Attitudes Toward TV Commercial

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Attitudes Towards TelevisionCommercials with an

Underlying Health Claim

Bachelors thesis within Business Administration

Authors: Jasmine Hansson, Emilia Sundberg

Tutor: Olga Sasinovskaya

Jnkping ; May 2011


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Bachelors Thesis in Business AdministrationTitle: Attitudes Towards Television Commercials with an Underlying

Health Claim

Authors: Jasmine Hansson, Emilia Sundberg

Tutor: Olga SasinovskayaDate: 2011-05-23

Subject terms: Consumer behavior, Generation Y, university students, TVCommercials, health claims, attitudes, marketing messages in

TV commercials, qualitative research, focus groups.

Abstract

Background: Health and eating healthy has become increasingly popular during therecent decades. On television, countless numbers of food commercialsclaim their products to be healthy, and fit good looking people

propagate for the benefits of the products. At the same time, there aremany studies showing these marketing messages to be highly misleading.Consequently, a great extent of existing research within this field treats the subject of consumers, children in particular, and television in relationto eating habits. However, in this study, we are not interested inconfirming these facts; instead we focus on the attitudes that consumershave towards these marketing messages with underlying health claimsshown in TV commercials. Today, many new types of communicationchannels exist, nevertheless, watching TV is an increasing activity,especially among young consumers. It was found that research includingyoung adult consumers was scarce, why the segment of university

students belonging to the generation Y was chosen for this study.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify the attitudes that Swedish

generation Y university students have towards TV commercials withunderlying health claims. The aim is also to investigate why theseconsumers react to the commercials the way they do.

Method: In this thesis both a quantitative and a qualitative method was used,where the qualitative method was the most dominating. Thus, it can beconsidered a mixed methods approach. However, the quantitative part isdominating. For the empirical study we conducted tests where a number

of persons in focus groups were exposed to different TV commercials,all with an underlying health claim. The respondents answered an in-group questionnaire and thereafter during the group discussion they

were asked to describe their reactions to the TV commercials. Finally,the respondents were also asked what factors they believed important tothem when they consider buying a product.

Conclusion: The Swedish generation Y university students presented a number ofattitudes towards the chosen television commercials. The students didrecognize the underlying health claims and furthermore indicated otherfactors noticed within the commercials. Also, we could see that factors

such as memory, unconscious influence as well as positioning of the


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Kandidatuppsats i FretagsekonomiTitel: Attityder till TV-reklam med underliggande hlsobudskap

Frfattare: Jasmine Hansson, Emilia Sundberg

Handledare: Olga Sasinovskaya

Datum: 2011-05-23mnesord: konsumentbeteende, generation Y, universitetsstudenter, TV-

reklam, hlsopstenden, attityder, marknadsfringbudskap i TV-reklam, kvalitativ forskning, fokusgrupper.

Sammanfattning

Bakgrund: Hlsa och att ta hlsosamt har blivit alltmer populrt under de senastedecennierna. P tv hvdar ett orkneligt antal reklaminslag frmatprodukter hur hlsosamma de r och vltrnade, snygga mnniskorpropagerar fr frdelarna med produkterna. Samtidigt finns det mnga

studier som visar att dessa reklambudskap r vilseledande. Fljaktligenhandlar en stor del av forskningen i mnet om sambandet mellankonsumenter - i synnerhet barn, och TV i relation till matvanor. I dennastudie r vi inte intresserade av att bekrfta dessa fakta, utan fokus ristllet inriktat p hur tittarna tolkar reklambudskap med underliggandehlsopstenden. Idag finns mnga nya typer av kommunikationskanaler,men trots det kar TV-tittandet, i synnerhet bland unga konsumenter.Forskning kring generation Y och deras syn p TV-reklam medunderliggande hlsobudskap r hittills begrnsad.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats r att identifiera de attityder som svenska

universitetsstudenter tillhrande generation Y har gentemot TV reklammed underliggande hlsobudskap. Syftet r ocks att underska varfrdessa konsumenter tolkar reklamen som de gr.

