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Asking for Help in a Creative Way – The effect of creativity in charity advertising There are an infinite number of charity organizations over the world and they are all competing for different kinds of donations. As a result of this, charity organizations spend large monetary amounts on marketing. However, people are faced with advertising numerous times every day and it is nowadays a hard task for any organization to attract the consumers’ attention. A growing strategy among advertisers is to use creative advertising, with the aim to increase the advertising effectiveness.
However, theory and research concerning the effectiveness of advertising creativity and especially if creative advertising has an actual effect on consumers behavior are very limited. With this in mind, this study aims to investigate if and in what ways advertising creativity increases ad effectiveness for charity advertising. A natural experiment was executed in recycling centers in three ICA Maxi stores, where a creative and a non-creative ad were attached next to the recycling machines in the different stores.
The advertising effectiveness was examined by testing for different stages in the hierarchy of effects model such as brand awareness, learning the ad claim, accepting/rejecting ad claim, brand liking, and the actual number of donations. The data consisted of electronically collected recycling data of 11 549 recycling customers and of 152 questionnaires collected from consumers inside the recycling centers. The results showed that the size and number of donations did not increase due to the ads.
However, it was found that advertising creativity increased the learning of the ad claim, one variable of brand awareness and one variable of acceptance/rejection of the ad claim. Authors: Sofia Kjellstrom Emelie Levall Mentor: Erik Modig Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall A special thanks to: Erik Modig – for all his help and deep commitment Magnus Soderlund – for his valuable knowledge about experiments For participating in the experiment: Annelie Jernryd and Tomra Systems AB The Swedish Red Cross ICA Maxi Arlanda ICA Maxi Haninge ICA Maxi Nacka 2 Asking for Help in a Creative Way
Kjellstrom and Levall TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1. 1 Background …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 1. 2 Problem Definition ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 1. 3 Purpose ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1. 4 Delimitations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 1. 5 Expected Knowledge Contribution ……………………………………………………………………………….. 3 1. 6 Clarifications and Definitions ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 4 1. 6. 1 The Collaboration Between ICA and the Red Cross …………………………………………………….. 1. 6. 2 Advertising Creativity ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 1. 6. 3 Charity Donations………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………….. 5 1. 7 Disposition of the Thesis ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ………………………………………………………………………….. 6 2. Charity Advertising ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6 2. 2 The Hierarchy of Effects Models ………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 2. 2. 1 Brand Awareness …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8 2. 2. 2 Learning the Ad Claim …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2. 2. 3 Accepting/Rejecting the Ad Claim …………………………………………………………………………… 10 2. 2. 4 Brand Liking…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11 2. 2. 5 Brand Intentions and Donations ………………………………………………………………………………. 12 2. 3 Summary of Hypotheses …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14 METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 15 3. 1 Overall Research Design and Scientific Approach ……………………………………………………….. 15 3. 2 Objects of Study…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 15 3. 2. 1 Locations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15 3. 2. The Advertisements ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16 3. 3 Pre-Study; The Creativity of the Ads ………………………………………………………………………….. 17 3. 3. 1 Scales and Measures ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 18 3. 4 The Main Study …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 18 3. 4. First Quantitative Data Sampling …………………………………………………………………………….. 19 3. 4. 2 Second Quantitative Data Sampling – Survey Design ………………………………………………… 20 3. 5 Validity and Reliability ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23 3. 6 Instruments and Methods of Analysis …………………………………………………………………………. 25 4 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS …………………………………………………………………………………. 6 4. 1 Hypothesis 1; The Effect of Pictures in Advertisements ……………………………………………….. 26 4. 2 Hypotheses H2-H6; Creativity and the Effects of Advertising Creativity ……………………… 27 4. 2. 1 Creativity ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 27 4. 2. 2 Brand Awareness …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28 4. 2. Learning the Ad Claim …………………………………………………………………………………………… 29 4. 2. 4 Accepting/Rejecting the Ad Claim …………………………………………………………………………… 30 3 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 4. 2. 5 Brand Liking…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32 4. 2. 6 Donation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3 4. 3 Summary of Results …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 34 5 DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS…………………………………………………………………… 35 5. 1 Discussion of Results ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 35 5. 1. 1 Brand Awareness …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 35 5. 1. Learning the Ad Claim …………………………………………………………………………………………… 36 5. 1. 3 Accepting/Rejecting the Ad Claim …………………………………………………………………………… 36 5. 1. 4 Brand Liking…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 36 5. 1. 5 Donation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 37 5. 1. Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 38 5. 2 Implications……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 38 5. 3 Critique of the Study ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 38 5. 4 Further Research ………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………… 9 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41 APPENDIX 1 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 46 APPENDIX 2 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 49 APPENDIX 3 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 4 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background There are an infinite number of different charity organizations over the world and they are all competing for donations. As a result of this, the charity organizations spend significant amounts of money on marketing (Small and Verrochi 2009). Many charities use guilt to attract donors (Basil, Ridgway, and Basil 2006) and victims and children in need of help (Basil, Ridgway and Basil 2008, Small and Verrochi 2009) are exposed in the advertising.
However, advertising is a phenomenon that people are faced with numerous times every day (Blackwell, Miniard, and Engel 2006, p. 182). With all information surrounding the consumers it is a hard task for any organization to attract the consumers’ attention. There are, however, several ways in which this attention can be reached; Smith, Chen and Yang (2008) among others have studied if creative advertising can be a helpful tool to reach this objective. Even though the definition of advertising creativity is widely discussed and unclear, creativity is recognized as an important part of advertising (Smith and Yang 2004).
