Cross-cultural Advertising: A comparison of the appeal and interpretation of Print Advertisements in Greece and Netherlands
A research between Greek and Dutch students
Master’s degree programme: Business Administration / Strategy and Innovation Master Student: Chatzilia Varvara
Name of supervisor: Dr Katrin Muehlfeld Co-assessor: Gerda Gemser
University of Groningen, 2005
Contents Page
I. Introduction ………4
1. 1. Purpose of this study……….………6
1. 2. Research strategy………..…7
1. 3. Contributions of the study……….7
1. 4. Summary- Outline of the research………9
II. Literature Review………10
2. 1. Cross-cultural advertising researches………..10
2. 2.Theoretical Background………...12
2. 3. The Visual Framework………...12
• 2.3.1. Visual Rhetoric in Print Advertisements……….13
• 2.3.2. Encoding the Visual Advertisement………14
• 2.3.3. Decoding the Visual Advertisement………14
2. 4. Cultural framework……….15
• 2.4.1. Cultural Context and Meaning……….…16
• 2.4.2. Individualism-Collectivism and Social Identity………..17
• 2.4.3. Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Individualism-Collectivism………..18
• 2.4.4. The Personal Individualism-Collectivism Dimension……….18
• 2.4.5. The Authority Relationship Dimension………...19
2. 5. The Motivation Framework………19
• 2.5.1. The Achievement Motive………20
• 2.5.2. The Affiliation Motive……….20
• 2.5.3. The Power Motive………20
• 2.5.4. Culture’s Influence on Motivation………...21
2.6. Locus of control………...21
III. Hypothesis Development………23
3.1. Research Questions-Hypotheses.………. ………...23
IV. Method……….26
4.1 Methodology……….26
4.2. Sampling design………...…26
4.3. Questionnaire………...26
4.4. Independent appeal………..28
4.5. Interdependent appeal………..…28
4.6.Attitude towards the Pictorial Stimuli………..28
• 4.6.1. Cognitive Dimension………...29
• 4.6.2. Affective Dimension………29
• 4.6.3. Measure Assessment………29
4.7. Interpretation of Advertising Appeals……….30
• 4.7.1. Task Oriented Achievement Appeal………30
• 4.7.2. Ego Oriented Achievement Appeal……….…30
• 4.7.3. Affiliation Appeal………30
• 4.7.4. Power Appeal………...………31
4.8. Measuring the Consumer’s Cultural Orientation……….……32
• 4.8.1. The Vertical Idiocentrism Dimension……….….32
• 4.8.2. The Horizontal Idiocentrism Dimension……….32
• 4.8.3. The Vertical Allocentrism Dimension……….33
• 4.8.4. The Horizontal Allocentrism Dimension……….……33
4.9. Locus of control………...33
V. Results………...35
5.1. The contextual effect………....35
5.2. National attitudes towards independent and interdependent stimulus……….………39
5.3. Locus of control………...42
VI. Discussion………47
6.1. Cultural Context and its effect on visual meaning………..47
6.2.Individualism and collectivism and its effect on visual meaning………47
6.3. Locus of Control………..48
6.4. Managerial Implications………..48
6.5. Limitations……….…….50
6.6. Future Research………...51
VII. Appendix………53
Appendix 1 Questionnaire………..53
Appendix 2 Descriptive Statistics………...69
Appendix 3 Factor Analysis for Affective-Cognitive……….70
Appendix 4. Factor Analysis for interpretation of advertisements……….…71
Appendix 5. ANOVA(A)………....75
Appendix 6 ANOVA (B)………...….80
Appendix 7 Locus of Control (A)………...83
Appendix 8 Locus of Control (B)………...84
VII. References………..……88
MASTER THESIS
Cross-cultural Advertising: A comparison of the interpretation of Print Advertisements in Greece and Netherlands.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of using the same visual images in print advertisements across the cultures. This topic has also been examined before, but not a lot of research has been done between European countries. Specifically, this research examines how visual images depicting social activity are interpreted among students from Greece and the Netherlands. Hall’s contextual typology and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism are used to explain the differences between the consumer’s interpretations of print advertisements.
Locus of control, as a personality dimension, has been also measured and an attempt to relate this factor with the interpretation of print advertisements as well as with the culture. The results of this research suggest that high-context audiences are more able to derive implicit meanings form visual images in print ads, than people from low-context cultures. Moreover, audiences coming from individualistic countries seem to prefer independent appeals and audiences coming from interdependent countries seem to prefer interdependent appeals.
I. Introduction
Appealing to consumers in different cultures has always been a challenge for international advertisers. The reason of this challenge is the choice that must be made between standardization and local adaptation. The challenge is greater as international marketing and advertising become more and more important with the increased economic globalization and advances in technology.
More and more companies are operating worldwide. Concluding, advertising in international markets is a constant concern for global marketers (Albers-Miller, Stafford 1999).
International advertising has been a field of research for many years with a lot of debate especially ever since Levitt's (1983) article "The Globalization of Markets", in which he claimed that marketing could be standardized across cultures and that globalization is transforming the world into a “homocultural” market place where all customers can be persuaded by the same advertising appeals and values, irrespective of the culture they belong to. After that there has been a heated debate whether or not advertising should be standardized. According to Harris & Attour (2003) total standardization is more an exception rather than the rule. On the contrary they
demonstrated that “standardization” is a flexible policy that can be adapted to a range of circumstances, moreover with their research they wanted to show that the debate should focus more on finding the appropriate forms of standardization rather than focusing on the benefits of total standardization.
There are many advantages connected with the standard use of advertisements across different countries, as for example saving costs and the ability to create a unified image for a brand (Tansey, Hyman and Zinkhan, 1990). On the other hand, as it will be more detailed described in the literature review, numerous researches have proved that cultural differences influence advertisements. All the researchers indicate that there are many differences in the usage of advertising appeals across cultures. Strong arguments have been made suggesting that advertising both reflects and influences cultural values (Albers-Miller, Gelb, 1996). Cheng and Schweitzer (1996) and Caillat and Mueller (1996) found that overall advertising appeals reflected local values. These studies have cast significant doubt on the theories and the applicability, of standardized, global advertising. This suggests that localizing advertising messages to suit consumer expectation in each market is still the most important aspect in campaign planning across cultures (Albers-Miller, 1996).
