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: as432@ex.ac.uk

Dr. Ilka GleibsSchool of PsychologyUniversity of ExeterEmail: I.H.Gleibs@exeter.ac.uk

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