. The Uses and Gratifications Theory (Anderson and Meyer, 1975; Blumler, 1979; Katz et al., 1974; Krotz and Eastman, 1999; Mcquail, 1995; Perse, 1986) have been considered one of the strongest influential theories in the study of mass media. Different to other approaches and theories, it has reached a better understanding of the needs that communication contents meets and of the gratifications provided to mass media audiences. Thus, it allows to examine the functions of media from the consumer’s perspective, trying to answer the question what is media used for (McQuail, 1995) and then, what are the needs and wishes it is able to fulfil (Anderson and Meyer, 1975). The previous theory has been improved and extended with the Media Dependency Theory (Ball-Rokeach, 1985, 1989; Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976; Ball-Rokeach, et al.,1990; Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984; Colman, 1990; DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Loges, 1994), allowing to identify not only the needs and gratifications derived from the use of media but also the relations between the pursued goals and the resources available. Similarly, unlike the Uses and Gratifications Theory, the Dependency Theory takes into account the context that surrounds communication, examining those factors and variables that can influence the access to media. The Media Dependency Theory studies the relations between the systems and its components (Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Mass media is considered, from this theory’s point of view, both a system and an important part of the actual social fabric, and thus, it can have relations with individuals, groups and organizations, as well as with other social systems (Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Therefore, media is

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made up of three components: audience-media-society (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976; DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989). According to the Dependency Theory, individuals, groups, organizations and systems fulfil their personal and collective goals having to depend or to rely on resources of other people, groups, organizations or systems, and vice versa (Ball-Rokeach, 1989). The macro-level of the MSD theory (Media System Dependency) (BallRockeach and DeFleur, 1976; DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989) has been a useful framework to examine, within a more abstract approach, the interdependencies of media with economic and institutional organizations. The micro-level of this theory known as individual media dependency (IMD) provides a concrete basis for measuring individual dependency relations with regard to a specific medium (Colman, 1990; Loges, 1994). Like other systems, the individual has also its own goals and some of them require access to computer resources being controlled by mass media (BallRokeach, 1985, 1989). IMD has been defined as “a relation where the individual’s capacity to reach his or her goals, depends to a certain extent on the medium’s information resources” (Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984, 3). The IMD has three dimensions or categories (see table 1): understanding, orientation and play (Ball-Rokeach, 1985, 1989; Grant, 1996; Grant et al., 1991; Loges, 1994; Loges and Ball-Rokeach, 1993; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998).

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Table 1. Types of dependency relations between individuals and media

PLAY

ORIENTATION

UNDERSTANDING

SELF Relationship that maintains or expands the individual capacity to interpret its own beliefs, behaviour, self-esteem or personality.

Creation of own behavioural decisions out of different guides for specific behaviour provided by media.

SOCIAL Understanding the nature of other individuals, cultures and world-events (from the past, present and future). Including the perception of the role that someone plays in that society. Information regarding types of behaviour appropriate or effective in the personal relationship of the individual with other people.

SIGNIFICANT LITERATURE

Ball-Rokeach, 1985, 1989; Ball-Rokeach et al.,1984; Ball-Rokeach et al.,1993; Bigné et al., 2006; Colman, 1990; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Grant, 1989, 1996; Grant et al.,, 1991; Loges, 1994; Loges and Ball-Rokeach, 1993; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998

Capacity of the medium to provide conEntertainment, tents that stimulate stimulation or relaxation that the content provides intervention and social relationship among to the individual. people.

Source: Adapted from Ball-Rokeach (1989)

These dimensions have been identified in different media such as radio, press o magazines, television and Internet. Studies focused on the analysis of the individual dependency on television (Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984; Ball-Rokeach et al., 1993; Grant, 1989, 1996; Grant et al.,1991; Loges, 1994; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), have allowed to identify the six levels of dependency previously described and thus, to show that television provides with enough news resources as to reach any of the set goals for understanding, orientation and play. This classification also allows measuring the dependency relationship within a specific product of a medium such as a genre of television programs, a specific television program or a film. Regarding the teleshopping genre, studies of dependency on teleshopping genre or on a specific shopping program have proved that the individual can reach certain goals such as self or social entertainment,

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action or interaction orientation or social understanding (Bigné et al., 2006; Grant et al., 1991; Guthrie, et al., 1988; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). Literature review has allowed identifying as key precursors of the television media-genre dependency the following: social systems, social environment (development), broadcasted contents, media exposure, interpersonal networks and social demographic variables (Bigné et al., 2006; Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Rosenstein and Grant, 1997; Ruiz and Sanz, 2008). Apart from that, as a result of the dependency it is to mention the intensification of the level of media and genre exposure, the identification and achievement of new goals or individual's needs (Bigné et al., 2006; Rosenstein and Grant, 1997), as well as parasocial interaction with television program characters or hosts (Auter and Moore, 1993; Grant et al,, 1991; Horton and Wohl, 1956; Levy, 1979; Nordlund, 1978; Perse, 1990; Perse and Rubin, 1989; Rubin et al,, 1985; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998).

2.2

Parasocial Interaction

The concept of parasocial interaction (PSI), a new form of social interaction created by the mass media, made its first appearance in the communication literature with Horton and Wohl’s (1956) study. These authors defined parasocial interaction as the apparent face-to-face interaction that can occur between media characters and their audience (Horton and Wohl 1956). PSI is one-sided communication and interaction between media users and media personae during media exposure (Schiappa et al., 2005; Schramm and Wirth, 2010). While audience members consist of mass media users, media characters can include several types of media figures (or personae) such as hosts, actors, or celebrities. Research on parasocial interaction has been conducted in contexts such as interactive reality television programs (Godlewski, 2005; Hartmann et al., 2008; Schiappa et al., 2006; Schramm and Hartmann, 2008; Schramm and Wirth, 2010), cable home shopping channel (Stephens et al., 1996) and Internet (Ballantine and Martin, 2005; Sanderson, 2008a; 2008b; Sanderson, 2009). PSI has been referred to as an illusion of a face-to-face relationship (Horton and Wohl 1956), as an imaginary social relationship (Alperstein 1991; Cohen, 2004), as an imaginary friendship (Perse 1990), and as an interpersonal interaction between the media user and the media being consumed (Auter, 1992; Giles, 2002; Rosengren, 1974; Rubin et al., 1985; Rubin and Step, 2000; Sanderson, 2009; Schramm and Wirth, 2010). McQuail et al. (1972) identified two essential functions of parasocial interaction: companionship and personal identity. Soap characters frequently reminded viewers of people they knew, and viewers used characters’ situations and behaviour as ways of understanding their own lives.

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Overall, parasocial relationships are similar to social relationships, and for many television viewers, relationships with television characters and other celebrities are a constant, large, and in many instances important part of their social world (Skumanich and Kintsfather 1998; Schramm and Wirth, 2010). Perse and Rubin (1989) state that parasocial interactions relationships resemble interpersonal friendships in three ways. First, parasocial relationships (like friendships) are voluntary, and often contain a personal focus. Second, both types of relationships provide companionship, and third, social attraction is a precursor to either type of relationship. Such parasocial relationships can be affected when another person reveals information about the media host and when they make comments about the media figure during viewing (Sanderson, 2009). In most studies, parasocial relations are regarded as the individual’s feelings of friendship and familiarity with other persons outside his/her immediate environment which can lead to regular exposure and make viewing behaviour habitual and routine (Grant et al., 1991; Horton and Wohl, 1956; Perse and Rubin, 1989, 1990; Rosenstein and Grant, 1997; Rubin et al., 1985; Stephens et al., 1996; Schramm and Wirth, 2010). When audience members possess strong feelings toward the character, host and celebrities, it seems plausible that they would turn to communication channels that would allow them to actively convey these sentiments to the media figure. Accordingly, it is not surprising that media users are increasingly turning to computer-mediated communicative channels that enable them to create parasocial interaction experiences (Sanderson, 2008b). By intensifying parasocial relations, an individual has the opportunity to satisfy certain personal definition, integration and group identification needs (McQuail et al., 1972). By identifying with a certain host or with a group of viewers with certain characteristics, teleshoppers can build self-concept by expressing something which they are or aspire to be (Mittal, 2006). To this end, they develop high degrees of commitment to the program which should lead to a greater need for exposure to it and greater purchase intentions (Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998; Sanderson, 2009). More recently, parasocial interaction has been restricted to viewers’ relationships with program hosts (Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), thus distinguishing it from other types of teleparticipation relationships. Teleparticipation refers to the relationship between viewers and other members of the audience who intervene in the program, either in the studio, through chat rooms, telephone calls or SMS messaging from home. Viewers, by being able to share the comments and suggestions with other members of the audience, identify with them and may also experience feelings of liking or even friendship towards them.

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Tested Hypothesis and Proposal for an Integrating Model

People admitting television as a useful medium that fulfils certain goals and aims will certainly develop a dependency with a specific genre of that medium (Ball-Rokeach, 1985). Thus, an individual should have a preexistent dependency with a medium as to be able to develop dependency with a certain genre (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Taking into account the aforesaid and the literature review of the conceptual framework, the first hypothesis of this research suggests that, first of all, individuals develop dependency relationships with a certain medium (herein the television medium), and subsequently, they are able to develop a dependency with a genre of the same medium (herein the teleshopping genre). H1: The greater the television dependency, the greater the dependency with the teleshopping genre. Dependency activation can be produced by the longest teleshopping exposure after perceiving that some needs and goals can be fulfilled through media content. In such cases, a dependency with the media genre is created and the content is considered of great importance for the fulfilment of those goals (BallRokeach, 1985; Ball-Rokeach et al.,1984; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998; Ruiz and Sanz, 2008). Therefore, it is understandable that people who see television more frequently have a bigger possibility of watching adverts and/or shopping programs, and, therefore, they could develop a dependency relation with the teleshopping genre. H2: The greater the television exposure, the greater the dependency with the teleshopping genre. Literature points out that the greater the dependency with a genre or a program, the greater the level of attention during content exposure (Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984; Colman, 1990). Therefore, and in accordance with the previous hypothesis, parasocial links will come out only when an individual will have a greater or weaker dependency relationship with a certain genre (Grant et al., 1991). Teleshopping research has found that teleshopping program dependency can lead viewers to experience positive feelings towards the host. Thus, the viewer can develop feelings of “friendship” towards the host which may lead to an increased exposure/viewing of these programs to maintain that “friendship”

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(Giles, 2002; Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kinsfather, 1998). Consequently, teleshopping programs can be an ideal medium in the search for parasocial relations as these programs have little content for retaining viewers interest and it is precisely this parasocial relation which can achieve greater attention to the program (Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kinsfather, 1998). Therefore: H3: The greater the genre dependency, the greater the parasocial interaction effects. Activation of dependency to intensify not only the parasocial relationship with the host, may also encourage teleparticipation (Giles, 2002; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). This adds, therefore, the effects of teleparticipation, including the viewer’s relationship with other members of the audience which differs from the viewer-host relationship (Giles, 2002; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), although both variables can lead to higher levels of exposure and purchase (Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). H4: Increased teleshopping genre dependency, increased teleparticipation effects. Moreover, previous research show that teleparticipation increases parasocial interaction. Therefore, a greater teleparticipation, that is, the implication of viewers with members of the program – comments from people of the public or of the streets, guests of the program, other people’s telephone calls- is said to increase the teleparticiparion interaction and, indirectly, the motivation of the teleshopping genre exposure. If the viewer identifies with the person speaking/calling the program and the host-speaker/caller interaction reinforces the viewer’s attitude towards the host, this will intensify the effects of parasocial interaction (Giles, 2002; Skumanich and Kinsfather, 1998). Thus: H5: Teleparticipation positively influences parasocial interaction effects. Parasocial interaction with a television character will increase the exposure to that genre or program (Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Ball-Rokeach, et al., 1984; Colman, 1990; Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). Previous researches have shown that parasocial interaction is a key element for intention, attention, exposure, viewing continuity, and media empathy (Auter and Moore, 1993; Levy, 1979; Palmgreen et al., 1980a, 1980b; Perse, 1990; Rosengren, 1974; Rosengren and Windahl, 1972; Rubin and McHugh, 1987; Rubin and Perse, 1987; Rubin, et al., 1985).

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Given that the development of these parasocial relationships is not immediate, it is only possible to talk about a direct relationship between dependency and exposure to the genre when the viewer initially experiences low levels of parasocial interaction as a starting point for the development of a continuous relationship with the hosts of that television genre (Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). H6: The greater the parasocial interaction with teleshopping programs, the greater the levels of exposure to those programs. H7: The greater the dependency to the teleshopping genre, the greater the exposure to teleshopping programs. Exposure levels to the teleshopping genre can be influenced not only by the relations that an individual develop with the genre or television characters but also with the time expended watching television (Grant et al. ,1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). Apart from that, there are also evidences stating that the use of television as a pastime or when there is nothing better to do, leads to important and considerable levels of viewing that in most cases do not address specific and favourite programs, therefore, being a no selective viewing (Abelman et al.,1997; Gerbner, 1982). In such cases, viewers can initially choose the exposure to the genre, for the purpose of being in company and/or as ground music, its attention being little focussed on the program, the dependency not being activated, and so specifying a direct relationship from television exposure to genre exposure (Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). Consequently: H8: The time used to watching television is a positive indicator of the exposure to the teleshopping genre. On the one hand, there are empirical evidences stating that the greater the dependency relationship with a media-genre the greater the probability of buying watched contents (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989). As for teleshopping, it is understandable that the buying behaviour is linked to the exposure and that the most frequent viewers have more possibilities to buying than the less frequent viewers (Bigné et al., 2006; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998). H9: The greater the teleshopping genre exposure, the greater the product purchase through these programs.

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It is when someone realizes that a medium helps achieving or fulfilling its own personal goals that its dependency to that medium increases (Grant et al., 1991). If someone’s goals are fulfilled as a result of the exposure to the content of a genre, the perceived value of the content increases and as a result there is a greater implication and exposure to that genre (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Many researches (Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998) have emphasized that the product purchase through the television medium could be considered by someone as a goal (action orientation). Someone that has bought a product through television as to fulfil a goal will probably buy products again to fulfil other goals. There are evidences that show the existence of impulsive shoppers (Donthu and Gilliland, 1996) and even compulsive shoppers categorized by the daily watching and the high frequency of shopping (Faber, 1992; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998; Stephens et al., 1996). The analysis of literature suggests a possible direct relation between the buying behaviour and the teleshopping dependency, being showed in the following hypothesis: H10: Buying products through advertisement and/or teleshopping programs leads to increasing the dependency relationship with this genre of programs.

4 4.1

Methodology Data Collection and Sampling Procedure

To obtain the information necessary for the research, an initial questionnaire was produced as the result of the literature review and was pre-tested before settling on the definitive form. This initial questionnaire was reviewed by a group of 39 teleshoppers and non-teleshoppers to avoid possible interpretation errors. The target population were teleshoppers resident in Spain, 18 years and over who had purchased a product from telesales advertisements or programs over the last year, with a sample of 432 teleshoppers. Sample selection procedure was by gender and age quotas according to 2008 data on teleshopping genre audiences provided by Sofres A.M1.

1 According to Sofres A.M., 48.2% of people with teleshopping genre exposure are men and 51.8% women. With regard to age, 15.2% are 24 and under, 23.4% are between 25 and 34 28.6% are between 35 and 44, 17% are between 45 and 54, 10.2% are between 55 and 64 and, finally, 5.7% are 65 and over.

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In relation to the viewing behaviour, almost 85% of all interviewees watch television for a maximum of 4 hours a day, although virtually half (40.1%) watch for less than 3 hours and only 15.3% watch more than 4 hours a day. Of all the time individuals spend watching television during the week, most of the sampled spend between 1 and 3 hours watching teleshopping advertisements and/or programs (76.9%). Most of those interviewed watch teleshopping advertisements and/or programs during the week and at the weekend (42%) and especially, at night (60.2%). Early morning and afternoon are the most popular times of the day for watching this television genre (28.7% and 22.2% respectively).

4.2

Measurement of the Variables

Television dependency, teleshopping genre dependency, teleparticipation and parasocial interaction variables were measured with the most commonly-used scales in the literature. In all cases, multi-item 5 point Likert scales were used. Television dependency was measured on an 18 item scale (with three representative terms for each of the six dependency dimensions), in a 7-point Likert format, scoring 1 for ‘totally disagree’ and 7 for ‘totally agree’. This scale was the result of the works of several researchers (Ball-Rokeach et al., 1993; Loges, 1994; Grant, 1996) who tried to create a standard measure of dependency that could be applied not only to television but also to the other media.Teleshopping genre dependency was measured using Grant et al. (1991) scale, which in turn was adapted on the basis of previous media dependency studies (Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984; Rubin, 1984). This is a 12-item scale, which has been subsequently used as the basis for further research in this field, such as the studies by Grant (1996) and by Skumanich and Kintsfather (1993, 1998). The effects of teleparticipation were measured using a six item scale developed by Skumanich and Kintsfather (1993). This scale was also used in a more recent study on teleshopping programs by the same authors (1998). Finally, parasocial interaction was analyzed with the 10-item scale proposed by Rubin and Perse (1987), with sufficient internal consistency. Two new items extracted from the study by Skumanich and Kintsfather (1998) were added to this measurement and attempt to measure interviewees’ feelings towards the program host. The literature is unanimous over the measurement of the view behaviour (Grant 1996; Grant et al., 1991; Perse 1986; Rubin 1981, 1983, 1984; Rubin et al., 1985; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), using questions aimed at finding out the time spent viewing teleshopping genre. “How many hours, on average, do you watch teleshopping advertisements and/or programs?”

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Finally, shopping behavior was determined by asking interviewees about the frequency of buying products offered in teleshopping advertisements and/or programs, a question which again, is one of the most commonly used in these studies in the literature (Grant et al., 1991; Skunmanich and Kintsfather, 1998).

4.3

Assessment of Measurement Scale Psychometric Properties

The measurement instrument was validated in two stages following Ulaga and Eggert (2005) recommendations. Confirmatory factor analysis with EQS 6.1 (Bentler, 1995) was done using maximum robust likelihood (Satorra and Bentler, 1988) on the indicators of the three-dimensions of television media dependency and teleshopping genre dependency (understanding, orientation and play), and after analyzing reliability and convergent and discriminant validity these dimensions became clear variables of the respective second-order construct through a summative scale of their initial indicators. Thus, media dependency and genre dependency were included in the structural model as a first order construct. In order to ensure the convergent validity of the television media dependency scale, those items with non-significant or fewer than .60 factor loads were removed. (Bagozzi and Baumgartner, 1994; Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Particularly, items DTV4, DTV5 and DTV6 were removed. After removing the aforesaid items, all factor regression coefficients were significant (t>2.56), standardized loads higher than 0.6, besides, achieving a good fit model. These results confirmed the existence of convergent validity in the television media dependency scale. Convergent validity of the genre dependency scale was guaranteed when all the items were found to have significant factor loads over .60 (Bagozzi and Baumgartner, 1994; Bagozzi and Yi, 1988) and the Lagrange multipliers test did not suggest significant relations for a factor other than those they were indicators for (Hatcher, 1994). The measurement model also showed good fit. In terms of reliability, both media dependency and genre dependency scales, all Cronbach’s D (Cronbach, 1951) had to be above the recommended value of .70 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). The composed reliability index was also calculated and for all values was over the recommended value of .70 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Average variance extracted (AVE) values were over .50 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Discriminant validity was evaluated following two criteria. Firstly, it was examined that none of the 95% confidence intervals for correlation estimations

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between each pair of factors contained the value 1 (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). Secondly, the variance shared between each pair of constructs (squared correlation), was below the corresponding variance extracted indexes (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). After verifying the psychometric properties of the transformation of the television dependency and genre dependency construct into first order factors, the measurement model associated to the structural model was assessed to ensure it also had the appropriate properties. The criteria for analyzing measurement model reliability and validity were the same as those applied in the previous validation process. The results showed no problems of convergent validity, as fit was reasonable (NFI=.905; NNFI=.947; CFI=.955; IFI=.955; RMSEA=.062) and all factor loads were significant and over 0.6 (Bagozzi and Baumgartner, 1994; Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Nor were there any problems of reliability, in terms of Cronbach’s D, composed reliability (always above the cut off point of .70) and the average variance extracted (always above the cut-off point of .50). There were no problems of discriminant validity in the measurement model, in accordance with either of the two criteria used2.

5

Results

Once psychometric properties of the measurement tool are evaluated, an estimation of the structural model which summarizes the formulated hypothesis was carried out. It was estimated by the method of greatest robust credibility, using again EQS 6.1, due to the assurance of estimation consistency of this method even though some of the dependency variables are not common. Estimation of the first model showed good indicators of goodness of fit S-B χ2 =337.511; df=201; p<0.00; BBNFI=0.90; BBNNFI=0.94; CFI=0.95; IFI=0.95; RMSEA= 0.056). Table 2 shows the information of the estimated parameters that leads to acceptance and/or refusal of the formulated hypothesis.

2

Contact the authors for further details on validation process

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Table 2. Tested hypothesis global sample β (t) Contrast Relation H1 Media dependency → Genre dependency .936 (8.805**) Accepted H2 Media exposure → Genre dependency .111 (2.248*) Accepted H3 Genre dependency → Parasocial Interaction .095 (2.040*) Accepted H4 Genre dependency → Teleparticipation .746 (8.475**) Accepted H5 Teleparticipation → Parasocial Interaction .873 (7.068**) Accepted H6 Parasocial Interaction → Genre exposure .135 (2.322*) Accepted H7 Genre dependency → Genre exposure .127 (2.292*) Accepted H8 Media exposure → Genre exposure .328 (4.943**) Accepted H9 Genre exposure → Purchase .294 (4.865**) Accepted H10 Purchase → Genre dependency .099 (2.059*) Accepted S-B χ2 (df = 201) =337.511 (p<0.00); NFI=.90; NNFI=.94; CFI=.95; IFI=.95; RMSEA=.056 ** p≤0.01; *p≤0.05

From table 2 we find that television media dependency is direct and positively related to teleshopping genre dependency (H1). This confirms media dependency as the main precursor of the genre dependency, and we support observations carried out by Ball-Rokeach (1985) and Defleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989). According to them, an individual should have a preexistent dependency with a medium as to develop a dependency with a genre. In addition, our findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between television exposure level and genre dependency (H2). That relationship is quite weak if we compare it with the one between medium dependency and shopping genre dependency. The greater exposure to the television medium the greater teleshopping genre dependency. The shopping genre dependency has a significant and positive influence either on parasocial interaction (H3 accepted, as its influence is very weak), or on audience’s teleparticipation (H4), which, at the same time, positively influences the parasocial interaction (H5). These findings suggest this common relationship of “distant intimacy” among mass media can emerge from viewers who watch selling programs/advertisement, and it is directly favoured by the dependency with the genre and teleparticipation, a variable that it is also influenced by the viewers’ shopping genre dependency. Moreover, according to data, teleshopping genre exposure is the result of the three variables initially considered: parasocial interaction (H6), with a low influence, shopping genre dependency (H7), also with a low influence, and the television media exposure level (H8), with a higher influence. These findings support data we looked up used in previous research (eg. Ball-Rokeach, 1985, 1989; Ball-Rokeach et al. 1984; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1993, 1998) according to which the development of a relationship both with a television genre and such

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genre personae, is shown by the further exposure to that genre, in our case, programs and teleshopping advertisement. As to the relationship television exposure-genre exposure (H8) the time spent watching television has the same significant effect as the time spent watching advertisement and/or selling programs, for the reason that the more television exposure the more probability to find teleshopping genre. Besides, the greater the exposure to that genre, the greater the probability of the viewer buying (H9). As for the teleshopping, the shopping behaviour is expected to be linked with the exposure, and then more frequent viewers have bigger opportunities to purchase (Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), content they have watched (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Defleur and BallRokeach, 1989). Focussing now on the causal relationship between the shopping and the genre dependency (H10), it is evident that buying more in teleshopping programs or advertisements will slightly influence although significantly on a bigger shopping genre dependency; in this respect, several are the authors who have proved in their researches the significance of that relationship (Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998): if the shopping product allows to satisfy the viewers’ needs or goals, the content perceived value is boosted resulting in a bigger genre implication and dependency (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Defleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989). All in all, we can state that in the case being studied, the viewer dependency on the teleshopping genre is a key and essential variable for the understanding of that viewer buying behaviour. In this respect, of the ten hypotheses raised, all of them accepted, six directly link the variable shopping genre dependency with other variables linked to the teleshopping behaviour. This shows the need to benefit and increase such genre dependency if increasing the shopping through this way is searched for. Figure 1 shows graphically the results.

6

Conclusions and Implications

Many countries have experienced in the last years a great growing in the television supply, and consequently, a growing in some television genre that, until short time ago, had great existence. As for Spain, the new channel supply has brought more programs and formats, being one of them telesales, either through certain sales programs or adverts. It would be then important to know and analyze what determines the viewers’ purchase decision, as this could be a new commercial alternative for businesses.

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Results of this study show that buying through telesales programs and advertisements is favoured by the exposure to these sales programs: there is evidence that the greater the exposure, the greater the probability of purchase based on the content observed (Ball-Rokeach, 1985). In this respect, exposure to these programs is directly determined by the own television media exposure, by the shopping genre dependency level and by the parasocial interaction the program arouses. Thus, the greater the exposure to television media, the greater the probability of the individual being exposed to programs or sales advertisements, and also, a greater shopping genre dependency will led the individual to look for such programs exposure. If he/she is exposed, feelings of friendship and familiarity with different people who are also linked to the sales program or advertisement (parasocial interaction) can take him/her to a regular exposure and get the person to a regular and monotous watch (Grant et al., 1991; Horton and Wohl, 1956; Perse and Rubin, 1989; Perse and Rubin, 1990; Rosenstein and Grant, 1997; Rubin et al, 1985; Stephens et al., 1996).

Media dependency

.10*

Teleparticipation

.94** .75**

.87**

Genre dependency .10* .11*

Media exposure

Genre exposure

.13*

.29**

Purchase

.14* Parasocial interaction

.33**

Figure 1. Estimated model

Moreover, exposure to sales programs is also indirectly influenced by the viewer dependency on television media, and by teleparticipation in itself. On this note, the greater television media dependency, the greater the genre at issue dependency, a variable that directly influenced the exposure level of such programs. Besides, teleshopping genre dependency has an indirect influence, through genre personae relationships on teleshopping exposure, which in turn has a direct, positive influence on teleshopping behavior. In line with previous

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studies (Ball-Rokeach, 1985, 1989; Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984; Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), this study confirms that the development of a television genre relationship manifests itself by greater exposure to the genre. Thus, parasocial interaction and teleparticipation have been found to be relevant in the research context, and are key mediator variables between dependency and exposure, intensifying genre exposure levels. Viewer’s dependency on the shopping genre positive and directly influences such sales programs exposure, but also indirectly, it has a great influence on teleparticipation and to a lesser extent, on parasocial interaction. It is precisely teleparticipation what would also positively and to a large extent determine parasocial interaction, ultimately influencing the exposure level to sales programs. The results suggest that genre personae relationships are not exclusively limited to the host but to the whole atmosphere surrounding the program, including audience interventions which help to generate those relationships. Lastly, it is stated that buying through sales programs develops a greater teleshopping genre dependency, despite having a quite weak influence. According to literature and as we have stated, individuals focussing on action, that is, buying through television as to fulfil a given goal, it is probable that they will buy again as to fulfil different goals (Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kintsfather, 1998), thus, generating a bigger shopping genre dependency. A series of management implications emerge from the above results which may help companies, advertising, sales professionals and mass media, to obtain better results. Firstly, we believe telesales programs and/or advertisements can be boosted through other channels that broadcast and promote these programs. Telesales programs do not have the exclusivity but the general scheduling is used. On the one hand, this is how television media dependency is boosted. Should the viewer know about the television offer, it can sound interesting or atractive whether the need is that of personal or social understanding, orientation and/or play. This will boost a greater media dependency, a variable of influence on such genre dependency level. On the other hand, knowing about the television scheduling, should it be of interest among the audience, will also boost a greater television exposure, what could boost a greater shopping genre dependency and then, a greater probability of exposure to such telesales programs or advertisements. Therefore, as far as such telesales program or advertisement is concern, managers should design attractive, interesting sales programs to retain the audience’s attention. It is important, for instance, to persuade viewers to phone in and make the purchase, that products are presented as being the best in their category, emphasizing their unique characteristics, the opportunity to participate

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in a competition or game (only if the product is acquired) or interesting discounts on product prices. In addition, television channels must allow viewers to communicate with the hosts and so they should include spaces in the programs for the audience to call in and ask questions or have their doubts resolved. We also suggest to allow SMS messaging to the programs and for the host to comment on some of them. Programs should also be supplemented with a web site where the audience can intervene at any time, even when the program is being broadcast live with their comments, doubts, questions, etc. All these different ways of participating and involving with the program should be easy for the viewer, and easily communicated. Thus, with such actions, teleparticipation is boosted and consequently parasocial interaction, both variables of considerable influence on teleshopping behaviour (Grant et al., 1991; Skumanich and Kinstfather, 1998), given that such program exposure is boosted. Interpretation of the results of this analysis is subject to certain limits due to the fact that not all consumers who buy different types of products and/or services are represented. Furthermore, part of the sample chosen may be viewers of a specific sales program and so the results are not necessarily generalizable to all viewers of teleshopping advertisements and/or programs. Future research, focussed on the study of media relationships, could be aimed at analysing the concept of dependency, either in a specific program within the teleshopping genre (for instance A3D) or applying other genre or programs of the media (such as news or entertainment programs). Moreover, the study of the dependency could be extended to other mass media. However, the study could be repeated with another sample of viewers that normally watch advertisement and/or sales programs but having never bought a product. We want to know whether it’s possible relationships with the media and/or genre differ from the one of the viewers who have bought products through television. The study focussed on the no-purchaser would not only have to aim at knowing whether it is dependent on medium or genre but also at knowing their opinions about the system, and therefore, finding out all the deciding aspects that will show the purchase option of the viewer.

7

References

Abelman, R.; Atkin, D. & Rand, M. (1997), “What viewers watch when they watch TV: Affiliation change as case study”, in: Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 41, No. 3, 360-379. Alperstein, N.M. (1991), “Imaginary social relationship with celebrities appearing in television commercials”, in: Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 35, No. 1, 43-58.

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The Impact of e-WOM: Determinants of Influence Manuela López, University of Murcia, Spain María Sicilia, University of Murcia, Spain

1

Introduction

Marketing literature have shown personal influences have a great importance on consumer behavior. Opinions by other consumers have been found to exert a significant impact on consumers’ buying decisions (Arndt, 1967; Chatterjee, 2001; Katz and Lazarfeld, 1955), as well as on post-purchase product perceptions (Bone, 1995). This communication process is called word of mouth (WOM) and it is considered more effective than traditional marketing tools such as personal selling and advertising (Engel et al., 1969; Goldsmith and Horowitz, 2006; Katz and Lazarfeld, 1955). The expansion of new technologies has increased the importance of WOM (Bickart and Schindler, 2001; Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; De Bruyn and Lilien, 2008; Dellarocas, 2006; Kozinets et al., 2010; Mayzlin, 2006; Stephen and Lehmann, 2009). The advent of the Internet has brought major changes to the way consumers express their opinions about product or services (Goldsmith and Horowitz, 2006). They can interact with other consumers via e-mail, instant messaging, homepages, blogs, forums, online communities, chat rooms and review sites (Goldsmith, 2006). Recent research is showing these interactions (known as electronic WOM) also influence consumer behavior (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Park and Kim, 2008). Online consumer opinions/reviews have a direct effect on sales (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Dellarocas et al., 2007; Duan et al., 2008; Liu, 2006) and nearly 70% of Internet users trust on e-WOM (Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 2009). Thus, although marketers may not have control over e-WOM the way they do other forms of marketing communication, they still have the need to understand the impact of e-WOM (Lim and Chung, 2011). The Internet’s accessibility, reach, and transparency have empowered marketers who are interested in influencing and monitoring e-WOM (Kozinets et al., 2010). However, few researchers have examined what makes certain reviews/opinions more influential than others (Xia and Bechwati, 2008). There is also need for understanding to what extent e-WOM is similar or different from offline WOM (Godes and Mayzlin, 2004; Libai et al., 2010; Liu, 2006).

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In order to overcome these gaps in the literature, this paper analyzes the effect of e-WOM on consumers’ behavior. Influence of e-WOM and traditional WOM on decision making is compared by using the volume of information obtained as a predictor variable. The role of demographic factors on e-WOM is also examined. As recent research (Bickart and Schindler, 2001; Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Dellarocas, 2006; Mayzlin, 2006), we focus on e-WOM communicated via consumer opinions because it represents the most widely used eWOM format (Henning-Thurau et al., 2004). According to this purpose, we first review the literature and propose a set of hypotheses, then describe the methodology and present the results, and we end with a comment about the implications derived from this research.

2 2.1

Theorical Background and Hypotheses WOM

Literature about WOM is very extensive. First studies date from the sixties (Dichter, 1966; Arndt, 1967), although even in the fifties Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) published “Personal Influence” in order to explain how this personal influence works. WOM can be defined as “a face-to-face conversation between consumers about a product or a service experience” (Sen and Lerman, 2007, p.77). It usually occurs in a private conversation, face-to-face, constructed by two parties: the source of WOM information, and the receiver (Gilly et al., 1998). An important WOM characteristic is the source of information has not commercial interest (Smith, 1993). This aspect appears on several definitions. Arndt (1967; p.291) defines WOM as “face-to-face communication about products or companies between those people who are not commercial entities”. More recent studies have contributed with other definitions, which take into account WOM is unbiased. For example, Litvin et al. (2008; p. 460) describe WOM as “the communication between consumers about a product, service, or a company in which the sources are considered independent of commercial influence”. Consumers tend to believe their friends and relatives are more credible and trustworthy than advertising, public relations, and sales people, thus information from consumer- dominated communication can be more powerful and influential than information from other sources (Herr et al., 1991). Grewal et al. (2003) indicated that individuals are more inclined to embrance the information sent through WOM than that sent through commercial promotion, on the ground that

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WOM information transmitters are usually believed to have no ulterior motive nor receive incentive for their referrals.

2.2

E-WOM

The advances of information technology and the emergence of online social network sites have profoundly changed the way information is transmitted and have transcended the traditional limitations of WOM (Shin, 2007). Consumer can share their product-related experiences on the Internet through e-mail, bulletin boards, chat rooms, forums, fan clubs, brand and usergroups (Goldsmith, 2006). Many terms have been introduced used interchangeably to refer to eWOM, including web-of-mouse, word of mouse, Internet word of mouth, consumers’ reviews (Shin, 2007). This communication process is defined as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet” (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004, p. 39). Litvin et al. (2008, p. 461) also defined e-WOM as “all informal communications directed at consumers through Internet-based technology related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, or their sellers” (p. 461). More broadly, Huang et al., (2009, p. 160) describe this communication process as “the informal communications through Internet”. The effect of e-WOM on consumers is similar to that of traditional WOM (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). Consumers’ reviews on products and services have been an influential tool as an information source for consumers (Gogoi, 2007). As traditional WOM, e-WOM is more effective than firm-generated sources on the Internet (Bickart and Schindler, 2001). Trusov et al. (2009) have even demonstrated that it is more effective than traditional media. However, there are some differences between traditional WOM and e-WOM which should be taken into account when comparing both communication processes.

2.3

WOM vs. e-WOM

Online WOM activity differs from traditional WOM in many aspects. In traditional WOM communication, the information is exchanged in face-to-face conversation (Park and Kim, 2008), while in e-WOM consumers need only to interact with their computers to post or search consumer reviews (Sen and Lerman, 2007). Consumers do not have to directly meet other people to exchange their opinions and experiences on products, services and trades (Shin, 2007), whereby sender and receiver of information are separated by both space and time (Stefees and Burgee, 2009). Sources of information in e-WOM are anonymous individu-

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als who have little or no prior relationship with de information seeker (Xia and Bechwati, 2008). Thus, it is a many-to-many communication in which the information exchanged is more voluminous in quantity compared to information obtained from traditional contacts in the offline world (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). As opposed to traditional WOM, the non-commercial focus may not be certain in e-WOM (Chaterjee, 2001). Results regarding the differences between the influence of WOM and eWOM on decision making are inconclusive. Previous researchers have shown that WOM from strong ties bear greater influence on the receiver’s behavior than WOM from weak ties (Bansal and Voyer, 2000; Brown and Reingen, 1987). As traditional WOM comes from friends and relatives while the source is anonymous in e-WOM (Chaterjee, 2001; Sen and Lerman, 2007; Xia and Bechwati, 2008), one could argue that WOM is more persuasive than e-WOM. However, a recent study has found that information gained from online consumer reviews is more influential on consumers than speaking with friends or acquaintances in person (Steffes and Burgee, 2009). Therefore, these differences of influence between the traditional and the online process may also depend on other factors. In addition of tie strength (Brown and Reingen, 1987), marketing literature has shown WOM influence depends on source experience (Bansal and Voyer, 2000; Gilly et al., 1998), on the valence of opinions (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006) and on the volumen of information exchanged (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Dellarocas et al., 2007; Duan et al., 2008; Liu, 2006). Volume is among the most important WOM attributes that have been examined (Mahajan et al., 1984). Previous studies have found the volume of WOM correlates significantly with consumer behavior (Anderson and Salisbury, 2003). Recent studies on eWOM have confirmed these correlations by showing a positive impact on sales (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Dellarocas et al., 2007; Duan et al., 2008; Liu, 2006). Therefore, the relative influence of WOM and e-WOM may be dependent on the volume of information obtained from both sources. When consumers obtain more information from traditional WOM than from e-WOM, WOM influence is likely to be higher than e-WOM influence. However, there may be many situations in which consumers find it difficult to obtain advice or recommendation from their friends, family or even acquaintances. In these circumstances, they are eager to use salient and more accessible information (Häubl and Trifts, 2000). As there is a huge amount of online information about any product, consumers will easily find information from others through this medium. Therefore, the reverse effect is expected for consumers who obtain more information from e-WOM than from WOM. Thus, we propose: H1: The relative influence of WOM and e-WOM on decision making depends on the volume of information obtained from each source:

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H1a: The influence of e-WOM will be higher for consumers who have obtained more information from e-WOM than from traditional WOM. H1b: The influence of traditional WOM will be higher for consumers who have obtained more information from WOM than from e-WOM.

2.4

The Role of Demographics

Marketing literature has revealed relationships between certain demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, education levels) and consumer behavior (Eastlick and Feinberg, 1994). In a WOM context, previous research has studied how demographic similarities between receiver and sources affect the influence of WOM (Brown and Reingen, 1987). However, very little is known about which receiver’s demographic characteristics determine the influence of eWOM. Previous studies have highlighted gender differences in consumer behaviour. Men and women have different buying attitudes (Dittmar et al., 2004), search patterns (Cleveland et al. 2003), post-purchase behavior (Solnick and Hemenway, 1992), perceived risk (Darley and Smith, 1995), and shopping stereotypes held (Dholakia and Chiang 2003). These gender differences persist in terms of Internet-related attitudes and activities (Garbarino and Strahilevitz, 2004). Some studies have shown that females generally spend less time online, are less interested in the Internet, and are less likely to shop online than males (Garbarino and Strahilevitz, 2004). In addition, females perceive more risks associated with shopping online (Garbarino and Strahilevitz, 2004). Additionally, online shopping may be perceived less favourably by women due to the reduced social interaction as compared to the physical store (Van Slyke, et al., 2002). In fact, females not only place more emphasis on social interaction than males, but they also communicate with others more often (Tannen, 1990). In the context of online behavior, it has been observed that women view the chance to communicate with others to be among the greatest benefits of the Internet (Brunner and Bennet, 1997). As a consequence, females are more likely to use the Internet for interpersonal communications, and they have been shown to react more favourably to websites that contain more humanistic elements (Rodgers and Harris, 2003). In addition, receiving a recommendation from a friend has a greater effect on reducing risk perceptions among women than among men (Garbarino and Strahilevitz, 2004). Generally speaking, men exhibit a weaker sensitivity to the opinions of their friends (Shoaf et al., 1995) and are less prone to engage in active information provision to other consumers (Feick and Price, 1987). On the basis of the above reasoning, we propose:

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H2: The influence of e-WOM on decision making will be higher for females than for males. Consumers’ education level is also regarded as an important factor that greatly influences consumer behavior (Chen and Dhillon, 2003). For example, consumers’ education is associated with the ability to acquire and process information to make decisions (Berges and Casellas, 2006). The higher educational levels have lower information processing costs and a higher degree of involvement (Chen and Liu, 2008). In addition, there is a positive relationship between educational levels and information search extent. The higher the educational level, the more extensive the information search (Chen and Liu, 2008), and the higher the probability of examining different information sources (Strebel et al., 2004). Thus, sources influence could be dependent on this demographic characteristic. Previous research has shown consumers with lower education level were more likely to go to a dentist who advertised (Hite et al., 1988). Additionally, Andaleeb (1994) suggested that the higher the education level of consumers, the less likely they are to favor advertising. On the one hand, consumers with a high education level are more likely to search on the Internet than those with less (Chen and Liu, 2008), but on the other hand, education negatively influences people’s trust in online information (Bomda Web survey, 1998). Then, consumers with a high education level will be more aware that different aspects of this communication process are suspect of some kind of manipulation. The lack of personal knowledge about the motivations of unseen strangers offering recommendations online could affect the perceived credibility of eWOM (Chatterjee, 2001). Marketers can control some types of e-WOM. For example, they can decide whether to allow certain consumer reviews to be shown or not (Park and Kim, 2008). In addition, firms can easily disguise their promotion as consumer recommendations (Dellarocas, 2006; Mayzlin 2006). Individuals with a high education level may be further aware that manipulation occurs, but they cannot directly distinguish honest opinions from fake opinions, so will be difficult for them to trust on this information (Dellarocas, 2006; Mayzlin 2006). Therefore, we propose: H3: The influence of e-WOM on decision making will be higher for consumers with a low education level than for those with a high education level. Previous literature has shown age affects consumer behavior. For example, old consumers are more loyal to a particular brand than young consumers (Lambert-Pandraud et al., 2005). In addition, younger individuals are likely to be innovative when adopting a new product, service or communicating with a

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new provider, while older people are more likely to be conservative in these aspects (Im et al., 2003). They are also more conservative in adopting new channels of communication than young people. Younger are more likely to be computer literate and therefore use the Internet more effectively, that is, the ability to use the Internet as a source vary inversely with age (Ratchford et al., 2003). The Internet has surpassed television in overall time spent to become the primary medium of choice among the young (Greenspan, 2003). Young people are also more likely to use the Internet to gather information about products and services than older people (Pastore, 2001). In contrast, older consumers are more likely to use information channels that provide relatively less complex information (Streebel et al., 2004) because information processing capacities decline with age (Evanschitzky and Wunderlich, 2006). Young people also produce more WOM than old people (East, 2007). They are more likely to be influenced by WOM, friend/relative is a relatively productive source of information for them (Ratchford et al., 2003). Thus, as Internet is a preferred medium for younger as compared with older people, WOM communication development in this medium will also have more influence for young than for old people. Therefore, we propose: H4: The influence of e-WOM on decision making will be higher for young people than for old people.

3

Methodology

Data were collected from tourist services users because WOM represents the most important information source for travellers (Dey and Sarma, 2010; Gretzel and Yoo, 2008). Internet has changed tourist behavior dramatically (Mills and Law, 2004). Prospective travellers have direct access to a much greater wealth of information and make online purchase themselves instead of relying on travel agencies to undertake this process for them (Buhalis and Law, 2008). The emerge of Web 2.0 brings the concept of social networking and applies it to the tourism industry (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Nowadays, many tourists rely on eWOM to reduce the perceived risk and uncertainty before they purchase the service (Litvin et al., 2008). The sample consisted of older-16-years tourists who had searched Internet to plan their last travel. Furthermore, they had to be first-time visitors because prior experience with the destination could affect travel planners’ use of information sources (Woodside and Dubellar, 2002). We sent 735 questionnaires

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through an university email listing. We suggested the receiver to re-send the questionnaire to other people, after inviting them to participate in the study. A very similar procedure was developed by De Bruyn and Lilien (2008). A remainder mailing was also undertaken to boost response rate. As a result of this process, we collected 165 valid questionnaires. Before starting data collection, the questionnaire was pretested to ensure it was well understood. The opening questions of the survey referred to general trip characteristics such as destination, time to plan, length of stay, travelling party composition, and trip budget. In order to measure information sources used to plan the trip, respondents were asked to rate how much information they had obtained from different offline (friends/relatives/acquaintances, advertising on TV, newspapers, magazines and travel agencies) and online sources (online travel agencies, consumer opinions on Internet and any other web sites) using a 5 point-Likert scale (from 1= nothing to 5= a lot). We next asked individuals to what extent traditional WOM and e-WOM influenced their destination decision. We used a 3-item 5-points semantic differential scale based on Mishra et al. (1993) to measure this concept. At the end of the questionnaire individuals provided their demographic information (sex, age, level of education, and occupation).

4 4.1

Results Sample Characteristics

The demographic profile of the sample is outlined in Table 1. Mean age is around 30 years old, and almost 60% of subjects are female. Most of the individuals have university studies. Over 50% are employed, while a forth part of the sample is constituted by students.

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The Impact of e-WOM: Determinants of Influence

Table 1: Sample characteristics

Gender Male Female Education level University Secondary School Primary School No qualifications Employment Student Housewife Self-employed Civil servant/employed Unemployed Age (mean)

4.2

% 41.7 58.3 % 70.1 26.2 2.4 1.2 % 26.8 1.2 10.4 55.5 6.1 28.59

N 68 95 N 115 43 4 2 N 44 2 17 91 10

Results

A t-Student test was used to test the first hypothesis. The sample was divided into two groups depending on the volume information obtained from WOM and e-WOM communication. We have individuals who obtained more information from the traditional process than from online communication, and individuals who obtained more information from e-WOM than from offline WOM. We used a t-Student test to compare the influence of both communication processes within each group.

Table 2: Comparison between traditional WOM and e-WOM influence depending on the volume of information obtained from each source (mean values)

InfoWOM> Infoe-WOM InfluenceWOM = 4.141 Influencee-WOM=3.724 t = 2.857; p<0.01

Infoe-WOM> InfoWOM InfluenceWOM = 3.218 Influencee-WOM=3.989 t = -3.110; p<0.01

As shown in Table 2, WOM influence is higher than e-WOM influence for consumers who obtain more information from the traditional process than from e-WOM. Thus, H1a is supported. For consumers who obtained more informa-

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tion from e-WOM than from WOM, e-WOM exerted a greater influence on decision making than traditional WOM. Therefore, H1b is also accepted. Further analyses were developed in order to extend the above results. We created two additional subgroups considering all information sources used in decision making, offline (friends/relatives/acquaintances, advertising on TV, newspapers, magazines and travel agencies) and online sources (online travel agencies, consumer opinions on Internet and any other web sites). Then, we divided individuals between those who obtained more information from offline sources and those who obtained more information from online sources. A t-test was also used to compare results between these two groups.

Table 3: Comparison between traditional WOM and e-WOM influence depending on the volume of information obtained from online and offline sources (mean values)

InfoOFFLINE> InfoONLINE InfluenceWOM = 4.417 Influencee-WOM=3.896 t = 2.871; p<0.01

InfoONLINE> InfoOFFLINE InfluenceWOM = 3.578 Influencee-WOM=3.882 t = -2.109 p<0.05

As shown in table 3, for individuals who obtained more offline information, traditional WOM is more influential than e-WOM. In accordance with results obtained for H1, for individuals who obtained more online information, e-WOM has more impact on decision making than traditional WOM. Regarding the role of demographics, the influence of e-WOM on decision making is higher for women than for men (see table 4). Thus, H2 is supported. In order to test H3 we divided the sample into two groups depending on consumers’ level of education. Through a median split procedure, we obtained a first group in which all individuals have university studies, considered with high education level; and a second group of consumers with lower education level, in which individuals do not have university studies. As proposed, consumers’ education level affects the influence of e-WOM on decision making. The higher the education level, the lower the influence of this communication process. The difference on e-WOM influence is significant (p<0.05). Therefore, H3 is accepted. Using a similar procedure, we divided the sample into two groups of age: young (under 26 years old) and old people (over 26 years old). As shown table 4, e-WOM has a higher influence on decision making for young than for old people, however these differences are not significant (p>0.05). Thus, H4 is not accepted.

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The Impact of e-WOM: Determinants of Influence

Table 4: The influence of e-WOM depending demographic characteristics

Demographic characteristics Gender Men Women Education level High (University studies) Low (No university studies) Age Young people (under 26 years old) Old people (over 26 years old)

5

N

Mean values

F

p

68 95

3.660 4.059

6.233

0.014

115 49

3.813 4.188

5.222

0.024

79 81

3.960 3.814

0.817

0.368

Discussion

The present findings expect to clarify some researchers’ doubts about e-WOM influence. The differences between online and traditional process (Herr et al., 1991; Sen and Lerman, 2007) could affect the potential influence of e-WOM (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Sen and Lerman, 2007). This study shows that eWOM has a great importance on consumer behavior. This result is in line with a recent research by Steffes and Burgee (2009) who found online process is even more persuasive than traditional communication. Our study qualifies Steffes and Burgee’s (2009) study by explaining when e-WOM has a greater influence than WOM. E-WOM increases its impact when individuals obtain more information from online consumer reviews than from friends and relatives. Similarly, eWOM is more influential than WOM for individuals who obtained more information in online sources than in offline sources. In contrast, WOM has more influence than e-WOM for consumers who obtain more information either from traditional WOM or from offline sources in general. This result is supported by previous research that has shown the influence of e-WOM depends on the volume of information exchanged (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Dellarocas et al., 2007; Duan et al., 2008; Liu, 2006). They have shown the more conversations there are about a product, the greater sales. In addition, we have also demonstrated that the influence of e-WOM on decision making is determined by demographic factors. Specifically, gender and education have impact on this communication process. We have observed that the influence of e-WOM is higher for women and consumers with a lower level of education than for men and individuals with a higher level of education. This result is in line with Garbarino and Strahilevitz (2004). They showed that WOM information was more effective in reducing perceived risk and increasing will-

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ingness to buy online among women than it was for men. Additionally, it confirms previous studies which have shown that individuals with a lower level of education are more likely to have positive attitudes about all forms of advertising (Williams and Hensel, 1995). However, we have observed that age does not affect the influence of e-WOM. This result is in line with Durand and Lambert’s (1985) finding that criticisms of advertising were explained more by other variables than by demographics. Similarly, Forsythe and Shi (2003) found that age was a predictor of amount spent on the Web, but did not predict other online behaviours. Therefore, this study contributes to the lack of literature related to the factors that determine the influence of e-WOM communication (Dellarocas, 2006). It also extend the studies on the differences between offline WOM and e-WOM (Godes and Mayzlin, 2004; Libai et al., 2010). Finally, the results could be interesting for the tourism industry, because there are few researchers that have empirically studied e-WOM on this field (Litvin et al., 2008), despite of the fact that e-WOM is the information source most consulted among tourists (Dey and Sarma, 2010; Gretzel and Yoo, 2008).

6

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Who’s Afraid of Ubiquitous Promotion? Exploring the Effects of Privacy Concerns Shintaro Okazaki, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain María Ángeles Navarro-Bailón, University of Murcia, Spain

1

Introduction

Our business-to-consumer markets are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Due to quickly advanced wireless communication technology, many firms have already adopted mobile-based promotions. For example, DreamWorks Home Entertainment used a viral campaign for the DVD of the film The Ring 2 that operated on mobile phones and email accounts. Visitors to the campaign site were invited to “scare their friends” by entering their email address and mobile telephone number. The site then sent them an email, inviting them to click on a link and watch the video. McDonald’s offers three different types of mobile coupons on three different platforms, from the basic text-only SMS version to the graphically rich version—that is, fully trackable and redeemable, all without any POS hardware or software requirements (iMedia Connection, 2005a, b). This study mainly addresses two issues associated with mobile-based promotion. Fist, prior research unanimously claims that ubiquity—or the usage flexibility of time and location—represents the most important feature of mobile Internet. However, it seems that our understanding of this concept has been far from optimal. Much prior only touches the surface of the issue; otherwise it appears practically unexplored—with interesting exceptions of Klenejn et al. (2007) and Okazaki et al. (2009). Second, an increasing number of mobilebased promotions generate general concerns over a misuse and intentional deception of sensitive personal information (Petty, 2003). At this stage of mobile commerce diffusion, more attention is needed with regard to the interaction between ubiquitous context and mobile users’ information privacy concerns. The objective of this study is designed to fulfill these research gaps, by conducting a quasi-experimental study.

S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_15, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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What is Ubiquity? Time-Space Perspective

The core concept of ubiquity seems to stem from a seminal work by Hägerstrand at the University of Lund, Sweden, who proposed the so-called “time-space perspective.” whose origin can be traced to the work of. This perspective focuses on a question as to how to organize activities into temporal and spatial terms. These activities in temporal and spatial terms can serve to define the human performance. This was the very first step in so-called timegeography. Time-geography emphasizes the factors associated with the spatial and temporal spread of innovations within particular environments. Lenntorp (1999) argues that time-geography constitutes a foundation for a general geographical perspective. It represents a new structure of thought under development, which attempts to consolidate the spatial and temporal perspectives of different disciplines on a more solid basis than has thus far occurred. Time-geography is not a subject area per se, or a theory in the narrow sense, but rather an attempt to construct a broad structure of thought that may form a framework capable of fulfilling two tasks. The first is to receive and bring into contact knowledge from highly distinct scientific areas, and from everyday praxis. The second is to reveal relations, the nature of which escapes researchers as soon as the object of research is separated from its given milieu, in order to study it in isolation, experimentally, or in some other distilled way (Lentorp, 1999). Accoriding to Hägerstrand (1975), the importance of spatial factors is demonstrated by interpersonal communications, where most influence is transferred within local social systems or the "neighborhood effect." According to him, both terrestrial and social distance barriers impede diffusion, in that human activities form environments that have a hierarchical ordering to the extent that those who have access to power in a superior domain frequently use it to restrict the set of possible actions permitted inside the subordinate domains. On this basis, Hägerstrand (1970) developed the basics of time-geographic notation, in order to have a means to keep track simultaneously of both the spatial and temporal dimensions. In his theory, there is a “time-space” entity called a “domain.” A domain is defined as “a time-space entity within which things and events are under the control of a given individual or a given group” (Hägerstrand, 1970, p. 16). In a domain, activities and events are under the control and influence of specific individuals or organizations. Domains, such as a school or an office building, often serve as stations for individuals to bundle. The ability of an individual or an organization to navigate through the domain depends on the following three time-space constraints that characterize

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information technology (Hägerstrand, 1970): Capability constraints, coupling constraints, and authority constraints. Coupling constraints requires the user’s presence at a specific time and place, and therefore they are instrumental, physiological, and cognitive limitations. That is, individuals must join other individuals or organizations in order to form production, consumption, social and other activity bundles. Capability constraints refer to the user’s resources and ability to overcome spatial separation at a specific moment. They circumscribe the amounts of effort needed for people to associate themselves with others and with material artifacts at specific places and times for a certain duration, in order to realize production, consumption, and transactions. Finally, authority constraints become important when several activities are pretended to be packed into a limited space. Authority constraints subsume such limited space occupation in terms of rules, laws, economic barriers, and power relations, which determine who does or does not have specific access to specific domains at specific times in specific spaces. Although Hägerstrand’s theory is derived from a different discipline, the concepts of coupling, capability, and authority constraints are very relevant to our conceptualization of the ubiquity concept. Telecommunication systems allow humans to eliminate distance for some types of activities and interactions. Transportation, along with telecommunication and settlement systems, grows and declines in response to human activities in space and time. They influence economic, social, and knowledge networks, and in turn shape human activities and their locations in time and space. No coupling constraints—presence and timing—are relevant when using Twitter or MySpace, because users are allowed to form social networks via the wireless Internet connection at any time, and in any place. Similarly, capability constraints become unimportant when search engines enable users to overcome spatial distance, and to reach almost all spatial information at any moment. Finally, mobile banking and payment functions overcome authority constraints, because the right and freedom to control specific domains at specific times is drastically extended.