The use of visual images is becoming a popular method for standardizing print advertisements in cross-national markets for a lot of multinational corporations (Cateora
&Graham, 1999). In an era of growing standardization, it has been suggested that the picture is a truly universal communication tool in international print advertising (Bourgery and Guimaraes, 1993; Kernan and Domzal, 1993). The notion of a “visual Esperanto” has become an appealing concept in international advertising, since it claims to provide a consistent and universal interpretation of messages through the use of strong visual images. Bourgery and Guimaraes (1993) point out that this so-called universal language stems from the assumption that “visual imagery is more powerful and precise than verbal description. All people can comprehend the messages of visual imagery”. The underlying assumption behind this trend is that consumers from all around the world can “read” a picture, while the text of the advertisement needs to be translated considering the cultural differences as well. This could explain why there is an increasing number of global positioning strategies and creation of global brands, that they rely almost exclusively on visual images instead of text in their advertisements (Evans and Riyait, 1993).
However, these highly standardized visual campaigns do not always convey a uniform meaning among different audiences. An example is Benetton’s ad of a black woman nursing a white baby won awards for its message of unity and equality in Europe. At the same time, the ad
stirred up controversy in the United States, since many believed it depicted a black nanny relegated to a subordinate role as a slave. Therefore, it should be determined whether the standardized approach is effective from a communications perspective.
Therefore an interesting question that arises is does the fact that we can all “read” the pictures really means that we interpret them in the same way, irrespectively of our cultural background?
Or does culture plays a role in the meanings we attach to the images? This is an important issue for the multinational marketer since the purpose of using visual communication strategies in international advertising campaigns is to standardize the meaning of the message as well as to benefit from economies of scale (Levitt, 1983). Whereas most within the academic and practitioner community are inclined to question the true equivalence of meaning for translations of copy in advertising, it seems that they are less inclined to question the universality of meaning of visual images across cultures (Callow and Schiffman, 2004).
Moreover, locus of control as a personality dimension was added in this cross-cultural research. Locus of control developed out of social learning theory, in the second chapter it will be analyzed in more details. Briefly it distinguishes the individuals between internals and externals.
Individuals with an internal locus of control believe that they have personal control over relationship events and that they can master any challenges (Camp & Ganong, 1997). In contrast, individuals with an external locus of control focus on luck or context and are more likely to take a passive stance toward relationship events, (Morry and Harasymchuk, 2005). The reason of adding this personal dimension in this research was to examine the way it can influence the interpretation of print advertisements, as this dimension has never been linked before with advertisement appeals. Furthermore, simultaneously the connection between this dimension and the culture can be examined.
1.1. Purpose of this study
The purpose of this research is to explore how cultural and social orientations influence the audience’s interpretations of pictorial representations of social behavior in print advertisements. Cultural frameworks are often conceptualized in terms of the relationship between the individual and the group (Hostede, 1991); therefore this is the reason why understanding how consumers interpret ads depicting social interaction is an important topic in cross-cultural research. The role of the audience’s contextual communication style in their ability to create meaning from visual ads is considered, and how consumers with different social identities interpret images depicting independent and interdependent social interactions in print ads. This research focuses on how consumers form two countries, Greece and the Netherlands,
interpret a selection of standardized pictorial images depicting independent and interdependent social interactions in print advertising. It explores whether the interpretation of the pictorial stimuli in print advertisements is similar between the two countries or whether there are differences in interpretation as a result of the differences in their cultural backgrounds. Moreover it explores how a personal dimension as the locus of control can influence the interpretation of advertisements or can be influenced by the culture.
This research questions the assumption that the interpretation of global visual advertisements is standardized across countries. It also implies that international marketers are underestimating the role that culture plays in shaping the consumer’s interpretation of images in print advertisements. The goal of this research is to explore this assumption and to test the role of the culture in the interpretation of print advertisements.
1.2. Research strategy
The research strategy will be briefly introduced and will be presented in more details in the forth chapter the Method.
In order to test the hypothesis developed in the third chapter a survey was conducted. The survey included a booklet of visual print advertisements as well as a questionnaire. The data was collected from two sample groups in Greece and in the Netherlands.
Multiple analyses of variance was the principal research procedure used to test the predicted relationships between the interpretation and subsequent attitude towards the advertisement (dependent variables) and the subjects' cultural identity at the national and individual level (independent variables).
1.3 Contributions of the study
This research attempts to contribute in the issue of customization versus standardization in cross-cultural print advertising. Since many advertisements rely almost exclusively on visual images to convey the message (Phillips, 1997), it needs to be examined the way the consumers decode the pictorial messages and to what extent this process is influenced by the culture.
This research is trying to examine the validity of treating pictures as a universal language system and argues that decoding pictorial metaphors is in part culturally determined. If this is the case, then multinational marketers should consider paying greater attention to the visual elements of print advertisements and determine which pictorial images require customization in order to provide a culturally relevant and appealing message.
Furthermore, this research contributes to the cross-cultural researches by examining to countries that had been considerably neglected in the cross-cultural advertising literature.
Reviewing this field, Saminee and Jeong (1994) reported on a total of 24 cross-cultural studies in advertising for the period 1980 to 1992. In their review, the majority of studies (21 out of 24) examined advertising in the US compared to at least one other nation, whereas the second most studied country was Japan, but with only 7 studies, the UK was included in 4 studies. Most researchers have selected the countries because they are culturally dissimilar (e.g. Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996; Al-Olayan and Karande, 2000).
It appears that the most frequent choice of countries that are examined is culturally very different countries, as it will be mentioned more detailed in the third chapter, the literature review. Although research in culturally very distant countries is useful for exploring the field, observed differences may not be so surprising, precisely because the researched countries are extremely different. This does raise the question to what extent ‘small’ cultural differences influence advertising, and if there is any difference at all in ‘culturally’ close countries, either by measure of cultural values or indeed by measures of economic development etc. (Dahl, 2004).
Moreover, even though Europe tends to be conceived as a quite homogeneous region, belonging to the broader Western region, it should not be neglected that there are important differences between the different countries. And these differences are important as the companies that function simultaneously in more than one European countries, shouldn’t assume that there will be the same reactions to all of their marketing plan.
Therefore it is interesting to examine the cultural differences between two European countries. Therefore this research contributes by examining two European countries, Greece and the Netherlands. Even though both countries belong to the European region they are quite different. Netherlands belongs to the most economic developed countries in the North of Europe.
While Greece belongs to the less developed countries in Europe, though with a big development rate in the last years.
At this point an important remark should be made. This research is based on a similar research made by Callow and Shiffman (2000,2002,2004). Their research was based in different countries, in the United Stated, Spain and Philippines. This research used the same advertisements as Callow and Shiffman’s research, excluding two and adding one new.
Moreover, the method used in this research was based on the method used in Callow’s and Shiffman’s research adding one more dimension in the research, the personal dimension of locus of control.
