The effectiveness of alignment advertising on customer engagement:

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The effectiveness of alignment advertising on customer engagement:

A study analysing the impact of congruence between

the advertised brand and a social issue

Department of Marketing Master Thesis

January 15, 2018

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The effectiveness of alignment advertising on customer engagement:

A study analysing the impact of congruence between

the advertised brand and a social issue

Department of Marketing Master Thesis January 15, 2018 Katharina Lubbe | s3244628 Boterdiep 9, 9712 LH Groningen, NL k.lubbe@student.rug.nl +49 176 84185873

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Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors for their guidance and support throughout this research process.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents. Without their ever-lasting support and love, I would not be able to stand where I am today.

Thank you,

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Abstract

As a feasible marketing communication tool, alignment advertising allows companies to communicate a variety of social initiatives. The congruence between the company’s activities and the social initiative has shown to be one of the main factors influencing the way consumers react to a campaign. Nevertheless, many companies develop either wittingly or unwittingly advertising mentioning incongruent issues. A body of literature showed that effects of the level of congruence on consumers’ behaviors and attitudes are ambiguous.

As such, the main objective of this study was to further analyze the effects of alignment advertising on customer engagement, while focusing on the role of (in)congruence between a company’s core business and the social initiative. Through a controlled experiment, our study revealed that an alignment ad mentioning a congruent issue, compared with a similar one mentioning an incongruent issue, had a more positive effect on customer engagement.

Moreover, literature suggests that customer engagement depends on several factors, such as consumers’ involvement or attitude towards the company. As these factors could influence the effect of congruency level on consumer responses, we have also included these constructs in our research. The findings, however, did not show any influence neither of involvement nor attitude on the relationship between congruence and customer engagement.

To conclude, our findings contribute to the literature in the field of (online) advertising effectiveness, especially in the field of alignment advertising, in terms of giving implications into how messages should better be converted in order to create an authentic corporation image.

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Table of Figures

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework ... 6

Figure 2: Mediation effect of attitude towards brand. ... 20

Figure 3: Mediation effect of attitude towards product. ... 21

Figure 4: Mediation effect of attitude towards issue. ... 21

Figure 5: Mediation effect of attitude towards brand. ... 22

Figure 6: Mediation effect of attitude towards product. ... 22

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1 Introduction

The global rise of the Internet has lead to a shift from traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers, and magazines to online social channels, such as Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. Social media channels have become ubiquitous, and are not only elementary communication mediums for societies (Oh et al., 2017), but have also changed the ways individuals exchange information, and communicate with each other (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). As such, consumer-to-consumer interactions increasingly gained importance (Libai et al., 2010).

Online channels have become one of the most important communication tools for companies that aim to enhance individuals’ awareness about their social marketing efforts (Colleoni, 2013). Due to the rise of customer’s expectations for companies to be socially engaged (De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017), social marketing has steadily gained importance in today’s world, and is defined as the “systematic application of marketing alongside other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific goals, for a social good” (Kotler et al., 2009, p. 794). In order to communicate social issues, many companies engage in alignment advertising, meaning that both the brand and a social message are promoted at the same time (Park, Hitchon & Yun, 2004; Schmidt & Hitchon, 1999). In times when approaching consumers can be a challenging task, and their trust in corporations steadily decreased (Kotler et al., 2009), the augmented importance of word-of-mouth (WOM) due to the popularity, as well as immense reach of online communication media, gives companies the opportunity to actively engage in social media channels in order to recruit individuals for their cause and turn them into advocates. When successfully converted, an advocate can be a highly informal, nonetheless a credible communication channel, especially in terms of social marketing efforts (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010).

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effectively (Beckmann, 2007; Hoeffler & Keller, 2002; Kotler et al., 2009). Although congruence between the company’s activities and social initiative is one of the main factors influencing consumers’ reaction towards a campaign (Garcia-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017), many organizations either wittingly or unwittingly develop incongruent advertising, as for example Johnnie Walker addressing the topic of refugees in its campaign “Ode to Lesvos”, or McDonald’s approaching the subject of child bereavement, in which a boy’s mood only improves after knowing that he is eating his dead father’s favorite sandwich (Siddique, 2017). Both campaigns induced different consumer responses: while Johnnie Walker’s campaign message was consistent and received lots of public attention, it was easily spread on social channels, thus earning strong and authentic positive customer engagement (Etter 2016; McCrum, 2016; Oster, 2016), McDonald’s campaign was confronted with complaints, and even had to withdraw the ad (Siddique, 2017).

One of the reasons for this is the controversy of companies engaging in social issues since organizations often like to present themselves as something, which they are not, and thus perceived by the public as corporate hypocrisy (Wagner, Lutz & Weitz, 2009). Company’s social marketing initiatives are often perceived as self-interested rather than pure philanthropic behavior (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010), which leads to a lack of honesty in the organization’s intentions (Yoon et al., 2006), as well as stakeholder skepticism (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; Garcia-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017; Shim, Chung & Kim, 2017). Consequently, this decreases the company’s reputation, and causes not only negative attitudinal, but also behavioral responses towards the organization (Shim, Chung & Kim, 2017).

