CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN TELEVISION ADVERTISING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY P. S. P. Fernando. Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
[email protected] Dilini Hemachandra Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management, University of Peradeniya, , Sri Lanka
[email protected] Sarath S. Kodithuwakku Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management, University of Peradeniya, , Sri Lanka
[email protected]
ABSTRACT This study was driven by the motivation to understand consumer perception towards television advertisements in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A questionnaire survey was carried out among a stratified random sample of 80 resident employees of University of Peradeniya. This location was selected as it enabled covering a wider cross section of the population in terms of socio-economic profiles, especially in terms of level of education, income and the type of employment. Consumer perception towards targeting of children, comparative advertising, sex appeal, fear appeal, promotion of materialism and use of celebrities in the context of CSR were assessed. Chi-Square analysis was carried out to test whether there is a significant relationship between the above mentioned aspects of social responsibility and socio-economic profiles (age, gender, education, household income, employment and stage of family cycle) of the respondents. The findings revealed that the respondents on average perceive targeting of children, use of celebrities and promotion of materialism in advertising as socially undesirable whereas comparative advertising as socially beneficial. The perception on these different aspects showed a significant relationship with the socio-economic profile viz. the level of education, household income and the type of employment. The same was observed with regard to the purchasing behaviour of the respondents. In general, respondents belonging to lower socio-economic profiles in terms of household income, level of education and the type of employment expressed more neutral perceptions towards socially undesirable aspects of advertisements compared to their counterparts. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, Advertising, Consumer perceptions 1.
product development, giving a wide variety of choices to consumers, helping to reduce prices by encouraging competition, subsidizing the media as well as providing a means of disseminating public information about health and social issues (Brassington and Pettitt, 2006). Emergence of ethics and CSR concepts in the business world has demanded business organizations to be more careful in their operations. Increasing power of the consumers
INTRODUCTION
Business organizations use different marketing communication techniques to promote their products with the aim of informing, persuading or reminding the customers (Kotler, 2000). Among these techniques, advertising has become a popular marketing communication tool (Jones, 2005). It also brings about various other social benefits in terms of encouraging new and better
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groups as targeting strategies, message strategies, product or brand issues and broad societal issues. According to them targeting strategies include targeting of children and minorities through advertising who are not capable of understanding the commercial purpose of advertising. Further, message strategies include the use of fear appeals1 and sex appeals2 which are not acceptable in certain cultures. Product or brand issues include advertising of controversial, unusual or embarrassing products and services. The broad societal issues comprises of effects of advertising on social values, religion, cultural literacy, or materialism3, although impacts of the use of sex appeal in advertising may differ from country to country. Price (2002) argues that sex appeal has become one of the most popular and effective tactics in consumer advertising in most of the Western countries such as United States. However majority of consumers believe that there is too much sex in current advertising and this is not appropriate for general interest (Conna, 1994). Comparative advertising make direct comparisons between one product and another to show that advertiser’s product is better than rival’s product. Majority of consumers in United Kingdom has been found to believe that it is unacceptable for brands to criticize each other through advertising. Therefore, advertisers must be careful to avoid abusing competition or presenting false comparisons (Brassington and Pettitt, 2006). Comparisons of product through advertising are unacceptable in certain countries like Japan and are prohibited in certain countries like India and Brazil (Armstrong and Kotler, 2005). According to Singh and Vij (2007) public is not against the use of comparative advertising
due to availability of more and more information has created a situation where organization should be more ethical and socially responsible in their conduct. There are numerous laws implemented in various countries to regulate advertising (Kotler, 2000). Additionally there are codes of ethics for advertising proposed by different international organizations such as International Chamber of Commerce (International Chamber of Commerce, 2006). There are also different pressure groups as well as self regulatory bodies in order to govern the behaviour of advertising (Engel et al, 1991). There have not been proper legislative mechanisms to regulate advertising in Sri Lanka, although the government proposed a new media policy in the year 2007 which covers policies on advertising (Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2007). There have also been hardly any pressure group activities to govern advertising in the Sri Lankan context. Arens and Bovee (1994) have discussed the possibilities for business organization to behave unethically and in socially irresponsible manner despite legislative frameworks that are in place to shape their behaviour. Same authors have defined “ethical advertising” and “social responsibility” as doing what the advertisers believe as morally right according to the situation and what society view as best for the welfare of the people respectively. Kotler (2000) has stated that advertisers as well as their agencies should be careful to make sure that their advertising does not violate social and legal norms. According to Creyer and Ross, (1997) consumers are willing to pay higher prices for the products which are offered by ethical and socially responsible companies. Therefore, it is important for business organizations to be socially responsible in their advertising. Attitudes of consumers’ towards adverting are one of the main factors which affect the perception towards brands which in turn affect the purchasing decision of consumers (Singh and Vij, 2007). According to Bardburn (2001) people criticize advertising arguing that it waste lot of money, encourage people to by the things which they do not really need hence wasteful consumption, exploit people who are not capable of judging the truth such as children, exploit the women by using them as sexual objects and use shock tactics in advertising in order to attract the attention of customers towards their advertisements and products.