1.4 Summary- Outline of the research
In the following chapter there will be provided a literature review of the field in question, as well as a description of all the main theories and concepts used in the research. In the third chapter based on the objectives of this research some hypotheses are developed. These hypotheses will be tested through the results of the questionnaires. The forth chapter makes an overview of the methodology used in this research. Chapter five describes the analysis and the results of the research. Finally, in chapter six the implications of the results of the research are discussed, the limitations of this study and some suggestions for further research are given.
II. Literature Review
2.1 Cross-cultural advertising researches
There have been numerous researches on the field of cross-cultural advertising. Most of the researches finally suggest that advertising is strongly influenced by (local) culture (Dahl, 2004).
According to Dahl (2004), who has made a review on the literature of this field, most researchers have drawn on works of Hofstefe (1991) or Hall (1981) in order to explain and potentially predict observed differences and similarities.
For example, Milner and Collins (2000) aimed to establish a link between the femininity/masculinity values of a country and the portrayal of gender roles in television advertising in Japan, Russia, Sweden and the US. They demonstrated that television advertising in feminine cultures features more depictions of relationships between men and women than commercials shown in masculine societies.
Zhang and Gelb (1996) examined the effects of different advertising appeals in the US and China from a consumer perspective. The examined the cultural dimension individualism designing two different ads for each of two different products, one product which was “socially visible”(photo camera) and another product which was a more privately used product (toothbrush). Two ads were designed, one reflecting “individual” values and one reflecting
“collectivistic” values. The results of this research was that even though for the photo camera the more collectivist culture, the Chinese, preferred the more collectivist advertisement, for the toothbrush they preferred the more individualist advertisement.
Al-Olayan and Karande (2000) used Hofstede’s individualism and collectivism as well as Halls’s high/low context concept in a content analysis of magazine advertisements form the US and the Arab world. The aspects that they examined were information content, usage of price appeals and depiction of men and women. Unfortunately, relative few links are made between the identified cultural influence factors and the resulting observations.
Cho et al. (1999) developed a more fundamental framework for the analysis of cultural value differences in television commercials in the US and Korea. Their study addresses Hofstede’s individualism/collectivism as well as time orientation, relationship with nature and contextuality. They observed that individualism was more often used in US commercials than in Korean commercials, however, they failed to find a significant difference in the amount of what they called ‘predominantly collectivist’ themes between the countries. The study did, however,
find support for a more individualist execution in the US, and a more collectivist execution in Korea.
Moreover Zandpour et al. (1994) made a research between culturally more close countries like UK and Germany. Despite being geographically and possibly culturally close the seemed to show a number of differences in the features they examined. Furthermore, despite the possible “confusion” reported by Dahl (2004(b)), looking at advertising appeals in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, he reported substantial differences in these culturally close countries in terms of appeals usage as well as negative perceptions of German, Dutch and British consumers towards advertising from the other country, as well as preference for culturally congruent styles and appeals in advertising in all three counties investigated.
One of the most interesting researches was of Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) in which they attempted to measure the extent to which cultural dimensions are reflected in advertising appeals and values in current advertising practice. Their research included 11 countries examining Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and masculinity. The culture reflecting quality of advertising was supported for 10 of 30 hypothesized relationships, and for an additional eight after removal of outliers from the data.
Another research related was by Biswas, Olsen and Carlet (1992) in which they compare print advertisements from the United States and France in terms of emotional appeals, information content, and use of humor and sex. This research revealed that French advertisements make greater use of emotional appeals, humor, and sex appeals. Advertisements from the United States were found to contain more information cues.
In the study of Callow and Schiffman (2002) it has been examined how contextual communication styles influence the audience’s ability to interpret meaning from pictorial advertisements. The study was made between United States and Philippines, a low context versus a high context culture. The results of this study support the proposition that consumers from High-context communication systems are more apt than those from low-context communication systems to derive implicit meaning from visual images in print ads.
Callow and Schiffman in a later study (2004) they broadened their exploration of the effectiveness of using standardized visual images in global print advertising campaigns. In particular they examined how visual images depicting social (in) activity are interpreted among students from the USA, Spain and the Philippines. The results of this study suggested that high- context audiences are more inclined than low-context audiences to over-read into the meaning of the visual, and that the types of information communicated from the advertisements are positively related to the audience’s perceived social identity.
To sum up, there have been a lot of studies around the way the culture is reflected in the advertisements as well as in the way the advertisements are interpreted by the different cultures.
On the other hand, as it was mentioned before there has not been a lot of research between countries that are culturally close, and even more there hasn’t been any research or comparison between Greece and Netherlands.
Moreover, a lot of the research that has been done already was based in content analysis.
Therefore the study usually included a comparison of advertisements from different countries in terms of content and expression by using content analysis. First the advertisements were coded and then compared. Coding as well as the comparison was made with the use of judges in the different countries. The weakness of this analysis is that the results were based to specific judges and their personal opinion. This is the reason why in this research it was preferred to include the opinion of consumers rather than of experts.
2.2. Theoretical Background
At this point some theories used and important concepts of this research will be described. First the visual framework will be briefly presented, focusing on the way that consumers from different countries interpret pictorial images in print advertisements. Moreover, the cultural framework used in this research will be briefly introduced as well, in particular examining the way in which cross-cultural differences can lead to various interpretations of visual images. Finally, the motivation framework will be described, discussing how it has been applied to cross-cultural studies, and justifying motivation as a useful mediator between culture and an individual’s perceived meaning of pictures depicting social interaction in print advertisements.
2.3. The Visual Framework
An important issue that this research is examining is the role that pictures in print advertisements play in communicating meaning to consumers. Obviously, the ideal would be that the consumers decode the message of the advertisement in the same way the advertiser encoded the meaning of the message. However, in reality this depends on the extent to which the advertising creator and the target audience share similar communication systems (Rogers, 1995).
At this point it will be examined the way of encoding and decoding visual advertisements.
In the traditional behavior literature the traditional assumption of a picture’s meaning is that it reflects the real world (Scott, 1996). Images are therefore seen differently than words.
Words are arbitrary creations, whereas images are naturalistic representations of the external environment (Saussure, 1959, 1971). This is the viewpoint by those endorsing the “visual
Esperanto” approach to international advertising, as it has been described in the first chapter, the introduction.
Recently, however, consumer behaviorists have begun to question the assumption that the meaning of a picture does not exhibit any metaphorical or symbolizing properties of its own (Fowles, 1996; Scott, 1994). The fields of visual art, anthropology, and psychology acknowledge that individuals do infer metaphorical associations with images as they do with words (Scott, 1994). Therefore the image is partly naturalistic and partly learned. In advertising, more often than not it is the arbitrary meaning that makes most sense. For instance, naming the Jaguar sports car after a wild animal is leant to elicit positive associations between feline and the product. The association is not natural (the car is not a jaguar); instead it is arbitrary (the car exhibits characteristics that resemble the animal’s reputation for power and stealth) (Callow, 2000).
