cross-cultural and consumer psychology: the importance of cultural differences in consumer choice
TRANSCRIPT
Title:
Cross-cultural and consumer psychology: The importance of cultural differences in
consumer choice
Submitted by Ananditha Sishta to the University of Exeter as a dissertation towards the
degree of Masters of Science in Economics and Consumer Psychology,
September 2010
The declaration: “I certify that all the information in this dissertation that is not mine
has been identified and that no material is included for which a degree has previously
been conferred upon me”
………………………………………………………………
Ananditha Sishta
Word count: 6400
Abstract
Advertising influences many people’s lives. Daily choices and knowledge situations and culture is
a part of this and advertising (Millar and Choi, 2003). The effect of culture on attitudes towards
advertising and brand loyalty are studied in this paper. The number of participants needed for this study
were 99(n = 99) from India and Britain. ANCOVA was used to test the effect of the independent
variables, nationality and nature of advertisement, on the dependent variables, attitudes towards
advertising and brand loyalty, with the covariates ethnic identification, individualism and collectivism.
The Indians and British participants did not show a strong effect of nature of advertising and nationality
their perception of advertising and the brand, the reasons for which are given in this thesis. The increase
of globalization not only increases the economy but also increases the knowledge of people around the
world making them aware of the different cultures. The acceptance of the idea of a global culture is seen
in this thesis.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Abstract
Introduction
…Theorectical background
…..The concept of culture in psychology
…..Cross cultural and consumer psychology
…..Marketing and Advertising
…..Consumer choice and behavior
…..Brands and Brand Strategy
….. Aim and present study
Methodology
...Participants
…Procedures
Results
…Preliminary analysis
…Main analysis
…Attitudes towards advertising
…Brand loyalty
Discussion
…Attitudes towards advertising
…Brand loyalty
…Limitations
…Further Research
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Appendix 1
…Table 1
…Table 2
…Table3
Appendix 2
…Ethic Approval
…Information sheet
…Questionnaire
…Demographics
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank many people for helping me complete this dissertation.
Firstly I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Ilka Gleibs for her support and advice
during my dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Brian Young and Ivonne Hoeger
for their unending encouragement during this period. Lastly, I would like to thank my
parents without whose help; this thesis would not have been possible. Thank you
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Introduction
Advertisements and marketing have become increasingly important for the selling and
distribution of products. For example, PepsiCo spends $ 2.9 billion per year on advertising and
marketing alone, (http://www.pepsico.co.uk). This becomes further important as markets are
increasingly global and consumers of the same product are from a variety of cultural
backgrounds. That means, with the increase of globalization, people working in marketing and
advertisement have to become more familiar with different cultures and understand the
importance of this difference seen in cultures while marketing a product to different nations.
Hence, that knowledge about cultural differences can influence advertising in many ways and
advertisers must be knowledgeable of this. This will impact and raise consumer satisfaction
along with sales as consumers would not feel disconnected from their own culture while
purchasing a global brand (Law, Mallorie, Keh & Chiu, 2009).
This research project will take into account the importance of culture in advertising, and
consumer choice. This study hopes to find a difference in the attitudes towards advertising by
people from different nationalities towards different acculturated advertisements.
1. Theoretical Background
1.1. The concept of culture in psychology
Before we discuss in more detail the aim of the study, it is important to define culture.
According to Hofstede (1983) culture is defined as “its essence is collective mental
programming: it is that part of our conditioning that we share with other members of our nation,
region, or group but not with members of other nations, regions or groups.” (p. 77). Here,
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Hofstede illustrates the importance of culture and that differences between nations and societies
in values and beliefs exist. More precisely, members of one society are likely to share the same
values and beliefs that also determine their perception, thinking and decision making. Whereas
Hofstede defined culture more generally, national culture is defined by Leung, Bhagat, Buchan,
Erez& Gibson (2005) as a national group that share and follow that same values, beliefs, norms
and behavioral patterns. Both these definitions have in common that culture enables us to define
what members of one society have in common, and how they differ from other cultures or
nations. If we define culture like this, cultural psychology is the study of the culturally acquired
traditions and practices that help control, articulate and transform the human mind, which results
in lesser mind unity than in cultural divergence in mind , self and emotion(Shweder, 1991, p.73).
While being part of a specific society or nation, we are socialized in a way that we learn
about the similarities with the other members of our society but we discover the differences
between other societies and us (Hofstede, 1983). For example, Indian societies are more prone
to group behavior and working in an interdependent group while British people are more
dependent on themselves to make decisions and beliefs and norms. Indians are part of a
collectivistic society while the British are part of an Individualistic society(Hofstede,1983).