1
Fear appeals in marketing communication are designed to increase the concern of audience with the expectation that audience will attempt to reduce that concern by adapting, continuing, discontinuing or avoiding that specified action(Conna,1994).
Use of sex appeal in advertisements can be defined as the degree of nudity or sexual explicitness in visual, audio and verbal element of advertisements (Gould, 1994). It can also be explained as brand information or persuasive appeal in marketing which associate with sexual information (Heckler et al., 2001). 2
Conna (1994) explained that controversial issues in advertising can be organized into several
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economic characters of consumers and their perceptions towards social responsibility in the context of television advertising and to understand their perception and responses towards socially irresponsible advertising (See Figure 1 for the conceptual framework).
and they want to see the use of comparative advertisements. Bishop (2000) argues that certain advertisers use the image of an idealize person type such as beautiful woman or sexy teenage in their advertisements to persuade the consumers to buy their products. In such situations consumers are invited to use the product to project the self image to themselves as product becomes a symbol of ideal. However the author further argues that there are several ethical issues that should be taken into consideration regarding these types of advertisements as whether they give misleading promise, whether they promote false values and whether they threaten the autonomy of the individuals.
Demographic Characteristics Age Gender Education Occupation Family life cycle
Consumers’ perceptions on advertising consist of their attitudes, beliefs and opinions (Singh and Vij, 2007). Attitudes on advertising are moderately related to age, gender, income and education of the consumers (Durand and Lambert, 1985). Consumer behaviour is influenced by a wide range of factors present within the environment which they live such as socio cultural influences and psychological influences (Brassington and Pettitt, 2006). Therefore these factors may have an influence on the consumer perception towards social responsibility in relation to advertising. People are influenced to a greater extend by the social and cultural environment which they live in. Purchasing decisions of the consumers are affected by the socio cultural influences like culture, social class, reference groups and family (Kotler, 2000).
Perception on Economic Factors Incomee
Cultural Factors Religion Race
- Children targeted ads - Sex appeal in ads - Fear appeal in ads - Celebrities in ads - Promotion of materialism through ads - Comparative advertising
Psychological Factors Personality Learning Motivation
During last few decades electronic and print media developed rapidly due to development of infrastructure and technology. This also enabled companies operating in Sri Lanka to use advertising effectively in order to promote their products to a wider community. At the same time increasing competitiveness of the business world pushes them to use different tactics in advertising for obtaining the attention and interest of consumers as well as persuading them to buy their products. In this background, this study aims to understand the consumer perception on social responsibility of contemporary advertising adopted by Sri Lankan business organizations as beliefs and attitudes of Sri Lankan consumers regarding social responsibility aspects of advertising are not yet well explored. The main objectives of the study are to determine the relationships between socio-
Social Factors Social class Reference group Family structure
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework 2.
METHOD
2.1.
POPULATION AND SAMPLES
The sampling frame of the study was employees of the University of Peradeniya and their family
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from mean, three categories of overall perception on different aspects was developed as negative, moderate and positive. According to above categorization negative perceptions indicate that respondents are having negative attitudes and beliefs regarding the given aspect of advertisements whereas positive perceptions indicate that respondents are having positive attitudes and beliefs towards the given aspect of advertisements.
members who are residing at university quarters, comprising of both academic and non-academic staff members. This population was selected due to its variation in terms of the demographic, social and economic profiles which provided an ideal scenario to study the relationship between the perception toward social responsibility in relation to advertising and socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw the sample (Pinhey and Sanders, 1974). Grade of the quarters (namely upper grade, middle grade and lower grade) was used as the basis for stratifying the sample as people living in different grades of quarters differed in terms of their education, employment and income. Twenty percent of households from each grade were drawn into the sample. The sample consisted of 80 households. 2.2.
