ADVOCACY ADVERTISING BELIEVE IT OR NOT Purpose of

ADVOCACY ADVERTISING: BELIEVE IT OR NOT?

Purpose of Advertising To communicate a message, idea n To influence or persuade n Most frequently used for sales of goods and services in hopes of increased sales and profits n

What is Advocacy Advertising? Focused on philanthropic activities concerning social issues n Independent from direct purchasing of sponsor’s products or services n

Example

Example

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) § A Firm’s Charitable acts § Three Reasons for Its Increase § § § Reagan Tax Reform Bush Sr. (Stendardi, 1992)

Why Is This Important? n Positive correlation between social performance and sales/financial performance (Simerly, 1994; Dean, 1998, as quoted by Heinze, Sibary & Sikula, 1999) n Corporate Image is improved (Heinze, et. al. 1999)

What Makes Advocacy Advertising Different? Long-term relationships n Does not focus on sales and product purchasing, creating greater consumer elaboration n “Schemer-Schemas” (Friestad and Wright, 1994) n Necessity of Consumer Elaboration (Campbell n and Kirmani, 2000; Shiv, Edell, & Payne, 1997) n Possibility of doubt or suspicion motives

Advocacy Advertising and Its Relationship with CSR Promotion of philanthropic activities n Advocacy Advertisements are commercials about a firms CSR n Used to develop impressions of sponsor, creating long-term relationships n The more CSR, the more Advocacy Advertising needed n

Why the Doubt? Goes against traditional business rules n Consumer belief in survival of the fittest (Miller and Ratner, 1998) n

Attempts to Decrease Suspicion Lower Congruence (Menon & Kahn, 2003) n Consumers more comfortable with advertisement n Consumers need consistency n

Consumer Trust Has both cognitive and behavioral aspects n Expectations leading to desired behaviors n Advocacy Advertising CSR Corporate Image = Consumer Trust

The Big Question § Does Advocacy Advertising affect consumer trust?

Methods 92 Sam Houston State University Senior level business students n 47 advocacy, 45 product/service n Schwaiger survey (2004) n 2 trust questions evaluated n 4 social responsibility questions evaluated n

Results ANOVA, Independent sample t-tests n No significant findings at the. 05 level for trust n 1 significant finding at the. 05 level for social responsibility n

Trust t-test Results

Social Responsibility t-test Results

Future Research Larger sample size n Comparison between different types of companies n

QUESTIONS?