Within the semiotic literature, there are three levels of interpretation of a sign. As it has been described in the first chapter, in the introduction, a sign can have an iconic, indexical or a symbolic meaning. The semiotic literature suggests that complex, symbolic metaphors are culture-specific, whereas simplistic—iconic and indexical—metaphors are more universal in meaning. At the iconic level, the image depicts directly how the product looks like. At the indexical level, the advertisement maybe informing the consumer about the product’s use. At the symbolic level, the product is associated with a brand or a product. The first two levels, the iconic and the indexical are not considered to be culture specific. The symbolic level, however, is culture specific. This distinction is important for the international marketers, as the complexity of the metaphor in the advertisement will determine the universal meaning of it. Given the trend towards complex visual advertisements that challenge consumers to “think into” the meaning of the pictorial appeal (Phillips, 1997), there are risks associated with standardizing these visual appeals across cultures.
If the audience interprets the pictorial advertisements in a simplistic way, then it would make sense for the advertisers to use visual metaphors that rely on iconic or causal interpretations. On the other hand, if the purpose is to challenge the consumer with complex visual metaphors, then the multinational advertising company may need to customize the visual elements of the print advertisement (Callow, 2000).
2.3.1 Visual Rhetoric in Print Advertisements
Rhetoric deals with the formal elements of an argument used to persuade an audience (Phillips, 1997). The rhetorical approach has been applied in advertising to explain how advertising creators’ craft visual messages and how consumers in turn interpret these messages (McQuarrie and Mick, 1996; Scott, 1994). According to this approach the image is the attempt of
the advertiser to persuade the audience by anticipating the probable response to the advertisement. It relies on the idea that consumers learn how to interpret advertising images that do not make literal sense by relying on learned cultural conventions (Callow, 2000).
2.3.2. Encoding the Visual Advertisement
According to Rogers (1995), in order to have effective communication the sender and the receiver of the message must share a common symbolic system. As the sender anticipates the way in which the consumer interprets advertisements and must therefore relate to the audience in terms of common experience and shared cultural knowledge.
Scott (1994) states that the rhetorical approach applies to visual messages in advertising.
The advertising creators select the pictorial metaphors to be included in a print advertisement by considering how the target audience will interpret the image. Phillips (1997) goes one step further by suggesting that advertising creators try to challenge the audience. Advertising professionals use complex pictorial images that stray from convention and therefore require consumers to
“think into” the intended meaning of the advertisement. The purpose, however, is not to leave the audience guessing as to the meaning of the image, since this will lead to frustration. Instead, the creative strategy relies on the notion that the audience uses learned cultural conventions to uncover the advertisement’s meaning. In order to achieve this, the advertising professional must be aware of and understand these cultural conventions (Callow, 2000). Cross-cultural content analysis has revealed that differences do exist between countries, as it has been described in the beginning of this chapter.
2.3.3. Decoding the Visual Advertisement
According to Scott (1994), the audience of the visual advertisement uses its cultural knowledge to read the message, understand the intentions of the sender, and form an overall impression of the advertisement. This means that pictures are capable of representing as much ideas and arguments as the copy of an advertisement. The consumers use their pictorial schemata in order to process the visual images and transfer them to information. These pictorial schemata is learned in a similar manner as language is learned, with individuals from the same culture sharing a common symbolic system that can be used to communicate with one another (Scott, 1994;
McCracken, 1986).
Many advertisements rely on metaphors between the picture and the product or the brand. There is an increasing number of complex visual images in advertisements that attempt to catch the attention of the target audience and that try to elicit a cognitive response (Dyer,1982;
Scott, 1993).
These complex visual images rely on interpretations at the indexical or symbolic level.
As mentioned before, the symbolic metaphor relies on a consumer’s cultural knowledge and pictorial schemata. In order to interpret the metaphorical meaning of a picture, the audience must form an implicature (Callow, 2000). An implicature is defined as information that is implicitly communicated to an audience (Sperber and Wilson, 1986; Phillips, 1997). A “strong” implicature provides the audience with the obvious meaning of the picture and requires limited cognitive processing. On the other hand, a “weak” implicature is less obvious and requires more cognitive processing (Callow, 2000). The study of Philips (1997) indicates that the picture’s deviance from reality can trigger greater cognitive processing of the advertisement, and that consumers rely on their cultural and product knowledge to interpret the visual image.
Moreover, based on these concepts, it can be conducted that standardized visual advertisements would be best using simple images that elicit iconic interpretations, since the meaning of the message becomes highly explicit. Pictorial advertisements that rely on implicit types of metaphors in their images, however, are more open to a variety of interpretations that are in some cases explained by cultural differences (Callow, 2000). Indeed, Evans and Riyait (1994) found in their study that there are significant differences in interpretation of complex visual print advertisements across national groups. They asked respondents from Britain, Norway, France, and Germany to interpret four Benetton print advertisements, and their findings suggest that the pictorial images failed to convey a consistent image between countries. These pictorial images consisted of highly symbolic visual metaphors. To date, however, no research exists in cross- cultural advertising on the relationship between a picture’s metaphorical complexity and its interpretation across cultures. It seems that the meaning of simple signs that are meant to elicit iconic and indexical meanings would be similar across countries, since the interpretation processes are not culture-specific. On the other hand, cross-cultural differences would have a greater influence on the meaning of more complex signs in pictorial advertisements (Callow, 2000).
2.4. Cultural framework
The second important issue of this research is culture and the role culture plays in the way consumers interpret pictorial images in print advertisements. Culture has been identified my marketing academics as one of the underlying determinants of consumer behavior (Henry, 1976).
This means the extent to which culture influence visual analysis can explain the way that cross- cultural differences can lead to numerous interpretations of visual images.
At this point, before describing the cultural dimensions and concepts used in this research, as well as the connection between culture and the way consumers interpret a pictorial image, culture in general should be defined. According to Geert (1973), culture involves the sharing of a symbolic system among members of a society. Hofstede (1991) refers to this symbolic system as the collective programming of minds. Moreover, this symbolic system is learned, shared and transmitted between members of a society. The fact that the culture is shared means that it implies communicating meaning between individuals in the society. According to Adler (1986), communication is an important vehicle for culture, since translating meanings into words and behaviors and back again into meanings is based on a person’s cultural background.
The relationship between culture and communication may in fact be cyclical, since communication plays an important role in the development and maintenance of culture (McQuail, 1994; Kroeber and Kluckhohn, 1952), and is in turn affected by culture (Hall, 1989; Adler, 1986).
