Attitudes towards Advertising

African Immigrant Consumers’ Attitude towards Advertising-in-general and Impact on Buying Decisions ABSTRACT This exploratory research examines how attitude towards advertising-in-general are developed in consumers with divergent attitude patterns. African immigrant consumers in the United States and control group are compared for illustrative purposes. Following operationalization of “attitude towards advertising-in-general” framework (Pollay and Mittal, 1993), the identified latent factors’ relationship/impact on buying decisions are also examined. The findings show that unlike the control group, African immigrant consumers rely on a much broader scope of information about the impact of advertisements on standards of living and the economy in general. The paper finds that when minimal and/or unfitting information or when politicallycorrect, social and economic factors are incongruent in advertising, consumers’ attitude become less evident while their attitude towards advertising message is less guaranteed. The study, to an extent, contributes to our understanding of consumers’ malleability – flexibility in their perceptions towards advertising-in-general, and the impact of these attitudes on buying decisions especially when comparing African immigrant consumers and the control group. Discussion, Conclusion, and implications seek to provide synthesis of the theory studied while limitations and future research directions are put forward.

Keywords: Advertising-in-general, Consumers’ attitudes, African immigrant, USA

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards advertising-in-general has been a challenging research agenda confronting advertising and marketing scholars for many years (Bauer and Greyser, 1968; Pollay and Mittal, 1993; Appiah, 2001, 2007; Albert and Jacobs, 2008; Kwak, Andras, and Zinkhan, 2009). The literature shows that the intention of advertising message is to ameliorate consumers’ malleability (i.e., flexibility) in their perceptions of advertised offerings (Shrum, Wyer and O’Guinn, 1998). To that end, we believe that the antecedent factors underpinning consumers’ perceptions of advertising-in-general and impact of these factors on purchasing decisions is an important research task. The purpose of the present study is to provide a deeper understanding of consumers’ attitudes toward advertising-in-general. The African immigrant and control consumer groups are used as illustration (i.e., as a study setting). Africa and African immigrant population remains an important component in US foreign policy (Dolnick, 2009) and national economy and sociocultural dynamics (Apraku, 1991; Boston University, 2011). In the last two decades, the population of African immigrants in the US has been increasing compared to other immigrants from Europe, Asia, and Latin America. There are 1.8 million African immigrants in the US (2013) up from 881,000 in 2000. 81% of African immigrants over the age of 16 are in the labor force compared with 65% of the general US population (Anderson, 2015). A majority of African immigrants obtain news and other information regularly from CNN, BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera and ethnically targeted radio, newspaper, and websites (Blankson, Spears, and Hinson, 2012). Despite the importance of ethnicity and race as a key demographic dimension in consumer purchasing behavior (Deshpande, Hoyer and Donthu, 1986; Appiah, 2001, 2007) in the US, an examination of African immigrant consumer cohort appears to have eluded researchers’ attention in course of examination of attitudes toward advertising. The latter is important because African immigrant consumers approach the market differently than their American counterparts (Apraku, 1991; Nwokocha, 2010; Blankson, Spears, and Hinson, 2012) and therefore communicating with the African immigrant target audience may require different marketing tactics and strategies. For the purposes of this study, African immigrant consumers refer to US persons and include US citizens and permanent residents (Apraku, 1991; Stevenson and Plath, 2002; Wamwara-Mbugua, Cornwell, Boller, 2008). We acknowledge that to propose a monolithic African immigrant consumer cohort may be inaccurate because of differences in socio-economic characteristics (Nwokocha, 2010). Notwithstanding this, there is strong historical, cultural (Wamwara-Mbugua, Cornwell, and Boller, 2008; Polgreen, 2005; Darley, Luethge, and Blankson, 2013) and socio-economic challenges that are common to all African immigrants (Apraku, 1991; Wamwara-Mbugua, Cornwell, and Boller, 2008; Darley, Luethge, and Blankson, 2013) irrespective of social class compartmentalization. The main aim of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of consumers’ attitudes toward advertising-in-general by comparing the African immigrant consumer group in the United States and control group. Following Shavitt, Lowrey and Haefner’s (1998) study on “Whites and non-Whites” attitude toward advertising, the African immigrant consumer group is compared with a control group (i.e., non-African immigrants) to enhance appropriate contextual comparison (see also, Shavitt, Lowrey, and Haefner, 1998). More specifically, the objectives of this study are (i) to identify the key determining factors underpinning attitudes toward

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advertising-in-general and (ii) assess the relationship/impact of these factors on buying decisions. This research contributes to the literature by studying an untapped yet potentially viable context for testing the theory of attitude towards advertising-in-general (Pollay and Mittal, 1993). The scant knowledge on African immigrant consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and impact on their buying decisions in the US is particularly critical for marketing and advertising research (see Bauer and Greyser, 1968; Appiah, 2001, 2007; Albert and Jacobs, 2008; Kwak and Andras, 2009; Blankson, Spears, and Hinson, 2012).