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potential for further works and studies. As brands are increasingly connecting with consumers in online media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, it is important to study engagement in these virtual environments (Rosenthal & Brito, 2017; Van Doorn et al., 2010). Accordingly, findings of our study will contribute to the literature in the field of (online) advertising effectiveness, as well as in the field of alignment advertising, while also giving implications into how messages should better be converted in order to create an authentic corporation image, and thus acquire increased customer engagement.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Conceptual Framework

In this section we illustrate the conceptual framework that visualizes the effect of congruence level of alignment advertising on customer engagement. As visualized in Figure 1, it is suggested that the effect, which we expect to be both positive and negative depending on the congruence level, is moderated by involvement with the brand, product, and issue, as well as mediated by attitude towards the brand, product, and issue. Moreover, we expect that both variables will have a positive influence on the effect of level of congruence on customer engagement. Furthermore, we include skepticism towards advertising and disposition towards social media as control variables.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

Level of congruence

Customer engagement • Likes, shares, comments • Facebook fan page

Skepticism towards advertising Disposition towards social media Involvement with • Brand • Product • Issue Attitude towards • Brand • Product • Issue H1 +/– H3 + H2 +

Proposed main and

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In the following sections, we will present the literature, which will begin with describing the development of customer engagement in a digital environment, followed by the importance of socially responsible marketing in today’s societies, which increasingly expect companies to socially engage. Furthermore, we will focus on alignment advertising as a way for companies to show their commitment to socially responsible activities, while also focusing on the theory behind the impact of congruence level can have on consumer responses. In a last step, we will present the literature on attitude and involvement since these variables may also explain why the effect of congruence is positive, or negative in some studies.

2.2 Customer engagement in a digital environment

Nowadays, the Internet has increasingly facilitated companies to enhance stakeholder awareness due to the possibility of sharing content (Colleoni, 2013). Social media channels, such as Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, have not only enabled companies to quickly assess a larger audience, but have also shown to be a feasible platform that supports customer engagement behavior initiatives (Libai et al., 2010). Van Doorn et al. (2010) define customer engagement as “the customer’s behavioral manifestations toward a brand or firm, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers” (p. 253). Firm-generated content has shown to have a significant positive impact on customers’ behavior (Kumar et al., 2016) as it induces positive attitudes towards the company, as well as promotional viral outcomes through sharing comments, or referrals (Brodie et al., 2011). Nevertheless, the effect depends on different factors, such as customers’ disposition towards social media, or response to the message (Kumar et al., 2016), their skepticism towards advertising (Park, Hitchon & Yun, 2004), attitudinal antecedents, as for example brand commitment or attachment (Van Doorn et al., 2010), as well as their involvement for example with the product, or message (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; King, Racherla & Bush, 2014).

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receivers of communication to playing an active role in the creation as well as judgment of content (Dellarocas, 2003).

Although the Internet represents a great potential for companies, it can also pose an enormous challenge since the channel is not a “one way road” and allows instant feedback (Colleoni, 2013). On the one hand, stimulating online customer engagement induces efficient as well as effective value creation, and also enhances customer relationships. But on the other hand, it also empowers customers to destroy value when their responses do not coincide with the company’s goals (Hoyer et al., 2010; Libai et al., 2010; Verhoef, Reinartz & Krafft, 2010). Consequently, online customer engagement has shown to also have a negative spiral since negative responses emerge in greater amount (Hewett et al., 2016), as for example Pepsi’s campaign, in which the company aims to encourage unity, illustrates a supermodel handing a Pepsi to a police officer during a protest march, and achieving to make everybody cheer. Due to the negative responses from the general public as the ad was criticized for using imagery from social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, Pepsi had to withdraw the ad (Adams, 2017; Monllos, 2017).

2.3 Socially responsible marketing

With the aim of turning away from high-pressure sales strategies, social marketing is an umbrella term to delineate marketing strategies deployed to the improvement of society. Organizations engage in social marketing not only to participate in a dignified cause but also to enhance its public image (Kotler et al., 2009; Schmidt & Hitchon, 1999; Solomon et al., 2010). An effective implementation of social marketing activities must be compatible with a persuasive sense of social responsibility, values, and ethics (Kotler et al., 2009). Due to several reasons, such as increasing customer expectations for companies to socially engage (De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017), or restricted government legislation (Kotler et al., 2009), social marketing has become increasingly important as an essential element of business activities (Korschun, Bhattacharya & Swain, 2014; Shim, Chung & Kim, 2017) as it allows companies to gain higher prominence in stakeholders’ intentions of the purchase of goods and services. Social marketing practices cover two types of responsibilities: firstly, companies have commercial responsibilities, namely to manage a successful business, and secondly, they also possess social responsibilities, which are understood as their responsibilities towards the society and community (Solomon et al., 2010).

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better evaluated (Garcia-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017), and customers create a higher emotional bond with companies that give the possibility to do good (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). Thus, this not only enables companies to generate loyalty, but also to foster advocacy conducts, such as positive UGC (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010).

