Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude toward Femvertising

펨버타이징 광고 태도의 선행요인 및 결과 연구

Abstract

As femvertising has raised a great deal of attentions in Korea and abroad, femvertising which focuses on women's equality and empowerment has also brought much pubic attentions. Despite of much attentions, research on femvertising has been scarce. Thus, this study is designed to examine antecedents and consequences of attitude toward femvertising. For antecedents, this study proposes perceived congruence and perceived authenticity; as consequences, it proposes attitude toward brand, purchase intention, and e-word-of-mouth intention. A total of 278 college students participated in the study in return for course credits. Study results suggest that both perceived congruence and perceived authenticity are positively related to attitude toward advertising. In sum, when consumers perceive that femvertising messages are congruent with the company's brand image and the ad messages are authentic, positive attitude toward ads is likely to increase. Findings also suggest that attitude toward femvertising is positively related to attitude toward brand, purchase intention, and e-word-of-mouth-intention. In the last section of this paper, we discuss theoretical and practical implications..

국내 및 해외에서 페미니즘에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있으며, 여성의 평등 및 권리 신장을 주제로 한 펨버타이징이 국내에서도 큰 관심을 불러일으키고 있다. 그러한 많은 관심에도 불구하고 아직 국내에서는 펨버타이징에 대한 연구가 부족한 실정이다. 따라서 본 연구는 펨버타이징 광고 태도의 선행요인들 및 결과를 살펴보는 것을 목적으로 한다. 선행요인들로 본 연구는 지각된 적합성과 지각된 진실성을 제시하고 있으며, 결과로써는 브랜드 태도, 구매의도 및 온라인 구전 의도를 제시한다. 본 연구에는 278명의 대학생들이 참여했으며, 참여학생들은 별도의 추가 점수를 받았다. 연구결과, 지각된 적합성 및 지각된 진실성은 모두 펨버타이징 광고 태도와 긍정적인 관련이 있다는 것이 밝혀졌다. 즉. 소비자들이 펨퍼타이징 메시지가 기업의 브랜드 이미지와 적합하다고 지각하고, 그 광고 메시지가 진실하다고 지각하면 긍정적인 광고 태도가 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 펨버타이징 광고 태도는 종속변수인 브랜드 태도, 구매의도, 및 온라인 구전의도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로, 본 연구의 이론적 그리고 실무적 함의는 토의 부분에서 설명하고 있다.

I. Introduction

One marketing strategy that has taken on importance worldwide is that of femvertising, a type of marketing designed to empower women. When it comes to targeting female consumers, marketers perceive femvertising as a successful strategy[1]. This so-called female empowerment advertising attracted a great deal of attention in 2014 when P&G’s Always launched its “Like a Girl” campaign. Always took the commonly used pejorative “like a girl” and refashioned it into a confidence movement.

The importance of femvertising has been recognized in the advertising industry. In fact, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been awarding, since 2015, Glass Lions; this is an award category that honors an advertiser for implicitly or explicitly addressing issues of gender inequality or prejudice. One of the most highly honored campaigns in the history of the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity was Fearless Girl. This statue was created for State Street Global Advisors by McCann New York to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Despite the growth of femvertising, little academic research has to date been conducted on femvertising. Since femvertising has been recognized as an important marketing strategy to attract more female consumers and build a strong emotional connection with future female consumers, it is important to investigate which factors influence in evaluation of femvertising.

Thus, this research is designed to extend our understanding of how femvertising works. To be more specific, drawing upon congruence theory and trust, this study sets out to examine antecedents and consequences of attitudes toward femvertising. The current study proposes as antecedents congruence and authenticity; as consequences, it investigates attitude toward brand, purchase intention, and e-word-of-mouth intention.

Study results will extend our understanding of how femvertising works, given that little research has looked into the effects of femvertising. The current study makes contributions in marketing practice and research by investigating antecedents and consequence of attitude toward femvertising. In the paper’s last section, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications. This study finding may provide practitioners with baseline understanding about how femvertising works.

II. Literature Review

1. Definition of Femvertising and Effects of Femvertising

SheKnows Media has defined femvertising as “advertising that employs pro-female talent, messages, and imagery to empower women and girls.” Prior to the coinage of femvertising, which is rooted in feminism and advertising, marketing scholars widely used “female empowerment advertising”[2]. Marketing observers, for instance, deemed Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign in 2004 to be one of the best female empowerment advertising campaigns.

Companies employ femvertising as a strategic marketing practice for several reasons. First, companies can appeal to the public by positioning themselves as politically and culturally conscious and committed to gender equality. Second, putting themselves forward as an advocate for women, companies use femvertising to build a strong emotional bond with female consumers. Lastly, companies employ femvertising in hopes that it can increase sales as well as profits. SheKnows Media reports that femvertising is conducive to increasing sales[2].