RESEARCH METHOD Following a pilot study, the main thrust of the research involved a survey based on questions adopted from Pollay and Mittal (1993) and Korgaonkar, Silverblatt, O’Leary (2001) and which, in the first place, were an adaptation of the classic “attitudes and perceptions about advertising-in-general” construct originally proposed by Bauer and Grayser (1968). The questionnaire was based on a 5-point likert scale (ranging from 1= totally disagree/not important at all to 5= totally agree/very important). A return envelope and cover letter from the researcher’s university accompanied the questionnaire. Using the Mall intercept approach, the questionnaires were hand delivered by advanced undergraduate marketing students at malls, in-front of postoffices and at barber shops and hair and beauty salons in Hicksville – Nassau County (New York), Atlanta (Georgia), Baltimore (Maryland) and Denton (Texas). Specifically, the author solicited the help of his colleagues from other states to supplement his data collection effort. All students were awarded extra credit points for participating in the data collection. The Sample and Data Collection The drop-off-and mail survey took place between October 2013 and February 2014 in the four US States noted earlier. The population of the study was a convenience sample of members of the general public and involved a one-wave cross-sectional effort. In order to identify the ethnicity of participants, the study subjects were given a list of racial and ethnic groups including “naturalized US or permanent US resident African immigrant” (Section B of questionnaire) from which to choose. Only subjects who were African immigrant persons and checked this identification were classified as such, while all others were classified as control group (Shavitt, Lowrey and Haefner, 1998; Appiah, 2007). As noted earlier, for the purposes of our study and in line with US government (National Security Agency - NSA) definition of US persons, our racial classification for African immigrants include US citizens, i.e., naturalized Africans and permanent US residents. According to NSA, Federal Law and executive order define a United States person as (a) a citizen of the United States, (b) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, (c) an unincorporated association with a substantial number of members who are citizens of the United States or aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence and (d) a corporation that is incorporated in the United States. All qualified respondents indicated whether or not they were US citizens or permanent US residents (green card holders). Non US persons, i.e., non US citizens and non-permanent residents, were discarded in this research. 400 questionnaires each were distributed to respondents in New York, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas as mentioned earlier. Overall, out of the 1600 questionnaire distributed, 439 usable questionnaires were received (27.4%). The latter was made up of 215 African immigrant and 224 control group consumer cohorts.

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Measurement Construct As noted earlier, we borrowed Pollay and Mittal’s (1993) framework. The framework was adopted because of its popularity among researchers (Korgaonkar, Silverblatt, and O’Leary, 2001). Following Griffith, Myers, Harvey (2006), a separate factor analysis was performed on each group (African immigrant consumer group and control group) and with the initial factor matrix rotated to an orthogonal solution by the Varimax criterion. Factor analysis was employed to identify the antecedent latent factors influencing the formation of attitudes toward advertisingin-general. Finally, the overall perceptions toward advertising-in-general was taken as the criterion variable (main construct), and the derived factors (key factors) were viewed as predictors (see also Griffith, Myers, and Harvey, 2006). This method also facilitates appropriate discussion on the findings for advertising theory and practice. The SPSS statistical package was used in the analysis of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). However, in order to assess the reliability and validity of the data set, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out via LISREL statistical package. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS For African immigrant consumers, the majority of the respondents are in the age group 21-30 (49.8%) followed by 20 or under (23.8%). In contrast, only 9 per cent and 1 per cent were identified for the 51-60 and 61 and over age groups, respectively. In the control group, while the majority was in the 21-30 age range (66.8%), it is followed in the second place by 41-50 age group (11.5%). Similar to African immigrant consumer group, the lowest number of consumers in the control group belonged to the age range 61 and over (Table listing the demographic characteristics is not included here due to limitations of conference proceedings space. This is available upon request). Exploratory Factor Analysis In line with good practices suggested by Churchill (1995), exploration of the underlying structure of the data was carried out through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the stepwise process suggested by Hair et al. (1998) was followed. Initial visual assessment of the descriptive statistics (see Table 1) and correlation matrices (not included here due to limitation of conference space – but available upon request) for the two consumer cohorts indicated considerable degree of inter-item correlation. The Bartlett test of Sphericity in African immigrant consumer group: (Approx. ChiSquare = 2159.918; df = 378; sig. 0.000), the control group: (Approx. Chi-Square = 2319.435; df = 378; sig. 0.000) and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of Sampling Adequacy index (value of 0.839: African immigrant consumer group; value of 0.835: control group) confirmed the appropriateness of the data for EFA. Principal component analysis was selected to reduce the number of factors where the eigenvalue greater than 1 and a cumulative percentage of variance explained being greater than 50% were the criteria used in determining the number of factors. Based on these criteria, 7 factors each were extracted for the two consumer groups. A satisfactory 59.88 per cent of the variance was recorded for African immigrant consumers and 61 per cent for the control group. Following the decision relating to the internal reliability (i.e., Cronbach coefficient ά) and in line with Hair et al. (1998), the factors were re-specified. This was undertaken to reduce the