2.2

Personal Extensibility Theory

In terms of theory building for ubiquity, personal extensibility theory may be more specific to human mobility. The personal extensibility concept attempts to measure the ability of a person (or group) to overcome the friction of distance through transportation or communication. Fundamentally, it pertains to “the scope of sensory access and knowledge acquisition and dispersion, and to people’s horizons as social actors.” Janelle claims that personal extensibility is

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“conceptually the reciprocal of time-space convergence,” and argues that the rapid advances in communication and transportation technologies and their associated institutions imply a “shrinking world,” with expanding opportunities for extensibility. That is, the focal point of this theory lies in the expansion of opportunities for human interaction, rather than improved abilities for movement over greater distances. Here, of special interest to us is that personal extensibility depends on developments in communications technology, because such innovation will reduce the time required to interact with persons in distant places. Personal extensibility can be anywhere between high and low. In a high personal extensibility situation, one can satisfy important information needs, while moving away or toward a destination, by the use of a mobile device. For example, a stockbroker has just left home, and walking along a street toward a commuter train station. On the way, he turns on his mobile to check real-time Dow Jones prices, because he needs to make a buying decision this afternoon. In this case, his perceived extensibility is high, because he can access the information he needs, as he could not have done without his mobile. By contrast, in a low personal extensibility situation, one stays in a static place, and thus takes little advantage of the device’s portability. For example, a sales manager enjoys her quiet Sunday morning at home. She may or may not use a mobile device to check a weather forecast for her afternoon picnic, or simply turn on her TV or laptop in the living room. In this case, her perceived extensibility is low, because she may not feel any desperate information needs that require her to use her mobile to catch up. Such changes in the significance of distance affect economic, political, and cultural life. For example, Adam (1995) argues that “as distant connections become easier to maintain, spatial patterns of social interaction change; work and home, resources and industries, management and labor assume varying spatial configurations” (p. 267-268). This is precisely the result of the rapid advances in the Internet in general, and the mobile device in particular.

3

Information Privacy Concerns

Additional perspective this study focuses on is the issue of information privacy concerns. Often, a promotional campaign requests consumers to subscribe newsletters or information alerts by registering their personal information. This provides firms with an opportunity to create a customer database, a principal benefit of direct marketing. On the other hand, consumer information privacy concerns with respect with PC or mobile Internet have become an important issue for policymakers, trade groups, and consumer advocates. For example, in

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the U.S., SPAM increased by 38 percent from 2006 to 2007, to 1.1 million, and is expected to increase by 50 percent more to 1.5 million messages in 2008 (Cloudmark, 2008). Some of these unsolicited messages request users to provide personal information, including their credit card numbers, or attempt to infiltrate mobile devices with virus programs by asking users to register for services (CNET co.uk, 2006). To alleviate consumers concerns about these potential invasions, the mobile industry has implemented several self-regulations. For example, the Mobile Marketing Association recently revised its consumer best practices guidelines for cross-carrier mobile content programs to establish rules in several areas, such as the use of wireless carrier SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) gateways for commercial traffic; handset delivery; clarifications of the guidelines regarding promotional content and marketing to children; and the expansion and clarification of guidelines for free, standard, and premium rate messaging, mobile Web, and interactive voice responses (Mobile Marketing Association, 2008). The U.S. Federal Trade Commission held a town hall meeting in May 2008 for business executives, consumer advocates, and scholars to explore the issues of mobile privacy and consumer protection (Corbin, 2008). In Japan, police may investigate spam, and violators may be sentenced to up to one year in prison and a fine of up to 1 million yen (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2008). Traditionally, consumers’ information privacy concerns have been a central topic in organizational practice. In this light, Smith et al. (1996) developed a 15item scale to measure multidimensional nature of information privacy concerns. In this scale, information concerns were represented as a reflective second-order factor, connecting four first-order constructs, improper access to personal information, collection, errors, and unauthorized secondary use. This scale was empirically confirmed in various offline contexts (Campbell 1997; Milberg et al., 2000; Rose 2004; Stewart and Segars 2002). Privacy has converted into one of the key issues in computer-mediated communication. For example, Zeithaml et al. (2002) examined privacy as one of the key dimensions that consumers use to evaluate the quality of a Web site (or the quality of e-service). In a similar vein, Stewart and Pavlou (2002) recognize concerns about privacy/security as being crucial for thinking about the effectiveness of interactive media. Drawn upon the Smith et al.’s (1996) scale, Malhotra et al. (2004) developed Internet users’ information privacy concerns (IUIPC) scale, with an attempt to identify Internet-specific dimensions of privacy concerns, in contrast to traditional or offline direct marketing. Based on social contact theory, they proposed three first-order factors, namely, collection, control, and awareness of

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privacy practices, and attempted to confirm a nomological network within the trust-risk framework. Collection is defined as the degree to which a person is concerned about the amount of individual-specific data possessed by others relative to the value of benefits received. This factor was derived from the SC’s principal of distributive justice, which assumes that, in an equitable exchange, consumers give up some information in return for something of value after evaluating the costs and benefits associated with the particular transaction. Thus, individuals will be reluctant to release their personal information if they expect negative outcomes. Control is defined as the degree to which a person can exercise freedom to either accept or reject the process or decision outcome related to his or her personal information. This construct was based on SC’s principle of procedural justice, which states that consumers want to exercise process control and influence changes in organizational policies they find to be objectionable. Awareness of privacy practices is defined as the degree to which a consumer is concerned about his or her awareness of organizational information privacy practices. This construct is based on two types of justices: interactional and informational justice. In the former, violating transparency and propriety of information leads to decreased perceptions of fairness. In the latter, perceptions of fairness increased with the specificity of information used to provide justification. Based on two empirical studies, their findings provided empirical support for the scale reliability and validity. Furthermore, nomological validity was established within a trust-risk framework, confirming that IUIPC is strongly and positively related to trust beliefs, which in turn negatively and directly influences risk beliefs. The ultimate consequence of information privacy concerns is behavioral intention to give private information to online merchants.

4

Hypotheses

The present study addresses three independent variables, two of which we have discussed in the previous section: spatial mobility and timing of incentive. The construct of spatial mobility is adapted from personal extensibility theory. Here, thanks to mobile device, consumers enjoy their “extended” mobility which is posited to influence attitudinal as well as behavioral aspects. Timing of incentive has been documented as a crucial element for the successful sales promotion or reward program. Immediate rewards are the benefits consumers receive at the point of transaction. Delayed rewards are the ones consumers receive at a later date from the point of sale. For example, Yi and Jeon (2003) found that consumers are likely to be attracted by immediate incentives, such as lotteries. Similarly, Keh and Lee (2006) suggest that delayed rewards with

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higher value would build higher loyalty than would immediate rewards. One additional independent variable, the level of sensitivity in personal information, is defined as the consumers’ apprehension over firms’ misuse or abuse of clients’ personal data. Consumers are often requested to offer personal data by a promotional campaign. Often, however, their personal data are misused or disclosed by the third party without consumers’ prior consent (Malhotra et al. 2004). In this line, we primarily posit that the spatial mobility has direct and negative effect on the perceived level of information privacy concerns, in conjunction with timing of incentive and the sensitivity in personal information requested. In what follows, we formulate five specific hypotheses to be tested in this study. First, if one can receive promotional message at any place and any time, and asked to participate in the campaign by registering his or her personal information, one would first feel uneasy, thus increasing information privacy concerns. Accordingly, if he or she feels uncomfortable due to the spatial context, the intention to participate in the campaign would be low. Therefore: H1: High spatial mobility, compared to low spatial mobility, would lead to greater level of information privacy concerns. H2: High spatial mobility, compared to low spatial mobility, would lead to lesser level of intention to participate in the mobile campaign. Second, if the message delivers an attractive incentive that can be redeemed immediately, it may neutralize information privacy concerns, thus increasing the likelihood of participating in the campaign. More formally: H3: Immediate incentive, compared to the delayed one, would lead to lesser level of information privacy concerns. H4: Immediate incentive, compared to the delayed one, would lead to greater level of intention to participate in the mobile campaign. Third, if the campaign asks one to register sensitive personal information, he or she would perceive the high level of information privacy concerns, because of high risk associated with misuse of personal information. In such a case, the intention to participate in the campaign would be minimal. However, if other conditions collectively help him or her overcoming the primary concerns, the whole situation could change. Taken together:

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H5: High sensitivity in personal information requested, compared with low sensitivity, would lead to greater level of information concerns. H6: High sensitivity in personal information requested, compared with low sensitivity, would lead to greater level of intention to participate in the mobile campaign. H7: There is an interaction effect among spatial mobility, timing of the incentive, and sensitivity in personal information requested.

5

Method

We test our hypotheses using data from a survey of mobile users in Japan during fall 2009. A professional research firm recruited participants from its online panel. After applying filter questions associated with mobile Internet usage and mobile campaign participation, we chose 640 participants whose demographic distribution approximately matches that of the general Japanese population. We chose a three-way between subject design, with a scenario-creation method (Keppel, 1991), in which we created 8 types of scenarios based on three independent variables: the level of spatial mobility (high versus low), timing of incentives (immediate versus delayed) (Keh and Lee, 2006), and the sensitivity in personal information requested (Okazaki et al., 2009). A basic scenario was: “You are reading a newspaper at home (or walking outside) and found a popular convenience store’s advertisement with QR-code. If you scan the code and access the campaign Website, you are asked to subscribe an email news alert by registering your personal information. By doing so, you will receive a free shopping voucher that can be redeemed immediate (or at a Christmas sales period).” Here, a Quick Response or QR-code is a two-dimensional barcode which a user can scan and automatically jump to a Website without typing in a URL. According to trade journals, almost 70% of mobile users have accessed QR-code to visit Websites or participate in promotional campaigns. A principal dependent variable was the level of information privacy concerns (Malhotra et al., 2004) and intention to participate in the mobile campaign. Respondents see only one of the 8 scenarios. Pretests confirmed the significant difference between the two levels of spatial mobility and the two levels of sensitivity in personal information requested. Accordingly, 640 participants were randomly assigned to 8 scenario situations (80 for each), and asked to read and complete the questionnaire. Missing data and outliers were eliminated from the dataset because they tend to distort the results (Hair et al., 2006). As a result, 579 usable data were singled out for the subsequent analysis.

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239

Results

As a preliminary data analysis, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis that reveals an acceptable level of reliability and validity. Both composite reliability and average variance extracted exceed a generally recommended 0.70. Further, discriminant validity was confirmed for each dependent variable (Hair et al., 2006). Before testing the effects on the dependent variables, we assessed the success of the manipulation both for the degree of spatial mobility and the level of sensitivity in personal information requested by conducting several t-tests. Results showed that the difference in the degree of spatial mobility was statistically significant for the high M=4.72 and for the low M=4.36 degree of mobility (t=4.28, p<.001). Also, significant differences were obtained for the high M=5.24 and the low M=4.65 level of sensitivity in personal information requested (t=5.13, p<.001), in the manipulated direction. Because t-tests showed significant differences between conditions in the manipulated direction for both independent variables, manipulation checks were successful. A subsequent three-way ANOVA was conducted in order to test the effects on our dependent variables. Tables 1 and 2 show the descriptive statistics as well as ANOVA results for information privacy concerns and intention to participate in the mobile campaign, respectively. First, H1 and H2 posit the main effect of spatial mobility on information privacy concerns and the intention to participate in the mobile campaign. Specifically, in H1 we postulate that the greater spatial mobility would increase information privacy concerns. Our results suggest that the level of information privacy concerns is marginally but significantly higher in the high spatial mobility condition, compared to a low degree of spatial mobility [F (1, 571) =3.09, p=0.08]. Therefore H1 was supported. In H2, a similar hypothesis was formulated with regard to the effect of spatial mobility on the intention to participate in the opposite direction: the higher spatial mobility would decrease the behavioral intention. ANOVA also produced significant direct effect of this independent variable [F (1, 571) =4.22, p=0.04], which rings true to H2. H3 hypothesizes that timing of incentive also affects the level of information privacy concerns. More specifically, this level of information privacy concerns is lesser in an immediate incentive, compared to the delayed one. However, our results revealed that the main effect of timing of incentive was not statistically significant between both conditions [F (1, 571) =0.16, p=0.70]. Therefore, H3 was not supported. Similarly, H4 assumes that timing of incentive determines the intention to participate in the mobile campaign. Thus, we postulate that an immediate incentive would lead to greater level of behavioral intention.

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Table 1: Descriptive statistics and ANOVA results for Information Privacy Concerns Descriptives

High Mobility N

High Sensitivity Low Sensitivity

Mean

Immediate

73 5.46

Delayed Immediate Delayed

Low Mobility SD

N

Mean 70 5.26

71 5.27

.97

71 5.08

.94

75 4.95

.92

72 4.92

1.01

74 5.12

.99

73 4.98

.81

K2

p

Degree of Mobility Sensitivity

2.94

3.09

.005

<.10

1 10.78

11.32

.019

<.005

Timing

1

.15

.15

.000

.69

Mobility x Sensitivity Mobility x Timing Sensitivity x Timing Mob x Sens x Timing Error

1

.46

.48

.001

.48

1

.09

.09

.000

.75

1

3.19

3.35

.006

<.10

1

0.09

.09

.000

.75

571

0.95

df

ANOVA

SD

1.14

MS 1

F

.96

Table 2: Descriptive statistics and ANOVA results for Intention to Participate Descriptives

High Mobility N

High Sensitivity Low Sensitivity

Mean

Immediate

73 4.47

Delayed Immediate Delayed

Low Mobility SD

N

Mean 70 4.67

71 4.24

1.84

71 4.82

1.77

75 4.94

1.60

72 4.81

1.43

74 4.94

1.40

73 5.39

1.32

K2

p

Degree of Mobility Sensitivity

1 11.09

4.21

.007

<.05

1 32.22

12.24

.021

<.005

Timing

1

2.22

.84

.001

.35

Mobility x Sensitivity Mobility x Timing Sensitivity x Timing Mob x Sens x Timing Error

1

1.90

.72

.001

.39

1

8.16

3.10

.005

<.10

1

3.91

1.48

.003

.22

1

.38

.14

.000

.70

571

2.63

ANOVA

SD

1.92

df

MS

F

1.52

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In this sense, our evidences give not support for H4 because the results also showed that this direct effect was not statistically significant [F (1, 571) =0.85, p=0.40]. H5 and H6 assume that the level of sensitivity of personal information requested would also affect on our dependent variables. As we postulate in H5, high sensitivity in personal information requested would increase the level of information privacy concerns. Our results supported this proposition at p<0.001 [F(1, 571)=11.33]. In contrast, H6 posits that low sensitivity in personal information requested would decrease the intention to participate in the mobile campaign. The ANOVA results were consistent with our hypothesized direction because the high sensitivity in personal information requested led to the lesser intention to participate [F(1, 571)=12.25, p<0.001]. Finally, H7 suggests that there is an interaction effect among the three independent variables on information privacy concerns and the behavioral intention. However, on the contrary to our prediction, the three-way interaction effect was not statistically significant for information privacy concerns [F(1, 571)=0.095, p=0.75] and for the intention to participate in the campaign [F(1, 571)=0.147, p=0.70]. Thus, H7 was not supported by our data. However, despite this rejection of H7, our additional analysis indicates that there is a marginally significant two-way interaction between the sensitivity of information requested and the timing of incentive on consumers’ information privacy concerns. Therefore, the level of information privacy concerns is greater in a specific situation of high sensitivity and with an immediate incentive. Similarly, results suggest a marginally significant two-way interaction between the degree of spatial mobility and the timing of incentive on the behavioral intention, so consumers’ intention to participate in the mobile campaign is greater in a low degree of spatial mobility and for a delayed incentive.

7

Discussion

The present study addresses one of the most important questions in mcommerce: Do mobile users feel that their privacy has been protected? If not, what are the consequences? Our study tries to respond to this question, operationalizing ubiquitous context by proposing spatial mobility. Although ubiquity could be a more complex construct, our conceptualization could serve as a stepping stone for future research. Our quasi-experimental study offers rather mixed results. First, spatial mobility exhibits a modest direct effect on information privacy concerns, while

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an interaction effect of the three independent variables was not significant. However, a closer examination of two-way interaction reveals that intention to participate in the mobile campaign was higher in high spatial mobility when immediate incentive was given. By contrast, the strong intention was observed in low spatial mobility when the delayed incentive was given. How can we interpret these results? The most reasonable explanation is that, perhaps, consumers are generally more comfortable in accessing the mobile campaign (via QR-code) at a stable place such as home, since they want to access the information when feeling relaxed. Otherwise, they may feel unfocused or stressed, thus are reluctant to analyze the content with much attention. Nonetheless, when they are outside and in a highly mobile situation, an immediate (and attractive) incentive may convince them to examine the information, up to the point where they do not mind provide personal information. Managerially, we could use such findings in planning more cost-effective mobile campaign. Mobile marketers and advertisers should be aware that a QRcode-printed hand-out campaign on a street may be a feasible alternative with an attractive give-away. This kind of campaign may be used as a part of crossmedia campaign, along with other print media, such as free papers, magazines, and newspaper insertions. At the same time, a responsible and honest treatment of personal information is extremely important, because, if the information practice of sponsor firms is not perceived as trustworthy, only few users would dare to access the QR-code campaign, thus generating little success.

8

Limitations

A few limitations should be recognized to make our findings more objective. First, the operationalization of spatial mobility was somewhat limited. Although space plays an important role in defining mobility, other contextual factors may need to be taken into account. For example, social anxiety in a crowded space has been found to affect consumer psychology. Future research should expand the definition in this regard. Second, the present study only focuses on a low involvement service: supermarket. Thus, any generalization of the results should be treated with caution, as the study did not contrast the results with a high involvement service (e.g., bank).

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243

References

Cloudmark (2008). Mobile Operators Brace for Global Surge in Mobile Messaging Abuse. February 11, available at http://www.marketwire.com/mw/rel_us_print.jsp?id=819426 (accessed March 28, 2008). CNET.co.uk (2006). Mobile spam spells trouble for text-based ads. November 16, available at http://news.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029678,49285278,00.htm (accessed April 4, 2008). iMedia Connection (2005a). McDonald's Goes Mobile. Creative Showcase. available at: http://www.imedia connection.com/content/7191.asp (accessed November 18, 2005). iMedia Connection (2005b). Ringing in a New Marketing Strategy. Creative Showcase. available at: http://www.imedia connection.com/content/6672.asp (accessed November 14, 2005). Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., & Tatham, R.L. (2006). Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Hägerstrand, T. (1975). Space, Time and Human Conditions. In Dynamic Allocation of Urban Space, A. Karlqvist, L. Lundquist, and F. Snickars, eds. Farnborough, UK: Saxon House, 3-14. Keh, H.T., & Lee, Y.H. (2006). Do reward programs build loyalty for services? The moderating effect of satisfaction on type and timing of rewards. Journal of Retailing, 82 (2), 127–136. Keppel, Geoffrey (1991). Design and Analysis: A Researcher’s Handbook. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Kleijnen, M., de Ruyter, K., & Wetzels, M. (2007). An assessment of value creation in mobile service delivery and the moderating role of time consciousness. Journal of Retailing, 83(1), 3346. Okazaki, S., Li, H., & Hirose, M. (2009). Consumer Privacy Concerns and Preference for Degree of Regulatory Control: A Study of Mobile Advertising in Japan. Journal of Advertising, 38(4), 63– 77. Mobile Marketing Association (2007). Mobile Marketing Industry Glossary. Mobile Marketing Association. available at: hhtp://www.mmaglobal.com (accessed March2, 2008). Malhotra, N.K., Kim, SS., & Agarwal, J. (2004). Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC): The Constructs, the Scale, and a Causal Model. Information Systems Research, 15(4), 336-355. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2008). Policies related to annoying emails prevention. available at http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/d_syohi/m_mail.html (accessed March 1, 2008) (in Japanese). Multinational Monitor. Commercial Alert: Advergaming. 2008(November/December), 56. Petty, R.D. (2003). Wireless Advertising Messaging: Legal Analysis and Public Policy Issues. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 22(1), 71-82.

Part V

Organization, Publicity and Reputation

Determinants of the Impact of Crises on Organizational Reputation: An Experimental Test of Crisis Communication Strategies and the Moderating Impact of Locus of Control An-Sofie Claeys, Ghent University, Belgium Verolien Cauberghe, Ghent University, Belgium Patrick Vyncke, Ghent University, Belgium

1

Introduction

Academic interest in the field of crisis communication has significantly increased over the years (Ulmer et al., 2007). Corporations are becoming more and more aware that crises can and will happen to organizations just like themselves (Benson, 1988). No company can escape all crises during its life cycle, and it is during these crisis situations that the battle to protect credibility in the eyes of stakeholders is most fierce (Hobbs, 1995). It takes many years to build a favorable organizational reputation but only one single crisis to ruin it (Dean, 2004). Since a good reputation is a central goal of every organization, there is a need to study the use of crisis response communication strategies in order to defend reputations during crises (Benoit, 1995; Coombs and Holladay, 2002). During the nineties, the image restoration theory focused on conducting case studies in order to create a typology of image restoration strategies (Benoit, 1997). The lack of experimental research however, resulted in the fact that little was known about how stakeholders react to these communication strategies, and how these reactions depend on the characteristics of the crisis type (Coombs, 2007). Therefore, Coombs (2007) developed a theory based on attribution theory to match these crisis response strategies to the specifics of the crisis situation. The Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) was developed to offer guidelines for crisis communication. The SCCT empirically studies which response strategies organizations should apply for which crisis type in order to restore the organization’s reputation in the best possible way. The main goal of this study is to experimentally test the matches between crisis types and crisis response strategies proposed by the SCCT. The study also looks deeper into the relationship between the severity of a crisis and the resulting post-crisis reputation. In addition, the moderating influence of a personality trait, locus of control, is examined. Little research has been conducted on perS. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_16, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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sonality traits that may affect the respondents’ reactions to a crisis or to the crisis response strategy used to manage the crisis (Coombs, 2007).

2

Situational Crisis Communication Theory

Based on the attribution theory, the SCCT was developed in order to provide crisis managers with guidelines to match crisis response strategies to crisis types (Coombs, 2007). The attribution theory focuses on the universal concern of individuals with explanation for what happened (Weiner, 2000). According to Kelley (1973), “Attribution theory is a theory about how people make causal explanations, about how they answer questions beginning with “why?””(p. 107). Individuals act like naïve scientists; searching underlying causes for events they observe (Kelley, 1973; Dean, 2004). Organizational crises are events in which individuals tend to make causal inferences and assess a certain amount of responsibility to the organization (Coombs, 2007). According to the SCCT, the reputational threat caused by crises, can be determined by looking at the amount of responsibility consumers attribute to the organization (Coombs, 2007, 2004). The SCCT has developed a list of 13 crisis types, based upon attributions of crisis responsibility that can be divided within three crisis type clusters (Coombs, 2007; Coombs and Holladay, 2002). The victim cluster can be defined by crises with weak attributions of organizational responsibility (e.g., product tampering). The accidental cluster involves crises with a certain, but low level of responsibility attribution to the organization (e.g., technical-error product harm). The preventable cluster incorporates crises for which the organization is perceived to be responsible (e.g., organizational misdeed with injuries) (cf. Table 1). According to the SCCT, the more responsibility that is accredited to the organization with respect to the crisis, the more negative the impact on the organizational reputation will be (Coombs, 1998): H1a: The victim crisis leads to the least negative effect on organizational reputation compared to the accidental and preventable crisis. H1b: The accidental crisis leads to a moderate negative effect on organizational reputation compared to the victim and preventable crisis. H1c: The preventable crisis leads to the most negative impact on organizational reputation compared to the victim and accidental crisis.

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Table 1: Match between Crisis Types and Crisis Response Strategies

Crisis types Victim cluster ƒ Natural disaster ƒ Rumor ƒ Workplace violence ƒ Product tampering/Malevolence Accidental cluster ƒ Challenges ƒ Technical-error accidents ƒ Technical-error product harm Preventable cluster ƒ Human-error accidents ƒ Human-error product harm ƒ Organizational misdeed with no injuries ƒ Organizational misdeed management misconduct ƒ Organizational misdeed with injuries

Crisis response strategies Deny strategies ƒ Attack the accuser ƒ Denial ƒ Scapegoat Diminish strategies ƒ Excuse ƒ Justification Rebuild strategies ƒ Compensation ƒ Apology

Source: Adapted from: Coombs, 2007, p. 168 - 170

These crisis types, differing in organizational responsibility, can be matched to three clusters of crisis response strategies, based on the responsibility of the organization taken in each of them (cf. Table 1) (Coombs, 2007). When using deny strategies, the organization rejects all responsibility for the crisis. Diminish strategies minimize organizational responsibility or crisis damage. With rebuild crisis strategies organizations admit full responsibility. Research has shown that apology, a rebuild crisis response strategy, leads to a more effective reputation repair compared to deny and diminish strategies (Coombs and Holladay, 2008). Therefore, we expect: H2: The reputation of an organization using rebuild crisis response strategies will be more positive than the reputation of an organization using either deny or diminish crisis response strategies. The attribution theory provides the rationale for the relationship between crisis types and crisis response strategies (Coombs, 2007). Crisis managers should select crisis response strategies that are appropriate for the amount of potential reputational damage a certain crisis may inflict (Coombs and Holladay, 2002). Based on these assumptions, the SCCT provides specific guidelines for match-

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ing responses to crisis situations (Coombs, 2007). Table one shows that deny strategies can best be used in case of a victim crisis, diminish strategies are suited for accidental crises and rebuild strategies offer a way to defend reputations in case of a preventable crisis. Coombs and Holladay (1996) found in their experimental study that when crisis communication responses match the crisis type in terms of responsibility attribution, this leads to a more positive reputation than either no response or a mismatched response. They examined the match between a crisis type and one single crisis response strategy. However, Benoit (1997) suggests that the use of a combination of multiple strategies can increase the effectiveness of the image restoration. Based on guidelines from the SCCT we expect that deny strategies match with victim crises, diminish strategies match with accidental crises and rebuild strategies match with preventable crises (Coombs, 2007). These assumptions lead to the following: H3: Matches between crisis type and crisis response strategy lead to a less negative organizational reputation than mismatches between crisis type and crisis response strategy.

3

The Relationship between Crisis Severity and Post-Crisis Reputation

According to the SCCT, more severe crises have a more negative impact on organizational reputations than crises with trivial damage (Coombs, 1998; Coombs and Holladay, 2002). Crisis severity has proven to modify individuals’ evaluations of certain crisis types (Coombs and Holladay, 2002). Former research (Coombs, 1998) showed that crisis severity has a negative impact on post-crisis reputation in case the organization is fully responsible for the crisis. If on the other hand consumers consider the company itself as a victim of the crisis, crisis damage will not negatively impact post-crisis reputation (Coombs, 1998). Based on the current typology of crisis types, offered by the SCCT (Coombs, 2007), this implies that organizations confronted with a victim crisis, do not need to fear that crisis damage will have a negative impact on post-crisis reputation. In case of an accidental or preventable crisis on the other hand, postcrisis reputations will suffer more when the crisis severity is perceived as higher by individuals. H4a: The perceived severity of a crisis has a negative impact on the organizational reputation if the organization has some (accidental crisis) or full (preventable crisis) responsibility for the crisis

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H4b: The perceived severity of a crisis is not related with the organizational reputation if the organization has no responsibility for the crisis

4

Moderating Influence of Locus of Control

The moderating impact of personality traits has been rarely investigated within the domain of crisis communication. Literature in traditional marketing and consumer behaviour shows a variety of research in the field of personality traits, and a growth of interest in the identification of personality variables that influence consumer behavior and attitudes (Dutta and Vanacker, 2000). Crisis communication research equally needs to consider personality traits that might be of interest considering stakeholders during crises. Ahluwalia et al. (2000) claim that there has been no systematic research of how consumers process negative information about brands. In order to extend the knowledge of SCCT, research must determine how stakeholders’ perceptions of organizational reputations after crises are moderated by their personality characteristics. An individuals’ locus of control is of interest given that this personality trait builds on the attribution theory, on which an important part of the SCCT framework is based (Beretvas et al., 2008). Deny strategies make consumers believe that a crisis is caused by an attribute of the environment (external attribution) (Coombs, 2007). Rebuild strategies on the other hand argue that a crisis is caused by an attribute of the actor/company (internal attribution) (Collins, 1974). Diminish strategies are somewhere in between, at the same time taking some of the responsibility and rejecting part of it. Locus of control on the other hand, relates to whether an individual has the perception to have power over what happens to him or her (internal locus of control), or attributes it to external factors (external locus of control) (Lefcourt, 1966). Rotter (1966) stated that a person’s locus of control may correlate with the value the subject places on either internal or external control in others. If Rotter’s (1966) presumption is true, internals would assign more value to organizations that take full responsibility for their own actions (using rebuild strategies), thus stating that they control their own actions. This would equally imply that externals might assign more value than internals to organizations that reject responsibility for what happened (using deny strategies), thereby stating that the environment controlled what happened more than the organization itself. This leads to the following hypotheses:

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H5a: When an organization uses deny strategies, its reputation will be perceived as less negative by respondents with an external locus of control than by respondents with an internal locus of control H5b: When an organization uses diminish strategies, its reputation will be perceived as equal by respondents with an external locus of control and respondents with an internal locus of control H5c: When an organization uses rebuild strategies, its reputation will be perceived as less negative by respondents with an internal locus of control than by respondents with an external locus of control

5 5.1

Method Design and Stimuli

A 3 (crisis type) x 3 (crisis response) between-subjects factorial experimental design was used to investigate the hypotheses. Crisis type and crisis response strategies were manipulated using different scenarios. Crisis type was manipulated by the selection of one crisis from each of the three clusters (victim cluster, accidental cluster, preventable cluster). To manipulate the response strategy, the combination of the two strategies within each cluster was used. Only one crisis response strategy was used from the deny cluster, since all three deny strategies tend to conflict with one another. Combining strategies will only enhance their individual impact when the responses are compatible (Huang, 2006).

5.2

Participants and Procedure

Data were collected from 316 respondents using an online questionnaire. The respondents were randomly divided across the 9 experimental conditions and were instructed to read a scenario for a fictitious juice company. Participants were Dutch-speaking Belgian men and women with an average age of 35 (S.D. = 14.46; range 13 to 70 years). About 47% were male and 53% were female.

5.3

Measures

Organizational responsibility for a crisis was measured using the four items 10point Likert scale of Griffin et al. (1992) (e.g., “How responsible was the organization with respect to the crisis?”) (α = .81).

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Organizational reputation was measured by a combination of the Reputation Quotient (RQ) scale of Fombrun et al. (2000) and McCroskey’s scale of credibility (Cited in: Coombs and Holladay, 1996) (α = .97). Crisis damage was held constant across scenarios by telling respondents that each crisis caused the death of two adults. To measure the possible effects of the perceived crisis severity, respondents were asked to answer one question on a 10-point scale, ranging from one (not at all severe) to 10 (very severe): “How severe do you consider the damage caused by this crisis?” Locus of control was measured using the internal-external (I-E) locus of control scale of Rotter (1966). The I-E scale had a Cronbach α of .73 and consisted of nine factors with eigenvalues higher than 1.0. One of these factors, the misfortunes dimension, considers the perceived causes of peoples’ misfortunes. Since the I-E scale has shown to oversimplify the multidimensionality of the locus of control construct and since the misfortunes dimension is closely related to the attribution theory, this dimension was taken separately into analyses (Duffy et al., 1977).

5.4

Pre-tests

Two pre-tests were conducted to test the manipulated variables, crisis response and crisis type. In the first pre-test, 12 respondents were instructed to read each of the three crisis response scenarios, and order them based on a list containing all five crisis response strategies. Some adaptations were made in the scenarios based on these results. The second pre-test assessed the manipulation of corporate responsibility for each crisis type. Twenty-one respondents participated in a within-subjects design. A seven-point Likert scale (Griffin et al., 1992) was used. In the victim crisis (M = 4.31, S.D. = 1.49) the company was perceived as less responsible than in the accidental crisis (M = 5.31, S.D. = .98, t (40) = 2.56, p = .015) and the preventable crisis (M = 5.79, S.D. = 1.01, t (40) = 3.75, p = .001). However, no significant differences occurred between the accidental (M = 5.31, S.D. = .98) and preventable crisis (M = 5.79, S.D. = 1.01, t (40) = 1.55, p = .13). All scenarios were slightly adapted.

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Results Manipulation Check

A one-way ANOVA was performed to check for the manipulation of crisis type, measured by the amount of crisis responsibility (Griffin et al., 1992). The mean difference in crisis responsibility between the three crisis types was significant (F (2, 313) = 82.93, p < .001). The Scheffé follow-up procedure showed that the victim crisis (M = 4.78, S.D. = 2.11) differed significantly from the accidental crisis (M = 6.81, S.D. = 1.87) (p < .001) and from the preventable crisis (M = 8.07, S.D. = 1.62) (p < .001). Furthermore, the accidental crisis differed significantly from the preventable crisis (M Accidental crisis = 6.81, S.D. = 1.87; M Preventable crisis= 8.07, S.D. = 1.62) (p < .001).

6.2

Impact of Crisis Type and Response Strategy on Reputation

To address the main effects of crisis types (H1) and response strategies (H2) on organizational reputation and to test the interaction effect of crisis type and crisis response strategies as hypothesised in H3 on reputation, a univariate twoway ANOVA (general linear model) was used. Two main effects occurred. Both crisis type (F (8, 307) = 94.72, p < .001), and crisis response strategy (F (8, 307) = 4.68, p = .01), had a significant main effect on organizational reputation. In order to detect the significant differences between the crisis types and crisis response strategies pairwise, one-way ANOVA’s with Scheffé follow-up tests were conducted. The results of a separate one-way ANOVA (F (2, 313) = 95.33, p < .001) show that individuals perceive the organization’s reputation as less favourable in case of a preventable crisis (M = 2.72, S.D. = 1.42), compared to both the victim (M = 5.95, S.D. = 1.97) (p < .001) and accidental crisis (M = 5.48, S.D. = 2.04) (p < .001) (cf. Figure 1). No significant difference in reputation occurred between the victim crisis (M = 5.95, S.D. = 1.97) and the accidental crisis (M = 5.48, S.D. = 2.04; p = .18). These results support H1c, and partially support H1a and H1b.

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Figure 1: Main Effects of Crisis Types on Post-crisis Reputation

The main effect of crisis response strategy on organizational reputation was confirmed (F (2, 313) = 4.52, p = .012) (cf. Figure 2). The Scheffé procedure revealed that rebuild strategies (M = 5.26, S.D. = 2.36) significantly lead to a more positive reputation than diminish strategies (M = 4.35, S.D. = 2.24) (p = .018). The difference between the rebuild strategies and deny strategies was only marginally significant (M Rebuild strategies= 5.26, S.D. = 2.36; M Deny strategies = 4.57, S.D. = 2.28, p = .087). Therefore, H2 is partially supported. The interaction-effect of crisis type and crisis response strategies on reputation was not significant (F (8, 307) = 1.28, p = .28). Therefore, H3 could not be supported. The effects of the crisis response strategies did not depend on the specifics of the crisis situation and therefore no proof was found for the guidelines offered by the SCCT to match crisis response strategies to crisis types.

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Figure 2: Main Effects of Crisis Response Strategies on Post-crisis Reputation

6.3

Relationship between Crisis Severity and Post-Crisis Reputation

The fourth set of hypotheses concerned the relationship between the severity of a crisis and the organization’s post-crisis reputation. As expected, a significant negative correlation appeared between the severity of the crisis and organizational post-crisis reputation in case of both an accidental (r (103) = - .312, p = .001) and a preventable crisis (r (104) = - .308, p = .001). These results support H4a. However, the perceived severity of a crisis is not related with the organizational reputation in case of a victim crisis, for which the organization bears no responsibility what so ever (r (109) = - .04, p = .68). These results support H4b.Therefore, the severity of a given crisis will only correlate negatively with the subsequent organizational reputation, in case consumers find that the organization itself was at least partially responsible for the events.

6.4

Moderating Influence of Locus of Control

Hypotheses 5a, 5b and 5c were tested by means of a univariate two-way ANOVA (general linear model). A significant interaction-effect occurred between crisis response strategy and the locus of control (misfortunes dimension) (F (5, 310) = 3.82, p = .023). The plot (Cf. figure 3) shows that when a company uses a deny response strategy, its reputation is less negative for individuals with an external locus of control (M = 5.30, S.D. = 2.15) than for individuals with an internal locus of control (M = 3.90, S.D. = 2.20) (t (105) = 3.33, p = .001). Therefore, H5a is supported. When an organization uses diminish strategies

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however, its reputation is perceived as equally positive by both externals (M = 4.27, S.D. = 1.91) and internals (M = 4.44, S.D. = 2.53) (t (99) = .38, p = .70), which supports H5b. H5c was not supported.

Figure 3: Interaction between Crisis Response Strategies and Locus of Control on Postcrisis Reputation

7

Discussion and Conclusions

Two main effects occurred of crisis type and crisis response on organizational reputation. Corporate reputation was least favourable when organizations are confronted with a preventable crisis, as compared to an accidental or victim crisis. These results support the SCCT (Coombs, 2007), since preventable crises lead to more attributions of responsibility and subsequently damage post-crisis reputation the most. There was also a main effect of crisis response strategy on organizational reputation. The reputation of organizations using rebuild crisis response strategies will be more positive than the reputation of an organization using diminish strategies. This is in line with former research, which has shown that apology, a rebuild crisis response strategy in which full responsibility is

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taken, leads to a more effective reputation repair compared to other crisis response strategies (Coombs and Holladay, 2008). In the current study no interaction-effects between crisis type and response strategy were found on corporate reputation. This is in contradiction with the findings of Coombs and Holladay (1996). A possible explanation might be that Coombs and Holladay (1996) used a within-subjects design. Another may be the fact that two response strategies were combined into one response. Results do find support for the assumption (Coombs, 1998; Coombs and Holladay, 2002) that crisis severity is related to post-crisis reputation, depending on the crisis type. In case an organization is considered fully or partially responsible for a certain crisis in the eyes of consumers, the subsequent organizational reputation will get worse as the crisis is perceived as more severe. If on the other hand the organization itself is a victim of the crisis, consumers’ will not evaluate the organization more negatively after the crisis depending on the crisis severity. In addition, locus of control (more specifically the dimension “misfortunes”) as a personality trait of the individuals had a moderating impact on the effect of the crisis response strategy on reputation. For the deny strategy the corporate reputation will be perceived as less negative by individuals with an external locus of control than by respondents with an internal locus of control. However, when a company uses a rebuild or diminish strategy to respond on a crisis, the locus of control did not have a significant impact on the organizational reputation. These results provide partial support for Rotter’s (1966) assumption that a person’s locus of control correlates with the value the subject places on either internal or external control in others. In addition, it could be on onset for further research into the moderating effects of personality traits on consumers’ evaluations of crises.

8

Limitations and Further Research

The limitations of the current study provide some possibilities for further research. A first limitation is that reputation was measured after only one exposure to a fictitious company. Therefore, the reputation measure resembles more an attitude than a reputation developed over time. Further research is therefore needed with real brands from different productive sectors. Secondly, the internal-external (I-E) locus of control scale may oversimplify the actual dimensionality of the construct (Duffy et al., 1977). Thirdly, the current study did not incorporate a condition in which the company did not react to the crisis. This

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would be interesting to measure in further research to detect the impact of a reaction of a company to a crisis versus the situation in which they do not react in any way. It would also be interesting to investigate if there might be different personality traits that influence the impact of crisis response strategies. Lastly, the current study compared the impact of matching response strategies and crisis types across the different clusters of each. In addition, it would be useful to examine the impact of each of the different strategies within each cluster.

9

References

Ahluwalia, R.; Burnkrant, R. E. & Unnava, H.R. (2000), “Consumer Response to Negative Publicity: The Moderating Role of Commitment,” in: Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 37 (2), 203-214. Benoit, W. L. (1995), “Accounts, Excuses, & Apologies : A Theory of Image Restoration Strategies,“ State University of New York Press, Albany. Benoit, W. L. (1997), “Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication,” in: Public Relations Review, Vol. 23 (2), 177-186. Benson, J. A. (1988), “Crisis Revisited: An Analysis of Strategies Used by Tylenol in the Second Tampering Episode, ” in: Central States Speech Journal, Vol. 39 (1), 49-66. Beretvas, S. N., Suizzo, M., Durham, J. A. & Yarnell, L.M. (2008), “A Reliability Generalization Study of Scores on Rotter’s and Nowicki-Strickland’s Locus of Control Scales,” in: Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 68 (1), 97-119. Collins, B. E. (1974), “Four Components of the Rotter Internal-External Scale: Belief in a Difficult World, a Just World, a Predictable World, and a Politically Responsive World,” in: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 29 (3), 381-391. Coombs, W. T. & Holladay, S.J. (1996), “Communication and Attributions in a Crisis: An Experimental Study in Crisis Communication,” in: Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 8 (4), 279-295. Coombs, W. T. (1998), “An analytic Framework for Crisis Situations: Better Responses from a Better Understanding of the Situation,” in: Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 10 (3), 177-191. Coombs, W. T. & Holladay, S.J. (2002), “Helping Crisis Managers Protect Reputational Assets: Initial Tests of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory,” in: Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 16 (2), 165-186. Coombs, W. T. (2004), “West Pharmaceutical’s Explosion: Structuring Crisis Discourse Knowledge, ” in: Public Relations Review, Vol. 30 (4), 467-473. Coombs, W.T. (2007), “Protecting Organization Reputations During a Crisis: The Development and Application of Situational Crisis Communication Theory,” in: Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 10 (3), 163-176. Coombs, W.T. & Holladay, S. J. (2008), “Comparing Apology to Equivalent Crisis Response Strategies: Clarifying Apology’s Role and Value in Crisis Communication,” in: Public Relations Review, Vol. 34 (3), 252-257. Dean, D.H. (2004), “Consumer Reaction to Negative Publicity: Effects of Corporate Reputation, Response, and Responsibility for a Crisis Event, ” in: Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 41 (2), 192-211. Duffy, P.J., Downey, R.G. & Shiflett, S. (1977), “Locus of Control: Dimensionality and Predictability Using Likert Scales,” in: Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 62 (2), 214-219.

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Dutta, M. J. & Vanacker, B. (2000), “Effects of Personality on Persuasive Appeals in Health Communication,” in: Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 27 (1), 119-125. Fombrun, C.J., Gardberg, N.A. & Sever, J.M. (2000), “The Reputation Quotient sm: A MultiStakeholder Measure of Corporate Reputation,” in: The Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 7 (4), 241- 255. Griffin, M.; Babin, B. J. & Darden, W.R. (1992), “Consumer Assessments of Responsibility for Product-Related Injuries: The Impact of Regulations, Warnings, and Promotional Policies,” in: Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 19 (1), 870-878. Hobbs, J. D. (1995), “Treachery by any Other Name: A Case Study of the Toshiba Public Relations Crisis,” in: Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 8 (3), 323-346. Huang, Y. (2006), “Crisis Situations, Communication Strategies, and Media Coverage: A Multicase Study Revisiting the Communicative Response Model,” in: Communication Research, Vol. 33 (3), 180-205. Kelley, H.H. (1973), “The Processes of Causal Attribution,“ in: American psychologist, Vol. 28 (2), 107-128. Lefcourt, H.M. (1966), “Internal versus External Control of Reinforcement: A Review,” in: Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 65 (4), 206-220. Rotter, J.B. (1966), “Generalized Expectancies for Internal versus External Control of Reinforcement,” in: Psychological Monographs, Vol. 80 (1), 1-27. Ulmer, R.R.; Seeger, M.W. & Sellnow, T.L. (2007), “Post-Crisis Communication and Renewal: Expanding the Parameters of Post-Crisis Discourse,” in: Public Relations Review, Vol. 33 (2), 130-135. Weiner, B. (2000), “Attributional Thoughts about Consumer Behaviour,” in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27 (3), 382-387.

Effects of Message Appeal when Communicating CSR Initiatives Luisa Andreu,University of Valencia, Spain Anna S. Mattila, Pennsylvania State University, USA Joaquin Aldás, University of Valencia and Ivie, Spain

1

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be defined as those business activities which take into account the public consequences of company decisions over and above the simple compliance with government regulations (Menguc and Ozanne, 2005; Sharma, 2000). Thus, the management of a company should go beyond the economic concerns, considering both the social and environmental issues as relevant (Clarkson, 1991). Previous research highlights the importance of CSR for firms’ stakeholders, yet researchers find low consumer awareness of socially responsible initiatives (Beckmann, 2007; Du et al., 2007; Pomering and Dolnicar, 2009). How to communicate socially responsible initiatives is an important issue both for researchers and managers who invest resources in CSR campaigns. The main shortcoming in most CSR initiatives is the lack of effective communication, and hence a vast majority of customers are unaware of such initiatives (Du et al., 2007). If consumer awareness is low, the effect of CSR initiatives on purchasing behavior is only of theoretical, not practical, relevance. Due to the low levels of general CSR awareness, previous research considers this concept as “a key stumbling block for companies looking to reap the positive benefits of engaging in such activities” (Bhattarcharya and Sen, 2004, p. 14). Marketing communications play an important role in raising the awareness of those individuals who are interested in purchasing products of firms with CSR attributes (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). By means of communicating CSR initiatives, service companies try not only to make consumers aware of the social and environmental initiatives (i.e., CSR awareness), but also to create emotional responses toward their service brands. Corporate social initiatives have been shown to enhance brand equity by affect induction (Hoeffler and Keller, 2002; Du et al., 2007).

S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_17, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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Relying on the advertising and CSR literature, we examine the conditions under which a message strategy might enhance consumers’ responses to CSR initiatives. Specifically, in this chapter we analyze the impact of service basedCSR initiatives (i.e., related to the servicescape and employees) on CSR awareness and emotional responses.

2 2.1

Conceptual Background CSR Initiatives: Employees vs. Environment

By engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, companies not only generate favorable stakeholder attitudes, but also, over the long run, build corporate image, strengthen stakeholder-company relationships, and enhance stakeholders’ advocacy behaviors (Du et al., 2010). Although a company can engage in several types of CSR initiatives (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Kotler and Lee, 2005), the focus of this chapter is limited to employee-based initiatives (benefits and diversity) and environmental concerns in the servicescape. Both dimensions are relevant for services marketing (see Zeithaml et al., 2006) and, therefore, we refer to these dimensions as service based-CSR initiatives. Service providers are a powerful medium for building brand meaning and equity. According to Berry (2000, p. 135), “the more providers internalize the concept and values of the service, the more consistently and effectively they are likely to perform”. Internalizing the brand involves “involving” employees in the care and nurturing of the brand. Employees will not feel part of the brand – and, therefore, of the service company – unless they understand it and believe in it. According to the CSR literature (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Maon et al., 2009), companies should engage in CSR initiatives related to employees such as employee support (e.g., concern for safety, job security, employee involvement) and diversity (e.g., gender, race, disability) and, therefore, such activities can enhance brand image. In addition to employee-based initiatives, many service firms engage in CSR due to ecological concerns. As Schoemaker and Jonker (2006, p. 52) state, “never before has mankind consumed the world’s natural resources at such a rapid pace, and over exploitation and pollution are the most visible consequences of this”. In the context of service firms, a critical decision criterion for environmental actions is the improvement of operational efficiency via prevention of waste and the conservation and reuse of resources (Foster et al., 2000). In

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the CSR literature, environment-related initiatives refer to different activities such as recycling, use of environment friendly products, hazardous waste management and pollution control (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004).

2.2

CSR Awareness and Emotional Responses

Research in advertising defines brand awareness as “a buyer’s ability to identify a brand within a category in sufficient detail to make a purchase” (Percy and Rossiter, 1992, p. 264). In this research, we study the consumers’ awareness of a company as a socially responsible firm (CSR awareness). Researchers have alluded to the importance of CSR awareness to reach the company’s objectives (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Du et al., 2007; McWilliams and Siegel, 2001; Pomering and Dolnicar, 2009). Effective CSR communication requires that potential customers must be fully aware of CSR characteristics of a company; otherwise, they will purchase a similar product without such attributes. Thus, marketing communications play an important role in raising the awareness of those individuals who are interested in purchasing products of firms with CSR attributes (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). Consumers’ awareness of a company’s CSR activities is a key prerequisite to their positive reactions to such activities (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004). Stakeholders’ low awareness and unfavorable attributions towards companies’ CSR activities remain critical impediments in companies’ attempts to maximize business benefits from their CSR activities. This highlights a need for companies to communicate CSR more effectively (Du et al., 2010; Pomering and Dolnicar, 2009). Corporate social initiatives could evoke brand feelings (Hoeffler and Keller, 2002; Du et al., 2007). In the context of advertising research, emotional responses to an ad (or, in this research, CSR communication stimuli) are important since advertisement-generated feelings can influence subsequent processing strategies (Gardner, 1985). For example, Mattila (1999) found that emotions, whether positive or negative, induced by the advertisement may influence the individual’s perceptions of the service provider. In the CSR literature, previous research indicates that consumers are more likely to form an emotional attachment with brands that they perceive as sharing their own values and that provide consumers with opportunities “to do good” (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001), but there is a lack of research that analyze the effect of message appeal of CSR communication on emotional responses.

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Emotional and Rational Appeals in CSR Communication

Service based-CSR initiatives may influence consumer responses, but more research is needed to know under which conditions CSR communications have a positive, negative or neutral effect on consumers’ awareness of CSR practices and emotional responses toward the brand. To that end, this research examines the influence of specific website messages (or verbal cues) related to service based-CSR initiatives on consumer responses. As Singh and Dalal (1999) suggest, a website is fundamentally a communications message. Internet sites provide a virtual "presence" for a firm and its offerings (Hoffman et al., 1995). The design of a message that will be perceived as emotional or rational in its appeal or tone is a primary strategic consideration in advertising (Singh and Dalal, 1999; Stafford, 2005). Evidence is not congruent regarding the effectiveness of emotional and rational appeals in advertising. While some research (Zielske, 1982; Golden and Johnson, 1983; Coulson, 1989) focusing on message recall, shows that rational appeals are more effective than emotional appeals, others (Choi and Thorson, 1983; Goldberg and Gorn, 1987; Page et al., 1990) found the opposite results. These inconsistent findings prompt us to evaluate the effectiveness of emotional and rational appeals in light of the consumer’s route to persuasion. Petty and Caccioppo’s (1980) seminal paper shows that rational appeals are effective when the elaboration likelihood is high while emotional appeals are effective when elaboration likelihood is low. Furthermore, Petty and Cacciopo (1984), Petty et al. (1983) and Um (2008) demonstrate that the central route to persuasion is likely to occur when the argument is personally relevant to the individual, that is, when the involvement is high. In contrast, when the elaboration likelihood is low, the peripheral route will be more effective than the central route. If personal relevance is low, people are less motivated to deal with the effort of evaluating the arguments provided by the advertisement. Relying on the elaboration likelihood model, we propose that when CSR communication focuses on initiatives related to employees, consumer involvement will be lower than when the message involves environmental issues. The rationale for this is that consumers will pay more attention to firm initiatives addressed to improve something that directly affects them (environment) than to improve the life quality of others (employees). For example, Singh et al. (2008) demonstrate both in the UK and in Spain the interest in the environmental behavior of firms is higher than in their ethical behaviors (which include initiatives related to employees). In other words, the involvement towards environmental CSR initiatives is higher than CSR related to employees. Consequently, we

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expect that the effectiveness of rational arguments will be higher with environmental CRS initiatives (i.e., high-involvement and central route processing) (environmental actions) while emotional appeals will be more effective in promoting employee-related CSR initiatives (i.e., low-involvement and peripheral route processing). We thus propose the following: H1a: When the CSR initiative focuses on the environment, a rational appeal will generate a higher level of CSR awareness than an emotional appeal. H1b: When the CSR initiative focuses on the environment, a rational appeal will generate a higher level of emotional responses than an emotional appeal. H2a: When the CSR initiative focuses on employees, an emotional appeal will generate a higher level of CSR awareness than a rational appeal. H2b: When the CSR initiative focuses on employees, an emotional appeal will generate a higher level of emotional responses than a rational appeal.

3 3.1

Research Methodology Study Design and Sample

A 2x2 Service based-CSR initiatives (employee/environmental) x Web message appeal (rational/emotional) factorial, between-subjects design is employed to test the hypotheses. The sample was composed of faculty and administrative employees at a large state university in the US. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. 181 US non-students. 63.1% were females and ages ranged from 23 to 76 years (average=44.8 years). The majority of the sample was Caucasian (90.5%), with a minor representation of Asian (5%), AfricanAmerican (1.7%), Hispanic (1.1%), Native American (0.6%) and other (1.1%). Regarding annual household income, 5.4% fell in the category of less than $30,000; 17.3% between $30,000-50,000; 20.2% between $50,001-70,000; 20.2% between $70,001-90,000, and 36.9% over $90,000.

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Research Stimuli

Service based-CSR initiative was manipulated through website content: initiatives which support employees and environmentally friendly initiatives. The content of these initiatives was based on previous research on CSR (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Brown and Dacin, 1997; Du et al., 2007; Kotler and Lee, 2005) and through a content analysis of real-life websites. To control for preexisting knowledge and attitudes that could affect the results, we used a fictitious service company name (XYZ). Specifically, the subjects read the following description: “Imagine that there is a new company in town and you would like to use its services. This company, XYZ, is known for great service and customer care. Before contacting the company, you visit the company’s website (showing the rational/emotional website version)”. The two message appeals employed were emotional and rational. Extending the print ad stimulus development to analyze message appeal (Stafford and Day, 1995), the emotional websites were designed to generate positive emotions and create warm feelings; thus including subjective, evaluative properties. The rational websites were more direct, containing factual information presented in a straightforward manner; they were characterized by objectivity and designed to induce cognitive elaboration. Specifically, the website stimuli contains four scenarios as follows: 1. Employee initiative/rational stimuli: Employees are an investment in our company. At XYZ, we promote diversity policies –based on race, gender, religion, age, physical ability and sexual orientation- in the global market place. XYZ invests in benefits to employees, including: (i) investment in employees’ careers is a top priority at XYZ; (ii) health insurance: medical coverage with just a $100 deductible and a dental plan and eye care; (iii) vacation benefits: we offer 10 days of paid vacations after the first year of employment. 2. Employee initiative/rational stimuli: Above all, we are about people. Our tradition of inclusion drives our organization. We celebrate the dimensions of diversity of our employees based on race, gender, religion, age, physical ability and sexual orientation. XYZ nurtures employees as family members: (i) we give our employees the freedom to develop success skills at XYZ; (ii) we take care of our employees and support their health needs; (iii) we recognize the importance of work/family balance and offer a number of pro-

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grams designed to assist our employees in finding fulfillment and enjoyment in both their personal lives and their careers. 3. Environmental initiative/rational stimuli: XYZ develops a set of principles to inform customers, employees and others partners to effectively work to ensure protection of ecosystems. Our initiatives focus on sustainability practices to maintain natural resources in the long-term: (i) conserving natural resources by recycling and reusing materials; (ii) designing stores/offices to be energy efficient using technologically advanced energy management systems. 4. Environmental initiative/emotional stimuli: Just like you, we love our environment and want our children to enjoy it for years to come. XYZ encourages customers, employees and others partners to take a thoughtful approach toward the environment. We reviewed company operations, which helped set the course for many ongoing environmental initiatives – recycling and reusing materials, environmentally friendly stores/offices-with benefits to your family and future generations’ well-being. To avoid potential confounding effects, we used the same image in both emotional and rational conditions. To avoid the confounding effects of pictures (e.g., see Childers and Houston, 1984; Miniard et al., 1991; Mattila, 2000), the websites used in the current study included a color picture from a real-life website.

3.3

Dependent Variables: CSR Awareness and Emotional Responses

In the context of CSR communications, prior research suggests to measure consumers’ awareness of CSR initiatives by asking consumers their perceived level of awareness of CSR initiatives (see Pomering and Dolnicar, 2009). Taking into account the experimental design of our study, respondents were asked to answer the level of association about XYZ as a socially responsible company, on a 7point scale ranging between “not at all” and “very much”. Emotional responses toward the website (adapted from Mattila, 1999), with 2 items: happy and pleasant, using a 7-point scale (1= not at all; 7= very strongly).

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Results Manipulation Checks

The manipulation checks indicate that the “rational stimuli” were perceived as more factual than the emotional stimuli (F=12.275; p<.01). Similarly, the “emotional stimuli” were perceived more emotional than the rational stimuli (F= 12.410; p<.01). Finally, the emotional stimuli were perceived as more “subjective” (F= 19.760; p<.01) and “non-factual” (F= 6.736; p<.05).