Chi-square analysis was performed to see whether there is a significant relationship between perceptions towards different aspects of advertisements and respondents’ demographic and socio and economic characteristics separately (Mansfield, 1983). Furthermore Chisquare analysis was used to test the relationship between responses to socially irresponsible advertising and family income, education and employment of the respondent. Tabular analysis and graphical techniques were also used to explore the patterns of significant relationships.
DATA COLLECTION
Respondents were interviewed with the aid of a structured questionnaire designed to collect information regarding demographic characteristics, media usage, perception towards children targeted advertisements, comparative advertisements, sex appeal and fear appeal in advertisements, use of celebrities and promotion of materialism through advertissements and their responses to socially irresponsible advertisements. Priority was given to the person who works at the University of Peradeniya from each selected quarters when collecting data. In order to capture the perception towards advertising, a five-point Likert scale was used as follows.
RESULTS
3.1.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE SAMPLE
The sample consisted of 61% males and 39% females. There were no respondents below 20 years of age. Around 12.5% of respondents were from the age category of 20-29 years. Twenty six percent (26.3%) of respondents belonged to the age group of 30 to 39 years whereas 29% of respondents have come from the age category of 40-49 years. However, the largest portion of respondents (32.5%) was above 50 years.
1- Strongly agree 2 - Agree 3 - Neither agree nor disagree 4 - Disagree 5 - Strongly disagree 2.3.
3.
The highest formal education qualification of the respondents was ranging from primary education to Doctoral degrees. Around 36.3% of respondents were with the education up to G.C.E. Ordinary Level, 21.3% with education up to G.C.E. Advanced Level and 32.6% with the education up to degrees or above. The Sample consisted of respondents in terms of their occupation ranging from upper grades to lower grades such as lecturers, administrative officers, teachers, technical officers, clerical staff, security officers, drivers, laborers and self employed. There were 15% of housewives and 5% of unemployed respondents. Around sixteen percent of respondents (16.3%) were senior lectures. Less than 10% of the respondents belonged to rest of the employment categories.
DATA ANALYSIS
In capturing the perception on different aspect of advertising both positive and negative statements were used in the questionnaire. Positive statements were recoded and converted into negative format. A reliability test was carried out in order to assess the consistency of different statements used to measure the perception towards different aspects of advertising, (Pinhey and Sanders, 1974). Mean score and standard deviation were calculated for each aspect which had Cronbach’ Alpha value over 0.7. By adding and subtracting half of the standard deviation
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towards those business organizations that adopt children targeted advertising. Majority of respondents (54%) were of the opinion that it is not socially responsible for business organizations to target children through their advertising. Moreover there were 52% of respondents who believed that advertising destroys the cultural values of children. Seventy six percent (76%) of respondents stated that advertisements that promote various food items cause their children to adopt unhealthy food habits. Around 64% of respondents perceived that advertising induces pester power of children. Results of Chi-square test revealed that there was a significant relationship between perceptions towards children targeted advertising and respondents education (Asymp. Significance value = 0.028). It was found that less educated respondents were unaware about the potential negative effects that children targeted advertising has on the society whereas educated people perceived otherwise. Majority of the respondents with postgraduate qualifications showed highest concern about negative effects of children targeted advertisements. Most of respondents with the formal education up to G.C.E. O/L or A/L were not much concerned about the negative effects of children targeted advertising. There were no significant relationships found between perception on children target advertising and respondents’ gender, age, family income, employment and the stage of the family life cycle.
Family income of the sample ranged from less than Rs.20, 000 per month to over Rs.80, 000 per month. Around forty percent of respondents (43.80%) found to be earning an income between Rs. 20, 000-50, 000 per month. There were 21.35% of respondents who had monthly family income of less than Rs. 20, 000. Around 16% of respondents had family income between Rs. 20, 000 to 50, 000 per month and the rest of the respondents (18.8%) had family income over Rs.80, 000 per month. 3.2.
