MASTERARBEIT Titel der Masterarbeit “Consumer Culture Positioning in Advertising and Ad- Brand Incongruity Does It Impact Brand Perceptions?” Verfasserin Christine Milchram, B.A. angestrebter akademischer Grad Master of Science (MSc) Wien, 2012 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 066 914 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Masterstudium Internationale Betriebswirtschaft Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. DDr. Adamantios Diamantopoulos Ich versichere, 1. dass ich diese Masterarbeit selbstständig verfasst, keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt und mich auch sonst keiner unerlaubten Hilfe bedient habe, 2. dass ich diese Masterarbeit bisher weder im In- oder Ausland in irgendeiner Form als Prüfungsarbeit vorgelegt habe, Wien, im August 2012 _______________________________ II With special thanks to: Univ.-Prof. DDr. Adamantios Diamantopoulos and the team at the Chair of International Marketing for providing me with the skills and opportunity to write the thesis at the Chair of International Marketing and their valuable insight Dipl.-Kffr. Birgit Löhndorf for her commitment in mentoring the thesis, her time and continuous support at every step of the project and extensive feedback My family and friends for motivating me and for proof-reading; especially my sister Maria Milchram for her patient and detailed corrections of my writing Dr. Amata Ring and Dr. Nils Löhndorf for their support with the pretest data collection everybody who helped me with the data collection and took part in the surveys for their time and support in providing the data upon which this thesis is built III Abstract This thesis examines the effect of consumer culture positioning and ad-brand incongruity in print advertisements on consumers’ brand perceptions. Local, foreign or global consumer culture positioning creates links between a brand and a specific local, foreign or global consumer culture. Ad-brand incongruity occurs if the advertising positioning runs contrary to existing associations of a brand’s localness, foreignness or globalness. An experiment manipulating consumer culture positioning and ad-brand incongruity is used to test the influence of these two factors on consumers’ brand perceptions. Findings reveal a superior effect of global consumer culture positioning over its local and foreign counterparts on attitudes towards the advertisement and brand. In particular, cosmopolitan consumers with a strong global identity and belief in a global citizenship are prone to buy the brand advertised as being widely available globally and consumed by people all over the world. Ethnocentric consumers with a weak global identity, however, are more likely to buy the brand advertised as reflecting local values and as being consumed by local people. Ad-brand incongruity is found to be capable of increasing viewing times of the advertisement, but is likely to decrease the favourability of brand perceptions. Specifically, consumers are less likely to buy a brand that is advertised by a foreign appeal, but not perceived to be a foreign brand. The research contributes to the literature by comparing local, foreign and global consumer culture positioning with regards to their impact on brand perceptions. Additionally, it provides support for the argument that brand managers should use consumer culture positioning in compliance with prevailing associations of the brand’s localness, foreignness or globalness. IV Table of Contents List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... VII List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... VIII List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ IX 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 2 Literature Review .......................................................................................... 4 2.1 Brand Positioning ....................................................................................................... 4 2.1.1 What is a Brand? ............................................................................................ 4 2.1.2 Types of Brands ............................................................................................. 5 2.1.3 Brand Positioning ........................................................................................... 7 2.2 Consumer Culture Positioning in Advertising ........................................................... 9 2.2.1 Consumer Culture Defined ............................................................................ 9 2.2.2 Does a Global Consumer Culture Emerge? ................................................. 10 2.2.3 Consumer Culture Positioning Defined ....................................................... 12 2.2.4 CCP in Print Advertising ............................................................................. 13 2.2.5 Effect of CCP on Brand Perceptions ............................................................ 19 2.3 Ad-Brand Incongruity............................................................................................... 25 2.3.1 Defining Ad-Brand Incongruity ................................................................... 26 2.3.2 Effects of Ad-Brand Incongruity in CCP ..................................................... 28 3 Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Development .......................... 38 3.1 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................ 38 3.2 Assessing Brand Perceptions .................................................................................... 39 3.3 Hypotheses Development ......................................................................................... 41 4 Method .......................................................................................................... 49 4.1 Design ....................................................................................................................... 49 4.2 Pretest 1 .................................................................................................................... 51 4.2.1 Objectives ..................................................................................................... 51 4.2.2 Measures for PBL/PBF/PBG ....................................................................... 52 4.2.3 Measures for CCP ........................................................................................ 52 4.2.4 Data Collection ............................................................................................. 54 4.2.5 Results .......................................................................................................... 55 V 4.3 Stimuli Development ............................................................................................... 56 4.3.1 Product Category Selection ......................................................................... 56 4.3.2 Brand Name and Description ...................................................................... 57 4.3.3 Ad Creation .................................................................................................. 58 4.4 Pretest 2 .................................................................................................................... 60 4.4.1 Goal ............................................................................................................. 60 4.4.2 Data Collection ............................................................................................ 60 4.4.3 Results ......................................................................................................... 60 4.5 Construct Measurement ........................................................................................... 63 4.5.1 Independent Variables ................................................................................. 63 4.5.2 Manipulation Checks ................................................................................... 64 4.5.3 Dependent Variables .................................................................................... 65 4.5.4 Moderators ................................................................................................... 66 4.5.5 Demographics .............................................................................................. 69 4.6 Data Collection and Sample ..................................................................................... 70 5 Results ........................................................................................................... 73 5.1 Preliminary Analysis ................................................................................................ 73 5.1.1 Data Screening ............................................................................................. 73 5.1.2 Reliability Analysis ..................................................................................... 74 5.1.3 Manipulation Check .................................................................................... 75 5.2 Main Analysis .......................................................................................................... 80 5.2.1 CCP and Brand Perceptions ........................................................................ 80 5.2.2 Ad-Brand