4.2

Effects on Consumer Awareness

Research hypotheses were tested with a 2x2, between groups factorial ANOVA. Regarding the message effects on consumer awareness (H1a and H1b), means and t-test analysis for this dependent variable are given in Table 1. Table 1: Means and t-test analysis Stimuli

Appeal Rational

t-value

p

Emotional

Employees

4.70

5.09

-1.421

0.159

Environmental

5.04

4.35

2.589

0.011

Marginal mean

4.87

4.72

0.788

0.432

A significant interaction was detected, F (1,176) = 7.96, p = .005, such that while rational appeals outperformed emotional ones in environmental initiatives, emotional outperformed rational in employee based CSR initiatives (see Table 2 and Figure 1). Table 2: ANOVA summary table Source Stimuli Appeal Stimuli×Appeal Error Total

df 1 1 1 176 179

SSQ 1.755 0.998 13.104 289.680 305.394

MS 1.755 0.998 13.104 1.646

F 1.066 0.606 7.961

p 0.303 0.437 0.005

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Looking at the simple main effects (see Table 1) the observed interaction effect is greater for environment stimuli. Specifically, when communicating CSR initiatives based on environmental stimuli, the level of CSR awareness for rational and emotional appeals is significantly different (t=2.598, p<.05), with a mean value of 5.04 and 4.35, respectively. This supports H1a, i.e. when the CSR initiative focuses on the environment, a rational appeal will generate a higher level of CSR awareness than an emotional appeal. However, when communicating CSR initiatives based on employees, although the mean value is higher for emotional appeals, there are not significant differences (t = 0.788; p=0.432) and, therefore, H2a is not confirmed.

Figure 1: The impact of CSR service-based initiative and message appeal on consumer awareness

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Effects on Consumer‘ Emotional Responses

With regard to the effects of message appeal and CSR initiative on consumer’ emotional responses, Table 3 shows means and t-test analysis for this dependent variable. Table 3: Means and t-test analysis Stimuli

Appeal Rational

t-value

p

Emotional

Employees

3.87

4.54

-1.942

0.055

Environmental

3.93

3.38

1.455

0.149

Marginal mean

3.90

3.97

-0.260

0.795

Similarly to the consumer awareness, a significant interaction was detected for the emotional responses, F (1,171) = 5.694, p = .018, such that while rational appeals outperformed emotional ones in environmental initiatives, emotional outperformed rational in employee based CSR initiatives (see Table 4 and Figure 2).

Table 4: ANOVA summary table Source Stimuli Appeal Stimuli×Appeal Error Total

df

SSQ

MS

F

1 1 1 171 174

13.352 0.164 16.239 487.686 517.309

13.352 0.164 16.239 2.852

4.682 0.057 5.694

p 0.032 0.811 0.018

Looking at the simple main effects (see Table 3) the observed interaction effect is greater for employee stimuli. Specifically, when communicating CSR initiatives based on employee stimuli, the level of CSR awareness for emotional and rational appeals is significantly different (t=-1.942, p<.10), with a mean value of 4.54 and 3.87, respectively. This supports H2b, i.e. when the CSR initiative focuses on the employees, an emotional appeal will generate a higher level of CSR awareness than a rational appeal. However, when communicating CSR

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initiatives based on environment, although the mean value is higher for rational appeals, there are not significant differences (t = 1.455; p=0.149) and, consequently, H1b is not confirmed.

Figure 2: The impact of CSR service-based initiative and message appeal on consumer emotional responses

5

Discussion and Conclusions

Companies are increasing commitment to CSR by the growing sense that consumers, a key stakeholder group, reward good corporate citizens through greater, more sustained patronage (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Du et al., 2007; Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006; Maignan, 2001). Furthermore, in a conceptual paper,

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Hoeffler and Keller (2002) indicated that corporate societal marketing programs can help build brand equity, for instance, by means of evoking brand feelings, enhancing brand image and establishing brand credibility. In this chapter, we analyze the role of services based-CSR initiatives on consumer responses (i.e., consumers’ awareness and emotional responses toward the brand). The current study investigates the impact of service based-CSR initiatives (i.e., related to the servicescape and employees) on consumer awareness and consumer’ emotional responses by means of affective (emotional) and cognitive (rational) website communications. Specifically, we examine to what extend an emotional appeal is more effective (i.e., higher CSR awareness, higher positive emotional responses) than a rational appeal for communicating service basedCSR initiatives (environment and employees). The findings of this study indicate that the level of awareness of CSR initiatives in the perception of XYZ as a socially responsible company depends on the type of the CSR stimuli (environment vs employee) and the message appeal (rational vs. emotional). Consistent with advertising and persuasion literature, we found a significant interaction effect. Specifically, the XYZ company was perceived more socially responsible when environmental initiatives were mixed with a rational appeal (supporting H1a). Environmental issues are salient to everybody, and therefore CSR messages that focus on such issues are more effectively conveyed via rational appeals. On the contrary, the difference between the two appeal types was insignificant when the CSR message involved company employees. Hence, H2a was not supported. Conversely, with regard to the effects on emotional responses, the communication of employee initiatives using emotional appeal generates higher positive feelings than via rational appeals (supporting H2b). However, there are no significant differences between the two message appeals when the CSR message refers to environmental issues and, consequently, H2a was not supported. All together, these results converge in the importance of matching CSR initiatives with the appeal type. When CSR initiatives focus on the environment, our research findings suggest that a rational message generates higher level of CSR awareness than an emotional appeal. Conversely, when CSR initiatives focus on employees, an emotional message is more effective as it generates a higher level of emotional responses than a rational appeal. In sum, these results have important implications for service companies that invest heavily in CRS. It is important to match the message type with an appropriate appeal in order to enhance consumer awareness of any CSR communications.

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The Effectiveness of Publicity versus Advertising: A MetaAnalysis Martin Eisend, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Franziska Küster, Free University Berlin, Germany

1

Introduction

Many organizations have placed increasingly importance on marketing-oriented publicity compared to advertising (Ries and Ries 2002; Shimp 2007). The main distinction between advertising and publicity is found in their definitions. Advertising is paid communication that identifies the message sponsor. Publicity secures editorial space in media (i.e., space that is not paid for) for promotion purposes (Kotler and Keller 2006) and does not identify a sponsor. Despite the widespread belief among practitioners that publicity outperforms advertising (e.g., Hausman 2003; Pohl 2008), previous study results are far from consistent: some studies find no differences between the impact of publicity and advertising (e.g., Hallahan 1999a; Hallahan 1999b; Jo 2004; Schmidt and Hitchon 1999), and some studies show that advertising outperforms publicity (e.g., Jacoby and Hoyer 1989; Salmon et al. 1985). The present study shows whether and under what conditions marketing-oriented publicity outperforms advertising in terms of communication effectiveness. For this purpose, we conduct an integrative meta-analysis of research on the effects of marketing-oriented publicity versus advertising that provides generalized results. We explain inconsistent results of previous studies by examining the effects of relevant moderator variables. The findings contribute to our knowledge on the effectiveness of both communication devices. The moderator analysis further explains inconsistencies in previous studies. The findings have important practical implications as they advise marketers when and how to use either marketing-oriented publicity or advertising in order to enhance communication effectiveness.

2

Explaining Inconsistent Findings in Previous Research

Although the idea that publicity is more persuasive than advertising seems quite plausible, previous study results are inconsistent as mentioned above. In order to account for inconsistent results and variance in findings of previous studies, S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_18, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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some moderator variables are considered. The moderator variables that are chosen here are the ones that describe substantial differences between the studies that are used in our meta-analysis.

2.1

Product Type

Previous studies differ with respect to whether the product that the message refers to was previously known by the respondents. Many studies use fictitious products that are all unknown by the recipients, whereas studies in natural settings use real products that can be previously known or unknown by the recipients. Consumers who differ in prior knowledge show varying preferences for marketer-dominated versus neutral sources. Publicity is superior to advertising when consumers lack prior knowledge about the product because a lack of prior knowledge implies uncertainty and doubt about the product. A high credibility source provides the needed reassurance and is therefore more effective than a low credibility source (Lord and Putrevu 1993). As soon as consumers experience a product and learn about its features, the need for reassurance disappears and the high credibility source effect might reach its limit. Consumers might become less skeptical toward information provided by advertising as they are able to evaluate the given information by themselves (Chew et al., 1995). They may even prefer to expose themselves to positive information as provided by advertisements after product experience or trial has taken place in order to avoid cognitive dissonance (Harmon-Jones and Mills 1999). It has been shown that consumers actively seek for positive information and avoid negative information in order to reduce or hinder dissonance (Jonas et al., 2005).

2.2

Message Type

Most experimental studies use the same messages for both marketing-oriented publicity and advertising in order to control for confounding factors in the experimental setting. The assumption of identical message types leads to unrealistic and artificial settings, because both sources typically present information in different ways. As such, some studies modified the message in order to provide more realistic conditions. Findings demonstrate that publicity and advertising that use the same messages hamper the ability of recipients to distinguish between both source types. If the same message is presented in both experimental conditions, recipients might even tend to perceive both messages as advertising messages (or publicity messages) but not as messages coming from different sources. The inability to distinguish between messages from different sources

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weakens the strength of the source manipulation. Although varied messages might provoke confounding effects, they enhance the manipulation strength due to a clearer differentiation between marketing-oriented publicity and advertisement, which enhances the effect sizes for the dependent variables. A previous meta-analysis indeed supports the fact that the strength of the effect size increases for realistic advertising messages over artificial ones, because the effect of the message manipulation becomes stronger (Eisend 2009).

2.3

Source Cue

Previous studies differ with respect to whether a source cue was provided, that is, whether the source was identified in the message as publicity or advertisement. Providing a source cue can enhance the strength of the manipulation in the same way as a varied message type (versus an identical one); if a source cue is provided, it is easier for the recipients to distinguish between source types, whereas the absence of a source cue might hamper the ability to distinguish between both source types. The strength of the manipulation impacts the effect size of the dependent variables.

2.4

Stimulus Combination

The majority of previous studies examined only publicity or only advertising, but not a combination of the two sources. In real world settings, consumers are exposed to product information that is provided by different kind of communication sources, and it is likely that consumers receive information about products from both advertising and publicity sources. For this reason, a few studies tested a sequence or a combination of publicity and advertising and compared the results to an advertising-only stimulus. The combination of both stimuli reduces the strength of the source manipulation, because respondents are less able to distinguish between the sources when sources are presented in a sequence and not in isolation. Furthermore, the combination of both sources averages the advantages and disadvantages of the credibility of both sources. Hence, the combined effect typically lies somewhere between the effect of either advertising or publicity (Loda and Coleman 2005). Since the combination or sequence is compared to advertising only, the effect size is expected to be weaker than the effect sizes emerging from the comparison between advertising and publicity.

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Publicity or Advertorial

Marketers try to make use of the effects of both advertising and publicity at the same time by using advertorials, that is, a print advertisement disguised as editorial material. Instead of marketing-oriented publicity, some previous studies compared the effects of these advertorials with the effects of advertising-only. It is argued in the literature (Lord and Putrevu 1993) that advertorials combine the advantages of both publicity and advertising, and therefore lead to stronger effects than publicity only. Advertorials lead to high credibility since they are perceived as editorial content; at the same time marketers control message content and can avoid the possibility of negative information effects.

2.6

Measurement Time

While most previous studies provide an immediate measure of the influence of publicity versus advertising, a few studies provide delayed measures. This finding is particularly interesting considering the sleeper effect of sources that vary in credibility; the source credibility effect is assumed to diminish over time, because message information remains more accessible over time than source information (Kumkale and Albarracin 2004; Weinberger 1961). When source information is forgotten, message information remains as the only persuasive communication element while the effect of the source disappears.

3

Meta-Analytic Method

To identify relevant studies for the meta-analysis, a computerized bibliographic keyword search using EBSCO Business Source, ABI/Inform (for business publications), PsycINFO and PSYNDEX (for psychology literature), and the Social Science Citation Index was conducted, followed by an internet search using Google Scholar. Once a study was identified, references were examined in a search for further studies. The literature search covered the period from 1971 (the publication year of a study by Preston and Scharbach that is considered the first empirical study on the topic) up to and including 2009. Only the studies that investigated the impact of marketing-oriented publicity versus advertising on ad/article processing and related effectiveness measures were considered. In particular, the studies had to provide empirical results on the effect of marketing-oriented publicity versus advertising on recipients concerning the following dependent variables: attitude toward message, attitude toward brand, cognitive responses (total, posi-

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tive, and negative), message processing, purchase/behavioral intention, source credibility, recall, and recognition. We considered studies that compared the effect of advertising only versus publicity plus advertising (i.e., publicity that precedes or follows advertising). Furthermore, as a basis for comparison, we also considered studies that investigated effects of advertising versus advertorials. We did not consider studies that provided results on format identification only (Wilkinson et al., 1995), since this measure is not usually considered as a dependent variable but rather as a manipulation check measure. Furthermore, we did not use content analyses that described features of various communication formats including advertising and publicity, nor did we consider evaluations of advertising versus publicity by practitioners, since these studies do not provide a measure for the effects of advertising versus publicity on recipients. This search resulted in 36 articles. In cases where two or more studies were based on the same sample, the study that provided more data details was used. In one case, three studies were based on the same sample, but they provided different results (Wang 2006, 2007; Wang and Nelson 2006); for the purpose of the analysis, they were all included and classified as results from one independent sample. Some studies did not provide sufficient data for direct calculations of effect sizes. In most cases, standard deviations of experimental groups are missing, whereas mean values are provided. We attempted to retrieve information on missing data from authors of the study. If data were unavailable, we replaced the missing values for standard deviations by regression-based multiple imputations (Schafer and Graham 2002). For one study, data could not be retrieved nor be replaced due to insufficient data in the paper (Hennessey and Anderson 1990). The study was excluded from the analysis. In sum, 30 independent samples were included in the meta-analysis: Cameron 1994; Celebi 2007; Chaiken and Maheswaran 1994; Chew et al. 1995; d'Astous and Hébert 1991; Hallahan 1995 (main study, same data were used in Hallahan 1999a, 2008; Hallahan 1999b); Hallahan 1995, prior study; Hausknecht et al., 1991 (same data were used in Hausknecht et al., 1989); Jacoby and Hoyer 1989; Jin 2003; Jin et al. 2008; Jin et al., 2006; Jo 2004; Kim et al., 2001; Küster-Rohde 2009, study 1; Küster-Rohde 2009, study 2; Loda et al., 2005 (same data were used in Loda and Coleman 2005; Loda et al. 2007); Lord and Putrevu 1998, study 1; Lord and Putrevu 1998, study 2; Micu 2005; Preston and Scharbach 1971; Putrevu 2005; Rosengren 2008; Salmon et al. 1985; Schmidt and Hitchon 1999; Schwarz et al. 1986; Stammerjohan et al. 2005; Straughan et al. 1996; Wang 2003; and one independent sample found in Wang 2006, 2007, and Wang and Nelson 2006.

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The effect size metric selected for the analysis is the correlation coefficient; higher values of the coefficient indicate a stronger effect of marketing-oriented publicity over advertising on outcome variables. Most studies were experimental studies, for which we computed standardized mean differences first and then converted them to correlation coefficients. For studies that reported other measures (e.g., Student’s t), those measures were converted to correlation coefficients following common guidelines for meta-analysis (cf., Lipsey and Wilson 2001). Since most papers reported multiple measures of marketing-oriented publicity versus advertising effects, the analysis includes single-study multiple correlation estimates for particular relationships. The meta-analytic integration procedures were performed taking a randomeffects perspective (Shadish and Haddock 1994). The integration of the correlations uses variance weights in order to consider the varying sample sizes of the studies. Furthermore, measurement errors were corrected by considering reliability coefficients of the dependent and independent variables (Hunter and Schmidt 2004). A conservative .8 reliability estimate was applied to objective measures (i.e., single-item measures) as suggested in the literature (Bommer et al. 1995; Dalton et al. 2003; Hunter and Schmidt 2004). In order to consider a weight for multiple measures per study, each correlation was weighted by the ratio 1 to the number of correlations per study measuring the same dependent variable. The moderator variables presented in the theory section (product type, message type, source cue, stimulus combination, publicity or advertorial, and measurement time) were coded according to information provided in the studies. These moderator variables are used as predictors in a regression model in order to explain the heterogeneity of the effect sizes of dependent variables that are based on a sample of at least twenty effect sizes. Following a random-effects perspective, the method of moments was applied where the residual sum of squares of an OLS regression of the moderator model was used to estimate the random variance (Raudenbush 1994). The total variance (conditional variance of the effect size due to sampling error plus random variance of the population effect size) was then used as a weight in a weighted regression analysis.

4

Results

Table 1 shows the results of the meta-analytic correlations when applying a random-effects model. Marketing-oriented publicity (compared to advertising) has a positive effect on all dependent variables, although the confidence intervals indicate that the random-model effects on purchase/behavioral intentions,

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recall, positive and negative cognitions do not reach the 5%-significance level. The effects on attitudes towards message, attitudes towards brand, source credibility, recognition, total cognitive responses, and message processing are all in a certain range that can be considered as medium-sized according to the classification by Cohen (1988). Besides for recognition, the Q-statistics (homogeneity statistic) indicate that the total variance of the correlations for each dependent variable is significantly higher (p < .01) than the within-study variances, supporting the need to take a random-effects perspective and the appropriateness to apply moderator variables in a second step.

Table 1: Meta-analytic correlations (random-effects model) Dependent variables Attitude towards message Attitude towards brand Purchase/behavioral intention Source credibility Recall Recognition Cognitive responses, total Cognitive responses, positive Cognitive responses, negative Message processing

ka Total N 63 5250 28 2954 24 2623 20 2666 34 4201 8 613 28 1577 20 1721 8 629 24 148343

Mean rb .173 .204 .188 .225 .074 .294 .133 .079 .193 .243

-95% +95% CI CI Qc .083 .262 439.486*** .040 .367 767.807*** -.331 .708 39817.925*** .040 .410 546.100*** -.154 .303 2398.411*** .182 .406 9.667 .023 .244 137.171*** -.035 .193 89.126*** -.168 .554 204.660*** .001 .487 3432.017***

a

Number of correlations. All effect sizes were sample size weighted and corrected for measurement error; weights for considering multiple effect sizes were applied. c Q is a chi-square statistic that indicates whether the heterogeneity variance is greater than zero. b

The moderator variables are used as predictors in a regression model in order to explain the heterogeneity of the effect sizes for dependent variables that are based on a sample of at least twenty effect sizes (i.e., attitude towards message, attitude towards brand, purchase/behavioral intention, recall, total and positive cognitive responses, and message processing). For two of the regression models, the explained variance is not significant (total cognitive responses and message processing). They were not considered in the following analysis. The results of the regression models are presented in Table 2.

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The effect of marketing-oriented publicity over advertising on attitude towards message, attitude towards brand, source credibility, and positive cognitive responses is stronger for unknown products than for known ones. A varied message format leads to stronger effects of marketing-oriented publicity over advertising for attitude towards message, attitude towards brand, purchase/behavioral intention, and source credibility than an identical message. Providing a source cue did not affect any of the dependent variables. The combination of publicity with advertising leads to weaker effects for attitude measures as publicity only. Advertorials lead to stronger effects on attitude towards message and recall than publicity. Measurement time did not affect any of the dependent variables. Regression analysis based on small samples runs the risk of biased estimates in case of violation of normality assumption. We visually checked the distribution and controlled for the possibility of outliers; we also tested the distribution of the dependent variables for normality, which always yielded fit to the normality assumption. As the sample size compared to the number of predictors is rather small, which might bias the results of the multiple regression models and also reduces statistical power of single predictors, a second series of regression models was computed that is based on only those predictors that turned out to be significant in the initial analysis. The results remained unchanged.

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Table 2: WLS regression model Predictor (Moderator) Constant Product type: unknown vs. known Message type: identical vs. varied Source cue: with or without Stimulus combination: separate vs. combined Publicity versus advertorial Measurement time: immediate vs. delayed Model summary QR (explained) R2 kc

Predictor (Moderator) Constant Product type: unknown vs. known Message type: identical vs. varied Source cue: with or without Stimulus combination: separate vs. combined Publicity versus advertorial Measurement time: immediate vs. delayed Model summary QR (explained) R2 kc

Attitude towards message .118 (.028)a*** -.122 (.041)** .344 (.092)*** .001 (.038) -.337 (.094)*** .598 (.043)*** -.099 (.068)

Attitude towards Purchase/beha-vioral brand intention .240 (.081)** .127 (.136) -.368 (.132)*** -.382 (.242) 1.066 (.242)*** .907 (.299)** -.025 (.117) .048 (.204) -.882 (.274)** -.114 (.510) b -b -.233 (187) .016 (.310)

234.544*** .574 63

34.416*** .604 28

14.845** .448 24

Source credibility .348 (.091)*** -.531 (.196)** .486 (.209* -.211 (.174) .224 (.313) -b -.178 (.164)

Recall -.061 (.051) -.096 (.065) .072 (.116) .019 (.052) .289 (.286) .918 (.055)*** .143 (.265)

Cognitive responses, positive .155 (.070)* -.541 (.146)*** -b -.015 (.127) -b -b .102 (.159)

24.723*** .629 20

380.513*** .745 34

16.147*** .534 20

a

The unstandardized regression coefficient with the standard error in brackets is given. The moderator variable is a constant for the particular subset of variables. c k ist the number of effect sizes included in the regression model. *p<.05. **p<.01. ***p<.001. b

5

Discussion

The results of the meta-analysis support the effect of publicity over advertising. This effect is moderated by prior product knowledge. The effect of publicity over advertising becomes stronger for unknown products. However, the effect changes for known products where advertising outperforms publicity. These results show that marketing-oriented publicity versus advertising is superior for products about which consumers lack prior knowledge and are in need of reassurance that is more likely provided by a high credibility source. Most studies that have investigated and supported the positive effects of media coverage refer to product innovations, product pre-announcements, or products with which most consumers are not yet familiar (e.g., Basuroy et al., 2003; Henning-Thurau et al. 2006). The superior effect of advertising over publicity for known products comports with the assumption that consumers’ need for reassurance disappears with product experience and knowledge, and the credibility effect simply

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reaches a ceiling. Instead, consumers become less skeptical toward advertising and prefer positive information as provided by advertising after experiencing a product. Selecting positive advertising allows consumers to avoid cognitive dissonance that may arise from contradictory product experiences and messages. The results of the moderator regression models provide further insights into when marketing-oriented publicity is the preferred strategy over advertising. As explained above, publicity is more effective (in terms of source credibility, attitude toward the message, attitude toward the brand, and positive cognitive responses) than advertising for unknown products, whereas advertising outperforms publicity for known products. As another effect, it turns out that a varied message type leads to stronger effects (related to source credibility, attitude toward the message, attitude toward the brand, and purchase/behavioral intentions) than identical messages. Different types of messages are mostly used in publicity and advertising in the real world, whereas identical messages are mostly used in laboratory experimental designs. This illustrates the perils with a merely academic approach when investigating such issues and the need to combine both methods: experimental research with high internal validity and field research that provides high external validity. Source cue did not have any effect on the effect sizes. A simple explanation might be found in the stimuli that were used in the studies: source cues were provided when the sources could not easily be identified by the study participants. It can be assumed that participants in all other studies were aware of the difference between both types of sources. The findings further show that marketing-oriented publicity versus advertising affects attitude toward the message and the brand when it is used as an isolated stimulus (i.e., when recipients are not exposed to advertising and publicity at the same issue). The strength of the effect of exposure to both sources in sequence or in combination is below the effect of exposure to publicity only. The combination apparently mixes the advantage of publicity only with the disadvantage of advertising only. As for advertorials, they lead to stronger effects on attitude toward message and recall than publicity—in line with the idea that advertorials combine the advantages of both publicity and advertising—and therefore can lead to increased effects (Lord and Putrevu 1993). Measurement time did not affect any of the dependent variables, which can be explained by short delays that were applied in most experiments in the meta-analysis. The strength of the sleeper effect depends on the length of the delay (e.g., Gruder et al., 1978). The findings provide several practical implications as well. First and foremost, they show that marketing-oriented publicity is superior for products that consumers do not yet know about. Particular emphasis can therefore be given to publicity for market introductions. Indeed, Ries and Ries (2002) provide some anecdotal evidence on the success of well-known brands such as eBay, Star-

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bucks, PlayStation that were introduced without large advertising budgets and focused on publicity and word-of-mouth instead. As soon as consumers get to know a product, marketers should rather rely on advertising campaigns. This advice goes hand in hand with the fact that the newsworthiness of products declines with progress in the life cycle and media might lose interest in reporting about these products (Shimp, 2007). However, the practical implication is somewhat limited, since ordinary products (e.g., fast-moving consumer goods) might not be interesting for media at all and might be unable to provide a story for press release; in that case, marketers need to invest in advertising as a more general means of communication for promoting a brand. The findings are also interesting in the light of recent results by Rinallo and Basuroy (2009) who showed that advertising spending influences media coverage. This situation seems to be preferable for new products, but not necessarily for products consumers already know about. The moderator regression analysis further suggests that advertorials are a good alternative to publicity, and that the effect of publicity is stronger when consumers are not exposed to both publicity and advertising at the same time. This result implies that publicity and advertising campaigns should rather be planned separately and in a way that both campaigns take place at different times. While research integration is an essential step of knowledge accumulation as it provides empirical generalizations that are useful for practical marketing decisions, a meta-analysis also has some shortcomings when primary studies do not provide sufficient information in order to test for further moderator variables. For instance, the effects for the moderator prior knowledge are still quite general and allow for further specification. Previous research has shown that for consumers who know a product and have developed a prior attitude, commitment moderates the effect of negative publicity (Ahluwalia et al., 2000). This effect does not contradict our overall findings but specifies them in a way that could not be considered in this meta-analysis since primary studies did not provide sufficient information. There are other special cases that are not considered by the highly generalized results of our meta-analysis but might provide interesting moderators for further research, such as the case of highly credible advertising (e.g., two-sided advertising) and low credibility media (e.g., tabloids). Finally, although the study gives clear advice on when and how it makes sense to use either publicity or advertising, the study could not consider the costs for both communication methods as another important variable. Further research should try to integrate the cost factor that can considerably vary over advertising and publicity in order to provide a clearer picture of the effectiveness of both communication devices.

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References

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Part VI

Branding

Attention Battle; the Abilities of Brand, Visual, and Text Characteristics of the Ad to Draw Attention versus the Diverting Power of the Direct Magazine Context Sophie C. Boerman, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Edith G. Smit, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Lex van Meurs, Intomart GfK, The Netherlands

1

Introduction

In the contemporary information jungle, it keeps getting harder for advertisers to be noticed. Advertisements that fail to attract even the lowest levels of the attention cannot be effective. Therefore, advertisers try to find clever ways to catch the eye of the consumer. Especially in magazines, advertisers need to come up with new ideas as the clutter of brands is high and advertisements have to compete with the editorial content surrounding them. Most magazine ads contain brand, visual and text elements (Pieters and Wedel, 2004). Brand elements include all brand-identity cues within the ad, such as brand name and logo. Text elements are all areas that include text, excluding the brand name. Visual elements contain all non-textual areas, excluding depictions of the brand. These three elements have different functions within the ad. By adjusting these elements, advertisers try to find a way to maximize attention capture. However, as the elements have different functions, they may influence visual attention in various ways. For instance, people attend longer to the text than to the visual, as it takes a longer time to read a text than to encode information from a picture (Rayner et al., 2001). While most advertising research is directed at the attention paid to the full ad, our study takes the differential influence of ad elements into account. Only a few other studies focus on attention to the elements within the ad (See Section 2.3). Not only the ad, but also the immediate magazine context seduces the eye with pictures and text elements. While both context and ad may enhance each other, they also compete for visual attention. The central aim of our study is to explore what elements of the ad are able to attract visual attention to the brand, visual and text elements of an ad. In addition, this study aims to test whether the context of the ad can divert attention from the ad’s elements. This will be done by first focussing on the effects of ad characteristics and the possible dominance S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_19, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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of specific characteristics. Subsequently we will explore the effects of the context and compare these with the effects of the ad characteristics. Eye-tracking has not often been used to measure attention to advertising, although it is an eminent and suitable technique to measure visual attention (Wedel and Pieters, 2000). It directly and unobtrusively monitors the eye of the consumer. Therefore, our study uses eye-tracking measurements to explore what catches the consumers’ eye.

2 2.1

Literature Review Visual Attention

Visual attention is defined by Henderson (1992, p. 260) as “the selective use of information from one region of the visual field at the expense of other regions of the visual field.” This definition confirms the notion that visual attention merely is a concept that describes where the eyes fixate. It does not enable us to tell whether people have actually paid cognitive attention and whether this was conscious. According to Styles (2006), directing our eyes and paying attention is not one and the same, although we are still able to tell quite a lot about the spatial arrangement of the text on the page (or the colours of the walls) while fixating on one specific point in a text. In addition, fixations can be linked to cognitive processing (Fox et al., 1998). People can only interpret a word by fixating on it and keep fixating until they cannot or do not want to process it anymore. Hyönä (2010) describes this as the eye-mind hypothesis, which claims that there is a close link between the direction of human gaze and the focus of attention. Hence, there is reason to believe that people do attend to wherever the eye is fixated on. As eye-tracking is a direct and unobtrusive method to register eye movements, and several studies validate that eye-tracking provides reliable information on attention to ads (Wedel and Pieters, 2000), the overt movements of the eyes are seen as eminent indicators of the covert allocation of visual attention (Henderson, 1992).

2.2

Ad Characteristics

Although not many researches have been directed at visual attention, many studies do test what factors can affect attention. In order to explore all ad characteristics that are relevant to explain attention, a literature review was conducted to create an overview of factors that influence attention to magazine ads.

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A keyword search and reference search were used to identify as many relevant studies from peer-reviewed journals as possible. Using (combinations of) the keywords (visual) attention, advertising, ad(vertisement), eye movements, eye tracking, print, magazine, Umfeld and context, studies were retrieved from several relevant databases (Academic search premier, Business source premier, Communication & mass media complete, PsycINFO, Sociological abstracts, Online Contents, Web of science and Google Scholar). The reference search was conducted by reviewing the references of the collected studies. Only empirical studies concerning factors influencing attention to magazine ads were included. This resulted in 30 relevant studies. An overview of all studies can be requested from the authors. Among these studies, attention is measured in various ways: noted, seen/associated and read most Starch scores, readership scores, aided and unaided recall, recognition and several eye-tracking (ET) scores (noted or ad selection, number of fixations, fixation duration, viewing time or gaze duration and viewing pattern). The results of the literature review show there are many ad characteristics which influence attention to an ad. First we will focus on the characteristics of the whole ad, excluding the brand, visual and text. These overall ad characteristics can be divided into four different types of characteristics, namely: format, content, information and semantic characteristics. Format characteristics such as the ad size and the use of colour have repeatedly proven their direct positive effect on attention to the ad (Finn, 1988; Franke et al., 2004; Grønhaug et al., 1991; Hanssens and Weitz, 1980; Homer, 1995; Lohse, 1997; Twedt, 1952; Valiente, 1973; Zhang et al., 2009). Content characteristics like the use of a famous endorser (Petty et al., 1983); the type of structure (Edell and Staelin, 1983); the use of direct comparative claims (Pechmann and Stewart, 1990) and the use of multiple languages (Ahn and La Ferle, 2008) have also proven to influence attention positively. In addition, the amount and type of information given in an ad appears to affect attention to the ad. Lohse (1997) argues that the amount of information decreases the duration of attention to the ad. The complexity of the information in an ad appears to increase attention (Radach et al., 2003). Franke et al., (2004), however, claim that the effect of information provision varies between product categories. Semantic characteristics are ad characteristics that can be interpreted differently between consumers. Especially the use of humour has proven to influence attention to ads. Several studies provide support for a positive humour-attention link (Madden and Weinberger, 1982; Spotts et al., 1997; Weinberger and Gulas,

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1992). Furthermore, Pieters et al., (2002) emphasize the positive effect of ad originality and familiarity on attention and memory. An eye-tracking experiment by Kroeber-Riel (1984) also showed that an ad with a pictorial element presented in an unusual form enhances the attention to the ad. These results show that overall ad characteristics influence the attention to a full ad. However, in this study we aim to explore which characteristics influence visual attention to the specific elements of an ad. Since ad elements are part of the full ad, we assume the same general characteristics will affect visual attention to the brand, visual and text. Therefore, our first hypothesis is: overall ad characteristics affect the visual attention to the brand, visual and text elements of an ad (hypothesis 1).

2.3

Ad Characteristics: Brand, Visual and Text

Beside overall ad characteristics, most ads include specific brand, visual and text elements. The literature review shows that these ad elements have also proven to contribute to full ad attention. Especially the size of the brand, visual and text increases attention (Finn, 1988; Franke et al., 2004; Pieters and Wedel, 2004; Rosbergen et al., 1997; Twedt, 1952). The influence of position is not that clear-cut. Unlike Rosbergen et al. (1997) who claim the right half of the page is the best position for the pack shot (which is a depiction of the brand), visual, headline and body text, Kroeber-Riel and Barton (1980) argue that the visual and text are best positioned on the left half of the page. In addition, texts and visuals on the upper half attract more attention than texts and visuals on the lower half (Kroeber-Riel and Barton, 1980). Furthermore, attention seems to vary between product categories and types (Grønhaug et al., 1991; Franke et al., 2004; Lohse, 1997). Moreover, photos, illustrations and the depiction of women increase the attention to the ad (Hanssens and Weitz, 1980). Homosexual imagery (Angelini and Bradley, 2010) and the use of graphics in a yellow page ad (Lohse, 1997) increase the duration of attention. Visual material that depicts product features mentioned in the copy (attribute-focused) catches more attention than pictorial material that shows people, objects, or usage occasions captured by the product (image-focused condition) (Malaviya et al., 1996). In addition, attention is bigger for visuals with high arousal levels than for visuals with low arousal levels (Kroeber-Riel and Barton, 1980). Furthermore, attention to the ads increases as the font of the text (Rayner et al., 2001) and the number of benefits mentioned in the copy increase (Valiente, 1973).

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Next to the direct (separate) effects of the three elements on visual attention, several studies show that brand, visual and text elements influence each other and their effects, and hence are interdependent. These studies are, however, not conclusive. Pieters and Wedel (2004) claim that the visual is superior in capturing attention, while earlier research by the same authors (Wedel and Pieters, 2000) shows that the largest amount of fixations are on the brand, followed by the text and then the visual. Rayner et al. argue in 2001 that the viewing time and the number of fixations are highest for text, while in 2008 Rayner et al. conclude that the viewing time is larger for the picture. Furthermore, Radach et al. (2003) state that the brand is more able to hold the attention than the picture. With regard to the position of the text, Kroeber-Riel and Barton (1980) argue that a text below an illustration attracts most attention. These results show that elements are able to influence the attention paid to another element. This interdependence, in both positive and negative ways, is referred to by Pieters and Wedel (2004) as attention transfer. Negative transfer occurs when attention devoted to one element distracts attention to another element. Positive attention transfer occurs when attention to an element endorses attention to other elements. Pieters and Wedel (2004) state most positive attention transfer occurs from the visual to the other elements. Since the results are contradicting, we do not know the direction of the attention transfer. However, the visual element does appear to have the largest influence on attention to the ad elements. It has proven to be superior in capturing attention (Pieters and Wedel, 2004), to be best recalled (Edell and Staelin, 1983) and to decrease attention to the text (Kroeber-Riel, 1984). Based on these results and in the light of attention transfer, we test the following hypothesis: ad element characteristics affect visual attention to the ad elements, with visual characteristics having the most effect (hypothesis 2). Although earlier research indicated the interdependence of ad elements, none of the studies included the distance between the brand, visual and text elements. Since we measure eye movements, it is relevant to take into account that the eye does not move smoothly, but in jumps or saccades (Heath et al., 2009). We propose that it takes more jumps to fixate on more elements as the distance between elements is larger. Therefore, we hypothesize: the distance between the brand, visual and text elements influences combined visual attention to these three elements (hypothesis 3).

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Context Characteristics

In a magazine, the ad and the rest of the magazine content compete for the reader’s attention. Therefore, we propose that the context of the ad may divert the attention from the ad. In this eye-tracking study we focus on the characteristics of the direct context. The direct context is all content one can possibly see at the same time as the ad. In the case of a magazine someone may see two pages at the same time. Only a few studies focused on the possible effect of the direct context on the attention for the ad. Homer (1995) explains that the size of the ad compared to the surrounding ads positively influences recall. In addition, Zhang et al. (2009) found that the number of ads displayed on the same page has a negative influence on the attention to the target ad. Finn (1988) found that an ad that is facing another ad attracts more attention than an ad that is facing editorial content. Malaviya et al. (1996) add to this that ads opposite to an ad with unrelated products are better recalled than ads that face ads with a competing product. Norris and Colman (1992) also found an effect of the content of the direct context. They found that respondents who read recipes remembered significantly more about the accompanying advertisements than subjects who read other content, especially fiction. The position of the ad relative to the context might also be of influence. Lohse (1997) argues that the position of a yellow page ad largely affects the attention to it. However, later eye-tracking research by Zhang et al. (2009) did not confirm this influence. Hanssens and Weitz (1980) add that an ad’s position within the magazine is of importance, as the page number of the ad has a negative effect on the attention to the ad. Finn (1988) confirms this notion, as he found that as an ad is positioned relatively closer to the front, this increases the chance people notice the ad. With regard to position, several studies tested the influence of the page on which the ad is placed (left vs. right). There is, however, little agreement on this effect. In his literature review Finn (1988) found two studies that provide significant positive effects for the ad on the right page and one study favouring the left page. In a confirmatory test, Finn (1988) finds a positive effect for an ad on the right page. Wedel and Pieters (2000) show reverse effects on brand memory between different magazines, while Hanssens and Weitz (1980) did not find a significant effect of the left nor the right page. Since several studies show various context characteristics to significantly affect attention to the ad, we propose this will also be the case for ad elements. Therefore, we hypothesize: context characteristics affect the visual attention to

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the brand, visual and text (hypothesis 4). In order to test this hypothesis, several context characteristics will be tested, including the characteristics from the literature review. Despite the contradictory results in earlier research, the most significant results are in favour of an ad on the right page. For that reason, we propose that right page ads attract more visual attention to the ad’s elements than left page ads (hypothesis 4a).

2.5

Ad versus Context Characteristics

Although the context and the ad both compete for the attention of the reader, they are made with different goals. A magazine ad is especially made to draw the attention away from the editorial content and to the ad, while the editorial content is not specifically made to divert attention from the ad. Therefore, we propose that the influence of the ad characteristics on attention is possibly higher than the influence of the context characteristics: ad characteristics, including overall, brand, visual and text characteristics, have a stronger influence on visual attention to the ad elements than context characteristics (hypothesis 5).

3 3.1

Method Materials

Eye movements were measured by use of the Tobii Eyetracker. This device has two infrared cameras integrated in the screen. This way the cameras are almost invisible, which makes the eye-tracking unobtrusive. The screen shows two pages of the magazine participants are asked to read. The eye tracking was conducted in the Netherlands by Intomart GfK. The dataset of eye-tracking measurements consists of 183 unique magazine advertisements plus their direct context and is a collection of several studies executed between 2002 and 2008. Most magazines (69%) are common magazines, but also medical journals (22%) and management magazines (9%) were included. The ads used in this study are either measured commissioned by clients or functioned as fillers. Most of the ads cover one full page (154 ads), four cover half a page, three are smaller than half a page and 22 ads are spreads and cover two full pages. The most common product categories in the data set are: medicines (21%), food and non-alcoholic drinks (14%), insurances (14%), consumer electronics (8%) and clothing and shoes (8%).

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Participants

The average number of participants per study (i.e. per ad) is 105 (Min=60, Max=273). For each eye-tracking study the respondents were evenly distributed among four groups: men 18-39, women 18-39, men 40-65, women 40-65. This means that both gender and age are equally distributed in all studies.

3.3

Procedure

Respondents were placed in front of the eye-tracker and were asked to read the magazine as they would at home. During this exposure to the magazine, eye movements and fixations were recorded. There was no time limit and participants could take as long as they wanted to read the magazine. By clicking on a button they could move back and forth within the magazine. Since they were asked to read the magazine, participants were not primed to focus on the advertisements.

3.4

Dependent Variables

In order to measure the eye movements on specific elements within the ad, all ads were divided into different regions, called Areas of Interest (AOI). The types of AOIs correspond to the ad elements: brand, visual and text. This enables us to produce three different eye-tracking scores: visual score, brand score and text score. These scores are based on fixations within the different AOIs. Something is called a fixation when the eye stays at one specific point for at least 0.1 second. The scores concern the percentage of respondents that fixated at least once at the specific element of the ad. These scores do not measure the number of fixations, but only whether respondents have actually fixated. Therefore, the scores do not encompass the amount of information that is extracted, but solely whether people have noted the elements.

3.5

Independent Variables

The context and ad characteristics were collected by content analysis. The code book included approximately 140 questions divided into seven categories: context, advertisement, semantics, brand, text, visual and relational factors. All 183 advertisements were coded by four trained coders with a 20% overlap. Intercoder reliability (Cohen’s Kappa or Intraclass Correlation) was satisfactory (average agreement was 76%). A request for the code book including intercoder reliability for each item can be send to the corresponding author. The properties of JPEGs of the ads and context were calculated by the software pro-

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gram ImageMagick in order to add reliable information on the use of colour in the ad and the context. Since the eye-tracking was conducted over a time period of seven years, the year in which the eye-tracking was conducted was included as a control variable.

3.6

Analysis

The analysis comprised several steps. First, several variables were created from the content analysis, such as surface sizes and dummy variables for ordinal variables. Since this resulted into more than 400 variables, correlations were conducted to test for multicollinearity. Of all pairs of variables with a correlation higher than .8, one was deleted (the correlating variables can be requested from the authors). Second, we conducted hierarchal regression analyses for each dependent variable, based on the seven blocks as they were coded in: context, advertisement, semantics, brand, text, visual and relational factors. These hierarchical regressions resulted into an end model for each dependent variable, which will be presented in the next section.

4

Results

4.1

H1: Overall ad Characteristics

Table 1 presents the regression models for the brand score (M=60.39; SD=19.63), visual score (M=62.09; SD=21.49) and text score (M=62.76; SD=22.01). All models explain a large part of the variance in the dependent variable (46% of brand score, 69% of visual score and 56% of text score). Table 1: Effects of ad and context characteristics on brand, visual and text scores Brand score

Visual score

Text score

46.1%

68.6%

55.9%

Size of ad

.33**

.27**

.43**

Dominant colour of ad: red

.16*

n.s.

n.s.

Product category: detergents and cleaners

n.s.

.22*

n.s.

Informational product

n.s.

-.24**

n.s.

Dominant colour of ad: white

n.s.

-.16*

n.s.

Adj. R² Advertisement:

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Brand score

Visual score

Text score

Number of brand elements

.27**

n.s.

n.s.

Dominant colour background of brand name: grey

-.19*

n.s.

n.s.

Position of largest brand name (top=0)¹

-.21*

n.s.

n.s.

Position of visual (top=0)¹

.16*

n.s.

n.s.

Main character is an expert

n.s.

.21*

n.s.

Face of main character visible

n.s.

.29**

n.s.

Headline larger than body text

n.s.

-.48**

n.s.

Surface size of three main body texts

n.s.

-.37**

.18*

Surface size of headline

n.s.

n.s.

.19*

Position of dominant body text (top=0)¹

n.s.

n.s.

-.12*

Use of headline

n.s.

-.13*

.38**

Visual is dominant element

.16*

n.s.

-.22**

Distance between largest text and visual element

n.s.

-.32**

n.s.

Direct substantive link between visual and brand

n.s.

.16*

n.s.

Context has color

-.15*

n.s.

-.13*

Green in context (JPEG)

-.17*

n.s.

n.s.

Ad on left page

n.s.

-.28**

-.13*

Middle of editorial article in context

n.s.

.15*

n.s.

.21**

n.s.

.12*

Brand elements:

Visual elements:

Text elements:

Relational factors:

Context:

Year of eye tracking

Note. Coefficients are betas. ¹ = corrected for ad size; * = significant at .05 level; ** significant at .001 level.

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The results show that there are indeed some overall ad characteristics that influence the visual attention to the brand, visual and text, supporting hypothesis 1. Ad size proves to have a large positive effect on all three elements. This means that as the ad size increases, visual attention to the brand, visual and text also increases. The dominance of the colour red in the ad increases the visual attention to the brand. Furthermore, when the advertised product is in the category of detergents and cleaners, visual attention will be greater for the visual. Ads for an informational product (Rossiter et al., 1991) and the dominance of the colour white increases the visual attention to the visual. Since the year of eye-tracking has a significant effect, this control variable was included in all regression models. This did not affect the overall conclusions.

4.2

H2: Ad Element Characteristics

The second hypothesis regards the effect of the separate ad element characteristics and the possible dominance of the visual. The results demonstrate that brand, visual and text elements indeed affect visual attention to the brand, visual and text. Visual attention to the brand depends largely on brand characteristics. The number of brand elements positively influence visual attention to the brand, while a grey background of the brand name has a negative influence. In addition, visual attention to the brand decreases as the largest brand name is positioned lower in the ad. There is one visual factor that affects attention to the brand. Placing a visual further from the top increases the chance that the eyes fixate on the brand. This means there is a positive attention transfer from the position of the visual to the visual attention to the brand. Visual attention to the visual in the ad depends on both visual and text characteristics. Both visual characteristics concern the main character in the ad. Ads depicting an expert (someone who looks like he/she has experience and/or knowledge, for instance because of a white coat) and visibly showing the face of the main character increase visual attention to the visual. Text elements negatively influence attention to the visual. Ads that include a headline and a headline that is larger than the body text divert attention from the visual. In addition, as the size of the body text increases, visual attention to the visual decreases. This means there is a negative attention transfer from text elements on the visual. Surprisingly, no brand or visual characteristics significantly affect visual attention to the text. With regard to the text, there is no attention transfer. The use of a headline, the surface size of this headline and the surface size of the three

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main body texts all increase the chance the text is fixated on. Visual attention to the text decreases as the text is placed more to the bottom of the ad. These results show that indeed ad element characteristics affect visual attention to the brand, visual and text. However, hypothesis 2 also stated that visual characteristics have the most effect. This cannot be confirmed.

4.3

H3: Distance between Elements

The third hypothesis concerns the possible effect of the distance between the brand, visual and text. The results in Table 1 illustrate that only the distance between the largest visual and text has a significant negative effect on the visual score. This means that the larger the distance between the largest visual and text in the ad, the smaller the change that people fixate on the visual. In other words: hypothesis 3 is only supported for two of the three elements, and only for the visual score. This effect could be explained by the study of Rayner et al. (2001), who showed that the initial eye movement on an ad is typically made to the large text, regardless of its spatial position within the ad. This indicates that if distance is large between the large text and the visual, the eyes possibly not make the jump from the text to the visual. This interplay between elements is also found in our findings that a direct substantive link between the visual and brand increases the visual attention to the visual. In other words, when the brand and visual refer to each other, the chance that people fixate on the visual is larger. Moreover, the dominance of the visual significantly affects visual attention to the text and brand.

4.4

H4: Context

As the three models include four significant context characteristics, hypothesis 4 can be accepted. Context characteristics indeed affect visual attention to the ad elements. However, the effects are different. The use of colour in the context diverts attention for both the brand and the text. In addition, the use of green in the context also negatively affects the chance people fixate on the brand. When the ad is placed in the middle of an editorial article this diverts visual attention to the visual. Ads on the right page significantly attract more visual attention to the visual and text, than ads on the left page. However, the page does not significantly

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influence the brand score. Hypothesis 4a can thus only be confirmed for the visual and text.

4.5

H5: Ad versus Context

In order to compare the influence of the context variables and the ad variables on attention, we executed separate regression models for each group of characteristics: one including only the context variables and one including only the ad variables (which are the ad, brand, visual, text and relational characteristics). The adjusted R² for each model shows how much of the variance in the eyetracking score is explained by the ad variables and how much by the context variables. Since the adjusted R² is corrected for the number of variables, we are able to tell which group explains more of the variance in the eye-tracking scores, even though the number of variables differs between groups. The results in Table 2 clearly show that the ad variables explain at least four times of the variance in the models than the context variables do. Table 2: Comparison of the effect of context and ad variables per model Adjusted R²

Brand score

Visual score

Text score

Ad variables

38.1

59.9

51.1

Context variables

3.6

6.1

12.0

Although the direct context does appear to influence visual attention to brand, visual and text, its influence is relatively small. This means that hypothesis 5 is confirmed: ad characteristics do have a stronger influence on visual attention to the brand, visual and text than context characteristics.

5

Conclusion and Discussion

The central aim of our study was to explore what elements of the ad are able to catch the eye and what elements can divert visual attention from the brand, visual and text. The results showed that indeed ad characteristics can attract attention and context characteristics divert attention, confirming hypothesis 1 and 4. Especially the size of the ad increases visual attention to all three elements, while colour in the context decreases visual attention to the brand and text. Ads on the right page have a larger chance to attract attention to the visual and text than ads on the left page, supporting hypothesis 4a for two of the three

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elements. The influence of context characteristics is relatively small compared to the influence of ad characteristics, which is in support of hypothesis 5. In line with hypothesis 2, brand, visual and text elements indeed affect the visual attention to the brand, visual and text. However, their effect varies between models, which means they have different effects on visual attention. The visual element does not appear to be dominant. However, since several text elements affect both the visual attention to the visual and text, text elements might be dominant. Further research is needed to confirm this. Since visual characteristics affect the brand score and text characteristics affect the visual score, there appears to be attention transfer between the elements. This attention transfer is positive from visual to brand, but negative from text to visual. With regard to the effect of distance, only the distance between the visual and text significantly affects visual attention to the visual. Hypothesis 3 is thus only confirmed for two of the three elements and only for attention to the visual. There does seem to be some interplay between the elements, as the distance between the visual and text and the relation between the visual and brand both influence visual attention to the visual. This is a second indicator for attention transfer between the elements. In addition to these findings, controlling for the year of eye-tracking showed that visual attention to brand and text increases over the years (2002-2008). This increase could be due to a learning effect of the advertisers. Further research could focus on this interesting result. Advertisers could benefit from these results, as they give more insight on what can catch the eye of the consumer, and what can divert the eye from the ad. As ad element characteristics are in direct control of advertiser, our results can be adopted and improve the eye catching power of ads. However, there is no magic formula. Creative advertising can not be produced by just following our recommendations. But it is unlikely that advertising not following our recommendations will attract the attention of magazine readers. Furthermore, with these results we improved the measurement of initial, visual attention. Results of this study clearly indicated which bottom-up characteristics can drive attention. However, no top-down factors, such as user-related characteristics are taken into account. User characteristics such as gender (Grønhaug et al., 1991), involvement (Petty et al., 1983), ad familiarity (Pieters et al., 2002) and the goal of the user (Radach et al., 2003, Pieters and Wedel,

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2007) have proven to influence attention and hence could be relevant variables to include. In addition, further research should explore the relation between bottom-up and top-down factors. This relation calls for a combination of subconscious measurements, such as eye-tracking, and conscious measurements like memory. This way not only visual attention but also the effects of the visual attention can be tested.

6

References

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Living Brands: Consumer Reactions toward Online Experienced-Based Marketing Communication Marieke L. Fransen, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Thomas J. L. Van Rompay, University of Twente, The Netherlands

1

Introduction

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of attending to experiential aspects of consumption. These days, ‘consumers don’t buy a product; they buy value in the form of entertainment, experience, and identity’ (Esslinger, in Sweet 1999; see also Holbrook, 2000; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1981; Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Schmitt, 1999). In addition, new products appearing on the market are increasingly similar in terms of function or price, making it hard or simply irrelevant for consumers to differentiate products on such traditional criteria (Postrel, 2003). Hence, in order to meet experiential consumer needs and differentiate their products from competitors, product and brand managers increasingly look for new ways to communicate experiential consequences of brand usage and ownership (e.g., Novak et al., 2000). To this end, consumers may be seduced into playing brand games, co-design products online, or develop training schedules. Such activities (i.e., experiencebased marketing communication) should foster brand loyalty by making salient the different ways in which the brand can transform user experience and assist in identity formation. Co-designing a product online, for instance, may not only enhance engagement and set the tone for a more personalized product experience; it may also allow consumers to match a product’s design to his or her lifestyle or personality. In addition, exposing consumers to affective brand experiences may be an effective means to circumvent skepticism associated with traditional marketing communications that mostly rely on rational persuasion (e.g., Fransen, Van Rompay, and Van der Plas, in press; Obermiller et al., 2005), a type of skepticism that is further aggravated by advertising or marketing cluttering and resulting overexposure to ever-more aggressive ads. However, although many authors have recognized the importance of creating brand experiences as a marketing communication tool (e.g., O’Sullivan and Spangler, 1998; Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Schmitt, 1999), so far the academia has paid little empirical attention to this phenomenon. In addition, understanding of the underlying processes involved (i.e., why do experience-based marketS. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_20, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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ing communications work?) is also far from developed. On a very general level, constructs such as sensory stimulation (Schmitt, 1999) and the fact that brand experiences can be instructive, aesthetically pleasing, or entertaining (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) have been put forward in this regard, but to date empirical research addressing effectiveness and the working of experience-based marketing communications is scarce. This is underscored by Boswijk et al. (2006) who stated that: ‘The concept of the experience economy is still in pre-theory stage and lacks empirical evidence’. The present research aims to provide empirical evidence for the effects of online experience-based marketing communication on consumer responses, and increase understanding of the processes involved.

1.1

Experience-based Marketing Communication

According to Schmitt (1999) there are four dimensions on which experience marketing (or experiential marketing) differs from traditional marketing communication strategies. First, experience marketing focuses on consumer experiences rather than on mere functional characteristics and benefits of a product. That is, instead of focusing on traditional product aspects such as quality, price and product functioning, individual experiences (e.g., engagement or immersion in a product or brand experience) and social experiences (feelings of belongingness or sharing with other consumers) generated by product or brand, take center stage. Second, the consumption situation is taken into account when designing marketing strategies. Thus, when, with whom, and where is the brand consumed, and what experiential consumer goals underlie such brand encounters? Third, consumers are not only seen as rational consumers that merely want products or brands that perform well, but also as emotional individuals who are looking for stimulating, emotional, and entertaining challenges. Fourth, because ‘experience’ is an elusive concept that is often hard to pin down and verbalize, marketing methods and techniques used in experience marketing are diverse; ranging from experimental research to explorative elicitation techniques aimed at uncovering experiential brand associations (e.g., Zaltman, 2003). Based on the notion that brand experiences always take place within an environmental context (e.g., a brand store, online environment or event), Pine and Gilmore (1999) additionally stress the importance of the environmental relationship when designing brand experiences. Previous research in the domain of sponsorship indicates that creating brand experiences may result in positive consumer responses. It was shown that sponsorship effectiveness can be enhanced by adding activities such as on-site sampling, hospitality services, and information booths to an event (e.g. Arthur et al.

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1998; Farrelly et al., 1997). Such strategies further involve the visitor with the brand, an important aspect of experience marketing. Strategies include on-site sampling, hospitality services, and information booths. Coppetti et al. (2009) were the first to find that audience participation, by inviting visitors to a sponsored dance party and a ‘laboratory’ where they could create their own flavors of the sponsor’s product, resulted in improved sponsorship evaluations, more favorable brand attitudes, and an increased image transfer from the event to the sponsoring brands. Hence, (emotionally) involving the public with the (sponsoring) brand, an important dimension of experience-based marketing, seems to enhance sponsorship effects. The current studies will explore whether creating autonomous brand experiences online, rather than as an addition to sponsorships, may also enhance consumer reactions towards the brand. In doing so, we will test the effects of three actual different on-line experiences that incorporate various combinations of the presumed ingredients for success. Specifically, we will examine whether exposure to an online brand experience (compared with no exposure or exposure to a traditional form of advertising) positively affects consumer responses such as brand attitudes, brand relation, and brand loyalty.

2

Overview of Studies

In three studies we examined the effects of actual online experience-based marketing communication tools on consumer responses (i.e., brand attitude, organization associations, brand loyalty, buying intentions, and brand relation). Study 1 showed that consumers have a more positive brand attitude and hold more favorable organization associations when they are exposed to an online experience (compared with exposure to a commercial or no marketing communication exposure). Study 2 focused on brand loyalty and buying intentions and on the mediating role of the affective valence of the brand experience in online experience-based marketing communication effects. This study demonstrated that online experience-based marketing communication, in comparison with a commercial and a no-exposure control condition, leads to higher brand loyalty and greater buying intentions. Moreover, these effects were mediated by affective valence of the online brand experience (or commercial). In the final study, a real live experience was introduced as an additional condition in order to test the relative merits of an encompassing brand setting (i.e., an actual environment) compared to an online setting. Furthermore, the moderating role of affective orientation was examined. The results revealed that participants who were ex-

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posed to the real live experience or the online experience (compared with the no exposure control condition) had a more positive brand attitude and expressed a stronger brand relation. No difference between the two experience conditions was observed. The effects of experience-based marketing communication on both brand attitude and brand relation were stronger for participants with a high affective orientation.