Metod: I rapporten anvndes bde kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder, dr denkvalitativa var mest dominerande. Man kan drfr sga att en blandadmetod anvndes fr att f fram bsta resultat. Fr den empiriska studiengjordes ett test dr ett antal personer i fyra fokus grupper fick se olika

TV-reklaminslag, alla med ett underliggande hlsobudskap.Gruppmedlemmarna fick individuellt svara p ett antal frgor ur ettformulr och drefter i gruppen diskutera sina reaktioner p

reklaminslagen. Hur dessa pverkade dem och vad de anser som viktigtnr de sjlva ska kpa en produkt var andra frgor som diskuterades.

Slutsats: Det visade sig att reklaminslagen uppfattades p olika stt av studenternai fokus grupperna. De identifierade de underliggande hlsobudskapen ireklamerna och ven andra uppfattningar om reklambudskapen kundeutlsas. Ur resultaten kan utlsas att faktorer ssom minne,undermedvetet inflytande och ven reklaminslagens position ifrhllande till varandra var av vikt fr hur de uppfattades. Resultatet

visar ocks att studenterna pverkades av mnga fler faktorer n sjlvareklamen i sig, exempelvis huruvida de kpt produkten innan, vad familj

och vnner anvnde och rekommenderade, samt pris och kvalit. Dessa


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faktorer pverkade ven hur studenterna tolkade reklammeddelandena.Dessutom visar vi hur Holbrook och OShaughnessys (1984) Model ofthe Emotional Process, stmmer verens med resultaten i denna studie.

Vi bygger ven vidare p Bagozzi et al.s (1999) tv klassificeringar avreklam och introducerar en tredje; multimeddelande-reklam.

Sammanfattningsvis kan konstateras att mnga olika faktorer pverkadedessa konsumenters attityder gentemot TV-reklam med underliggandehlsobudskap. Trots det kunde nd vissa gemensamma mnster utlsas.


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Acknowledgements

Firstly, we would like to thank our supervisor Olga Sasinovskaya for the guidance

and honest commitment during the process. We would also like to thank our fellowseminar students for their valuable feedback during seminar sessions.

Finally, we would like to give a special thanks to our families and friends for thesupport and love during the writing process.

Jasmine Hansson Emilia Sundberg

Jnkping International Business School

23 May 2011


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Table of Contents1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................... 11.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................. 2

1.3 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................... 21.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................. 21.5 PERSPECTIVE........................................................................................................................... 21.6 DELIMITATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 31.7 DEFINITIONS ........................................................................................................................... 41.8 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ......................................................................................................... 5

2 METHOD ................................................................................................................................. 6

2.1 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................ 62.2 MIXED METHODS RESEARCH ...................................................................................................... 72.3 INTERPRETIVIST APPROACH......................................................................................................... 82.4 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................... 82.5

FOCUS GROUPS ....................................................................................................................... 9

2.5.1 Pilot Study ................................................................................................................ 10

2.5.2 Sample of the Focus Groups ...................................................................................... 102.5.3 Designing the Focus Groups & Interview Questions ................................................... 11

2.5.4 In-group Questionnaire............................................................................................. 122.6 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 12

2.6.1 Transcriptions .......................................................................................................... 12

2.6.2 Video and Audio ....................................................................................................... 132.6.3 Language ................................................................................................................. 13

2.7 SAMPLE SELECTION DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 132.7.1 The Generation Y ...................................................................................................... 142.7.2 Types of Health Claims ............................................................................................. 16

2.7.3 Chosen Products and TV Commercials ....................................................................... 162.8 TRUSTWORTHINESS ................................................................................................................ 17

2.8.1 Credibility ................................................................................................................. 17

2.8.2 Transferability .......................................................................................................... 18

2.8.3 Dependability ........................................................................................................... 182.8.4 Conformability ......................................................................................................... 18

2.9 STRATEGIES TO GUARANTEE RESEARCH QUALITY............................................................................ 182.9.1 Triangulation............................................................................................................ 19

2.9.2 Reflexivity ................................................................................................................ 19

3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................. 20

3.1 MODEL OF THE EMOTIONAL PROCESS ......................................................................................... 203.2 MARKETING &EMOTIONS ....................................................................................................... 20

