THE PERCEIVED INTRUSIVENESS OF IN-‐APP ADVERTISING
By Björn Sinnema
University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business
MSc Marketing Master Thesis
4th of February 2014
Björn Sinnema
Witte de Withstraat 10 9726EC Groningen 0646355292
bjornsinnema@gmail.com
Student number: S2234300
Supervisor: Dr. J.A. Voerman
Second supervisor: Dr. D. Trampe
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
Back in the days marketers did not even consider to set up marketing campaigns with mobile phones included as message transmitter (medium). However, nowadays mobile phones are everywhere and used at any time and any place. The main reason for this is the advances in technology and the rise of mobile application downloads. This arouses the interest of marketers and therefore this study will be directed towards the field of mobile advertising and especially in-‐app advertising. In-‐app advertisements are advertisements displayed within mobile applications before, during, or after using the app. These in-‐app advertisements are possible in a lot of formats and features, but until now little is know about likable and successful formats for this medium. Perceived intrusiveness is one of the factors that plays a significant role in the likability of advertisements on the Internet, therefore perceived intrusiveness of in-‐app advertisements will be used as a starting point for this research. Extensive research on these topics distinguishes size and congruency of in-‐app advertisements as possible important variables on perceived intrusiveness. Next to that a potential moderating influence is expected by attitude towards advertising in general and familiarity with the app. This leads to the following problem statement.
What is the effect of the size and the congruency of in-‐app mobile advertising on the perceived intrusiveness of consumers?
To test the effects, a 2 (Advertisement Size) x 2 (Advertisement Congruency) factorial design is devised, using an online questionnaire to gather data (N=130). The statistical analysis is done using the ANCOVA analysis method. In the distributed questionnaire, an example of a possible in-‐app advertisement is displayed. This advertisement is manipulated to feature 1) Size and 2) Congruency. Size is manipulated by displaying two conditions with large size advertisements and two conditions with small size advertisements. Congruency is manipulated by showing also two condition with a congruent advertisement (advertorial) and two conditions with an incongruent advertisement.
The analysis of the ANCOVA test and subsequently the test for homogeneity of
regression slopes resulted in the support of one of the hypotheses. All other hypothesis
had to be rejected while the analysis showed no significant results .
Due to the findings of existing research it was expected that larger advertisements would lead to higher levels of perceived intrusiveness in comparison to smaller advertisements. The outcomes of this research support these findings. This hints that consumers prefer smaller size advertisements on their mobile phone.
When the effect of congruency on perceived intrusiveness is concerned, it can be seen that there is no significant effect measured by the analysis. Existing literature suggested a higher level of perceived intrusiveness for incongruent advertisements. Despite the outcomes do not show a significant effect to support this finding, the outcomes show a clear direction in accordance with earlier literature.
The hypothesized moderating influence of attitude towards advertising in general could also not be supported by the outcomes of this research. It was hypothesized that attitude towards advertising in general would affect the relationship of advertisement size with perceived intrusiveness.
Due to a non-‐normal distribution, covariate familiarity was left out of the main analysis.
An alternative analysis with all variables including familiarity did not give significant
other results. Also for familiarity there was no moderating effect or direct effect
noticeable. However, from these outcomes concerning the alternative analysis, no
conclusions can be drawn due to the non-‐normal distribution of familiarity.
PREFACE
This master thesis is the end product of my time as a marketing management student at the University of Groningen. The past five months were, at times, a big struggle due to circumstances in my surroundings. In this period I learned a lot about marketing and its field of research but also about me as person and the people surrounding me.
The field of marketing I became interested in when writing my thesis for my former study, during my time as an advertisement marketer at Sanoma Men’s Magazines.
Choosing a research topic for this research was not very easy, because I wanted to finalize my time as a student with a study about an interesting and challenging subject that would contribute to the existing field of marketing research. In the end my interest in digital devices, guidance of Liane Voerman and the virtually uncultivated field of research brought me to the subject of this thesis.