Nevertheless, the effectiveness of social marketing activities may be questionable since the general public often observes many activities with skepticism (De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017; Garcia-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017; Shim, Chung & Kim, 2017). Consumers may perceive the company’s activities either as social, or self-interested due to the fact that the only purpose of the organization may be to increase its profits (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore & Hill, 2006). As such, if the purpose of a company is to raise awareness of social initiatives, as well as to create brand equity, it must understand how to develop effective communication strategies (Hur et al., 2014). That is, companies are required to communicate initiatives that comply with its core business (Abitbol & Lee, 2017; De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017).

2.3.1 Alignment advertising

As one of the most adequate and effective mediums to illustrate social marketing activities to consumers (Park, Hitchon & Yun, 2004), companies often engage in alignment advertising, in which both the brand and a social issue are actively communicated (Schmidt & Hitchon, 1999). As a way of promoting a “social cause at the same time as it promotes a brand or its profit-oriented corporation as sponsor of the cause” (Park, Hitchon & Yun, 2004, p.750), alignment advertising evokes more favorable reactions than brand advertising not only with regard to attitude towards the brand, but also considering purchase likelihood, as well as credibility. Thus, it can be a feasible marketing communication tool for corporations aiming for higher profits (Park, Hitchon & Yun, 2004; Schmidt & Hitchon, 1999).

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2.3.2 Schema congruence theory

In 1989, the brand United Colors of Benetton developed an advertising illustrating a black and white man handcuffed together, which lead to many critics, as it was perceived as racist. The general public’s prior suppositions forged the meaning of the campaign, which was the main purpose of the brand: it wanted people to realize their liability for prejudice by exposing them to an ambiguous picture (Solomon et al., 2010). This example illustrates the result of “an organized collection of beliefs and feelings represented in a cognitive category” (Solomon et al., 2010, p.651), known as schemas, which not only affect consumers’ selection, but also interpretation and integration of acquired information (Harmon-Kizer, 2017). Individuals tend to categorize information with similar attributes, and evaluate new information with regard to their expectation of an activated category (Harmon-Kizer, 2017; Solomon et al., 2010). As such, schemas direct the processing of external information, which may either be congruent or incongruent with the prior knowledge structure. The first indicates the degree to which consumers perceive a link between the information and the company’s core business (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001), while the latter refers to information that is contradictory to prior expectations based on schematic knowledge (Schmidt & Hitchon, 1999).

When developing an alignment ad, a company can decide on what to present, as well as how to present it (Abitbol & Lee, 2017). The level of congruence between a social initiative and the company’s core business plays a major role in the way consumers respond to social activities as it influences their CSR attributions (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; García-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017; Menon & Kahn, 2003; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). Different studies show that the effects of the congruency level on consumers’ behaviors and attitudes are ambiguous (e.g. Abitbol & Lee, 2017; De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017; Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; García-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017; Harmon-Kizer, 2017; Menon & Kahn, 2003; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001), and suggest that the effect of schema congruity depends on consumers’ motivation and ability to elaborate on the incongruence (Harmon-Kizer, 2017).

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Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017) since “the more consumers think about the brand’s persuasion tactics, the less likely it is to result in a favorable evaluation” (Menon & Kahn, 2003, p.325). Although stakeholders generally show increased engagement with companies that promote social issues linked to the corporate’s core activities, literature exceptionally showed some cases of consumer reactions, where a minimal level of incongruence caused better responses (De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017; Harmon-Kizer, 2017) since certain topics are generally engaging, as for example health or education (Abitbol & Lee, 2017). But, in general, it can be underlined that congruence and positive perception of consistency in communication increases the probability of positive consumer reactions. These findings induce a further examination of the different effects of the level of congruence on consumer responses towards alignment advertising. As such, we have formulated the following hypothesis for this study:

H1: Congruence between an alignment advertising and the advertised brand leads to higher

positive customer engagement than incongruence.

2.4 Attitude

Strong brands are able to develop and establish a sustainable emotional relation with their target groups. Since emotions play a major role in consumer decisions, brands are expected to exceed certain product benefits and invade individual’s emotions (Pansari & Kumar, 2017) in order to obtain an enhanced attitudinal commitment as well as purchase loyalty (Matzler, Bidmon & Grabner-Kräuter, 2006). Furthermore, the brand value, which is defined as the “differential effect of a customer’s brand knowledge, brand attitude, brand purchase intention, and brand behavior on his or her response to the marketing of a brand” (Pansari & Kumar, 2017, p.301), influences customers’ indirect commitment, such as referrals or discussions on social media (Pansari and Kumar, 2017). As brand value also comprises brand attitude, we will focus in this study in greater detail on attitudes, which are defined as a “learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object” (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975, p. 6). Attitudes do not only affect psychological processes, in particular learning, perception, and thinking, but also the quality of evaluation and purchase behavior (Grebitus et al., 2015; Trommsdorff, 2003).