The importance of divergence and creativity is unexplored in the literature concerning nonprofit organizations even though, as mentioned above, large monetary amounts regularly are assigned to marketing campaigns. Creative advertising of charity do exist; the advertising agency “Peacock” received a diploma in the Swedish advertising creativity contest “Guldagget” for the Swedish Red Cross “Save the Mother’s” campaign in 2008 (Guldagget 2010). However the question remains whether the creative advertising in charity increases the donations or not. 1. 2 Problem Definition
Advertising creativity is a subject that many researchers have studied over the past years (e. g. Smith, Chen and Yang 2008, Ang and Low 2000, Koslow, Sasser, and Rioardan 2003). Nevertheless, El-Murad and West (2004) described it as the least scientific aspect of advertising and no general definition of creativity has been established. Research concerning marketing of charity and how to design the advertisements1 (below also referred to as ads) focuses on emotional effects such as how to make the potential donor to feel guilt, empathy and sympathy (e. g.
Basil, Ridgway, and Basil 2008, Small and Verrochi 2009, Guy and Patton 1989). There are also established research regarding donor behavior and general marketing strategies for non-profit organizations (e. g. Andreasen and Kotler 1 Advertisement is in this thesis defined as a printed form of advertising, e. g. a poster. 1 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 2008, Sargeant and Ford 2006, Hibbert and Horne 1996). However, previous studies have only explored charity donations in general, while donations of smaller amounts, directly donated at the scene are left to the unknown.
These types of donations could be called easy, because they are collected in the same time as the consumer is exposed to the donation opportunity without any grand effort demanded by the donor. Marketing to increase easy donations by itself is a relatively unexplored research area; charity marketing research in general focuses on overall marketing rather than ads at the place of the donation (e. g. Basil, Ridgway, and Basil 2008, Small and Verrochi 2009).
Nevertheless there are exceptions; Martin and Randal (2009) have studied whether social norms and the day of the week affects the easy donations and Small and Verrochi (2009) have studied whether pictures with sad faces increased donations more than pictures with happy faces. However, these studies did not examine advertising creativity and if creativity is an attribute that can be used in charity advertising in order to increase the amount of donations. The research so far on advertising creativity has focused on consumer products.
The research concerns the definition of advertising creativity (e. g. El-Murad and West 2004, Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan 2003) and researcher has recently also tried to establish possible effects on consumer behavior (e. g. Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008, Smith et al. 2007). This research has however not been extended to the actual purchase behavior of the consumers; even though creative advertising might increase purchase intentions it cannot be established that the number of actual purchases increases with help of creative advertising.
The actual effect that creativity has on sales is fundamental for research and companies since there is no reason for advertisers to produce creative advertising if the sales do not increase. Since studies’ concerning the effectiveness and consumer’s actual response to advertising creativity lacks noted research, there is a knowledge gap that indicates an opportunity to continue exploring the effectiveness of advertising creativity and also to discover new implications for marketing of charity. 1. 3 Purpose This thesis focuses on easy charity donations.
The purpose is to study if and in what ways advertising creativity increases advertising effectiveness. More specifically, it will be examined which key measures of effectiveness that are improved by the creativity of an ad. 1. 4 Delimitations A number of delimitations to bring the thesis down to the scope and scale of a bachelor thesis had to be made. The purpose of this thesis is to explore if creative advertising has a different impact on easy donations than non-creative advertising; hence, if creative advertising will 2 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall ave a different effect on the donors perceptions of the brand and increase the amount of donations to another level than non-creative advertising. To fulfill the purpose and aim of the thesis we chose to focus on how to increase money donations from recycling through the use of advertising at the location were the donations take place, and more specifically through the use of ads (i. e. posters). The choice to use ads excludes many other ways to reach potential donors. However, this delimitation was made because of our interest for the media and it is a realistic marketing solution for charity organizations.
This means that we have focused on creative vs. non-creative advertising execution and not on creative vs. non-creative media choice. Furthermore, the reason why we chose to study how to increase donations from recycling was due to the fact that the donation is easy; it is simple for everyone that is recycling to donate their money. Moreover, the figures (e. g. total amount of money recycled for and the total amount of money donated) are collected electronically, which makes it possible to measure possible differences on a week-to-week, or even on a day-to-day basis.
Next, we had to choose one charity organization to collaborate with. The Swedish Red Cross (below referred to as the Red Cross) provides the opportunity to donate recycling money in approximately 365 different ICA stores all over Sweden (Cederhage 2), and seemed like an appropriate choice. The fact that the Red Cross has collaboration with ICA, resulted in the experiment taking place in ICA stores. We also chose to limit the study geographically to the area around Stockholm, Sweden.
The experiment was executed during seven days due to time limitations and carried out in three stores due to data sampling constraints by Tomra Systems AB (below referred to as Tomra) (Ernryd Jensen3). Finally, with the aim of our thesis in mind we chose to focus on the most relevant theories concerning ad effectiveness variables such as; brand attention and interest, depth of processing, memory, brand curiosity, change of mind, ad and brand attitude, and the actual donor behavior. Some of these variables have not previously been tested in a real store environment, why it was especially interesting to study them. . 5 Expected Knowledge Contribution The intention with this thesis is to increase the research concerning the combination of creative advertising and charity advertising and to evaluate if creative advertising can be valuable to use when creating ads for charity. This is first done by taking our research one step further than previously research and focus on the actual behavior of the consumer/donor 2 3 Anne Cederhage, Project Leader, Corporate Relations, The Swedish Red Cross, interview 23 th April 2010. Annelie Ernryd Jensen, Tomra Systems AB, e-mail 5th Mars 2010. Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall to be able to contribute with valuable insights concerning the effect of advertising creativity on sales/donations. Furthermore, we also examined several more measures of advertising creativity effectiveness, such as brand awareness, learning the ad claim, accepting/rejecting the ad claim, and brand liking. These are measures that are previously studied, but with different outcomes in different studies, and not combined and examined in the field of marketing of charity.