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number of factors. The cut-off value adopted was 0.70 and the acceptable benchmark level of item-to-total correlation was set above 0.3. The internal reliability of the revised structure was tested and the results provide evidence as to the robustness of the structure since all factors exceeded the adopted criteria. The reliability Coefficients for the 28 items is high, at .870 (African immigrant consumer group) and .872 for 28 items in the control group. Further reliability tests in the form of split half of the 28 items for: African immigrant group (Guttman Split-half Coefficient = .821, Equal-Length Spearman-Brown = .824, ά .752 for part 1 (14 items) and ά .806 for part 2 (14 items)), and control group: (Guttman Split-half Coefficient = .798, Equal-Length Spearman-Brown = .800, ά .805 for part 1 (14 items) and ά = .775 for part 2 (14 items)) of factors underpinning consumers’ perceptions of advertising-in-general were all acceptable with all sample parts over the cut-off point of .70 (Hair et al., 1998). Following examination of the EFA results and analysis of the reliability and conceptual coherency of the identified factors, the factors indicated below represent potentially robust determinant factors underpinning African immigrant group and control group’s perceptions of advertising-in-general. Individual factors were named using an item or description judged to have strong conceptual relation with the rest of the items (Churchill, 1995). Below are the antecedent factors influencing African immigrant consumer group’s and control group’s attitude towards advertising-in-general. African immigrant consumer group

Control group

Factor 1

Advertising is a pleasure and it affects my perceptions/intensions

Factor 1

Advertising enhances social role and image

Factor 2

Advertising heightens vanity

Factor 2

Advertising intensifies materialism

Factor 3

Advertising intensifies materialism

Factor 3

Advertising is a pleasure and it perceptions/intentions

Factor 4

Advertising enhances social role and image

Factor 4

Advertising heightens vanity

Factor 5

Advertising is good for the economy

affects my

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (African immigrant consumer group) Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate the identified factor structure which included the five extracted dimensions at the EFA stage. The CFA model was computed with LISREL statistic software. The comparative fit index (CFI) and the goodness of fit index (GFI) of the CFA model were 0.94 and 0.86, while the others, i.e., the incremental fit index (IFI), the normed fit index (NFI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) value, and the root mean square residual (RMR) value, were 0.94, 0.89, 0.07, and 0.7, respectively. All the goodness-of-fit values ranged from marginal to acceptable (Hair et al., 1998). Consequently, the results were viewed as suggesting good fit to the factor structure. Once the structure was confirmed, related reliability and validity were assessed. Composite reliability (C.R.) indexes of the five dimensions were computed for reliability tests. All the C.R. values, ranging from 0.65 to 0.86 (see Table 2a), exceeded generally recommended levels of 0.6. This is supported by the moderate to high vales reported for the Cronbach tests. Thus, the results provided evidence for reliability. As for validity analysis, the evidence of