Therefore, it is obvious that culture is likely to have an effect on the consumer’s interpretation of visual metaphors in print advertisements. Moreover, at this point the cultural dimensions used in this research will be presented.
2.4.1. Cultural Context and Meaning
Hall (1976) classifies cultures according to the amount of context used in communicating with another one. Context refers to the amount of implicit versus explicit information used in the creation of meaning. In this research meaning will be related to the audience’s interpretation of visual images in print advertisements. Therefore in High Context setting most of the information derived from a message is present in either situational factors or internalized in the person; there is less reliance on explicit meaning, in this case on the picture shown in the advertisement.
Members of High context cultures must learn a highly metaphorical and contextual language in order to decode implicit messages (what the picture means). High context cultures: rely more on the visual aspect of an advertisement to convey meaning. In Low Context cultures, on the other hand, most of the information relies on information embedded within explicit code. There is less reliance in implicit meanings. The picture in interpreted as it stands (Callow, Schiffman, 2002).
Low-context cultures rely more on the copy of the advertisement to transmit information.
Hofstede found a positive correlation between collectivist countries and high-context communication frameworks (De Mooij, 1998).
In the case of the countries under investigation: Greece and Netherlands: Greece belongs to the High Context countries, where the communication is one which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. On the other hand, Netherlands belongs to the Low
Context cultures, where the communication is the opposite; most of the information is based on explicit code. Therefore it is likely that a consumer form a high-context culture, such as Greece has a greater tendency to search for implicit meanings of a visual image in a print advertisement than a consumer from a low-context culture such as the Netherlands.
2.4.2. Individualism-Collectivism and Social Identity
After examining the tendency to develop meanings from the visual print ads, now the type of these meanings that is created when interpreting ads depicting social interaction will be examined. A person’s social identity focuses on the relative importance of the independent versus the interdependent self (Brewer, 1991). According to Brewer a person’s social identity develops out of a compromise between assimilation (interdependence) with, and differentiation (independence) from, members of society. Those that tend towards differentiation are considered individualists, whereas those that are more assimilation-minded are considered collectivists (Hofstede, 1991).
Hofstede (1991) defines individualism as pertaining to “societies in which ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family”. Individuals value autonomy, variety, emotional independence, and individual initiative. They prioritize personal goals over the goals of the group, allowing individual interests to prevail over the interests of the collective (Leung and Bond, 1984). Individualist societies emphasize such characteristics as the “I” consciousness, autonomy, emotional independence, individual initiative, and right to privacy (Hofstede, 1984).
On the other hand, collectivism is the opposite of individualism, and “pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty”
(Hofstede, 1994, p. 51). Members within the group have very strong ties with each other, and are strongly influenced by the norms of the collectivity. In contrast to individualist societies, collectivist societies are group-oriented people and emphasize such characteristics as the “We”
consciousness, collective identity, emotional dependence, group solidarity, and sharing (Hofstede, 1984).
Greece belongs to the collectivist countries, with a very low individualist level; the score is 35 and is the 30th country in of the 53 included in Hofstede study, (1991). While Netherlands are on exactly the opposite side number 4 on the Individualistic countries, with a very high score of 80. Therefore it is obvious that the cultural differences between Greece and the Netherlands based on the individualistic level are essential.
2.4.3. Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Individualism-Collectivism
Singelis et al.’s (1995) typology of cultural syndromes examines the nature of a person’s perceived role within society. It converts the bipolar individualism-collectivism dimension into four separate constructs that can be used to identify a person’s disposition towards his or her social identity within a culture. This is an important issue for international advertisers, since advertising appeals often focus on social as well as personal appeals. It may be the case that social appeals are more effective than personal appeals in some cultures than in others (Callow, 2000). The authors proposed two important dimensions that categorize cultural syndromes. The first dimension deals with the issue of individualism-collectivism that was discussed earlier. The second dimension focuses on the authority relationship that exists between the individual and other members within the society. These two dimensions are combined to create four constructs as seen in Figure 1.
Authority Relationship
Horizontal Vertical
Idiocentrism Personal
Individualism- Collectivism
Allocentrism
Figure 1. A typology of cultural Syndromes (Callow, 2000).
2.4.4. The Personal Individualism-Collectivism Dimension
At the individual level of analysis, the individualism-collectivism dimension is referred to as idiocentrism-allocentrism (Triandis, 1995). A person, irrespectively whether coming form an individualistic or a collectivistic country, can exhibit both idiocentric and allocentric tendencies.
Idiocentrism refers to a person’s tendency to exhibit individualistic behavior, focusing on personal goals over social goals (Callow, 2000). Meanwhile, allocentrism refers to a person’s
Horizontal Idiocentrism
The person perceives himself/herself as independent and similar to
other members of society
Vertical Idiocentrism
The person perceives himself/herself as independent and different
from other members of society
Horizontal Allocentrism
The person perceives himself/herself as interdependent and similar
to other members of society
Vertical Allocentrism
The person perceives himself/herself as interdependent and different from other members of society
Allocentrism
tendency to exhibit collectivist tendencies, focusing in interdependence and group goals over autonomy and personal goals.
2.4.5. The Authority Relationship Dimension
The second dimension focuses on the authority relationship that is perceived to exist between the individual and the group. The vertical and horizontal relationship answers the question of whether a person perceives and accepts inequality within his or her society (Singelis et al., 1995). A vertical relationship is described as one where individuals recognize differences between one another within a hierarchical framework (Triandis, 1996). There is a similarity between this relationship and with Hofstede’s (1984) high power distance. Power distance is defined as the extent to which a culture accepts and reinforces social inequality between its members. High power distance cultures emphasize social consciousness and shape vertical social boundaries that individuals within the society conform to and/or aspire to. This creates a highly unequal society (Hofstede, 1984). On the other hand, in horizontal relationships, individuals view themselves as similar to others, and social behavior is seen as more egalitarian (Singelis et al., 1995).
Given that Hofstede found a positive correlation between power distance and collectivism, it could be argued that most collectivist cultures exhibit a vertical orientation, whereas most individualist cultures are horizontal (Triandis, 1995). One would, however, expect consumers from different cultures to differ in the emphasis and prevalence of these patterns (Singelis et al., 1995).
Concluding, even though cross-cultural research is becoming increasingly popular in the field of psychology (Church and Lonner, 1998), consumer behaviorists and advertisers have neglected measuring culture’s effect at the individual level. This is surprising, since the vertical and horizontal varieties of idiocentrism and allocentrism allow the researcher to measure culture’s influence on the consumer, and to establish how it will affect other psychological constructs that are of interest to the cross-cultural researcher (Callow, 2000).