Second, the thesis was supposed to contribute to the research area concerning charity advertising and donor behavior in a new way than done before. Most studies in this area are concentrated around how to engage and provoke “the right” emotions so that the potential donor actually will donate. Finally, easy donation advertising research is very limited, and not only would we like to contribute with valuable insights but also inspire others to continue to explore the area. 1. 6 Clarifications and Definitions 1. 6. The Collaboration Between ICA and the Red Cross When a bottle or can is bought in Sweden the customer pays an amount that is similar to a deposit. As the can or bottle is empty the customer can recycle it in a grocery store and get the deposit back, i. e. the recycling money. Today, there are in several grocery stores two buttons on the recycling machine (see appendix 3, picture 1), one that gives the customer the deposit back (green) and the other button is an opportunity for the consumer to donate their recycling money to charity (yellow). A number of food-retailers (e. . ICA and Coop) collaborate with different charity organizations. The Red Cross introduced the operation with a yellow donation button on the recycling machines a couple of years ago and it is a collaboration between the Red Cross, ICA-retailers and Tomra, a manufacturer of recycling machines. The information next to the yellow button says “Donate your recycling money to help the Red Cross with its work. Both in Sweden and overseas. Thank you! “. The operation was started to show that even small amounts of money can help underprivileged people around the world.
Each year the population in Sweden is throwing away approximately 130 million cans and PET-bottles, which corresponds to a value of approximately 100 million SEK. (The Swedish Red Cross, 2010 [1]). 1. 6. 2 Advertising Creativity Advertising creativity is a subject that many researchers have studied over the past years (e. g. Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008, Ang and Low 2000, Koslow, Sasser, and Rioardan 2003). The meaning of the concept and the dimensions of advertising creativity have been widely discussed.
According to Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003) creativity includes novelty and 4 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall at least one second factor, what that factor is depends on who is defining the concept. Many researchers have however agreed upon that relevancy also must be included in creative advertising (Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008, Ang and Low 2000). In addition to these factors several other factors have been discussed in the literature e. g. humor, positivity, and connectedness (e. g. Lee and Mason 2009, Ang and Low 2000, Ang, Lee, and Leong 2007).
In this thesis the most established dimensions are used to measure and discuss creativity in advertising; relevancy and novelty (Smith, Chen and Yang 2008). 1. 6. 3 Charity Donations “Charity donations” is a wide concept that includes several types of donations such as monthly donations, child sponsorships, charity TV, charity boxes, donation of recycling money and more (e. g. the Swedish Red Cross 2010 [2], Plan Sverige 2010). These can be divided into two different main categories; one that demands a more complicated action or commitment by the donor (e. g. phone call, monthly bank transactions) and another where the donations are more simple (e. g. push a button, search the pocket for cash). These more simple donations are in this thesis called easy, because the donation is made at the same time as the donor is exposed to the opportunity to donate and s/he can do so without any demanding effort or time delay. 1. 7 Disposition of the Thesis This thesis is divided into five main chapters. The introductory chapter is followed by a chapter concerning the current state of theory and the proposed hypotheses are developed throughout the chapter.
The chapter starts with an overview of the theories concerning charity advertising and continues with an exploration of the hierarchy of effects models. Furthermore, the chapter reviews several advertising effectiveness measures to which advertising creativity may contribute, such as brand awareness, learning the ad claim, accepting/rejecting the ad claim, brand liking and the actual behavior of the customer/donor. In the third chapter, the methodology section, an explanation as for the choice of methods used to research the proposed hypotheses, will be presented.
The section includes the research design and scientific approach, method of the study, the selection of variables and measures, and a discussion of the validity and reliability of the study. The fourth chapter outlines the analysis and results of the study – the proposed hypotheses are tested and commented on. Finally in the fifth chapter, discussion and implications, results and its implications are discussed. Furthermore, we express criticism of the study and gives suggestions for further research. 5 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2. Charity Advertising A picture says more than thousand words is an old expression that actually might be true in the world of advertising. Goolkasian (2000) found, in an experimental study with graduate students, that the reaction time responses to the advertising were significantly shorter when using pictures than when using words. Also, Childers and Houston (1984) found that a brand was more often remembered when consumers were exposed to picture stimuli than to word stimuli. The studies mentioned were conducted in a laboratory environment and with advertising of commercial products.
Whether these implications hold for charity advertising or not could be questioned since there is no research studying pictures vs. words for charity advertising specifically. There are however research that have tested different types of pictures impact on charity donations; Small and Verrochi (2009) studied whether pictures with happy or sad faces evoked feelings that led to increased number of donations. The study was conducted in a laboratory where groups were exposed to pictures of the same children but at some pictures the children looked happy and at some pictures they looked sad.
The result showed that both kind of pictures evoked emotions, which in turn increased the amount and number of donations, but the result also showed that sad faces were more effective when it came to the size of donations. Furthermore, Chang and Lee (2009) concluded through a survey that pictures with negative framing4 had a higher charity appeal than pictures with positive framing. None of these results were however found in an authentic environment and it could therefore be questioned if a picture in an ad will increase the donations.
Since no theory has established the degree of effect that picture advertising might have on donations, we hypothesize: H1: An ad (creative or not) containing a picture will increase the donations. The lack of a common and clear definition of advertising creativity is followed by a confusion in determine what is a creative ad and what is not. In this thesis the aim is to study the impact that creativity has on advertising effectiveness. Previous research have found ambiguous results concerning the impact of advertising creativity on advertising effectiveness. (e. g.
Till and Back 2005, Yeng and Smith 2009). Therefore it is of importance to investigate what impact advertising creativity has on charity advertising. Below a model will be presented on how to establish and measure these effects. 4 Framing: ways in which information is presented to people (Jobber 2007, p. 133). 6 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 2. 2 The Hierarchy of Effects Models The hierarchy of effects models describes the stages a consumer goes through when forming or changing brand attitudes and purchase intentions (Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008).