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convergent validity was assessed by the significant loading of each measurement item to its latent dimension, while discriminant validity was evidenced by the correlation estimate of each pair of any two dimensions less than 1.0. As observed, all measurement item loadings were significant (see Table 2a) and no correlation value was equal to 1.0 (see Table 2b). Moreover, the AVE values (while some are lower than the expected 0.5 criteria) are moderately acceptable for exploratory research (Chin, 1998; Boohene, Sheridan, and Kotey, 2008). Thus, it is concluded that the analysis results provide support for convergent validity and discriminant validity. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (control group) In the case of control group, confirmatory factor analysis by LISREL was also used to validate the identified factor structure which included the four extracted dimensions at the EFA stage (i.e., “affects attitudes/intensions”, “heightens vanity”, “intensifies materialism”, and “enhances social role and image”). The results indicated effective fit of data (CFI=0.96, GFI= 0.89, IFI=0.96, RMSEA=0.07, and RMR=0.06). Thus, the hypothesized factor structure was supported. Related reliability and validity were then assessed. All the four dimensions’ C.R. values, ranging from 0.68 to 0.86 (see Table 3a), exceeded the recommended levels of 0.6, while all measurement item loadings were significant and no correlation values were equal to 1.0 (see Table 3b). In addition, the model is supported by the moderate to high vales reported for the Cronbach tests, while the AVE values (two factors are lower than the expected 0.5) are moderately acceptable for exploratory research (Chin, 1998; Boohene, Sheridan and Kotey, 2008). Therefore, the analysis results provided evidence for scale reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Results of Regression Analysis Examination of the results in Table 4 (African immigrant consumer group) reveals that the F-test shows the model for Factor 1, Factor 3, Factor 4, and Factor 5 as statistically significant. Out of the six predictor variables under Factor 1 (“Advertising is a pleasure and it affects Perceptions/Intentions”), three variables (“sometimes I take pleasure in thinking about what I saw or heard in advertisements” (Q3A); “I like it when an advertisement show people like me using the product or brand I am using” (Q2D); and “when I see advertisement, I pay close attention to it” (Q8A)) showed standardized regression coefficients (beta values) not statistically significantly different from zero and thus have no association with any of the buying decisions (see Table 4). On the other hand, “some advertisements make me feel good” (Q3B), “when I see advertisement, I want to find out more about the product/service” (Q8B), “certain products/services play an important role in my life; advertisements reassure me that I am doing the right thing in using these products/services” (Q5B) have positive relationship with decisions to buy the product/service and have in recent weeks actually bought a product/service after watching or seeing the product’s/service’s advertisement. Table 4 also highlights that while one sub-predictor variable under Factor 3 (“Advertising intensifies materialism”) (i.e., “advertising makes you buy things you do not really need” (Q7A)) has positive association with the two buying decisions, one variable (“advertising is making us a materialistic society-interested in buying and owning things” (Q7C)) is only related with one dependent variable, i.e., “advertisement has impact or affects my decision to buy or not buy the product/service”). Results from Table 4 further reveal that while one variable under Factor 4

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(“advertisements help me to know the products or services that reflect the sort of person I am” (Q2C)) is positively related with the two dependent variables, the two variables explaining Factor 5 (“Advertising is good for the economy”) are both significantly associated with the two dependent variables. Results of the regression analysis for the control group cohort are placed in Table 5. They show that the F-test statistic for Factors 1, 3, and 4 models are statistically significant. Out of the five predictor variables depicting Factor 1 – “Advertising is a pleasure and it affects my perceptions/intentions”, three variables reveal standardized regression coefficients (beta values) not statistically significantly different from zero and so have no relationship with any of the dependent variables. As for Factor 2 (“Advertising heightens vanity”), none of the three predictor variables appear to relate with any of the buying decisions (dependent variables). This finding is similar to that found for African immigrant consumer group and discussed earlier (see Table 4). Table 5 shows that although three predictor variables under Factor 3 (“Advertising intensifies materialism”) are significantly associated with one dependent variable, i.e., “advertisement has impact or affects my decision to buy or not buy the product/service”, two independent variables under Factor 4 (“advertisements tell me what people like myself are buying and using” (Q2B), “certain products/services play an important role in my life; advertisements reassure me that I am doing the right thing in using these products/services” (Q5B)) have significant relationship with one predictor variable while one independent variable has effect on one dependent variable (see Table 5). Comparing African immigrant consumer group and the control group, it appears that with few exceptions, (e.g., (a) “Advertising is good for the economy” - Factor 5 for African immigrant group only), (b) consumers’ perceptions and intentions about the products’/services’ advertisements (Factor 1), (c) the believe that advertisements intensifies materialism (Factor 3) and (d) consumers’ perceptions that advertisements enhance social role and image (Factor 4) have significant associations with buying decisions. However, following from the latter findings, we see that African immigrant group exhibit five latent or antecedent factors (see Tables 2 and 4) influencing their attitude towards advertising-in-general as compared with four latent or antecedent factors (Tables 3 and 5) for the control group.