RELIABILITY TEST RESULTS
The reliability test revealed Cronbach’ alpha value less than 0.7 for fear appeal and sex appeal. Results for other aspects tested showed Cronbach’ alpha value over 0.7 (Table 1). Therefore scores for the statements on children target advertising, comparative advertising, celebrities in advertising and promotion of materialism through advertising were added separately and considered as single values to represent the overall perception on those aspects. The score ranged from one (1) to five (5) with the mean value of three (3). Table 1: Reliability test for perception on different aspects of advertising Tested Aspect Advertisement
of
Cronbach’ Value
Children targeted advertising
0.707
Comparisons in advertisements
0.734
Sex appealing ads
0.562
Fear appealing
0.546
Promotion of Materialism
0.706
Celebrities in ads
0.782
3.3.
Alpha
3.4.
PERCEPTION TOWARDS USE OF CELEBRITIES IN ADVERTISING
As far as the overall perception towards the use of celebrities in advertising is concerned, respondents expressed unfavorable perceptions towards use of celebrities (Mean value = 2.8563). More than half of the respondents (51%) stated that appearance of celebrities in advertisements sometimes mislead the consumers. At the same time 47% of respondents mentioned that endorsements by celebrities in advertisements persuade consumers to buy certain products they do not really need. However 33% of respondents agreed with the statement that “endorsements by celebrities in advertisements help consumers to choose better brands out of a given product category”. According to the Chi-square analysis, education (Asymp. Significance value=0.000), employment (Asymp. Significance value = 0.011) and family income (Asymp. Significance value = 0.003) showed significant relationships with the
PERCEPTION TOWARDS CHILDREN TARGETED ADVERTISING
Findings revealed that respondents had a negative perception towards use of children targeted advertising (Mean score = 2.39) and
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possessing low formal education perceived that comparative advertisements do not cause much harm on the society and therefore use of comparative advertisements is acceptable. Perception towards comparative advertising also showed the same pattern of relationship as in the case of the perception towards celebrities in advertising where the respondents with whitecollar jobs expressed more concerns about the negative effects of comparative advertising on the society while low grade workers expressed otherwise. Most of the respondents belonging to high income families thought that comparative advertising brings about negative effects on the society whereas most of the respondents belonging to relatively low income categories possessed a moderate perception. Most of the respondents having family income over Rs.50, 000 per month were of the perception that comparative advertising cause negative effects on the society.
perception towards celebrities in advertising. However perception towards use of celebrities in advertising did not show significant relationships with respondents’ gender, age and the stage of the family life cycle. Respondents having higher educational qualifications found to be concerned more about negative effect of advertisements with celebrity endorsements on the society. At the same time respondents’ with lower educational qualifications showed moderate or neutral perceptions towards the same aspect whereas the respondents with white-collar jobs expressed otherwise. The same pattern was observed in relation to the family income of the respondents. 3.5.
PERCEPTION TOWARDS COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING
The respondents showed a more favorable perception towards comparative advertising recording a mean score of 3.1325. This complies with the findings of Singh and Vij (2007) that public perceive comparative advertising as beneficial. This could be further understood through their comments on comparative advertising. Only thirty two percent (32%) of respondents believed that it is offensive to advertise one brand against another. However 28% of respondents perceived that comparative advertising is beneficial while 40% were not aware about comparative advertising. Nearly half of the respondents (46%) agreed with the statement of “comparative advertising present a true picture of the product which they advertise”. However there were 23% of respondents who thought otherwise although 23% were not aware of this aspect. Forty percent (40%) of respondents were of the opinion that comparative advertising promotes competition which eventually brings about benefits to the consumers. There were 26% of respondents who disagreed and 38% respondents who were not aware of it. Similar to the perception on the use of celebrities in advertising, perception towards comparative advertising showed significant relationships with the education (Asymp. Significance value = 0.008), employment (Asymp. Significance value = 0.001) and family income (Asymp. Significance value = 0.047). However it did not show significant relationships with gender (Asymp. Significance value = 0.124), age (Asymp. Significance value = 0.072), and the stage of the family life cycle (Asymp. Significance value = 0.063). Respondents
3.6.