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López-López, 2017). Moreover, although some studies show that the fit between the company’s activities and social initiative does not have an effect on consumers’ attitudes since it appears to only be relevant between individuals’ sense of self and the company’s altruistic activities (Hoek & Gendall, 2008; Lafferty, 2009), the majority of studies illustrate that social initiatives, which are congruent with the company’s core business, not only enhance consumers’ attitudes towards the company (e.g. Barone, Norman & Miyazaki, 2007; Bigné-Alcañiz, Currás-Pérez & Sánchez-García, 2009; Ellen, Webb & Mohr, 2006; Hamiln & Wilson, 2004; Nan & Heo, 2007; Simmons and Becker-Olsen, 2006) and the activity (Gupta & Pirsch, 2006; Lafferty, Goldsmith & Hult, 2004; Trimble & Rifon, 2006), but also increase referral intentions (García-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya & López-López, 2017; Simmons & Becker-Olsen, 2006).

In a somewhat related area, García-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya and López-López (2017) did not find an effect of attitude towards the campaign as a mediator variable in the relationship between congruence and purchase intention, as well as recommendation. Nevertheless, Rivera, Bigne and Curras-Perez (2016) still suggest that there is a direct, as well as an indirect effect of social messages on customer satisfaction through consumers’ attitudes. Thus, this suggests that the effect of the level of congruence of an alignment ad on customer engagement may be indirect. That is, the variable attitude reflects the process between the level of congruence and customer engagement. As such, we expect that when a company promotes a specific social issue, which is perceived as congruent to the company’s core business, this will induce a more positive attitude towards the company, and its products, and consequently increase customer engagement. Therefore, it is posited that:

H2a: Attitude towards the (a) brand, (b) product, and (c) social issue mediates the influence of

congruence on customer engagement.

H2b: Congruent alignment advertising produces more favorable attitudes towards the (a)

brand, (b) product, and (c) issue than incongruent alignment advertising.

2.5 Involvement

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motivation to process a higher number of cognitive information (Eroglu, Machleit & Davis, 2001; Kotler et al., 2009; Solomon et al., 2010), and are thus more committed during the decision process, as well as more likely to be attentive to the products’ advertising (Kroeber -Riel & Gröppel-Klein, 2013; Solomon et al., 2010). However, a high level of involvement during the purchase situation is rarely the case. As such, the latter emerges when a stimulus is not perceived as relevant regarding the satisfaction of consumers’ needs, and consequently less attention will be given to the information (Eroglu, Machleit & Davis, 2001; Solomon et al., 2010). As for example, a consumer, who is deeply concerned with environmental issues, will try to find out all sorts of information about the topic, while another person will not show much interest towards the background of a product (Solomon et al., 2010).

Moreover, the level of involvement with a persuasive ad influences individuals’ attitude. Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann (1983) show in an experiment that by varying the amount of arguments in a persuasive ad, participants in the high-involvement condition, compared to participants in the low-involvement condition, only change their attitude based on the quality of the arguments rather than on the number of arguments. The involvement with a stimulus, as for example a brand, induces a continuous psychological commitment in terms of not only thoughts and feelings, but also following behaviors. Highly involved consumers are more likely to show positive responses with regard to marketing activities attempting to offer a personalized experience. As such, customers, who are more involved with specific brands, will consequently be more loyal to those brands (Bowden, 2009).

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type of information processing evoked by ads (e.g., Muehling, Laczniak & Stoltman, 1991; Park, Lee & Han, 2007; Petty, Cacioppo & Schumann, 1983). Accordingly, we phrase the following hypothesis:

H3: Involvement with the brand, product and social issue enhances the influence of

congruence on customer engagement.

3 Research design

3.1 Pre-test

A pre-test was conducted online by sending respondents an e-mail with a Web address of a questionnaire. The pre-test was conducted with 28 subjects. Firstly, the pre-test served to verify a strong enough manipulation of the level of congruence as well as to assure that both social issues are perceived by individuals as equally important. Similarly to the study of Schmidt and Hitchon (1999), the level of congruence between the company and the social issue was measured using a seven-point semantic differential scale comprising three items. Participants had to indicate whether they believe the company and the issue are strongly related / not related at all, connected / not connected, and if they can see any associations. A one-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference in the evaluation of congruence between the company and the issue (Mcongruent = -.558,

Mincongruent = .644, F(1,27) = 15.47, p = .001). Moreover, subjects were asked to indicate in three

items, which were adopted from the study of Menon and Kahn (2003), the perceived relevance of the social message. Participants had to indicate the relevance and seriousness of the issue, as well as if the message is effective in increasing awareness. This construct was measured on a scale ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (7). A one-way ANOVA showed that participants in the congruent (M = -.365) and incongruent (M = .421) conditions perceived the issues differently in importance (F(1,27) = 4.936, p = .035). Finally, participants had to indicate on a seven-point scale

ranging from very much (1) to not at all (7), to what extent they like the brand used for the study. This served as a way to avoid possible differences between both alignment ads, which could be influenced by given preferences about the brand (Park, Hitchon & Yun, 2004). The results showed that participants of the pre-test liked the brand Coca-Cola (M = 2.11, SD = .629).

3.2 Method

3.2.1 Design

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between-experimental groups were exposed either to a congruent or incongruent social issue, whereas participants in the control group were not exposed to a social issue.