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS As has been discussed earlier, consumers’ attitude towards advertising-in-general, and the latent factors explaining the attitudes and the impact of the identified factors on buying decisions appear to have been overlooked in the literature. These gaps in the literature gave impetus for this study. Using Pollay and Mittal’s (1993) framework, this paper has described African immigrant and the control group consumers’ attitude towards advertising-in-general and the relationship/impact of the derived factors’ on their buying decisions. To that end, the type of information, the range of complexity in the appreciation of advertising messages and personal and social economic ethos embedded in consumers’ personalities are identified. The paper finds that when minimal and/or unfitting information or when politically-correct, social and economic factors are incongruent in advertising, consumers’ attitude become less evident while their attitude towards advertising message is less guaranteed (Shrum, Wyer and O’Guinn, 1998). The present study, to an extent, contributes to our understanding of consumers’ malleability –

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flexibility in their perceptions towards advertising-in-general, and the impact of these attitudes on buying decisions especially when comparing African immigrant consumers and the control group. A conceptual content analysis of factors measuring general attitude toward advertisingin-general in this study reveal that African immigrant group indeed make use of a more complex and wider range of information sources for comparison purposes. For example, in the case of African immigrant group, 5 factors with a total of 9 significant items were found to influence buying decisions. Comparatively, the control population exhibited a 4-factor solution having a total of 7 significant items influencing buying decisions. Further conceptual analysis of individual items provides additional insights. Looking at Tables 2a and 3a for example, for the African immigrant consumer, the item that measured “doing the right thing” (item Q5B) was associated with personal information sources, such as “makes me feel good” and personal curiosity. However, for the control group, “doing the right thing” was associated with social comparisons, such as finding out what others are buying (Q2B). African immigrants seem to rely more on information sources based in the reality of the physical world around them. As illustration, in comparison to the control group, African immigrant group in the study utilized information that critiqued the values and ideas contained in ads and information about the social impact of ads on society as a whole and children in particular. In a similar vein, African immigrant group relied on a much broader scope of information about the impact of ads on standards of living and the economy in general. Items measuring enhancement of social role and image for the African immigrant consumer group related to personal standards of comparison (Q2C), whereas, for the control group sample, items measuring this factor related to social comparisons (Q2B and Q5B). The results are consistent with extant studies on the topic (Shavitt, Lowrey and Haefner, 1998; Albert and Jacobs, 2008). For advertising executives, the issue of attitude toward advertising-in-general appears to co-relate with cultural/racial-embedded traits (Luna, Peracchio and de Juan, 2002). Thus, marketers should be sensitive to crafting messages that are politicallycorrect and that merge and complement personal, social, and within the context of respectful socio-economic concerns when creating advertisements for the African immigrant consumer group audience. As for future research directions, inevitably, the findings in the present study suggest inviting avenues for future research. Theory development studies should examine boundary conditions for Pollay and Mittal’s (1993) model of attitude toward advertising. Perhaps future research may discover qualitatively different comparison styles that influence perceptions of advertising-in-general in unique ways.

REFERENCES Albert, T. C. and Jacobs, R. D. (2008), “Television Attitudes and TV Types of AfricanAmericans, Latinos, and Caucasians,” Journal of Advertising Research (June), 235-246. Anderson, M. (2015, November 2), “African Immigrant Population in US Steadily Climbs,” Pew Research. Found at: www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/02/african-immigrant-populationin-u-s-steadily-climbs/ (assessed on September 24, 2016).