Members of a collectivist society view themselves as an interdependent unit, where
sharing of resources is inevitable, like what happens in families. While the members of an
individualist society understand that the self is autonomous and independent from the group;
many decisions of whether or not to share resources are made individually (Reykowski, 1994). In
a collectivist society, individual goals are often well-matched with the in-group goals, whereas
for an individualist society individual goals are often not associated with the in-group goals
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(Triandis,Bontempo,Villareal, Asai and Lucca 1988; Traindis, McCusker and Hui,1990). For a
collectivistic society, social behaviour can be determined based on (a) norms, duties, and
obligations, and (b) attitudes, and personal needs; however, an individualistic society is
identified predominantly based on attitudes, personal needs, perceived rights and contracts
(Miller, 1994). This shows that people in a collectivistic society worry about the other people of
their group and try to maintain a low profile while members of an individualistic society are
involved in their needs and care little about the members of their society. Members of a
collectivistic society tend to be more formal and are dependent on rules for social behavior to a
greater extent than do the members of an Individualistic society (Triandis, 1999). Thus, the
members of an individualistic society weigh the profit and loss of relationships, whereas the
members of a collectivistic society seem to concentrate on the needs of others and the loyalty
associated with the relationship (Triandis, 1999). There is a large difference seen here with the
values and beliefs of both the societies, the way the members of the society view relationships
and their own roles.
In the current study, we aim at understanding whether the differences seen in culture
influences the perception and attitude towards advertisements. Hence, we decided to compare
participants from a predominantly collectivistic culture (India) with participants from a more
individualistic culture (Britain) and we look at the way in which these two societies react to
advertisements.
1.2. Cross-cultural and consumer psychology
Whereas cross-cultural psychology acknowledges the fact that culture shapes the way we
perceive the world (Chiu, Mallorie, Keh & Law, 2009; Chiu & Fu , 2007), the idea that cultural 8
differences have to be taken into account when thinking about consumers and consumer
psychology is fairly new (Chiu & Cheng, 2007).Including both their variability and invariance
under different cultural conditions, cross cultural psychology is the scientific study of human
behaviour and cognitive process. (Ho & Wu, 2001, p. 4). These definitions help us understand
what cross cultural psychology is and how we will look at it in this thesis. Williams and Best
(1990) looked at various societies and they both found universal similarities as well as
differences between and within more than 30 nations. This shows us the scope of cross cultural
psychology and some early findings. These differences researched, that exist in every society
will be the basis of this study, as the cultural differences applied to advertising is the core of this
research.
When culture shapes perception and decision-making, it is likely that it plays a role in
advertising as well. A study by Aaker and Schmitt (2001) showed that participants that were
involved in a two-culture situation that is participants were put in situations that represented their
beliefs and values and also in a situation that represented another culture. They then had a greater
tendency to attribute to their own values and beliefs (e.g. Chinese to Collectivistic beliefs). When
asked, they chose a brand that represented their values and beliefs (Collectivistic values and
beliefs). Thus, cultural values and norms seem to be relevant for consumer choice and might
want to be taken into account when creating advertisements. These points will help us understand
the choices of consumers who are introduced to a new brand from a different culture.
How cultural norms and values can influence reactions to consumer goods and products
might be examplafied by a newspaper article in Daily Reckoning on May 24th, 2006 by Sala
Kanan. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in India was facing much protests behavior as they were
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believed to be using pork oil. 150 Million Muslim residents of India do not eat Pork. This was a
difference in culture that KFC was facing in Bangalore in India which reduced the sales of KFC
and made many of its restaurants in India fall. The Indians protested to another culture beginning
in India. Another example for the importance of cultural sensitivity is the protest against
Starbucks café in the Forbidden city of Beijing, China. Rui (2007) described that Starbucks
portrays American culture and that is not “globalizing but trampling over Chinese culture”. The
Chinese protested to an outside culture as they felt an invasion into their own culture (Chiu &
Cheng, 2007).
Another behavioral implication of globalization is that people become more aware of the
differences that are associated with the brands in question. For example McDonald’s, Nike, and
Pepsi are all associated with a westernized, American culture. Nike is an American brand that
portrays American cultures (E.g.: Individualism) (Chiu & Cheng, 2007) but maybe less so with a
collectivistic culture such as the Indian culture. Thus, through the increased influence of
globalized brands, individuals may pressure the capability of local cultures and destabilize
people’s sense of community and cultural identity (Chiu & Cheng, 2007). This, however, could
affect the consumer’s choice to buy the product or brand. Thus under the premises that culture
shapes our perception, findings from cross-cultural psychology may help us understanding the
differences in appraising advertising.