3.2.2 Stimuli

Participants were exposed to Facebook content presented within its natural setting with the aim of assuring naturalness of the stimuli. With more than 1.39 billion active users per month (Oh et al., 2017), Facebook turned out to be a suitable site for the purpose of this study since we assume that the majority of participants is acquainted with the network. As a platform that allows users to engage with the company as well as with other consumers by sending messages, sharing content such as links, photos and videos, or commenting content and posting likes, we assumed that all subjects are familiar with these activities.

The stimulus developed for this study was an image illustrating a social issue, which was either congruent or incongruent to the company’s core business. In order to avoid any confounding effects, it was extremely important to create similar stimuli across all three conditions. That is, the same image was used in all conditions, same publishing date of the Facebook post, and the numbers of words as well as the page layout looked akin. Moreover, the aim was to let participants believe the image was just published, and did therefore not contain any likes and comments in order to avoid possible influences on the evaluation of the Facebook post (see Appendix A).

In order to generate effects, both conditions required conspicuous issues. For this study, we have chosen Coca-Cola as the publisher of the content since it is a brand that is known to the majority of consumers, and thus improves ecological validity of the study. Participants in the congruent condition were exposed to the brand promoting its support of recycling, while subjects in the incongruent condition saw an image, in which the brand is promoting support to refugees. In the control group, participants were exposed to a neutral issue, namely the campaign of the brand “Taste the Feeling”.

3.2.3 Procedure

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or money in exchange. After being allocated to one of the cubicles in the lab and being introduced to the study, subjects were assigned randomly to one of the conditions, in which they saw one of the advertisements posted by the brand on Facebook, including either a congruent, incongruent, or no issue related to social marketing. Subsequently, subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire. As soon as participants filled out the questionnaire, they were debriefed and thanked for taking part of the study.

3.2.4 Measurement

Dependent variable. The behavior of interest in this study is whether participants are likely to like, share and comment on shared content in social media channels. Due to the fact that customer engagement can objectively be measured (Abitbol & Lee, 2017), no scales measuring customer engagement on social media in terms of like, share, and comment exist to the best of our knowledge. Since in our experiment we intend to study customers’ intentions to engage, we developed scales based on chapter 2.2, as well as on the theory of planned behavior since intentions are good predictors of behavior (Ajzen, 1991). The dependent variable was measured on a scale comprising five items, of which four were evaluated on a seven-point Likert-scale (see Table 2), ranging from very likely (1) to not at all likely (7). A reliability analysis of the five items (Cronbach’s alpha = .554) showed that when deleting the second item, which asked participants which of the “like”-buttons (Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry) they would use, the internal consistency between the items increased (Cronbach’s alpha = .711). As such, this item was deleted from the scale, and a new reliability analysis was conducted without the item (see Table 1).

Moderator and mediator. Existing validated scales, which will be adjusted accordingly to the objective of our study, will be used to measure further constructs of this study (see Table 1). Based on the study of Park, Hitchon and Yun (2004), who adjusted the scale from Zaichkowsky (1994), the construct involvement with the brand, product, and issue will each consist of six items measured on a seven-point semantic differential scale. The attitude towards the brand and product will be evaluated using four seven-point semantic differential scales (Nan & Heo, 2007). The attitude towards the social issue will be assessed using a four seven-point semantic differential scale (Lafferty & Goldsmith, 2005).

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week, once a day, several times a day, once an hour, several times an hour, all the time) (Rosen et al. 2013).

Manipulation check. In order to verify if the congruency between the issue and the company was successfully manipulated, participants of the study were asked to state to what extent they agreed with the following two statements: (1) I think that the issue Coca-Cola addresses in the Facebook post represents a good match between the product and the issue, and (2) I think that Coca-Cola addressing the issue is appropriate (Nan & Heo, 2007).

Table 1: Constructs and measures of study.

Construct Item Factor loadings Cronbach’s alpha

Customer engagement It is likely that I will click the like-button. It is likely that I will comment the image. It is likely that I will share the Facebook post. I am likely to become a fan of the company’s

Facebook page. .569 .971 .917 .66 .737

Involvement with brand Relevant to me – Not relevant to me Not important – Important

Of no concern to me – Of concern to me Matters to me – Doesn’t matter to me Involving – Not involving

Means a lot to me – Means nothing to me

.832 .876 .884 .771 .879 .865 .923

Involvement with product Relevant to me – Not relevant to me Not important – Important

.881 .921 .918 .833 .905 .898 .949

Involvement with issue Relevant to me – Not relevant to me Not important – Important

.866 .915 .915 .842 .878 .892 .944

Attitude towards brand Unfavorable – Favorable Negative – Positive Dislike – Like

Socially irresponsible – Socially responsible

.926 .934 .935 .715

.904

Attitude towards product Unfavorable – Favorable Negative – Positive Dislike – Like

Socially irresponsible – Socially responsible

.937 .944 .936 .684

.904

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Skepticism towards advertising

We can depend on getting the truth in most advertisement.

Advertising’s aim is to inform the consumer. I believe advertising is informative.

Advertising is generally truthful.

Advertising is a reliable source of information about the quality and performance of products.

Advertising is truth well told.