Lavidge and Steiner (1961) described seven steps, from unawareness to purchase, which an ad must move a consumer through in order to be effective. Advertising effectiveness is measured by to what extent the advertising fulfills its objectives. The objectives are set to affect the consumer behavior in various ways (e. g. Jobber 2007, p 508, Kotler et al. 2005, p. 763) and in this study the donor behavior. The model by Lavidge and Steiner (1961) has later on been explored and developed by numerous of researchers to evaluate different areas of advertising and marketing (e. g. Bruner II and Kumar 2000, Jagpal 1981).
Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) used a hierarchy of effects model to evaluate the impact advertising creativity had on consumer behavior. Since this thesis has as purpose to investigate the effect of advertising creativity it is reasonable to use the model provided by Smith, Chen and Yang (2008). In their study respondents were to watch a program where a commercial was embedded and after the program the respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire. The model by Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) have five steps; brand awareness, learning the ad claim, accepting/rejecting the ad claim, brand liking, and brand intentions.
They found significant differences between the creative and non-creative commercials in all stages. Nevertheless, there are reasons for why these conclusions may not be applicable in this study and thesis; the commercials used in the experiment where for commercial products while this study examined charity donations. Furthermore, the experiment by Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) was conducted in a laboratory with commercials while our study took place in an authentic environment with the use of ads.
Hence, below will a reasoning around the stages in the hierarchy of effects model used by Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) be presented together with a discussion concerning how and if the model is applicable in this study and what variables the stages consist of. Stage in the Hierarchy of Effects Model Brand Awareness Learning the Ad Claim Accepting/Rejecting the Ad Claim Brand Liking Donation Variables Ad attention Ad interest Depth of processing the ad claim Memory of the ad claim Brand Curiosity Resistance of the ad claim Changed perception of the brand Ad attitude Brand attitude Number and size of donations
Figure 1. Stages and variables in the hierarchy of effects model 7 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 2. 2. 1 Brand Awareness For a purchase to take place the customer has to be aware of the brand (i. e. possess brand awareness), which can be achieved by advertising (Jobber 2007, p. 508). Rossiter, Percy, and Donovan (1991, p. 12) have concluded that brand awareness has to be a communication objective of advertising prior to brand attitude; “the fundamental advertising communication objectives are to maximize brand attitude, given brand awareness”.
In several of the hierarchy of effects models the first step is to make the consumers aware of the brand and by advertising create brand awareness, which is done by building attention and interest (Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008). Consumers do not pay attention to all the advertising they are exposed to, but only 5-25 % (Jobber 2007, p. 133). In another study Pieters, Warlop, and Wedel (2002) found, by tracking eye movements when participants were looking through magazines, that originality in ads increased customer attention.
Further, Smith, Chen and Yang (2008) also found that creative advertising increased attention. We believe that the attention effect is similar regardless of what product is being advertised i. e. the findings should be applicable for charity advertising. Nevertheless, our study is conducted in a real life setting, hence there is no guarantee the results will be the same. We hypothesize: H2a: More people will have noticed the creative ad than the non-creative ad.
As important as it is with attention, interest is also essential to create brand awareness (Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008). Interest for ads is likely to be achieved by novel ads (Machleit, Allen, and Medden 1993). By the definition of creativity earlier in the thesis, a creative ad is a novel ad; hence we would believe the same results to hold for creative ads and indeed Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) found that interest was increased by advertising creativity. For the same reason as above we hypothesize: H2b: The creative ad will receive more interest than the non-creative ad. . 2. 2 Learning the Ad Claim The next stage in a hierarchy of effects model is for the customer to know what the product offers (Lavidge and Steiner 1961), which could be learned from the advertising. The depth on which the consumer processes the ad affects the learning of the ad message according to MacInnins and Jaworski (1989). In this thesis the depth of processing is defined as to what extent the consumers consider the advertisement and reflects over its message. The research on the effect of creativity on depth of processing is very narrow, however Smith et al. 2007) 8 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall found that the depth of processing was deeper for creative ads than non-creative ads in a study with TV-commercials tested on students. The effect and result was reinforced by Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008); in their study the respondents were showed an ad and then asked four questions regarding depth of processing. The results were significantly different between the creative and non-creative ads. The previous researches indicate that the creative ad will be processed on a deeper level than the non-creative ad.
This will however have to be tested for since there are several differences between the previous researches and this study. We hypothesize: H3a: The ad will be processed on a deeper level by people exposed to the creative ad than by people exposed to the non-creative ad. If a consumer remembers an advertising claim s/he has learned it, at least on a shallow level. Baack, Wilson, and Till (2008) found that advertising creativity increased recall for cinema advertising, while no significant effect was found for airport advertising. Which one of these results is the most credible in our setting?
The authors of that study categorized cinema advertising as traditional and airport advertising as non-traditional. Ads, which is what is used in this thesis, is a traditional way of advertising hence it could be argued that we would get a significant difference between the creative and non-creative ads. On the other hand, people focus on the cinema screen where the commercial is shown while at an airport the consumer is passing by, which is more similar to our setting. In that case our results should be more similar to the ones of airport advertising.