3.3 THE UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE ON CONSUMERS ............................................................................ 213.4 THE COMMERCIAL AND THE MEMORY......................................................................................... 213.5 POSITIONING OF TELEVISION COMMERCIALS ................................................................................. 223.6 INFLUENCE OF FAMILY ON PURCHASING BEHAVIOR......................................................................... 223.7 INFLUENCE OF PRICE &BRAND QUALITY ...................................................................................... 233.8 KNOWLEDGE ABOUT FOOD AND HEALTH IN COMMERCIALS .............................................................. 233.9 CRITIQUE TOWARDS HOW HEALTHY FOOD IS PORTRAYED IN COMMERCIALS.......................................... 243.10 CONCLUDING KEY CONCEPTS................................................................................................ 25

4 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES ............................................................. 27

4.1 NOTICING THE UNDERLYING HEALTH CLAIM AND OTHER MESSAGES................................................... 284.1.1 Alpro Soya Commercial ............................................................................................. 28

4.1.2 Bregott Commercial ................................................................................................. 294.1.3 Cheerios Commercial ................................................................................................ 31


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4.1.4 Pgen Commercial ................................................................................................... 324.2 SUMMARY OF ATTITUDES ......................................................................................................... 34

5 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS OF WHY CONSUMERS ARE INFLUENCED ..................... 35

5.1 REASONS FOR CONSUMER REACTIONS......................................................................................... 355.1.1 Model of the Emotional Process Applied in Practice .................................................. 35

5.1.2 Positive and Negative Emotions towards the Commercials ........................................ 355.1.3 The Multi Message Ad .............................................................................................. 365.1.4 The Unconscious Influence ........................................................................................ 365.1.5 Remembering Information about the Commercials ................................................... 38

5.2 SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCES ON PURCHASING DECISIONS..................................................................... 38

5.2.1 Bought Before .......................................................................................................... 39

5.2.2 Influence of Friends and Family ................................................................................. 405.2.3 Influence of the Commercial Itself ............................................................................. 415.2.4 Positioning of the Commercials ................................................................................. 425.2.5 Influence of Price & Quality ...................................................................................... 43

5.2.6 Knowledge of Food and Health in the Commercials ................................................... 44

6 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 45

7 DISCUSSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH .................................................................................. 48

LIST OF REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 50

APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................... 56

FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONNAIRE.......................................................................................................... 56SUMMARIZED QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS ............................................................................................... 58

FIGURES

FIGURE 1-1STRUCTURE OF THETHESIS .................................................................................................................... 5FIGURE 2-1STRUCTURE OF FOCUS GROUPS ...........................................................................................................11 FIGURE 2-2TYPEAHEALTH CLAIMS IN CHOSENTVCOMMERCIALS ..............................................................17

FIGURE 3-1MODEL OF THE EMOTIONAL PROCESS ..............................................................................................20 FIGURE 4-1HAVEYOU SEEN THE COMMERCIALS BEFORE? ...............................................................................27FIGURE 4-2MENTIONEDATTRIBUTES:ALPRO SOYA ...........................................................................................28 FIGURE 4-3MENTIONEDATTRIBUTES:BREGOTT.................................................................................................30 FIGURE 4-4MENTIONEDATTRIBUTES:CHEERIOS................................................................................................32 FIGURE 4-5MENTIONEDATTRIBUTES:PGEN .....................................................................................................33 FIGURE 5-1HAVEYOU BOUGHT THE PRODUCT BEFORE? .................................................................................37FIGURE 5-2INFLUENCES TO BUY A PRODUCT.........................................................................................................39


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1 IntroductionIn this section, we will present an introduction and a background to the study as well as a related problemdiscussion. Further, the purpose followed by the chosen perspective will be introduced. Some delimitations arealso presented and finally, definitions that are commonly used in the paper.

Consumer behavior studies involve many different schools of thought, spanning fromsociology and anthropology, to psychology and business studies, to name a few. ConsumerBehavioris defined as the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and theenvironment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives(American Marketing Association Dictionary, 2011). As marketing itself is a blend betweenthese fields, this will also be the case in this paper. Theories about consumer behaviour and

what drives the consumer in his/her buying decision have shifted through the decades. Therational choice perspective was for a long period dominant, looking upon the consumer asa human being making well thought out and logical decisions based on a given set ofinformation. The dominating theories have changed several times since then and today

different perspectives can be seen within consumer behaviour research. The so calledexperimental view has become popular during the past thirty years or so where theconsumer is not driven by rationality; instead softer needs such as feelings, desire,hedonism as well as aesthetics are being focused on (Holbrook & Hirschman 1982). Forthis reason, various perspectives on consumer behaviour will be included in this paper.However, all theoretical paths cannot be followed.