In general, advertising presents a true picture of the product being advertised. I feel I’ve been accurately informed after

viewing most advertisements. Most advertising provides consumers with

essential information. .693 .572 .623 .749 .748 .793 .704 .738 .56 .854

Disposition towards social media/ Facebook

Read social media postings

Comment on social media postings, status updates, photos, etc.

Click “like” to a social media posting, photo, etc.

Check Facebook page or other social networks Browse social media profiles and photos Post social media status updates Post social media photos

.745 .68 .753 .761 .78 .549 .615 .826

Note: Factor loading should exceed critical threshold of 0.5.

Data preparation. Before starting the analyses, it was first necessary to prepare the data and make several adjustments. Since individuals tend to pay less attention when positively, or negatively connoted adjectives are each illustrated on the same side, the semantic differential requires to visualize both positive, as well as negative items on both sides (Raab et al., 2004). As such, as a first step, variables comprising the semantic differentials were recoded (not important-important, of no concern to me-of concern to me, not involving-involving, negative-positive, dislike-like, unfavorable-favorable) by specifying each value, as for example a 1 was recoded to 7, 2 to 6, and so on. Moreover, the experimental variable with three different categories (= congruent, incongruent, and no issue) implied to create two dichotomous variables, in which the control group (= no issue) was set as the reference category.

4 Results

4.1 Manipulation check

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as well as a significant effect of the perceived appropriateness of the company addressing the social issue (Mcontrol = 3.41, Mcongruent = 2.99, Mincongruent = 3.57, F(2,223) = 3.869, p = .022). As such, the

findings show a successful manipulation of the congruence between the issue and the company.

4.2 Control variables

The results from the ANOVA conducted on skepticism towards advertising (F(1,225) = 33.052,

p = .000) and disposition towards social media (F(1,225) = 9.561, p = .002) indicated that there is a

significant effect on customer engagement. As such, the control variables have been included in every subsequent model.

4.3 Main effect of level of congruence

The results of an ANCOVA showed that a significant main effect emerged, and indicated a significant difference among the means of the treatment conditions (Mcontrol = .071, Mcongruent = .097,

Mincongruent = -.168, F(2,221) = 3.826, p = .023). The results confirmed that customer engagement

significantly differs between the levels of congruence since congruence positively, and incongruence negatively influences our dependent variable. A further ANCOVA was conducted, in which participants in the congruent condition were compared to the control group. The results revealed a significant difference between viewers exposed to a congruent issue and participants in the control group (Mcongruent = .097, Mcontrol = -.048, F(1,222) = 3.301, p = .071). Furthermore, a third

ANCOVA indicated a significant difference between the incongruent group and the control group (Mincongruent = -.168, Mcontrol = .084, F(1,222) = 7.34, p = .007). Regarding our first hypothesis, it was

necessary to conduct another ANCOVA in order to look at differences between alignment ads mentioning a congruent issue and alignment ads mentioning an incongruent issue. The results revealed a significant difference between viewers exposed to a congruent issue and viewers exposed to an incongruent issue (Mcongruent = .097, Mincongruent = -.168, F(1,146) = 5.916, p = .016). Thus, H1 is

supported.

4.4 Mediating effect of attitude

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Table 2: Structural assessment of model Attitude

towards Relation

Path Model

β t-Value p-Value R2 _F-Value _p-Value

Brand Congruence – CE Congruence – Attitude Attitude – CE Incongruence – CE Incongruence – Attitude Attitude – CE .2188 .1148 .1587 -.3302 -.1317 .1538 1.6916 .886 2.3724 -2.5716 -1.0168 2.317 .0921 .3766 .0185 .0108 .3103 .0214 .1693 .1808 .1899 .1839 .1817 .2033 15.0831 16.3311 12.9553 16.68 16.4321 14.0983 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 Product Congruence – CE Congruence – Attitude Attitude – CE Incongruence – CE Incongruence – Attitude Attitude – CE .236 .0648 .0162 -.351 .0265 .0223 1.804 .4838 .2467 .2.7081 .1978 .344 .0726 .629 .8054 .0073 .8434 .7311 .1693 .1252 .1695 .1839 .1244 .1844 15.0831 10.5869 11.2797 16.68 10.5127 12.4899 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 Issue Congruence – CE Congruence – Attitude Attitude – CE Incongruence – CE Incongruence – Attitude Attitude – CE .2671 -.3999 .0753 -.4043 .5331 .1011 2.0102 -2.9592 1.1639 -3.0283 4.0048 1.5551 .0456 .0034 .2457 .0028 .0001 .1214 .1693 .1086 .1744 .1839 .1359 .1928 15.0831 9.0149 11.6691 16.68 11.6344 13.1945 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 Note: CE = Customer engagement

In a first step, we set congruence between the alignment advertising and the advertised brand as the independent variable, as well as attitude towards the brand, product, or issue (separately) as the mediators. Moreover, we maintained both control variables skepticism towards advertising and disposition towards social media in the analyses. The mediation analysis indicated a significant direct effect of congruence on customer engagement for all models (β = .237, t(222) = 1.8168, p = .0706). As visualized in Figure 3, attitude towards the brand, and congruence mediated by attitude towards the brand have a significant effect on customer engagement. Nevertheless, the effect of congruence on attitude towards the brand, as well as the indirect effect has shown not to be significant. Thus, the analysis did not reveal mediation through attitude towards the brand.