As shown, the effect of creativity on memory can be discussed and have given mixed results in the previous, very limited research. However, Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) found that consumers exposed to the creative advertising did remember it better. We hypothesize: H3b: More people will remember the creative ad than the non-creative ad. 3 A third variable of learning the ad claim is the comprehension of the message (Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008). Further, according to Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) in several textbooks it is believed that creative advertisement could ggravate the understanding of the message. Nevertheless, the same authors did argue that if the ad attention and interest was increased by creativity, more effort should be paid to the advertising; hence the comprehension should increase with creativity. This hypothesis was however not supported in the study, which strengthens the previous research. Since there is no indication that the comprehension should increase by advertising creativity we have chosen not to include comprehension in this thesis. 9 Asking for Help in a Creative Way
Kjellstrom and Levall 2. 2. 3 Accepting/Rejecting the Ad Claim Well known marketing literature emphasizes the problem of selective distortion; the customer distorts the ad message according to its beliefs and attitudes (e. g. Jobber 2007, p. 1003, Kotler et al. 2005, p. 273). According to Smith and Swinyard (1982) the cognitive response to an ad is affected by the consumer’s ability to disregard the ad message due to its beliefs i. e. that the advertiser has a vested interest in trying to convince the consumer.
This kind of beliefs produces a negative cognitive response to the ad. The consumer uses its existing beliefs to get a cognitive closure of the advertising. A higher need for cognitive closure5 got the consumer to faster make a judgment instead of processing the new information provided by the advertising (Kruglanski and Webster 1996). Creative advertising can be seen as more incongruent and ambiguous than non-creative advertising (Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008), which should increase the curiosity about the brand (Kruglanski and Webster 1996).
Yang and Smith (2009) found that advertising creativity decreased the customer’s need for cognitive closure and increased the curiosity about the brand. However, Kruglanski and Webster (1996) also found that noise affected the need for cognitive closure. If there was noise in the surroundings of the ad the need for cognitive closure did increase. Even if Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) found that creative advertising increased the brand curiosity, it was found in a laboratory. Our experiment is conducted in a real life setting; hence there will be noise that could affect the outcome of the study.
We hypothesize: H4a: The brand curiosity will be higher for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. If consumers, as stated by Kruglanski and Webster (1996), are more open-minded towards the advertising when the need for cognitive closure is low the resistance of the ad claim should be decreased. This belief is strengthened by Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008), whom concluded that advertising creativity indeed decreased the resistance of the ad claim.
We hypothesize: H4b: The resistance of the ad will be lower for people exposed to creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) proved that creative advertising increased the probability that the consumer would change its mind regarding the brand, which perhaps can be true to more anonymous brands that are tested on in their experiment. The Red Cross, however, is a well5 Need for cognitive closure: individual’s desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity (Kruglanski and Webster 1996). 0 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall known organization in Sweden founded in 1865 (the Swedish Red Cross 2010 [3]) and according to Machleit, Allen, and Madden (1993) brand attitude is not as affected by advertising for mature brands as un-known brands. It will below be argued that the brand attitude might be differently affected whether the consumer is exposed to creative or noncreative ads. But this effect is believed to be moderate and not change the perception of the brand drastically, i. e. consumer that does not like the Red Cross will not start to, but a consumer with already favorable feelings towards the brand will become even more favorable of the Red Cross. We hypothesize: H4c: Neither the creative nor the non-creative ad will change people’s perception of the brand drastically. 2. 2. 4 Brand Liking According to Lee and Mason (1991) incongruence in advertising increases its likability; testing for relevancy, unexpectedness and humor all gave significant results and increased both advertisement and brand liking.
Humor was also tested for by Smith and Yang (2004), whom used humor as a dimension of advertising creativity. Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) studied the entertainment value of the advertisement and hypothesized that creative ads would have a higher entertainment value, which was accepted at a significant level. This part of the hierarchy of effects model for creativity does however not seem applicable to this thesis. Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) developed the model with regard to commercial products. This thesis focuses on charity, which by nature is not humorous.
Advertising for charity was proved to have a greater effect when it induced guilt on part of the consumer (Basil, Ridgway, and Basil 2008) and when including portraits with sad faces instead of happy (Small and Verrochi 2009). The used ads in this study, creative or not, did not contain any humorous features and humor was not an element in the creativity definition of this thesis, hence the entertainment value was excluded. When the ad is unexpected and relevant it has a higher possibility to be liked (Lee and Mason 1999).
Even if the ads used in this thesis are not humorous the other elements of creativity are believed to be enough for the consumer to be more favorable towards the creative ad. One reason for this belief is the results found by Perrachio and Meyers-Levy (1994) that implied that ambiguous advertising could be more liked if the consumer understood the problem; the consumer was proud to have understood the message. In their study, Perrachio and MeyersLevy (1994) exposed students to ads containing cropped photos, which gave a result of more 11
Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall favorable attitudes6 towards those ads. Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) found that ad attitude was more positive when the ad was regarded as creative. However, Till and Back (2005) did, on the contrary, not find any correlation between ad attitude and creativity when testing different creative and non-creative ads on 69 students. Due to the uncertainty of creativity’s effect on ad attitude we hypothesize: H5a: The ad attitude will be greater for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the on-creative ad. There is research that indicates that ad attitude affects brand attitude (e. g. Brown and Stayman 1992, Laczniak and Carlson 1989). Further, Laczniak’s and Carlson’s (1989) findings showed the effect of ad attitude on brand attitude being positive for people highly involved in the ad. As hypothesized above the creative ad should receive more interest and higher/deeper engagement than the non-creative ad, hence consumers are more involved in the creative ad.
This implies that ad attitude should affect the brand attitude for the creative ad. We have above hypothesized that the ad attitude will be more positive towards the creative ad than the non-creative ad; hence the brand attitude should be more positive for customers exposed to the creative ad than people exposed to the non-creative ad. Smith, Chen and Yang (2008) investigated creativity’s effect on brand attitude and found significant positive results.
Even though, as stated above, we do not believe that the perception of the brand can shift from negative to positive; we do believe the attitudes could be positively increased. We hypothesize: H5b: The brand attitude will be greater for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. 2. 2. 5 Brand Intentions and Donations The final stage in Smith’s, Chen’s, and Yang’s (2008) model is brand intentions, i. e. if the customer is willing to buy the product. Lavidge and Steiner (1961) addressed this as preference and also a desire to buy the product.