1.1 BackgroundConsumers are constantly overwhelmed by different kinds of stimuli by marketingmessages, often followed by an increasing amount of decisions that need to be taken(Ekstrm, 2010). When it comes to television advertisement the stimuli in the form of

marketing messages are competing with each other on the consumers attention, both inthe form of other commercials as well as the program itself (McClung, Park & Saur, 1985).

McClung et al. (1985) state that the major intent of advertising is to influence brand-attitude formation and choice by conveying to the consumer a specific concept regardingthe market offering(p.351). Thus, from the marketers point of view, it is all aboutcommunicating the right message to the consumer. This needs to be done in an effective

way in order to implement the brand image in his or her mind, hopefully becoming thebrand of choice (McClung et al., 1985).

However, today consumers are to a high extent aware and well informed when it comes to

marketers advertising strategies. Young consumers in particular are not easily convinced(McCrindle, 2002) and marketers therefore constantly have to invent new ways ofcommunicating with people, for instance through; Internet, mobile phones or outdoorhappenings. The consumer segment studied within this paper can be regarded as belongingto the generation Y, in this case university students and the media of interest is the TVcommercial, which can be considered as a rather traditional means of communication formarketing messages. However,TV is still in everymans home and young people arespending several hours a day watching television. According to McCrindle (2002) onequarter of factors that influence eighteen year olds comes from TV and movies, whichshows the impact of this media on young consumers.


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Food plays a crucial role in peoples life and according to Ippolito and Papparlardo (2002):Television is the primary medium used for food advertising(p. 26). Within previousresearch, studies establish a direct causal link between food advertising and unhealthy diets(Harris, Bargh & Brownell, 2009). As health aspects are used as a marketing strategy bycompanies, one must consider how and why people are affected and therefore theories are

needed to fully understand the problem. Harris et al. (2009) also state that very little isknown about the effects of advertizing on adolescents and adults compared to that ofchildren as well as advertizing for calorie-dense, low-nutrient food. Thus, studying whatattitudes young adult consumers have towards TV commercials promoting food, becomesrather interesting.

1.2 Problem DiscussionWe found that prior studies within the field of consumer behavior in relation to underlyinghealth messages portrayed in TV commercials were limited. Rather, research treated issuessuch as; negative health effects of TV commercials on children and adolescents as well asinfluence on their purchasing decisions (Kraak & Pelletier, 1998), or; nutritional content in

products displayed in TV commercials (Resnik & Stern, 1977). Other studies concernedplacement of the TV commercial within the pod (Coulter, 1998), or effects ofrepetitiveness of TV commercials (Gorn & Goldberg, 1980). Also, research concernedcommercials directed to a specific segment of consumers, such as children (Story &French, 2004) and not to a more general public. In other words, prior studies dealt withevaluating the healthiness of products as well as the structure of commercials and notconsumer attitudes of marketing messages. Furthermore, a large amount of the researchfocused on children rather than young adults or adults and no correlation between TVcommercials and generation Y consumers could be seen.

1.3 PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is two folded; to identify the attitudes that Swedish universitystudents belonging to the generation Y have towards TV commercials with underlyinghealth claims. Also the purpose is to understand whythese consumers react on thecommercials the way they do.

1.4 Research Questions1) Do consumers notice the underlying health claims in the chosen TV commercials?2) What other messages do consumers notice within the chosen TV commercials?3) What influences do consumers find important when considering making a

purchase?

1.5 PerspectiveConsiderations were made when choosing the perspective in which this thesis is to be

written. The perspective held in this thesis is from the point of view of the consumer. Thereason for this is that it is the consumer reaction process that is of interest here. Marketersuse different and sophisticated ways of catching the consumers attention, however it is thelatter who ultimately decides whether to buy the product or not. The type of consumersthat were chosen for this study was Swedish university students belonging to the generation

Y. Further arguments for this choice can be seen in section 2.7.1.


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One must also consider the fact that there are different types of TV commercialsdepending on the context, positioning and type of commercial. There are commercials thatare shown separately, in a pod, or even sponsored by the program itself, all of which canaffect the way the TV commercial is understood by the consumer. The perspective taken

within this paper is the regular TV commercial shown in between programs, during thecommercial break.