PERCEPTION TOWARDS PROMOTION OF MATERIALISM THROUGH ADVERTISING
Overall perception towards promotion of materialism through advertising recorded a mean score of 2.4875 indicating that respondents possess an unfavorable perception towards promotion of materialism through advertising. Majority of respondents (65%) stated that advertisements persuade people to buy certain products they do not really need. In contrast, majority of respondents (58%) were neutral to the statement on “promotion of materialism through advertising cannot be accepted as socially responsible advertising”. Nevertheless there were 30% of respondents who agreed that promoting materialism is unacceptable while only 13% respondents disagreed. Sixty three percent of respondents (63%) believed that advertising makes people to buy products that are unaffordable. Perception towards promotion of materialism through advertising showed significant relationships with the education (Asymp. Significance value = 0.011) and the employment (Asymp. Significance value =0.034) of the respondents. However perception towards promotion of materialism through advertising did not show significant relationships with gender (Asymp. Significance value =0.837), family income (Asymp. Significance value =0. 0.178) and the stage of family life cycle (Asymp. Significance value =0.034). As far as education
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income category (over Rs. 80,000 per month) which was also related with the type of employment whereas the tendency of people to not to purchase products due to undesirable advertising decreased with the decreasing income levels as well as grade of employment.
and perception on promotion of materialism is concerned, highly educated people were of the perception that advertising promotes materialism and hence it is unacceptable while respondents with lower levels of formal education were found to be ignorant. Though there was a statistically significant relationship between the said perception and the type of employment of the respondents, it was difficult to identify a clear pattern of relationship between them although there were considerable percentages of employees from all grades of jobs who possessed favorable perceptions towards promotion of materialism through advertising. 3.7.
4.
CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
This study aimed at understanding consumer perceptions towards advertising and its beneficial and/or negative effects on the society. Further it attempted to determine whether there are significant relationships between consumers’ socio-economic characteristics and their perceptions towards social responsibility in the context of television advertising.
RESPONSES TO SOCIALLY IRRESPONSIBLE ADVERTISING
In eliciting the response of consumers to socially irresponsible advertising, the majority of the respondents (72%) claimed that they haven’t refused to buy a product due the negative perception formed as a result of socially irresponsible advertising as opposed to those respondents (i.e. 28%) who have refused to buy products which they believed were promoted through socially irresponsible advertising. In eliciting what their future response would be towards such advertising, 45% of respondents indicated that they are not in a position to comment, while nine percent (9%) of respondents were of the opinion that they would continue to purchase in spite of socially undesirable advertising. However there were 46% of respondents believed that they would refuse a product if promoted through socially irresponsible advertising.
All in all, respondents were of the opinion that targeting children, use of celebrities, and promotion of materialism through advertising as socially undesirable and comparative advertising as socially beneficial. Findings revealed that there are significant relationships between consumer perceptions and their socio-economic profile in terms of education, employment and income. Respondents belonging to the lower end of the socio-economic profile in terms of their level of education, type of employment and income showed a higher degree of ignorance towards the element of social responsibility in advertising, which pose an important policy implication in terms of the need of an appropriate policy framework for shaping the behavior of private sector organizations aimed at curtailing socially undesirable effects of advertising, if any
Chi-square analysis was carried out to determine whether there is a relationship between the buying responses to socially irresponsible advertising and education, family income and type of employment of the respondents. Results revealed that there is a significant relationship between buying responses to socially irresponsible advertising and education (Asymp. Significance value=0.000), family income (Asymp. Significance value=0.0002 and employment (Asymp. Significance value=0.002) of the respondents. Most of the respondents with low level of formal education indicated that they have not done so in the past and do not wish to do so in the future as well. The highest percentage of respondents who had refused products promoted through socially irresponsible advertising belonged to the highest family
. 5.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE STUDIES
The geographical location for carrying out this study was chosen in order to capture a wider cross section of consumers in term of their socioeconomic profiles subject to given budgetary and time constraints. The unique feature of the sample is that the level of formal education, type of employment and the family income are more or less related to each other as the sample was drawn from resident employees of the university. Hence a research carried out in the future covering a wider population would give a genaralizable outcome.
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Acknowledgement: Authors wish to acknowledge the Registrar and the resident employees of the University of Peradeniya for the support given in carrying out this study.
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