2.5. The Motivation Framework
According to D’Andrade (1992) it appears that motivation mediates the effect that culture has on a consumer’s actions. As it derives from the literature, advertising appeals need to take advantage of the target audience’s goal-oriented behavior in order to be effective (Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996). Moreover, according to Geen (1995) motivation refers to the intention, intensity, and persistence of behavior. It helps therefore in explaining the reasons of human behavior.
Therefore, motives will influence the interpretation of advertisements of consumers. Following
the Pavlovian approach of motivation, motives are constructed from previous experiences where the person has an affective response to a specific stimulus. Moreover, as it has been suggested by the literature, these motives are developed in the early stages of childhood (Hall and Lindzey, 1967).
Since motives are learned, it is generally assumed that individuals within a country will have a similar motivation framework (McClelland, 1987). For instance, McClelland hypothesized that the achievement motive is higher in a nation where child-rearing practices emphasize self- reliance and mastery, and that the nation’s overall level of achievement is a good predictor of economic growth rates. Cross-cultural research has provided support for these hypotheses (Church and Lonner, 1998; McClelland, 1987).
Researchers have used three popular motives, achievement, affiliation, and power, extensively across numerous disciplines (Callow, 2000). These three needs are important for this research, as they are closely interconnected with the cultural dimensions used in this research.
Additionally, advertising creators developing advertising appeals that are relevant to the target audience often use these motives (Zinkhan, Hong, and Lawson, 1990; Callow, Lerman, and de Juan Vigaray, 1996).
2.5.1. The Achievement Motive
McClelland (1987) defines the achievement motive as “a personality disposition to compete with a standard of excellence”. Xiang et al (1997) make a distinction between task oriented and ego oriented achievement. In their study it is suggested that the relative importance of each type of achievement is determined by culture.
• Task Oriented Achievement. According to Xiang et al. (1997), “task orientation involves the goal of developing one’s ability through learning or task mastery” (p. 646). The notion of a standard of excellence is internalized within the individual. The person is competing with his or her own standards, and does not make comparisons with others to determine success.
• Ego Oriented Achievement. Xiang et al (1997) define ego oriented achievement as “a demonstration of one’s superiority over others”. As opposed to task orientation, ego orientation does require a direct comparison with the performance of others
2.5.2. The Affiliation Motive
Affiliation has been defined as "a concern for establishing, maintaining, or restoring positive friendship or love relationships with another person" (Chusmir, 1989, p. 3). This is based on Murray's original affiliative motive, which is described as the tendency to receive gratification from harmonious relationships and from a sense of communion (Hill, 1987). Individuals with a
high need for affiliation are concerned about the feelings of others, and tend to avoid competition (McClelland, 1987; Chusmir, 1989).
2.5.3. The Power Motive
The final motive in McClellands trio of needs focuses on a person’s “desire to coach, influence, teach, or encourage others to achieve, with little interest in doing things alone”
(Chusmir, 1989, p. 4). Veroff (1957) defined the goal of the power motive as exerting influence, focusing on one person’s impact, control, or influence over others. High need for power people like to work, respect institutional authority, are concerned with discipline and self-respect, and have high levels of social competence (Chusmir, 1989; McClelland, 1989).
2.5.4. Culture’s Influence on Motivation
It is generally agreed that that cultural forces shape a variety of personality constructs, including motivation. Kardiner deductively reasoned the underlying argument for culture shaping personality in 1939 (Hunt, 1967). Within one culture the early environment is similar, therefore important parts of a person’s personality will be similar within a culture.
Moreover, if the motives are determined be the culture then pictorial images will trigger similar motives to consumers from the same culture, especially when the menaing is interpreted at the symbolic level, which as described before is culture specific. For instance, a print advertisement with a picture of two businessmen working together in front of a computer could elicit an achievement interpretation among vertical idiocentrics and power interpretations among vertical allocentrics. An example of an achievement-oriented interpretation would be that the two businessmen are working on an original presentation that will beat out the competition. An example of a power-oriented interpretation would be that the senior businessman is instructing the junior businessman what to do on the computer (Callow, 2000).
2.6. Locus of control
Rotter (1966) and his colleagues developed the locus of control construct from the former’s (1954) social learning theory. Locus of control refers to individual differences in internal versus external control of reinforcements (Rotter, 1966). External locus of control see themselves as relatively passive agents and believe that the events in their lives are due to uncontrollable forces. Externals feel that the things they want to achieve are dependent on luck, chance, powerful persons or institutions. On the other hand, internals locus of control see themselves as active agents, feel that they are masters of their fates and trust in their capacity to influence the environment. Internals assume that they can control the events in their lives by effort and skill (Boone, Brabander de B., Witteloostuijn van A., 1996).
Internals when they are facing an unfamiliar situation are likely to engage in extensive trial-and-error behavior. As it has been shown by experimental research (Boone et al., 1991;
Lefcourt, 1982) a believer in mere luck and manipulation by uncontrollable forces cannot expect any significant pay-off from such behavior. Internals are more inclined to search for relevant information than externals, and seem to learn more from feedback and past experiences than externals (Phares, 1976). Moreover, internals generally perform better than externals in achievement-related domains such as career track and education (Andrisani and Nestel, 1976;
Lefcourt, 1982; O’Brien, 1984). Finally, according to Anderson and Schneier (1978) internal leaders are more task-oriented while externals are more emotion-oriented.
As it was mentioned above in the motivation framework, motivation refers to the intention, intensity, and persistence of behavior (Geen, 1995). It helps therefore in explaining the reasons of human behavior. Therefore, motives will influence the interpretation of advertisements of consumers. Therefore it can be conducted that the locus of control can also as a factor influence the interpretation of the advertisement. Motives are learned and developed in the early stages of childhood, the locus of control is an important personality dimension, and therefore it will influence the motives and finally the interpretation of advertisements. Concluding, locus of control as a way of seeing things can be linked with the motives of each person and in conclusion with the way of interpreting advertisements.
III. Hypothesis Development
In this chapter building on the literature and theory that was previously presented hypotheses will be derived predicting how the consumers of the two countries, Greece and Netherlands, will interpret and evaluate the visual advertisements.
3.1. Research Questions- Hypotheses
As it has been mentioned before as well, advertisers are relying on increasingly more complex visual images in print ads in order to break through the clutter, by developing a puzzle the target audience will hopefully solve. They are challenging the audience to “think into” the intended meaning of the pictorial appeal (Phillips, 1997, Dyer, 1982). These complex images often rely on implicit meaning.