The process of writing a thesis will be different for every individual. For me the period was not the easiest and without the support and understanding of my surroundings it would have been even harder. Therefore, I would like to thank a few people. First of all, I would like to thank Liane Voerman for her enthusiastic guidance during the past period, but most of all because of her understanding and support during difficult moments.
Furthermore, I would like to thank Eurosonic marketing manager Marije Jansen for giving me the freedom in writing this thesis during my internship. Also, my friends deserve to be referred while they encouraged me during moments of stress and low motivation levels. Last but definitely not least, I thank my loving parents for their inexhaustible support, not only during this period of writing my thesis but also during all activities I have undertaken in-‐ and outside school until now.
Björn Sinnema
Tijnje, February 2014
1.0 INTRODUCTION ... 7
1.1 MOBILE PHONES ... 7
1.2 MOBILE APPLICATIONS ... 8
1.3 MOBILE ADVERTISING ... 8
1.4 INTRUSIVENESS ... 9
1.5 IN-‐APP ADVERTISING ... 10
1.6 PROBLEM STATEMENT ... 11
1.7 STRUCTURE OF THESIS ... 13
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ... 14
2.1 IN-‐APP ADVERTISEMENT SIZE ... 14
2.2 CONGRUENCY ... 15
2.3 ATTITUDES TOWARDS ADVERTISING IN GENERAL ... 16
2.4 APP FAMILIARITY ... 17
2.5 CONCEPTUAL MODEL ... 19
3.0 METHODOLOGY ... 21
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ... 21
3.1.1. ADVERTISEMENT SIZE MANIPULATION ... 24
3.1.2. CONGRUENCY MANIPULATION ... 24
3.2 OPERATIONALIZATION OF CONCEPTS ... 25
3.2.1. DEPENDENT VARIABLE ... 25
3.2.2. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE ... 25
3.2.3. COVARIATE 1: ATTITUDE TOWARDS ADVERTISING ... 26
3.2.4. COVARIATE 2: APP FAMILIARITY ... 29
3.2.5 SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ... 30
3.3 SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS ... 30
3.4 PLAN OF ANALYSIS ... 31
3.5 NORMALITY TEST ... 32
3.6 HOMOGENEITY OF SLOPES ... 33
3.6.1 MAIN ANALYSIS ... 34
3.6.2 ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS ... 35
4.0 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ... 36
4.1 FINAL ANALYSIS ... 36
4.2 ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS ... 38
4.3 HYPOTHESES TESTING ... 39
5.0 DISCUSSION ... 41
5.1 DISCUSSION OF MAIN EFFECTS ... 41
5.2 DISCUSSION OF COVARIATE INFLUENCE ... 42
5.3 MANGERIAL IMPLICATIONS ... 43
5.4 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ... 43
REFERENCES ... 45
APPENDICES ... 52
QUESTIONNAIRE TRANSCRIPT ... 55
1.0 INTRODUCTION
While travelling by bus or train, watching TV, drinking beer in a pub or even during lectures my mobile phone is always with me. Because of the advanced technologies, the mobile phone offers me the possibility to take pictures, check weather forecasts, play music and off course contact friends and family at any place and time. My mobile phone is packed with mobile applications that offer these kinds of possibilities. When opening or using certain apps also advertisements can appear. These advertisements interrupt me in my activity and force me in some way to watch them. Some I perceive as annoying and some I evaluate more positive. The way I react towards it depends on many factors, but what are these factors?
Mobile applications offer marketers many new ways to advertise, but the execution will be an important aspect for success. It poses the question many marketers are facing today. Although the opportunities for advertising seem to be limitless, marketers are aiming for a favourable evaluation of the advertising and more specifically for their advertised product. How do consumers perceive this so-‐called in-‐app advertising? And which advertising formats turn out to be most suitable for a digital device as the mobile phone is?
1.1 MOBILE PHONES
Mobile phones are widespread and used all over the world. Since the nineties there is an explosive growth in mobile phones and the use of these digital devices (Bauer et al.