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Appiah, O. (2001), “Ethnic Identification on Adolescents’ Evaluations of Advertisements,” Journal of Advertising Research, 41 (5) (September-October), 7-22. Appiah O. (2007), “The effectiveness of “Typical-User” Testimonial Advertisements on Black and White Browsers’ Evaluations of products on Commercial Websites: Do They Really Work?” Journal of Advertising Research, 47 (1) (March), 14-27. Apraku, K. K. (1991), African Emigres in the United States: A Missing Link in Africa’s Social and Economic Development, New York, Praeger. Bauer, R. A. and Greyser, S. A. (1968), Advertising in America: The Consumer View, Boston, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Division of Research. Blankson, C., Spears, N., and Hinson, R. E. (2012), “West African Immigrants’ Perceptions of Advertising in General and Impact on Buying Decision,” Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 24, 168-185. Boohene, R., Sheridan, A. and Kotey, B. (2008), “Gender, Personal Values, Strategies and Small Business Performance – A Ghanaian Case Study,” Equal Opportunities International, 27 (3), 237-257. Boston University (2011), The Newest African Americans: Identity and Incorporation among Recent West African Immigrants to the US. http://www.bu.edu/cura/projects/newstafricaamericans (assessed December 3, 2011). Chin, W. W. (1998), The Partial Least Squares Approach to Structural Equation Modelling, In Marcoulides, G. A. (Ed.), Modern Methods for Business Research, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. Churchill, G. A. (1995), Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations, (5ed.), London, the Dryden Press. Darley, W. K., Luethge, D. J., and Blankson, C. (2013), “Culture and International Marketing: A Sub-Saharan African Context,” Journal of Global Marketing, 26, 188-202. Deshpande, R., Hoyer, W. and Donthu, N. (1986), “The Intensity of Ethnic Affiliation: a Study of the Sociology of Hispanic Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13(2), 214-234. Dolnick, S. (2009), “For African Immigrants, Bronx Culture Clash Turns Violent,” New York Times, October 20, A23. Griffith, D. A., Myers, M. B., and Harvey, M. G. (2006), “An Investigation of National Cultures Influence on Relationship and Knowledge Resources in Interorganizational Relationships between Japan and the United States”, Journal of International Marketing, 14 (3), 1-32.

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Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, (4th edition), New York, NY, Macmillan Publishing Company. Korgaonkar, P., Silverblatt, R., O’Leary, B. (2001), “Web Advertising and Hispanics,” Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18 (2), 134-152. Kwak, H., Andras, T. L., and Zinkhan, G. M. (2009), “Advertising to “active” Viewers: Consumer Attitudes in the US and South Korea,” International Journal of Advertising, 28 (1), 49-75. Luna, D., Peracchio, L. A. and de Juan M. D. (2002), “Cross-Cultural and Cognitive Aspects of Web Site Navigation,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30 (4), 397-410. Nwokocha, F. I. (2010), “West African Immigrants in Northern California and their Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services,” unpublished Masters in Social Work dissertation, California State University, Sacramento. Polgreen, L. (2005), Ghana’s Uneasy Embrace of Slavery’s Diaspora, New York Times, December 27. Pollay, R. W. and Mittal, B. (1993), “Here’s the Beef: factors, Determinants, and Segments in Consumer Criticism of Advertising,” Journal of Marketing, 57 (July), 99-114. Shavitt, S., Lowrey, P. and Haefner, J. (1998), “Public Attitude toward advertising: more favorable than you might think,” Journal of Advertising Research, 37, 7-22. Shrum, L. J., Wyer, Jr., R. S., and O’Guinn, T. C. (1998), “The Effects of Television Consumption on Social Perceptions: The Use of Priming Procedures to Investigate Psychological Processes,” Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (March), 447-458. Stevenson, T. H. and Plath, D. A. (2002), “Marketing Financial Services to the African American Consumer: A Comparative Analysis of Investment Portfolio Composition,” California Management Review, 44 (4) (Summer), 39-64. Wamwara-Mbugua, L. W., Cornwell, T. B., and Boller, G. (2008), “Triple Acculturation: The Role of African Americans in the Consumer Acculturation of Kenyan Immigrants,” Journal of Business Research, 61, 83-90.

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Table 1 Descriptive Statistics Items Perceptions of Advertising-in-general constructs Product information. 1. Advertising is a very valuable source of information about local sales. 2. Advertising tells me which products or services have the features I am looking for. 3. If there were no advertising, deciding what to buy would be difficult. 4. Advertising helps me keep up-to-date about products available in the marketplace. Social role and image 5. From advertising I learn what is in fashion and what I should buy for keeping a good social image.

African immigrant consumer group (N = 215) Mean SD

Control group (N = 224) Mean

SD

Q1A Q1B Q1C Q1D

4.18 3.86 3.14 4.10

0.998 1.004 1.271 1.061

3.86 3.59 3.06 3.88

1.051 1.076 1.264 1.046

Q2A

3.29

1.247

3.06

1.287

6. Advertisements tell me what people like myself, are buying and using. 7. Advertisements help me to know the products or services that reflect the sort of person I am. 8. I like it when an advertisement show people like me using the product or brand I am using. Hedonic/pleasure 9. Sometimes I take pleasure in thinking about what I saw or heard in advertisements. 10. Some advertisements make me feel good. Value corruption 11. Advertising sometimes makes people live in a world of fantasy. 12. Advertising takes undue advantage of children. 13. A lot of advertising is based on ideas and values which are opposite to my own personal values.