3

Study 1

The first study was designed to examine the effects of online experience-based marketing communication on brand attitudes and organization associations. It was hypothesized that consumers have a more positive attitude towards a brand and more positive organization associations when they are exposed to an online experience than when they are exposed to a commercial or when they are not exposed to a marketing communication tool (control condition).

3.1

Method

3.1.1

Participants and Design

Participants (N = 76, 30 male) with a mean age of 30.15 (SD = 10.67) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. In the online experience condition participants were instructed to visit the website of Nike Plus. Participants in the commercial condition were exposed to a Nike commercial whereas participants in the control condition were not exposed to any form of marketing communication.

3.1.2

Independent Variable

The online experience condition consisted of a visit to the Nike Plus website. This is an interactive website where people can find and exchange information on running and running events. The main aim of the website is to connect runners from all over the world and to invite them to compete against each other. Moreover, the website provides a platform were people can interact with a personal coach. According to Schmitt (1999) participating in such online activity can be classified as a (shared) experience. In the commercial condition, participants were exposed to a Nike commercial that also focused on running. Participants in the control condition were not exposed to any form of marketing communication. Hence, they were not confronted with the brand Nike at all.

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3.1.3

315

Dependent Variables

After exposure to the marketing communication, the extent to which participants perceived the activity as a shared experience was assessed by a measure adopted from Chang and Chieng (2006). Based on work by Schmitt (1999) they recognize two dimensions of brand experience, namely, individual and shared experiences. In this Study only the dimension of shared experience was relevant because the online experience can be defined as a shared experience. Shared experience was measured by six items (α = .97) that could be rated on 7-point scales (1 = completely disagree, 7 = completely agree). Example items are “the Nike Plus website/commercial reminds me of relationships” and “I can relate to other people through the website of Nike Plus/commercial”. Note that only participants in the online experience condition and in the commercial condition were able to respond to this measure (since participants in the control condition were not exposed to any form of marketing communication). Next, all participants completed a brand attitude scale consisting of 8 items (α = .76). The items could be rated on 7-point scales (1 = completely disagree, 7 = completely agree). Example items are “Nike is fun” and “Nike is one of the best brands in the sports market”. Finally, participants responded to a 4-item scale (α = .65) measuring organizational associations (Chen, 2001). Example items are “how do you rate the stability of Nike’s product quality?” and “how do you rate the professionalism of Nike employees?”. Answers could be given on a 5-point scale ranging from very negative to very positive.

3.2

Results

A first ANOVA on our measure of shared experience demonstrated a significant main effect (F(1, 47) = 4.01, p < .05). The means show that participants in the experience condition had a greater shared experience (M = 4.39, SD = .76) than participants in the commercial condition (M = 3.86, SD = 1.03). Hence, the online experience that is created by Nike can be regarded as a shared experience (compared to viewing a commercial). A second ANOVA tested whether the online experience resulted in more positive brand attitudes. The results yielded a main effect of experience on brand attitude (F(2, 73) = 7.87, p < .01). Post Hoc analyses revealed that participants in the online experience condition have a more positive attitude towards Nike (M = 5.53, SD = .57) than participants in both the commercial (M = 5.13, SD = .54; p < .05) and the control condition (M = 4.85, SD = .67; p < .00). A

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marginal significant difference was observed between the commercial and the control condition (p =. 09). A third ANOVA on organization associations demonstrated a similar pattern of results. First, a main effect of experience was observed (F(2, 73) = 4.36, p < .05). Second, Post Hoc analyses showed a significant difference between the online experience condition (M = 3.60, SD = .29) and both the commercial (M = 3.31, SD = .54; p < .05) and the control condition (M = 3.19, SD = .52; p < .01). No significant difference was found between the commercial and the control condition. These results provide initial empirical evidence for the positive effects of online experienced-based marketing communication tools. However, in this study participants observed an experience-based website rather than that they were actively involved in the experiences provided by the website. The next study will therefore, include a marketing communication tool in which consumers are actively involved and hence actually engage in a full marketing experience.

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Study 2

This study aims to extend the previous findings in three different ways. First, another online experience and another brand were used to generalize our findings. Second, in this study we measured loyalty and buying intentions rather than brand attitude and organization associations as the former more explicitly involve effects of online experience-based marketing communications on specific behavioral, and hence managerially relevant, outcome measures. Third, we tested whether the affective valence of the online experience mediated the effects of the online experience on brand loyalty and buying intentions. In doing so, we aimed to provide a starting point for the understanding of why experience-based marketing communications are effective means for enhancing brand evaluations.

4.1

Method

4.1.1

Participants and Design

We randomly assigned our participants (N = 113, 47 male), with a mean age of 34.88 (SD = 14.21), to one of our three conditions (online experience vs. advertisement vs. control). In the online experience condition participants were invited to play the so-called ‘Hussel-game’ on the website of Ikea. Participants in

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the advertisement condition were exposed to a related Ikea advertisement and, as in the previous study, participants in the control condition were not exposed to any form of marketing communication.

4.1.2

Independent Variable

In the online experience condition participants were directed to the website of Ikea and were instructed to engage in the Ikea ‘Hussel-game”. In this game participants were asked to first draw a map of their living room. Subsequently they could decorate this room with furniture, lamps, plants, etc. The aim of the game is to virtually reorganize your living room to gain inspiration and new ideas. The interactive and creative aspects of this activity classify it as an experience (Schmitt, 1999). Participants in the advertisement condition were exposed to a related Ikea advertisement stating the message ‘design your own life’. Participants in the control condition were not exposed to any form of marketing communication.

4.1.3

Dependent Variables

Brand loyalty was measured by a scale based on research by Lin and Wang (2006) and Srinivasa (2002). The scale consisted of three items (α = .70), which could be rated on 7-points scales ranging from “totally disagree” to “totally agree”. Example items are “When (re)decorating my house I always buy at Ikea” and “I do not believe that I would ever go to another store than Ikea when (re)decorating my house”. Participants’ buying intentions were assessed by a 5-item scale (e.g., “I buy at Ikea when I re(decorate) my house” and “I would consider buying at Ikea”). The 5-items (α = .76) could be rated on 7-points scales (1= totally disagree, 7 = totally agree). To establish participants’ affective valence of the marketing communication, they were exposed to, we used a measure developed by Maddox (1982). Participants rated how, interesting, fun, nice, inspiring, attractive, refreshing, unique, playful, and cool (α = .72) they perceived the game or the advertisement. Answers could be given on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all, 7 = totally).

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Results

An ANOVA on brand loyalty demonstrated a significant effect of experience (F(2, 110) = 4.71, p < .05). Subsequent Post Hoc analyses revealed that participants in the online experience condition show greater brand loyalty (M = 4.86, SD = 1.55) than both participants in the advertising condition (M = 3.96, SD = 1.64; p < .05) and participants in the control condition (M = 3.82, SD = 1.64; p < .01). There was no significant difference between the advertising and the control condition. The same pattern of results was found for the dependent variable buying intentions. An ANOVA showed a significant main effect of experience (F(2, 110) = 3.32, p < .05). Furthermore, Post Hoc analyses demonstrated that participants who played the online game had greater buying intentions (M = 5.74, SD = .86) than both participants who saw the advertisement (M = 5.28, SD = 1.05; p = .06) and participants who were not exposed to a form of marketing communication (M = 5.16, SD = 1.08; p < .01). An ANOVA on our measure of affective valance of the marketing communication showed that participants evaluated the online experience more positively (M = 4.42, SD = .67) than the advertisement (M = 3.76, SD = .86; F(1, 70) 13.45, p <.00). Note that participants in the control condition were not exposed to any form of marketing communication and hence did not respond to this measure. A series of regression analyses were performed to examine whether participants’ affective valence of the marketing communication tool (online experience or advertising) mediated the observed effects on brand loyalty and buying intentions. A regression analysis including both the independent variable and the proposed mediator as predictors and brand loyalty as the dependent variable showed that the direct effect of the independent variable on brand loyalty dropped below significance (ß = .13, t(70) = 1.07, p = .29) whereas the effect of the mediator remained significant (ß = .37, t(70) = 3.15, p < .01). A similar analysis with buying intentions included as the dependent variable demonstrated that the direct effect of the independent variable became non-significant (ß = .10, t(70) = .84, p = .40) whereas the mediator remained significant (ß = .34, t(70) = 2.85, p < .01). These analyses indicate that the effects of online experiences on both brand loyalty and buying intentions are fully mediated by affective valence of the marketing communication tool.

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Study 3

The aim of this final study was to examine whether the effects of online experience-based marketing communication tools are stronger for consumers with a high affective orientation. As the practice of experience marketing is largely focused on the elicitation of affective, pleasurable experiences, the effectiveness of experience-based marketing communications may vary across consumers. That is, consumers high in affective orientation (i.e., those consumers who seek out emotional episodes and media triggering affective experiences; see Booth-Butterfield and Booth-Butterfield, 1990) may particularly value experience-based marketing communication tools, whereas more ‘rational’ consumers may be less attracted to experience-based marketing. Hence, based on the assumption that experience-based marketing communication tools tap into consumers’ affective experiences (rather than cognitions), it was expected that the effects of online experience-based marketing communication on consumer responses are stronger for people with a dispositional high (versus low) affective orientation. Moreover, the commercial/advertising condition was replaced with a real live experience, allowing us to explore the relative impact of an actual environment versus an online environment. The inclusion of this condition also allows us to test the assumption that the environmental relationship (i.e., the fact that the brand is embedded in a meaningful environment) is a key factor of experience-based marketing communications (cf. Pine and Gilmore, 1999).

5.1

Method

5.1.1

Participants and Design

We employed a 3 (experience: designing a label for Heineken beer bottle online vs. visit to Heineken theme store vs. control) x 2 (affective orientation: high vs. low) between-subjects design to test our hypotheses. Participants (N = 101, 31 male) were randomly assigned to one of the conditions.

5.1.2

Independent Variables

Participants in the online design condition were invited (through email) to create a label for a Heineken beer bottle. At the Heineken website they could make a design for a Heineken beer bottle label by uploading pictures, choosing colors etc. In the Heineken theme store condition, a group of participants visited the

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Heineken theme store and engaged in a couple of activities (e.g., tour through the building). Both activities can be defined as experiences (Schmitt, 1999; Pine and Gilmore, 1998). Again, in the control condition participants were not exposed to a form of marketing communication. To classify participants as either low or high on affective orientation they responded to a measure developed by Booth-Butterfield and Booth-Butterfield (1990). This scale is comprised of 20 items (α = .87) that were rated on 5-point scales (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree). Example items are “I use my feelings to determine what I should do in situations” and “feelings are a valuable source of information”. Subsequently, based on a median split (median = 3.60), participants were classified as high or low in affective orientation.

5.1.3

Dependent Variables

One week after performing the online design task or visiting the theme store ‘Heineken the city’ participants received a questionnaire. Note that participants in the control condition only received this latter questionnaire and were not exposed to any form of marketing communication. The questionnaire first measured participants’ brand attitudes (Voss et al., 2003). This measure consists of two dimensions: Hedonic and functional brand attitude. To measure participants’ functional brand attitude, participants rated how effective, helpful, functional, necessary, and practical (α = .83) they perceive the brand Heineken. The items pleasurable, exiting, delicious, thrilling, and enjoyable (α = .83) were rated to establish participants’ hedonic brand attitude. Answers could be given on 7-points scales (1 = not at all, 7 = totally). Brand relation was measured by an 18-item scale (α = .92) adopted from Chang and Chieng (2006). Participants rated the items (e.g., “Heineken treats me as an important customer” and “I will buy Heineken in good and bad times”) on 5 points-scales ranging from “totally disagree” to “totally agree”.

5.2

Results

As expected a full factorial ANOVA revealed a main effect of experience on hedonic brand attitude (F(2, 95) = 10.83, p < .00) and an interaction effect between experience and affective orientation on hedonic brand attitude (F(2, 95) = 3.21, p < .05). Further Post Hoc analyses demonstrated that participants with a high affective orientation have a more positive hedonic attitude towards the brand when they designed a label online (M = 5.05, SD = .51) or visited the

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theme store (M = 5.07, SD = .62) compared with participants in the control condition (M = 3.8, SD = 1.22; both p’s < .00). The two experience conditions did not differ significantly. This pattern of results was not found for participants with a low affective orientation (no significant differences were found). An ANOVA on functional brand attitude revealed a marginal main effect of experience (F(2, 95) = 3,02, p = .054), demonstrating that participants in both the online design (M = 3.89, SD = .91) and the visit condition (M = 3.98, SD = 1.11) had a higher functional brand attitude than participants in the control condition (M = 3.34, SD = 1.21). No interaction effect between experience and affective orientation on functional brand attitude was observed. This indicates that relying on once feelings and emotions as a guide for decision making (i.e., a high affective orientation) does not affect functional brand attitudes. The same analyses were performed with brand relation as the dependent variable. The results yielded both a main effect of experience (F(2, 95) = 4.89, p < .01) as well as an interaction effect between experience and affective orientation (F(2, 95) = 3.63, p < .05). Post Hoc analyses revealed that participants with a high affective orientation who designed a label online (M = 2.37, SD = .54) or visited the theme store (M = 2.41, SD = .48) showed a stronger brand relation than participants in the control condition (M = 1.70, SD = .48; both p’s < .01). Again, there was no significant difference between the two experience conditions. Moreover, this pattern of results was not obtained for participants with a low affective orientation (no significant differences were observed). Together, these results suggest that particularly participants with a high dispositional affective orientation (compared to participants low in affective orientation) are affected by experience-based forms of marketing communication.

6

General Discussion

The findings presented pay testimony to the importance of engaging consumers in affective brand experiences, in particular when dealing with consumers high in affective orientation. In addition to demonstrating the effectiveness of experience-based marketing communications, our results also provide preliminary answers as to how experience-based marketing communications work. That is, by demonstrating that the affective valence of the experience mediates the effect of experience-based marketing communications on consumer responses (study 2), and by subsequently showing that consumers who value affective experiences (i.e., consumers with a strong affective orientation) respond positively to such communications in particular (study 3), our results suggest that it is the affective component of the brand experience that is most important. As such, these results hint at a process in which positive affect elicited by the brand expe-

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rience is subsequently ‘transferred’ to the brand (i.e., ‘used’ in subsequent brand evaluations; cf. Novak et al. 2003). Moreover, the affective side of online brand experiences is also reflected in the fact that we did observe an effect of online-brand experiences on participants’ hedonic brand attitudes but not on participants’ functional brand attitudes. This means that the perception of effectiveness and usefulness of a brand is not affected by online experienced-based marketing communications but perceptions of excitement and enjoyability are. A further question could be which attitudinal dimension (i.e., hedonic or functional) best predicts actual consumer (e.g., buying) behavior and particularly for what kinds of products. Knowing this would make it easier for brand managers to decide whether or not it would be profitable to choose for online brand experiences as a marketing communication tool. Of course, many questions remain unanswered, and research should shed light on what types of experiences are most likely to foster brand loyalty and related behaviors. First of all, it is of course true that the brand experiences across the three studies differed widely in terms of, for instance, duration and content, making it hard to pinpoint what aspects of brand experiences are most influential. For instance, to what extent should a brand experience be shared or social (e.g., participating in a guided tour) rather than individual (e.g., designing your own label)? And should brand experiences just be fun or engaging or should they also be informative, educational or instructive (e.g., devising one’s own training schedule)? On a more fundamental level, research could address the extent to which aspects such as arousal and flow elicited by brand experiences influence consumer evaluations. Of particular interest in this context is ‘flow’; a highly enjoyable mental state that is characterized by a high level of absorption in an activity or experience (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Arguably, higher levels of flow inspire more positive brand evaluations. In line with this finding, Drenger et al. (2008) demonstrated that active flow experiences during a brand encounter positively affected participants’ emotional experiences. Interestingly, the findings presented here suggest that online brand experiences may be equally successful compared to actual, real-life experiences, calling into question the assumption that the environment in which the brand is embedded is all-important. Also, as brand experiences become more complex, the resulting lack of control over the experience may be troublesome. That is, with increasing complexity (e.g., a complex designed environment in which prolonged brand experiences take place), control over the experience is arguably harder to obtain compared to brand experiences of lesser complexity (e.g., a consumer individually designing a product label in a controlled, online, envi-

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ronment). In addition, in prolonged shared experiences, boredom may kick in or participants may spoil the fun for other consumers. Of course, this is not to dismiss the importance of a brand-congruent environment or a more encompassing brand experience. Follow up research should further unravel the relative merits of different types of brand experiences (varying in complexity) vis-à-vis the environment in which they are embedded. Naturally, the merits of different types of brand experiences and the environment in which they take place may also vary with the type of product or brand. For instance, brands in relation to which multi-sensorial impressions (e.g., foods and beverages) or ease of use (e.g., electronics) are important may find the online environment too static, and may rather stage workshops or events that provide multi-sensorial experiences. Hence, the effectiveness of different types of experience-based communications not only varies with consumer personality (attesting to the importance of consumer lifestyle profiling) but may also vary with brand type and brand positioning strategy. Awaiting future research addressing these issues and shortcomings, in the meantime the findings presented pay testimony to the importance of meeting consumers’ needs for rich and engaging experiences. Taking into account the growing importance of experiential aspects in consumer fields such as retailing (e.g., Haytko and Baker, 2004) and services marketing (Pine and Gilmore, 1999), and the fact that traditional marketing communications are no longer sufficient in ever more competitive markets, we fee safe to conclude that (online) experience-based marketing is here to stay.

7

References

Arthur, D., Scott, D., Woods, T. & Booker, R: (1998), “Sport sponsorship should...a process model for the effective implementation and management of sport sponsorship programmes”, in: Sport Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 7 (4), 49–60. Booth-Butterfield, M. & Booth-Butterfield, S. (1990), “Conceptualizing affect as information in communication production,” in: Human Communication Research, Vol. 16, 451-76. Boswijk, A., Thijssen, T. & Peelen, E. (2006), “A new perspective on the experience economy”, in: European Centre for the Experience Economy, The Netherlands. Chang, P. & Chieng, M. (2006), “Building consumer-brand relationship: A cross-cultural experiential view”, in: Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 23 (11), 927-959. Chen, A.C.H. (2001), “Using free association to examine the relationship between the characteristics of brand associations and brand equity”, in: Journal of product and Brand Management, Vol. 10 (7), 439-451. Coppetti, C., Wentzel, D., Tomczak, T. & Henkel, S. (2009), “Improving incongruent sponsorships through articulation of the sponsorship and audience participation,” in: Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 15 (1), 17–34.

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Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990), “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” New York, NY, HarperCollins. Drengner, J.; Gaus, H. & Jahn, S. (2008), “Does flow influence the brand image in eventmarketing?” in: Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 48 (1), 138–147. Farrelly, F.J., Quester, P.G. & Burton, R. (1997), “Integrating sports sponsorship into the corporate marketing function: an international comparative study,” in: International Marketing Review, Vol. 14 (3), 170–182. Fransen, M. L.; Van Rompay, T. J. L. and N. Van der Plas (in press), “Where the action is: Events als marketingcommunicatie strategie,” in: Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap. Haytko, D.L. & Baker, J. (2004), “It’s All at the Mall: Exploring Adolescent Girl’s Experiences,” in: Journal of Retailing, Vol. 80 (1), 67-83 Holbrook M.B. & Hirschman, E.C. (1981), “The experiential aspects of consumption: Consumer fantasy, feelings and fun,” in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9 (2), 132-140. Holbrook M.B. (2000), “The Millennial consumer in the texts of our times: Experience the entertainment,” in: Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 20, 178-92. Lin, H.H. & Wang, Y.S. (2006), “An examination of the determinants of customer loyalty in mobile commerce contexts,” Information and Management, Vol. 43 (3), 271-282. Maddox, R. N. (1982), “The structure of consumers' satisfaction: Cross-product comparisons,” in: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 10 (1), 37-53. Novak, T.P., Hoffman, D.L. & Yung, Y.F. (2000), “Measuring the customer experience in online environments: A structural modeling approach,” in: Marketing Science, Vol. 19 (1), 22-42. Obermiller, C.; Spangenberg, E. & McLachlan, D.L. (2005), “Ad skepticism: The consequences of disbelief,” in Journal of Advertising, Vol. 34 (5), 7-17. O’Sullivan, E.L. & Spanger, K.J. (1998), “Experience marketing: Strategies for the new millennium,” Venture Pub. (State College, Pa.) Pine, B. J. & Gilmore, J.H. (1999), “The experience economy: Work is theatre and every business is a stage,” Massachusetts, Harvard Business School Press. Postrel, V. (2003), “The substance of style,” New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Salinas, E.M. & Perez, J.M.P. (2009), “Measuring the brand extensions’ influence on brand image,” in: Journal of Business Research, Vol. 62 (1), 50-60. Schmitt B.H. (1999), “Experiential marketing,” in: Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 15 (13), 53-57. Srinivasan, S.S.; Anderson, R. & Ponnavolu, K. (2002), “Customer loyalty in e-commerce: an exploration of its antecedents and consequences,” in: Journal of Retailing, Vol. 78 (1), 41-50. Sweet, F. (1999), “Frog: Form follows emotion,” London, Thames & Hudson. Voss, K.E.; Spangenberg, E.R. & Grohmann, B. (2003), “Measuring the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions of consumer attitude,” in: Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 40 (3), 310-20. Zaltman, G. (2003). How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Markets. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

What is the Best Communication Strategy (Integration vs. Repetition) to Persuade Consumers? An Analysis across Levels of Brand Familiarity María Ángeles Navarro-Bailón, University of Murcia, Spain

1

Introduction

In response to a hostile environment characterized by saturation of messages, rising media costs, audience fragmentation and increasing communication options, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) represents the major communication development of the last years (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998; Hwan and Park, 2007; Kitchen et al., 2004). IMC is generally considered to be a philosophy or process related to strategically managing all brand messages in a way that contributes to the building of strong brands (Reid et al., 2005). Specifically, an integrated communication strategy advocates that brand messages, from whatever source, must be consistent to ensure and protect brand image (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998; Madhavaram et al., 2005). Based on existing literature on IMC, this consistency is the most recommended criterion for creating an integrated communication campaign (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998; Kitchen et al., 2004, Reid et al., 2005; Hwan and Park, 2007). From a strategic point of view, consistency refers to the existence of sharing common brand meaning among multiple means of communication (“what is said”) because messages may be focused on a host of different tangible and intangible aspects of the brand itself (e.g., physical attributes, user or usage imagery, etc.) (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998). Accordingly, Keller (2008) states that communication tools are strategically consistent if the information they convey share meaning and content with the purpose of sending and reinforcing common brand associations. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the relatively young marketing-related discipline of IMC by analyzing whether a consistency-based integration strategy is more persuasive than a repetition strategy. Frequency-ofexposure research has consistently found that mere exposure to stimuli such as words or visual elements produced increasingly positive affect toward those stimuli (Burgoon et al., 1981). However, there is also strong evidence in support of negative reactions to the repetition of brand messages from a unique source S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_21, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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(Belch, 1982; Cacioppo and Petty, 1979; Campbell and Keller, 2003). In line with this thought, several studies have proven the existence of more favorable cognitive and affective effects when people are exposed to different message executions (Chang and Thorson, 2004; Edell and Keller, 1989). In this paper, we propose that an IMC strategy is more persuasive than a repetition strategy. The idea behind this thought is that the coordination of messages creates impact beyond the power of any specific message on its own. Specifically, we suggest that better results may be expected when using an integrated communication strategy in comparison to a message repetition strategy. This comparison will allow us to have a better understanding on the effects derived from IMC using strategic consistency among messages. Furthermore, this comparison is done across two types of brand (familiar vs. unfamiliar) because brand familiarity is one of the most salient features among brands. There is also ample evidence that familiar brands have major communicative advantages over unfamiliar ones (Lange and Dahlén, 2003).

2

Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses

Due to the lack of empirical evidences for the effects that an integrated communication campaign may have on consumer’s persuasion, the empirical findings from previous studies on advertising repetition literature as well as the theoretical postulates of different theories such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty and Caccioppo, 1986), the Cognitive-Response Model of Persuasion (Meyers-Levy and Malaviya, 1999; Wright, 1980) and the Information Integration Theory (Anderson, 1981) are useful to explain that a strategic consistency-based integration campaign may be more persuasive than a message repetition campaign.

2.1

Effects of Strategic Consistent Messages on Favourability of Information Processing

In contrast to knowledge structures formation, attitude formation is an area of research that has long intrigued marketing communication scholars. Much of the research and theory in this area parallels the work in cognitive processing because it hypothesizes a network of linked attitudes forming an attitudinal structure. According to Fishbein's (1975) Multiattribute Model of Attitude Formation, people perceive brands as bundles of attributes and, given how people perceive and process information, these bundles are built up over time

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from bits and pieces of accumulated information and experiences. Information from advertisements, as well as from other sources, is integrated into an attitude structure and this structure determines both intentions to purchase as well as the actual purchase behavior. Therefore, it is important to assess the relative presence of positive versus negative thoughts in consumers’ processing because the success of any marketing communication program is reflected in a more positive processing which, according to the Cognitive-Response Model of Persuasion (Meyers-Levy and Malaviya, 1999; Wright, 1980), determines its persuasiveness. A strategic consistency-based integration campaign may have better effects on consumer persuasion. Motivation (strong desire to process the message) and ability (actually being capable of critical evaluation) influence which route an individual will take in a persuasive situation. In our research context, the motivation factor may be determined by the exposition to varied and different executions of the same message. Specifically, several studies on advertising repetition effects have proven the existence of positive effects on learning and brand information processing when people are exposed to a brand message through varied and different executions as opposed to the same repeated message (Grass and Wallace, 1969; Brock et al., 1970; McCullough and Ostrom, 1974). The most important reasoning behind this is that when the same information is presented through different cognitive contexts, the novelty and variation in the presentation may imply that consumers pay more attention and may lead to more and renewed interest to the brand message presented (Edell and Keller, 1989; Putrevu and Lord, 2003; Chang and Thorson, 2004). These conclusions are also observed when using different executions of the same message coming from multiple media (e.g., TV, radio) in coordinated advertising campaigns. Several studies on cross-media interaction have proven more positive effects on information processing when people are exposed to a message through different media than people in a repetition situation (Edell and Keller, 1989; Chang and Thorson, 2004). Each communication source has specific sensory modes like visual, verbal, audio, which modify the context of the message presented. Therefore, the same conclusions could be expected when people are exposed to consistent brand messages coming from different communication tools in an integrated campaign (Seung, 2003; Keller, 2008). Based on the dual process theory such as the ELM (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986), people exposed to different executions and presentations of the same message may have higher motivation to pay attention. Thus, the person’s elaboration likelihood is expected to be higher (Putrevu and Lord, 2003; Chang

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and Thorson, 2004). As a result of this, individuals may devote a great deal of thought and careful scrutiny to persuasive communication mainly via the central route of processing according to the ELM as well as more processing fluency (conceptual) of this brand message (Lee and Labroo, 2004; Labroo and Lee, 2006). In contrast, when people are only exposed to repetitive messages they will probably focus on and elaborate peripheral cues, which involve a lower degree of processing (Petty et al., 1983; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). According to this reasoning, a consistent integrated communication strategy may produce more enduring and favourable judgments based on extensive and critical elaboration of message claims (Stammerjohan et al., 2005). Consequently, we expect that people will process strategic consistent brand messages not only more extensively but also more favourably when several communication options are integrated in the same plan rather that when they are exposed to the repetition of the same message. This effect can be accounted for both familiar and unfamiliar brands. Recent studies on fluency (see Lee and Labroo, 2004; Labroo and Lee, 2006; Novemsky et al., 2007) have observed that familiar brands are both more perceptual and conceptual fluent than unfamiliar brands. Because the formers can be recognized and identified more easily and come to mind more readily, they enjoy more cognitive and affective advantages. However, the effect of fluency on affective judgment is not monotonic, and boredom may set it, leading to a decline in brand evaluation as frequency of exposure arises (Machleit et al., 1993; Lee and Labroo, 2004). Therefore, the exposition to varied messages coming from multiple sources of communication can be seen as more appropriate than the exposition to the same message for familiar brands. Unfamiliar brands do not suffer from consumer boredom. For them, the most important thing may be to facilitate fluent perception of these brands, irrespective of the type of communication strategy (integration or repetition of brand messages). Fluency will then lead to more favourable attitudes (Novemsky et al., 2007).

Based on the previous reasoning, we propose the two following hypotheses: H1: Brand familiarity moderates the effect of the type of communication strategy on the favourability of processing about the campaign. H1a: For familiar brands, strategic consistent messages will result in higher favourability of thoughts about the campaign compared to the repetition of the same message.

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H1b: For unfamiliar brands, there will be no differences in the favourability of thoughts about the campaign between a strategic consistent messages and the repetition of the same message. H2: Brand familiarity moderates the effect of the type of communication strategy on the favourability of brand associations. H2a: For familiar brands, strategic consistent messages will result in higher favourability of brand associations compared to the repetition of the same message. H2b: For unfamiliar brands, there will be no differences in the favourability of brand associations between a strategic consistent messages and the repetition of the same message.

2.2

Effects of Strategic Consistent Messages on Consumers’ Attitudes

Brand attitudes can be also influenced by a strategic consistency-based integration, because traditional persuasion models state that high information processing developed through the central route positively influences consumer attitudes (Mackenzie et al., 1986; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Petty et al., 1983). Considering that an integration strategy leads to higher information processing, it is reasonable to think that under this condition the resulting attitudes are more favourable than in a message repetition strategy. In addition, literature has established that memory can mediate effects on consumer evaluations (Chaiken et al., 1996). Integration Information Theory (Anderson, 1981) also provides a background for explaining this positive effect on brand attitude. According to this theory, information from different sources is combined when consumer forms an overall evaluation on memory. Thus, when that information is consistent with prior schema, consumer integrates the new incoming message on memory and a positive effect on attitudes is more likely to occur. Based on the same arguments previously exposed for H1 and H2, we expect that integration strategy will work better for familiar brands, while for unfamiliar brands there will be no differences between both types of communication strategy in terms on consumers’ attitudes. For this reason we expect that: H3: Brand familiarity moderates the effect of the type of communication strategy on consumers’ attitude towards the campaign. H3a: For familiar brands, strategic consistent messages will result in a more favorable attitude towards the communication campaign compared to the repetition of the same message.

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H3b: For unfamiliar brands, there will be no differences in the favorability of attitude towards the communication campaign between a strategic consistent messages and the repetition of the same message. H4: Brand familiarity moderates the effect of the type of communication strategy on consumers’ attitude towards the brand. H4a: For familiar brands, strategic consistent messages will result in a more favorable brand attitude compared to the repetition of the same message. H4b: For unfamiliar brands, there will be no differences in the favorability of brand attitude between a strategic consistent messages and the repetition of the same message.

3 3.1

Methodology Experimental Design

In order to test our hypotheses we used a 2 (type of communication strategy: integrated vs. repeated campaign) x 2 (brand familiarity: familiar vs. unfamiliar brand) between subjects experimental design. For the integrated campaign, we used two communication tools (advertising and sales promotion). Firstly, advertising was used in order to communicate the set of associations of the brand schema and to create brand awareness and image. Promotion was selected as the second communication tool because of its importance to reinforce the awareness and brand image communicated through advertising (Keller, 2008). Soft drinks were selected as the product category for this experiment for its high adequacy for the target individuals used in this study (young people). Previous studies on communication effects have also successfully used it (Heckler and Childers, 1992; Chang and Thorson, 2004). Brand familiarity was manipulated by using two different brands. As we needed a well-established brand schema of associations, for the familiar condition a real brand was selected (Fanta). For the unfamiliar brand we created a fictitious brand because we needed the participants not to have a strong and sophisticated schema of associations in memory (Sjödin and Törn, 2006).

3.2

Pre-tests and Factor Manipulation

Before data collection, we undertook several focus groups and pre-tests using different samples (undergraduate students). The first step was to identify the set of associations for a soft drink brand. This set of brand associations will serve as a reference point to design the strategic consistency in the integrated campaign.

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As we work with two brands, we needed a common brand association schema for both of them. Therefore, the fictitious brand was created using the same schema of associations evoked by the familiar brand (Dahlén and Lange, 2004). This procedure was followed to ensure internal consistency as well as to have the same reference point from which to manipulate the consistency in the integrated campaign. For this purpose, a first focus group composed of 25 subjects listed associations related to the familiar brand. The most commonly mentioned associations were “summer” (11 mentions), “study trip” (8), “party” (4), “young people” (4), “enjoyment” (3) and “friends” (3). The fictitious brand was created taking into account these associations. An advertising agency helped us to select both the brand name and the logo for the fictitious brand. FUNgo was finally selected as the brand name. The same agency also helped in designing two print ad versions (one version for each brand) in order to communicate the initial brand schema and to facilitate brand identification. Both versions included the same background image and slogan (see Appendix I). The next step was to design the second stimuli for both brands (the promotion of a specific activity) in order to manipulate the strategic consistency among brand messages in the integrated condition. For this purpose, we needed to select a specific promotional activity that resembled the initial schema of associations for both brands communicated previously through advertising. To make the design of the experiment simpler and to better control for the interest and attractiveness of the promotion, the reception delay of the premium and the way people compete for a prize, the same type of promotion was used for both brands. For creating the promotional stimulus we used sweepstakes because it is a very popular promotional tool to enhance brand image by associating the brand with an attractive prize that is meaningfully related to the brand. Specifically, the sweepstake offered people the opportunity to win a trip. With this aim, a second focus group (25 subjects) was used to elicit a list of possible destinations that were coherent with the initial brand schema represented by Fanta. Then, a pre-test with 85 individuals was developed to evaluate the perceived congruency between each destination and the initial brand schema. The studies of Speed and Thompson (2000) and Gwinner and Eaton (1999) were used to measure the level of congruency. As a result, the pair composed of Fanta and the Caribbean as destination was found to be the most consistent. We also checked that there was a high consistency between both brands and the destination selected for the promotion. The results suggest that Fanta was as congruent with the Caribbean trip as Fungo was (MFanta-Caribbean=5.84; MFungoCaribbean=5.90; t(93)=0.214 p=0.831). The final step was to design the promotional stimuli for both brands. Due to the difficulty of exposing individuals to a promotion of a fictitious brand in a

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real context, they were exposed to a description of the specific promotion conducted by the brand (see Coppetti et al., 2009 and Cornwell et al., 2006 for similar procedures) (see Appendix II).

3.3

Data Collection, Sample and Procedure

Following Heckler and Childers (1992) and Singh and Rothschild (1983)’ procedures, the experiment took place in two separate sessions in order to avoid ceiling effects on consumers’ memory. A sample of 173 undergraduate students was selected based on their accessibility and the need for participating twice in the experiment. In the first session, subjects were told that we were interested in their opinions about a communication campaign for a soft drink and they were randomly exposed to one of the ads (familiar or unfamiliar brand). After ad exposure, subjects wrote down all the thoughts they had while they were exposed to the ad as well as their attitude towards the advertised brand. In the second session, which took place two days later, individuals were exposed to the promotion for the same brand they had been exposed to in the first session. For this second stimulus, individuals were randomly exposed either to the same ad or to the promotion depending on the condition (integration or repetition). After second exposure, individuals were requested to fill in a questionnaire including the main variables of the study. At the end of the second session students were thanked for participating and were paid 5€ each.

3.4

Measures

In order to measure the favorability of processing, subjects were instructed to report all the thoughts that came to their minds while they were exposed to the communication stimuli (Briñol et al., 2004; Cacioppo and Petty, 1981). Processing was measured in each session just after exposure. By doing so we can test how processing varies along the campaign. Thought categorization was done by two independent judges. Each thought was classified as positive, negative or neutral. Following Briñol et al. (2004) we operationalized the favorability of campaign processing as an index that was formed subtracting the number of negative thoughts from the number of positive thoughts and dividing this difference by the total number of thoughts. The same procedure was developed for measuring the favorability of brand associations, which was calculated using the brand related associations that individuals had spontaneously reported after each exposure (Krishnan, 1996). Attitudes were measured with a differential semantic scale developed by Mackenzie et al. (1986). Attitudes were measured after each exposure. Specifically, our

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dependent variable for the brand attitude was the increase on attitude after the second exposure. Perceived consistency between the communication tools was assessed with a 7-point Likert scale extracted from the studies of Speed and Thompson (2000) and Gwinner and Eaton (1999). In order to avoid bias, two additional variables were measured (congruency between the brand and the promotion, and brand familiarity). The measure of congruency between the brand and the promotion was adapted from the scale of perceived consistency between the communication tools. Finally, brand familiarity was measured on a 7-point semantic differential scale based on traditional scales extracted from brand extension literature (Simonin and Ruth, 1998).

3.5

Results

Manipulation checks were assessed by conducting several one-way ANOVAs. First, we analyzed the perceived consistency between the communication tools in the integrated campaign. Results showed that individuals perceived a high level of consistency between the ad and the sales promotion (the Caribbean trip) for both brands (MFanta= 5.53; MFungo= 5.73; t(85)= -1.009, p=0.316). For both brands, individuals also perceived a higher consistency between the brand and the promotion when asked about the Caribbean trip (MFanta= 5.23; MFungo= 5.04). Because no differences were obtained between brands (t(86)=0.874; p=0.385) these results indicate that the fictitious brand successfully resembled the same image of the familiar brand. In addition, both brands differed in terms of familiarity (MFanta= 6.84; MFungo=1.46; F(1.168)=2553.340; p=0.000). Therefore, manipulation checks were successful. For testing our hypotheses a two-way ANOVA was conducted for each dependent variable. Results are showed in Table 1. H1 posits that brand familiarity moderates the effect of the type of communication strategy on the favourability of campaign processing. The interaction effect between both factors is not significant (F(1.169)=0.375; p=0.541). However, results give support for H1a and H1b because t-tests show that, for the familiar brand, strategic consistent messages produce more favourability of processing towards the campaign compared to the repeated campaign. On the other hand, no differences are observed for the unfamiliar brand. H2 concerns the effects on the favourability of brand associations. Again, the interaction effect is not significant (F(1.169)=0.047; p=0.828). However, H2a and H2b can be supported because the favourability of brand associations is significantly higher for the familiar brand in the integrated condition. For the unfamiliar brand, no

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significant differences are found in the favourability of associations between both communication strategies. Table 1: Effects of integrated messages versus repetition of the same message H1

H2

Favourability of Favourability of Brand

H3

H4

Attitude

Brand

H3a

H4a

Campaign Familiar brand

H1a Mean SD

H2a n

Mean

SD

Integration

73.92 14.17 45

62.84

27.42 45 5.82 0.74 45 0.08 0.71 45

Repetition

66.01 21.15 44

50.41

22.34 44 5.31 1.07 44 -0.01 0.89 44

t-test (p)

t (87)=2.077

t (87)=2.342 (p=0.021)

t (87)=2.642

t(87)=0.616

Unfamiliar brand

H1b

H2b

H3b

H4b

Mean SD

n

Mean

Integration

64.33 15.67 43

53.27

32.24 43 5.18 1.00 43 0.55 1.20 43

Repetition

59.96 23.87 41

38.88

34.78 41 4.98 1.20 41 0.41 1.26 41

t-test (p)

t (82)=0.994

SD

n Mean SD n Mean SD n

n Mean SD n Mean SD n

t (82)=1.967 (p=0.053)

t (82)=0.820

t(81)=0.513

Regarding H3 and H4, no significant interaction effects are obtained for the attitude towards the communication campaign (F(1.169)=1.050; p=0.307) or for brand attitude (F(1.168)=0.011; p=0.917). As expected in H3a and H3b, attitude towards the campaign is more favourable when individuals are exposed to strategic consistent messages for the familiar brand but there are not differences for the unfamiliar brand. However, no differences were found in terms of brand attitude between integration and the repetition strategy both for the familiar and for unfamiliar brand. Therefore, our results only give empirical support for H4b.

4

Conclusions

The present study throws light on a research area with still little empirical development: what synergistic effects can be obtained when people are exposed to an integrated communication campaign. Based on previous theories, we propose that an integrated campaign using a criterion of strategic consistency among brand messages is more effective in terms of processing and attitudes than a message repetition strategy. This paper compares both strategies in order to empirically demonstrate the superiority of the integrated strategy. More

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specifically, the integration between advertising and sales promotion has demonstrated these more positive effects compared to an advertising repetition campaign. Our empirical evidences have shown that the integrated campaign through strategic consistent messages produce more positive effects on consumer’s persuasion because more positive thoughts related to the campaign and more positive brand associations are elicited which, in turn, lead to more favourable evaluations. Despite evidence obtained in our study suggests that an integrated campaign through strategic consistent messages is more effective than a repeated exposure strategy, our results suggest that integration is more effective than a repeated exposure strategy for more familiar brands, since the exposure to the brand consistent message in slightly different cognitive context (each communication tool) may generate a renewed interest and more motivation to process the brand information which, in turn, may lead to more favourability of processing and more positive evaluations about the integrated campaign and about the brand itself. In contrast, although previous IMC research had denied the use of a repetition based strategy in favor of a more varied and integrated strategy, this paper also has proven how a repetition strategy is still appropriate for less familiar brands as they first need to develop a set of associations in order to be recognized and identified by consumers. In this case, a repeated exposure to the same brand message coming from a unique communication source has led to more learning and elaboration of the brand message and not has generated boredom and satiation effects (Berlyne, 1970). From a managerial point of view, the importance of this study relies on providing more evidence and guidance for integrated communication campaigns. This study offers an important contribution to this practice by developing a methodological approach that serves as a guideline for managers in order to design and validate synergistic effects derived from strategically consistent messages in an integrated communication campaign. Specifically, this study shows that strategic consistent messages in an integrated campaign between advertising and sales promotion is a most persuasive communication strategy compared to a repeated exposure to the same ad. On the other hand, regarding the branding literature this study also offers empirical evidences that may expand researcher’s understanding of the role of marketing communications on brand image under an integrated perspective. It is an important contribution because the brand is the very key to IMC that involves various communication options (e.g. advertising, sales promotion) into a unified and preferable brand image (Tsai, 2005). According to this perspective, strategic consistency is the most recommended approach to ensure that image (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998). However, our results suggest that different level of brand

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familiarity may require different ways of communicating in order to benefit consumer’s persuasion and brand evaluations. More familiar brands that have a strong and sophisticated schema in consumer’s mind may benefit more by using a strategic consistency-based integration campaign that can refresh the interest and attention towards them. However, for less familiar brands that do not yet have a strong schema and clear positioning in consumer’s mind the communication strategy should be addressed to reinforce the brand schema of associations and to stimulate positive brand evaluations. Reinforcing these brands implies exposing people repeatedly to the brand communication in order to increase and facilitate fluent perception.

5

Limitations and Future Research Directions

Some of the limitations of the present study provide directions for future research. First, this study uses and experimental methodology. Therefore, the limitations that typically apply to this type of methodology also apply in our study. Although a desirable benefit is the ability to isolate particular variables of interest and test for predicted effects, a weakness is its inability to capture other dynamic processes. In this sense, it is likely that effects could be weaker or stronger depending on the specific context of the real life situation. In addition, the study used a student sample, a single product category and only two brands. While this procedure controls variation and contributes to reliability, it also limits the generalizability of the results to other populations and/or products. Future studies are necessary to evaluate the research findings in different situations with manipulation of other variables that may influence these results. Thirdly, the exposure conditions represent a limitation of this study. For example, we have used only two specific communication tools (advertising and sales promotion) in the integrated campaign. Also, individuals are only exposed to two exposures in both experimental conditions. Different contexts of exposure are necessary such as a variation in the number of exposures, different sequences or other combinations of tools such as traditional and new media integration. Our study also compares the effects of an integrated campaign with the effects derived from a message repetition strategy as non-integrated strategy. It is necessary to validate the effectiveness of this strategic consistency-based integration campaign from other non-integrated communication strategies.

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References

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340 Appendix I Advertising stimuli for both brands

Appendix II Promotional Stimuli for the unfamiliar brand

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Text or Pictures? Effectiveness of Verbal Information and Visual Cues in Advertisements for New Brands versus Extensions Nathalie Dens, University of Antwerp, Belgium Patrick De Pelsmacker, University of Antwerp, Belgium Bianca Puttemans, University of Antwerp, Belgium

1

Introduction

Innovation is a key success factor of a company’s growth. Through new product introductions, companies try to satisfy customers and to obtain a significant competitive advantage. However, introducing new brands has major downsides. The total cost of introducing a new product is very high. In addition, a large amount of new product introductions still fail. By introducing extensions (new (versions of) products which make use of existing brand names), companies hope to leverage the reputation and awareness of the existing brand (parent brand) to the new product (line extension) (Aaker and Keller, 1990). Advertising is a critical factor for any new product, including extensions (Kotler, 2000). Advertising may play a crucial role in determining whether the new product or line extension is successfully adopted by the target audience or not. Advertisements can be composed of different formats: they can contain both verbal information (text) and/or visual elements (pictures). In terms of verbal elements, the amount of information provided can vary greatly. In some advertisements, no information is provided on the particular product but the brand and perhaps model name. In others, basic information may be provided, such as the unique selling proposition. In still other advertisements, a large amount of information is provided on product features or benefits, to fully inform consumers on the product. This is often the case when the product is a search good or utilitarian product, and even more so if the product is new. Visuals in advertising can be directly related to the advertised product, which means that there is a direct and clear link between the picture shown in the ad and the advertised product (as when a computer ad shows people using a computer). However, visuals in advertising can also be rather general and not particularly related to the advertised product. In this case, no clear product link S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_22, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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can be found between the picture depicted in the ad and the advertised product (for example, when a computer ad shows people in a general or neutral context without any sign of a computer). Non-product related visuals are frequently used in transformational advertising, whose aim is to make products richer, warmer, more exciting, and/or more enjoyable, without necessarily focusing on the product or adding information (Puto and Wells, 1984). Non-product related advertising would normally also be considered rather incongruent with the advertised product. The use of mildly incongruent visuals is often applied in advertisements to attract attention and to stimulate information processing (Mandler, 1982; Dens et al., 2008). The effectiveness of different visual and verbal elements in advertising has been thoroughly researched (e.g., Bulmer and Buchanan-Oliver, 2006; Brennan, 2008). Most research, however, has focused on the positive and nega-

tive aspects of using ads that are either primarily visual or verbal in nature. In the current study, we aim to contribute to the literature by studying different combinations of visual and verbal advertising elements. In addition, we investigate the moderating role of brand strategy on the effectiveness of visual and verbal appeals (and their combinations) in terms of attitude toward the ad and advertising persuasiveness. In other words, the purpose of this study is to investigate which advertising formats in terms of the combination of the amount of verbal information and the nature of the visual used will result in a more positive attitude and higher persuasion for both new brands and line extensions.

2 2.1

Theoretical Background and Hypotheses The Moderating Role of Brand Strategy on Consumer Responses to Advertising Visuals

Will using a product related visual, a non-product related visual, or no visual at all in advertisements for new products have a different impact in case of line extensions and new brands? Schema and categorization theories (Bartlett, 1932; Kent and Allen, 1994; Boush et al., 1987; Nan, 2006; Fiske and Pavelchak,1986; Braun-LaTour and LaTour, 2004) can explain the processes that take place when people assess ads for line extensions and new brands with different types of visuals. According to categorization theory, people faced with an evaluative task will first attempt to classify the object within a certain category on the basis of salient cues (Fiske and Pavelchak, 1986; Park et al., 2002; Rosch and Mervis, 1975). A brand name can serve as a category label and thus lead to a category-based evaluation of a new product, i.e. the extension (e.g., Maheswa-

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343

ran et al., 1992; Park et al., 2002). Category-based processing engenders a peripheral route to persuasion. In this case, the picture shown in an extension advertisement may serve as a peripheral cue (Miniard et al., 1991). Most studies indeed find the effect of imagery in general on the evaluation of information to be positive (e.g., Babin and Burns, 1997). Under low advertising elaboration, affect-transfer is expected based on the presence of a visual or not, irrespective of the relevancy of the visual. Following schema theory, a (brand) name represents a cognitive structure or schema, a network of associations built on organized knowledge about the brand (Braun-LaTour and LaTour, 2004). The use of visuals in advertising in general is consistent with brand schemas for most established brands. Stimuli which are congruent with the activated schema will result in more positive evaluations due to familiarity (Mandler, 1982; Meyers-Levy and Tybout, 1989). As such, even a non-product related visual stimulus may still be more effective than no visual for line extensions, as it is generally relatively more congruent with the brand schema, and visuals may be used as a peripheral cue (e.g., how-do-I-feel-aboutit), which may engender positive effects. We hypothesize: H1a: In case of a line extension, an advertisement containing a visual, product related or non-product related, results in a more positive attitude towards the ad (Aad) and ad cognition (Acog) than an advertisement containing no visual. How viewers interpret visual imagery in advertisements is contingent upon their knowledge resources (Bulmer and Buchanan-Oliver, 2006). For a new brand, by definition, no previous networks of associations or schemas to associate with exist, which will induce a different way of processing compared to extensions of existing brands (Campbell and Keller, 2003). For new, unfamiliar brands, categorization based on the brand name will be inhibited because of the absence of a brand category in consumers’ minds. Categorization theory (Fiske and Pavelchak, 1986) then predicts that consumers will revert to more piecemeal processing of various features of the object (i.e. the new advertised product) as basis for forming an evaluation. As a result, new brands will engender more central and extensive processing, whereby consumers will evaluate the issue relevant arguments presented to them (Dens and De Pelsmacker, 2010; Campbell and Keller, 2003). From this perspective, then, the visuals shown in ads for new brands serve as arguments, and the influence of their relevancy should grow as elaboration increases (Miniard et al., 1991). The persuasion knowledge model states that when consumers are relatively highly involved in processing a message, they

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are more likely to consider the appropriateness of the advertising strategy (Friestad and Wright, 1994). Under high elaboration, a non-product related visual may stimulate persuasion knowledge. If people try to actively process an advertisement for a new brand, the absence of the product in the visual stimulus may be perceived as manipulative. Especially for new brands, for which consumers have no existing schema, they might want to actually see product-relevant (visual) stimuli. Prior research has also noted that subjects have a tendency to make negative inferences when faced with missing information, especially when the presented information is perceived to be negatively correlated with the missing information (Bridges et al., 2000). As they have no prior frame of reference, consumers will make inferences based mainly on the relevant cues provided in the advertisement (Kardes et al., 2004). Therefore, the use of a visual which does not show the product may be inferred as the company is trying to hide something or distract them from the fact that it is not a good product. Consistent with the persuasion knowledge model, this will result in a negative evaluation (Friestad and Wright, 1994). Prior research has also argued that when viewers see advertising imagery that has no literal or obvious meaning, they refer back to their prior knowledge (Bulmer and Buchanan-Oliver, 2006). In the case of the new brands, prior knowledge is non-existent, which may cause frustration and lead to negative affect. We therefore predict: H1b. In case of a new brand, an advertisement containing a non-product related visual results in a more negative attitude towards the ad (Aad) and ad cognition (Acog) than an advertisement containing a product related or no visual.

2.2

Added Value of Verbal Information for Line Extensions versus New Brands

Based on categorization theory, if advertisements for new brands are indeed processed in a piecemeal or central fashion, verbal arguments or information should have a high impact on consumer evaluations. However, consumers’ lack of an existing brand schema will inhibit the amount of information that can be processed about the brand and the advertisement. Campbell and Keller (2003) argue that individuals with prior knowledge structures or schemas are able and willing to encode new information on the same brand more easily than people confronted with the brand for the first time, as the former can link this new information to their existing framework of associations. Familiar brands typically have an elaborate and strong network of associations (‘schema’) in memory, which makes it easy for activation to spread. Therefore, people facing a familiar brand will more easily process new and extra information (Wood and Kallgren, 1988; Rucker and Petty, 2006; Nabi et al., 2008). This is in line with the

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Enrichment Hypothesis (Johnson and Russo, 1984) that postulates that existing knowledge facilitates the learning of new information. Since, in the present study, the additional verbal information is positive and brand-supporting, we expect that this extra information will not only be absorbed more easily, but also lead to more positive evaluations. Individuals confronted with a novel issue cannot rely on existing nodes of knowledge in memory to be activated or existing knowledge to be enriched, which will obstruct the processing of new information. As people have a limited cognitive capacity (Lang, 2000), the fact that they still need to learn and encode information about the brand name itself, will cause that they have fewer resources available to process a lot of additional verbal information provided in the ad. We therefore expect: H2: The positive effect of extra verbal information on the attitude towards the ad (Aad) and ad cognition (Acog) will be stronger for line extensions than for new brands.

2.3

Combining Visuals and Verbal Information for New Brands and Line Extensions

On the basis of Paivio, Clark, and Lambert’s (1988) dual-coding theory, it can be expected that the combination of verbal (information in text) and relevant (congruent) nonverbal stimuli (visuals) will lead to more positive advertising effects than only information or only a visual stimulus, both for line extensions and for new brands. However, based on the Enrichment Hypothesis, it can be expected that this is going to be the case more prominently for line extensions than for new brands. Existing knowledge and schemas facilitate efficient learning of this combination of types of brand-supporting stimuli. Due to lack of an existing frame of reference in memory, individuals confronted with a novel brand will find it more difficult to combine text and visuals to form evaluations. Therefore, we expect: H3a. An advertisement combining verbal information and a productrelated visual leads to more positive Aad and Acog than an ad containing only verbal information (no visual) or only a visual (no verbal information). H3b. The effect stipulated in H3a is greater for line extensions than for new brands.

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Design and Participants

A 2 (brand strategy: new brand or line extension) x 3 (visual format: no, nonproduct related or product related visual) x 3 (verbal information: no, basic or extended information) partial factorial between subjects design was conducted. Sixteen advertisements for a new laptop were developed (available upon request). The advertisements either showed a proposed new brand, Systemax, or a line extension of the existing brand Dell. The brands were chosen based on a pretest (n = 25) which showed that Dell was named by 64% of respondents in their top three of known computer brands, and that Systemax, a fictitious brand name, scored best in terms of appropriateness as a new brand name for computers out of three hypothetical brand names (M = 4.62). The brand name was accompanied by visual and/or verbal cues. The visuals were selected based on a separate pretest (n = 25), which showed that the relation of the picture to the product (5 items, e.g., the image is (not) consistent with a laptop, the image does (not) fit a laptop) was significantly higher for the product related visual (M = 5.54) than the nonrelated visual (M = 2.12) (t(24) = 10.133, p < .001). In addition, we chose stimuli showing the same models and tested that the visuals did not differ significantly in evoked positive feelings (warm, cozy, enthusiastic, energetic, positive feeling, t(24) = 1.074, p = .294) or negative feelings (sad, irritating, negative feeling, t(24) = .041, p = .968), credibility (credible, skeptical (reversed), -, t(24)= .196, p= .846) and attitude toward the image as such (e.g., bad-good, don’t like-like, negative-positive, t(24) = 1.316, p = .201) to avoid potential confounds. The nonrelated visual showed two people without the context of a computer, whereas the product related visual contained the same two people working at a computer. With regard to the verbal information format, the “basic information” condition consisted of a single text line stating the unique selling proposition of the new computer, whereas the “extended information” condition put forward a more detailed description of other product characteristics. The “no information” condition only showed the brand name and new model type. The information was given in Dutch as only Dutch- speaking Belgian respondents participated. A partial factorial design was set up as advertisements without any visual and without any information would have been meaningless. An online survey was conducted and a convenience sample of 542 Belgian respondents (53.7% women, aged 29.4 on average and 78.2% highly educated) were recruited. Respondents were randomly assigned to conditions. They were shown one of the 16 test ads and reported whether they knew the brand before, their attitude towards the ad (Aad) (bad-good, negative-positive, dislike-like; D = .95), ad cognition (Acog) (interesting, well designed, easy to follow, clear, D = .81), and the manipulation check of product relatedness (for those having seen a visual) (A laptop is appropriate for what is shown in the picture, the picture

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used fits with a laptop, the picture is consistent with a laptop; D = .89) on sevenpoint semantic differential and Likert scales. Finally, the respondents’ gender, age and education were asked. 4 4.1

Results Manipulation Checks

In terms of brand familiarity, 97% of respondents indicated they were familiar with Dell, whereas 93% of respondents had never heard of Systemax (χ² = 432.94, p < .001). As in the pretest, the nonrelated visual (M = 2.57) was also found to be less related to computers than the product related visual (M = 4.12) (t(407) = 11.535, p < .001).