2005). In 2013, the number of global mobile phone subscriptions reached 6.8 billion,
which is almost equal to the world population of 7.1 billion (Sanou, 2013). The mobile
phone is recognized by the International Telecommunications Union as one of the
fastest growing communication technologies ever, even faster then the explosive growth
of the Internet in the nineties (Rao, 2003). The nature of mobile phones changed with
the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 (Chiem et al. 2010). The release, of one of the first
so-‐called “smartphones”, even has been described as a turning point in mobile
technology (Okazaki et al. 2011). Since the launch of the iPhone, a mobile phone is more
and more seen as multi-‐purpose mobile Internet device (smartphone that also can be
used for text, voice and multimedia purposes) (Tripathi & Siddiqui, 2008). This wide
range of diverse multimedia purposes offered by the smartphone open up a whole new
world of possibilities for many involved stakeholders.
1.2 MOBILE APPLICATIONS
One of the factors that contributed to the rise of the smartphone and its exponential growth is the corresponding app market (Yang, 2013). Most phones come with a couple of mobile applications (apps), which can be defined as software applications that are designed for these mobile phones (Yang, 2013). In some way they are extending the mobile phone’s capabilities. Nowadays, millions of consumers use mobile apps for keeping track of news, digital shopping, playing games and social networking. But these apps are also increasingly popular in the business world (Chiem et al. 2012). Due to the popularity of mobile applications, an infinite number of cheap and rather basic applications are now booming on the mobile applications marketplace (Erman 2011).
Market research forecasts show 76.9 billion apps will be downloaded in 2014, which will bring overall total to 185 billion downloads (Yang, 2013). These forecasts confirm the flourishing business of mobile applications and the accompanying app marketplace.
1.3 MOBILE ADVERTISING
Because of the rapid growth of app downloading and usage, the subject already generated substantial interest among marketers. More specifically the increase in mobile phones and technology advances where a trigger for marketers to increase their advertising efforts for products and services through the mobile phone medium type (Tsang, Ho & Liang, 2004). According to Okazaki (2006), mobile phones can be even seen as the most promising medium type for advertising. The term mobile advertising is referring to “advertising or marketing messages delivered to portable devices, either through download or wirelessly” (Laszlo, 2009).
In many respects, mobile advertising can be seen as a very similar construct to Internet advertising. Just like Internet advertising, mobile advertising transmits digital images, texts, voices with personalized, responsive and immediate capabilities and is an emerging construct (Yoon&Kim, 2001). Next to that, the construct is similar to the push-‐
and pull types of advertising on the Internet (Park et al., 2008). Push mobile advertising
is defined as sending or “pushing” advertising messages to consumers, usually via an
alert or text message (Barnes, 2002). The, so-‐called, “pull” variant of mobile advertising
is considered by Barnes (2002) as “placing advertisements on browsed wireless
content, usually promoting (free) content. When consumers use a mobile device as a
browser, the effect of an ad is similar to that of a Web banner. If consumers receive text
or multimedia promotional messages in the mobile setting, it works the same as an email advertisement.
Barnes’s classification is a good starting point because the push-‐versus-‐pull distinction has been widely used in the research that the authors have reviewed. Prior to the iPhone, companies engaged in mobile marketing were limited in how they could reach consumers, relying primarily on push message types such as text messaging and Multimedia Messaging Service (Haghirian, 2005). Mobile applications and the opportunity for marketers to make use of pull advertising have opened up new frontiers in mobile marketing and allowed marketers to make use of the full potential of the mobile phone as a marketing channel (Chiem et al. 2012). However, the successfulness in performance and outcomes for this large set of new opportunities do depend on a lot of factors.
1.4 INTRUSIVENESS
One of the factors that possibly does affect the successfulness or likability of an advertisement on a mobile phone is the level of perceived intrusiveness. More and more critics namely believe that consumers find some types of digital marketing to be intrusive and therefore annoying (Li, Edwards, Lee, 2002). This effect can in potential be provoked by a certain kind of advertisement format. Promotional messages that are interrupting the current (online) activity of the consumer create negative sentiments directed to the brand (Smith, 2011). The interruption also interferes with the person’s vigilance, limiting the data that is allowed to be received and potentially liked (McCoy et al., 2007). Therefore, an intrusive message is not the aim of the marketer, since the consumer may not understand the advertised message as intended by the marketer (Smith, 2011). The fact that consumers are developing or already have developed negative attitudes towards digital marketing activities and even considered to be intrusive, is also stressed in previous research about this subject. (Li, Edwards, & Lee, 2002; McCoy et al. 2007; Ranchhod, 2007). Consumers especially do not like messages that are diverting, distracting, compelled, or hindering their current activity.