If the hypotheses above holds, the perception of the brand with a creative ad should be more positive than when the brand are exposed through a non-creative ad; hence the brand intentions should reasonably be greater when consumers have been exposed to the creative ad. Smith, Chen and Yang (2008) tested for 6 Attitude: A person’s consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings and tendencies towards an object or idea (Kotler et al. 2005). 12 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall brand intentions and found that they indeed were higher when the creative ad had been used.
In this thesis, however, we receive data post-purchase, i. e. after the consumer has chosen to donate or not. Therefore the necessity to measure brand intentions falls short since brand intentions are a result of the above hypotheses, and the purchase is too. Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) found that brand intentions indeed were greater when consumers had been exposed to the creative ad. Since purchase follows the preferences and desire (Lavidge and Steiner 1961) we hypothesize: H6: The donations will be higher for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. 3 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 2. 3 Summary of Hypotheses Variables Advertising with picture Stage in Hierarchy of Effects Model Brand Awareness Variables Hypotheses H1: An ad (creative or not) containing a picture will increase the donations. Hypotheses Ad attention Ad interest H2a: More people will have noticed the creative ad than the non-creative ad. H2b: The creative ad will receive more interest than the non-creative. Learning the Ad Claim Depth of processing the ad claim Memory of the ad claim
H3a: The ad will be processed on a deeper level by people exposed to the creative ad than by people exposed to the non-creative ad. H3b: More people will remember the creative ad than the non-creative ad. Accepting/Rejecting the Ad Claim Brand curiosity Resistance of the ad claim Changed perception of the brand H4a: The brand curiosity will be higher for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. H4b: The resistance of the ad will be lower for people exposed to creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad.
H4c: Neither the creative nor the non-creative ad will change people’s perception of the brand drastically. Brand Liking Ad attitude Brand attitude H5a: The ad attitude will be greater for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. H5b: The brand attitude will be greater for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. H6: The donations will be higher for people exposed to the creative ad than for those exposed to the non-creative ad. Donation
Number and size of donations Figure 2. Summary of hypotheses 14 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 3 METHODOLOGY 3. 1 Overall Research Design and Scientific Approach Our area of concern, to examine which key measures of effectiveness that will be improved by advertising creativity, has firstly been studied through a widespread literature overview. The overview included books and articles concerning general consumer behavior and consumer marketing, advertising creativity, marketing of charity, and donor behavior.
The subject of our thesis is to some extent already developed in academic research (e. g. Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008, Small and Verrochi 2009, Lee and Mason 1999). However, theory and research concerning advertising creativity and especially if creative advertising has an actual effect on consumers behavior lack a noted literary framework. Former research has mostly studied how advertising creativity affects consumers processing and response (e. g. Smith, Chen, and Yang 2008, Till and Baack 2005).
The scientific approach chosen for this thesis is a deductive approach; existing theory is used to generate hypotheses, which are tested in an authentic environment (Malholtra and Birks 2007). Since we studied how advertising creativity affects consumers’ perception and if it affects their actual donor behavior, we dealt with a cause-and-effect relationship. Thus, a causal research method was practiced to test the hypotheses in this thesis, as this method is used to encounter cause-and-effect relationships (Ghauri and Gronhaug 2005, p. 9). This relationship was tested through the use of a natural experiment that took place in an authentic environment. The outcome of the experiment (n=11 549) gave us the quantitative data needed to reject or support the proposed hypothesis concerning if advertising creativity had an effect on the actual donations. To further measure the impact that advertising creativity has on ad effectiveness, and to be able study the phenomenon on a deeper level, the experiment was complemented with another quantitative study.
A questionnaire was handed out in the recycling centers (n=152) to be able to achieve the purpose of the thesis and to facilitate generalized conclusions. 3. 2 Objects of Study 3. 2. 1 Locations The experiment was executed in three similar supermarkets located outside Stockholm. The stores are comparable in terms of size, product range, numbers of recycling machines (n=4 per store), and the monthly percentage of donations; ICA Maxi Haninge, ICA Maxi Nacka, and ICA Maxi Arlanda (see picture 2, appendix 3).
The reason why these supermarkets were chosen was based on some criterions. The recycling machines in the eligible grocery stores 15 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall had to be constructed with a button that makes it possible to donate the money to the Red Cross. This criterion reduced the number of supermarkets to approximately 365 stores in Sweden (Cederhage7). Further, given the limited amount of time and resources we decided to use grocery stores within or across Stockholm.
Subsequently, the question arouse whether we should carry out the experiment in larger or smaller grocery stores, since according to Lange and Wahlund (1997) the profile and behavior of the customer is different in smaller grocery stores than in supermarkets, a behavior that also may have an effect on peoples attitude towards donating. Nevertheless, the main reason to why the experiment was executed in larger grocery stores (supermarkets) was, taking the width of the thesis into consideration, the higher probability to get higher number of respondents in larger grocery stores. 3. 2. The Advertisements Discussions took place on how to design the ads used in the experiment. An obvious requirement was that one of the ads should be perceived as more creative than the other. Furthermore, we also found it important for the ads to be as similar to each other as possible and in line with the Red Cross other ads to ensure that nothing but the creative feature of the ad could affect the result. E. g. Jobber (2007, p. 133) brought up the concept of contrast in advertising; if the ad contrasts with the background or if contrasting colors are used in the advertising, the effect of the ad is expected to increase.
Chang and Lee (2009) found that the framing affected the ad effectiveness; hence the ads used in the experiment should be as similar as possible. To find a creative design to the ads the theories of Goldenberg and Mazursky (2008) and Perrachio and Meyers-Levy (1994) was used. They have found that cropped pictures (i. e. pictures with parts cut out) were perceived as more creative than the original picture. Three ads were made by Erik Modig, PhD student at the Stockholm School of Economics, and later approved by the Red Cross and the ICA Maxi stores involved in the experiment (see appendix 1).
