EExxpplloorriinngg tthhee iimmppaacctt ooff sshhoocckk aaddvveerrttiisseemmeenntt oonn ssttuuddeennttss wwiitthh ccuullttuurree aass aann iinnfflluueennttiiaall ffaaccttoorr MBA Marketing Dainius Satas 10032448 Dublin Business School August, 2014 Table of Contents Acknowledgment 5 Abstract 6 1. Introduction 7 2. Literature review 11 2.1 Literature introduction 11 2.2 Marketing Communications 12 2.2.1 Marketing Communications Process 12 2.2.2 Advertisement 32 2.3 Attitudes and Appeals 36 2.3.1 Attitudes 36 2.3.2 Appeals 39 2.3.3 Shock Appeal 41 2.3.4 Shock Advertising 43 2.4 Literature conclusion 47 3. Methodology 49 3.1 Methodology Introduction 49 3.2 Research Design 49 3.2.1 Research Philosophy 50 3.2.2 Research Approach 51 3.2.3 Research objectives 51 3.2.4 Research Strategy 52 3.2.5 Selecting Respondents 53 3.2.6 Selecting Advertisement samples 54 3.2.7 Research Ethics 55 3.3 Data Colleting Instruments 55 3.4 Data Analysis Processes 58 3.5 Limitations of Methodology 59 4. Data Analysis/Findings and Discussion 60 4.1 Introduction 60 4.1 Objective 1 61 4.2.1 Sub-objective 1 61 4.2.2 Sub-objective 2 62 2 4.2.3 Sub-objective 3 63 4.2.4 Sub-objective 4 64 4.3 Objective 2 66 4.3.1 Sub-objective 2.1 66 4.3.2 Sub-objective 2.2 67 4.3.3 Sub-objective 2.3 70 4.4 Objective 3 73 4.4.1 Sub-objective 3.1 73 4.4.2 Sub-objective 3.2 74 4.4.3 Sub-objective 3.3 76 5. Conclusion and Recommendation 80 5.1 Conclusion 80 5.2 Recommendation 83 References 84 Appendices 89 Appendix 1 89 Appendix 2 91 Appendix 3 92 Appendix 4 93 Appendix 5 94 Appendix 6 94 Appendix 7 98 3 List of Tables and Figures Diagram 1.1 Schramm’s communication process model 12 Diagram 1.2 Order or message presentation 19 Diagram 1.3 ABC attitude model 37 Diagram 1.4 Preliminary Model of Consumer Reactions to Shock Appeals 44 Diagram 1.5 the research ‘onion’ 49 Diagram 1.6 Interview process 57 Table 1.1 Types of Shock Appeals 91 Table 1.2 Summary of Types of Shock Appeals 92 Table 1.3 Appeals in Advertising 93 Table 1.4 Research participants 94 4 Acknowledgement The author would like to personally thank his mentor John Staunton, how was a great help while writing this thesis. Throughout his expertise and helpful advices Mr. Staunton helped the author while writing this academic paper. 5 Abstract The main objective of this paper could be stated as to investigate the impact that shock advertisement brings to students while using culture as an influential factor. It can be said that this academic paper has three main parts: literature review, methodology and primary research. Throughout the literature review it was established that shock advertisement is a tool that I used within advertisement and marketing communication. With time it is becoming more and more popular. Although shock advertisement works by breaking through societal norms and surprising the target audience with vulgar or vial imagery or other aspects, while it is becoming more popular, people are more likely to be prone to the shock. Thus advertisers are using more offensive or insulting tactics to achieve their goals. There were studies examined that stated that shock advertisement can be deemed positive when it comes to students as an audience. However, there is a lack of research done on the negative impact or aspects shock appeal in advertisement brings. Shock appeal is usually used within sensitive or taboo topics; hence this research is based on them as well. Main issues arise throughout the literature review, that offensiveness of the advertisement can insult, cause distress or disgust and so not carry the intended information. Furthermore, culture can be deemed as one of the factors that can play an influential role. Researcher took upon 14 semi structure interviews to better answer the research questions, analyze the objectives and prove or reject the hypotheses. Throughout the research, the author came to a conclusion that although shock advertisements can be offensive or disgusting they are still more likely to carry out the intended information or the message. Culture can be seen as a factor when it comes to perceiving the impact or establishing intent to change attitudes or behaviour towards a harmful activity. However other factors were established as well that play crucial roles. 6 1. Introduction Communication is one of the most human of activities. People communicate daily for multiple reasons and it can be carried out by conversation, written word and pictures. (Blythe 2005, p. 213) Hence, communication is a part of marketing as well, in order to reach the target audience the communication process takes places. It can be summarized as a process that occurs between an organisation and its various target audiences; it is a management process that involves the development and presentation of various messages, followed up with the evaluation of their success and it sets out to influence the perception, understanding and actions of an organisation’s target audience. (Medcalf 2004, p. 2) It is important to understand and analyze how the marketing communication works, what does it consist of and how can it be used effectively and efficiently. As the marketing communication definition was established above, it is crucial to link it with different tools used to reach the target audience. As Patricia Medcalf (2004, p. 1) explains, marketing communications can be viewed as “promotion” element or tool of the four P’s (product, price, promotion, place). Furthermore, Fill (2009, p. 19) links the marketing communication not only with tools but explains that it has two more important elements: media and messages. Additionally, Fill (2009, p. 19) is quick to state that there are five principal communication tools: advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling; these tools should not be mixed up with media, because they have different characteristics and seek different goals. The trilogy is completed with messages that are purposely adapted for the target audience. (Fill 2009, p. 19) As established before promotion has a significant role to play as part of the marketing mix and sometimes can be deemed marketing communications