Particularly pop-‐up advertisements can be intrusive to consumers because of the fact
that they interrupt current (online) activities (Li et al., 2002). A reaction of the
consumer is required to close the pop-‐up and proceed with the current activity. Pop-‐ups
interrupt the consumer in “reaching their goal”. For a mobile phone the level of
perceived intrusiveness could be even higher because the screen size almost forces marketers to make use of full page advertisements and therefore blocking the whole current activity of the consumer.
Aaker & Bruzzone (1985) underline that an annoying ad is provoking, leads to impatience and is initiating anger. However, some marketers consider irritation and effectiveness to be very close to each other and even can go hand in hand (Li, Edwards, Lee, 2002). Notwithstanding the fact that advertisement intrusiveness is not necessarily negative, advertisements (and the marketers behind the advertisement) cannot permit themselves to provoke irritation to the extent it leads to negative effects (Li, Edwards, Lee, 2002). Intrusiveness can ultimately even lead to avoidance of the advertisement (Bauer & Greyser 1968; Li et al. 2002). Ad avoidance encompasses all activities by media consumers that differentially reduce their exposure to the content of advertisements (Speck & Elliott 1997).
1.5 IN-‐APP ADVERTISING
In-‐app advertising is a logic step for marketers who want to piggyback on the flourishing business of mobile applications. These, so-‐called, In-‐app advertisements help marketers develop more relevant and specific advertisements for consumers, because advertisements can be combined with mobile applications that are most suitable for their brand or product. However, as noted in chapter 1.4 mobile advertising can be perceived as intrusive and even could lead to ad avoidance (Bauer et al. 1968; Li et al.
2002). Therefore, marketers need to take a careful look at what in-‐app advertising formats and features to use before setting up a whole advertising campaign.
In-‐app advertisements are a kind of “pull” campaigns that are portrayed opening,
playing or after using mobile applications (Barnes, 2002). This way of advertising can be
executed in many different ways. The advertising formats are broadly comparable to
advertising on the Internet (computer), only screen size and therefore advertisement
size are considered different. Main formats for in-‐app advertising are banners
brandished along with the screen content (Top of the screen), or mobile web posters
(Full screen advertisements) (Bhave, Jain & Roy, 2013). Within these main formats for
in-‐app advertising, there are different features possible. These features are not yet
discussed for mobile phone advertising but Ying, Korneliussen & Grønhaug (2009) did
sum up the different features for Internet advertising. For this research, the features
suitable for in-‐app advertising are covered:
-‐ Congruency: The advertisement is in line with the editorial content of the application. Best example of a congruent advertisement format is an advertorial.
-‐ Placement: Placement has two concepts, placement in time and placement at the page. At the page advertisement can be placed on top or bottom of the page or even in a corner. In time the advertisements can be placed at the beginning, during a break, in the middle of the experience or at the end of app usage. Advertisements in time are especially very common in games.
-‐ Execution: Also execution knows different constructs.
o Sound: In-‐app advertisements can be accompanied with sound effects or voice-‐overs.
o Size: Although there is a limited screen size for mobile phones, an app advertisement can have different sizes. Most of the time this feature goes hand in hand with placement. When an app is placed in a corner then the ad will not be very big. This also will dependent on the advertised format. Banners do not cover the whole page and therefore most of the times will be smaller.
o Animation: This could be moving images or a flickering banner for example. According to animation is by far the most powerful attention-‐getting device used in web advertising.
-‐ Pop-‐up: A very well know construct within Internet advertising. It is in some way a kind of ad execution. A pop-‐up does appear on screen during a consumer’s experience with the app.