*p < 0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; dashed line indicates indirect effect

Congruence Customer engagement

Attitude towards brand

a =.1148 b =.1587**

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Moreover, Figure 4 illustrates that there is no mediation through attitude towards product. Although the effect of congruence mediated by attitude on customer engagement is significant, the effects of congruence on attitude, and attitude on customer engagement have shown insignificant results. Furthermore, the indirect effect of the mediator is also not significant.

*p < 0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; dashed line indicates indirect effect Figure 3: Mediation effect of attitude towards product.

As illustrated in Figure 5, congruence has a significant effect on attitude towards the issue, as well as a significant effect on customer engagement mediated by attitude towards the issue. Yet, the effects of attitude towards the issue on customer engagement, and the indirect effect are not significant. Thus, there is no mediation through the attitude towards the issue.

*p < 0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; dashed line indicates indirect effect Figure 4: Mediation effect of attitude towards issue.

In a second step, we set incongruence between the alignment advertising and the advertised brand as the independent variable, as well as attitude towards the brand, product, or issue (separately) as the mediators, while maintaining both control variables skepticism towards advertising and disposition towards social media in the analyses. The direct effect of incongruence on customer engagement revealed to be significant for the three models (β = .3504, t(222) = -2.7092, p = .0073). As presented in Figure 7, there is a significant effect of attitude towards the brand and incongruence mediated by the attitude on customer engagement. Nevertheless, the effect of incongruence on attitude towards the brand, as well as the indirect effect is not significant. As such, there is no mediation through the attitude towards the brand.

Attitude towards product

a =.0648 b =.0162

c’ =.236* .001

Attitude towards issue

a =-.3999*** _{b =.0753}

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Figure 5: Mediation effect of attitude towards brand.

Figure 8 visualizes that there is no mediation through the attitude towards the product. Apart from the effect of incongruence mediated by the attitude towards the product, the effect of incongruence on attitude towards the product, as well as the influence of attitude on customer engagement were not significant. The indirect effect of the mediator was also insignificant.

Figure 6: Mediation effect of attitude towards product.

The analysis regarding the mediator attitude towards the issue showed significant results of the effect of incongruence on attitude towards the issue, and the effect of incongruence mediated by attitude on customer engagement. Yet, there was no significant effect of attitude on customer engagement, nor an indirect effect of the mediator. Thus, there is no mediation through attitude towards the issue.

Figure 7: Mediation effect of attitude towards issue.

Incongruence Customer engagement

Attitude towards brand

a =-.1317 _{b =.1538**}

c’ =-.3302** -.0203

Attitude towards product

a =.0265 _{b =.0223}

c’ =-.351*** .0006

Attitude towards issue

a =.5331*** _{b =.1011}

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4.5 Moderating effect of involvement

Since involvement is a continuous variable, we ran a regression analysis to test whether involvement enhances the influence of congruence on customer engagement. Yet, before doing so, we first checked if there were any multicollinearity issues. As this was not the case, we did not have to mean-center our continuous variable. The results of the regression analyses showed that involvement with the brand (β = .224, t(222) = 2.15, p = .033), product (β = .208, t(222) = 1.952, p = .052), as well as issue (β = .263, t(222) = 2.524, p = .012) have an influence on customer engagement. Nevertheless, the interaction term of congruence and involvement with the brand (β = .092, t(222) = .606, p = .545), product (β = .011, t(222) = .071, p = .943), and issue (β = -.163, t(222) = -.992, p = .322) does not have an effect on customer engagement. Thus, H3 is not confirmed.

5 Discussion

As a feasible marketing communication tool, alignment advertising allows companies to communicate diverse social initiatives. Congruence between the company’s activities and the social initiative has shown to be one of the main factors positively influencing the way consumers react to a campaign. Nonetheless, many companies either wittingly or unwittingly develop advertising mentioning incongruent issues. A variety of studies showed that the effects of a campaign’s congruence level on consumers’ behaviors and attitudes appear to be ambiguous. Such being the case, the main objective of this study was to further analyze the effects of alignment advertising on customer engagement, while taking into account the role of (in)congruence between a company’s core business and the social initiative. Whereas customer engagement depends on several different factors, as for example consumers’ involvement or attitude towards a company, which could influence the effect of congruency level on our dependent variable, we have also taken into consideration these constructs in our analyses.

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result contributes to the body of literature emphasizing that alignment ads are more successful when congruent with the company’s core business, thus positively influencing the reason to believe in the campaign.