4.2

Main Results

The results of a 2x3x3 MANOVA showed a significant multivariate Visual x Brand Strategy interaction (F(2, 526) = 6.03, p = .003) and Verbal Information x Brand Strategy interaction (F(2, 526) = 3.26, p = .039). We report the separate results per dependent below. The two-way interaction of Visual x Brand Strategy was marginally significant for the attitude towards the ad (Aad) (F(2, 526) = 2.64, p = .072, Figure 1) and significant for ad cognition (Acog) (F(2, 526) = 5.854, p = .003, Figure 2). Univariate post hoc tests showed that for a line extension, a product related visual led to a significantly more positive Aad (M = 4.23) and Acog (M = 4.46) than no visual (Aad: M = 3.80, p= .038: Acog: M = 3.92, p = .004). A non-product related visual scored moderately well (MAad = 4.02; MAcog = 4.14). Contrary to H1a, however, the difference between the nonrelated visual and no visual conditions was not statistically significant (p > .234). Thus, H1a is partly confirmed. For a new brand, a nonrelated visual resulted in a significantly more negative Aad (M = 3.59) than a product related visual (M = 4.02, p = .029), and was marginally more negative than no visual (M = 3.96, p = .094). Similalry, for Acog, the lowest score was found for a nonrelated visual (M = 3.85) when compared to a product related visual (M = 4.23, p = .026) and no visual (M = 4.33, (p = .011). H1b is confirmed.

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Figure 1: Visual x Brand Strategy interaction (Aad)

The Verbal Information x Brand Strategy interaction was not univariately significant for Aad (F(2, 526) = 1.44, p = .238), but was marginally significant for Acog (F(2, 526) = 2.94, p= .054, Figure 2). Post hoc tests showed there were significant differences for both dependent variables. For a line extension, the “no verbal information” condition resulted in a more negative Aad (M = 3.66) and Acog (M = 3.85) than respectively the “basic information” condition (MAad = 4.17, p = .019; MAcog = 4.23, p = .043) and the “extended information” condition (MAad = 4.18, p= .022; MAcog = 4.40, p = .004). For a new brand, no significant differences in Aad or Acog were found between the different verbal information conditions. Although the highest Aad and Acog were indeed noted for an advertisement containing extended information (MAad = 3.98; MAcog = 4.16), followed by an ad containing basic information (MAad = 3.84, p = .483; MAcog = 4.14, p = .883) and no information (M = 3.67, p = .129; MAcog = 3.97, p = .287), none of the post hoc differences were significant. These results provide support for H2: More information results in more positive Aad and Acog, but the effect is apparent for line extensions, and statistically nonsignificent for new brands.

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Figure 2: Visual x Brand Strategy interaction (Acog)

The univariate ANOVA’s for Aad (F(3, 526) = .73, p= .533, Figure 3) and Apers (F (3, 526)= .47, p= .704, Figure 4) showed no significant overall threeway interactions of Visual x Verbal information x Brand Strategy. However, post hoc tests again showed there were significant differences for both dependent variables in partial support of H3. For a new brand, the lowest Aad (M = 3.46) and Acog (M = 3.66) scores were indeed obtained for an ad with no verbal information (in combination with a nonrelated visual). However, contrary to expectations based on dual coding and the added effect of information, this condition is not significantly worse than when a nonrelated visual is combined with either basic (MAad = 3.50, p = .896; MAcog = 3.80, p = .638) or extended information (MAad = 3.82, p = .266; MAcog = 4.11, p = .102). The best option for a new brand is a combination of a product related visual with basic information (MAad = 4.17; MAcog = 4.34). Again contrary to dual coding principles, however, the difference with the „related visual, no information“ condition, is not significant (MAad = 3.86, p = .376; MAcog = 4.32, p = .946), nor is it significantly better than the „no visual, basic info“ ad (MAad = 3.84, p = .354; MAcog = 4.30, p = .894). Thus, for new brands, H3a is not statistically supported. Furthermore, the „no visual“ conditions in combination with either basic (MAad = 3.84; MAcog = 4.30) or extended information (MAad = 4.08; MAcog = 4.38) did not score statisti-

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cally different from the same information levels in combination with a visual. In conslusion we only find support for dual coding for new brands insofar one considers the „extremes“ (product related, basic information vs. nonrelated, no information, Aad: p = .034, Acog: p = .017). The results for line extensions support H3a. For a line extension, an ad containing a product related visual and either basic (MAad = 4.53; MAcog = 4.67) or extended information (MAad = 4.49; MAcog = 4.67) scored (significantly) better than an ad containing basic (MAad = 3.59, p = .004; MAcog = 3.78, p = .001) (M = 3.59) or extended verbal information (MAad = 4.02, p = .236; MAcog = 4.06, p = .033) without a visual. These ads combining a product related visual with verbal information (basic or extended) also scored better than advertisements containing no verbal information, be it with a product related (MAad = 3.68, p < .018; MAcog = 3.98, p < .017) or nonproduct related visual (MAad = 3.65, p < .014; MAcog = 3.73, p = .001). For line extensions, the lowest scores were obtained for ads with nonrelevant visuals and no information (MAad = 3.84; MAcog = 3.73) as well as for ads with no visuals and basic information (MAad = 3.46; MAcog = 3.78). These findings also lend support to H3b, because evidence for dual coding effects and the interaction stipulated in H3a is found for line extensions, but not new brands.

5

Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research

Ads for a line extension using a product related or nonrelated visual lead to a more positive response than ads without a visual. This is consistent with schema theory (Braun-LaTour and LaTour, 2004) and the congruity principle (Mandler, 1982). As expected, for a new brand, incongruent visuals lead to a significant more negative Aad than ads with a congruent visual or no visual. This is in line with the Persuasion Knowledge mechanism (Friestad and Wright, 1994). As people are more highly motivated to process information about a new brand, an non-product related visual will more easily be seen as manipulative. Our study shows that brand familiarity is an important moderator of the effect of nonproduct related visuals on ad attitude and cognition.

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Figure 3: Three-way Visual x Verbal Information x Brand Strategy interaction (Aad)

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Figure 4: Three-way Visual x Verbal Information x Brand Strategy interaction (Acog)

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In case of a line extension, adding verbal information results in a significantly more positive consumer ad reaction than an ad with no information. For a new brand, the effect of adding verbal information is not significant. Interestingly, providing extended information in ads for new brands seems as effective as providing no or just basic information. This is a result that is markedly distinct from the line extension finding, and is consistent with the Enrichment Hypothesis (Johnson and Russo, 1984). People confronted with an advertisement for a new brand cannot rely on existing schemas in memory, which will obstruct the processing of new information, while existing knowledge about the brand facilitates the learning of even a lot of new information, which, if positive, leads to more positive responses. The three-way interaction results lend support to dual encoding for line extensions, but not for new brands. This indicates that the moderation effect postulated in H2 that the effect of information is not as strong for new brands as for line extensions, is more important. The effect of additional information for new brands is minimal for all three visual conditions. The strongest effect of information seems to appear when the visual is nonrelated. Here, additional product information may help to make sense of the picture. Interestingly, we see that, with a product related visual, extended information leads to a decrease (although not significant) in both Aad and Acog. A picture in this case, might really be worth a 1000 words. Providing a lot of information on a new brand for which consumers have no schema and may not be capable of processing all the information, is perhaps overkill in that case. But as mentioned, these results should be interpreted with caution, as they were not significant. The results have implications for the advertising strategy of new brands and line extensions. When advertising a line extension, the best combination would be to rely on dual coding and provide both a visual (product related or not) with at least a basic amount of information. In new brand campaigns, providing too much information and especially nonproduct related visuals should be avoided. It should be noted that the current study only takes into account effects on advertising measures, Aad and Acog. Although advertising responses are often believed to affect brand attitude and purchase intention, further research should look into the effects on product related measures and behavior. Further research is also needed to expand the current results and test the effects on memory, elaboration and cognition. This study focused on a product category that for most people qualifies as utilitarian and involving. Future research should investigate to what extent visuals and verbal information lead to other effects for different types of products, such as low involvement and hedonic product types. The visual stimuli used in the present study were relatively congruent in that

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they were not confusing or irrelevant. However, strongly incongruent ads or pictures are often used to attract the attention. Future studies could investigate how these attention-getting techniques have a different effect on the evaluative responses to new and existing brands.

6

References

Aaker, D. A. & Keller, K. L. (1990), "Consumer evaluations of brand extensions," in: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 54 (1), 27-41. Babin, L. A. & Burns, A. C. (1997), "Effects of print ad pictures and cpoy containing instructions to imagine on mental imagery that mediates attitudes," in: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 16 (3), 3344. Bartlett, F. C. (1932), "Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology," Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. Boush, D. M.; Shipp, S.; Loken, B.; Gencturk, E.; Crockett, S. & Kennedy, E. (1987), "Affect and generalization to similar and dissimilar brand extensions," in: Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 4 (3), 225-237. Braun-LaTour, K. A. & LaTour, M. S. (2004), "Assessing the long-term impact of a consistent advertising campaign on consumer memory," in: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 33 (2), 49-61. Brennan, I. (2008), "Brand placement in novels," in: International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 27 (4), 495-509. Bridges, S.; Keller, K. L. & Sood, S. (2000), "Communication strategies for brand extensions: Enhancing perceived fit by establishing explanatory links," in: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29 (4), 1-11. Bulmer, S. & Buchanan-Oliver, M. (2006), "Advertising across cultures: Interpretations of visually complex advertising," in: Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Vol. 28 (1), 5771. Campbell, M. C. & Keller, K. L. (2003), "Brand familiarity and advertising repetition effects," in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 30 (2), 292-301. Dens, N.; De Pelsmacker, P. & Janssens, W. (2008), "Exploring consumer reactions to incongruent mild disgust appeals," in: Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 14 (4), 249-269. Dens, N. & De Pelsmacker, P. (2010), "How advertising strategy affects brand and USP recall for new brands and extensions," in: International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29 (2), 165-194. Fiske, S. T. & Pavelchak, M. A. (1986), "Category-based versus piecemeal-based affective responses: Developments in schema-triggered affect," in: Sorrentino, R. M.; Higgins, E. T. (eds.): The handbook of motivation and cognition, volume 1: Foundations of social behavior, Guilford, New York, 167-203. Friestad, M. & Wright, P. (1994), "The persuasion knowledge model: How people cope with persuasion attempts," in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 21, 1-31. Janssens, W.; De Pelsmacker, P. & Geuens, M. (2007), "Does a medium context have a priming or an interference effect? It depends on how you look at it," in: Proceedings of the Advances in Consumer Research, North America, 684-685. Johnson, E. J. & Russo, E. J. (1984), "Product familiarity and learning new information," in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 11 (June), 542-550. Kardes, F. R.; Posavac, S. S. & Cronley, M. L. (2004), "Consumer inference: A review of processes, bases, and judgment contexts," in: Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 14 (3), 230-256.

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Kent, R. J. & Allen, C. T. (1994), "Competitive interference effects in consumer memory for advertising: The role of brand familiarity," in: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 (3), 97-105. Kotler, P. (2000), "Marketing management," Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Lang, A. (2000), "The limited capacity model of mediated message processing," in: Journal of Communication, Vol. 50 (1), 46-70. Lee, A. Y. & Sternthal, B. (1999), "The effects of positive mood on memory," in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 26 (2), 115-127. Maheswaran, D.; Mackie, D. M. & Chaiken, S. (1992), "Brand name as a heuristic cue: The effects of task importance and expectancy confirmation on consumer judgments," in: Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 1 (4), 317-336. Erlbaum (1982), "The structure of value: Accounting for taste," Vol. pp. 3-36. Meyers-Levy, J. & Tybout, A. M. (1989), "Schema congruity as a basis for product evaluation," in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 16 (1), 39-54. Miniard, P. W., Bhatla, S., Lord, K. R., Dickson, P. R. & Unnava, H. R. (1991), "Picture-based persuasion processes and the moderating role of involvement," in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 18 (June), 92-107. Nabi, R. L., Roskos-Ewoldsen, D. & Carpentier-Dillman, F. (2008), "Subjective knowledge and fear appeal effectiveness: Implications for message design," in: Health Communication, Vol. 23 (2), 191-201. Nan, X. L. (2006), "Success factors of line extensions and fast- moving consumer goods," in: European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 (5/6), 450-469. Paivio, A.; Clark, J. M. & Lambert, W. E. (1988), "Bilingual dual- coding theory and semantic repetition effects on recall," in: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning memory and cognition, Vol. 14, 163-172. Park, J.-W.; Kim, K.-H. & Kim, J. (2002), "Acceptance of brand extensions: Interactive influences of product category similarity, typicality of claimed benefits, and brand relationship quality," in: Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 29 (1), 190-198. Puto, C. P. & Wells, W. D. (1984), "Informational and transformational advertising: The differential effects of time," in: Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 11 (1), 638-643. Rosch, E. & Mervis, C. B. (1975), "Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories," in: Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 7, 573-605. Rucker, D.D. & Petty, R.E. (2006), "Increasing the effectiveness of communications to consumers: Recommendations based on elaboration likelihood and attitude certainty perspectives," in: Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 25 (1), 39-52. Wood, W. & Kallgren, C.A. (1988), "Communicator attributes and persuasion: Recipients' access to attitude- relevant information in memory," in: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 14 (1), 172-182.

Part VII

Media and Agency

Assessing the Quality of Self-reported Measures and the Reliability of Empirical Findings: Exploring Creativity Differences across Worldwide Agency Creatives and Managers Sheila Sasser, Eastern Michigan University, USA Scott Koslow , Waikato Management School, New Zealand Mark Kilgour, Waikato Management School, New Zealand

1

Introduction

Research often emphasizes that creativity is the most critical element for advertising effectiveness in the marketplace (Ang et al., 2007; West et al., 2008; El-Murad and West, 2004; Smith et al., 2007). Given its importance it is not surprising that there has been an exponential growth in creativity research (Sasser and Koslow, 2008a). This research includes influences on audience members’ processing (Goldenberg and Mazursky, 2008; Ang et al., 2007; Smith et al., 2007; Pieters et al., 1999), creative template techniques (Goldenberg et al., Solomon, 1999), remote conveying (Rossiter, 2008) or other approaches (West et al., 2008; Kover, 1995). Social environment impacts on advertising creativity (Li et al., 2008), and client organizational influences on creativity (Sasser and Koslow, 2008a; Koslow et al., 2006) have also been studied. Such research progress has enabled a renewed emphasis on empirical creativity studies, although many researchers must still rely heavily on self reported data, given the nature of the industry and confidentiality agreements. This often leads to questions of whether or not any bias is evident in such data due to the nature of self report and disclosure. For example, researchers query creatives and account managers to provide estimations of campaigns that they personally worked on along with their other team members collaboratively. Originality and strategy are assessed based upon the responses and analyzed along with other independent variables collected from the same individuals. A typical concern is the potential for common methods variance, whether warranted or not, so this chapter probes such a scenario to provide insight for researchers. Independent of this effect, another issue may arise as to whether the perspectives held by creatives or account managers slant the findings. The goal of this chapter is to delve into such measurement concerns, triangulating two studies using creatives and account managers. First, selfS. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_23, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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reported assessments of creatives and account managers are compared with outside, independent evaluations. Specifically, the assessments of seasoned creatives of their own work’s originality are compared to the assessments of outside independent judges. Likewise, seasoned account executives also assess their own work for being on-strategy, and these self-assessments are compared to those of outside independent judges. Overall, there is a high level of agreement between creatives’ self-assessments of originality and those of independent judges. Similarly, there is also high agreement between account executives’ self-assessments of strategy and those of independent judges. The findings support the contention that common methods variance is not a serious concern for respondents reporting on assessments or judgements in their own domain of expertise. Second, an analysis of the self report survey data collected from an ongoing global study named AdCrisp© is prepared only using stratified groups with high levels of expertise in their particular domain. The point is to assess if this has any influence on results by taking a primary slice of the data set for measurement purposes and comparison. For example, only seasoned creatives are used to predict originality and only experienced account executives are polled to predict strategy. Five of the major effects of primary interest in this field of research inquiry were analyzed. Overall, earlier findings were supported under scrutiny and the earlier effects still held under these conditions. Although more research is needed, it is concluded that self-assessments can provide solid measurements as a basis for study. This is critical because without professional and practitioner self-assessments, scholars would be solely reliant on student data that may lack external validity and be difficult to replicate in the real world.

2

Theoretical Background

Before examining common methods bias issues, a brief review of this area of research is required. Increasingly, researchers have been advancing what we know about advertising creativity. The originality aspect of creative advertising breaks through clutter (Pieters et al., 2002) allowing creative advertisements to elicit more consumer attention (Till and Baack, 2005). Attention leads to deeper processing, enhanced attitudes and higher persuasion. Originality draws attention, while appropriateness prompts engagement and strategy elicits action. In addition to customer views of advertising creativity, practitioner perspectives have also been examined (West et al., 2008.). Engagement in the creative process is evolving to include consumers, clients, and agency executives (Sasser 2008, Phelps et al., 2004) as digital environments streamline interaction and activate social media platforms.

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It is essential to fully understand the agency and client co-creation process as it is now quickly expanding to include other stakeholders such as consumers. This may further complicate the elusive task of identifying latent or obscure factors impacting judgments, self-report assessments, and possibly agreements of what constitutes creativity. As polling and voting for winners coupled with immediate feedback on creative alternatives become increasingly common, traditional measures of creativity and measurement may be impacted. A creativity CCI model uses PLS structural equation modelling to examine relationships and factors between the agency and client as co-creators across concept dimensions (Sasser et al., 2008). Surprisingly, clients often approve risky novel interactive digital media campaigns with far less testing, measurement, and substantiation than they require for highly creative breakthrough campaigns, yet this standard does not seem to apply for pushing the edge of the creativity envelope (Sasser et al., 2007). This sets a dangerous precedent when entering the new era of co-creation, as agency-client relationships utilize and prompt consumer involvement and feedback. What future role will consumer stakeholders play in agency-client creativity? Thus, it may be useful to take a look at some of the historical creativity issues. When clients work with advertising agencies, creativity is often the primary trait sought (Griffin et al., 1999). At the onset of a relationship, the most crucial issue is typically the creativity of the agency (Waller, 2004: Henke, 1995) as evidenced across new business pitches. When the business is new and subject to a new start or greater risk-taking, there may be a bit more freedom to explore. However, as the relationship ages, strategy and appropriateness may supplant raw originality and creativity, due to numerous factors. Issues like performance, communications, and trust also emerge and may dominate the agency client relationship (Davies and Prince, 2005; Waller, 2004; Henke, 1995; West and Paliwoda, 1995), but creativity is still critical. Political gamesmanship is often deemed negative. However, properly directed politics may actually facilitate a client decision when there is insecurity in the decision making process, or when there is a highly creative “riskier” campaign (Sasser and Koslow, 2008b) that may deliver a needed outcome and there is nothing left to lose. Across a number of articles, results from creativity researchers have produced a series of similar findings. For example, (Koslow et al., 2003) found that creatives believe that originality is the most important factor while account managers are more concerned about strategy. This research actually resulted in a useful formula for creativity that many scholars previously thought impossible. The client impact on creativity was examined in the next article that clearly illustrated the power of their willingness to explore new ideas (Koslow, Sasser and Riordan, 2006). This work also showed that when clients are willing

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to accept creative ideas, they are also more likely to champion or seek out a genuinely creative campaign. And they will reject work if it is not creative enough. Although campaigns expected to be copy-tested are not less creative, a copy-test decreases the likelihood of a client using a campaign. Finally, agencies have ways of swaying clients to accept highly creative work by playing organizational politics (Sasser and Koslow, 2008b). West (1999) and West and Berthon (1997) also note that clients are often afraid to take creative risks. Despite all of these advances in understanding the effect of creativity, measurement limitations still are a concern. Much of the research uses either student samples which has obvious limitations on external validity (Kilgour and Koslow 2009a), or practitioner self-assessments. It would be ideal to collect professional responses and then assess the work independently. However, collecting such desirable data has proven almost impossible in field settings due to confidentiality concerns by respondents. For example, AdCrisp© and EuroCrisp© yield ongoing international data sets comprised of nearly 2,000 creative campaigns that have been collected across global markets. These studies are based on major worldwide client accounts with substantial billings. Such competitive global clients resist many open research designs that might compromise their strategic position. Li et al (2008) is one of the few studies that combines self-assessment with external assessments, by focusing on campaigns that have been submitted to awards. The Li et al (2008) study is then, by design, a censored population subject to other complications and stipulations. It is essential to better understand self-assessments and how to mitigate any problems they introduce, given the other obstacles to data collection and measurement. Although self-reported dependent and independent measures may lead to potential common methods bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003), some scholars (Spector, 2006) contend that concerns over the bias are greatly overrated. (Podsakoff et al., 2003) also note that when common methods bias is present, it usually has an affect on all measures and not just a selected few. That is, methods bias is rarely perceived as interacting with a limited set of items in a questionnaire. “The existing empirical evidence suggests that these interactions may be fairly rare in research settings, and even when they do occur, they are generally weak,” (Podsakoff 2003, p. 897). Thus it is rare that an interaction term between two measures could be spuriously produced. Prior work using the AdCrisp© and EuroCrisp© data set has generally used interactions, but this research which did not use interactions, still reports consistent findings generally the same as previously published results. After replication and testing across a variety of measures including structural equation modelling, the findings exhibit consistency and hold up under intense scrutiny.

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Concurrently in the research design stage, (Podsakoff et al., 2003) recommendations to prevent methods bias by improving research procedures: 1) separating measurements, 2) protecting anonymity, 3) counterbalancing question order and 4) improving scale items were followed. First, elicitation of the dependent and independent measures was separated by another section of the questionnaire that asked for factual classifications of the campaigns, as a cross check. This is appropriate because it allows for previously recalled information to be cleared from short term memory before proceeding to another set of related questions. Second, anonymity was strongly protected and subjects were informed that the study was confidential in advance and again at the end of the response period. Third, question order was also counterbalanced. Finally, to reduce ambiguity of items, the AdCrisp© and EuroCrisp© questionnaires were subjected to two stages of pretesting and revisions before the final version was produced. Multiple language translations of the instrument also follow this process. Such methods hopefully limit common methods variance, as it is continually scrutinized and checked.

3

Study 1: Actor-Observer Differences in Creativity Assessments

Some recent findings suggest validation tests to determine if research findings are susceptible to CMV. Kilgour and Koslow (2009b) compare self-reports to the evaluation of advertising agency creatives and account executives. This work focuses on other issues regarding advertising creativity, but draws on some issues relevant to CMV. A brief summary of this research is offered here, but emphasis is made on the CMV issues. Subjects were asked to develop creative campaigns based on given criteria. There were 49 creatives and 56 account executives. Each developed three campaigns for a hypothetical brand of household product. Several other manipulations were used that are not relevant to the work here. Respondents evaluated their own work, and a jury of four external judges also evaluate the same work. The items used were five items for originality and five additional items for strategy. These items have been previously used in earlier studies (e.g., Koslow et al., 2003; Koslow, Sasser et al., 2006). O-mode factor analysis was used to show the agreement among judges and the respondent. This mode of factor analysis is similar to traditional R-mode factor analysis, in which items are assessed for how they co-vary. The difference is that O-mode analysis focuses on several judges (rather than items), to see how well different judges’ assessments co-vary. Ideally, all judges should

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load on a single factor similar to how related items load on a single factor. Readers familiar with Cronbach’s coefficient alpha should note that alpha can be derived from the ratios of variances from this analysis. Kilgour and Koslow (2009b) aimed to show that judges gave scores similar to highly skilled professionals. Seasoned creatives were held as the gold standard on assessments of advertisements’ originality, while seasoned account executives would serve as the standard for assessing how on-strategy campaigns were. Most of the creative pool of subjects and the majority of the account executives subjects were considered seasoned and only these were used in the analysis. Thus, there would be two O-mode analyses: one for creatives assessing originality and the other for account executives assessing strategy. The loadings for seasoned creatives are listed in Table 1. As shown, all four judges and the self assessments load on a signal factor, with loadings all above .6. Likewise in Table 2, the assessment for the four judges plus the seasoned account executive’s self assessments are factor analysed. Again, all loadings are above .6. Table 1: O-Mode Factor Analysis: Originality Assessments by Creatives and Judges

Judge A Judge C Judge E Judge R Self

Loading .660 .667 .727 .639 .638

Table 2: O-Mode Factor Analysis: Strategy Assessments by Account Executives and Judges

Loading Judge A Judge C Judge E Judge R Self

.818 .749 .748 .721 .630

Findings show that external judges’ evaluations closely match respondent self reports in several key situations. In measurements of campaign originality, responses of seasoned creative staff match those of external judges, so there

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appears to be agreement upon campaign originality. When measuring how appropriate or on-strategy campaigns are, the responses of seasoned account executive staff also match those of external judges. Thus, researchers may be fairly confident that self-report data drawn from seasoned creatives and account executives does not appear to be affected by CMV, as shown in the study 1 exercise.

4

Hypotheses Development

Given that creatives and account executives can be good judges of their own work, the next question is whether just focusing on these judgements changes results found in previous studies. Thus, this chapter will now review and hopefully replicate several key effects previously found. There is a case to be made that intrinsic motivation impacts originality in campaign creativity particularly at senior creative levels. Client openness or willingness to explore is also postulated to impact originality in campaign creativity, and appropriateness in campaign strategy. Consumer research is thought to impact appropriateness in campaign strategy. Politics is identified as possibly having an effect on appropriateness in campaign strategy creativity. Therefore the following hypothesis can be offered: H1: Intrinsic motivation increases the “originality” of a campaign. H2: Client openness to explore increases the “originality” of a campaign. H3: Client openness to explore increases how “on-strategy” a campaign is. H4: Consumer research usage increases how “on-strategy” a campaign is. H5: Politics decreases how “on-strategy” a campaign is.

The question for researchers in this particular study is whether or not restricting research to these measures and respondents indeed alters the findings. When the focus is solely placed on predicting how “on-strategy” or “appropriate” using senior account managers, do previously reported findings change? Alternatively, if only seasoned creatives are used to predict “originality,” do previously reported findings change?

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Study 2: Predicting Creativity and Comparing Self Report Data

Consistent with other creativity studies (West et al., 2008; Li et al., 2008), this study was based on questionnaires collected from agency executives. This research was part of a larger advertising creativity study that is now a global survey in multiple languages. Called the Advertising Creativity and Integration Strategy Project or AdCrisp© and EuroCrisp©, this on-going study’s data set has been used in a variety of other articles (e.g., Sasser et al., 2007; Koslow et al., 2006). Over 400 respondents from different advertising agency offices reported on up to three of their most recent campaigns, for a total sample of 1188 campaigns out of the larger data set. Views were solicited from creative, media, research and account and other executives via questionnaires. Study 2 takes a subset of creatives and account executives and replicates prior regression analyses to see if findings hold. From study 1, it was shown that seasoned creatives and account executives have fairly objective self assessments. In study 2, similar subjects’ self assessments were used to predict originality and strategy using a variety of independent variables.

5.1

Data Collection

The stratified sampling frame targeted the 30 top worldwide advertising agencies across the top global public holding companies. These agencies serviced representative categories of clients in packaged goods, foods, entertainment, services, automotive, retail, durables, military, and manufacturers, so as to not be biased to any one type of industry or area. Given the worldwide designation, the agencies offered fully integrated marketing communications, traditional Agency of Record creative services, planning, strategy, media, direct, channel, customer relationship, interactive digital, data base, and public relations skills. Invitations were extended by area to agency staff who had been involved in at least three major recent client campaigns. Due to questionnaire length, a personal intercept method was employed so surveys were distributed in person to individuals and groups of agency employees during the normal business day with permission of human resources, public relations contacts and appropriate managers. Respondents were ranked based on demographic profiling on the instrument to determine qualifications, experience, years in the business and areas that they had worked in at the agency. Only those meeting the same standard of seasoned creatives and account executives used in study 1 were used in this analysis.

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Thus, 85 senior account managers were used in this analysis plus an entirely separate distinctive set of 85 senior creatives for matching. The account managers reported on 247 campaigns and the creatives reported on 255 The AdCrisp© and EuroCrisp© questionnaires use self-reports. A major advantage of self-report is that only those with a close familiarity with a campaign will understand the constraints placed on it—something of which an external judge is rarely aware. Only if one knows the detailed case history could one also reasonably judge such a campaign’s creativity. Amabile (1996) also notes that self-reports of creative behavior are good measures when the respondents frequently have their work evaluated whether by copytesting, or creative director peer scrutiny, as is common in agencies. This results in some benchmarking norms that are understood for campaign development.

5.2

Measures

Thirteen independent variables were used in this analysis. The constructs are comprised of the major constructs resulting from prior factor analysis research. Based on qualitative interviews from another phase of this research, a questionnaire was designed upon the words and phrases used by advertising agency employees in focus groups and interviews. Measures include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Use of copytesting Intrinsic motivation Client sophistication Client willingness to explore Time pressure Politics Budget tightness Client’s brief contains strategy Availability of consumer research Client’s position in their hierarchy Supportiveness of the agency’s culture for good creative work Agency structure Client’s decision apprehension

These scales were measures with 40 items, most with a minimum of 3 items per scale. The variance explained was 69% with all items loading as expected. Due to the large number of items relative to the number of observations, some instability was observed, but this was minor at best and did not impact results. Most items loaded above .7, with all but four above .6. Three items loaded

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greater than .5 (.58, .57 and .50), and one at .47. Some correlation among items was observed, as well, but it was moderate. Cronbach’s alphas were mostly above .7 and ranged from .62 to .82. All commonalities were above .6 except for one at .58. Given this analysis was a replication of prior analyses where the items fit well, this was considered acceptable for the current exercise in this chapter. The analysis could have been cleaned up by dropping some items, but this was again rejected to be more conservative since dropping problematic items did not really change any later analyses. The dependent variables of originality and strategy were also analysed for internal consistency using factor analysis. Four items for strategy were used and five for originality. The variance explained was 74% and with two factors. All items loaded as expected with high loadings above .7. Cronbach’s alphas were .84 and .93 respectively.

5.3

Findings

Using the SAS system, two stepwise regression analyses were conducted. The first process involved the stepwise procedure for originality as a dependent variable and the second analysis utilized the stepwise procedure modelling strategy as a dependent variable. All variables were scaled and centered prior to analysis. The best fitting model for originality explained 56% of the variance and the best one for strategy explained 37%. No interaction terms were used. Figure 1 graphs the results for those variables significant in either one or the other models. Four variables were not significant in either model. These were agency culture, budget tightness, copytesting and politics. However, politics had a marginal influence on strategy, as it often does under certain conditions.

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Figure 1: Parameters predicting originality and strategy from stepwise regression

H1 is accepted based upon the model, as intrinsic motivation has the highest impact on originality in campaign creativity with high values. H2 is also accepted since openness to explore has the second highest impact (refer to Table 4) on originality. H3 is accepted due to the finding in the model that client openness to explore also has an impact (refer to Table 5) on how on-strategy a campaign is. H4 is accepted in that consumer research usage has a major impact on how strategic a campaign is. However, H5 is marginally accepted in that politics impacts appropriateness of strategy in campaign creativity, (refer to Table 5) but not to the extreme level of the first two independent variables. Information from the stepwise regression output for two models conveys: 1) originality as predicted by these measures using only senior creatives, and 2) appropriateness as predicted by these measures using only senior account managers. Overall, there is strong support for the main findings of prior self reported survey research. First, the best single predictor of originality continues to be intrinsic motivation. The best predictors of appropriateness are use of consumer research and client openness. Sample stratification may be very useful if researchers are facing hurdles or experiencing common methods bias issues, particularly with global samples of self report data.

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Discussion: Addressing Potential Common Methods Bias

Creativity researchers have previously found that extrinsic motivation is not as powerful as intrinsic motivation (Amabile, 1996). This study supports the notion that intrinsic motivation is critical for inspiring creativity. Highly creative original and strategically appropriate advertising is indeed a function of intrinsic motivation, client openness to new ideas and a willingness to explore (Sasser and Koslow 2008b; Koslow, et al.,2006). Or in the case of politics and research, it may be a measure of how desperate clients are to achieve their goals (West and Berthon, 1997). This validation of self-report research data confirms such earlier research findings and replicates the results of previous researchers in the field of advertising creativity.

7

References

Amabile, T. (1996), Creativity in Context. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press Ang, S., Lee, Y. & Leong, S. (2007). The Ad Creativity Cube: Conceptualization and Initial Validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 35 (2), 220-232. Davies, M. & Prince, M. (2005). Dynamics of Trust between Clients and Their Advertising Agencies: Advances in Performance Theory. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 11, 1-32. Goldenberg, J. & Mazursky, D. (2008). When Deep Structure Surface: Repetitions that Can Repeatedly Surprise. Journal of Advertising, 37 (4), 21–34. Goldenberg, J. & Mazursky, D. & Solomon, S. (1999). The Fundamental Templates of Quality Ads. Marketing Science, 18 (3), 333-351. Griffin, G. (2008). From Performance to Mastery: Developmental Models of the Creative Process. Journal of Advertising, 37 (4), 99-113. Griffin, T., D., McArthur, T., Yamaki & Hidalgo, P. (1998). Ad Agencies’ Performance and Role in Providing Communication Services in Chile, Japan and the United States. Journal of Advertising Research, 38 (September/October), 65-75. Henke, L. (1995). A Longitudinal Analysis of the Ad Agency-Client Relationship: Predictors of an Agency Switch. Journal of Advertising Research, 35 (March/April), 24-30. Kilgour, M. & Koslow, S. (2009a). Why and How Do Creative Thinking Techniques Work?: Trading Off Originality and Appropriateness To Make More Creative Advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37 (3), 298-309. Kilgour, M. & Koslow, S. (2009b). If Creative Thinking Techniques Are So Great, Why Aren’t They Used More? Actor-Observer Differences. Informs Marketing Science Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 4-6 June, 27-29. Koslow, S., Sasser, S. & Riordan, E. (2003). What Is Creative to Whom and Why? Perceptions in Advertising Agencies. Journal of Advertising Research, 43 (1) (March), 96-110. Koslow, S., Sasser, S. & Riordan, E. (2006). Do Marketers Get the Advertising They Need or the Advertising They Deserve?: Agency Views of How Clients Influence Creativity. Journal of Advertising, 35 (3), Fall, 85-105. Kover, A. (1995). Copywriters' Implicit Theories of Communication: An Exploration. Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (March), 596-611. Li, H., Dou, W., Wang, G., & Zhou, N. (2008) The Effect of Agency Creativity on Campaign Outcome: The Moderating Role of Market Conditions. Journal of Advertising, 37 (4), 109-120.

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Phelps, J., Lewis R., Mobilio, L., Perry, D. & Raman, N. (2004). Viral Marketing or Electronic Word-of-Mouth Advertising: Examining Consumer Responses and Motivations to Pass Along Email. Journal of Advertising Research, 44 (4) December: 333-348. Pieters, R., Rosbergen, E. & Wedel, M. (1999). Visual Attention to Repeated Print Advertising: A Test of Scanpath Theory. Journal of Marketing Research, 36 (November), 424-438. Pieters, R., Warlop, L. & Wedel, M. (2002). Breaking through the Clutter: Benefits of Advertisement Originality and Familiarity for Brand Attention and Memory. Management Science, 48 (6), 765-781. Podsakoff, P., Mackenzie, S., Lee, J. Y. & Podsakoff, N. (2003). Common Method Bias in Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (5), 879-903. Rossiter, J. (2008). The Nature and Purpose of ‘Creativity’ in an Ad. Journal of Advertising, 37 (4), 139-144. Spector, P. (2006). Method Variance in Organizational Research: Truth or Urban Legend? Organizational Research Methods, 9 (2), 221-232. Sasser, S. (2008). Creating Passion to Engage versus Enrage Consumer Co-Creators with Agency Co-Conspirators: Unleashing Creativity. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 25(3), 183-186. Sasser, S. & Koslow, S. (2008a). Desperately Seeking Advertising Creativity. Journal of Advertising, 37 (4), 1-10. Sasser, S. & Koslow, S. (2008b). The Creative Advertising Development Process: Is Organizational Politics a Recipe for Disaster or a Dysfunctional Antidote? New Trends in Advertising Research, Chapter 5, 103-119, Lisbon, Portugal: Silabo. Sasser, S., Merz R. & Koslow, S. (2008). A Global Creativity Model Emerges: Evolving a Theoretical and Empirical Framework for the CCI Campaign Creativity Index. International Conference on Research in Advertising, European Advertising Academy, June 27-28, Antwerp, Belgium. Sasser, S. , Koslow, S. & Riordan, E. (2007). Creative and Interactive Media Use by Agencies: Engaging an IMC Media Palette for Implementing Advertising Campaigns. Journal of Advertising Research, 47 (3), 237-256. Smith, R., MacKenzie, S., Yang, X., Buchholz, L. & Darley, W. (2007). Modelling the Determinants and Effects of Creativity in Advertising. Marketing Science, 26 (6), 819-833. Waller, D. (2004). Developing an Account-Management Lifecycle for Advertising Agency-Client Relationships. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 22 (1), 95-112. West, D. (1999). 360° of Creative Risk. Journal of Advertising Research, 39 (January/February), 39-50. West, D. & Berthon, P. (1997). Antecedents of Risk-Taking Behavior by Advertisiers: Empirical Evidence and Management Implications. Journal of Advertising Research, 37 (September/October), 27-40. West, D., Kover, A. & Caruana, A. (2008). Practitioner and Customer Views of Advertising Creativity: Same Concept, Different Meaning? Journal of Advertising, 37 (4), 35-45. West, C. & Paliwoda, S. (1996). Advertising Client-Agency Relationships: The Decision Structure of Clients. European Journal of Marketing, 30 (8), 22-39.

Public Opinion towards Digital Billboards in the United States: An Analysis of Recent Polls Charles R. Taylor, Villanova University, USA George R. Franke, University of Alabama, USA

1

Executive Summary

This study built on the results of a prior meta-analysis of public opinion toward billboards to identify relevant issues and examine the available evidence on the American public’s view of digital billboards. In general, consistent with the Taylor and Franke (2005) meta-analysis, the results show favorable public opinion toward digital billboards as well as the major provisions of the Highway Beautification Acts. The study examined all public opinion polls that have been conducted since 2006 that focused on digital billboards or billboards in general in a state where digital billboards existed at the time of the study. The polls were analyzed individually in light of key issues identified by the Taylor and Franke (2005) meta-analysis. While public attitudes toward digital billboards are found to be similar to those toward traditional billboards in prior polls, there are also some unique aspects of digital billboards that appear to affect public opinion. The results of surveys that have examined public opinion toward digital billboards specifically, document that a majority of the respondents see benefits associated with digital billboards. As a result, it is clear that a substantial majority of Americans would not favor a ban on digital billboards. In terms of the benefits of digital billboards, the public overwhelmingly recognizes the public service role played by such billboards in helping provide emergency information. A large majority also believe that digital billboards both provide useful information and help businesses. While the public is somewhat split on the degree to which billboards are attractive, the studies that have examined this directly find that more Americans find billboards to be attractive in comparison to those who find them unattractive. It is also the case that surveys have shown that most respondents S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_24, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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believe that billboards are a “cool way to advertise,” indicative of enjoyment of the use of a new technology.

2

Introduction

The regulation of billboards has been a longstanding source of debate in the U.S. for several years. A study examining public opinion toward billboards by Taylor and Franke (2005), however, concluded that public opinion was largely consistent with the Highway Beautification Act, which is a primary piece of regulation addressing outdoor advertising regulation at the federal level. The past decade has seen the emergence and growth of digital billboards and renewed debate on outdoor advertising regulation as a result of the presence of a growing number of these billboards. Yet, to date, no published academic research has focused on public opinion toward digital billboards. The purpose of this paper is to assess public opinion toward billboards using a multi-method approach that involves both the analysis of three major surveys of attitudes toward billboards and six focus groups conducted on the topic of the regulation of digital billboards. The specific research questions to be investigated are as follows: 1. Are attitudes of the U.S. public toward digital billboards fundamentally different than attitudes toward static billboards? 2. What unique issues exist with respect to public opinion toward digital billboards? The paper will be providing an overview of the advent and growth of digital billboards. This will be followed by an overview of the debate over digital billboards and a review of prior literature of public opinion toward billboards. The review of prior literature and results of a meta-analysis by Taylor and Franke (2005) are used as a basis for identifying key questions relevant to digital billboards that have been assessed in more recent public opinion polls. Finally, recommendations for business and policy makers are provided.

2.1

Digital Billboards

Digital billboards, technically referred to as commercial electronic variable message signs, are based on new technology that allows billboard operators and advertisers to change messages quickly. In essence, when converted to a digital billboard, what was once a static billboard capable of carrying only one message

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at a time can change appearance to cycle through multiple messages. This allows for content from multiple advertisers on the same billboard and also allows for the same company to change its message throughout the day as might the case for a restraurant offering breakfast, lunch and dinner specials (OAAA 2009). The number of messages carried on a single billboard varies by advertiser and billboard. However, as is the case with static billboards, most of the messages (77.1%) are placed by locally owned businesses (Taylor and Franke 2003; Taylor et al., 2005, OAAA 2009). The average length of a static message on a digital billboard varies between 4 and 10 seconds, depending on state and local regulations. According to the Federal Highway Administation (2007), 8 seconds is a period that states can consider as a standard. As of early 2010, there were approximately 1,800 digital billboards in the U.S., with several hundred units being projected to be added annually over the next 10 years. Digital billboards are currently permitted in nearly 350 cities/localities and have been installed in practically all states that allow billboards. Digital billboards have the capacity to generate 3 to 5 times as much revenue as a result of attracting multiple advertisers (Story, 2007). Because of the greater flexibility of the message combined with allowing additional access to prime billboard locations, it appears that demand for digital billboards will continue to grow. However, as with static billboards, there is some controversy surrounding the use and growth of digital billboards.

2.2

Debate over Digital Billboards

Critics of digital billboards cite aesthetic issues, economic impact issues, environmental issues and traffic safety issues as concerns about digital billboards and argue that they should be banned (Scenic America 2009). Regarding aesthetics, a presentation on Scenic America’s website asserts that “On-premise digital displays with motion can be particularly garish,” and lists aesthetic concerns as a major heading in a presentation titled “What’s wrong with digital signs.” In a separate report, they assert that donated advertising space and Amber alerts “cannot compensate for the threat to public safety or the aesthetic harm done by digital signs.” The aesthetic critique is consistent with longstanding criticism by some critics of billboards that they are aesthetically displeasing (see Taylor and Taylor 1994 and Vespe 1997). Opponents of billboards have also traditionally argued that billboards have a negative impact on a community (Taylor and Taylor 1994’ Vespe 1997). In the context of digital signs, America (2009) asserts that property values can be

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harmed as a result of digital signs, suggesting that economic impact remains in force as a criticism. While the final two critiques, traffic safety and environmental issues are not the focus of this study due to a lack of public opinion polls covering these topics, a brief overview of criticisms on these grounds and industry response will be provided. As stated in the report, “Billboards in the Digital Age. Unsafe (and Unsightly) At Any Speed,” argues that digital billboards represent a distraction that often attracts a driver’s attention for more than two seconds because they are bright and colorful and change messages quickly. They emphasize that the changing message attracts attention and also suggest that research studies favor the notion that digital billboards are unsafe: “Proponents of digital billboards say nobody has ever proven that they increase traffic accidents. This statement is only partially true. Some studies have shown a link between digital billboards (as well as static boards) and traffic safety problems, while others remained inconclusive. Importantly, no objective studies have shown them to be safe, nor have studies been conducted since these signs started to proliferate.” They go on to criticize two studies, one by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and another by Tantala and Associates that show no link between digital billboards and traffic safety, noting that they were funded by the outdoor advertising industry. A final criticism made by billboard critics is that there is a negative environmental impact based on energy consumption and the “carbon footprint” left by billboards using LED technology. In contrast to the position of critics of the billboard industry, proponents argue that a majority of the public is favorable to digital billboards on aesthetic grounds and that public opinion polls document this (OAAA 2009). Moreover, the industry argues that billboards have a positive economic impact on a community by allowing businesses to get their message out, providing the public with useful information on businesses and services available and by creating employment (Taylor 1997). In terms of traffic safety, the industry cites a significant volume of research that has not identified a link between billboards in general and traffic accidents as well as the results of the two aforementioned studies that were sponsored by the Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research. One key finding of the Virginia Tech study was that the average glance toward a digital billboards was under one second, less than the threshold for increased risk due to distraction. The Tantala study analyzed traffic accident data in Cleveland Ohio and found no statistically significant relationship between the presence of digital billboards

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and traffic accidents. Industry supporters also point out that off-premise digital signs are regulated more strictly than on-premise signs as the federal level. As noted by Birdsall (2008, p.23), “Federally regulated off-premise digital billboards are not permitted to flash, scroll, or feature full-motion video or animation, unlike on-premise signs at locations such as movie theaters, which may contain these elements. Off-premise digital billboards must display a static image for 6 to 8 seconds before changing to the next advertisement.” Indeed, a Federal Highway Administration memorandum issued in 2007 clearly states that billboards are not “flashing, intermittent or moving” signs (FHWA 2007). Regarding environmental impact of billboards, the industry notes that brightness levels on signs are controlled by a light sensor. The sensor dims the billboard as appropriate when the sun is not at full brightness, thereby using the minimum amount of light to allow for legible copy (OAAA 2009).

3

Prior Research

As both past and current public opinion polls on billboards have not focused on safety and energy consumption concerns, this study’s focus is on aesthetic issues and the impact of billboards on the economy. As a basis for identifying relevant issues that apply to digital billboards on which polls have been conducted, we draw on a meta-analysis conducted by Taylor and Franke (2005) that examined public opinion toward issues associated with billboard regulation. Consistent with federal regulation of billboards, the Taylor and Franke study focused on the consistency of public opinion with the major provisions of the Highway Beautification Act (HBA) of 1965 (Taylor and Taylor 1994) . The HBA (23 US 131) is the single most important piece of legislation regulating outdoor advertising in the United States). It established controls on the FederalAid Primary, Interstate, and the National Highway System The HBA provides a comprehensive regulatory framework for outdoor advertising (Taylor and Chang 1995). Among the major provisions of the HBA is a restriction on billboards to areas zoned commercial and industrial by local authorities. The Act also created size, lighting, and spacing requirements. Additionally, the HBA permitted states and localities to enact stricter regulatory restriction and prohibite new billboards on portions of Interstates and Federal Aid-Primary roads designated as scenic. A final important aspect of the HBA was that states were allowed to remove nonconforming billboards (those already existing but not conforming to the restrictions imposed by the HBA) provided that billboard owners are paid just compensation for the loss of the billboard.

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Historically, parties on both sides of the debate over the HBA and the efficacy of outdoor advertising regulation cite public opinion polls to support their positions. For example, Scenic America (2000, fact sheet #5) cited opinion polls from six states in support of its claim that billboards are “ugly, intrusive, and uninformative.” Meanwhile, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America cites public opinion data in support of their arguments that billboards are helpful to consumers, travelers, and businesses and that most of the public find billboards to be interesting. In order to better assess the HBA’s consistency with public opinion, the Taylor and Franke (2005) study specifically examined the general public’s attitude toward major provisions of the HBA using a meta-analysis methodology in which the results of all available polls on a given question are combined. The purpose of the study was to establish norms for key variables of interest. In other words, the study computed averages across all methodologically sound public opinion polls related to key issues relevant to billboard regulation. Major questions on which norms (or averages) of public opinion polls were computed on the following issues: -

Whether the public supports a ban on billboards. Whether billboards provide information to travelers. Whether the public at large believes billboards are unattractive. Zoning issues (attitudes toward billboards zoned commercial and industrial). The advisability of height, lighting, and spacing requirements on billboards. Attitudes toward the taking of billboards and just compensation under the 5th Amendment.

As observed by Hunter and Schmidt (1990), meta-analysis is a useful tool for assessing a body of research. Meta-analysis is particularly effective in using a quantitative literature review as it allows researchers to 1) develop norms (or average effect sizes) based on numerous studies; and 2) resolve disputes in the literature (Abernethy and Franke 1996). Meta-analysis can also have important practical applications, especially when a topic is controversial or when a wide range of results have been cited by those interpreting these studies (Farley and Lehmann 1994; Abernethy and Franke 1996). The Taylor and Franke (2005) study developed a set of model questions shown as Appendix A. All prior public opinion polls conducted since the passage of the Highway Beautification Act that could be obtained were then

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examined for matches with these model questions. Fifty-one public opinion polls were obtained that explore the same aspect of outdoor advertising. After eliminating studies for which information on specific question wording could not be obtained, studies that did not attempt to draw a representative sample of a large population, and studies that did not ask a question that matched any of the model questions closely enough, thirty-six studies qualified for inclusion in the sample based on the criteria outlined above. Excluded studies generally did not ask any questions that matched the model questions shown in Appendix A, so virtually every major study that has examined these issues for since 1975 was included in the analysis. More than 26,000 respondents’ observations from the 36 studies were included in the analysis.

4 4.1

Method and Analysis Key Findings of the Taylor and Franke Meta-Analysis

For the twenty-four studies including more than 16,000 observations that measured public opinion toward banning billboards, the Taylor and Franke study found a norm of 21.25% indicating support for banning billboards in general. This finding is indicative of only a minority of Americans favoring an outright ban. Further analysis documented that this finding had been stable by decade. Taylor and Franke also reported on polls that had asked direct questions about specific aspects of billboards related to their value (see Table 1). One question that was asked across several polls is the degree to which billboards are useful to travelers. The norm for this question across 20 studies was 85%, indicative of a large majority of the respondents believing that billboards are useful to travelers, a finding that also held through all decades included in the study. Findings on other measures also supported the notion that the American public believes that billboards provide benefits to the public. The norm for agreement with the statement that billboards create jobs was over 80 percent of Americans surveyed believe that billboards create jobs and 82.2% of the public agreed that billboards help businesses attract customers. Additionally, on average, over 83% of those surveyed agreed that billboards are informative. And a majority of those polled (58.2%) agree that billboards are interesting. In terms of the potential costs of billboards to society, the meta-analysis found that the public split on whether billboards harm scenic beauty.

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Respondents to seven surveys who asked these questions averaged 50.1% agreement with the statement. For studies asking whether billboards are ugly, the norm was 43.2%. Additionally, just 27.8% of the public agreed that billboards are annoying in the studies that have asked that question. A key question analyzed by Taylor and Franke was whether the public believes the benefits of billboards outweigh any costs. When asked this question directly, 70.4% of respondents agreed that the benefits of billboards outweighed the costs.

Table 1: Norms from 36 Public Opinion Polls Norm

Number of Studies

n

In favor of a ban on billboard 21.3% advertising

24

16750

Allow billboards commercial/industrial areas

in 76.4%

11

8884

Billboards are useful to travelers

85.1%

20

15784

Billboards create jobs

80.1%

11

5479

attract 82.2%

10

4521

Billboards are interesting

58.2%

7

7344

Billboards are informative

83.7%

10

9969

The benefits of billboards outweigh 70.4% the costs

5

3700

Billboards spoil scenic beauty

50.1%

7

4065

Billboards are ugly

43.2%

4

5001

Billboards are annoying

27.8%

6

3617

Billboards customers

help

business

Just compensation billboard removed

provided

if 70.7%

10

6806

Public Opinion Towards Digital Billboards in the United States

4.2

381

Zoning Restrictions

The meta-analysis found that, consistent with the Highway Beautification Act’s zoning provisions, more than three-quarters of respondent favored billboards being allowed in areas zoned commercial and industrial.

4.3

Size, Spacing and Lighting Requirements

The Taylor and Franke study concluded that very few studies asked the public’s opinion on size, spacing, and lighting requirements for billboards. They indicate that those studies that have been conducted do tend to support the types of regulations provided for in the HBA.

4.4

Compensation for Billboard Removal

The study showed that more than 70% of the respondents expressed agreement with the idea that the government should pay just compensation to billboard owners when a billboard is removed. A total of 10 studies asked this question indicating that there is widespread support for just compensation.

4.5

Results of Recent Surveys on Digital Billboards

Because the increase in their use is relatively recent, an exhaustive search produced only a limited number of surveys of public opinion with a specific focus on digital billboards. As only five such surveys could be found, it is not possible to conduct a valid meta-analysis of surveys of digital billboards. However, information gleaned from these studies can be combined with the prior meta-analysis of public opinion towards billboards conducted by Taylor and Franke (2005) in order to arrive at an informed understanding of public opinion towards the regulation of digital billboards. What follows is an analysis of questions asked in five recent surveys, two conducted by Arbitron in Cleveland and Los Angeles, one by EPIC/MRA (2009), one conducted for Scenic Arizona by Behavior Research Center Inc., and one conducted for Scenic Georgia by American Viewpoint in 2009. It should be noted that the latter study did not have a specific focus on digital billboards but is included because of its recency and the presence of digital billboards in the State of Georgia. The two Arbitron studies were conducted for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. The data for Arbitron’s Cleveland study was collected in November and December, 2007. The study focused specifically on seven digital billboards operating in Cleveland, Ohio. A phone survey was conducted

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using random digit dialing supplemented by random selection to ensure a representative sample. 402 adult residents 18 or over participated in the study. The data for the Los Angeles study was collected in December 2008. Participants needed to be residents of Los Angeles County and 18 years or older. A total of 401 adults participated in the survey. The study also used random digit dialing supplemented by random selection to ensure representativeness. The EPIC*MRA study was a statewide poll of Michigan adults conducted by as part of a larger poll in October 2009. It was also a telephone survey using random digit dialing. A total of 600 people participated. The Behavioral Research poll (2005) was conducted for Scenic Arizona. It consisted of telephone interviews of 682 adult residents of Arizona and 525 registered voters. Unfortunately, none of the questions asked in that survey match the model question due to the question asked about billboard bans including a component specifically referring to 6 second changes in the message and, thus, asked about a specific provision in a specific bill as opposed to attitudes toward digital billboards. The American Viewpoint poll was conducted by Scenic Georgia. The report on the study available on Scenic America’s website indicates that 500 Georgia voters were interviewed, but does not indicate what type of interview procedure was used.

4.6

Analysis of Polls on Digital Billboards

The following sections will provide an analysis of the four usable polls that have been conducted on digital billboards. While many of the questions addressed in Taylor and Franke (2005) are touched on in one or more of these studies, the studies do not focus on the following issues: whether billboards create jobs, billboards attract new customers; spoil scenic beauty; are annoying; and whether just compensation should be provided if billboards are removed.

4.7

Opinions toward Bans on Digital Billboards

Arbitron’s (2008) study of digital billboards in Cleveland suggests that Cleveland area residents would not support a ban on digital billboards. According to the study (p.2), slightly more than half of Cleveland highway travelers noticed digital billboards within the month prior to when the survey

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was taken. While a specific question about a ban on digital billboards was not asked, 64% of the 402 adults surveyed characterized digital billboards as “A cool way to advertise,” (with just 19% disagreeing), while clear majorities thought billboards had current and relevant information (54% vs. 19%), provide useful information (46% vs. 23%, with 31% neutral), and are a good way to learn about new products (44% to 27%). Given the high positive numbers and low negative numbers on these dimensions it is apparent that the proportion of the public that do not see value in digital billboards is relatively low, and is a minority of the overall population. Arbitron’s (2009) survey of 401 adults in Los Angeles County asked specific questions about the general regulation of billboards. In particular, the survey asked residents whether they were aware of a proposal to legally restrict billboards in Los Angeles county and whether they thought this was an important issue. Results indicated that just 22% of the L.A. residents were aware of political or legal issues related to billboards, and just 6 percent thought it was an issue that was important to them, with 7% of those who were aware being neutral, and 9% believing the issue was not important. When asked specifically whether they liked, disliked or were indifferent and did not mind billboards either way, just 17% expressed dislike for billboards with 67% saying they were neutral or did not mind them either way, and 16% indicating that they liked billboards. The combined responses to these questions strongly suggest that a majority of L.A. residents would not favor banning all digital billboards. While Arbitron (2009) did not ask specific questions about banning digital billboards, the report concluded that “Los Angeles County residents recognize the advantages of digital signage.” Consistent with this statement, 73% of residents indicate they play a significant community service role while a majority indicated that billboards are attractive (47% vs. 32% of those giving non-neutral answers) and made their commute interesting (42% vs 38%). Combined with the regulatory questions, it is clear from this survey that a majority of L.A. residents would not favor banning digital billboards. The EPIC-MRA study asked Michigan residents whether the current level of billboard regulation, which includes size, lighting, and locational restrictions should be more stringent than current laws require, more lenient, or just right. Consistent with the prior Taylor and Franke meta-analysis, it is clear that there is not public sentiment for a ban, with just 27% indicating they want more stringent regulation. In contrast, 5 % preferred more lenient regulations, 63% thought the current laws were about right, and 5% were undecided or did not know.