1.6 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Mobile advertising is still a young discipline. Attempts to review research about the
subject struggled because very little literature had been published (Perlado & Barwise,
2004). Until now, research on intrusiveness of advertising has primarily focused on
magazine advertising (Ha, 1996), television advertising (Aaker & Bruzzone 1985) and
Internet advertising (Gao et al. 2004). To my best knowledge there are very few studies
that focus on mobile advertising and their effect on the perceived intrusiveness. Given
the phenomenal growth in mobile phone usage and especially smartphone usage with
the accompanying downloadable apps, it is interesting but also important to determine which features of mobile advertisements provoke consumers perceived intrusiveness.
As described in chapter 1.5 there are different in-‐app advertising formats with a diversity of features. Existing research on intrusiveness within mobile advertising, raises screen size as an issue that made participants more sensitive to intrusive advertising formats as compared to for example advertisement on computers (Truong, Simmons & Palmer, 2009) Especially because the type of reactions on transmitted advertising messages depend on several factors, including size (Nelson, 2002). To my best knowledge, there is no research about mobile advertising that includes the size of the advertisement as a possible affecting factor. Therefore advertisement size will be an interesting first independent variable in this research. As second variable for this research, advertisement congruency will be used. Congruent advertisements are in line with the editorial content of the app (Chook, 1985). Congruent web advertisements prove to have favourable effects on perceived intrusiveness (Edwards, Li & Lee, 2002).
Because congruent advertisements blend with the app content and are displayed on the smaller screens of mobile phones there is a possibility that congruent advertisements are harder to notice. It will be interesting to know more about how this is perceived and how the outcome is in comparison with earlier knowledge about congruency on the Internet. Knowing how consumers perceive these congruent advertisements may be helpful to marketers in their choice of advertising format and accompanying features in mobile applications.
Therefore, the the problem statement in this research will be:
What is the effect of the size and the congruency of in-‐app mobile advertising on the perceived intrusiveness of consumers?
To answer the problem statement, the research will be divided in different parts. Under mentioned research question are meant to keep a clear line in the research and eventually will help answering the overarching problem statement:
1. What is the effect of in-‐app advertisement size on perceived intrusiveness?
2. What is the effect of advertisement congruency on perceived
intrusiveness?
Next to the expected main effects there are also potential moderating effects. Existing research shows that attitudes towards advertising in general influence the attitude towards the ad when experiencing it (Mehta, 2002). Therefore it will be interesting to research if attitude towards advertising in general is affecting the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable, but also if this covariate has direct effect on the perceived intrusiveness. The same yields for app familiarity. According to Nelson (2002), familiarity is one of the most important influencing factors in the possible provoking of reactions by advertised messages. Therefore also the construct of familiarity will be part of the research as covariate, where both direct and indirect effects will be measured.
3. How does attitude towards advertising in general influence the relationship of in-‐app advertisements and perceived intrusiveness?
4. How does app familiarity influence the relationship of in-‐app advertisements and perceived intrusiveness?
This research will make a contribution to existing literature by further enhancing the present scanty knowledge about mobile adverting and the perceived intrusiveness of advertising on this electronic media device. Herein, the knowledge of perceived intrusiveness of in-‐app advertisement is especially important because perceived intrusiveness is believed to be an indicator for advertising effectiveness (Aaker &
Bruzzone,1985). Developing a better understanding of advertisement size and congruency and their influence on intrusiveness, should allow for the creation of less irritating/annoying advertisements and therefore enhance effectiveness.
1.7 STRUCTURE OF THESIS
To be able to answer the research question, this report has the following structure. First, a theoretical framework is provided to embed this research’s most important constructs and variables in existing literature. Then, based on the theoretical framework, hypotheses and a conceptual model are provided to give an overview of the constructs that will be part of the analysis. Next, the research design will be discussed, followed by the results of this research. After that the analysis and discussion of the results will be provided, which will lead to relevant conclusions and managerial implications. This paper will conclude with limitations and possible directions for further research.