in general. (Medcalf 2004, p. 3) A closer look is needed into one of the tools used by “promotion” element – advertising. Advertisement can be simply explained as any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service or idea by an indentified sponsor. (Belch and Belch 2009, p. 18) As established that advertisement is a communication process at itself, it is crucial to understand the main objectives and the roles of it. Fill (2009, p. 483) states that the main objective is to build or maintain awareness of a product or an organisation. There are many roles of advertising as listed by Patricia Medcalf (2004, p. 193), nevertheless, the most crucial ones to this thesis are the ability to change attitudes and behaviour, address generic issues and to generate awareness. As mentioned before one of the important elements of communication process is the message itself, thus while using 7 advertising as a tool it has to be determined what the message should communicate. This can be determined though the use of different appeals. Advertising appeals refer to the approach used to attract the attention of consumer and/or influence their feelings towards the product, service, or cause. (Belch and Belch 2009, p.283) There are two main types of advertising appeals that are used to attract attention of the target audience: rational and emotional (Medcalf, 2004, p. 210) In this case, the emotional appeal is more relevant, because it holds the primary concept of shock advertisements and shock appeal that is the core of the dissertation. Many feelings or needs can serve as the basis for advertising appeals designed to influence consumers on an emotional level, such as: love, joy, happiness, affection, security, safety, nostalgia and fear. (Belch and Belch 2009, p. 285) Going more in depth within the topic, it becomes crucial to understand another emotion or feeling that advertisements are carrying out – shock. Although shock could be related to the fear appeal, it has its own niche and thus a group of advertisements called ‘shock advertising’ was created. As stated by Dahl et al. (2003, p. 269) shocking advertisement attempts to surprise an audience by deliberately violating norms for societal values and personal ideas. In other words, shock advertisement proclaims social values or problems, of health, smoking, driving and other through a different view that could be deemed as social unacceptable. Fill (2009, p. 489) elaborates more explaining that the main use of shock advertising strategy is that it is a good way to secure an audience’s attention and achieve a longer-lasting impact than through traditional messages and attention-getting devices. From the use of shock advertising the main advantages arises, whereas it is clear that through shocking images or videos people have a longer lasting impact or it raises the awareness it is important to underpin the disadvantages. As Whiteside (2008) states that there is a huge number of complaints regarding shock advertisements, just over 24 thousand in the year of 2007. The author continues to state that some of the advertisements, in this case released in the UK market, were offensive frightening and causing distress. (Whiteside, 2008) So in other words, shocking advertisements, although raising awareness, sometimes can be deemed more offensive or cause distress than inform the viewer. All of these topics and themes are looked through and analyzed more in depth within the literature analysis part of this thesis. The main questions and reasons of the research arise through the analysis of the secondary data. 8 Although, it can be said that exploring and analysing shock appeal in advertisements is not a new area or topic, the aim of this thesis is different. The purpose is not to answer the question is there an impact; it is to understand the impact shock appeal has on people and try to establish if an offensive or disgusting advertisement can still be informative. As already mentioned the impact can be different on different people regarding many factors, if you group of people will find it meaningful or the advertisement will make them think, then another group of people can get annoyed, offended or distressed by a shocking images or videos. Hence, this thesis will only add additional crucial information to better evaluate and understand the impact of shock appeal advertisement. It is crucial for the reader to understand that shocking advertising has an impact on the viewers. Although explained the impact may differ because of culture, mindset and other variables, this thesis will concentrate on the negative impact, hence establishing the link between the advertisement being informative and shocking with the advertisement being shocking, offensive, annoying and irritable. Furthermore, this research will use culture as an influential factor when it comes to the impact of shock advertisement. It is important for the reader to understand that this is not a sociological research and the main reasons or objectives of this dissertation are not make culture the main objective of it. It can be said that there are more than one factor that can influence, however due to lack of research connecting the negative impact of shock advertisement and the cultural background of the viewer the researcher deems this research relevant. A broader and in the same way detailed analysis of the factors and impact is made by using secondary data and primary research. Research questions Primary research question: Does the impact raised by shocking advertising can be perceived as more offensive and annoying than informative? Sub-questions: Can advertisements that are offensive and cause distress still be a good source of information regarding social problems? 9 Can there be a line drawn regarding the positive and negative aspects of shocking advertising? Is culture playing a significant role on people when it comes to the impact of shock appeal advertising? Hypothesis: 1. Advertisements that use shock appeal are more offensive and annoying than informative. 2. People from different cultures are influenced differently by shock advertising. 10