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When respondents to the EPIC-MRA study were asked specifically about digital billboards, only half (50%) indicated that they had been exposed to some or a lot of such displays, while close to half (49%) responded that they had only been exposed to digital billboards a little or not at all. When asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of digital billboards as they are used in Michigan, 55% said their opinion was either very favorable (15%) or somewhat favorable (40%), while 29% possessed an unfavorable view. Sixteen percent of respondents were undecided or indicated that they did not know. An additional question EPIC.MRA asked in the survey was whether given a cap on the total number of billboards in Michigan, the residents favored allowing some billboards to be converted to digital displays in order to allow for more commercial space and charitable donations of space. A total of 53% either strongly favored or somewhat favored this proposal, with 38% strongly opposing or somewhat opposing it. The remaining 9% were undecided or did not know. When directly asked whether they would favor an outright ban on converting traditional billboards to digital billboards, a clear majority (58% vs. 32%) indicated they would oppose such a ban. Taken as whole, the results of these questions suggests that a majority of Michigan residents would not favor a ban on digital billboards. Results of the three surveys that have asked questions related to billboard bans produce results consistent with the Taylor and Franke (2005) study of traditional billboards. A large majority of those surveyed see advantages of digital billboards and would not favor a complete ban on them.

4.8

Usefulness of Digital Billboards to Travelers

The EPIC-MRA Michigan study asked a question to motorists as to the frequency at which they use outdoor advertising while travelling in Michigan to learn information or get directions to a business. The results indicated that 54% agreed that they used billboards for this purpose at least some of the time (36% some of the time, 12% most of the time, and 6% all of the time). 34% indicated that they seldom use billboards for this purpose and just 12% said they never use billboards for this purpose. While this question did not ask specifically about the context of tourism or vacationing, it nevertheless provides strong evidence that a majority of the public in Michigan finds billboards to provide information that is useful to them in finding businesses.

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Like the Michigan study, the Arbitron survey of Los Angeles residents did not focus directly on tourism. However, the study did find that 88% of residents exposed to billboards and 83% of those exposed to digital billboards notice advertising messages at least some of the time. A substantial proportion of the respondents reported learning about a store they later visited (37%) or a restaurant they later actually visited from a billboard. Many respondents also reported that they learned or have been reminded to listen to a radio station (57%) or watch a television program based on seeing roadside billboards. A significant number also indicated that they have learned a web address (31%) or phone number (31%) from a roadside billboard. As reported above, it is also the case that by a 55% to 20% margin, it is also the case that the residents believed that billboards provide useful information. Similar to the Los Angeles study, the Arbitron (2008) study of Cleveland motorists did not have a direct focus on tourism. However, 90% of respondents indicate that they noticed advertising messages at least some of the time. Moreover, 83% of the motorists recalled at least one actual ad that had run in this last 30 days on an aided recall basis. A significant number of the motorists (35%) indicated that they noted a radio station to listen to based on seeing a digital billboard ad while 28% indicated that they noted a television program to watch. A significant number also indicated that they had learned about a store they later visited (18%) and a restaurant they later visited (15%). Meanwhile, 25% indicated they had noted a web address they had seen on a digital billboard while 17% had noted a phone number. Finally, 39% of the motorists indicated that they had learned about an event they were interested in attending via a digital billboard. These numbers are impressive given the study focused on just seven digital billboards operating in Cleveland, and are clearly suggestive of the public seeing value in billboards when they travel in their hometown. The Scenic Georgia study asked the question, “How much useful information do you typically get from billboards along Georgia’s roads and highways?” Oddly, rather than using a semantic differential scale or Likert-type scale, the author of the survey chose the following categories: “a lot; some; not too; and none.” The “not too” category is quite problematic in that it suggests that some information is available, but “not too much” can be interpreted in multiple ways. For example, “not too much information” on billboards may indicate that there is not more information than the consumer wants. It may also be that consumers are already familiar with the information on many billboards, so they are indicating that it is not too much information to process. In any event, 76% of respondents chose the “not too much” or above categories, indicating that they think there is at least some useful information that they typically get from billboards when travelling on Georgia highways, a figure that

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is consistent with other studies that have been conducted. It must be acknowledged that 41% of responses were in the “not too much” category and that this study did not ask questions specifically about digital billboards, but rather all billboards in the state. Again, these findings are consistent with the Taylor and Franke study of traditional billboards. Clearly, most Americans believe that billboards provide useful information to travelers.

4.9

Billboards Help Business Attract Customers

As outlined above, a significant number of respondents in both of the Arbitron studies (2008 and 2009) indicated that they patronized a store or restaurant because of billboards. A significant number also learned about special events, radio and television programs from billboards and/or learned a website address or phone number from billboards. Collectively, and combined with the high recognition levels produced by billboards (a prerequisite for the ad to be effective), these responses suggest that respondents understand that billboards do help businesses attract customers.

4.10

Digital Billboards are Interesting

In the Arbitron study of Los Angeles residents, by a 42 to 38 margin, a majority of respondents strongly agreed, or agreed that billboards “make my commute interesting” while 20% were neutral. While this is a relatively narrow margin, it is notable that just 38% expressed that they do not think billboards are interesting. In the Cleveland study, the public was evenly split on the degree to which digital billboards are interesting, with 38% strongly agreeing or disagreeing and the same percentage strongly disagreeing. Again, however, just 38% felt that billboards are not interesting. While there is some split among the public in the Cleveland and Los Angeles polls as to whether billboards are interesting, it is a minority of the public (38% across the two studies) who indicate that billboards are not interesting the public.

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4.11

387

Digital Billboards are Informative

In addition to the questions in the EPIC-MRI poll related to usefulness when travelling which showed that most Michigan residents find information on digital billboards to billboards to be useful, 88% strongly approved or approved of the use of digital billboards for use in communicating emergency information such as Amber Alerts or photos of fugitives wanted by law enforcements when asked specifically about the use of digital outdoor advertising billboards for public service messages, with just 8% disapproving. Thus, it is clear that a majority of Michigan residents believe that digital billboards can be informative. Some questions posed in the Arbitron survey of Los Angeles motorists demonstrate agreement with statements related to digital billboards being informative. Fully 73% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that billboards help the community with emergency information while just 13% strongly disagreed or disagreed. Meanwhile, by a 2 to 1 margin (48% to 24%, with 28% neutral), the L.A. motorists agreed that billboards provide useful information. A majority with an opinion also agreed that billboards provide a good way to learn about new products (45% vs. 33%). Similar questions were asked in the Cleveland study by Arbitron. A total of 81% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that billboards help the community with emergency information while just 11% strongly disagreed or disagreed. In terms of providing useful information, again the ration was 2 to 1, with 46% agreeing and only 23% disagreeing. A majority (44% vs. 27%) also believed that billboards provide a good way to learn about new products. Thus, consistent with the Taylor and Franke findings, based on the best available evidence, a majority of the public believes that billboards are informative A notable distinction, however, is that the public appears to be especially enthused about the ability of digital billboards to be used in emergency situations as a public service.

4.12

Digital Billboards are Ugly

In the Arbitron study of Los Angeles residents, when asked directly if digital billboards are attractive, 47% strongly agreed or agreed, 21% were neutral, and 32% strongly disagreed or disagreed. This suggests that more than two thirds of the respondents did not believe billboards are ugly. The Cleveland (2009) study produced even more favorable results on attractiveness, with 53% of the residents strongly agreeing or agreeing that digital billboards are attractive while just 25% disagreed. Fully 75% did not disagree with the statement that billboards are attractive.

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These results are consistent with the Taylor and Franke study, in which the 43.1% was the norm across studies for billboards being perceived as ugly. In fact, these results based on digital polls appear to be more favorable in terms of the public thinking billboards are attractive. This may relate at least in part to the new technology associated with digital billboards.

5

Conclusion

On the whole, the results of recent surveys of digital billboards are consistent with the Taylor and Franke meta-analysis study. Factoring in the base of knowledge based on earlier public opinion polls, the following conclusions can be drawn: Results of the surveys that have asked questions related to the value of digital billboards strongly indicate that a substantial majority of these Americans would not favor a complete ban on digital billboards.The collective results of these studies show that a strong majority of Americans believe that digital billboards provide useful information to travelers. In addition to the traditional identification and wayfinding function of billboards, results suggest that billboards expose many people to information on stores and restaurants they may otherwise not patronize and also call their attention to media and radio programs they might not otherwise watch or be familiar with. While the two polls examining whether the public believes billboards are interesting provide split results, just 38% express that they do not think billboards are interesting. The public overwhelmingly believes that the availability of digital billboards to post emergency messages, such as Amber alerts or information on fugitives, is an important public service.The two studies examining the attractiveness of billboards suggest that more Americans find billboards to be attractive in comparison to those who find them unattractive. While more studies of public opinion toward digital billboards asking a broader range of questions would be useful, those that have been conducted suggest that the public’s attitude toward these types of billboards is, like, traditional billboards, consistent with the major provisions of the Highway Beautification Act. Thus, in the absence of any studies showing convincing evidence that digital billboards would present a traffic safety hazard, there is

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little, if any evidence based on public opinion that digital billboards need to be regulated differently that traditional billboards in terms of the provision present in the Highway Beautification Act. Results indicate that a majority of the U.S. public sees some clear benefits associated with digital billboards. Most consumers believe they provide information, can be used effectively for public service purposes and that they help businesses. Moreover, many Americans find digital billboards to be attractive and interesting.

6

References

Abernethy, Avery M. & Franke, G.R. (1996), “The Information Content of Advertising: A MetaAnalysis,” Journal of Advertising, 25 (Summer), 1-18. Arbitron (2008), “Arbitron Digital Billboard Report: Cleveland Case Study.” New York: Arbitron. Arbitron (2009), “Arbitron Outdoor Billboard Report: Los Angeles County Case Study.” New York: Arbitron. Behavior Research Center, Inc. (2005), “Memorandum on Research on Electronic Billboards” http://www.scenic.org/pdfs/ElectronicBBSurvey.pdf (accessed March 12, 2010. Birdsall, M.S. (2008), “The Debate over Digital Billboards: Can New Technology Inform Drivers Without Distracting Them?” ITE Journal, 78 (4), 22-27. Environmental Working Group (2000), The Highway Beautification Act: A Broken Law. Washington, DC: Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/reports/ billboards/billboards.html EPIC*MRA (2009), Michigan Statewide Poll (October 11-15). Farley, J.U. & Lehmann, D.R. (1994), “Cross National ‘Laws’ and Differences in Market Response,” Marketing Science, 40 (January), 111-122. Federal Highway Administration (2007), “Guidance on Of-Premise Changeable Message Signs,” Memo from Gloria M. Shepherd to Division Administrators. September 27. Highway Beautification Act (1965), Pub. L. 89-285 78 Stat 1028. Hunter, J.E. & Schmidt, F.L. (1990), Methods of Meta-Analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Outdoor Advertising Association of America (2009). “Digital Technology Billboards. Outdoor Advertising’s Glowing Future.. www.marketing_resources/digital/.apx (accessed March 10, 2010). Outdoor Advertising Association of America (2009). “Digital Technology Billboards Today. Technology with a Purpose.” www.docstor.com/docs/27791906/oaaa-digital-billboardsbro_2qxd (accessed March 10, 2010). Scenic America (2000), “Billboard and Sign Control,” Washington DC: Scenic America (http://www.scenic.org/billboards.htm). Scenic America (2009), “Billboards in the Digital Age. Unsafe (and Unslightly) at Any Speed.” www.scenic.org/pdfs/eb.pdf (accessed March 10, 2010) Story, L. (2007), “Digital Billboard Up Ahead: New Wave Sign or Hazard,” New York Times, (January 11). www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/business /media11outdoor.html?_r=1&pagewanted=... (accessed March 10, 2010). Taylor, C.R. and Taylor, J.C. (1994), “Regulatory Issues in Outdoor Advertising: A Content Analysis of Billboards,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 13 (1), 97-108. Taylor, C.R. & Chang, W. (1995), “The History of Outdoor Advertising Regulation in the United

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States,” Journal of Macromarketing, 48 (Spring), 47-59. Taylor, C.R. & Franke, G.R. (2003), “Business Perceptions of Billboards in the U.S. Economy,” Journal of Advertising Research, (June), 150-161. Vespe, F. (1997), “High-tech Billboards: The Same Old Litter on a Stick,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 16 (1), 176-279.

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Appendix I Model Questions 1) Ban on Billboards o Billboards should be banned. 2) Usefulness to Travelers o Billboards are useful to travelers. 3) Job Creation o Billboard advertising creates jobs. 4) Attracts Customers o Billboards help businesses attract customers. 5) Interesting o Billboards are interesting. 6) Informative o Billboards are informative. 7) Harm Scenic Beauty o Billboards harm scenic beauty. 8) Annoying o Billboards are annoying 9) Benefits vs. Costs o The benefits of billboards outweigh the costs. 10) Allow in commercial and industrial areas o Billboards should be allowed in areas that are zoned commercial and industrial. 11) Height, lighting, and spacing requirements o Billboards should be subject to height, lighting, and spacing requirements

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12) Just compensation o If a billboard is removed by the government, its owner should be given just compensation for the billboard.

The Response Surface Process for Optimal Allocation of Media Budgets Edward C. Malthouse, Northestern University, USA Don Schultz, Northwestern University, USA

1

Introduction

The budgeting for, and allocation of, resources among various media alternatives is an increasing difficult communication task. The explosion of media forms (e.g. print, TV, websites, mobile, social networks) and the fragmentation of advertising vehicles based on a media form (e.g. programs, websites, magazines, etc.) challenge most traditional media planning approaches (Winer 2009). Advertising researchers recognize that media interact and produce “synergies,” requiring even more complex models of media effects (e.g. Naik and Peters 2009; Schultz, Block and Raman, 2009a, Schultz, Block and Raman b, Schultz, Block and Raman in press, Naik, Raman and Winer 2005; Naik and Raman 2003; Naik, Schultz and Srinivasan 2007; Chang and Thorson 2004; Stafford, et al. 2003; Havlena et al. 2007). At the same time, digital channels and customer databases have enabled marketers to personalize messages for individual customers and selectively target which customers receive differentiated contacts and other marketing “investments” in a cost-effective way, often all in real time. Moreover, the behavioural responses to such contacts can be tracked. The marketer can know the relative effectiveness of different vehicles. Thus, the complexity of the allocation problem has increased, but so have the quality and amount of available data and the marketer’s capabilities. Naik and Peters (2009) and Naik and Raman (2003) propose general models for allocating resources across media channels. These models allow for both onand offline media, and multiple forms within on- or offline media (e.g. TV, print and radio or banners and search). The models capture interactions (synergies) between media and are dynamic in that they capture the carry-over effects of advertising from one time period to subsequent ones and correctly account for the serial correlations in error terms produced by time series data. While researchers will likely propose further extensions to these models, the core modelling issues for this problem appear to have been addressed. S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_25, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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The modelling issues, however, are only part of the overall challenge of allocating marketing resources across media forms. In addition to having an appropriate model, one must also estimate the model, which requires having data with an acceptable level of “quality.” Without such data, it may be impossible to accurately estimate the parameters of the model with any reliability. Consider a simple example. An organization must allocate resources across two media forms, say television and print. At the heart of all optimization models is a component that relates the amount invested in individual media forms to an outcome such as sales. We will call this the sales response function. Suppose, however, that the past allocations always followed the same proportion, e.g. 25% to print and 75% to television. As West (2008) discovered in his interviews with practitioners, this is often how organizations allocate their resources. Since spending on television and print are linear combinations of each other they are perfectly correlated (collinear) and no statistical model will be able to estimate their separate effects. To do so would require allocating relatively less to one media form and more to the other during certain periods of time (ideally following an orthogonal design). The contributions of this work are to discuss the problems that can arise because of poor data and propose the use of Response Surface Methods (RSM) to properly gather data. RSM is a proven methodology within quality control and experimental design. The RSM process can work for any number of media forms, but it will be illustrated here with only two, showing how a three-star hotel chain should allocate its online resources across two channels, push (display advertising) and pull (paid search).

2 2.1

Background Problem Definition

This section defines the specific optimization problem considered here. Following Naik and Peters (2009) and Naik and Raman (2003), let xjt be the amount spent on communications medium j = 1, …, J during time period t, and yt is the outcome of interest (e.g. units sold, revenue, etc.). Equation 5 in Naik and Peters (2009) suggest the following profit function: profitt = mt yt – ¦j xjt, where m denotes the marginal profit impact of y. The objective is to maximize profit by choosing the amounts to invest in the different communication media

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(xjt). After the profit function has been determined, calculus can be used to find the optimal combination of media (e.g. Naik and Peters 2009, Proposition 1). The profit function is illustrated in the left side of Figure 1 below during a period when only one communication medium is to be managed. When the marketing communication investment is very low, profits are also low. As the investment increases within the region labelled “Positive Marginal Returns,” so do profits. Around an investment of x=5 profits are maximized (“Stationary value”), and beyond this point additional investment increases cost more than the revenues generated, and profits decrease (“Negative Marginal Returns”). Chatterjee, Hoffman and Novak (2003) provide support for the shape of this curve. The outcome of interest (yt) is some function, hereafter called the sales response function, of the investments in marketing communications (xjt), perhaps a lagged version of the outcome (yt–1) to capture the carryover effects of advertising (Koyck 1954; Naik and Raman 2003), and possibly other variables accounting for exogenous factors such as seasonality. The particular functional form is immaterial for the discussion in this chapter. Therefore, we denote it simply by function f: yt = f(x1t, …, xJt, yt–1) + et. For example, Naik and Raman (2003) include interaction terms in their f. Naik and Peters (2009) apply logs to the x variables and compute a linear combination of some x’s to capture “hierarchical synergies.” Again, the details of the functional form are not important for this paper.

Figure 1: Illustration of the Profit Function

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Recapitulating: the organization has observed investments and returns in different marketing communication media over time during past periods. The problem is to determine the levels of investment in each medium which will maximize the resulting profit.

2.2

Problems with Estimating the Response Function

The introduction has already mentioned the problem of multicollinearity, which is discussed in most textbooks on linear models. When the predictor variables, in this case the investments in different media, are highly correlated, it is difficult to sort out the individual effects reliably. Another problem is model misspecification. There are no strong theoretical reasons to choose one functional form for the response/profit functions. It is completely reasonable to apply logs to the amount spent on each medium as a way of capturing diminishing returns, as Naik and Peters (2009) recommend, but the square root function is also commonly used to model diminishing returns. Residual plots and holdout samples can help guide the selection of transformations, but the stationary value can be highly sensitive to the choice of such transformations, especially when it is outside of the range of observed data (extrapolation). Consider the right panel in Figure 1, which shows the true profit function (solid line) along with a quadratic function (dotted line) and cubic function (dashed line). Notice how the estimated stationary value varies widely based on the choice of transformation. Extrapolating, the quadratic function has a maximum around 6.5, while the cubic has a maximum around 4.5. In both cases, the marketer would allocate suboptimal amounts of marketing. Without good data even the simplest optimization models cannot be estimated reliably and the conclusions derived from them are therefore suspect. The selection of transformations is less important when the observed data cover the stationary value. Continuing the example in the right side of Figure 1, notice how the estimated quadratic and cubic functions are nearly coincident in the range of the data. It is only when we extrapolate that the estimates differ substantially. The third, and perhaps most serious concern, is therefore extrapolation. The stationary value can be highly sensitive to the choice of functional form and to sampling variation when it lies beyond the range of the data. Absent a strong theoretical rationale for the functional form (and the regression model is thus fitting a curve to the data), there is no justification for extrapolating beyond the range of data. Even if the model is correctly specified with theoretical support, the formulas for the standard error of the predicted mean value of the dependent

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variable for a given value of x0 (e.g. see Neter, et al. 1996, equation 2.39b) involve the squared distance from the mean of x, and so the estimated regression function becomes less reliable as the distance from the centre of the data increases. West (2008) discusses the methods used by firms for setting budgets based on nine in-depth interviews with decision makers in the U.K. He finds that the methods used are simplistic. If firms are using simplistic methods for allocating resources across media, it would not be surprising if the range of historical allocations did not contain the stationary value. Analysts using optimization models should check whether the estimated stationary data falls within the range of the data.

2.3

Response Surface Methods

Many other fields have similar problems where a decision maker is attempting to maximize some outcome (or response) by setting the values of several inputs. Response Surface Methods (RSM) have been developed within experimental design and quality control to solve this problem. For example, Montgomery (1997, Ch. 14) illustrates RSM using data from a chemical process, where the goal is to maximize the response variable yield (y) based on two treatment factors, temperature (x1) and pressure (x2). In our example (in the next section) we will show how a hotel chain can maximize profit (y) based on the amount invested in paid search x1) and internet display ads (x2). RSM are covered in detail in many experimental design textbooks (e.g. Montgomery 1997, ch 14 for engineering applications; Meed 1998, ch. 18 for agricultural applications; Neter et al. 1996, ch. 32) and space does not permit us to cover the topic in-depth. Instead, we shall highlight their most important aspects for the purpose of allocating media budgets. RSM consists of two main parts. Data collection. RSM prescribes a series of experimental “runs” (a “run” is one replication where we observe the response variable for some combination of the treatment factors) to gather data so that we can understand the effects of the treatment variables on the response variable. In the most general case, the first step is to do some exploratory “runs” to determine the direction of steepest ascent to the maximum (e.g. Montgomery 1997, section 14.2; Neter, et al. 1996, section 32.5). This first step will be illustrated in the example in the next section. Next, fractional orthogonal designs are used that cover the region where the optimal combination of treatment factors is thought to be (e.g. Montgomery 1997, section 14.4; Neter, et al. 1996, sections 32.2-3).

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In the quality control literature these fractional orthogonal designs are often called Taguchi designs and such experiments are a central tenant of the Taguchi and total-quality philosophies. These runs avoid the problems raised around Figure 2 by ensuring that there is adequate variation in the treatment factors and that we do not have to extrapolate to find the optimum. Orthogonal designs avoid problems with multicollinearity and interactions can be estimated reliability with the selection of a proper design resolution. Response surface methods have been used for other applications in advertising (e.g. see Singh 1988 and exercises 32.11 and 32.12 in Neter, et al. 1996). Fitting a response surface. After gathering suitable data, the analyst estimates a profit function and finds its optimal value with calculus or numerical methods. An appropriate extant model such as those proposed by Naik and Peters (2009) or Naik and Raman (2003) can be used in this step. Textbooks on experimental design and quality control usually fit quadratic functions as a general-purpose concave model that can include interactions (synergies) so they are easy to estimate, interpret and optimize. Montgomery (1997, p. 557) notes, “Of course, it is unlikely that a polynomial [quadratic] model will be reasonable approximation of the true functional relationship over the entire space of the independent variables, but for a relatively small region they usually work quite well.” Commercial software packages such as SAS PROC RSREG and Minitab estimate such surfaces and provide diagnostics.

3

Empirical Example

We illustrate RSM with online data from a large, 3-star hotel chain. We have data from 12 April 2007 until 15 April 2009. For each day we know amount invested in paid searches and the revenue attributed to search returns. We also know for display ads the total cost and revenue. The amount invested in paid search and, separately, display, will be used to measure the amount of marketing effort. Following Naik and Peters (2009), the dependent variable is profit, and for the purpose of this illustration we shall assume an average contribution margin (m=25%) so that profit = 0.25 × revenue – search cost – display cost. We have tested other margins and the conclusions do not change substantively.

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Figure 2: Plots of Profit against Search and Display Costs, with a Quadratic Function and Smoothing Spline Superimposed

We begin with some exploratory data analysis. Figure 2 (left) plots profit against the cost of paid searches with the least-squares quadratic function (solid) and a smoothing spline (dashed) superimposed. There is a strong positive relationship between profit and paid search, with an indication of diminishing or even negative marginal returns. Most points are on the left side of the plot showing fairly small amounts spent on searches, suggesting that most of the time, the hotel is under-investing in paid search. There are very few observations around where the curve flattens, and so the estimated curve will be somewhat unreliable in this region. The hotel should test investing more in search (e.g. by buying additional search terms) and gather data from “the other side of the mountain” so that the profit function, and therefore the optimal number of searches, can be estimated more reliably. We have also followed the advice of Naik and Peters (2009) and logged both of the independent variables, and the results are similar with sparse data around the stationary value. Figure 2 (right) plots profit versus display cost. The band of points around 0 shows that many days this hotel does not do any online display advertising. This is the “flighting problem,” where search is always on and display is often off. There is a gradual positive relationship without any hint of negative marginal returns, suggesting that the hotel has never over-purchased on display ads. We will be unable to estimate the optimal number of display ads with this data set reliably; again, the hotel should test investing more in display ads so that negative returns can be observed, which enables the profit function to be estimated

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reliably. The flexible spline model also wiggles for small values of display cost, which is counter-intuitive. Perhaps there are omitted variables. The data for small cost values may not be trustworthy. Table 1: Estimated Quadratic Response Models

Model 1 (n=720) Parameter Intercept Display Search Display^2 Search^2 DisplayuSearch

Model 2 (n=402)

Estimate

t-statistic

Estimate

tstatistic

59.0**

11.3

38.3**

3.63

**

–4.05

1.02

0.242

13.3

**

8.31

*

–3.24

**

–8.91

**

4.89

–2.03 6.43

**

–0.00293 –0.095

** **

0.106

–0.0248 –11.4 5.84

5.48

–0.0548 –0.0837

0.103

Model 2 estimated using values when display and search are greater than their medians

Next, we estimate two quadratic surfaces. Model 1 uses all 720 cases and the parameter estimates are given in Table 1. The eigenvalues of the matrix of quadratic effects are 0.0212 and –0.119, which have opposite signs indicating that the estimated surface has a saddle point (Montgomery 1997, p 587) rather than a maximum (or minimum). We know that observations when display costs are close to zero may not be reliable (recall the spline). These points show up as outliers and exert a strong influence on the shape of the function. Recall also that quadratic surfaces may not fit globally.

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Figure 3: Plots of Profit against Search and Display Costs, with a Quadratic Function and Smoothing Spline Superimposed

Model 2 restricts the domain to points that are more proximate to the optimal value and re-estimates the model using only cases where display costs were at least 3 (thousand dollars). Both eigenvalues for Model 2 are negative (–0.0158 and –0.123) indicating a maximum, which is located at search = 91.1 and display = 94.8. The interaction between search and display is highly significant and positive indicating synergy between the two. A scatterplot of the data with the estimated profit function is shown in Figure 3. The estimated maximum (91.1, 94.8) is shown by the crosshairs on the plot and is well outside of the range of observed data. We have had to extrapolate to find the stationary value (91.1, 94.8), and its location is highly unstable. We re-estimated the model using cases where display cost was greater than 5 thousand instead of 3 thousand. The resulting stationary value was (84.5, 85.3) using 365 cases. If we use only cases where search costs are greater than the median (14.6) and display costs are greater than its median (5.84), then the stationary value is (524, 476). The cause of this instability is the fact that we are extrapolating.

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RSM prescribes testing higher levels of both display and search ads until observing negative returns. The vector superimposed on Figure 3 shows the direction in which to test, toward the stationary value. After locating the neighbourhood of the optimal combination, RSM would next run orthogonal designed experiments around this value so that the profit surface can be reliably estimated. After presenting these results to managers at the hotel chain providing this data set, they refused to test higher levels of ads and ignored the models.

4

Discussion

We propose incorporating response surface methods (RSM) for determining the optimal allocation of online media budgets. Rather than assuming some optimization model and then estimating it from the data at hand, RSM involves a systematic process of gathering data, ideally with controlled tests, to find the neighbourhood of the optimal value. If such a process is not followed, extant optimization models may be estimated from multicollinear data and identifying the stationary value could require making a dangerous extrapolation. With good data, the function can be estimated reliably and the optimal value can be found with calculus. Marketing managers should adopt the practices of quality control engineers, where designed experiments are commonly executed as a core component of their management process. Without such experiments, it will be much more difficult to understand the effectiveness of various media – both in isolation and in concert with others (synergy) – without threats to internal validity. Without this understanding, optimization models can be misleading and produce suboptimal recommendations. There are many additional research questions generated by this discussion. First, alternative model specifications should be investigated. For example, it is possible that display ads have lagged effects: people see banner ads increasing awareness and interacting with paid search (or display ads) at a later time. It would also be desirable to include some offline marketing investments in this model, such as TV, print and outdoor advertising. More research is needed into the specification of sales response functions. For example, measures of purchase that can be directly linked to exposure are not always available; in the case of mass advertising, the researcher may only have measures of purchase intent, actions taken, attitudes towards the ad and brand, etc. The link between such measures and profit is more tenuous.

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Another problem requiring attention is the optimal allocation of media budgets over time. We view the process described here as foundational for this dynamic allocation problem, because having a good profit function that is reliably estimated from good data would seem to be prerequisite before attempting any dynamic model. Additional theoretical work is necessary to specify better sales response functions. The rationale for a concave downward profit function seems clear for this example. For example, the hotel initially buys highly relevant search terms that are very productive. If it wants to invest more in search then it will have to expand its list of words, which may not be as proximate and have lower productivity. Eventually buying additional search terms will become unprofitable. Perhaps there are additional explanations that would refine the shape of the profit function further.

5

References

Chang, Y. & Thorson, E. (2004), “Television and Web Advertising Synergies,” Journal of Advertising, Vol. 33(2), 75-84. Chatterjee, P., Hoffman, D.L. & Novak, T.P. (2003), “Modeling the Clickstream: Implications for Web-Based Advertising Efforts,” Marketing Science, Vol. 22(4), 520-541. Havlena, W., Cardarelli, R. & De Montigny, M. (2007), “Quantifying the Isolated and Synergistic Effects of Exposure Frequency for TV, Print, and Internet Advertising,” Journal of Advertising Research, September. Koyck, L. M. (1954), “Distributed Lags and Investment Analysis,” North-Holland, Amsterdam. Meed, R. (1988), “The Design of Experiments: Statistical Principles For Practical Application,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Montgomery, D. (1997), “Design and Analysis of Experiments,” fourth edition, Wiley, New York. Naik, P. A. & Peters, K. (2009), “A Hierarchical Marketing Communications Model of Online and Offline Media Synergies,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 23, 288-299. Naik, P.A. & Raman, K. (2003), “Understanding the Impact of Synergy in Multimedia Communications,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XL, 375-388. Naik, P.A., Raman, K. & Winer, R.S. (2005), “Planning Marketing Mix Strategies in the Presence of Interaction Effects,” Marketing Science, Vol. 24(1), 24-34. Naik, P.A., Schultz, D.E. & Srinivasan, S. (2007), “Perils of Using OLS to Estimate Multimedia Communication Effects,” Journal of Advertising Research, September, 257-269. Neter, J., Kutner, M.,. Nachtsheim, C. & Wasserman, W. (1996), “Applied Linear Statistical Models,” fourth edition, Irwin, Chicago. Schultz, D.E., Block, M. P. & Raman, K. “Media Synergy Comes of Age-Part 1”, Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing, Vol. 11, No. 1, July-September, 2009, 3-19. Schultz, D.E., Block, M.P. & Raman, K. “Media Synergy…Revisited…and Now, Relevant-Part 2, Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, Vol. 11, No. 2, October –December, 2009, 88-99.

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Schultz, D.E., Block, M.P. & Raman, K. Understanding Consumer-Created Media Synergy, Under , Journal of Marketing Communications, in press. Singh, S.N., Rothchild, M.L. & Churchill, G.A. (1988), “Recognition versus Recall as Measures of Television Commerical Forgetting,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 25(1), 72-80. Stafford, M. R., Lippold, E.M. & Sherron, C.T: (2003), “The Contribution of Direct Mail Advertising to Average Weekly Unit Sales,” Journal of Advertising Research, June. West, D. (2008), “Advertising and Promotions Budgeting and Organisational Culture,” Proceedings of ICORIA, Antwerp. Winer, R.S. (2009), “New Communications Approaches in Marketing: Issues and Research Directions,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 23(1), 108-117.

QR Code Mobile Promotion: An Initial Inquiry Shintaro Okazaki, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Morikazu Hirose, Tokyo Fuji University, Japan Hairong Li, Michigan State University, USA

1

Introduction

This study aims at exploring consumers’ adoption of QR code mobile promotion. In the past, barcode is a fast, easy, accurate and automatic product tracking method in industrial production and retailing. But mobile phones changed le aison d'être of barcode. More generally, 1D barcode, 2D image code, and color-based image code has become popular after the introduction of camera and scanning function in mobile device. In general, these codes are easily machine-readable, with the built-in camera in mobile devices. By scanning or taking a picture, users can easily access various services. The 1D barcodes are composed of serial black-and-white bar patterns to represent a specific identity (i.e. encoded information), which include the Universal Product Code (UPC). The European Article Number (EAN), the Japanese Article Numbering (JAN) System, and the International Article Numbering System (IAN) are practically identical to UPC. The UPC code was first proposed by George J. Laurer in 1973, as the standard bar code symbology for product marking for the grocery industry. Since then, it has been used mainly in industry and military for distribution purposes. UPC has two primary components: the symbology and the coding system. The UPC symbology is made up of patterns, such as center guard bars that designate the initial, final, and central positions of the image code and data patterns that encode the numeric data and the check-sum digit. These patterns are expressed in terms of the relative thickness ratio of black and while bars located parallel to each other. Thus, by sampling the pixels on a scan line that is placed across the patterns, the decoder can recognize the code if there is at least one scan line that covers all the patterns. After reading all the patterns, the decoder verifies the result by using the check-sum digit in the data patterns, but it cannot correct any errors. QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode developed in 1994 by Denso Wave, which was a division of Denso Corporation at the time. QR code was originally developed for industrial purposes, much like other two-dimensional S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_26, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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barcodes, and was then standardized by AIM International, JIS, and ISO (Denso Wave 2009). QR code has many advantages compared to other two-dimensional barcodes. First, it has the mixed features of other barcodes such as large capacity, small printout size, and high-speed scan. Second, QR code is easily created with free software and a conventional printer. QR code is also open to the public (Denso Wave 2009). Anyone, therefore, can use it without a license. Third, a mobile phone with a camera can become a barcode reader with software. It is then easy for mobile phone users to scan QR code with their mobile cameras. However, little research is available about the factors that affect consumers’ response to QR codes, especially from marketing perspective.

2

QR Code as a Marketing Tool

QR codes could contain a diverse range of information, including Website URL, email addresses, product images, and coupons, among others. The primary benefit of QR code is its ease of use, in that, by simply scanning the codes with mobile device, a consumer can be directly linked to the encoded data. Since a QR code reader is now often preinstalled in mobile phones, it has become more and more popular in Japan. According to a recent survey, as much as 88.4% of mobile users have a QR code reader with their mobile devices, and 83.6% have actually used and accessed QR codes (Impress R&D 2007). QR codes are placed on different media, such as magazines, newspapers, posters, packages, labels, and receipts, and play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between adverted media and promotional sites in cross-media strategy. According to a recent survey in Japan, the most frequently used media for QR codes were magazines (23.6%), PC Internet (20.6%), inserts (20.0%), packages (14.4%), newspapers (8.9%), receipts (6.5%), outdoor advertising (2.7%), and business cards (2.0%). The most popular sources of information accessed were coupons (41.1%); campaign sites (39.9%); map or traffic information (11.3%); and music or video (6.1%). In terms of access frequency, there were clear differences in terms of gender and age. Females (12.2%) outweigh males (7.6%) in scanned QR code use. Younger consumers in their 20s are more active users (18.1%), followed by those in 30s (12.5%); and 40s (10.0%) (The Yomiuri Shimbun 2008). Recently, QR codes have been introduced to other countries, including the U.S., China, and European countries. For example, in the US, Ralph Lauren introduced QR code in August of 2008, placing it in their print advertising, store windows, and mailers during the U.S. Open. In this case, the user was directed immediately to a mobile site. At the site, mobile users could check out a Ralph

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Lauren style guide, watch videos, and read articles about the U.S. Open (Parry 2008). If mobile users become familiar with QR codes, advertisers can integrate many communication tools within mobile phones. In 2009, Google launched "Favorite Places on Google," which includes venues in over 9,000 towns and cities across the country that will have a Google created (and QR enabled) sticker in their windows (Keane 2009). In the UK, Pepsi launched its first mass campaign with QR code since 2008 by printing numbers on 400 million cans. Harrods’s also placed QR code in their print and online ads for their recent advertising campaign (Brooks 2008). Since late 2009, some firms began tying QR codes to Apple store promotions in the US. Many mobile application downloads have been integrated with QR codes using QRGen API to allow easier app downloads from messages posted or embeded in chat groups, blog posts, and news forums. QRGen is an API that enables you to create custom dynamic QR Codes that are optimized for North American mobile camera phones, and support the three most popular App Stores iPhone App Store, Android Market, and BlackBerry App World.

3

Researh Framework and Approach

This study examines three potential factors that may influence consumers’ adoption of QR code mobile promotion: message factors, user factors, and context factors. These three factors are identified on the basis of a circle of synergy proposed by Moriarty (1996), which states that message, channel, and audience response are contained within a field of repetition and coordination, in order to establish message impact. That is, communication synergy can be best maximized by “extending message encounters beyond the traditional advertising media into every possible situation where a receiver might have contact with a message” (p. 333). This framework can best describe the role that QR code plays in mobile promotion. This exploratory study employs a grounded theory approach, which entails attempts to "generate or discover a general, abstract theory of a process, action, or interaction grounded in the views of participants in a study” (Creswell 2003, p.14). That is, the purpose of grounded theory is to build theory, not to test theory. To this end, researchers set aside theoretical ideas to allow a ‘substantive’ theory to emerge, while rigorously seeking a plausible relation between concepts and sets of concepts. These concepts are developed through constant comparison with additional data.

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Such constant comparison constitutes the heart of grounded theory as a method—the process of constantly comparing instances of data that have been allocated to a particular category with other instances of data, to see whether these categories fit together and are workable. If they do, and if the instances increase, then we have what Glaser and Strauss (1967) call ‘theoretical saturation,’ which is the ultimate goal of grounded theory. Additional data are collected by theoretical sampling, meaning that researchers seek “people, events, or information to illuminate and define the boundaries and relevance of the categories” (Chamarmaz 2006, p. 189). After reaching theoretical saturation, researchers should begin sorting, diagramming, and integrating the categories (and subcategories), and should also closely inspect how these categories could be reconstructed into theoretical conceptions. We applied grounded theory in a two-phase design. Study 1 addresses the message factors by performing content analysis. Content analysis is recommended as a procedure when researchers need an initial snapshot of the phenomenon. In addtion, despite excellent conceptual work by Dou and Li (2008), the actual features of QR codes have not been empirically explored. Thus, a comprehensive content analysis seems appropriate for revealing the manifest patterns in QR coded messages. Our intention is to use Study 1 as a point of departure for grounded theory. Next, Study 2 will address user factors and context factors, by conducting key-informant focus groups. Key informants are persons who are knowledgeable on the subject under scrutiny (Marshall 1996). Using openended questions based on Study 1, key informants were interviewed in a focus group session, the complete transcripts of which were generated and rigorously coded for further analysis and interpretation.

4

Study 1: Content Analysis

As a point of departure, it seems necessary and important for us to examine first the message factors related to QR code promotion. QR code is a twodimensional barcode that can appear on any printable surface, of which users need only take a photograph to retrieve the coded information. Access behavior may differ according to the type of media. In addition, the effectiveness of QR code mobile promotion will depend on the type of promoted product. For example, nondurable consumer goods are arguably more suitable for mobile advertising than durable consumer goods (Okazaki, Katsukura, and Nishiyama 2007). However, in terms of m-commerce sales, the most purchased goods are

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clothes and accessories, which are generally classified as durable goods (impress R&D 2007). Furthermore, to our knowledge, there is little information related to what kind of contents are encoded in QR code. For example, are they linked to general company information (e.g., corporate Website, specific announcement, publicity, etc.), or do they lead directly to campaign incentives (e.g., discount coupons, product sample offer, download, etc.)? Do they require any registration of personal data? All these questions are important in increasing our understanding of mobile promotion. Taking them together, we put forward the following research question: RQ1a: In what kind of media can QR codes normally be found? RQ1b: For what type of product is QR code normally used? Is there any relationship between the type of media and the category of products promoted in QR code promotion? RQ1c: What kind of data does QR code promotion normally contain?

4.1

Procedure

Ten undergraduate business students participated in this phase. Each student was instructed to collect QR codes during the first two weeks of March and November, regardless of media, in an attempt to eliminate seasonal fluctuation. We were mainly interested in QR codes that appeared in advertising, and “coupon books” were therefore excluded. Here, “advertising” was understood in a broad sense that includes posters, handouts, packages, and street signs. When more than two codes were found in the same medium, the participants were instructed to save the most representative one, i.e., that with a greater advertising or message space. The codes were photographed by a mobile device, saved in a PC, and scanned by a mobile device for the analysis. The saved codes were checked, one by one, according to the file type, and it was determined whether they were either directly retrievable in the PC or, if not, then scannable and accessible by mobile device. Duplicate codes were excluded. In total, 260 QR codes were deemed adequate for the analysis. Examples of the sampled QR codes are shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Example QR-Codes

4.2

Coding Procedure

Two undergraduate business students were employed as coders. We provided intensive training, in which each coder examined 10 codes out of the pool of codes, which were not used in the final analysis. In the training session, the coders were first instructed to identify (1) the type of media where QR code appears, (2) the type of product promoted by the promotion, and (3) the encoded

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contents. The encoded information was classified into (a) Website URLs or others, each of which was further grouped into the presence or absence of any monetary or non-monetary incentives. Each time the coding was completed, the coders were instructed to discuss the results. Inter-coder reliability was measured at this point. Because the coding categories are almost exclusively objective, the coding results of the two coders matched in nearly all cases. In the case of discrepancies, they first attempted to solve conflicts by themselves. If they could not, one of the researchers intervened as the third judge.

4.3

Results

In RQ1a, we explore the type of media used in QR code mobile promotion. Our findings suggest that print media are the most frequent: in order of frequency, magazines, flyers and handouts, and newspapers, which together account for up to 80% of the sample in total. Others include packages (including pet bottles, cans, etc.), receipts, balloons, and a utility pole, among others. Next, in light of RQ1b, which addresses the type of promoted product, service is the most prominent category (35%), including restaurants/fast food, real estate, education, retailing, clinics/dentists, beauty parlors, and gas stations, among others. Cosmetics and clothes are the second and third categories, representing 20% and 10%, respectively. These findings seem to reflect the popular goods and services sold in m-commerce in Japan (impress R&D 2007). Our RQ1c examines the contents encoded by QR code. To our surprise, as much as 85% of the sample offered no direct incentive and was merely informational, leading to a corporate Website, brand Websites, or other types of publicity. Only a small portion (39 codes, or 15%) of the sample involved direct incentives, by providing coupons, product sample offers, download, or other access codes. In terms of the scanned results, 36.9% of QR codes were directed to Websites, while 63.1% were directed to email addresses. In both cases, these findings confirm our expectations: QR code is a cross-media agent from print media to online media. Either corporate or brand Websites are used to provide some kind of direct incentives (26%), with the former being predomient (77.5% and 84% in non-incentive and incentive, respectively). By contrast, virtually all email addresses are non-incentive (91.4%), from which users are requested to send personal information for registration purpose.

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A further breakdown of the QR codes linked to Websites revealed that 28 codes (29%) require some kind of registration (i.e., required or optional), by asking for personal information. The most popular registration was to subscribe to “email magazines” (email newsletters) that periodically deliver beneficial information, including discount coupons, special sales, product sample offers, etc. More specifically, 15 required email magazine registration, 8 loyalty membership registration, and 3 simple demographic data. The remaining 68 codes (71%) required no registration to access Websites.

5

Study 2: Focus Groups

In Study 1, we found that the majority of QR codes are not linked to direct incentives. Many codes are directed to an email address, which in turn asks users to send some personal data, while Websites are sometimes used to offer direct incentives. In both cases, “registration” seems to be a key concept, as it leads to free subscription to an email magazine that periodically delivers sales benefits. These benefits include discount coupons, product sample offers, sweepstakes, and free download, among others. Based on these findings, Study 2 addresses the two remaining issues that affect QR code adoption: user factors and context factors. QR code serves as a data retrieval catalyst because of its ease of use and quickness (Rohs and Gfeller 2004), but its success as a promotional tool will depend largely on users’ psychological factors: that is, only if the encoded contents satisfy users’ psychological needs, because each user has a different motivation. In this regard, prior research suggests that the type of incentive is key to determining the use of specific media content (Bandura 2001; Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch 1974). In our study’s context, incentives are the core elements of any sales promotion, and researchers have long focused on monetary incentives (Buzzell et al., 1990). The more recent trend, however, is to develop a broader framework of perceived benefits that includes both monetary and non-monetary incentives (e.g., Bamberg 2002). Thus, we address the following research question: RQ2a: What kind of benefits do mobile users normally expect from QR code promotion? RQ2b: In terms of utilitarian versus hedonic benefits, which would be the more important determinant in triggering QR code access?

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RQ3b: Under what circumstances do users normally hesitate to access QR code and retrieve data?

5.1

Procedure

Each focus group consisted of five key informants, who were carefully selected from the pool of the firm’s panel participants. In this study, we define key informants as a select group of people who are especially knowledgeable or experienced about certain issues or problems and are willing to share their knowledge (Marshall 1994). In our study context, the desired sample of key informant interviews is a heterogeneous set of mobile users with sufficient experience of QR code promotion. In this light, we first screened the panel participants by age, gender, and occupation. Diversity of professional experience was thought to be especially important in stimulating discussion. Finally, the participants were singled out according to their daily mobile usage (email and Internet browsing) and QR-code experience. One week before the focus group session, the participants were instructed to collect sample QR-codes, and to bring eight QR-codes that they had actually used, for the discussion. In doing so, they were instructed to record their expectations, anecdotal stories, and personal thoughts. The participants were paid $50 for their collaboration. In total, four sessions were conducted. On average, each session lasted 120 minutes. A moderator with sufficient professional experience was hired by the firm. During the session, open-ended questions were used to extract activities, anecdotal stories, thoughts, emotions, and perceptions related to QR-code. All focus group sessions were both tape- and video-recorded, with the consent of the participants, based on which we generated complete or “word-byword” transcripts. The video was used to gain additional insights via facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.

5.2

Coding

Each time a focus group was completed, two levels of coding were conducted: initial coding and focused coding. During the first stage of coding, we conducted a detailed line-by-line analysis, by looking for words and sentences in the text that have meaning. This coding phase was necessary at the beginning of grounded theory to generate initial conceptual categories, and to suggest relationships among categories (Chamarmaz 2006; Glaser and Strauss 1967). The constant comparison method was used to find similarities and differences in

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the interviewees’ responses to our questions. This comparison led to focused coding. At this level, we attempted to synthesize the initial coding, and to determine the most significant and frequent categories. We continued this process—focus group, coding, and constant comparison—until the fourth session was completed, at which time our theoretical saturation occurred. This was a theoretical saturation, in the sense that new interviews no longer sparked new insights (Chamarmaz 2006). Core categories were then constructed, by pulling together all the concepts in order to offer an explanation of the phenomenon.

5.3

Results

RQ2a seeks to answer the question as to the kind of incentives mobile users usually expect from QR code. Our key informants almost unanimously responded that their access motives are closely related to various promotional offers, such as coupons, sweepstakes, or product samples. In many cases, however, discount coupons are not directly linked to the QR code. Instead, users are redirected to Websites or email addresses that then require some kind of membership, by registering their personal information and email address. Users receive a diverse range of incentives from these email magazines. In fact, a subscription to the email magazine is often a prerequisite to receiving discount coupons, which can be saved in, and redeemed by, their mobile device. Consumer goods, such as beverages and cosmetics, typically use this kind of campaign. “When I scanned a QR code from vending machines of Coca-Cola, I was asked to register my email address. Since then I have received an email magazine that offers free trials several times a year.” (33, male, school administrator) “My favorite cosmetic brand, Orbis. Usually, I purchase cosmetics at shops, but the other day I found a QR code that offered 300 yen discount! So I decided to buy some with mobile.” (31, female, clerical) Many services, ranging from fast food restaurants to newspapers, also use QR codes for site registration. This result seems to be consistent with our content analysis findings. “I am a member of Asahi.com (Japanese newspaper) because it offers a discount for museums. This month I want to see the Egypt’s Sunken Treasures Exposition at Yokohama and may use the code.” (35, male, office worker)

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“When I first visited my beauty shop, a hairdresser told me to scan a QR code. I was so surprised—that was the way to become a member of that shop.” (22, female, accountant) With regard to the types of incentives, many participants responded that QR code is a convenient way to access the information at any place at any time. Apparently, the ubiquitous nature of QR code is a benefit. Many respondents pointed out that, if they need to receive timely benefits in a specific situation, they are willing to take immediate action. “It was one lunch time and I wanted to eat something quick. Then, I saw a QR code in front of one of those rotating sushi restaurants—50% off. I took a picture of the code and entered.” (20, male, college student) “The other day, my contact lenses were bothering me like never before,but I wasn’t carrying my membership card for the eyeglasses chain store where I bought my lenses. Fortunately, I had a QR code saved in my mobile. I jumped in one of the chain shops and fixed it for free right away.” (36, female, system engineer) By the same token, QR code is seen as a quick way to save money. “There is a booklet that lists a bunch of QR codes in Family Mart (Japan's third largest convenience store chain). I often use their online shops and save a lot of money.” (22, female, clerical) “I love Domino Pizza. The other day, I found a newspaper insert with a QR code for 25% discount! I scanned and ordered a pizza right away.” (29, female, housewife) Also, the respondents tend to seek free trials, product samples, or bonus membership points, all of which bring an increase in the perceived value of products or services. Hence, quality appears to be an additional factor. “When I had dinner with my friend in a hotel, we ordered a Spanish wine. It was a good wine and had a QR code printed on the label. We wondered what it was all about and accessed it—it was information about the Rioja Region and white grape producers. We thought it was kind of neat and informative. When we accessed the code, even a face photo of the wine grape producer appeared!” (36, female, service)

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“I sometimes like to try imported beers that are not well known in Japan. They sometimes have QR codes with their labels. I like the idea because, unless you can access that kind of information, you never know what kind of beer you are tasting.” (33, male, office worker) “Nestlé's chocolate has a QR code that explains what amount of calories you are consuming. As a female, I like that because we all need to be careful about our body.” (26, female, clerical) At the same time, it should be noted that many participants are concerned with how firms treat their personal information, because they started to receive SPAMs or unsolicited commercial emails after registration. “One day I passed by a large brand shop and found a promotional flyer with a QR code in front of the shop. It was a promotional campaign but you needed to register. First, I thought it might be annoying if they sent me SPAM, but finally I decided to do it because they offer 10-15% discount. It was a big deal.” (25, male, office worker) “Even Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Toyota organize sweepstakes, so I try sometimes. But I don't want to register my home phone number because I don't want to make trouble for my family. I don't mind giving my mobile phone number. In any case, SPAM is a really nasty problem.” (40, male, administrative) Our RQ3a and RQ3b address the context of QR code access, because we are interested in the kind of circumstances in which mobile users are willing or reluctant, respectively, to access the code and retry the data. Contrary to our expectations, the most favorite place to access QR codes is at home, rather than in a train or on the streets. Many respondents are reluctant to access QR codes in such locations because taking a picture in a crowd may disturb others. This is striking as it seems to contradict the most essential benefit of the mobile device—ubiquity. “I often find QR code in in-train ads. Sometimes they draw my attention but I have never tried them because everybody is watching.” (48, female, housewife) “I rarely scan QR code in train, because of the noise. When you take a picture with your mobile, you can hear the click of the camera shutter.” (33, male, office worker)

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QR Code Mobile Promotion: An Initial Inquiry

“I don't want to take pictures with my mobile phone in a train because I don't want to be mistaken for a pervert.” (33, male, office worker) As the findings show, QR codes have become a popular way for consumers to access product information and promotional offers. Advertisers use QR codes as an efficient way to establish a relationship with their customers. Incentives are used in some QR codes, although not as widely as we had expected. The most interesting finding of the focus group interviews is the preferred locations in which QR codes are scanned. The fact that many respondents do not scan QR codes in public locations reflects a subtle effect of Japanese culture, which respects personal space highly—you are not supposed to interrupt other people’s space by your own acts.

6

General Discusion

Our research attempts to undrtake an initial inquiry into QR code mobile promotion. This mode of promotion is increasingly popular in Japan, and it has been extended into the Western hemisphere, including the U.S. We conducted two-phase research, combining content analysis and a grounded theory approach. The findings provide preliminary but insightful implications. First, our content analysis revealed that most of the contents encoded in QR codes are non-incentives, in that some firms use them to facilitate loyalty program registration. This seems to be a wise strategy, because a loyalty program controls a customer database much better than spot campaigns, while users periodically receive beneficial information (e.g., discount coupons, sales information, special offers, etc.). It should be noted that the majority of nonincentive QR codes allow users to access firms’ or brand Websites without any registration. Our interpretation of this is that firms use QR code simply to increase traffic on their mobile Websites, which will eventually increase awareness of, and familiarity with, the promoted brands. Second, in a way our grounded theory corroborates the findings of content analysis. The majority of the respondents indicated that they use QR code mobile promotion in combination with some kind of loyalty program registration. Some even responded that they save the sites in their mobile for regular use. In fact, it seems rare for coupons to be offered without any registration, in that the loyalty program is a prerequisite of the benefits that the respondents will receive. Apparently, such a loyalty program is closely tied to the three primary incentives of mobile promotion, namely convenience, savings, and quality, all of which will lead to immediate or delayed QR code access.

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Immediate access occurs when users feel less hesitant, in trains or on streets, but otherwise many prefer to access the code from home. This was contrary to our expectations, because the ubiquitous capability has been considered one of the most important aspects of the mobile device. It will be interesting to investigate further which factors actually impede immediate access to the QR code, especially in an outdoor context. Finally, because our study examined only QR codes that are printed, or appeared in advertising, the findings also provide useful insights in terms of cross-media strategy. To our knowledge, QR code is one of the few alternatives that enables consumers to transfer from one medium to another, more or less instantaneously—a kind of media teleportation. The fact that QR code has been greatly extended to numerous printable surfaces in Japan indicates that crossmedia effectiveness may have increased drastically in recent years. In this light, this may be an indication that, in examining how people interact with traditional media (television, radio and printed media) and interactive media (PC and mobile Internet), total media usage has increased (Video Research 2008).

7

Limitations and Future Research

Like any empirical research, this study suffers from a few important limitations. First, the results of the content analysis were based on the first-level links of QR code. Although we classified email addresses as non-incentive, no further examination was conducted in terms of second-level links (e.g., information that may be obtained after sending personal information to these email addresses). Second, qualitative data analysis is based on an interpretive epistemology, and therefore any generalization of our grounded theory should be taken with much caution. This study should be treated as a starting point, rather than as a milestone that will provide many insights into mobile promotion. QR code mobile promotion is a useful alternative in the context of crossmedia marketing communication. Because of the barcode capacity that enables users to switch from print media to mobile, it can serve as an easy and practical catalyst for information delivery. Thus, it overcomes one of the widely documented shortcomings of the mobile device: limited typing capacity with a small keyboard. In particular, firms can use QR code to facilitate a gateway to their Website or to the registration sites of loyalty programs, via email magazines. A logical extension of the current study will be to test our grounded theory by conducting a quantitative survey. In this way, both scholars and practitioners

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should be able to gain important insights into consumer responses to mobile promotion. Additionally, given the worldwide penetration of QR code, it will be interesting to compare cross culturally consumers’ reactions to access behavior. Also, not only aggregate analysis, but also fragmented analysis, of a diverse range of coding technology, such as Microsoft Tag, image code, and AR code, would provide useful information. Finally, the effect of a cross-media strategy through QR coded advertising may be an additional issue that deserves our attention. Given the increasing importance of this topic, it makes sense to examine how mobile, PC, and traditional media could be effectively combined to create a synergetic integration of marketing communications. Such a study should improve our knowledge of mobile promotion in the broader context of business strategy.