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
To be able to research the effects of in-‐app advertisement on perceived intrusiveness, a sound theoretical understanding of the involved variables is needed. In this chapter the involved variables will be discussed. First, the effect of advertisement size on perceived intrusiveness will be discussed, followed by the effect of advertisement congruency on perceived intrusiveness. Then, two possible covariates will be discussed, namely attitude toward advertising and familiarity with the application. These both variables will be discussed on both their direct and indirect effect on perceived intrusiveness.
2.1 IN-‐APP ADVERTISEMENT SIZE
Size is an important feature of advertising and has been proven one of the notable factors leading to consumer attention towards the specific advertisement (Li & Bukovac, 1999; Hendon, 1973). An increase in advertisement size in general means an enhanced level of attention (Troldahl & Roberts, 1965). Although large size advertisements can have a positive effect on attention, this will not directly suggest a positive evaluation of the advertisement itself. Especially for mobile phones, large size advertisements can be perceived as intrusive due to the small screen size.
Existing research on advertisement size and their effect on intrusiveness are mainly focused on traditional advertising (e.g. print and TV) and computers (Internet). General outcomes are that size can affect the attitude (brand belief) of the consumer (Homer, 1995; Kirmani, 1990). Especially large-‐size web posters for the Internet (e.g. pop-‐ups or full screen size advertisements) are perceived to be more intrusive than those smaller in size (Ying, Korneliussen & Grønhaug, 2009). Possible reason for this effect could be that larger size advertisements are more overwhelming than the smaller size advertisements and therefore may interrupt a user’s/viewer’s cognitive process. Possible downside for marketers when choosing small size advertisements could be that it is at risk to be neglected. The same research also reports the stronger oppressing effect of full-‐page pop-‐ups, while small size pop-‐ups do not invade the viewer’s field of vision violently and therefore are perceived less intrusive (Ying, Korneliussen & Grønhaug, 2009)
In this sense the size of in-‐app advertisements will certainly affect the perceived
intrusiveness of the consumer, In particular because of the relative small screen size of
mobile phones compared to that of computers. Recent literature does confirm the fact
that smaller screen size affects consumers sensitivity to intrusive advertising on their mobile phone, when compared to other (digital) devices (Truong & Simmons, 2010).
Therefore, hypothesis 1 will be:
H1: In-‐app advertisements that are small in size will be perceived less intrusive than those bigger in size
2.2 CONGRUENCY
Usually, advertisements are embedded in a specific medium type and surrounded by for example editorial content, articles, other advertisements and/or more (Chook, 1985;
Soldow & Principe, 1981). Existing literature proves that the medium is affecting the response of the consumer to the embedded advertisement in that specific medium (De Pelsmacker et al. 2002; van Reijmersdal et al. 2010). More specifically, congruent advertising, which is related to the or in in line with (editorial) content, in general has more favourable evaluations as result. (Aaker & Brown, 1972). Advertising which relates to and matches the editorial content is considered more valuable by consumers because it is also in line with their specific interests (Cannon, 1982). Also, ad evaluations are enhanced by congruent advertising in contrast to the more unfavourable evaluations when encountering incongruent advertisements (Dahlen, 2005). Furthermore, congruent advertisements can be perceived as more positive social influences while they are in line with the “expected” content of the medium (Edwards, Li & Lee, 2002).
Congruency in general leads to more favourable evaluating of the advertisement, because it is more predictable (while in line with expectations) and as a consequence more likable (Mandler, 1982). Dahlen et al. (2008) find that incongruent advertisements get a higher level of attention and therefore lead to more cognitive processing. In many cases these (extreme) incongruent advertising leads to frustration and irritation, followed by a bigger chance in unfavourable evaluations because of this increased demand in cognitive effort (Janssens, De Pelsemacker & Geuens, 2012). Current cognitive activity is less disturbed/interrupted due to a congruent advertisement, which ensures that these kinds of advertisements are not, or in a lesser extend, being perceived as a threat to the freedom of the consumer (Edwards, Li & Lee, 2002).