1.6 DelimitationsWe have no intentions to generalize the qualitative information collected in this study forSweden as a whole, but rather to analyze the findings within the targeted sample andconnect these to existing theory within the field. Further, the aim is not to present acomplete picture of issues related to the attitudes of consumers towards commercials, as noresearch can be fully complete. The intention is neither to decide whether a product isconsidered healthy or not, nor to give dietary recommendations, as we do not consider thismatter relevant to the purpose of our study.Instead, our aim is to investigate what attitudes

consumers of a specific segment have towards TV commercials with underlying healthclaims and what attributes they believe to be important when considering to buy a product.


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1.7 DefinitionsIn this section concepts that are important to the understanding of this paper will be explained.

Attitudes

When discussing human behavior, social psychologists have used the concept ofattitudesand there are many different definitions (Ajzen, 2005). However, according toKothandapani, 1971), attitudes are defined by three interrelated components: an affectivecomponent involving feelings about an evaluation of the attitude object, a cognitivecomponent involving beliefs about the object and a behavioralintentionscomponent. Thisdefinition will be suitable for the present thesis, as the subject of study is how TVcommercials affectconsumers as well as their cognitionsand furthermore how their behaviorinfluences the final purchasing decision.

Generation Y

Thegeneration Yis in marketing terms regarded as the generation born between the early1980s and around 2000 (McCrindle, 2002). Advertisement and consumption is a naturalpart of their life which makes them rather critical towards marketing messages. Generation

Ys are known to be well educated and are characterized for being: "brought up with lots ofself-esteem, lots of activities and huge appreciation of what technology can provide forthem in terms of improving efficiency" (Nazareth, 2007, p. 81). In this thesis, we havechosen Swedish university students who belong to the generation Y population group.

Health claims

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), health claims "describe arelationship between a food, food component, or dietary supplement ingredient, andreducing risk of a disease or health-related condition" (FDA, 2011). In this paper we usethe term health claimwhen referring to the health messages stated within the chosen TVcommercials of our study. These health claims are more or less clearly expressed anddepend on how each consumer reacts to the commercial.A description the health claims

we identified in each of the four TV commercial used in this study can be found in section2.6.3

Purchase Decision

Purchase decisionis a frequently used term in this thesis and can be described as a step withinthe consumer decision making process (Bettman, Johnson & Payne, 1991). The use of theterm in this paper refers to the final decision that consumers take after considering theirneeds, desires and their influences. These decisions can be influenced both consciously as

well as unconsciously.


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1.8 Structure of the ThesisThe structure of the thesis is shown below:

Figure 1-1 Structure of the Thesis

The thesis opens with an introduction followed by the method and the theoreticalframework. This nontraditional structure was chosen in order to formulate the purpose andfurthermore create the research questions. When conducting the study, it was necessary toinvestigate the purpose through the method before building up a theoretical framework.Once we were able to identify exactly what was going to be investigated, the theoretical

framework could be formulated based on the results found in the empirical study.The findings and analysis of this paper are combined for both parts of the two foldedpurpose. The reasoning behind this decision was that findings and analysis were very muchinterrelated and the separation of the two would only create repetitions. Furthermore, bycombining findings and analysis, the purpose as well as the research questions could beanswered more directly and hopefully this structure contributes to a better understandingfor the reader. Some extensive parts of the analysis/findings sections are concluded with asummary to decrease confusion and to give a better overview. Finally, the thesis ends witha conclusion as well as a section for discussion and further research.

1 Introduction

2 Method

3 Theoretical Framework

4 Empirical Findings & Analysis of Attitudes

4.1 Noticing the Health Claim and other Messages, RQ 1 & RQ 2

5 Empirical Findings & Analysis of Why Consumers are Influenced5.1 & 5.2 Significant Influences on Purchasing Decisions, RQ 3

5.3 Summary of Influences on Purchasing Decisions

6 Conclusion

7 Discussion & Further Research


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2 MethodThis section will present the methods used as well as some of its pros and cons. Further, we will also discussand argue why the methods have been chosen and describe how the empirical information was gathered andanalyzed. Lastly, the issue of trustworthiness of this thesis will be discussed.