1.3. Marketing and Advertising
Marketing and advertising has been an integral part of almost every industry and most
specifically consumer goods. During the 1920’s, the United States producers started to identify a
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consumer society as a probable product of increased mass production. This started with an
advertisement for apartments on Radio in August of 1922. After which many department stores
started to advertise for their stores on the radio, which then led to the emergence of advertising
agencies selling radio time to their clients in the late 1920’s (Calvert, 2008). This marked the
beginning of advertising. Later television advertisements started in 1948 (Cabotte, 2007) and
thus began an invasion into people’s homes (Calvert, 2008). Marketing and advertisement
became an industry in itself and are increasingly important for the distribution and sale of goods.
For example, young people today are exposed to 40,000 advertisements a year (Calvert, 2008)
and products targeted at a young audience have a high potential of $110 million (Kaur & Singh,
2006).
The effects of advertisement on behavior have become of increased interest of late. For
example, Kyle (1982) showed that advertising alcohol had a noticeable effect on sales of alcohol.
The increased consumption of alcohol was linked to anti-social behavior. As such, it could be
argued that advertising alcohol could enhance this kind of behavior. Here the effects of
advertising are being questioned and scrutinized for abusing some social norms and values. In
some cultures, the consumption of alcohol is open, so advertising of alcohol is manipulated in
these countries (e.g. India) so that the brand is advertised which will make people aware and
familiar with that brand of alcohol. This is a useful example as we attempt to understand the
importance of cultural in advertising (Chiu and Fu, 2007).
. This comes from a society that feels that advertising of alcohol could prove to go
against their norms and values, their also exist societies where advertising of this kind has no
effect on their norms and values. These kind of consumer related cultural differences could prove
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to be affective in this study. Thus, on the one hand, advertisements are argued to have an impact
on behavior (Chiu, Mallorie, Keh and Law, 2009 & Chiu and Fu, 2007). However, on the other
hand, our behavior, cultural norms and embedding has an impact on the way we perceive
advertisements as well. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to shed light on the impact of cultural
background on perception and attitudes towards advertisements.
1.4. Consumer choice and behavior
The interest in consumer choices and consumer behavior has been growing but the
research on this topic has not grown much (Maheswaran & Shavitt, 2000). Consumer choices
can be affected by culture and globalization. Globalization has brought symbols of different
cultures together and offered sufficient opportunities for instantaneous activation of two or more
cultural representations (Chiu & Cheng, 2007). Thus, with the emergence of globalization, the
choice has become more diverse and which may have an effect on the consumer’s choice.
Different brands bring with them cultural characters of the culture of the nation they come from.
This might affect consumer’s choices, as the brand does not always represent their original
culture and values.
A cultural icon for example is defined as a person or thing that is widely regarded as a
representative symbol of a certain culture (Keller, Aperia, and Georgeson, 2003, p. 1). Coke and
Nike, for example are cultural icons, as they represent the culture of United States. (Chiu &
Cheng, 2007; Keller, Aperia, and Georgeson 2003, p.3). Cultural icons might face rejection in
different cultures, as people believe that an iconic brand sways thoughts and behavior through
the establishment of its associated cultural representation. (Chiu & Cheng, 2007). Consumer
choice depends on the interpretation of the brand i.e. the culture that they represent, along with
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the associated values and beliefs. Kentucky Fried Chicken had raised many objections in South
India for its introduction into the society, as it was seen as an introduction of an outside culture
into the Indian society(Uno & Burns, 2002, p:29)
The introduction of a new culture with the brand through globalization enhances
knowledge about culture (Chiu & Cheng, 2007). With the emergence of different cultures
through the brands being brought into a country, the consumers find themselves learning about
the differences between their culture and the new culture. When a person is faced with two
choices, they start to find the difference between the two choices in front of them (Hsee &
Leclerc, 1998). This helps the consumer choose the product or brand as per the differences that
they have seen and the consumer’s choice then depends on how they perceive their own culture.
For instance, if they feel highly related to their culture then they will choose the product that
represents those values and beliefs, but if they do not believe in the values and beliefs of their
own culture it might result in them choosing the brand that represents the other culture.
1.5. Brands and Brand Strategy
A brand is an identity given to a product, this helps the product to be recognized easily
and also allowed the consumer to distinguish the product from the other products. A brand can
be anything that has a distinguished characteristic about it. A brand represents all the features
like a name, term, sign, symbol or design by which the products of one seller or group of sellers
can be easily identified between competitors (Keller, Aperia, and Georgeson 2003, p. 3). This
definition tells us that a brand is merely a differentiating factor that allows a consumer of the
product to distinguish between two products of a kind. A brand is an important factor for a
product to be placed on the market. As Phillips (2004, p.1) pointed out that a brand is connected
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to every organization whether this was developed consciously or not, a brand put simply is an
expectation or a promise of an experience.