Moreover, a higher level of attention because of incongruent advertisement placing does
not necessarily lead to more favourable evaluations towards the advertisement
(Janssens, De Pelsemacker & Geuens, 2012).
When recapping a conclusion can be drawn that congruent advertisements lead to more favourable evaluations of the advertisement, while incongruent advertisements in general are perceived as quite negative.
This gives rise to the second hypothesis in this study:
H2: In-‐app advertisements that are congruent with the format of the app content will be perceived as less intrusive than ads that are not congruent.
2.3 ATTITUDES TOWARDS ADVERTISING IN GENERAL
Advertisements are developed to, in the end, affect buying behaviour in a positive manner by trying to evoke a certain positive attitude towards the advertised subject.
Existing research shows that attitudes to advertising influence the attitude towards the advertisement when experiencing it (e.g., Mehta, 2002; Mackenzie, Belch & Lutz, 1986;
Muehling, 1987; Shimp, 1981). Overall attitudes toward advertising do affect the involvement with specific advertisements (Brackett & Carr, 2001; Briggs & Hollis, 1997).
This indicates that attitudes towards advertising in general influence the way an advertisement is experienced. Unfavourable attitudes before encountering the advertisement will lead to negative effects on the experience of the advertisement and therefore also a possible higher degree of sensitivity to perceived intrusiveness.
Especially after the seventies, there was a noticeable increase in negative attitudes towards advertising (Zanot, 1981; Zanot, 1984). For a long time, attitudes of consumers towards advertising in general have been found to be more negative. TV advertising, for example, was considered misleading by a majority of viewers (Schlosser, Shavitt &
Kanfer, 1999). Existing literature investigated major media types and discovered that
particularly newspapers and TV displayed a high level of ad-‐related communication
problems (disrupting and hindering consumer’s current activities)(Elliot & Speck,
1998). Disruption and/or hindering consumer search and perceived clutter were
related to more negative attitudes and a higher level of ad avoidance. The effect of these
ad-‐related communication problems varied over the different researched media types
(Elliot & Speck, 1998). Tsang, Ho & Liang (1990) did also report about these differences
and found that radio advertisements triggered a lower sense of irritation than television
advertisements, because radio often serves as music for the background. The field of
attitudes toward advertising in general is argued by many significant studies (Zanot, 1981; Shavitt, Lowrey & Haefner, 1998; Mittal, 1994; Larkin, 1977; Andrews, Lysonski
&Durvasula, 1991) Nevertheless, the effect of these attitudes and its direct effect on the perceived intrusiveness has hardly been studied. Therefore a further examination of this subject will be interesting to perform. The direct effect on perceived intrusiveness is expected to be stronger for consumers with a negative attitude towards advertising in general. This means that a positive attitude towards advertising in general will lead to a lower level of perceived intrusiveness in comparison to a negative attitude towards advertising in general.
This leads to the third hypothesis:
H3a: A more positive attitude towards advertising in general leads to a lower sense of perceived intrusiveness in a direct effect.
As mentioned in this chapter, attitude toward advertising is influencing the experiencing of the advertisement. Since advertisement size is perceived to have an effect on intrusiveness (Ch. 2.1), it will be interesting to find out if this perceived intrusiveness is moderated by the attitude towards advertising in general. A large advertisement is thought to be perceived as more intrusive then small size advertisements. A positive attitude towards advertising in advance may cause a more favourable experience when encountering the app. The user of the app does not mind the advertisement because in general he has a favourable attitude towards advertising.
To research this statement the following hypothesis will be:
H3b: The more positive the consumer’s attitude towards advertising in general, the lesser the impact of advertisement size on the consumer’s perceived intrusiveness.
2.4 APP FAMILIARITY
Existing literature proposes brand familiarity as an important variable that in several
respects influences the consumers advertising experience (Campbell & Keller, 2003). It
reflects the extent in direct and indirect experience of the consumer with a brand or
advertised product (Alba & Hutchinson, 1987). Familiarity is described as somebody’s
understanding of an entity, most of the time based on prior experience, interactions and
the learning of encountering the process time after time (Komiak & Benbasat, 2006).