8

Selected References

Bamberg, S. (2002), "Implementation Intention versus Monetary Incentive Comparing the Effects of Interventions to Promote the Purchase of Organically Produced Food," Journal of Economic Psychology, 23(5), 573-587. Bandura, A. (2001), "Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication," Mediapsychology, 3, 265– 299. Brooks, G. (2008), "Major brands spur mobile revolution," Promotions & Incentives, November 19, available at: http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/SalesPromotion/News/863679/Major, accessed on November 1, 2009 Buzzell, R.D., Quelch, J.A. & Salmon, W.L. (1990), “The Costly Bargain of Trade Promotion," Harvard Business Review, 68 (March-April), 141-149. Chamarmaz, K. (2006), Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: Sage. Denso Wave (2009), "QR Code.com," available at http://www.qrcode.com/. accessed on October 10, 2009. Dou, X. & Hairong L. (2008), "Creative Use of QR Codes in Consumer communication," International Journal of Mobile Marketing, 3 (2), 61-67 Gfeller, M. & Gfeller, B. (2004), "Using camera-equipped mobile phones for interacting with realworld objects," In Advances in Pervasive Computing, A. Ferscha, H. Hoertner & G. Kotsis (eds.), Viena: Austrian Computing Society (OCG), 2004, pp. 265–271. Glaser, B.G. (1992), Basic of grounded theory analysis. Mill Valley, CA: The Sociology Press. Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.L. (1967), The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldime. impress R&D (2007), Ketai Hakusyo, impress R&D, Mobile Content Forum, and Access Media (ed.), Tokyo: impress R&D. Katz, E., Blumler, J.G. & Michael Gurevitch (1974), "Utililization of Mass Communication by the Individual," In The uses of masss communications: Current perspectives on gratifications research, J.G. Blumler and Elihu Katz (eds.), Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, p. 20. Keane, M. (2009), "Google takes another stab at QR codes. Will it work this time?" Econsultancy Digital Marketers United, available at: http://econsultancy.com/blog/5090-google-takes-anotherstab-at-qr-codes. Marshall, M.N. (1996), "The Key Informant Technique," Family Practice, 13(1), 92-97.

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Okazaki, S. (2004), “How do Japanese consumers perceive wireless ad? A multivariate analysis,” International Journal of Advertising, 23 (4), 429-454. Okazaki, S., Katsukura, A. & Nishiyama, M. (2007), "How Mobile Advertising Works: The Role of Trust in Improving Attitudes and Recall", Journal of Advertising Research, 47(2), 165-178.

Part VIII

Advertising Content, Appeals and Execution

Perceived Expertise vs. Perceived Trustworthiness: The Suppressed Effect of Source Type on Review Attitude Lotte M. Willemsen, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Peter C. Neijens, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Fred E. Bronner, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1

Introduction

Mediated communication is moving away from the traditional concept of oneway mass communication in which a centrally located sender addresses a mass audience. In today’s interactive media landscape, people formerly known as ‘the audience’ (Rosen, 2006, June 27) are increasingly dictating the creation and dissemination of information. The opportunity for people to actively engage in the public-information process provides consumers with a rich and varied set of consumer opinions, often posted in the form of online product reviews. Online product reviews are seen as a persuasive source of information in the consumerdecision making process, shaping not only consumers’ attitudes but also their purchase behaviors (Bickart and Schindler, 2001; Chevelier and Mayzlin, 2006; Park and Kim, 2008; Senecal and Nantel, 2004). The persuasiveness of reviews has often been explained by its source credibility (Bickart and Schindler, 2001; Brown et al., 2007). Reviews are written by non-commercial individuals who are believed to provide a more accurate and truthful evaluation of product/brand performance than commercial sources. The literature makes an important assumption that still remains untested: That all reviewers are equal in credibility. However, reviews are authored by different types of sources (Mackiewicz, 2010; Pollach, 2008; Willemsen et al., 2010), ranging from individuals with little knowledge of the product under review (i.e., typical consumer) to individuals who obtained knowledge about a product as part of their profession (i.e., experts). In this study we examine the relative effects of consumers and experts on credibility assessments. We assert that consumers and experts have differential effects on perceived source expertise and trustworthiness―i.e. two dimensions of source credibility―and that teasing apart these differential effects facilitates a better understanding of source effects in computer-mediated communication (CMC). S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_27, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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Source Credibility

Source credibility is a multi-faceted construct, and generally believed to consist of a perceived expertise and perceived trustworthiness dimension (Hovland et al., 1953; McGuire, 1985; Ohanian, 1990). While perceived expertise refers to the degree to which a source is considered to be capable of making valid assertions, perceived trustworthiness refers to the degree of confidence that a source is motivated to communicate valid assertions (Hovland et al., 1953; McCracken, 1989). The rich body of literature that has accumulated in the domain of credibility research demonstrates that highly credible sources produce more attitude change than low credible sources (see Petty and Wegener, 1998; Pornpitakpan, 2004 for a review). Reliance on perceived source expertise versus trustworthiness as a criterion for credibility assessments does not seem to affect these results. Whether the emphasis is on perceived expertise or perceived trustworthiness, high credibility sources are found to produce more attitude change than low credibility sources (Mills and Jellison, 1967; Rhine and Severance, 1970). Research in the domain of CMC follows traditional credibility research in the sense that source credibility appears to have a profound effect on consumer judgment and choice (Brown et al., 2007; Lim, et al., 2006). However, the contribution of source type to a source’s perceived credibility remains undecided (Vermeulen and Seegers, 2008). In face-to-face settings experts have repeatedly been found to induce more credibility than consumers (DeBono and Harnish, 1988; Pallak et al., 1983; Petty et al., 1981). In CMC settings, however, both consumers and experts have been found to affect credibility (Eastin, 2001; Wang, 2005), whereas other studies have failed to demonstrate such a relationship (Hu and Sundar, 2010; Tan et al., 2008) The ambiguous results with regard to the role of source types in CMC may be due to its differential effects on perceived expertise versus trustworthiness: A source may be considered high in perceived expertise but not high in trustworthiness, and vice versa (Pornpitakpan, 2004). These differential effects may cancel each other out when expertise and trustworthiness is assessed as part of one and the same credibility scale, as many scholars do. The aim of the present study is therefore to establish the effects of source type separately for perceived source expertise and trustworthiness.

Perceived Expertise vs. Perceived Trustworthiness

1.2

425

Perceived Expertise and Perceived Trustworthiness of Claimed Experts

Source expertise is based on the accumulation of skills or knowledge through experience (Gotlieb and Sarel, 1991). In online environments it is difficult to differentiate sources with respect to expertise given the limited availability of personal information (Cheung at al., 2008; Schindler and Bickart, 2005). Thus, inferences about the expertise of a review source can often only be drawn from what the source discloses in the review (Brown et al., 2007). If reviewers claim to be an expert, which reviewers frequently do according to prior research (Mackiewicz, 2010; Pollach, 2008; Willemsen et al., 2010), it is likely that those reviewers are perceived as having expertise on the product under review. The claimed expert status of a source serves as a heuristic cue signalling that the source provides valid information due to his/her authority on the subject. As humans are “cognitive misers” (Taylor and Fiske, 1978), who do not rely on more cues than necessary to form an impression, this cue prompts people to attribute expertise to a source, regardless of the quality of the information offered by a source. Source trustworthiness is determined by attributions about the motives of a source to share particular information (McCracken, 1989). In an online environment, consumers are prone to assess these motives because of authenticity concerns stemming from fear of unknown other’s manipulations. Prompted by instances where commercial endorsers promoted products without disclosing their affiliation with the product, consumers have become suspicious about the identity of reviewers and their intentions to share product evaluations (Doh and Hwang, 2009; Metzger et al., 2010; Schindler and Bickart, 2005). When reading a review, consumers attribute opinions expressed either to actual characteristics of the product, or the reviewer’s desire to promote the product (i.e., non-product related attributions, Sen and Lerman, 2007). Following the discounting principle of the attribution theory (Kelley, 1973), consumers will discredit a recommendation if they suspect that the source is driven by personal interest (e.g., incentives), and hence, that the recommendation is not based on a valid evaluation of a product’s characteristics. Following this, a consumer source should be perceived as more trustworthy than a self-claimed expert since the former is less susceptible to non-product related attributions (Senecal and Nantel, 2004; Huang and Chen, 2006 ). A statement that the reviewer lacks expert knowledge signals sincerity and serves as a validation cue that the review is based on authentic first-hand experience, and does not come from someone who (falsely) claims to have expert knowledge to impress online consumers, and influence their purchase behavior (Mackiewicz, 2010; Schindler and Bickart, 2005).

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The discussion above implies that consumers are left in a quandary when assessing the credibility of reviewers. While a claimed expert may exhibit more expertise than a consumer, the latter may be more trustworthy. This means that the effect of source type on attitude formation may not be as straightforward as suggested in the traditional credibility literature. The effect of a source who claims to be a consumer (vs. expert) is likely to induce two mechanisms that work in opposite directions by increasing one dimension of source credibility (i.e., perceived trustworthiness) while simultaneously decreasing the other dimension of credibility (i.e., perceived expertise). Since perceived expertise and trustworthiness are both positively related to message attitude (Harmon and Coney, 1982; Lascu et al., 1995), these mechanisms may produce two competing indirect effects—i.e., one positive and one negative indirect effect through respectively perceived trustworthiness and expertise—which, in effect cancel each other out in the estimation of source type effect. Such a situation, also referred to as suppression situation, would explain the lack of consistent findings in the literature regarding the role of source type. The literature reports initial evidence for the presence of a suppression situation. In a series of experiments on herding in online product choices, Huang and Chen (2006) tested for the relative effects of recommendation sources. The results showed that a consumer was perceived significantly more trustworthy, but also as having less expert knowledge than an expert source. Although these results suggest that source type invokes differential mechanisms through perceived expertise and trustworthiness, it is yet to be established that suppression is a possible outcome of these differential mechanisms en route to influencing message attitude. Hence, it is hypothesized: H1: A consumer source (vs. claimed expert source) has a negative indirect effect (vs. positive indirect effect) on review attitude through perceived source expertise. H2: A consumer source (vs. claimed expert source) has a positive indirect effect (vs. negative indirect effect) on review attitude through perceived source trustworthiness. H3: The relation between source type (consumer source vs. claimed expert source) and review attitude is suppressed by its combined indirect effects through perceived source expertise and source trustworthiness.

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2

427

Method

The hypotheses was tested by means of a 2 (source type) x 2 (product type) between-subjects factorial design. Product type was manipulated as previous studies have postulated that credibility might impact consumer responses differently for products that can be easily evaluated prior to consumption (i.e., search products, such as electronics) and products that can only be evaluated after consumption (i.e., experience products, such as recreational services) (Biswas et al., 2001). Accounting for the potential effects of product type enables us to test whether the results are generalizable across reviews discussing search and experience products.

2.1

Participants

Undergraduate students at a large Dutch university were invited via email to participate in the experiment, which was administered online to let the manipulation material look as realistic as possible. 265 students agreed to volunteer in the online experiment, and were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. The sample consisted of 28.7% men and 71.3% women, with a mean age of 22.9 years.

2.2

Procedure and Stimuli

Participants were asked to evaluate a product review posted on a fictitious review site which discussed either a television set or a hotel accommodation. The products were chosen based on a pilot test which identified a television set as a search product and a hotel accommodation as an experience product, using prepurchase performance veracity as a criterion (Hsieh et al., 2005; Krishnan and Hartline, 2001). To control for potential effects of pre-existing brand attitudes, fictitious brand names were used for the hotel and television set. Within product type conditions, product reviews were identical except for the manipulation of the source (i.e., consumer vs. claimed expert). In the consumer condition, the source stated in the textual body of the review that he had no special knowledge of the product class. For the expert condition, it was stated that the source had a profession related to the product class (i.e., lecturer hotel management or TV technician) which provided him with specialized knowledge (cf. Mackiewicz, 2010). After exposure to the review, participants completed a survey which included questions about the review, as well as the source of the review.

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Measures

To measure review attitude, participants were asked to report their opinions regarding the review on three pairs of bipolar adjectives, ranging from 1 to 5, with the following anchors: bad-good, unfavorable-favorable, unappealingappealing, and unuseful-useful (Cronbach’s α=.85) (LaTour and Rotfeld, 1997). As measures for the two dimensions of source credibility, the scales developed by Ohanian,(1990) were adopted which included five 5-point bipolar items to tap perceived trustworthiness (i.e., dishonest-honest, insincere-sincere, unreliable-reliable, untrustworthy-trustworthy, dependent-independent, Cronbach’s α=.91) and five 5-point bipolar items to tap perceived expertise (i.e., not an expert-expert, inexperienced-experienced, unknowledgeable-knowledgeable, unskilled-skilled, unqualified-qualified, Cronbach’s α=.94). Finally, perceived review quality, tone of voice, and review involvement were included in the survey as potential controls. Perceived review quality and tone-of-voice were measured by one-item scales ranging from 1 (low quality and negative tone) to 10 (high quality and positive tone). Review involvement was measured by asking participants to rate the review in terms of personal relevance (Zaichkowsky, 1994) according to three pairs of 5-point bipolar adjectives including: meaningless-meaningful, valuable-worthless, irrelevant-relevant (Cronbach’s α=.83).

3 3.1

Results Measurement Assessment

The scale items of perceived trustworthiness, expertise and review attitude were entered into a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the quality of the constructs. The constructs were modeled as three correlated first-order constructs which offered a satisfactory model fit: χ2(62)=162.7, p<.001, CFI=.96, TLI=.97, RMSEA =.07, 90% CI [.06, .09]. All items yielded high standardized loadings on their intended constructs (λ>.70), and hence were retained for analysis. Convergent validity was assessed using Composite Reliability (CR) and the average variance extracted (AVE) as recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981). As shown by Table 1, CR and AVE values all sufficiently met the recommended cut-off value of .70 and .50, respectively. Hence, the measurement model was deemed to be acceptable. Discriminant validity among constructs was examined by comparing the square root of the average variance extracted

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Perceived Expertise vs. Perceived Trustworthiness

(AVE) with the correlation between two latent constructs. Discriminant validity is satisfied when the square root of the AVE exceeds this correlation. As shown by Table 1, this criterion was met for all pairs of constructs in the model, including expertise and trustworthiness. We can therefore conclude that perceived source expertise and trustworthiness are two separate constructs. This was also confirmed by the weak correlation between source expertise and trustworthiness (r=.10). Hence, the items for the constructs were averaged to form separate index scales. Table 1: Reliability and Validity of Constructs

Trustworthiness Expertise Review attitude

1.

2.

.87 .10 .55

.94 .41

3.

M

SD

CR

AVE

.92

3.63 2.69 3.14

0.76 1.02 0.75

0.82 0.86 0.70

0.75 0.89 0.84

Note. Mean values on a 5-point scale. CR = Composite Reliability. AVE = Average Variance Extracted. Diagonal elements in bold denote the square root of the AVE. Off-diagonal elements are correlations between the constructs.

3.2

Manipulation and Confound Check

The manipulation check indicated a successful manipulation of review source type. Respondents assigned to the consumer condition (vs. expert condition) more often mentioned that they read a review from a consumer than respondents assigned to the claimed expert condition and vice versa (χ 2 Expert (1) =114,07, p<.01; χ2Consumer (1) = 131.66, p<.01). Statistic showed that participants’ gender was similar across conditions (χ 2Expert (1) =.601, p = ns). The conditions did not differ with respect to review involvement, review quality, tone-of-voice, or age (all F<1). This implies that differences in the groups regarding the dependent variables cannot be caused by differences in these variables.

3.3

Perceived Source Expertise vs. Trustworthiness.

A repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted with source expertise and product type as between-factors, and trustworthiness and expertise as repeated measures. As expected, the results revealed a significant interaction between source type, and its effect on perceived expertise versus trustworthiness (Wilk’s λ = .61, F(1,261) = 167.05, p<.001, multivariate η2 =.39), indicating that the influence of source type differs for perceived expertise and trustworthiness.

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Contrast tests showed that a claimed expert scored significantly higher on perceived expertise (M = 3.36, SD = 0.92) than a typical consumer (M =2.09, SD = 0.69), F(1, 261) =174.58, p<.001). A reverse pattern was found for perceived trustworthiness. A typical consumer was considered to be more trustworthy (M = 3.75, SD = 0.66) than a claimed expert (M = 3.39, SD = 0.84), F(1, 261) = 7.84, p<.01). No significant differences were found between the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of source types among the different product categories (F<1). The role of product category was therefore not further considered in subsequent testing.

3.4

Suppression Analysis

The results presented above showed that source type has differential effects on what is assumed to be the two dimensions of credibility: Perceived source expertise and trustworthiness. To assess whether these differential effects suppress the relationship between source type and review attitude, a formal test of suppression was performed as recommended by MacKinnon, Krull and Lockwood (2001). According to these authors, suppression is closely related to mediation and can be tested using the same methods, i.e., by analyzing the total, direct and indirect effects between a set of variables. Within the mediation model presented by Figure 1, suppression would be present when: (1) the direct effect and indirect effects of source type on review attitude through perceived expertise and/or trustworthiness have opposite signs, thereby resulting in a total effect close to zero; and (2) controlling for the mediators increases the regression coefficient of source type such that the direct effect becomes larger in magnitude than the total effect. To assess whether these criteria hold, bootstrapping analyses were conducted with 5,000 resamples and a bias corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval (CI), using Preacher and Hayes’ (2008) INDIRECT macro for SPSS. Generally, when the bias-corrected CI does not include zero, the effect can be said to differ significantly from zero. In line with H1, bootstrapping analyses revealed a significant positive indirect effect of source type (dummy-coded: 0=claimed expert, 1=consumer) on review attitude through perceived trustworthiness, B=.10, 95% CI [.03, .18]. A consumer source (vs. claimed expert source), had a positive effect on perceived trustworthiness (B=.25, p<.01). Perceived trustworthiness, in turn, had a positive effect on review attitude (B=.39, p<.001). As predicted by H2, the results also showed a significant negative indirect effect of a consumer type on review attitude through perceived expertise, B=-.44, 95% CI [-.60, -.29]. A consumer source (vs. claimed expert source), had a negative effect on perceived expertise (B= -1.28, p<.001), which in turn, had a positive effect on review attitude (B=.34, p<.001).

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Perceived Expertise vs. Perceived Trustworthiness

This pattern of indirect effects points at the presence of two competing mechanisms, which in tandem, could undermine the relationship between source type and message attitude. This is confirmed after inspection of the direct and total effect. The results demonstrated a non-significant total effect of source type on review attitude (B=-.12, p=ns) which became significant when perceived source expertise and trustworthiness were entered into the model. Controlling for the effects of perceived expertise and trustworthiness, a consumer source, in contrast to a claimed expert source, was found to have a positive direct effect on review attitude (B=.22, p<.05). As the direct effect is consistent in sign with its indirect effects through perceived trustworthiness, but opposite in sign with its indirect effect through source expertise, perceived trustworthiness appeared to act as a mediator, while perceived expertise appeared to act as a suppressor. In effect, perceived trustworthiness and expertise show indirect effects that cancel out as demonstrated by a total effect closer to zero than the direct effect (Preacher and Hayes, 2008). Hence, H2 is supported.

-1.28 ***

Perceived Expertise

.34 ***

.22* (-.12)

Consumer (vs. expert) .25 **

Perceived Trustworthiness

Attitude towards the Review .39 ***

Figure 1: Suppression Analysis Path values represent unstandardized regression coefficients. The value outside of the parentheses represents the direct effect of source type on attitude towards the review when the mediators are included into the model. The value in parentheses represents the total effect of source type on attitude towards the review prior to the inclusion of the mediating variables. * p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001

4

Discussion

This study examined the relative effects of expert and consumer sources on perceived trustworthiness and perceived expertise, and its subsequent effects on people’s attitude towards an online product review. The results reveal two competing mechanisms: A consumer source (vs. expert source) has a positive indirect effect on review attitude through perceived trustworthiness, and a negative indirect effect through perceived expertise. In tandem, these mechanisms suppress the relationship between source type and review attitude. Although differential effects of expert and consumer sources on perceived trustworthiness and expertise have been found in previous CMC research (Huang and Chen, 2006)

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our study was the first to demonstrate such a suppression situation. This suppression situation appeared to be robust across product types (i.e., search and experience products). The results of this study have several implications. First, the findings provide initial support for the notion that source effects work differently in CMC settings than in face-to-face settings (Doh and Hwang, 2009). Research that has examined source effects in face-to-face settings reported an expert source to induce more credibility than a consumer source (Petty and Wegener, 1998; Pornpitakpan, 2004). The present study, which examined source effects in CMC, found an expert source to have different effects on the two dimensions of credibility: perceived expertise and trustworthiness. Specifically, an expert source scored higher on perceived expertise but lower on perceived trustworthiness than a consumer source. The differential effects on perceived expertise and trustworthiness highlights the “authenticity dilemma” (Metzger et al., 2010) that people face in online social media where one cannot be confident about the true identity of a source and his/her motivations to share information, thereby resulting in contradictory source evaluations. Second and related to the previous point, the results support previous calls in the literature (Pornpitakpan, 2004) to assess the isolated effect of perceived source expertise and trustworthiness. This study finds that source expertise and trustworthiness operate separately and produce differential effects en route to attitude formation. This suggests that scholars should assess these dimensions of credibility in isolation to gain a better understanding of the effects of source evaluations in CMC. Assessing perceived expertise and trustworthiness as part of one and the same credibility scale may obscure the complexity of source evaluations in online environments. Finally, the results reported in this study show that consumers integrate perceptions about the expertise and trustworthiness of a source into evaluations about the review provided by the source. This alleviates the concern that consumers adopt online content without making an effort to differentiate credible online sources from incredible online sources (Eastin, 2001). As demonstrated in the present study, however, the credibility of a source is not easily discerned in the context of CMC where perceived source trustworthiness is not always in par with source expertise, and vice versa. Anyone can publish online product reviews under any identity, thereby inducing concerns about the identity of reviewers and their intentions to share information (Metzger et al., 2010). This stresses the need to develop tools/systems to gauge credibility (e.g., reputation rankings, seals of approval, digital signatures) and totake away (unwarranted) suspicion about the authenticity of reviewers. Such tools are not only of impor-

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tance for consumers, but also for practitioners who use reviews as testimonials in their marketing efforts. One point of discussion is whether consumers are equally critical when assessing the credibility of online sources. Prior research has shown that consumers vary in their tendency to believe or disbelieve online reviews (Sher and Lee, 2009). Since this study made use of student samples which are likely to be homogeneous in terms of scepticism, future research is needed to elucidate the role of scepticism in the relation between source type and online review attitude. Future research is also warranted to assess whether the effects reported in this research also emerge in other venues of user-generated content. This is particularly important since message evaluations can be simultaneously affected by a chain of sources. Recent research demonstrates that people evaluate online messages in reference not only to the individual contributor of that information, but also to the website in which the information is embedded (e.g., Hu and Sundar, 2010).

5

References

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A Study on the Impact of TV Advertising Contacts during Dinner Günter Silberer, University of Göttingen,Germany Sascha Steinmann, University of Göttingen,Germany Inga Blohm, University of Göttingen,Germany Julia Vetter, University of Göttingen,Germany

1

Introduction

Many commercials are still broadcast on TV, and many TV users often only have it on in the background without paying particular attention to the program. This article focuses on the impact of advertising in such situations. The discussion is centered on the following question: does it make a difference to the impact of advertising whether or not food and drinks are served and consumed while a TV program is on and, if there is food and drink, whether the brands served up or competing brands are advertised? In this, the priming and distractive impact of the consumption and the effects of congruence between the brands advertised and served are primarily of interest.

2

Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses

If a family or group of friends is sitting around the table having dinner and the television is on in the background, it is safe to assume that they are not devoting their full attention to the subject-matter presented on it. As far as the impact of the media and advertising in the case of less involved people is concerned, Petty and Cacioppo’s (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model states that the program and the commercials thus transmitted – if noticed at all – cannot expect any central, deepened processing with a verification of the arguments raised. Instead, what we can expect is more a superficial processing of peripheral stimuli, such as the tone of voice or background music for instance (Rothschild, 1984; Hawkins et al., 2001). If one is distracted from the medium during a get-together, however, the distraction can trigger specific effects besides reduced attention: on the one hand, the impaired understanding of messages and, on the other hand, the circumvention of defensive attitudes. The former can hinder the advertising S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_28, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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impact, the latter boost it (Bither, 1972; Kroeber-Riel et al., 2009). However, if no noteworthy defensive attitudes are at work it can be assumed that a private get-together limits rather than enhances the impact of advertising. If advertising encounters a special situation, the priming of thoughts should also be taken into consideration (Percy, 2006; Karremans et al., 2006; Kiefer, 2008; Kroeber-Riel et al., 2009). If people meet for dinner and food and drinks are consumed, commercials for the consumed food and beverages have better chances of being noticed and processed correctly thematically due to an appropriate priming of thoughts and emotions. Such a sensory framing, by no means has to occur consciously (Percy, 2006; Voss and Paller, 2009; Scharf, 2000; Scharf and Volkmer, 1997, 2000; Volkmer 2005). Unconscious framing also increases the noticing of relevant information and recall memories that are associated with relevant experiences (Kiefer, 2008). Based on attitude effects that are important for advertisers, not only can framing enrich the relevant attitudes with information and experiences, it can also consolidate and improve them (Goffman, 1974; Entman, 1993; Scheufele, 1999; Esch et al., 2006; Feldman, 2007). Concerning the theoretical framework, we expect the consumption of advertised brands in commercials to have an impact on the attention towards the advertising in general, on the free and aided recall of the contents of the commercial break and commercials, on the recognition time of consumptionrelated brands, and also on brand evaluation. In this context the first three hypotheses (H1, H2, H3) are related to the effects of consumption on the attention towards the advertising and on the effects of consumption on the recall of the advertisements contents. We expect a distraction effect of the consumption from the advertising. Furthermore, we expect that consumption will lead to a more peripheral processing of the advertising and that therefore, the advertising contents in general as well as the consumption related brands are recalled less compared to a situation without consumption. H1: In a group situation, if food and drink is consumed less attention is paid to the advertising in general than in a situation without the possibility to consume. H2: In a group situation, if food and drink is consumed the contents of the advertising are recalled less than in a situation without the possibility to consume.

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H3: In a group situation, if food and drink is consumed commercials concerning consumption-related brands are recalled less than in a situation without the possibility to consume. The following three hypotheses (H4, H5, H6) are related to the effects of the framing of consumption on recognition time and recall of consumption-related brands. We expect that consumption could have an effect on the priming of thoughts even in a low-involvement situation. Therefore, consumption will affect recognition and recall as well as the evaluation of consumption-related brands positively. H4: In a group situation, if food and drink is consumed the brands shown in the advertising are recognized more quickly afterwards than in a situation without the possibility to consume. H5: In a group situation, if food and drink is consumed commercials concerning consumption-related brands are recalled more effectively afterwards than in a situation without the possibility to consume. H6: In a group situation, if food and drink is consumed commercials concerning consumption-related brands during a commercial break are evaluated better than in a situation without the possibility to consume. Furthermore, we also expect the fit between the consumed brands and the commercials shown to have an impact on the recognition time, the aided recall of the consumption-related brands, and their evaluation. In this context, we expect that a high consumption-advertising-fit will positively affect recognition and recall of the brands consumed as well as the evaluation of consumptionrelated brands (H7, H8, H9). H7: If the advertising refers to the brands consumed, they are recognized more quickly than if the advertising refers to competing brands not consumed. H8: If the advertising refers to the brands consumed, they are (aided) recalled more effectively than if the advertising refers to competing brands not consumed. H9: If the advertising refers to the brands consumed, they are also evaluated somewhat better than competing brands not consumed.

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Design and Implementation of the Study

To test the nine hypotheses, a study was conceived as a 2X2-quasi experimental design with factor 1 consumption (consumption vs. non-consumption), i.e. whether food and drinks are served or not, and factor 2 consumption-advertising fit (high consumption advertising fit vs. low consumption-advertising fit), i.e. whether the brands served or competing brands are advertised. As posited advertising impact data, the attention to the advertising, the recollection of the advertising contents, the recollection of advertised and served brands, the recognition of relevant brands and their appraisal are of interest. In the consumption condition (factor 1), the brand Coca-Cola and the table water Apollinaris Classic were served as refreshing drinks, and the Red Soup by Knorr was served as a warm soup. The brands served in the consumption condition were discernible – the drinks on the basis of 1-liter bottles standing on the table and the soup brand by way of a “verbal placement” (investigator A in the session room had to ask investigator B in the kitchen next door audibly which soup was being served that day, and the latter had to answer audibly). Factor 2 consumption-advertising fit refers exclusively to the consumption condition as a relational feature. Here, two characteristics of the consumptionadvertising fit were differentiated: a group in which the advertising referred to the brands served (A-brands) and a group in which the advertising referred to competing brands not served (B-brands). The following brands were selected as competing B-brands: Afri-Cola, Gerolsteiner table water and Maggi tomato soup. The commercials for these brands were integrated in two commercial breaks, each consisting of ten commercials during a typical early-evening TV program. N = 80 people participated – i.e. about 20 people per experimental condition. The participants were students from different fields at a major university, especially the humanities, social sciences and economics. 42% of the participants were female. The average age M=24.4 years. The participants were divided into groups and assigned at random to one of the four experimental conditions. They were told that it was a study on “family evenings in front of the TV”. A TV screening the early-evening program had been set up in the sitting-room-like session room so that all of the participants could see it well. The follow-up survey recorded data concerning various variables: one group of variables consists of the dependent variables concerning the consumption and advertising effects the other group consists of some other determinants of consumption and advertising effects besides factor 1 and factor 2.

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The measurement of the dependent variables was done in the following manner: (1) Attention towards advertising Question: „How was your attention towards the advertising?“; measured on a six-step rating scale: 1=not attentive – 6=very attentive (Wiltinger, 2002). (2) Number of free recalled brands Question: „Which advertised brands do you remember?“ (Brosius and Fahr, 1996). (3) Number of free recalled advertising content related to A- and B-brands; Question: „During the commercials you have seen a spot of the brand… (A-brands: …Coca Cola/…Knorr/…Appollinaris and accordingly B-brands: ...Afri Cola/...Gerolsteiner/...Maggi). Please write down in catchwords which contents of the spot you still remember (e.g. persons, objects, slogan, place, story line)“ (Brosius and Fahr, 1996). (4) Recognition time measured in milliseconds; the recognition performance was recorded, comparable to a salience test, using pack shots of the A- and B-brands (see figure 1) presented in a stepwise diminishing of fog measuring the recognition time until the brand was recognized. Afterwards the mean (sd) of the recognition time of the A- and B-Brands was calculated and was used in the data analysis.

A-Brands B-Brands Figure 1: Pack shots of the A- and B-Brands (5) Number of consumption related aided recalled brands A- & B-brands Question: „Some of the brands in the following list were presented to you during the commercials. Please mark all the brands with a cross which did you see during the commercials.“ The presented list covered the A- and B-brands as well as six other brands of different product categories.

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(6) Brand evaluation after consumption Brand evaluation after consumption was measured as the mean (sd) of the evaluation of the four items: The brand is … (1) sound, (2) premium, (3) likeable, (4) unique“ (Ellen and Bone, 1998; Esch and Rempel, 2007). And the measurement of other determinants of consumption and advertising effects was done as follows: (1) Brand awareness related to A- and B-brands; Question: Which of the following brands do you know? A-Brands (Coca Cola/Knorr/Appollinaris) and B-Brands (AfriCola/Maggi/ Gerolsteiner); measured on a six-step rating scale: 1= I do not know the brand at all – 6=I know the brand very well. (2) Involvement related to four different product categories: cola-beverages/packet soups/mineral water/laundry detergent; Question: „How important are these products for you?“; measured on a six-step rating scale: 1=entirely unimportant – 6=very important (Gierl, 2002). (3) Consumption frequency related to A- and B-Brands; Question: „How often do you consum these brands?“ A-Brands: Coca Cola/Knorr/Appollinaris and B-Brands: AfriCola/Maggi/Gerolsteiner; measured on five-step rating scale: 5 = daily – 1 = rarely.

5

Results of the Study

The design of the study enables us to record the effects of the consumption situation (factor 1) by comparing the groups and test the corresponding hypotheses regarding the direction, magnitude and significance of the group differences. In the consumption condition and the non-consumption condition, there were 41 and 39 participants respectively. The impact of the consumption-advertising fit (factor 2) on the advertising effects can be determined via the two consumption groups. Here, too, the corresponding hypotheses can be tested by comparing the groups. In the group with a consumption-advertising fit, there were 21 participants; in the group without a consumption-advertising fit, 20 participants.

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To control the effect of the expected differences between the commercials of the A- and B-brands, we calculated the advertising-related interference factor. Therefore, we calculated the differences of the dependent variables between the two groups in the non-consumption condition of factor 1. The obtained differences were then used to adjust the obtained values in the consumption condition of factor 1. This correction enables us to assign the adjusted differences between both consumption groups to factor 2 (consumptionadvertising fit). Results on the effects of a consumption situation: The following effects were expected for the consumption possibility (H1, H2, H3): less attention to the advertising contents, reduced (free) recall of the advertising contents and reduced (free) recall of the brands advertised. As the results of the group comparison (consumption vs. non-consumption) using a one-sided t-test with the adjusted values for the consumption condition shows, these expectations could not be confirmed (see Table 1). The consumption situation restricted neither the attention nor the recollection performances. Instead, a positive influence on free brand recall becomes apparent, both for the A and B brands and all of the other brands advertised. This finding seems to indicate that the level of involvement was not as low as expected, the priming effects stronger than expected, and the distraction effects weaker than expected. This fact could be attributed to the cover story, however, the participants having been told that it was a study on watching television early in the evening. Furthermore, we expected the consumption situation to improve the recognition and aided recall of the consumption-related brands as well as the content of their commercials and their evaluation (H4, H5, H6). The results of the corresponding group comparison reveal that the recognition time for the A and B brands did not turn out to be (significantly) different in the consumption condition situation than in the non-consumption condition. H4 can therefore also be rejected. The results also reveal that the number of aided recalled brands and their evaluation after the consumption situation turned out better than in the non-consumption situation. This supports hypotheses H5 and H6. The result regarding the recognition time could have something to do with the fact that the brands are relatively well known and thus there was barely any leeway for consumption-induced changes.

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Table 1: Effects of Consumption Consumption

Non-consumption

Attention towards advertising a

2,97 (1,28)

2,72 (1,12)

t (82)=-1,000 n.s.

Number of free recalled brands

3,69 (1,57)

2,86 (1,54)

T (82)=2,457 **

Brands A

4,52 (1,39)

3,54 (1,95)

t (40)=1,880 *

Brands B

2,90 (1,73)

2,05 (1,63)

t (40)=1,654

Number of free recalled advertising content

T

Recognition time b Brands A

1047,24 (265,55)

Brands B

1204,61 (207,04)

1039,99 (198,11) 1157,10 (276,68)

2,62 (0,55)

2,28 (0,64)

t(82)=2,563 **

2,26 (0,49)

1,90 (0,58)

t(82)=3,038 ***

3,81 (0,65)

3,55 (0,88)

t (78)=,252

n.s.

t (81)=,887

n.s.

Number of consumption related aided recalled brands c Brands A Brands B Brand evaluation after consumption d Brands A Brands B

3,82 (0,69)

3,66 (0,84)

t(82)=-1,522 t(82)=-,901

T

n.s.

Note: n.s. = not significant; T p<.1; * p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001; a Attention towards advertising 1=not attentive – 6=very attentive; b (Mean of) Recognition time measured in milliseconds c Mean of aided recalled brands,

d

Brand evaluation after consumption was measured on a six-step rating

scale 1=I do not like the brand at all – 6=I like the brand very much

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Results on the effect of the consumption-advertising fit: The hypotheses regarding the effects of the consumption-advertising fit concern the faster recognition of the brands served, a better aided recall of these brands and a better evaluation of these brands in the case of a consumption-advertising fit (H7, H8, H9). As the corresponding group comparisons and t-tests reveal, these expectations could all be confirmed (see Table 2). In this, the different recollection performances are particularly pronounced, but the brand evaluations less so. Table 2: Effects of Consumption-Advertising-Fit (only related to consumed brands) NonconsumptionAdvertising-Fit

Consumption -Advertising-Fit Recognition timea

985.09 (311,95)

1238.06 (216.19)

t(39)=1.563 T

Number of aided recalled brandsb

2.95 (0,22)

2.29 (0.58)

t(40)=4.893 ***

Brand evaluation after consumptionc

3.94 (0,64)

3.68 (0.88)

t(40)=1.333 T

Note: n.s. = not significant; T p<.1; * p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001; a (Mean of) Recognition time of served brands (brands A) measured in milliseconds;

b

concerning only served brands A;

c

Brand

evaluation after consumption measured on a six-step rating scale 1=I do not like the brand at all – 6=I like the brand very much

Results of multiple regressions: Besides the findings of our hypothesis testing, we also expect different effects of the consumption as well as the consumption-advertising-fit on the number of free recalled brands, the number of free recalled advertising content, the recognition time, the number of recalled consumption related brands, and the evaluation of the brands after consumption. For example, one would expect a negative effect of the consumption on the number of free recalled advertising of the content of the TV-commercials due to a distraction effect (Park and Young, 1986). In this context, we assume that the mentioned variables could also be affected by the attention towards the advertising of the participants during the experiment. Furthermore, awareness and the consumption-frequency of the A- and B-Brands as well as the participants’ involvement towards cola-beverages, mineral water and soup in general could also have an impact on the number of recalled brands and advertising content especially, with regard to the recall of consumption related

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brands as well as on the evaluation of the A- and Brands. To test our proposition we conducted several multiple regression analysis (Draper and Smith, 1998) with the number of free recalled brands, the number of free recalled advertising content, recognition time, the number of recalled consumption related brands and brand evaluation as dependent variables. The results of the selected regressions are presented in table 3 (T ≥ .219, VIF ≤ 4.567; 1.481 ≤ DurbinWatson ≤ 1.903). Overall, except the regression with the recognition time of the A-Brands as dependent variable, the corrected R2 shows a satisfactorily model fit. The findings show that the consumption-advertising fit has a far greater influence on recognition effects, recall effects and brand evaluations than the consumption situation as such. One noteworthy influence of the consumptionadvertising fit manifests itself primarily in the recollection of the advertising contents and brand recall for the A and B brands. Surprisingly, consumption has no significant effect on the number of free recalled advertising content as well as on the evaluation of the A-Brands. The other variables, from which an influence on the dependent variables was also being expected, only exhibit partly noteworthy effects. For instance, the number of brands recalled also depends on the attention towards the advertising. Furthermore, the finding that the recognition time also depends on the brand awareness and product involvement, and this partly to a greater extent than on the two treatments (consumption situation and consumption-advertising fit), is revealing. The brand evaluation also depends more strongly on the brand awareness, product involvement and partly also the actual consumption in everyday life than on the two treatments. These results are not only revealing in themselves; they also help to understand why some hypotheses could not be confirmed. Contrary to our expectations, the attention towards TV advertising in the consumption situation did not suffer and the same number of brands was recalled correctly.

6 Discussion and Implications The most important results can be summarized as follows: according to our results, the distraction effects of the television are smaller than expected, whereas the priming effects are relatively strong. After the arranged consumption condition in the group, not fewer but more consumption-relevant brands were recalled correctly. Moreover, these brands were also evaluated better. And in the consumption-advertising-fit condition, i.e. in which the brands advertised in the TV program were served, these brands were not only recognized more quickly and recalled better after the session, they were also evaluated better. All of this speaks in favor of a priming of the consumption and advertising contact situation.

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Table 3: Results of selected regression analyses

Dependent

Number of variables free recalled Independent brands Variables F1 Consumption d

Number of free recalled advertising content Brands A Brands B

Recognition timeb Brands A Brands B

.185*

Number of recalled consumption related brands Brands A Brands B

-.232*

.130**

.087*

-.246*

.885***

.828***

Brand evaluation after consumption c Brands A Brands B

.206*

F2 ConsumptionAdvertisingFite Attention towards

.294**

advertising f Brand

.293**

.872***

.743***

-.258*

.183**

.101*

-.179*

awareness g Brands A j Brands Bk

-.105T

.222T

.355**

-.261*

.229T

.522***

.283**

Involvementh Colabeverages

.291**

Mineral water

.205T

Soup

-.187T

.287**

.315***

.357***

.338***

Consumption frequency i Brands A j

.161T

.272T

Brands Bk corrected R2

.229* .229***

.785***

.601***

.031n.s.

.212***

.777***

.783***

only significant standardized coefficients are reported; T p<.1; * p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001; b Recognition time measured in milliseconds; c Brand evaluation after consumption: 1=I do not like the brand at all – 6=I like the brand very much; d F1 Consumption Dummy-Variable (0=without consumption, 1=with consumption); e F2 Consumption-Advertising-Fit Dummy-Variable (0=no consumption-advertising-fit, 1=consumption-advertising-fit); f Attention towards advertising: 1=not attentive – 6=very attentive; g Brand awareness: 1= I do not know the brand at all – 6=I know the brand very well; h Involvement 1=entirely unimportant – 6=very important; i Consumption frequency 1=rarely – 5=daily; j Brands A: Coca-Cola, Appollinaris, Knorr ; k Brands B-Marken: Afri-Cola, Gerolsteiner, Maggi a

As we currently only know little about whom TV advertising reaches when and in which everyday situations, the logical step would be to address and answer this question in field research. The methods from media use research and, above all, time sampling research would be ideal (Kahneman et al., 2004). With regard to the variety of possible reception conditions, the conducted study could only provide a small selection. It was limited to arranged groups, selected TV programs and selected TV commercials, and a consumer situation we arranged ourselves with selected food and drinks. Consequently, further research should also examine self-composed, natural groups in different everyday situations, including situations in which food and drink chosen by the participants is served, and the television program displays different contents and is interspersed with different adverts.

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Despite the limitations of an external validity of our results as outlined above, we can only recommend for advertising practice to include the possible priming effects of an everyday situation in its considerations. After all, priming effects are important for several decisions – especially the aim of the advertising and therefore the media mix, the timing, the placement and the design of the advertising messages. Furthermore, we recommend that the reception situation and reception condition of the people actually reached by the advertising – if only via background media – also be included in controlling the success of the advertising measures.

7

References

Bither, S.W. (1972), Effects of Distraction and Commitment on the Persuasiveness on Television Advertising, Journal of Marketing Research, 27 (1), 1-5 Brosius, H.B. & Fahr, A. (1996). Werbewirkung im Fernsehen: Aktuelle Befunde der Medienforschung [Advertsing effects in television: current results of media research], Band 1, München: Reinhard Fischer Draper, N.R. & Smith, H. (1998). Applied Regression Analysis, 3rd Edition, New York: Wiley Ellen, P.S. & Bone, P. F. (1998). Does it Matter If It Smells? Olfactory Stimuli As Advertising Executional Cues, Journal of Advertising, 27 (4), 29-39 Entman, R.M. (1993). Framing: Toward Clarification of Fractured Paradigm, Journal of Communication, 43 (4), 51-58 Esch, F.-R., Rempel, J. E. (2007). Integration von Duftstoffen in die Kommunikation zur Stärkung von Effektivität und Effizienz des Markenaufbaus [Integration of scents into communication for stregthen the effectiveness and efficiency of brand building], Marketing. ZFP, 29 (3), 145-162 Esch, F.-R., Roth, S. & Strödter, K. (2006). The Effect of Integration of Different Acoustic And Visual Stimuli Depending on Target Groups Involvement, Diehl, S. & Terlutter, R. (eds). International Advertising and Communication. Current Insights and Empirical Findings, Wiesbaden: DUV/Gabler, 69-88 Feldman, J. (2007). Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Control the Conversation (and Win Elections). Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing Gierl, H. (2002). Stimmung und Werbewirkung [Mood and advertising effects], Marketing. ZFP, 24 (3), 163-179 Goffman, E. (1974). Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Exerience. London: Harper and Row Hawkins, S.A., Hoch, S.J. & Meyers-Levy, J. (2001). Low-Involvement Learning: Repetition and Coherence in Familiarity and Belief, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 11 (1), 1-11 Kahneman, D., Krueger, A.B., Schkade, D.A., Schwarz, N. & Stone, A. (2004). A Survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method, Science 3, 306 (5702), 1776-1780 Karremans, J.C., Stroebe, W. & Claus, J. (2006). Beyond Vicary´s Fantasies: The Impact of Subliminal Priming and Brand Choice, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42 (6), 792798 Kiefer, M. (2008). Bewusstsein [Consciousness], in: Müssler, J. (ed.). Allgemeine Psychologie [Psychology], 2. Aufl., Heidelberg: Spektrum, 154-188

A Study on the Impact of TV Advertising Contacts during Dinner

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Kroeber-Riel, W., Weinberg, P. &Gröppel-Klein, A. (2009). Konsumentenverhalten [Consumer Behaviour], 9. Aufl., München: Vahlen Park, C.W. & Young, S.M. (1986). Consumer Response of Televison Commercials: The Impact of Involvement and Background Music on Brand Attitude Formation, Journal of Marketing Research, 23 (1), 11-24 Percy, L. (2006). Unconscious Processing of Advertising and its Effects Upon Attitude and Behaviour, Diehl, S. & Terlutter, R. (eds). International Advertising and Communication. Current Insights and Empirical Findings, Wiesbaden: DUV/Gabler, pp. 109-121 Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion, Berkowitz, L. (Ed.). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press, 19, 123-205 Rothschild, M.L. (1984). Perspectives on Involvement: Current Problems and Future Directions, Advances in Consumer Research, 11, Kinnear, T.C. (ed.), Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 216-217 Scharf, A. (2000). Sensorische Produktforschung im Innovationsprozess [Sensory Product research in the Innovation process], Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel Scharf, A. & Volkmer, H.-P. (1997). Geschmackswahrnehmungen und Geschmackspräferenzen bei Nahrungs- und Genussmitteln unter Berücksichtigung von Produkterwartungen [Taste expectations and preferences of foodstuffs and luxury foods with regard to product expectations], Marketing. ZFP, 19 (2), 93-106 Scharf, A. & Volkmer, H.-P. (2000). The Impact of Olfactory Expectations on the Olfactory Product Experience, Food Quality and Preference, 11 (6), 497-503 Scheufele, D.A. (1999). Framing as a Theory of Media Effects, Journal of Communication, 49 (1), 103-122 Volkmer, H.P. (2005). Integrierte Konzept- und Produktüberprüfung bei Nahrungs- und Genussmitteln [Integrated concept and product testing for foodstuffs and luxury foods], Göttingen: Forschungsforum Voss, J.L. & Paller, K.A. (2009). An Electrophysical Signature of Unconscious Recognition, Nature Neuroscience, 12 (3), 349-355 Wiltinger, A. (2002). Vergleichende Werbung: Theoretischer Bezugsrahmen und empirische Untersuchung zur Werbewirkung [Comparative advertising: theoretical framework and empirical studies of advertising effects], Wiesbaden: DUV/Gabler

Effects of Celebrity Endorsers’ Attractiveness and Expertise on Brand Recall of Transformational and Informational Products Tobias Langner, University of Wuppertal, Germany Martin Eisend, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

1

Introduction

Many companies invest a considerable amount of their marketing budget in paying celebrities for their engagement in advertising campaigns. Celebrities promote brands of different product categories, ranging from consumer goods like sport shoes (e.g., Nike) over financial services (e.g., American Express) to pharmaceuticals (e.g., Bayer Aspirin). More than ten years ago, every fourth US commercial featured a celebrity (Erdogan 1999; Shimp 1997). It is assumed that this fraction has even increased since then. World-wide well known celebrities receive impressive payments for their engagements. The former Boxer George Foreman was paid 137 million US dollars in 1999 for his lifetime contract with the barbecue grill producer Salton. The eighteen year old Basketball player LeBron received 90 million US-dollars in 2003 by Nike. The success of celebrity endorsement is backed by the findings of several academic studies that show that celebrity endorsers may positively impact consumers’ attitudes towards a brand and enhance purchase intentions (Amos et al. 2008; Erdogan 1999; Kaikati 1987; Till 1998). Celebrity endorsement can even unfold an impact on the share price of firms (Agrawal and Kamakura 1995; Fizel et al. 2008). A recent study by Lord and Putrevu (2009) has shown that the persuasive effects of celebrity endorser traits are moderated by product category. The study has focused on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. However, these dependent variables reflect only one side of the brand building process. Likewise important is the building of brand awareness (Keller 1993, 2007). In most cases, brand awareness is even a prerequisite to convince consumers to buy a product: In order to purchase a product, a consumer must know it. Yet, the moderating effect of product category on the impact of cognitive and affective endorser S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_29, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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traits on brand awareness has been neglected in previous research. We aim to close this research gap by investigating the impact that endorser attractiveness and expertise deploy on recall of brands from either transformational or informational product categories.

2

The Impact of Celebrity Endorsers’ Traits on Advertising Effectiveness

Several models have been proposed in order to explain how celebrities improve communication effectiveness. A fundamental framework has been provided by McCracken’s model (McCracken 1989). This Meaning Transfer Model addresses the question of how endorser attributes are transferred onto a product or a brand. McCracken’s explanation distinguishes three steps in which meanings pass from a celebrity to a product or a brand and from these entities to consumers. In a first step, a consumer associates a celebrity with certain personality traits. In a second step, personality traits of a celebrity who endorses a product may be transferred onto that product. Finally, a consumer can incorporate this brand meaning into his/her self by buying the brand endorsed by the celebrity. George Clooney, for example, is widely seen as being highly sophisticated since consumers have learned to attach these traits to his personality (stage 1). Using Clooney as an endorser for Nespresso has helped to establish the targeted brand image of sophistication and indulgence. Through a learning process Clooney’s salient personality traits have been transferred onto Nespresso (stage 2). Consumers aiming at sophistication and indulgence can incorporate such a lifestyle in their personal life by buying Nespresso (stage 3). While the Meaning Transfer Model provides a general framework, source models specify how particular celebrity attributes are transferred to a brand. In the Source Credibility Model, Hovland and colleagues suggest that ad effectiveness depends on the endorser’s trustworthiness and expertise as the main dimensions of credibility (Hovland et al. 1953; Hovland et al. 1949; Hovland and Weiss 1951; Ohanian 1991). A source of high expertise and trustworthiness deploys a stronger impact on attitude change than a low expertise and low trustworthiness source. Expertise refers to an endorser’s experience and knowledge in a particular area of interest. Trustworthiness is related to “honesty, integrity, and believability of an endorser as perceived by the target audience” (Erdogan et al. 2001, p. 40). The Source Attractiveness Model accounts for the effects of the affective dimension of a communicator. It is assumed that similarity with, familiarity with, and liking of a communicator determines advertising effectiveness. In particular, an endorser’s physical attractiveness has a considerable impact on

Effects of Celebrity Endorsers’ Attractiveness and Expertise on Brand Recall

453

advertising effectiveness and (physically) attractive endorsers have been shown to be more effective in changing attitudes than non-attractive ones (e.g., Baker and Churchill 1977; Debevec and Kernan 1984; Kahle and Homer 1985; Maddux and Rogers 1980). Amos et al. (2008) found in their meta-analysis that the endorser characteristics that have been examined most extensively are expertise, trustworthiness, credibility, and attractiveness. Expertise, trustworthiness, and credibility are considered as cognitive endorser characteristics whereas attractiveness reflects an affective celebrity trait. The first factors deploy their impact through a conscious cognitive thinking while the latter operates by subconscious affective processes (Shiv and Fedorikhin 1999; Shiv et al. 2005). These findings are also supported by recent results of neuroimaging research. Klucharev and colleagues (2008) found that consumers can evaluate the expertise of an endorser very quickly. Their results indicate that an expert context enhances the semantic elaboration of the association between celebrity and product and this in turn leads to a better encoding of the product in consumer’s memory. Stallen et al. (2010) show that transfer of positive affect from celebrity to product plays an important role in order to explain the advertising effectiveness of celebrities. A spontaneous retrieval of explicit memories associated with the celebrity is assumed of being responsible for this effect. Recent research goes beyond the mere investigation of celebrity endorser traits on advertising effectiveness by considering the moderating role of product categories for different purchase motives, that is, by distinguishing between informational and transformational products or buying motives as suggested by the advertising planning grid by Rossiter and Percy (1998). According to this grid, informational motives are concerned with restoring a negative state to a more satisfactory position by providing the consumer with decision-relevant information. Examples of such motives might include problem removal, problem avoidance, or incomplete satisfaction. Transformational motives, on the other hand, are associated with positively enhancing the consumer’s sensory, mental, or social state. Examples might include sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, and social approval. When purchasing products for informational purchase motives (e.g., microwave ovens, aspirin), product arguments play a key role. Decisions for products for transformational purchase motives (e.g., chocolate, perfume) are mainly driven by emotions and the feelings a consumer relates to a transformational product are more important than mere arguments. In line with this, Lord and Putrevu (2009) found that affective and cognitive endorser traits unfold different

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effects for different purchase motives. Cognitive endorser traits were the primary determinants of brand attitude and buying intention for informational products. Attractiveness was the main driver for purchase intentions of transformational products.

3

Memory Effects of Affective and Cognitive Endorser Traits

Studies on memory effects of celebrities are scarce. Misra and Beatty (1990) found in their study that the fit between a spokesperson and a brand moderates consumer’s recall. The recall of brand information was higher for brands that had a fit with the celebrity endorser than for brands that did not match the spokesperson. An explanation of this effect is provided by schema theory. A schema represents a knowledge structure that incorporates all attributes associated with an object. The schemata that consumers hold of brands, celebrities, and product categories determine the way of how information about these entities are processed and stored. The Filtering Model suggests that existing schemata operate as a filter for new information (Taylor and Crocker 1981). Ingoing information that is incongruent with existing schemata is rejected, whereas matching information is more likely to be encoded. This filter effect is also responsible for the better recall of congruent over incongruent information. Based on previous experiences consumers develop different schemata for different product categories. Schemata of transformational product categories are mainly described by affect-based attributes, whereas schemata of informational products are dominated by cognitive characteristics. We assume that these product schemata that are activated during ad exposure work as a filter for ad processing. As soon as the schema is activated, incoming information is scrutinized whether it fits with the schema. Affective endorser traits (e.g., physical attractiveness) provide a stronger fit with schemata of transformational products, while cognitive celebrity characteristics (e.g., expertise) are more likely to fit schemata of informational products. The Filtering model suggests that this fit improves memory and, thus, increases recall for brands. This leads to the following hypotheses: H1: The impact of celebrity attractiveness on brand recall is stronger for tr formational products than for informational products. H2: The impact of celebrity expertise on brand recall is stronger for informational products than for transformational products.

Effects of Celebrity Endorsers’ Attractiveness and Expertise on Brand Recall

4 4.1

455

Method Design and Participants

We conducted two experiments with a 2 (low versus high expertise of the celebrity) by 2 (low versus high attractiveness of the celebrity) by 2 (one day delay versus three days delay) between-subjects design each. One experiment used a transformational advertisement stimulus; the other experiment used an informational advertisement stimulus. 80 undergraduate and graduate students at a German University volunteered to participate in each of the experiments (age mean was 23.2 in experiment 1 and 24.4 in experiment 2; gender was equally distributed in both experiments with 50% of the participants being female).

4.2

Pretests

We ran two pretests with 30 student participants each in order to select appropriate celebrities and products. In the first pretest, we analyzed the physical attractiveness of several wellknown German female celebrities. A total of 30 students from a German university participated in the pretest. Half the participants were female. Participants had to evaluate the physical attractiveness of the celebrities on a semantic 7point scale (ugly/pretty). Heidi Klum and Tatjana Gsell, two German celebrities of about equal age, were found appropriate for the attractiveness manipulation. Heidi Klum was rated as more attractive than Tatjana Gsell (M = 5.74 versus M = 3.18; t = 12.97, p < .001). We ran a second pretest in order to choose informational and transformational products for which both celebrities showed either high or low expertise as indicated by participants on a semantic 7-point scale (non expert/expert). A total of 30 students from a German university participated in the pretest. Half the participants were female. As for transformational products, we chose Champagne as a product for which both celebrities showed high expertise and Brandy as a product for which both celebrities showed low expertise (Heidi Klum: M = 5.57 versus M = 2.33; t = 9.77, p < .001; Tatjana Gsell: M = 5.73 versus M = 2.77; t = 6.37, p < .001). As for informational products, we choose appetite suppressants for which both celebrities showed high expertise and medicine for cardiovascular diseases for which both celebrities showed low expertise (Heidi Klum: M = 5.97 versus M = 2.77; t = 8.97, p < .001; Tatjana Gsell: M = 4.60 versus M = 2.60; t = 4.30, p < .001).