In this thesis, we examine how potential costumers perceive different strategies that are
associated with a brand depending on their cultural background. Brand strategy is something that
should be followed in order to increase the value of the brand in the customer by the building on
its strengths and addressing its weaknesses (Phillips, 2004, p. 3). We assume that brand strategies
are influenced by cultural differences. A brand strategy that is culture specific will influence
consumer choice positively. Thus, keeping the culturally distinct features in mind, while
marketing a product is a vital part of brand strategy for successful sales.
2. Aim and present study
This thesis attempts to understand how the cultural background of consumers and
recipients of advertisements influences their perception, attitudes, and choice of products.
Thereby, we focus on the branding and advertising of a global product. Many companies find it
necessary to extend their brand value by reaching out to markets around the world, not only in
the countries that they originated. But one very important fact that these companies must focus
on are the cultural difference that exist in the different global markets that these companies
intend to extend their product (Tellis & Weiss, 2001). To summarize, the study attempts at
understanding the consumer’s reactions to brands and the differences in campaigning across two
countries, namely Britain and India, as the two nationals might react differently to similar
situations as they follow different belief that have a noticeable effect on their behavior patterns
(Traindis, 1999; Hofstede, 1983). This study would like to see the way one product is differently
handled for people of different cultural backgrounds. Here the interest lies, in looking at the way
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the campaigns of similar products gain interest and popularity with the difference in beliefs and
culture. In other words, the interest lies how advertisements of one brand or similar products,
those are different in nature and acculturated to one society can gain interest and popularity in
another society that believe in a different culture.
More specifically, we expect that globalized brands that are not localized might trigger
rejection behavior in the consumers for those products. For example, If McDonald’s did not
customize all its beef burgers to Veggie Burgers then they would have been rejected in India like
KFC was (“The Daily Reckoning”, Kannan, May 24, 2006,). This study thus hopes to find the
importance of culture in globalised branding between India and Britain.
The aim of this thesis is to study the differences in the attitudes towards advertising and
the brand when exposed to differently acculturated advertisements. In this study attitudes
towards brands and brand loyalty will be focused on and the effect of different natures of the
advertisements will be studied. This study can help us look at the way globalization can take a
better approach to the way to customize their products before introducing it into the market. For
e.g.: This study looks at India (Collectivistic society) and Britain (Individualistic society) along
with the differences seen in these countries that result in the difference in behavior. The way
globalization can use these differences to their advantage and send out an acculturated message
through its advertisement. Thus, the difference seen culturally in these two nations will be the
main focus of this study. Cultural differences related to advertising will be in the lime light in
this study, as the reactions of the participants towards the different advertisements acculturated to
different cultures will be viewed to them. The effect of this on the brand and the image of
advertising will be studied in this thesis. They are many reasons for these differences to occur in
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this thesis, the main reason being that these two societies believe in different values and beliefs
and perceive people and relationships differently and as already said above this is the basis of
advertisements.
3. Methodology
3. 1. Participants
Participants in the study were 120 Individuals of whom 60 were British students from the
university of Exeter (n = 60).60 individuals were from India (n = 60).20 participants had to be
excluded from the data for reason given below this leaves us with 100 individuals(British n = 53,
Indians n = 57). The age of the participants varied from 18 – 25 years (M = 24.6 , SD. = 21).
60.7 % of the participants were females. All the individuals who took time to complete the
questionnaire, participated in a draw for 3, 20 £ vouchers.
3.2. Procedures
The study is a quasi-experimental approach with the Indian participants from two nations
(India and Britain) and the three different advertisements (Indian, British and control).
Participants were randomly assigned to watch one of the three advertisements. The participation
in this study is completely voluntary and any participant can at any time withdraw from this
study. Before participants watched the clips they were asked to rate their choices on measuring
attitudes towards advertisements, ethnic identification and cultural orientation .They then viewed
the advertisement which was followed by a few items that measured the critical dependent
variables, attitudes towards advertisements and brand loyalty. The participants were expected to
finish the survey online, as a web based survey.
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This web-based survey included 3 different kinds of advertisements and a questionnaire
following. This kind of data collection helps with anonymity of participant and also ensures
completely unbiased answers which were necessary for this study. They will be 3 kinds of
different advertisements that will be shown in this experiment. The first kind of advertisement is
a British advertisement that is acculturated to the British society and is aired in the United
Kingdom in the past. The second kind of advertisement is the second an Indian advertisement
acculturated to the Indian values and beliefs of an Indian Collectivistic society. The third kind of
advertisement used is a control advertisement that is not culture specific. The control
advertisement portrays a more general culture where the focus is mainly on the brand and no
particular culture can be distinguished in this advertisement. It is a more general approach to
advertising. These advertisements are supposed to portray a difference seen in cultures so that it
will be useful in this study in order to bring out the way the participants will feel towards their
culture and also how the difference between the cultures perceived in these advertisements affect
their attitudes towards advertising.