Q2B Q2C Q2D

3.09 2.54 3.26

1.191 1.191 1.256

2.89 2.36 2.73

1.165 1.140 1.358

Q3A Q3B

3.08 3.05

1.203 1.300

3.01 3.12

1.237 1.209

Q4A Q4B Q4C

3.40 3.63 3.03

1.303 1.208 1.193

3.50 3.43 2.90

1.191 1.312 1.157

14. There is too much sex in advertising today. Falsity/no sense 15. Advertising should be banned on children’s sites. 16. Certain products/services play an important role in my life; advertisements reassure me that I am doing the right thing in using these products/services. 17. With all advertising going on, I do not quite know what to believe and what not to believe. Good for the economy 18. Advertising improves people’s standard of living. 19. Advertising helps the consumer buy the best brand for the price. 20. It would be better to save money used in advertising and invest it on product/service improvement instead. Materialism 21. Advertising makes you buy things you do not really need. 22. Advertising increases dissatisfaction among consumers by showing products/services which some consumers can’t afford. 23. Advertising is making us a materialistic society-interested in buying and owning things. 24. Advertising makes people buy unaffordable products/services just to show off. Attitudes/intentions 25. When I see advertisement, I pay close attention to it. 26. When I see advertisement, I want to find out more about the product/service. 27. Advertisement affects my decision to buy or not buy the product/service. 28. I have bought a product or service in recent weeks after watching or seeing the product’s/service’s advertisement.

Q4D

3.61

1.455

3.19

1.316

Q5A Q5B

2.89 2.53

1.428 1.218

2.97 2.32

1.299 1.129

Q5D

2.93

1.344

2.87

1.266

Q6A Q6B Q6C

2.32 2.93 3.07

1.182 1.178 1.194

2.21 2.59 2.84

1.095 1.195 1.162

Q7A Q7B Q7C Q7D

3.45 3.06 3.78 3.54

1.317 1.192 1.159 1.303

3.30 2.81 3.35 3.31

1.150 1.114 1.208 1.183

Q8A Q8B Q8C Q8D

2.91 3.01 3.13 2.86

1.155 1.096 1.131 1.450

2.51 2.74 2.79 2.68

1.062 0.962 1.040 1.252

Source: Pollay and Mittal (1993) and Korgaonkar, Silverblatt, O’Leary (2001); Note: Responses are based on a Likert scale where 1 indicated not important at all and 5 very important.

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Table 2a: Accuracy Analysis Statistics (African immigrant consumer group) Construct dimensions

Factor 1: Advertising is a pleasure and it affects my perceptions/Intensions

Factor 2: Advertising heightens Vanity Factor 3: Advertising intensifies Materialism Factor 4: Advertising enhances Social Role and Image Factor 5: Advertising is good for the Economy Note:

*

Factor loading

R2 value

Q3B

0.61 ***

0.38

Q3A Q8D Q8C Q8B Q2D Q5B Q8A Q4B Q4C Q5A Q4D Q7A Q7D Q4A Q7C Q2B Q2A Q2C Q6B Q6A

0.60 *** 0.68 *** 0.80 *** 0.73 *** 0.54 *** 0.70 *** 0.65 *** 0.64 *** 0.63 *** 0.51 *** 0.57 *** 0.56 *** 0.70 *** 0.53 *** 0.77 *** 0.67 *** 0.64 *** 0.77 *** 0.68 ***

0.36 0.47 0.64 0.53 0.29 0.49 0.42 0.41 0.39 0.26 0.33 0.31 0.49 0.28 0.60 0.45 0.42 0.60 0.42 0.52

0.72 ***

C.R. value 0.86

Cronbach test Item-to- ά value total 0.61 0.86 0. 60 0.62 0.72 0.65 0.51 0.60 0.57 0.48 0.49 0.42 0.43 0.49 0.56 0.45 0.59 0.64 0.59 0.52 0.47 0.47

0.68

0.74

0.74

0.65

AVE value 0.45

0.67

0.45

0.73

0.42

0.75

0.49

0.64

0.48

significance level