Furthermore, a pre-study (n=135) of the ads showed that one ad was perceived as more creative than the others, thus this ad was chosen to be used in the experiment accompanied with the ad perceived as non-creative. The non-creative ad was designed with a photo of a worried and anxious woman with a child in her arms. Below the picture a text was presented saying “Save the Mothers, Donate Your Recycling Money”. The creative ad was designed in a similar way, with the same woman and text, but with one important distinction, the mother’s face was cut out and replaced with a man and a child. Additional text on the ads, 7
Anne Cederhage, Project Leader, Corporate Relations, The Swedish Red Cross, interview 23th April 2010. 16 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall explaining more about the campaign “Save the Mothers” was left out, since we only wanted to study the different effects that a creative picture has on people and their actual donor behavior. According to Jobber (2007, p. 516) simple visuals can be very powerful in creating and reinforcing brand identity. “Save the Mothers” is a yearly campaign by the Red Cross. It started the first of May and was used in this thesis due to a recommendation by the Red Cross.
By using a campaign that was not running in the time of the experiment, the impact of other advertising was minimized. Furthermore, the ads were designed in A4-formats in line with the Red Cross other recycling ads. 3. 3 Pre-Study; The Creativity of the Ads We found it appropriate to conduct a pre-study to ensure that one of the ads was perceived as more creative. Three different ads were tested at this stage; (1) the non-creative and (2) the creative ad with the man and child, mentioned in the section above, plus an additional (3) creative ad also designed by Erik Modig (see appendix 1).
This third ad was designed in a similar way as the other creative ad, but with the difference that the mother’s face was replaced with a lonely child. The pre-study was conducted through an online questionnaire on 15th April 2010 and was e-mailed to 240 people. The 240 participants were randomly divided into three groups, thus 80 persons in each group. The randomization provides a means of controlling for other variables associated with those taking part in the experiment e. g. gender and background (Robson 2007, p. 36).
While these variables might well affect performances on the dependent variable, random assignment means that they are as likely to be associated with higher performance as with lower. The participants were asked to study the ad that was sent to them and then to fill-out a short questionnaire of six questions. The questions were chosen to measure creativity in general and different elements of creativity such as relevancy and novelty. To increase the reliability of the pre-test, some of the questions had similar measurements and were tested for internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha.
A total of 138 responses where received with the distribution of 47 in group 1, 45 in group 2, and 46 in group 3. Three responses were however not valid, hence the number used in the analysis were 135, with 45 responses in each group. In the first part of the analysis the means were calculated for all variables, as presented in the figure below. Thereafter a one-way ANOVA-test (analysis of variance) was performed to analyze if the means were significantly different between the three advertisements. Next, independent samples t-tests were performed to compare two advertisements at a time.
This 17 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall was done to ensure which ad was perceived as most creative. Creativity was measured by itself, but two dimensions of creativity were measured as well; novelty and relevancy. Novelty was measured by using the variables novelty, originality and unexpectedness, which received a Cronbach’s alpha of 0,887. Relevancy was measured with the variables meaningfulness and relevancy. Means in Pre-test 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Creative Novel Unexpected Original Relevant Meaningfull
Advertisement 1 Advertisement 2 Advertisement 3 Figure 3. Results of pre-test The result of the ANOVA-test showed that the means were significantly different for the three ads at a 1 % significant level for all variables except relevancy and meaningfulness. As shown in the diagram, we throughout the analysis identified the most significant differences between ad 1 and 2. These ads were also the once with the largest differences between the means of creativity; hence we decided to use them in the experiment and excluded ad 3. 3. 3. Scales and Measures In the pre-study questionnaire we only used structured questions. The choice was based on the fact that unstructured questions are not suitable for online surveys (Malholtra 2004, p. 289), to make it easy for the respondents to answer the questionnaire, and to keep the coding time down. The six questions were measured on an interval scale, ranging from 1 to 7 with numerically equal distances. The respondents judged different statements or questions using bipolar labels e. g. creative vs. non-creative or relevant vs. irrelevant.
The low values (1) in the interval scale were placed to the left and represented a low degree e. g. negative or disagree, and the high values (7) were placed to the right and represented a high degree e. g. positive or agree, as recommended by Soderlund (2005, p. 166). 3. 4 The Main Study The study took place in regular supermarkets, with the aid of people who were recycling their cans and bottles in the stores, to achieve as authentic results as possible. It was conducted together with the Red Cross and the leading food retailer chain ICA. 18 Asking for Help in a Creative Way
Kjellstrom and Levall The experiment was executed during seven days, Monday to Sunday week 16, 2010. During this week the non-creative ad was attached in eye-level next to all the recycling machines in ICA Maxi Haninge and the creative ad was attached next to all the recycling machines in ICA Maxi Nacka (see picture 3 and 4, appendix 3). ICA Maxi Arlanda was used as a control group and the location of the ads was randomly selected. Nevertheless, we also got statistics from week 15 2010, to be able to compare and see if the donations actually increased in week 16.
Grocery Store / Location ICA Maxi Arlanda ICA Maxi Haninge ICA Maxi Nacka Table 1. Placement of advertisements Week 15 Monday – Sunday No manipulation – Control group (n=1121) No manipulation – Control group (n=2883) No manipulation – Control group (n=2031) Week 16 Monday – Sunday No manipulation – Control group (n=1048) Non-creative ad (n=2596) Creative ad (n=1870) The selected weeks were chosen to avoid seasonal periods, such as Easter, since more customers are visiting the stores during these days, which may result in more people donating than usual.