If not indicated otherwise all items were measured on a 7 point likert-scale that ranged
from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Attitudes towards advertising were measured with 7 items of the questionnaire (Gaski
and Etgar, 1986). This scales was first used to form an index of consumer attitudes and it has a
Cronbach SD = .61 (with item number 4 deleted) reliability. Items were, for example, “Most
advertisements are very annoying” and “Advertisements should be more closely regulated.” A
scale was formed using these items but excluding the fourth item from the measure. This was
done using the compute variables on the SPSS data sheet.
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Cultural orientation was measured with the help of the scale developed by Singelis,
Theodore, Triandis, Bhawuk and Gelfand (1995) to measure the dimensions of an individualistic
and collectivistic society with 16 items. Items like “I often do my own thing” and “What happens
to me is my own doing”, “I would sacrifice an activity that I enjoy very much if my family did
not approve of it” and “I usually sacrifice my self-interest for the benefits of my group.” These
items will help us understand how the participant perceives and follows that values and beliefs of
their group. The reliability of this scale was Cronbach SD = .83. The items fron these measures
were divided into two sub scales by the different aspects they measure. Sub-scale one
Individualistic measure how individualistic a participant is items 1-8 form this sub-scale while
sub-scale two Collectivistic measures how collectivistic an individual is items 9-16 form this
sub-scale.
Ethnic identity was measured with the help of a scale that was developed by Phinney
(1992) with 5 items .This was used to study the degree to which a person is able to express a
sense of belongingness to a specific ethnic group and have positive affects towards that ethnic
group. The reliability of this test was Cronbach SD = .936. The identification of the ethnic group
by the participant was measured by items like “I am happy that I am a member of the ethnic
group I belong to” and I feel good about my cultural or ethnic background.” A scale measuring
the ethnic identity necessary in this study was formed using these items.
15 items were used to measure the attitudes of the advertisement; this was studied by the
help of the scale developed by Burke and Edell (1986). The reliability of this scale was tested to
be Cronbach’s alpha = .767. Items like” This advertisement is believable” and “This
advertisement is bad” were a part of this section. This scale needed reversing of some of the
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items as they indicated negative values. This made a positive scale with the reversal of the
values.
Brand loyalty was measured with the help of 9 items drawn from 3 different scales. The
first 3 items were taken from the scale ‘Attitudes towards the commercial’, a likert-scale that was
first used by Fennis and Bakker (2001), to measure the general opinion of the participant towards
any specific commercial and is especially suited for television advertisements. Items like “I
found the Pepsi Co. commercial good” and “I considered the Pepsi Co. commercial to be
positive” were a part of this section. The second part of this measure in the scale also had 3 items
and was developed by Sen, Gurhan-Canli and Morwitz (2001) to measure any persons tendency
to purchase a given product of a specific brand. Items like “I like the brand like Pepsi Co” and
“When I buy the beverage I am loyal to the brand Pepsi Co.” The third part of this measure is
from a scale by Yoo, Donthu and Lee (2000) to measure a participant as a consumer’s general
loyalty towards the brand. Items like “I consider myself to be loyal to Pepsi Co.” and “I would
not buy other brands if Pepsi Co. is available at the store” helped measure the brand loyalty of
the participants towards the brand Pepsi Co. The reliability of this test was Cronbach alpha α
= .887. Factor analysis showed that the items of this measure all fell on the same scale. The
values of this measure were reversed and thus formed positive attitudes towards brands.
4. Results
The items in this study have been taken from separate measures which were involved in
measuring different aspects of human behavior. These measures have been put together to form a
questionnaire and then the items have been checked for reliability and factor analysis has been
run through the data to form effective scales as part of the data analysis in this study. This helped in
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forming 5 scales that helped in analyze the data in an effective way in order to achieve definite results in
this paper. Some items of two scales were necessary to reverse the values so as to make them positive and
so that they could be part of one scale only.
4.1. Preliminary analysis
In this study we were able to collect 120 participants. Once the data was collected some data was
removed. 20 participants did not complete the questionnaire and submitted incomplete questionnaires;
these were excluded from the analysis.