The complexity of a visual image refers to the level of implicit versus explicit information that is needed in order to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of the advertisement’s message. A simple-visual image is a pictorial representation that relies predominantly on explicit meaning. This means that the picture is primarily a depiction of reality (for example more automobiles advertisements). On the other hand, a complex visual image is a pictorial representation that relies predominantly on implicit meaning. The picture is essentially a metaphor and the audience must figure it out. This implicitly communicated information is known as implicature (Phillips, 1997).
This studied proposes that audience’s from certain countries are better equipped than others to derive implicit meaning from complex visual images, based on Hall’s (1976) theory of High-Low context cultures, that was described in detail in the literature review.
Therefore the following Hypothesis has been will be tested:
Hypothesis 1: High context audiences will perceive a greater degree of implicit meaning from advertisements compared to low-context audiences.
This hypothesis addresses whether contextual communication styles play a significant role in a person’s ability to ”read into” the meaning of visual images in print ads.
Moreover these cultural dimensions will be linked to elements in advertisements. These elements refer to appeals (or sometimes referred to as values) used in advertisements across cultures, focusing on the more implicit values that are used in advertisements. Various researchers indicate that there is some difference in the usage of appeals (Dahl, 2004).
Finally, the effectiveness of independent-oriented and interdependent-oriented appeals in visual print ads depends in large part on the audience’s disposition towards individualism or collectivism. Indeed, previous research in cross-cultural advertising suggests that advertising themes and execution should reinforce the core cultural values of the target audience (Gregory and Munch, 1997; Biswas et al., 1992; Taylor et al., 1997). This research proposes, as it has also been proposed by the research by Callow and Schiffman (2004), that the audience’s perceived meaning of visual images will be affected by the potential development of implicit meaning.
People coming from individualistic countries are more expected to have independent behavior, while collectivistic countries are expected to have a more interdependent behavior. This can be as well, as described above as well, be transferred as well in the advertising environment, in terms of the interpretation and evaluation of visual appeals in print advertisements.
Therefore the following Hypothesis are made:
Hypothesis 2: Individualists are more likely to have a more positive attitude towards independent appeals in print advertisements.
Hypothesis 3: Collectivists are more likely to have a more positive attitude towards interdependent appeals in print advertisements.
In the research of Callow and Shiffman (2004) similar hypothesis were tested in their research. Their research though focused on the dimension of Hofstede, the level of individualism in these countries, as well as Hall’s theory of High/Low context cultures. In this research similar research objectives are formed but examining different countries, as it will examine Greece and Netherlands.
Another dimension that will be measured is the locus of control. This dimension is not liked with the culture, it is more a personal dimension and it will be as well tested. The link will be made with the appeal of the advertisements. Therefore, from the definition of locus of control and the distinction as described before between internal and external people, it can be assumed that internals will show a preference in advertisements which show more challenge appeals and personal achievements than the externals. Therefore the following Hypothesis will be tested
Hypothesis 4: The level of locus of control of a person is influenced by the gender, the age or the nationality of the person.
From this hypothesis an attempt will be made to connect the locus of control with three independent variables, the gender, the age and the nationality of the respondents.
Hypothesis 5: The level of locus of control influences the person’s attitude towards visual images in print advertisements.
The last hypothesis tries to connect the locus of control with the advertisement appeals used in this research, assuming that the locus of control would influence the preferences of the respondents. In the following figure (3.1) presents the way the hypothesis will be tested.
Figure 3.1. Hypotheses
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5 Context
• High-context
• Low-Context
Consumer’s Interpretation of Pictorial Appeal
• Task oriented achievement
• Ego oriented achievement
• Affiliation
• Power
Cultural orientation of consumer’s country
• Individualism
• Collectivism
Attitude towards the ad
• Cognitive
• Affective
Locus of Control
• Internals
• Externals
Demographics
• Gender
• Age
• Nationality
LOC statements
• Desire for achieving your goals
• Desire for meeting your destiny
IV. Method
4.1 Methodology
The methodological design needed to include subjects from high and low-context cultures; use pictorial stimuli that exhibited either explicitly independent or explicitly interdependent appeals; measure the level of individualism and collectivism within each subject and measure dependent variables relating to the subjects ability to develop meanings from the pictorial stimuli. Below a short description of the methodological design is described.
4.2. Sampling design
In this research no probability sample is used, this kind of sample in unrestricted and is called convenience sample. The main reason for using this method for the sampling design was the restriction of cost and feasibility. Limited by a Master Thesis research paper it wouldn’t be feasible to choose another method for sample, while students were the most approachable as well as representative for this study.
Therefore, undergraduate students were recruited from a Greek Business University (n=50, mean age=23.8) and from a Dutch Business University (n=61, mean age=21.4). Student samples are an appropriate population to use in this research, as it was needed to choose from groups of individuals that were similar on dimensions likely to influence a person’s ability to develop meanings from visual images (Calder et al, 1981). One potential dimension is education level, since better-educated and sophisticated people may find it easier to develop these meanings. It was therefore important to sample from groups of people with similar education levels. As in the researches of Callow and Schiffman (2002 and 2004) in order to control this educational factor it was attempted to choose two comparable universities. The Universities chosen for this research were similar as both are in the best ranking of each country. Also both universities require a good level of English in order to study business. This level is either defined by an official certificate, or with some extra language courses in the University.
4.3. Questionnaire
A questionnaire was developed to measure each subject’s reaction towards the advertisements that incorporated the pictorial stimuli. The advertisements will be included in the form of a booklet. The questionnaire will be given in English, as both student groups are fluent in English. It should be mentioned that the level of English of the undergraduate students in both
universities is excellent, as it necessary to acquire a good level of English when studying Business in both countries. This way this study avoids any methodological concerns regarding survey translation that cross-cultural researchers often face in terms of equivalency of measurement (McGorry, 2000). A translation of the questionnaire might influence the meaning of the questions and therefore the direct comparison between the different cultures. Especially inside the limits of a Master Thesis, professional translators cannot take part in the research. Therefore, the best solution in this case was to make the questionnaire in English.
The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The first section incorporated close- ended questions relating to the respondent’s interpretation and attitude towards each pictorial stimulus. The Second section focused on scale measuring each respondent’s cultural orientation and locus of control. The final section collected demographic information from the respondents.
The questionnaire took approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.
The four pictorial stimuli used in this research were used in the research made by Callow and Schiffman (2002 and 2004). The images were selected based on the use of social appeals in the print ad. The manipulation of independent versus interdependent appeals was operationalized in terms of the number of people that were present in the visual image (Aaker and Williams, 1998). For instance, a picture that features a person alone would be viewed as a metaphor for independence. Alternatively, a picture that depicts several people together would be seen as a metaphor for interdependence. One more picture was added as another male oriented interdependent appeal. This addition was made in order to avoid any confusion, as the one existing already in the research was not as clear in the depiction of the men interacting.