Brand familiarity can be compared with app familiarity because in a certain way mobile applications can be considered brands.
According to Corritore et al. (2003) a familiar site has a greater chance to induce positive feelings towards the website. The research states that website familiar consumers may perceive less anxiety and more pleasure from their experience with the website because they know all characteristics of this particular site. This indicates that familiarity is positively influencing consumer experience, while they know through prior experiences, what can be expected.
Which reactions are provoked by the transmitted advertising messages, depend on several factors. As mentioned above, prior experience is one of these important influencing factors (Nelson, 2002). The level of experience and therefore the familiarity with the brand can be enhanced by frequent exposure to the brand (Park & Stoel, 2005).
Also it is said that brands with higher levels of familiarity are more liked by consumers.
Well-‐known brands therefore provoke more favourable attitudes from the consumer (Colombo & Morrison, 1989). This could also indicate that consumers who are familiar with the brand, in this case the app, know what to expect by prior experience. Therefore they also know if there is advertising within the app and if so, what kind of advertising format to expect. This indicates a direct effect between the level of familiarity with the app and the potential perceived intrusiveness resulting from this familiarity. This direct effect is expected to be stronger for consumers with a high level of unfamiliarity with the app. This because the consumer does not know, or does not exactly know what to expect and therefore the level of perceived intrusiveness is expected to be higher, indicating that a high familiarity leads to a lower sense of perceived intrusiveness.
Meaning that familiar consumers do feel less interrupted, irritated and annoyed in comparison to unfamiliar consumers.
This gives rise to the fourth hypothesis:
H4a: High familiarity with the app leads to a lower sense of consumer perceived intrusiveness in a direct effect
In this study, familiarity is assumed to moderate the effect of the advertising formats
(size and congruency) on perceived intrusiveness. Prior experience with the app and
therefore a certain kind of familiarity with the app can result in a positive effect on the relationship of in-‐app advertising on perceived intrusiveness of the advertisement.
When a consumer is familiar with an app, then he/she knows what to expect and therefore also knows if and what kind of advertisement formats will be shown. This indicates that a consumer could perceive large and incongruent apps as less intrusive then when the same consumer does not have any experience with the application.
This leads to the following hypotheses in this study:
H4b: The higher the Familiarity with the app, the lesser the impact of advertisements size on the consumer’s perceived intrusiveness
H4c: The higher the familiarity with the app, the lesser the impact of advertisement congruency on the consumer’s perceived intrusiveness
2.5 CONCEPTUAL MODEL
Based on the concepts described in the literature review and the subsequent hypotheses described in this chapter (repeated in table 1), the following conceptual model can be presented (see Fig. 1). Following the described constructs, it is assumed that an advertisement larger in size is perceived more intrusive then a small advertisement. For congruency it is expected to be perceived more intrusive when the advertised format is incongruent with its editorial environment. However, it is expected that these effects will be moderated by the following covariance’s: Whether the consumer has a positive or negative attitude towards advertising in general and whether the consumer is familiar with the app or not. Both of these covariates are also expected to have a direct effect on the perceived intrusiveness by the consumer.
Table 1. Hypotheses Hypothesis
H1 In-‐app advertisements that are small in size will be perceived less intrusive than those bigger in size
H2 In-‐app advertisements that are congruent with the format of the app content will be perceived as less intrusive than ads that are not congruent.
H3a A more positive attitude towards advertising in general leads to a lower
sense of perceived intrusiveness in a direct effect.
Fig 1. Conceptual Framework
H3b The more positive the consumer’s attitude towards advertising in general, the lesser the impact of advertisement size on the consumer’s perceived intrusiveness.
H4a High familiarity with the app leads to a lower sense of consumer perceived intrusiveness in a direct effect
H4b The higher the Familiarity with the app, the lesser the impact of advertisements size on the consumer’s perceived intrusiveness
H4c The higher the familiarity with the app, the lesser the impact of advertisement congruency on the consumer’s perceived intrusiveness
H2
H3a
H4a H1
Attitudes towards advertising in
general
Familiarity