The mean and standard deviation of positive attitudes towards attitudes and brands are M= 3.50
(SD = 1.10) and M= 3.53 (SD = 1.23), respectively. The means of Collectivism was M =5.02 (SD = .90),
Individualism, M = 4.70 (SD = .99), and ethnic identity are M = .51 (SD = .50), respectively. The details
of the descriptive statistics can be seen in table no.
The correlation between Positive attitudes towards advertising and positive attitudes towards
brands for the Indian group is correlation coefficient r (46) = .551; p < 0.001. The correlation between
Positive attitudes towards advertising and positive attitudes towards brands for the British group is
correlation coefficient r (52) = .604; p < 0.001. The correlation between Collectivism and Individualism
is r (99) = .598; p < 0.001. The correlation of individualism and collectivism with ethnic identity are r
= .222; p = 0.027, and r = .262; p = 0.009. The details of the all the correlations can be seen in table no.
4.2. Main analysis
To test the main hypothesis, that attitudes towards advertising and brand loyalty varies depending
on culturally different advertisements and as well as the nationality of the participants. This section will
be divided in two sub sections giving us the results of the two ANCOVA’s conducted in this study that
test our main hypothesis that Indian and British participants should differ on attitudes towards the
advertisements and brand loyalty after being exposed to the advertisements. More specifically, it was 20
hypothesized that British participants should have more positive attitudes towards advertisements and
brand loyalty towards the product after watching a British brand, whereas the Indian participants should
favor the brand most after watching an Indian advertisement, compared to the British or Control
advertisement. Additionally, we control for ethnic identity, individualism and collectivism. The n = 19
Indian participants, n = 19 British participants filled in the Indian advertisement while the number of
participants who viewed the British advertisement were n =16 Indians and n = 14 British participants. The
control advertisement was viewed by n = 11 Indians and n = 19.
4.2.1. Attitudes towards advertising
The analysis revealed a strong main effect for nationality, F (1, 92) =10.95, p<.001, p2
=.11; indicating that the Indian sample had generally a more positive attitude towards
advertisement. Contrary to the hypothesis, neither the main effect for advertisement, F (2, 92)
=.49, p=.61, p2 =.01, nor the interaction, F (1, 92) = 0.27, p=.76, p
2 =.006; was significant
In a further analysis we included the collectivism, individualism and ethnic identity as
covariates, but none of these was significant, A 3 (advertisement: Indian, British and control) * 2
(Nationality: Indians and British) ANOVA controlling for individualism, collectivism and ethnic identity
was conducted. The results were not as expected. The values for the ANCOVA conducted were as
follows a weak effect of individualism was seen F (1, 89) = .726; p = 397 p2 = .008 this shows that
being an individualistic did not have a significant effect on attitudes towards advertising. A non
significant ANCOVA was seen for collectivism F (1, 89) = .626; p = .431 p2 = .007 this shows that being
an active part of the collectivistic society does not have an effect on attitudes towards advertising. The
third covariate ethnic identity was not significant F (1.89) =.062; p = .805 p2 = .001 this means that the
amount the participant related to their ethnic identity had no effect on attitudes towards advertising. The
dependent variables ethnic code was not significant F (1, 89) = 2.030; p = .158 p2 = .0.22 the effect of
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response was low F (2, 89) = .305; p = .738 p2 = .007 this showed that the difference in the advertisement
(Indian, British or Control advertisement) did not have an effect on attitudes towards advertising. The
ANCOVA value of the dependent variable positive attitudes towards advertisement showed a non
significant affect F(2,89) = 2.030; p = .158 p2 = .022 this shows that having a general positive attitude
towards advertising had no effect on the participant’s attitude towards the advertisement they watched.
The value of the interaction effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable positive
attitudes towards advertisements is shown in the value given F(2,89) = .293 ; p = .747 p2 = .007 this
shows no significant effect of the interaction on attitudes towards advertising.
4.2.2. Brand loyalty
The analysis revealed a strong main effect for nationality with a significant effect shown,
F (1, 92) =28.985, p<.001, p2 =.240; indicating that the Indian sample had generally a more
positive attitude towards advertisement. Contrary to the hypothesis, neither the main effect for
advertisement, F (2, 92) =.354, p=.709, p2 =.008, nor the interaction, F (2, 92) = 0.114,
p=.892,p2 =.002; were significant.
A3 (Advertisement: Indian, British, Control)) * 2 (Nationality: Indian and British) ANOVA
controlling for Individualism, Collectivism and ethnic identity was conducted. The results were not as
expected. The second part of this section is the values for the second ANCOVA with the second
independent variable the only difference. The three covariates are ethnic identity, Individualism and
collectivism. The independent variables are response which is the nature of the advertisement viewed by
the participant and ethnic code which is the nationality of the participants. The dependent variable is
positive attitudes towards brands. A univariate was conducted on the SPSS data sheet on our data
collected the values for which are as follows. The n = 19 Indian participants, n = 19 British participants
filled in the Indian advertisement while the number of participants who viewed the British advertisement
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were n =16 Indians and n = 14 British participants. The control advertisement was viewed by n = 11
Indians and n = 19.