The effects of femvertising may be drawn from an industry survey and scholarly research. According to the survey results conducted by SheKnows Media in 2014, 71% of respondents believe that brands should be held responsible for using their ads to promote positive messages to women and girls. In this survey 45% of respondents note that they have shared a commercial or print ad with a pro-female message. Lastly, 52% of respondents have bought a product because they liked how the brand and its advertising portrayed women[3].

According to Åkestam et al. femvertising incurs higher ad and brand attitude than traditional advertising[1]. In a similar vein, Drake found that femvertising is likely to cause not only a positive impact on attitude toward ad and brand, purchase intention but also emotional connection to brands[4]. However, Kapoor and Munjal suggested that positive attitude towards femvertising leads to the forwarding intention of ads but does not necessarily lead to purchase intention[5].

2. Perceived Congruence

The term “congruence” has been used interchangeably with “fit” and “match.” In a celebrity endorsement context, congruence is defined as occurring when the relevant characteristics of the endorser are consistent with the relevant attributes of the brand[6]. According to Till and Busler (2000), congruence may be defined as the perceived fit between the celebrity image and the product image based on the match-up factor[7]. In the context of brand extensions, congruence is defined as the match between attributes of an object and the relevant schema[8] or the degree to which the brand extension is perceived to be similar to the mother brand[9].

Much research suggests that congruence between the celebrity endorser and the endorsed brand causes favorable advertising and brand evaluation as well as purchase intention[6][7][10][11]. In a brand extensions context, a great deal of research has found that consumers tend to view a brand extension as an exemplar of the parent brand category[12]. Thus, higher fit is related to more positive extension evaluation[12-14]. Lastly, in the sponsorship context, congruence between sponsor and event is likely, according to Rodgers, to enhance sponsor recall, favorable attitude towards sponsor and purchase intention[15].

In the femvertising context then, it is plausible to assume that congruence between advertising message and brand can lead to positive attitude toward femvertising. The following hypothesis is thus proposed: H1: Perceived congruence is positively related to attitude toward femvertising.

3. Perceived Authenticity

Authenticity has been deemed important in marketing, in particular, in advertising[16]. According to Grayson and Martinec, authenticity can be conceptualized as “indexical authenticity” and “iconic authenticity”[17]. Indexical authenticity is defined as something that is believed to be the original or the real thing. Iconic authenticity is defined as “something whose physical manifestation resembles something that is indexical authentic”[17].

In general, consumers believe advertising to be far from authentic[18]. Thus, marketers must be sure their target audiences take the advertising messages to be authentic. Cornelis and Peter found that an ad’s authenticity plays an important role in positive effect on attitudes[19]. Schallehn, Burmann, and Riley suggested that perceived authenticity increases consumer level of trust, resulting in a positive attitude toward the ads[20]. All this leads to the following hypothesis.

H2: Perceived authenticity is positively related to attitude toward femvertising.

4. Effects of Attitude toward Femvertising

Attitude toward ad may be defined as a consumer’s predisposition, during a particular exposure situation, to respond favorably or unfavorably to a particular advertising stimulus [21]. Similarly, attitude toward brand may be defined as a consumer’s predisposition, after being shown an advertising stimulus to respond favorably or unfavorably to a particular brand [22]. Lastly, e-word-of-mouth intention has been defined as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet”[23].

Prior research shows that attitude toward ad may influence consumers’ brand evaluation as well as purchase intention[21][24], Consumers affected by advertising are likely to form positive attitudes toward ad that lead to positive attitudes being formed toward brand, resulting in higher purchase intention[21][24] [25]. In the context of femvertising, it is plausible to assume that attitude toward femvertising can impact brand evaluation, purchase intention, and e-word-of-mouth intention. Thus, the following hypotheses are posited:

H3: Attitude toward femvertising is positively related to attitude toward brand.

H4: Attitude toward femvertising is positively related to purchase intention.

H5: Attitude toward femvertising is positively related to e-word-of-mouth intention.

III. Method

1. Sample and Data Collection

This study employed purposive sampling because femvertising is generally designed for a target audience of females. Hence, a total of 278 college students studying at a university in Chungcheong Province participated in the survey in return for course credits. For this study an online survey website was created by Qualtrics.com which provides researchers with online survey tools.

Since this study aims to measure effects of femvertising ads, feminine care product, in particular, a sanitary pad was chosen as a product category. In order to give a sense of realism to the study participants not a fictitious brand but a real brand name was used in the stimuli. To make stimuli more realistic professional advertising creatives helped to design femvertising print ads.

Of the 278 participants, freshmen made up the majority (54.7%, n = 152); the rest were sophomores (25.5%, n = 71), juniors (15.5%, n = 43), and seniors (4.3%, n = 12). Their mean age was 21 years old.