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To measure whether the products can be indeed categorized as either informational or transformational, we used two items for which participants had to indicate their agreement on a 7-point scale (“Buying product X involves only few logical arguments.”/”Buying product X brings about positive emotions.”). We compared the pair of products for which both celebrities had either high or low expertise. As for the high expertise products, Champagne was rated as less informational (t = 3.14, p = .004) and more transformational (t = 6.01, p < .001) than appetite suppressants. As for the low expertise products, Brandy was rated as less informational (t = 4.09, p < .001) and more transformational (t = 5.43, p < .001) than medicine for cardiovascular diseases.

4.3

Procedure and Measures

Participants in the experiments received a booklet with the advertisement and were allowed to screen the ad for 60 seconds. Then they answered some filler questions in a questionnaire and two manipulation check measures. Attractiveness of the celebrity was measured by four 7-point scales (unattractive/attractive, not desirable/desirable, ugly/pretty, does not please/pleases me; α = .98 (experiment 1), α = .97 (experiment 2)) (e.g., Ohanian 1990); expertise of the celebrity was measured by one 7-point scale (agreement with the following statement “the celebrity is a qualified endorser for the brand”). As for the dependent variables, participants were contacted again either after one or three days (delay manipulation) and were asked two recall questions. Recall 1 refers to whether participants remember the brand; the question could be answered by yes or no. Recall 2 was an open ended question where participants had to utter which brand they remembered. Recall 2 was coded as either wrong or right, depending on whether the brand was identified correctly by the participants.

5

Results

All participants indicated to know the celebrity. The manipulations were successful. The attractive celebrity (Heidi Klum) was perceived as more attractive than the less attractive celebrity (Tatjana Gsell) (Mattractiveness high=5.99 versus Mattractiveness low=1.95; F(1,72) = 331.07, p < .001 (experiment 1); Mattractiveness high=5.91 versus Mattractiveness low=2.09; F(1,72) = 327.34, p < .001 (experiment 2)). In the expertise condition, the celebrities were evaluated as having a higher expertise than in the low expertise condition (Mexpertise high=3.62 versus Mexpertise

457

Effects of Celebrity Endorsers’ Attractiveness and Expertise on Brand Recall low=2.11;

F(1,72) = 21.69, p < .001 (experiment 1); Mexpertise Mexpertise low=1.54; F(1,72) = 78.43, p < .001 (experiment 2)).

high=3.79

versus

We ran logistic regression models for both experiments and each dependent variable. Table 1 shows the results of the logistic regression models. Note that the number of participants for recall 2 is below 80, since only participants who answered in the affirmative to recall 1 (i.e., participants who indicated to remember the brand) were included in the second regression model.

Table 1: Logistic regression for recall 1and recall 2, regressed on attractiveness, expertise, and delay (unstandardized regression coefficient and standard error) Recall 1 Experiment 1:

Experiment 2:

Transformational

Informational

(n = 80)

(n = 80)

(n = 54)

.393 (.514)

.720 (.585)

.422 (.626)

.529 (.519)

-.131 (.512)

.788 (.573)

1.414 (.662)

-.787 (.522).

-1.155 (.529) *

.054 (.576)

-.063 (.631)

Attractiveness 1.517 (.538) ** Expertise Delay

Recall 2 Experiment 1:

Experiment 2:

Transformational Informational (n = 57)

*p<.05. **p<.01.

The results show that attractiveness increases recall 1 for transformational products (B = 1.517; p = .005), whereas expertise increases recall 2 for informational products (B = 1.414; p = .033). The results are in line with hypothesis 1 as related to recall 1, and they are in line with hypothesis 2 as related to recall 2. The impact of celebrity attractiveness on brand recall is significant for transformational products but not for informational products. The impact of celebrity expertise on brand recall is significant for informational products but not for transformational products. Furthermore, only one delay effect emerges for recall 1 and informational products with recall decreasing over time (B = - 1.155; p = .029). We further tested interaction effects between independent variables for each model. None of the interactions revealed a significant result. Hence, we dropped interaction effects from the model, since they would reduce the explained variance of the main effects.

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Discussion

The results largely support both of our hypotheses. Attractiveness enhances recall of transformational products whereas expertise enhances recall of informational products. The results are in line with previous results on the moderating role of product categories and purchases motives on celebrity effectiveness (Lord and Putrevu 2009) as well as with the Filtering Model, showing that schema-congruent information enhances recall. However, the results in this study depend on the memory measure that was applied. Memory effects of attractiveness appear for the easier recall measure where participants simply have to indicate whether they remember the brand, whereas expertise affects the more difficult recall measure where participants have to name the brand correctly. This result is in line with the reasoning on the differences in depth of processing as triggered by either affective or cognitive stimuli (Eisend and Langner 2010). Cognitive stimuli lead to more thorough processing and, hence, are more likely to increase memory effects as compared to affective stimuli. As for practical implications, the results support and extent the findings by Lord and Putrevu (2009) who have shown that advertising effects depend on the match between celebrity traits (attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness) and product categories. Matching celebrities with appropriate attributes to either informational or transformational products does not only enhance attitudes and intentions, but also impacts memory. This can be particularly important for new product introductions and for building brand awareness for newly introduced brands. The study is not without limitations that warrant future research. A particular challenge is selecting appropriate and comparable real-life celebrities for the experimental procedure without causing confounding effects (Chao et al. 2005). While we conducted several pretests, there are still factors that the results might have been confounded with. For instance, Heidi Klum has numerous exposures across multiple media and has been a famous celebrity for some years, whereas Tatjana Gsell has a lower TV presence and is less famous. Additional variables, such as the Q-scores for celebrity popularity – though they are available only for international celebrities – would provide a good control measure in order to rule out these influences. In terms of generalization, it remains uninvestigated whether the results hold for other celebrities with varying attractiveness and for further expertise domains.

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References

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A Procedure for the Development of Fictitious Advertisements in Multi-country Research: Crafting Messages with Hard-sell and Soft-sell Appeals Sandra Diehl, University of Klagenfurt, Austria Shintaro Okazaki, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Barbara Mueller, San Diego State University, USA

1

Introduction

This chapter describes the detailed process of fictitious ad development for a multi-country advertising research project. Fictitious ads are frequently employed in advertising research in order to avoid the influence of attitudes toward established or recognized brands. Unfortunately, all too often, researchers do not pay sufficient attention to the development and pre-testing of such fictitious ads. In this contribution, the authors propose a detailed outline of the series of steps necessary in the development of fictitious ads, as well as a means by which to pre-test the various components of the ads (Figure 1). After pre-testing of the various components (such as general theme, visuals, fictitious brand name, slogan, selected product features and desired advertising appeal), as a last step, it is essential that researchers carry out a manipulation check with the finalized ads. This process helps to ensure that the messages conveyed by the various components selected for the ads are indeed the intended ones. This procedure was developed as part of an international comparison of hard sell and soft sell advertising appeals, which was based on the work of Alden, Steenkamp and Batra (1999). Alden et al. (1999) introduced a new typology of brand positioning strategies in advertising that parallel the growth of the global marketplace. They proposed a new construct -- global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) which associates the brand with a widely understood and recognized set of symbols believed to constitute emerging global consumer culture. GCCP has been proposed as one of the three types of consumer culture positioning: local consumer culture positioning (LCCP), in which the brand is associated with the local consumer culture (e.g., Budweiser’s association with smalltown American culture in its U.S. advertising) and foreign consumer culture positioning (FCCP), in which the brand is associated with a specific foreign culture (e.g., Singapore Airline’s use of the “Singapore Girl” in its global media advertising). Alden et al (1999) theorized that a soft-sell approach (indirect and image-based) is more suitable than a hard-sell approach (direct and information S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_30, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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Table 1: Scheme for the development of the fictitious ads

Step 1a) Search for suitable product categories

1b) Selection of best suited product categories 2a) Search for suitable general ad theme 2b) Selection of best general ad theme 3a) Search for general product features associated with the product 3b) Selection of the most appropriate product feature(s) 4) Selection of specific ad theme and/or concrete visuals 5) Selection of fictitious brand name 6) Selection of fictitious slogan(s)

7) Selection of the final ad components (pre-test) (familiarity with the product category, fit between visuals, brand name, slogans and the selected product features) 8a) Professional creation of the final ad stimuli 8b) Final pre-test and manipulation check of the desired ad appeal

Methods Within class assignments, search in international magazines for product categories used in standardized advertising campaigns (content analysis). Focus group discussions. Within class assignments, search for ads for the selected product category in international magazines. Focus group discussions. Free association technique, within class assignments, search in collected ads for the product category and in Internet shops. Focus group discussions. Focus group discussions. Brainstorming techniques in focus groups, extensive research of existing brand names. Brainstorming techniques in focus groups, extensive research of existing slogans. Quantitative survey, semi-structured questionnaires with free-association techniques.

Creative department of an advertising agency. Quantitative survey, questionnaire.

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based) for GCCP. They content analyzed a total of 1,267 ads from seven countries and found that ads employing GCCP indeed did utilize soft-sell messages more frequently than hard-sell ones. In fact, 56.3% of the GCCP ads employed a soft-sell approach, whereas just 43.7% employed hard-sell. This difference is significant and in the direction predicted by the researchers. While the Alden et al. (1999) study explored the prevalence of GCCP ads and documented that the content of such ads tended to employ an image-based, soft-sell approach, it did not examine consumer preferences for soft-sell vs. hard-sell approaches in advertising. If the soft-sell appeal is homogeneously and favorably perceived across a variety of markets, then such an appeal would indeed be a good candidate for use as part of a GCCP strategy. This was the focus of our investigation and ultimately led to the development of the procedure for developing fictitious ads presented here. In what follows, we first explain the concepts of soft-sell versus hard-sell advertising appeals. Then, we begin our detailed description of the fictitious ad development, including selection of the product category, theme, slogans, visuals, fictitious brand name, selected product features and advertising appeal. We briefly explain the ad testing procedure and present our results. In closing, important limitations are recognized while future research directions are suggested.

2

Soft-sell vs. Hard-sell Advertising Appeals

Researchers have investigated soft-sell and hard-sell advertising appeals in relation to cultural values as well as global consumer positioning. Examining advertising content in Japan and China, Mueller (1987, 1992) and Lin (2001) found that soft-sell appeals tended to dominate in these markets. In contrast, Tsao (1994), and Wang et al., (1997) found that hard-sell appeals tended to prevail in Taiwanese advertising, suggesting that messages in Taiwanese ads are more Westernized than in some other Eastern countries. Not all investigations have looked to the East—several have compared and contrasted the use of these appeals in the U.S, and the U.K. While Nevett (1992) and Bradley et al., (1994) found support for the basic tenant that British advertising could be broadly characterized as soft-sell, whereas American advertising was better described as hard-sell, Cutler and Javalgi (1994) in their analysis of trade magazine advertising, found that American advertisers used an emotionally-oriented appeal almost twice as frequently as did U.K. advertisers in both product and service ads. In general, the use of hard-sell and soft-sell appeals have been found to vary across cultures and some initial evidence suggests that it may be more possible to develop a global campaign using a soft-sell approach. GCCP suggests that some appeals have more ability to be universally successful than others. A core

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argument of GCCP is that image-based content is more likely to be uniformly accepted across borders than commercial messages containing direct, explicit content, due to the association between brands and the imagined membership in a global consumer segment (Appadurai, 1990). This suggests that soft-sell advertising appeals will elicit more homogeneous reactions from consumers in multiple markets. The reason for this is that soft-sell advertising appeals deliver more visual imagery and are more subtle and ambiguous than hard-sell advertising appeals, which are primarily based on more feature-oriented informational content. As a result, image based soft-sell appeals tend to elicit more implicit and abstract responses (Messaris, 1997), whose interpretation may require less culturally-specific cues.

3

Study Context

We chose to develop fictitious ads to test GCCP in six countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the U.S.A., and Japan. The rationale behind this decision was that in a previous investigation in which we employed advertisements for real products, we found it difficult to control for prior knowledge of, and experience with, the featured brands. Because our main objective was to determine whether GCCP is a feasible approach in global branding in the context of multiple markets, fictitious brands were thought to be more appropriate.

4 4.1

Methodology Country Selection

To test consumer responses to soft sell vs. hard sell appeal ads, a survey was conducted in six countries: the U.S., Japan, Spain, France, Italy and Germany. These countries are important markets with regard to advertising expenditures. In addition, according to the GLOBE Project (House et al., 2010), these six countries are representative of different cultural clusters. France, Italy and Spain belong to the Latin Europe cluster, Germany to the Germanic cluster, Japan to the Confucian Asia cluster, and the U.S. to the Anglo cluster.

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Development of Fictitious Ads

As a brief overview, two standardized advertisements were developed – one employing a soft appeal and one a hard appeal. The ads were for a fictitious brand of wristwatch (Chronier), which controlled for attitudes toward established or recognized brand names. The advertisements were designed in black/white to avoid the influence of color preferences which might vary from country to country. The two versions of the ad were identical in all six countries apart from translation of the slogans. The two slogans employed in the ads read “Wherever you go, whatever you do” and “Stands the test of time”. Both slogans were translated into the local language for the survey instruments in France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. The ads were carefully developed and extensively pre-tested. In the development of the ads, both qualitative methods, including focus group discussions, class assignments and free association techniques, as well as more quantitatively-oriented pre-tests were employed. Pre-testing was conducted in Austria, a neutral country that did not participate in the main investigation. The procedure for the development of the fictitious ads consisted of the following steps: 1. Selection of suitable product categories: As part of a class assignment, students at an Austrian university searched for suitable product categories by examining German, Italian, French and U.S. magazines for ads employing a standardized campaign. Six product categories were extracted: sportswear, coffee, wristwatches, mobile phones, cosmetics and alcoholic beverages. In focus group discussions with the students (with ten students taking part in each focus group), among the above product categories, wristwatches were considered to best fulfill the established requirements: wristwatches are equally important to both men and women, are appealing to various age groupings, and are an internationally standardized product that is frequently advertised. An unknown brand of wristwatch was also perceived as the most credible of the product categories. 2. Selection of general ad theme: In the second step, students were instructed to search international magazines from Germany, Italy, France and the U.S. for ads for wristwatches. This resulted in a total of 79 unique ads for wristwatches. This exercise suggested wristwatches are indeed a frequently advertised product category and standardized ads are quite common. Sports were found to be a very frequently employed theme in ads for wristwatches, along with the use of celebrity endorsers and ads which only featured the product. Extended focus group discussions with students re-

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vealed that sports was seen as a very appropriate theme for an internationally standardized ad. Sports can be considered part of global culture; sports activities have a positive association in virtually all countries, and are viewed as both important and desirable. The use of a sports activity was deemed to be suitable for crafting ads containing both soft sell and hard sell appeals. 3. Selection of product features to be highlighted: The next step was to identify important features generally associated with wristwatches. In order to determine product features generally highlighted in the promotion of wristwatches, a free association technique was employed as part of a class assignment. Students also examined the collected wristwatch ads as well as promotions in Internet shops offering wristwatches for the product features most commonly emphasized. The following important product features were identified: "design,” "quality,” "endurance,” "material" and “price”. Based on a frequency count, endurance was found to be the most common theme in international wristwatch advertisements. It is also an appropriate feature for both soft and hard sell ads. In particular, in an ad employing a hard sell approach, a product feature is necessary in order to differentiate the brand from its competitors. Overall, the feature of endurance was considered to be well suited for the development of stimulus ads. 4. Selection of specific ad theme: In further focus group discussions, possible sports themes for an international campaign were discussed and the conclusion drawn was that if endurance were to be emphasized in the campaign, the sport should one associated with risk and adventure. Several sports were singled out as potential candidates: hang gliding, surfing, diving, water riding, parachute jumping, biking and skiing. Of these, skiing and biking were selected. In order to capture the endurance capabilities of the of the wristwatch, two sets of visuals were created: for the soft sell ad, a skier and mountain biker were portrayed engaging in their sport alone, while for the hard sell version, several skiers and mountain bikers were portrayed participating in a competition. Extreme situations (skiing on a steep hill, biking on a hilly, pathless trail) were considered most appropriate for use in different countries and most appealing to the general public. 5. Selection of fictitious brand name: The next step was to find a fictitious brand name which might be used for the soft sell and hard sell appeal ads. Brainstorming during focus group sessions and extensive on-line research of existing brand names resulted in three possible fictitious brand names for wristwatches: “Chronier,” “Viventure” and “Iving”.

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6. Selection of slogan: The same procedure as for the selection of the brand name was employed for the selection of the slogan. Three slogans were integrated in the subsequent pre-test: “Wherever you go, whatever you do,” “Stands the test of time” and “Always progressive”. 7. Pre-test of ad components for the final selection of ad components (see 5.3 below) 8.

4.3

Final pre-test and manipulation check (see 5.4 below)

Pre-test

In addition to the focus group discussions, prior to conducting the main investigation, the components of the advertisements used in this study underwent an extensive and more quantitatively oriented pre-test. The goal of the pre-test was to further validate the development of the ads. The pre-test was hoped to show that the product category (“wristwatches”) was considered to be a typical and frequently advertised one (Dahlen and Lange, 2005, Meyers-Levy and Tybout, 1989), that the visuals as well as the slogans for the hard and soft appeal ads corresponded to the selected product feature of “high endurance,” and that the fictitious brand name was a good fit for the product category. The pre-test was conducted in Austria, a neutral country that did not participate in the main investigation. We employed a written questionnaire including free association questions and seven point scales in order to lend support for the main background activity (sport), the brand name, the copy (i.e. slogans) and the visuals. Sixty-six subjects took part in the pre-test. The pre-test clearly underscored that wristwatches are a typically advertised product category, respondents were quite familiar with wristwatches, and endurance (durability) was the second most often mentioned important product feature (after design), confirming it as a relevant product feature for the product category. The slogans “Wherever you go, whatever you do.” and “Stands the test of time” proved to be more appropriate than “Always progressive”. Results showed that the slogan “Always progressive” gave subjects the impression that the wristwatch might be imprecise or run too fast. Thus, this slogan was dropped. The remaining two slogans both elicited very positive associations. Respondents associated both visuals with words such as “adventure,” “dynamic,” “appealing,” and “exciting.” The brand name “Chronier” received the highest evaluation with regard to appropriateness as a brand name for wristwatches (mean 4.30), as well as the most positive associations and the highest fit between brand name, slogan and

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endurance (mean 6.23 out of 7). Regarding the hard sell appeal visuals, the cycling photo evoked a number of negative associations, such as doping, drugs and enormous pressure. The hard sell appeal skiing photo had more positive associations. With regard to the soft sell appeal photos, both the cycling and skiing images evoked very few negative associations. For the soft appeal, the soft appeal skiing photo was liked significantly more than the soft sell appeal cycling photo (t=2.714). With regard to the hard sell appeal, there were no significant differences (t= -.139). The free association profiles for the hard and soft skiing visuals were more similar than the hard and soft cycling visuals. Respondents associated both skiing visuals with words like “adventure,” “adrenalin,” “dynamic,” “appealing,” and “exciting.” The skiing association profiles differ as intended on the dimension of competition. As expected, the soft-sell visual was not associated with competition, whereas the hard-sell visual was. Subjects associated the soft sell visual with “a pleasant atmosphere.” The skiing photos were deemed more suitable for illustrating the theme of endurance of a wristwatch. Therefore the skiing photos were chosen for the main investigation. To summarize, the pre-test results confirmed that the sports theme “skiing,” the important product feature of “endurance,” the slogans “Wherever you are, whatever you do” and “Stands the test of time,” as well as the brand name “Chronier,” were appropriate for use in developing the fictitious ads.

4.4

Final Pre-test and Manipulation Check

Based on the pre-test results, the final stimuli were professionally created by the creative department of an Austrian advertising agency. To further ensure that the final fictitious ads possessed the appeals we intended to test, we performed a manipulation check with 140 general consumers. Subjects evaluated the standardized soft-sell appeal ad using both the hard-sell and soft-sell appeal formative measurement items developed by Okazaki et al. (2010), in which a soft-sell appeal is conceptualized as a second-order formative model consisting of three first-order constructs: feeling (creative, instinctive, imaginative, and abstract), implicitness (insinuation, appealing, subjective, and expressive), and image (entertaining, interpretive, playful, and impression based). Similarly, the hard-sell appeal consists of three first-order constructs: thinking (rational, logical, analytic, factual, and concrete), explicitness (precise, explanation, convincing, persuasion, and instructive), and fact (educational, descriptive, realistic, informative, and evidence based). For the sake of simplicity, we calculated mean values of first-order constructs assuming an equal weight

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of each loading. For the standardized soft-sell appeal ad, a t-test indicated that the mean value of the summed soft-sell appeal scale items was significantly greater than that of the summed hard-sell appeal scale items (t=37.73, p<.001). Thus, respondents perceived the ad as the study intended. Next, the same procedure was repeated for the standardized hard-sell appeal ad. Results indicated that the mean value of the summed hard-sell appeal was significantly greater than that of the soft-sell appeal (t=15.72, p<.001). Thus, this ad was indeed perceived as a hard-sell appeal ad. Based on the above, we considered our manipulation to be successful.

4.5

Main Survey

A general consumer sample took part in the main survey. Subjects were approached on public property, for instance, along public streets, at the entrance to walking/jogging parks, on public transportation (trains), as well as in cafés. Interviewers explained to subjects that the investigation dealt with consumer responses to advertising and showed the fictitious ads developed in the preceding section. The respondents were exposed to the ads for a period of three minutes and then asked to fill in the questionnaire. Subjects were informed that participation was completely voluntary and that all responses would remain anonymous. The final sample size used for the analysis was 402 in the U.S., 394 in Japan, 424 in Germany, 369 in France, 479 in Spain, and 400 in Italy. We compared the mean values for ad irritation and attitude toward the ad. The t-test results indicate that ad irritation was significantly weaker in the softsell ads than in the hard-sell ads in Italy (2.80 vs. 3.15), Germany (2.78 vs. 3.12), Spain (2.19 vs. 2.66), Japan (2.19 vs. 2.61), and France (.2.44 vs. 3.14). The opposite was found only in the U.S. (3.12 vs. 2.73). In contrast, attitude toward the ad was statistically more favorable in the soft-sell ads in Italy (5.11 vs. 4.69), Japan (4.71 vs. 4.48), and France (4.97 vs. 4.55). No other statistically significant differences were found.

5

Concluding Remarks

We suggest a procedure for the development of fictitious ads for a multi-country advertising research investigation. Applying this procedure can help researchers to ensure that the messages conveyed by the various components selected for their stimulus ads (ad theme, visuals, brand name, slogan, highlighted product features) and advertising appeals are indeed the intended ones. Based on this

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framework, we successfully developed fictitious ads which were perceived as distinctly soft and hard sell in all the countries under investigation. As is always the case, this study suffers from a number of limitations which must be recognized. First, the study used only one product category to create hard- and soft-sell ads across the countries surveyed. Future research should include other product categories to increase the generalizability of the results. Second, this study examined only six countries. Future research should include a wider range of countries. While it might not be feasible to pre-test all ad components in all countries under investigation prior to conducting the main investigation, this would certainly be the optimal approach.

6

References

Alden, D., Steenkamp, J.B.E.M., & Batra, R. (1999), “Brand positioning through advertising In Asia, North America and Europe: The role of global consumer culture,” Journal of Marketing, 63(1), 75-87. Appadurai, A. (1990), “Disjuncture and difference in the global economy,” in Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, Mike Featherstone, ed. London: Sage Publications, 295-310. Bradley, S., Hitchon, J., & Thorson, E. (1994), “Hard sell versus soft sell: A comparison of American and British advertising,” in Englis, B.G. (ed.), Global and Multinational Advertising, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 141-157. Cutler, B.D. & Javalgi, R.G. (1994). “Comparison of business to business advertising,” Industrial Marketing Management, 23(2), 117-125. Diamantopoulos, A., & Papadopoulos, N. (2009), "Assessing the cross-national invariance of formative measures: Guidelines for international business researchers," Journal of International Business Studies, 41(February/March), 360-370. House, R.J., Quigley, N.R. & de Luque, M.S. (2010), “Insights from Project GLOBE: extending global advertising research through a contemporary framework,” International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), 111-139. Lin, C. (2001), “Cultural values reflected in Chinese and American television advertising,” Journal of Advertising, 30(4), 83-95. Messaris, P. (1997), Visual Persuasion. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Mueller, B. (1987), Reflections of culture: An analysis of Japanese and American advertising appeals,” Journal of Advertising Research, 27(3), 51-59. Nevett, T. (1992), “Differences between American and British television Advertising: Explanations and Implications,” Journal of Advertising, 21(4), 61-72. Steenkamp, J.B.E.M., Batra, R., & Alden, D.L. (2003), “How Perceived Brand Globalness Creates Brand Value,” Journal of International Business Studies, 34(1), 53-65. Steenkamp, J.B.E.M. and Baumgartner, H. (1998), “Assessing Measurement Invariance in CrossNational Consumer Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 25 (1), 78–90. Tsao, J.C. (1994), “Advertising and cultural values: A content analysis of advertising in Taiwan,” Gazette, 53(1-2), 93.

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Wang, Y., Jaw, J.J., Pinkleton, B., & Morton, C. (1997), “Toward the understanding of advertising appeals in Taiwanese magazine ads and its implications,” Competitiveness, 7(1), 46-62.

Figuratively Bleeding or Just Bleeding? Exploring Consumers’ Personal Values and Emotions within Simple and Rhetorically Constructed Violent Ad Contexts! Ioannis G. Theodorakis, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece Christos Koritos, DEREE - The American College of Greece, Greece

1

Introduction

Advertising is ubiquitous in the modern world. Indeed, individuals get bombarded with myriads of ad messages on a daily basis. In order to overcome the cluttered environment, ad practitioners often employ techniques grounded on controversial topics such as violence (e.g., Manceau and Tissier-Desbordes, 2006). At the same time, ad professionals intensify the use of rhetorical devices as an additional means to persuade (e.g., Phillips and McQuarrie, 2002). Nonetheless, the psychological determinants of viewers’ responses to such ad practices are still elusive. For example, despite the relevance of fundamental cognitive and affective constructs such as values and emotions within advertising (e.g., Holbrook and Batra, 1987; Homer and Kahle, 1988), no previous study has investigated their effects on controversial ad contexts employing rhetoric as a means to persuade. This void gives rise to a number of research questions. Do personal values and emotions determine consumers’ attitudinal reactions within analogous ad settings? In addition, are specific values and emotions more systematically related to specific combinations of controversial-rhetoric ad frames? Finally, which is the interplay between the respective cognitive and affective factors regarding their influence on consumers’ ad and brand attitudes toward non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads? The present study aims at filling the current knowledge gap in the literature by shedding some light to these important questions.

2

Literature Review and Research Hypotheses

2.1

Violence and the Media

Whether in films, clips, video games or music-lyrics, violence generates aggressive-related concepts, increases aggressive behavior and contributes to a more hostile social environment (for a review see Anderson et al., 2003). S. Okazaki (Ed.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 2), DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6854-8_31, © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011

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Advertising theorists have also drawn their attention to the issue. In specific, there exist two research streams concentrating on the relation between violence and advertising. The first focuses on violent programming and its effects on embedded ads (e.g., see Bushman, 2005). The second which is most closely related to the present study, examines violence in ads either in a more descriptive (i.e., its frequency) or empirical manner (i.e., its effects) (e.g., Caprara et al., 1987). For instance, Anderson (1997, 2000) explored the frequency with which violent ads appear during major sports events and concluded that 6.8% to 8.8 % percent is based on such themes, and further suggests that commercial content may be considered as a significant source of television violence. In a later study Shanahan et al. (2003) by further exploring the frequency of violent acts in television commercials (3.46 per minute) and programs (1.32 per minute) argued that aggressive topics in advertising might influence sensitive population groups (i.e., children) in a significant way. Furthermore, through a qualitative analysis, Andersson and his colleagues (2004) observed strong objections toward violent themes when employed in ad campaigns. In addition, violence in ads is considered a serious, taboo topic by consumers (Manceau and Tissier-Desbordes, 2006). Finally, commercials holding aggressive-eliciting properties can influence aggressive tendencies and physiological activity (Caprara et al., 1987). It should be noted that violence in advertising is not grounded solely on corresponding acts but also on the use of various related symbols (e.g., guns, knives, clubs, handcuffs) (Anderson, Benjamin, and Barthlow, 1998; Andersson et al., 2004). In fact, the employment of weapon stimuli might act as a prime activating other aggressive-related concepts (e.g., thoughts, emotions, behaviors) (Anderson et al., 1998; Berkowitz and LePage, 1967). This appears to be an important social issue given that a large number of well-known enterprises (e.g., Benetton, Sisley, FCUK) use analogous techniques in order to promote their products. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has not been a rigorous empirical study centering on consumers’ cognitive, emotional and attitudinal reactions toward violence in ads delivered in a non/rhetorical manner. By empirically examining a number of relevant hypotheses, the present paper aims at shedding some light in these issues.

3.2

Advertising Rhetoric and the Rhetorical Figure of Resonance

According to Aristotle’s definition, rhetoric is “the faculty of discovering all the available means of persuasion in any given situation” (Corbett and Connors, 1999, p.1). Rhetoric involves both method and manner. More precisely, discovering

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the most effective way to express an argument can have a strong influence on the receiver of that argument (McQuarrie and Mick, 1996). Next, rhetoric is grounded on the use of certain devices known as figures of speech or rhetorical figures. A rhetorical figure (henceforth referred as RF) has been defined as an artful deviation from the ordinary usage of speaking or writing (e.g., Corbett and Connors, 1999). RFs are distinguished in two types, schemes and tropes with the former occurring at a sensory level (e.g., rhyme) while the latter at a semantic level (e.g., metaphor) (McQuarrie and Mick, 1996). RFs may be employed both in the visual (Phillips and McQuarrie, 2002; Scott, 1994) and verbal (Leigh, 1994; Toncar and Munch, 2001) portions of ads. Moreover, such deviations in advertisements are considered to entail influences in terms of persuasion. Extensive research focusing on the application of RFs in noncontroversial ad settings supports their positive role on outcome variables (e.g., McQuarrie and Phillips, 2005; Tom and Eves, 1999). Previous studies across a number of scientific fields have identified a plethora of RFs (see Corbett and Connors, 1999; Leigh, 1994). Our research centers on a specific RF called ‘resonance’. Resonance is a trope and can be defined as an echoing or doubleness of meaning among ad stimulus elements. It can occur in various instances nonetheless, its visual-verbal instance is considered to be the most common (McQuarrie and Mick, 1992, 1999). Resonance has the special ability to present the viewer with an “incongruous polysemy” (McQuarrie and Mick, 1992). More precisely, according to theory, consumers translate the artful deviation of a RF in an ad as incongruity (McQuarrie and Mick, 1999). In addition, the term polysemy stands for extra meaning conveyed by the elements comprising the ad (McQuarrie and Mick, 1992). Polysemy creates ambiguity in the ad stimulus and invites viewers to conduct multiple readings in order to demystify this ambiguity. If this ambiguity of the ad construct is stimulating enough to motivate the viewer to resolve it, then s/he will have an aesthetic experience of pleasure due to the successful resolution (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1992, 1999). Indeed, it has been evidenced that resonance results in positive outcomes with regard to ad likability (McQuarrie and Mick, 1992; Stathakopoulos et al., 2008), brand attitude, degree of counterarguing and ad recall (McQuarrie and Mick, 1992). Furthermore, researchers have distinguished between plain and reinforced instances of resonance dependent upon whether its visual and verbal components are RFs by themselves (Stathakopoulos et al., 2008). Thus, a plain resonant ad (in its visual-verbal instance) is grounded on the interaction between a verbal and a visual element with either one being a RF per se, whereas in the case of reinforced

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resonance both verbal and visual elements are RFs by themselves. Finally, Stathakopoulos et al. (2008) found that both instances result in positive outcomes with the reinforced resonant one outperforming plain in terms of ad liking. Grounded on the aforementioned discussion, it appears that the use of rhetoric in advertising contributes significantly on ad performance. Nonetheless, the performance of rhetoric in controversial ads (e.g. violent), as well as the role of specific rhetorical manoeuvres (i.e. plain and reinforced resonance), have never been examined. Thus, given the significant influence of RFs in past studies, we expect that they will exert strong influences on consumers’ cognitive, emotional and attitudinal responses across all ad frames. Nonetheless, due to the uniqueness of the ad frame (controversial) and the specific rhetorical manoeuvres employed in the current study, our research hypotheses do not assume any directionality (positive or negative) with regard to the effects of the study constructs (i.e. personal values and emotions) on ad performance measures (i.e. Aad and Ab).

2.3

The Concept of Personal Values

According to Rokeach (1968) values are considered as relatively enduring beliefs that particular modes of conduct and end-states of existence are preferable to alternative ones. Grounded on this conceptualization, two different kinds of values emerge namely, the instrumental and the terminal ones. Consumer theorists have displayed the influence of values on a variety of attitudinal and behavioral responses across different consumption situations (for reviews see Homer and Kahle, 1988; McCarty and Shrum, 1993). Nonetheless, despite that researchers have acknowledged the necessity of studying values within ad contexts as well (e.g., Kahle, 1985), empirical research is scarce. More precisely, the majority of research is concentrated on the cultural values demonstrated in ads (for a review see also Solomon, 2004, p. 131-133) rather than on the impact of values in consumers’ responses to ad messages. A few exceptions are studies such as that of Pitts et al. (1985) who verified the impact of viewers’ personal values in improving the effectiveness of social communications. In particular, Pitts et al. (1985) found that depending on the importance individuals attach to certain values, they will have a more favorable attitude toward specific social issues. Furthermore, Pitts et al. (1985) verified that value orientations interact with additional ad factors such as type of argument and source expertise, enhancing the impact of the message on consumers’ attitudes. Moreover, Kassarjian (1965) found that a person’s inneror other-directed value orientation leads to a stronger preference for corresponding ad themes, whereas Kennedy et al. (1988) suggested that a satisfactory correspondence between consumers’ values and those demonstrated in ads can contribute to a successful ad-product positioning.

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Based on the foregoing discussion, it appears that values determine consumers’ attitudinal reactions. Such influences may also become salient within ad settings so far as it concerns consumers’ predispositions toward the ad itself as well as the advertised brand. Therefore, we hypothesize that within violent ad frames: H1a: Values will have a significant direct effect on Aad. H1b: Values will have a significant direct effect on Ab. In addition, given the enhancing role of rhetorical maneuvers in advertising (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1992, 1999), it is expected that RFs (i.e. resonance) will significantly alter the magnitude (positive or negative) of the influence of values on ad performance. Therefore, we hypothesize that: H2a: The effect of values on Aad will differ between non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads. H2b: The effect of values on Ab will differ between non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads.

3.4

The Role of Emotions in Advertising

There exists a plethora of definitions concerning emotions (e.g., for a review see Kleinginna and Kleinginna, 1981). In addition, definitional distinction between analogous concepts such as feelings, emotions and affect within the scientific literature, appears to be at least murky (Holbrook and O’Shaughnessy, 1984). For the needs of the present study, we adopt Stayman’s and Aaker’s (1988) interpretation of emotions as “subjective feeling states at the time of a message exposure” (p. 368). Furthermore, we have decided to use terms such as emotions and feelings in an interchangeable manner in accordance with other studies in the literature (e.g., Burke and Edell, 1989). With regard to advertising, it has been accepted that emotions can greatly enhance its effectiveness, since they are benefits per se, they can communicate benefits, and they can influence attitudes (Zeitlin and Westwood, 1986). A large body of consumer research has verified the significant role of emotions in ad communications. For instance, Batra and Ray (1986) explored a number of emotional dimensions and confirmed their direct and indirect influences on attitudinal and behavioral responses. Along these lines, Holbrook and Batra (1987) found that emotions are influenced by ad content and in turn, determine significantly both ad and brand attitudes.

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In addition, by exploring emotional modes rather than specific emotions, Stout and Leckenby (1988), argued that emotion in ads can greatly enhance its effectiveness. Also, Edell and Burke (1987, 1989) corroborated analogous findings by investigating the relation of three distinct emotional factors (i.e., upbeat, negative and warm) with consumers’ ad cognitions. Edell and Burke (1987, 1989) discovered that positive and negative feelings can co-occur and that they entail a strong impact on attitudinal outcomes. Additionally, Stayman and Aaker (1988) verified the direct and indirect effects of emotions on attitude towards the brand and the moderating role of ad stimulus exposure. Therefore, we hypothesize that within violent ad frames: H3a: Emotions will have a significant direct effect on Aad. H3b: Emotions will have a significant direct effect on Ab. In addition, given the enhancing role of rhetorical maneuvers in advertising (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1992, 1999), it is expected that RFs (i.e. resonance) will significantly alter the magnitude (positive or negative) of the influence of emotions on ad performance. Therefore, we hypothesize that: H4a: The effect of emotions on Aad will differ between non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads. H4b: The effect of emotions on Ab will differ between non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads.

3.5

The Relation between Personal Values and Emotions

While the independent effects of emotions and values on attitudes have been examined extensively (e.g. Edell and Burke, 1987; Homer and Kahle, 1988), there is a striking absence of research examining the effects of these two variables simultaneously. A potential reason for this gap might be the lack of a clear understanding of the relationship between values and emotions across scientific fields. Nelissen et al. (2007) pinpoint to this gap and provide a number of initial suggestions on the nature of the relationship between these two constructs. First, the relationship between emotions and values is more likely to be reciprocal rather than causal. This is due to the fact that preexisting values may elicit specific emotion(s) as a result of the value-situation interaction. At the same time, the regular experience of specific feeling(s) under certain situations may lead to behaviors, which in turn may begin associated with specific value(s). Furthermore, according to Nelissen et al. (2007) it is not feasible to associate a specific value with a specific emotion due to preexisting relationships among sets of emotions and among sets of values, and due to differences in the level of abstraction between these two constructs (i.e.

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emotions are more abstract and imprecise than values – cf., Nelissen et al. 2007). In fact, Nelissens and colleagues’ empirical evidence (i.e. low correlations) confirm the pivotal role of differences in levels of abstraction between these two constructs. Following these suggestions and due to the lack of any other theoretical or empirical evidence, we examine both the direct and the interaction effects between all values and emotions on ad performance. As for the interactions, we do not make any formal suggestions with regard to their nature (i.e. expected differences on the effects of either values or emotions on Aad and Ab across different levels of the moderator). Grounded on the aforementioned discussion and the hypothesized direct effects that individuals’ personal values and emotions may have on ad effectiveness, we hypothesize that: H5a: The interaction between values and emotions will have a significant direct effect on Aad. H5b: The interaction between values and emotions will have a significant direct effect on Ab. In addition, given the enhancing role of rhetorical maneuvers in advertising (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1992, 1999), it is expected that RFs (i.e. resonance) will significantly alter the magnitude (positive or negative) of the influence of values-emotions interactions on ad performance. Therefore, we hypothesize that: H6a: The effect of the interaction between values and emotions on Aad will differ between non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads. H6b: The effect of the interaction between values and emotions on Ab will differ between non-rhetorical and rhetorical violent ads.

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Research Method Stimuli

Nineteen ads were extracted from a large corpus of print ad stimuli. They were pre-rated by 27 students in terms of controversy by employing a modified scale (De Pelsmacker and Van Den Bergh, 1996). A series of violent images were judged as controversial. Nonetheless, in accordance with previous studies (e.g., Berkowitz and LePage, 1967), a violent ad instance demonstrating a violent symbol (i.e., gun) was chosen to serve the purposes of this study. Next, two rhetorical ad versions plus a control one were produced (see Appendix I). The plain and reinforced resonant ad versions were constructed adopting processes similar to those followed in previous studies (e.g., Stathakopoulos et al., 2008). More specifically, a sole verbal RF (i.e., wordplay) was used for the plain and an additional visual RF (i.e., metaphor) for the reinforced resonant ad version. Next, an alcohol drink (i.e., vodka) was chosen as the advertised product category, since it is both of youth interest and frequently promoted with the use of controversial ad techniques (cf., Reid and Soley, 1983). Last, a fictitious brand name was utilized so as to eliminate any preexisting knowledge effects (e.g., Peterson and Kerin, 1977).

4.2

Subjects and Procedure

139 business students at a South-Eastern European University participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to four groups and they were administered with a two-part questionnaire. More analytically, procedure was as follows: participants first denoted their personal values (e.g., Pitts et al., 1985) and then they were informed that they would make their judgment upon ads in rough form (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1999). Next, they were exposed to an analogous ad version for about half a minute. Last, they filled the second part of the questionnaire designed to capture their emotional and attitudinal responses. All in all, each session lasted for about 15 minutes.

4.3

Measures

Two manipulation check questions were applied in order to see whether subjects considered the ad as provocative and violent. Two questions extracted from the CAME scale (Curiosity About Morbid Events) (Zuckerman and Litle, 1986) were also used for confound check reasons, since viewers’ preference for violent media could influence their responses.

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We assessed consumers’ values by employing the RVS (Rokeach Value Survey), the most commonly used instrument in consumer behavior studies (cf., Munson and McQuarrie, 1988). Moreover, we applied only its terminal value set on the basis of its more complete conceptualization, its stricter relation to items consisting alternative value measurement inventories (e.g., LOV), and the higher relevance of terminal values to general social issues such as violence that we used in our study as the main ad stimulus. In addition, we preferred capturing values on 7-point Likert-type scales in accordance with other consumer studies (e.g., Munson and McQuarrie, 1988; Pitts et al., 1985). Our choice was grounded on the fact that rating scales are easier to administer, take less time to complete (i.e., reducing respondent fatigue) while demonstrating adequate reliability (e.g., Munson and McIntyre, 1979). Next, emotional responses were measured with the use of a 12-item scale extracted from the emotion battery of Batra and Holbrook (1990). Aad and Ab were measured with the use of a 4-item (Madden et al., 1988) and a 5-item (Spears and Singh, 2004) semantic differential scale respectively. Moreover, two additional manipulation check questions were used in order to verify our stimuli’s effective modification in terms of artfulness (McQuarrie and Mick, 1999) and visual-verbal incongruity (Houston et al., 1987). Factor analyses were performed for all measures. Four factors emerged for personal values which based on past theory (e.g., McCarty and Shrum, 1993) were labeled self-actualization, personal gratification, idealism and security. Concerning, consumers’ emotions, three factors emerged, resembling Edell’s and Burke’s (1987) constructs (upbeat, negative and warm). Reliability analysis indicated that all measures possess adequate Cronbach’s alpha scores.

4.4

Analyses and Results

Manipulation checks suggested that all violent stimuli were judged as more provocative [F(3,135)=46.82, p<.01] and violent [F(3,135)=168.66, p<.01] than the control ad. Moreover, the resonant stimuli were considered as more artful than their non-rhetorical counterparts [F(3,135)=17.56, p<.01]. In fact, the reinforced resonant ad version was significantly more artful than the plain resonant one [mre/res=4.91; mpla/res=4.09, p<.05] and exemplified a significantly greater visualverbal incongruity [mre/res=4.97; mpla/res=4.12, p<.05]. Last, violent preferences did not differ substantially among the groups [F(3,135)=1.12, p=0.35]. To examine the effects of values, emotions, and their interactions on both Aad and Ab across the three experimentally manipulated ad conditions (violent, plain and reinforced resonant violent), we ran a number of moderated OLS regression analyses. Given the small sample size per condition (nviolent= 35,

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npla/res= 34, nre/res= 33), we ran 12 moderated OLS regression analyses for each of Aad and Ab and for every condition, consisting of all possible combinations of values and emotions (four values by three emotions), plus their respective interaction term. Following standard procedures (Cohen, et al. 2003), the original responses for all values and emotions were standardized, while interactions terms produced by multiplying the standardized responses of values-emotions. Finally, in order to test whether addition of interactions improved the models with only main effects, interaction terms entered in a separate block. Tests for multicolinearity suggest no such a problem across all 72 moderated OLS regression analyses. Tables 1 summarize results for Aad, and Table 2 for Ab. As both Table 1 and 2 clearly suggest only one interaction (i.e. gratification x upbeat in the reinforced resonant condition) has a significant effect across conditions for both Aad and Ab. Thus, within the context of violent ads and irrespectively of the use of RFs, the effect of values on both Aad and Ab does not change significantly across ad viewers’ emotional fluctuations, resulted by their exposure to violent ad stimuli. This finding leads us to reject H5a, H5b, H6a, and H6b. Moreover, as both Tables 1 and 2 suggest emotions have a more systematic effect on both Aad (in 25 out of 36 regressions) and Ab (in 24 out of 36 regressions) in comparison to values (14/36 regressions for both Aad and Ab). Self-actualization related values have no significant effect under any condition on both Aad and Ab. Gratification and security are the values with the most significant effects across conditions for both Aad and Ab. These, results give partial support to H1a, H1b, H3a, and H3b. Finally, examination of significant direct effects for both emotions and values on both Aad and Ab suggests that these effects follow a systematic pattern across advertising conditions. More specifically, the size of the effect (see significant beta values across conditions for the same value-emotion combination) of either values or emotions reduces as it moves from the violent ad condition to the plain resonant (i.e. only verbal), and then increases again (at a higher level in comparison to the violent condition) as it moves from the plain resonant (i.e. only verbal) to the reinforced resonant (i.e. verbal and visual). These findings provide with partial support H2a, H2b, H4a, and H4b.

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Table 1: Results of moderated OLS regression analyses for Aad ad condition emotion

violent upbeat

negative

simple resonant warm

upbeat

negative

reinforced resonant warm

upbeat

negative

warm

F

0.52

8.01

3.63

0.85

6.09

2.63

2.38

37.39

3.08

P

0.67

0.00

0.02

0.48

0.00

0.07

0.09

0.00

0.04

selfactualization

0.00

-0.05

0.04

0.06

0.11

-0.03

0.04

-0.02

0.11

emotion

0.20

0.63

-0.50

0.13

0.51

-0.35

-0.57

1.04

-0.54

interaction

0.03

0.05

0.05

-0.17

-0.01

0.04

0.31

-0.07

0.03

R2

0.05

0.44

0.26

0.08

0.38

0.21

0.20

0.80

0.24

R2 change

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.06

0.00

0.00

0.04

0.00

0.00

F

5.06

9.79

9.23

3.44

7.92

6.05

14.46

45.31

10.06

P

0.01

0.00

0.00

0.03

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

gratification

-0.57

-0.29

-0.45

-0.37

-0.24

-0.32

-0.61

-0.22

-0.57

emotion

0.05

0.47

-0.40

0.07

0.38

-0.28

-0.28

0.84

-0.25

interaction

0.18

0.04

-0.01

0.02

0.01

-0.04

-0.46

0.19

-0.32

R2

0.33

0.49

0.47

0.26

0.44

0.38

0.60

0.82

0.51

R2 change

0.03

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.14

0.02

0.05

F

0.51

8.10

4.32

0.71

5.50

3.70

6.52

36.94

6.83

P

0.68

0.00

0.01

0.56

0.00

0.02

0.00

0.00

0.00

idealism

-0.01

0.10

0.20

0.21

0.01

0.12

0.46

-0.02

0.41

emotion

0.21

0.63

-0.53

0.07

0.47

-0.33

-0.40

1.06

-0.35

interaction

0.01

0.05

-0.03

0.11

-0.01

0.20

0.28

-0.01

0.21

R2

0.05

0.44

0.30

0.07

0.36

0.27

0.40

0.79

0.41

R2 change

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.00

0.05

0.04

0.00

0.03

F

2.28

0.94

6.46

1.94

5.83

3.72

4.99

40.38

5.95

P

0.10

0.00

0.00

0.15

0.00

0.02

0.01

0.00

0.00

security

0.46

0.26

0.41

0.29

0.11

0.24

0.45

0.09

0.29

emotion

0.23

0.59

-0.48

0.04

0.42

-0.31

-0.38

0.96

-0.31

interaction

-0.20

-0.07

0.01

0.17

0.03

0.01

0.25

-0.10

0.28

R2

0.18

0.48

0.38

0.16

0.37

0.27

0.34

0.81

0.38

R2 change

0.03

0.00

0.00

0.03

0.00

0.00

0.04

0.01

0.06

Notes: values are unstandardised moderated OLS regression beta grey cells suggest significant effects at p<0.05 level or smaller

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Table 2: Results of moderated OLS regression analyses for Ab ad condition emotion

violent upbeat

negative

simple resonant warm

upbeat

negative

reinforced resonant warm

upbeat

negative

warm

F

0.26

3.29

2.03

1.06

4.23

2.16

3.42

18.82

3.86

p

0.86

0.03

0.13

0.38

0.01

0.11

0.03

0.00

0.02

selfactualization

0.01

-0.06

0.03

0.03

0.12

-0.04

-0.07

-0.08

0.01

emotion

0.03

0.47

-0.43

-0.02

0.55

-0.42

-0.63

0.83

-0.51

interaction

0.19

0.00

0.28

-0.26

-0.11

0.02

0.28

-0.27

0.11

R2

0.02

0.24

0.16

0.10

0.30

0.18

0.26

0.66

0.29

R2 change

0.02

0.00

0.07

0.09

0.02

0.00

0.04

0.04

0.01

F

2.94

4.57

4.76

1.34

3.29

2.96

15.57

20.92

16.64

P

0.05

0.01

0.01

0.28

0.02

0.05

0.00

0.00

0.00

gratification

-0.49

-0.33

-0.45

-0.30

-0.13

-0.22

-0.56

-0.30

-0.54

emotion

-0.05

0.31

-0.15

-0.17

0.47

-0.37

-0.38

0.56

-0.17

interaction

0.07

0.07

-0.22

-0.15

0.05

0.03

-0.32

0.22

-0.48

R2

0.22

0.31

0.32

0.12

0.28

0.23

0.62

0.68

0.63

R2 change

0.00

0.01

0.04

0.02

0.00

0.00

0.08

0.03

0.13

F

0.34

3.37

1.94

2.64

4.49

4.20

8.48

16.40

8.13

P

0.80

0.03

0.14

0.07

0.01

0.01

0.00

0.00

0.00

idealism

-0.03

0.09

0.11

0.45

0.19

0.22

0.45

0.09

0.39

emotion

0.12

0.49

-0.33

-0.08

0.49

-0.38

-0.45

0.76

-0.36

interaction

0.22

0.05

0.22

0.41

0.22

0.34

0.19

-0.07

0.18

R2

0.03

0.25

0.16

0.21

0.31

0.30

0.47

0.63

0.46

R2 change

0.03

0.00

0.04

0.13

0.04

0.08

0.02

0.00

0.03

F

1.53

4.63

5.48

4.09

4.31

3.44

7.44

17.52

8.72

P

0.23

0.01

0.00

0.02

0.01

0.03

0.00

0.00

0.00

security

0.40

0.32

0.46

0.32

0.16

0.27

0.43

0.12

0.26

emotion

0.04

0.44

-0.27

-0.12

0.44

-0.37

-0.44

0.73

-0.25

interaction

0.03

-0.10

0.39

0.52

0.16

0.20

0.24

-0.13

0.34

R2

0.13

0.31

0.35

0.29

0.30

0.26

0.44

0.64

0.47

R2 change

0.00 0.00 0.12 0.17 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.02 0.12 Notes: values are unstandardised moderated OLS regression beta grey cells suggest significant effects at p<0.05 level or smaller

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485

General Discussion, Implications, and Directions for Future Research

The present study forms an initial effort to explore the effects of personal values and emotions on viewers’ attitudes toward ads delivered in a non/rhetorical manner. Our results suggest that emotions seem to exert significant influences on attitudes more systematically than personal values. Theorists have argued that affective reactions can frequently occur with greater confidence than cognitive judgments and in a more expeditious manner (e.g., Zajonc, 1980). Moreover, there exists other research indicating the power of affect vis-à-vis cognition (e.g., Abelson et al., 1982; Morris et al., 2002). Perhaps, within a strongly emotional (i.e., violent) ad frame, feelings become more salient than values regarding their impact. Albeit to a less systematic manner, results suggest that values influence ad performance. More specifically, personal gratification and security values appeared to be the most influential in our study. This finding comes as no surprise given the well documented salience of gratification related values with consumption (e.g., Beatty et al., 1985). At the same time, within our study context security values are challenged more than any other type of values due to the employed ad theme (i.e., violence). Furthermore, with a few exceptions, interaction effects between individuals’ personal values and emotions do not systematically affect viewers’ ad and brand attitudes. Given the lack of systematic theories linking emotions with values, these findings seem to corroborate propositions (e.g., Nelissen et al., 2007) suggesting that small or non-significant interactions between values and emotions are to be expected given the situational and non-comparable (i.e. different levels of abstraction) nature of the relationship between these two constructs. Under all circumstances, the relation between values and emotions begs for further exploration before final conclusions can be made. Finally, the most interesting finding of this study is the systematic fluctuation of the effects of emotions on ad performance measures. This finding could be attributed to both stimulus properties and subjects’ processing of those properties. For instance, the initial reduction from the violent to the plain resonant condition might be grounded on viewers’ more extensive cognitive process in order to demystify the stimulus (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1992). It is possible that such a process upholds the spontaneity of their basic-feeling responses as those are moved towards the higher end of the lower-higher emotional continuum (e.g., Poels and Dewitte, 2006). On the other hand, the observed increase on the effects emotions as one moves from the plain to the reinforced resonant ad condition, should be attributed on the specific stimulus. Perhaps, the more sophisticated visual construction in this case, exemplifies controversy in a more prominent and direct way compared to the plain resonant

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ad condition thus, inducing viewers’ reactions in a more intense way. Though, analogous sophisticated visual constructions have been found to be very persuasive (e.g., McQuarrie and Mick, 1999) since among other, they can communicate their message in a more indirect manner (e.g., McQuarrie and Phillips, 2005), the present study suggests that such a theorizing might not extend within a violent ad context where consumers might object to the controversial theme per se. In any case, RFs effects within controversial ad settings must be further examined. Study findings bear a number of implications not only for marketing academics but for ad practitioners as well. First, the employment of violent topics in ads induces viewers’ emotional reactions in an intense manner. In specific, negative and warm feelings appear not only to be the most prominent within analogous ad settings but also those which systematically exert the most significant influences on attitudinal responses toward the ad and the advertised brand. Moreover, study findings call against neglecting consumer personal values in ad construction. For instance, it seems important that an ad exemplifies a personally gratifying value orientation. However, care should be taken with regard to its theme and whether this theme violates additional important values. For instance, it is plausible that a violent topic might violate consumers’ security values irrespective to whether the ad is delivered in a well / rhetorically-wrapped manner. Furthermore, utilizing rhetorical devices as additional persuasion means might intensify viewers’ reactions to controversial ads. This largely depends on the extent of such devices sophisticated construction. For instance, compared to plain resonance (e.g., only verbal rhetoric in this circumstance), reinforced resonance (i.e., visual and verbal rhetoric) appears to induce consumers’ emotional responses as well as those responses effect on ad performance in a more intense way. It seems plausible that employing visual rather than verbal rhetoric in violent ads exemplifies rather than “conceals” the issue of controversy. Despite the potential contribution of this study to an initial uncovering of the dynamics in the relationship between controversial ads and rhetoric, it is felt that it has opened up more questions compared to those purported to answer. More specifically, given the ever increasing controversial and rhetorical ad practices, it seems more than necessary to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral reactions within other types of controversial ad contexts (e.g., sex, racism, etc. Vezina and Paul, 1997).

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Another interesting research question is whether the application of RFs or resonance in specific, inhibits or enhances consumers’ negative reactions. The former might be grounded on empirical evidence concerning the effectiveness of RFs in non-controversial ad settings. The latter can be valid due to the fact that consumers might oppose to the use of sophisticated (i.e., rhetorical) maneuvers when utilized within controversial ad frames promoting commodities (e.g., Tinic, 1997). Furthermore, this investigation could take place not only within controversial ad frames communicating consumer products but also within social ad contexts where the use of controversy might be justifiable (e.g., safe-driving campaigns). A somewhat different research avenue could tap on further exploring viewers’ personal values in advertising. Apart from value instruments such as the RVS, there exist methodologies where products and values are seen as opposite sides of means-end chains (e.g., Gutman, 1982). In such an approach it would be interesting to explore how this chain mechanism functions within controversial ad contexts that might exhibit a non-rhetorical or rhetorical construction. Along these lines, apart from consumers’ emotions, there are other affectrelated concepts such as the intensity with which an individual might experience his / her feelings (e.g., Larsen and Diener, 1987). Perhaps, examining the role of affect intensity as well as its interplay with personal values on determining consumers’ ad and brand attitudes could provide scientific society with some fruitful knowledge.

6

References

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Appendix I Employed ad stimuli Control

Plain Resonant

Violent

Reinforced Resonant