A non significant effect of ANCOVA was seen for individualism F (1, 89) = .495; p = .484 p2
= .006 which means that controlling for individualism showed no effect on brand loyalty. The effect for
the other two covariates collectivism was not significant F (1, 89) = 2.528; p = .115, p2 = .028 which
shows that controlling for collectivism did not have an effect on brand loyalty and also no significant
effect of ethnic identity was seen F (1, 89) = .531; p = .468, p2 = .006, this showed that controlling for
ethnic identity did not have an effect on brand loyalty. The values for the independent variables, ethnic
code F (1, 89) = 6.669; p = 0.011, p2 = .070 was strong and showed a significant effect on brand loyalty.
There was no significant effect of response F (2, 89) = .624; p = .538, p2 = .014 showed that the
difference in the nature of the advertisement did not have an effect on brand loyalty. The ANCOVA of
the dependent variable positive attitudes towards brands was significant and this shows that general
positive attitudes towards advertising has an effect on brand loyalty F (1, 89) = 6.669; p = .011, p2 = .070
The interaction effect of response and ethnic code shows no significant effect on the brand loyalty
F (2, 89) = 0.083; p = .920, p2 =.002.This shows that the combined effect on brand loyalty by the two
dependent variables did not have an effect.
5. Discussion
The hypothesis of this study is to find how much of an effect nationality and culturally
different advertisements have on attitudes towards advertising and brands. This study aimed to
look at the cultural differences in the world and if global advertising could be as effective. The
nature of the advertisement had no effect on attitudes towards advertisements. However, there
was a strong main effect for nationality, in the way that the Indian sample was generally more
23
positive towards advertisement. So, according to the data collected in this study different
acculturated advertisements and the nationality of the person will have no effect on the attitude
on the advertisement.
5.1. Attitudes towards advertising
The effect of nature of advertising, thus whether it was an advertisement from Britain, India
or culturally unspecific, had no effect on attitudes towards advertising.
The outcome of nationality of the participants did not show a positive effect on attitudes
towards advertising. The advertisement did not make a difference whether the participants were
of Indian or British nationality. But even though no significant effect was seen, the nationality of
the participant had a higher effect than the rest.
Individualism showed no effect on the attitudes towards advertising. This means that when
individualism was controlled the participants showed no difference in the way they perceived the
advertisement. Collectivism showed no effect on the attitudes towards advertising, which means
that when collectivism was controlled for there, was any change in the attitudes towards
advertising. Ethnic identity also showed no effect on attitudes towards advertising, which means
that whether the participant could highly relate to their cultural group or not, they showed no
difference in their attitudes towards advertising.
5.2. Brand loyalty
The effect of nature of advertisement and nationality showed little effect on brand loyalty.
This indicates that the participants showed no difference regardless of the nation that they
24
belonged to (India or Britain) and the nature of the advertisement (Indian, British or control) they
viewed.
The effect of nature of advertising had no effect on brand loyalty. This shows that the
participant’s reactions will not be affected no matter which culture an advertisement portrays.
The effect of nationality of the participants had a positive effect on brand loyalty. This shows
that the response to the brand differs with the nationality of the participants. Though no
significant effect was seen, the nationality of the participant had a higher effect than the rest.
Individualism showed no effect on the brand loyalty. This means that when individualism
was controlled the participants showed no difference in the way they perceived the
advertisement. Collectivism showed no effect on the brand loyalty, which means that when
collectivism was controlled for there, was any change in the brand loyalty. Ethnic identity also
showed no effect on brand loyalty, which means that whether the participant could highly relate
to their cultural group or not, they showed no difference in their attitudes towards advertising.
An interesting point is that the Indians showed high brand loyalty and better attitudes
towards the advertisement that they saw than the British participants showed. They showed a
higher positive response to the attitudes towards advertising and brand loyalty than the British
participants. The reasons for the results of this study to differ from our hypothesis could be
many. Peer pressure is said to have a huge effect on people today. Many people try to fit in and
go along with what other people’s perceptions of the same brand or product. With the increase of
industrialization in India, the adaptation of the western culture is inevitable; this could be one of
the reasons for the Indians to respond in this way to the advertisements. Globalization brings
25
with it the culture of the country that the product comes from, this is then evaporated buy the
consumer who buys the product (Sundaram, 2006). In this way the Indians are already exposed
to the westernized culture shown in the advertisements and did not show too much of a reaction.