Moreover, this study focuses on the absence of copy (text) in the advertisements as it is interested in the pictorial element of the print advertisement.
The product category used is perfumes, since it is familiar product across the samples.
And also it was chosen in order to exclude the possibility of a product that is more focused on personal or social appeals. As product use conditions may determine whether an advertising appeal focuses on social or personal appeals (Zhang and Gelb, 1996). For instance, a camera is primarily used in social settings, so camera advertisements will tend to focus on collective appeals in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Therefore the perfumes were chosen as they are used both in social and personal settings and are familiar, readily available and used for the same purposes in both countries.
A neutral fictitious brand name –Laroy Monit- was used in all advertisements in order to control the brand name familiarity. The words Laroy and Monit don’t do not exist in either the Dutch or the Greek language; therefore they have no cultural meaning (Cheung, 1996).
Additionally, the pictorial stimuli were in black and white rather than color, in order to control any potential color symbolism among the samples. This was decided in order to avoid any cultural differences in meaning relating to color between the two countries, as it has been proved that differences do exist in the way people interpret the colors in different countries (Clarke and Honeycutt, 2000).
The questionnaire used in this research in included in the Appendix 1.
4.4. Independent appeal
Two of the advertisements were related to independent appeals. The first one (Appendix 1.1) shows a man by himself on top of a mountain, looking out over the horizon with the clouds beneath him. On the bottom is a cologne bottle on one side and on the other the logo: “Laroy Monit: Fragrance for Men”. The second independent oriented advertisement (Appendix 1.2) shows a woman in the middle of a leap in her living room. She is the only person in the room, and her two cats are on the couch watching her. The bottle of perfume is displayed on the inset in the bottom right hand corner. Underneath the product is the caption “Laroy Monit: Fragrance for women.”
4.5. Interdependent appeal
Three additional pictorial stimuli were selected as interdependent appeals. The first male oriented stimulus (Appendix 1.3) shows three men leaning against a fence. Two of them are not wearing shirts. The caption “Laroy Monit: Fragrance for men” and a cologne bottle on one side appear at the bottom. A second male oriented stimulus (Appendix 1.4) shows four men jumping in the countryside. The caption “Laroy Monit: Fragrance for men” and a cologne bottle on one side appear at the bottom. The female-oriented stimulus (Appendix 1.5) displays five women all dressed in white clothing and in a variety of poses. On the top right hand corner is the caption
“Laroy Monit: Fragrance for women.”
4.6.Attitude towards the Pictorial Stimuli
The first section of the survey asked the respondent to complete self-report Likert-type questions relating to his or her evaluation of each pictorial advertisement. Baker and Churchill (1977) Advertising Attitude Measurement scale is used to measure this variable. This scale was chosen for this study since it includes the cognitive and affective dimensions of attitude and has been used previously in cross-cultural research (Wilcox et al., 1996). The Likert-type scale used in this research included seven levels. The reason for choosing this kind of measurement is in
order to give the opportunity to the respondents to have equal choices of agreement and disagreement as well as the neutral choice. In this way the respondents are not forced to take a side for every question concerning the advertisements.
4.6.1. Cognitive Dimension
The first dimension focuses on the more cognitive aspects of a person’s evaluation of an advertisement. Subjects are asked the extent to which they agree that the advertisement in question is believable, informative and clear. The respondents had to complete self-report Likert- type questions of seven scales.
4.6.2. Affective Dimension
The second attitudinal dimension deals with the subject’s affective response to each pictorial stimulus. As with the cognitive dimension, the scale consists of semantic word differentials that focus on whether the advertisement is appealing, impressive, attractive and interesting. The respondents had to complete self-report Likert-type questions of seven scales.
4.6.3. Measure Assessment
The dimensionality of both scales was measured using factor analysis. An orthogonal rotation (varimax) was run to obtain a simple factor loading structure. All the affective dimensions as presented before, how impressive, interesting, appealing and attractive the ad is have loaded in one factor in all the first three advertisements. The other three dimensions, mentioned above as cognitive, how clear, informative and believable the advertisement is loaded in another factor for the advertisements two and three and in two for the first advertisement. In the last two advertisements all the dimensions loaded in one factor (appendix 3). The factor analysis output for the first male oriented interdependent stimulus is presented in the table below 4.1. All four items from the affective scale loaded on one factor, whereas the other three items from cognitive scale loaded on the second. In order to explain the way the factors are extracted, the underlined numbers, the highest in each case, show how each item is loaded in one of the two factors.
Table 4.1. Measurement for attitude towards Advertisements Rotated Component Matrix Advertisement 2
Component
1 2 How impressive the ad is (ad2) , 784 , 221
How clear the ad is (ad2) , 132 , 775
How interesting the ad is (ad2) , 876 , 140 How informative the ad is (ad2) , 199 , 811
How appealing the ad is (ad2) , 811 , 248 How believable the ad is (ad2) , 206 , 534
How attractive the ad is (ad2) , 866 , 253
Therefore, as it can be seen from the table above the dimension affective: included the items:
appealing, impressive, attractive and interesting and the dimension cognitive included the items believable, informative and clear. In the Table 4.2. below these results can be seen more clearly.
Table 4.2. Factor analysis for the Female oriented independent stimulus
4.7. Interpretation of Advertising Appeals
Several self-report scales were also included to determine whether the subject felt that the metaphorical content of the advertisement relates to particular motives of interest in this study.
The items included in the questionnaire focus on appeals relating to task oriented achievement, ego oriented achievement, affiliation, and power.
4.7.1. Task Oriented Achievement Appeal
Task oriented achievement deals with the consumer’s internalized standard of excellence.
The consumer sets his or her own standards for success, and does not make comparisons with others to evaluate performance. The three items that were included to measure this variable were:
The desire for personal challenge, the desire for meeting one’s own expectations and the desire for independence. The respondents had to complete self-report Likert-type questions of seven scales.
4.7.2. Ego Oriented Achievement Appeal
Ego oriented achievement deals with a person’s standard of success that is externalized by comparing performance to others. Unlike task oriented achievement, this motive is not internalized, and consists of competing with others. The three items used to measure this variable were: the desire for rivalry, the desire for competition and the desire for winning. The respondents had to complete self-report Likert-type questions of seven scales.
Dimension Item Factor 1 Factor 2
Affective Impressing , 784 , 221
Interesting , 876 , 140
Appealing , 811 , 248
Attractive , 866 , 253
Cognitive Clear , 132 , 775
Informative , 199 , 811
Beleivable , 206 , 534