To collect data from college students, an online survey was created. First, online survey invitation e-mails were sent out to students taking introductory advertising or PR courses. Second, selected as participants were only students who agreed to participate and provide consent. Third, before taking the online survey, students were briefed about the purpose of the study, its duration, and potential risk. They were then instructed to click on the “Proceed” button to complete the survey.

2. Measures

Perceived congruence was measured using three items on a 7-point scale, anchored by “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7) [26]. Perceived authenticity between the brand and the advertising message was measured using five items on a 7-point scale, anchored by “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7) [20]. Attitude toward femvertising was measured using the following three 7-point semantic differential scales: very bad-very good, very unfavorable-very favorable, like very much-dislike very much [27]. Attitude toward brand (Ab) was measured using five 7-point semantic differential scales: unappealing-appealing, bad-good, unpleasant-pleasant, unfavorable-favorable, and unlikable-likable[28]. Purchase Intention was measured using three items, on a 7-point scale, anchored by “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7)[29]. As for e-word-of-mouth intention, four items were measured on a 7-point scale, anchored by “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7)[30]. [Table 1] shows the questionnaire items and reliabilities for each measure.

Table 1 Questionaire items and factor loadings

IV. Results

To test the structural model concerning the relationships among the variables, the research team performed a path analysis via SPSS AMOS 21.0. As shown in Figure 1, the overall fit indices for the model were acceptable, revealing a moderate fit of the model to the data (x2 = 38.2, df = 10, p < .001; NFI = .92, GFI = .91; AGFI = .90; CFI = .93; RFI = .93; RMSEA = .078). A model is regarded as acceptable if the normed fit index (NFI) and goodness of fit index (GFI) exceed .90 and if the comparative fit index (CFI) exceeds .93, and when the RMSEA is less than .08 [31][32].

Figure 1 Path Model of Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude toward Femvertising

In the current study, H1 posits that perceived congruence will positively influence attitude toward femvertising. As shown in [Table 2], study results show that relationship to be significant (β = .45, p < .001). H2 proposes that perceived authenticity will positively influence attitude toward femvertising. Study results show the relationship to be significant (β = .37, p < .001). H3 posits that attitude toward femvertising will positively influence attitude toward brand. Study results indicate that attitude toward femvertising has a significant relationship with attitude toward brand (β = .91, p < .001). H4 posits that attitude toward femvertising will positively influence purchase intention. The study results show that impact to be significant (β = .75, p < .001). H5 posits that attitude toward femvertising will positively influence e-word-of-mouth intention. Study results show that influence to be to be significantly positive (β = .74, p < .001).

Table 2 Parameter estimates for causal paths

Goodness-of-fit statistics: x² = 38.2, df = 10, p < .001; NFI = .92, GFI = .91; AGFI = .90; CFI = .93; RFI = .93; RMSEA= .078

IV. Discussion

This study was designed to examine antecedents and consequences of attitude toward femvertising. As antecedents, the study proposed perceived congruence and perceived authenticity and as consequences it proposed attitude toward brand, purchase intention, and e-word-of-mouth intention. Femvertising has been considered an important advertising strategy worldwide. In this sense, it is important to understand how Korean consumers respond to femvertising now that it has been employed by a few companies in Korea.

Study results suggest that perceived congruence between advertising message and brand results in favorable attitude toward femvertising. This result is consistent with prior research suggesting that congruence may lead to consumers’ positive advertising evaluation [6][7][10][11]. When it comes to creating a femvertising campaign, advertising practitioners need to make sure that the advertising message is congruent with the brand image.

Findings suggest that perceived authenticity of the advertising message leads to positive attitude toward femvertising. As pointed out by Schallehn, Burmann, and Riley, authenticity increases consumers’ trust, consequently resulting in positive attitude toward advertising[20]. A big theme at the 2019 Cannes Lion Creativity Festival was authenticity. In order to resonate with today’s consumer, brands need to tap into creativity that may enhance consumers’ perceptions of authenticity. Authenticity of purpose can serve as glue that will bind consumers to brands in the future (Gahlaut, 2019).

Study results show that attitude toward femvertising impacts consumer attitude toward brand, purchase intention as well as e-word-of-mouth intention. Prior studies also suggest that attitude toward advertising influences consumers’ brand evaluation, purchase intention, and e-word-of-mouth intention[21][24].

This study, like many other research, also has limitations. First, this study employed college student samples. Thus, study results may not be representative of general population. Therefore, future research on femvertising needs to use general populations to make study result more representative.

Second, this study used only female samples. Thus, study results are skewed toward female consumers. Since femvertising could also target both male and female consumers, future research needs to measure how male consumers respond to femvertising. It would be interesting to examine how gender has an impact on evaluation of femvertising.