This could affect their actual opinion of the brand and the advertisement also. The idea that
westernisation is the new trend and when people buy global products they partly absorb the
western culture(Lakha, 1999,p:253)This could result in the difference in this study, as Indians
have a tendency to adapt to a westernisation and being accustomed to western advertisements
will have an equal effect as any Indian advertisement would. This is why the Indians show
similar attitude to both advertisements and attitudes towards the brand too.
Globalisation could also be the reason why the British participants also did not differ in
their opinion. Globalization of the world brings in “Global consciousness” which could have
resulted in the British participants being more open to an advertisement that represented another
culture. This could result in lesser difference seen in the attitudes towards all three
advertisements and brand loyalty.
5.3. Limitations
This study does not prove the hypothesis but this can be because of a few limitations that
the study has. The numbers of questionnaires completed were lower than the required amount as
some of the participants did not complete the questionnaire. This left us with a 100 participants
instead of 120.The method of the study was a web based survey as already mentioned above, this
could pose a few difficulties, if some doubts may arise about any item on the questionnaire, the
26
verification of this doubt could be difficult while the participant is answering the question. This
could lead to misinterpretations of the items and then the answers would not be the expected
responses.
The questionnaire also lacked in the choice of brands. This could result in the responses
being dependent only on the participants biased opinion of the brand and they did not answer the
other questions independent of their feelings towards the brand Pepsi Co. For example: if the
participant was loyal to a Coke Brand then he would immediately react negatively to the study
when he saw the Pepsi Co. Brand being advertised. A range of brands might help to eliminate
these biased opinions.
The advertisements also could have differed in quality as it was being viewed online
through a public portal. This could have affected the choice of the participants. The duration of
each advertisement was similar though it varied by a few minutes, this could have been another
reason why the advertisements might not have had the same effect as we expected. The
advertisement could have also been focusing more on some more basic differences seen in both
the societies, it could have concentrated more on the openness of the British society in contrast to
the close knit and conservative Indian society, this lack of preciseness could have been another
limitation in this study.
5.4. Conclusion
In conclusion, the three different types of advertisements did not have a noticeable effect
on the participant’s attitudes towards advertising and Brand loyalty. The Indian and British
27
participants showed no recognizable difference in their attitudes and loyalty towards all three
advertisements.
6. Future Research
Further research could include a choice of many brands in a comparative group study
consisting of 120 participants who watch the advertisements and then answer the questions. This
will be a field study conducted with the participants. The nationality of the participants could
also include a more rigid cultural group. If the age range of the participants were higher the
response towards the study could be more effective.
-
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Appendix 1
Table 1: Table showing the ANCOVA of attitudes towards advertising.
Source df F value Significance level
Partial Eta Squared
Individualism 1 .726 .397 .008
Collectivism1
.626 .431 .007
Ethnic ID1
.062 .805 .001
Nature of advertisement
2.305 .738 .007
Nationality1
2.030 .158 .022
Nature of advertisement * Nationality
.293 .747 .007
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Table 2: table showing the ANCOVA for Brand Loyalty.
Source df F value Significance value
Partial Eta Squared
Individualism 1 .495 .484 .006
Collectivism 1 2.528 .115 .028
Ethnic ID 1 .531 .468 .006
Nature of advertisement
2 .624 .538 .014
Nationality 1 6.669 .011 .070
Nature of advertisement * Nationality
2 .083 .920 .002
Positive of attitude towards brands
2 .624 .538 .014
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Appendix 2
Information sheet
Dear Participant,
This survey is interested in the views and perceptions of advertising. This project is part of a Masters placement under the supervision of Dr. Ilka Gleibs. This project aims at helping global companies understand the importance of diversity seen in cultures.
ParticipationParticipation is voluntary and you may withdraw from the study at any time without comment or penalty. The study involves the completion of a survey. The survey will take approximately 20 minutes of your time. There are no right or wrong answers.
ConfidentialityIndividual responses to the survey are anonymous and will remain absolutely confidential. At no point in time will anyone (other than the University of Exeter researchers) have access to individual responses of volunteers.
Returning the SurveyOnce the online survey is completed click the done button and the survey will be submitted automatically.
Feedback If you are interested, these results will be made available to you, up on request, approximately 6 months after data collection has been completed.
Ethical Clearance This study has been cleared in accordance with the ethical review processes of the School of Psychology at the University of Exeter.
Ananditha Sishta School of Psychology University of Exeter Email: [email protected]
Dr. Ilka GleibsSchool of PsychologyUniversity of ExeterEmail: [email protected]
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