Also, a study by Martin and Randal (2009) showed that the amount of donations were significantly larger during red-letter days. To further measure the effects of advertising creativity, such as brand awareness, liking, learning and more, and to be able study the phenomenon on a deeper level, the experiment was complemented with another quantitative study. 3. 4. 1 First Quantitative Data Sampling Figures concerning; the total number of consumers recycling, the total amount of money recycled for, the total number of consumers that were onating their money, and the amount of money donated during week 15 and 16, were obtained by Tomra. Tomra are collaborating with the Red Cross and is the leading global provider of solutions enabling recycling of materials (Tomra Systems 2010). The data consisted of electronically collected recycling data of a total of 11 549 recycling customers during week 15 and 16. All the figures were broken down per day, but not per consumer; hence, we were able to make general conclusions, but not observe customers individual behavior. This was instead done through the additional instore questionnaire.
It appeared, from our point of view, less appropriate to analyze the possible change in absolute figures, since absolute figures may fluctuate significantly from store to store on a day-to-day basis. As a result, we used primary share index and the changes in these figures such as the quota (donated money/total sum of money recycled for). 19 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall 3. 4. 2 Second Quantitative Data Sampling – Survey Design To be able to measure and analyze people’s donor behavior more in depth a questionnaire was handed out after the consumer had recycled.
This made it possible to collect data concerning people’s response to the ads and the effectiveness of the creative ad. When the questionnaire was constructed, a lot of consideration was given to keep the questionnaire short, with the aim to increase the number of respondents and to minimize respondent fatigue and the risk of response bias (Soderlund 2005, p. 179). Furthermore, according to Kaltcheva and Weitz (2006) a lot of consumers in a grocery store sees its action as a necessary evil and may therefore want to spend as short time as possible in the store without major distractions.
The questionnaire was written in Swedish, since Swedes are the target audience of the Swedish Red Cross and the fact that the experiment was executed in Sweden. Further, we also sought to avoid specialist terminology, so to minimize that questions were understood wrongly. To reduce the risk of time period specific interference; hence different profiles of recycling customers during Saturday and Sunday, we decided to conduct the survey in different times in both locations during both Saturday and Sunday, according to table 2 below.
However, due to time limitations the questionnaire was only conducted during the weekend and not during the weekdays. Grocery Store / Location ICA Maxi Arlanda ICA Maxi Haninge Week 16 Saturday 24th of April No manipulation – Control group Non-creative ad 09. 30 – 13. 00 (n=40) Creative ad 13. 30-18. 00 (n=42) Week 16 Sunday 25th of April No manipulation – Control group Non-creative ad 09. 30 – 13. 00 (n=39) Creative ad 13. 30-18. 00 (n=44) ICA Maxi Nacka Table 2. Time of conducting the questionnaires
Answers to the questionnaire were acquired by us directly after the consumers had recycled and they thereby had had the opportunity to notice the advertisement. A total of 165 responses were collected, however thirteen responses were not valid and the total number of valid responses ended up to 152, with 76 responses in each group. The respondents were asked to answer three questions, concerning if they had noticed the ad and if they remembered the message of the ad, before they were exposed to the ad once more. They were informed to only take the ad they just observed into account when answering the questions.
Subsequently, the respondents were asked to answer 17 questions concerning the degree of creativity and effectiveness of the ad and four questions regarding their perception 20 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall of the Red Cross. Finally, some demographic questions and if the respondent chose to donate their recycling money were asked. Hence, there were a total of 27 questions in the questionnaire. All of the questions in the questionnaire were however not used to reach the purpose of this thesis, but to gather data for future research.
A systematic random sample was used, where every third person was asked to answer the questionnaire. However, since many customers seemed stressed it was not always possible to catch every third person. In such cases the next customer, after the denial, were asked to answer the questionnaire, and so forth. The respondents were asked to fill out the questionnaire themselves so that they felt the questionnaire was completely anonymous; however if the respondent wanted us to help them we read the questions for them.
The aim with this approach was to make it as easy for the respondents as possible and thereby hopefully increase the number of respondents. Furthermore, respondents were motivated to respond properly to the questionnaire as we handed out candy as thanks for their help. 3. 4. 2. 1 Scales and Measures In the questionnaire we mainly used structured questions, both scale, dichotomous, and multichoice questions, since according to Malholtra and Birks (2007) these kinds of questions specify a set of response alternatives and response formats that facilitate the analysis of the results.
Thus, for all questions concerning creativity and effectiveness we used an interval scale, a measurement technique that, according to Soderlund (2005), is commonly used to depict people’s perceptions and attitudes. In an interval scale, numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal values in the characteristic being measured; hence the difference between any two scale values is identical to the difference between any other two adjacent values of an interval scale (Malholtra and Birks 2007, p. 340).
The scale used was a semantic differential scale, ranging from 1 to 7, with endpoints associated bipolar labels that had semantic meaning (Malholtra and Birks 2007, p. 350) Thus, the seven-point scale was bounded at each end by one of two bipolar adjectives, such as “positive” vs. “negative” or “agree” vs. “disagree”. The respondents were asked to mark the number that best indicated how s/he would describe the object or proposition being rated. As recommended by Soderlund (2005, p. 116) the low value in the interval scale (1) in our questionnaire were placed to the left and represented a low degree e. g. egative or disagree, and the high value (7) where placed to the right and represented a high degree e. g. positive or agree. All the interval questions that were bipolar were presented in this way to make it easy for the respondent to answer the questions and to make it more likely that the questionnaire was filled 21 Asking for Help in a Creative Way Kjellstrom and Levall out correctly. Several of the examined attributes were multi-item scales, hence somewhat different questions formulated on the same theoretical attribute (Soderlund 2005, p. 142), with the aim to achieve a high internal consistency and thereby increase the reliability.
For these questions we ran a reliability analysis, a test of internal consistency, called Cronbach’s alpha. This estimation is based on the correlation among variables comprising the set and in lin