Furthermore, we hypothesized that the attitude towards the brand, product, or issue mediates the influence of congruence on customer engagement. According to literature, social initiatives congruent to a company’s core business not only enhance consumers’ attitudes towards the company and activity, but also increase referral intentions. Hence, we expected that when a company promotes a message mentioning a congruent social issue, this would have induced a more positive attitude towards the company, and its products, and consequently increased customer engagement. Similarly to the study of Garcia-Jiménez, Ruiz-de-Maya and López-López (2017), as well as Nan and Heo (2007), we could not identify an effect of attitude as a mediator variable in the relationship between congruence level and customer engagement. As such, our findings showed that individuals’ attitude be it towards brand, product, or issue does neither mediate the effect of congruence nor incongruence on consumers’ response towards the alignment ad. Nevertheless, the significance values, of which some were nearly below the significance level of 10%, imply that significant effects could be identified in further research studies. In particular, when looking at the single effects regarding attitude towards the issue, it is visible that the level of congruence between the company’s activities and social initiative does have an effect on consumers’ attitude towards the issue. Surprisingly, congruence had a negative effect, while incongruence showed a positive effect on attitude towards the issue. This rather unexpected result turns out to be very challenging to interpret, however literature showed that in some rare cases incongruence can cause positive responses as well (De Jong & Van der Meer, 2017; Harmon-Kizer, 2017) since certain topics are generally engaging (Abitbol & Lee, 2017), as for example the current and very controversial topic regarding the global refugee crisis. Moreover, the effect of congruence level on customer engagement mediated by the attitude was significant for all models, which leads to the assumption that a tendency of partial mediation is feasible. Just the same, our results revealed that participants’ attitudes did not have a measurable nor significant effect on customer engagement, and as a result it did not mediate the relationship between the congruence level and our dependent variable.

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customer engagement (Vivek, Beatty & Morgan 2012), our findings were not able to prove that the effect of congruence level on customer engagement related to this factor.

5.1 Conclusion

Online communication tools have become important channels for companies aiming to enhance individuals’ awareness about social marketing activities. A recent study even revealed that consumers are starting to perceive modern advertising techniques as credible, and fair (Isaac & Grayson, 2017), reinforcing that these channels are gaining more attention and importance. Since consumers lately seek more and more authentic content and products and services they can identify themselves with, companies are confronted with a growing expectation to engage in social activities, which in turn also increases the pressure on companies and their marketers to do something good for society and not only to seek for profits. Many companies thus venture to practice alignment advertising in order to communicate strong messages for their brands on social media channels, and in this way hoping to positively stimulate consumers’ reactions.

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in this instance is to “not awaken sleeping dogs”. Consumers have gained power due to the popularity, as well as immense reach of online communication media. On the one hand, this gives companies the opportunity to actively engage in social media channels in order to recruit individuals for their cause and turn them into advocates. On the other hand, companies should not provoke, or even mislead consumers with content that does not correspond with the actual activities of the company as consequences may vary from losing current of prospect customers to global PR disasters. The saying “do good things and talk about” should only be followed if the company has a proven long-term track record on this, and is able to maintain or even improve in future. Otherwise, the best advice seems to be “hands off”.

Our findings provide managerial implications for companies that aim to engage in alignment advertising by promoting a social issue and its brand at the same time. In order to not only increase credibility, but also to induce positive consumer reactions, managers and content creators should carefully choose and communicate messages, which are congruent with their long-term business activities, and thus trustworthy. It is not only about telling the truth, but also about understanding and anticipating perceptions, understandings, and feelings on the receptors side. Social activities should only be communicated if they are perceived as important and relevant to the customer, as well as long-term sustainable to the society, and additionally add value to the whole social environment. If this is not the case, companies should not communicate, and thus avoid possible negative consumer reactions. Companies are expected to communicate about a social issue for the right reasons, and not only with the aim to enhance their image, or to increase profits.

To conclude, we can compose at least five important recommendations for the management regarding the usage of alignment advertising: be congruent to your core business, be authentic and trustworthy, be sustainable in your actions, be aware about the perceptions, feelings and importance of what you say on the receptor side, and last and utterly most important, do not risk to awaken sleeping dogs.

5.2 Limitations and future research

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than the topic of recycling, or vice versa. As such, different social issues should be determined more carefully. To sum up, do not engage in something you cannot control.

Other limitations concern the generalizability of our research. Firstly, the usage of a small student sample reduces to a certain extent the validity of the study. Although this is an accepted method in academic research, it still limits possible generalizability to a larger and more representative target group. The pre-test showed that the product Coca-Cola was important/likeable to the sample, yet the effects found in our study may be different among other populations. As such, in a next study the researcher should extend the study to a bigger and more diverse sample. Furthermore, since the analysis focuses only on the beverage sector, a future research should include brands from different sectors (e.g., health services, financial sector, or automotive industry) in a next study in order to identify if the results of our study are replicable. Additionally, in order to provide generalizability it is also important to consider that alignment advertising comprises different types of social initiatives, which implies to employ more types of social activities, such as charitable donations, in a future study.

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Appendix

Appendix A

Congruent condition:

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The effectiveness of alignment advertising on customer engagement:

The effectiveness of alignment advertising on customer engagement:

A study analysing the impact of congruence between

the advertised brand and a social issue

The effectiveness of alignment advertising on customer engagement:

A study analysing the impact of congruence between

the advertised brand and a social issue

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Table of Contents

Table of Figures

1 Introduction

2 Literature Review

3 Research design

4 Results

5 Discussion

References

Appendix