2.1 Qualitative ResearchAccording to Daymon and Holloway (2011), the qualitative approach is more commonthan the quantitative approach within marketing communication studies. Bryman and Bell(2011) state that quantitative research strategies emphasize quantification whereasqualitative research strategies emphasize words when collecting and analyzing data."Quantitative research tends to focus on the how it is, whereas qualitative research ismore of an exploration of thewhy and thus the how it could be (Lillis, 2002, p.4).

The qualitative research method is influenced by an interpretive way of viewing the world

around us and is thus driven by meaning, understanding and exploration. The methodallows the researcher to remain open through the process towards new findings that werenot anticipated when the research began, as he or she is not in total control of theoutcomes of the study (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). The idea of qualitative research is tostudy an issue within its specific setting and unique context and therefore conclusions cannever be drawn in a general way. According to Cooper and Schindler (2011), qualitativeresearch aims at understanding a problem through detailed description. The idea is not toreach some kind of common ruling truth, rather the researcher together with theparticipants that are being studied seek knowledge and understanding (Daymon &Holloway, 2011). Also, in qualitative research the researchers individual knowledge,mindset and experience affects the results to a high extent.

There are numerous pros and cons of qualitative research. One weakness is the difficulty toestablish generalizations from qualitative results; the study can seldom be applied to apopulation at large as it is context specific. Other weaknesses of qualitative research arelack of transparency of data and that the study can become too subjective (Daymon &Holloway, 2011).

The positive sides of qualitative research are that it takes the specific context and itsindividuals into account. It strives to understand the world as it appears; complex andmultifaceted; Qualitative researchers seek to uncover the views and meanings held byresearch participants (Daymon & Holloway, 2011, p. 7). Further, qualitative methods

can measure softer values and thus give the researcher deeper information that can bevaluable in some situations. According to Cooper and Schindler (2011) this is one reasonwhy this method is increasing in popularity among business managers today. According toDaymon and Holloway (2011), other benefits with qualitative research are its holistic,processual and reflexive characteristics.

In this study, our intention was to grasp the ideas and thoughts of consumers towards a setof TV commercials as well as to understand what influenced them when making certaindecisions. Thus, it concerned gaining an understanding on a deeper level of individualsreflections and such data would be difficult to derive through quantitative methods. Weaimed to see and hear the consumers reactions on the TV commercials that were shown to


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them and therefore qualitative data was needed in the form of focus groups. In this setting,the consumers could be studied and we could take other communication forms, such asfacial expressions into account. Also, we believe that spontaneous reactions on thecommercials would not be shown in a quantitative study. Therefore, the qualitativeapproach was regarded the most suitable when collecting data. However, there were

reasons to believe that the qualitative method used would not give results that werecompletely satisfying and thus we decided to also use a quantitative method. This isexplained in the below section.

2.2 Mixed Methods ResearchOne must take into account that research strategies could have interconnections;

It is common to describe qualitative research as concerned with the generation rather thanthe testing of theories. There are examples of studies in which qualitative research has beenemployed to test rather than to generate theories (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.27).

These interconnections create a third research strategy called mixed methods researchwhereboth quantitative and qualitative methods are being used.

In a study by Zamanou and Glaser (1994), it was found that they were able to combine"the specificity and accuracy of quantitative data with the ability to interpret idiosyncrasiesand complex perceptions provided by qualitative analysis" (p.478). It was the use of thetriangulatedapproach that helped them collect different types of data which otherresearchers in their field could not. These included factors such as values.

Denzin (2009) suggests methodological triangulation which is commonly used in researchof small scale and here more than two types of methods can be used. When both

qualitative and quantitative methods are combined in one study this is called between-method triangulation. A quantitative method, for instance a survey, can be used tosubstantiate qualitative findings of, let say, observations (Daymon & Holloway, 2011).

Some researchers argue that that the mixed methods approach should not be used byundergraduate students due to its complexity (Daymon & Holloway, 2011); however weargue that there are valid motives for conducting our research this way. For instance, onereason for using the in-group questionnaires was to avoid the effect of heard behavior(Banerjee, 1992), which means that the answers of the participants are being affected byother group members. Further, in a group setting, there is a risk that one or a fewindividuals will become spokespersons for the whole group which might leave out opinions

from other participants, creating biases. According to Daymon and Holloway (2011) focusgroup data is always produced by the group as a whole and one shall be aware of that theunique composition of the group affects the answers.

We applied triangulation, where the results of the in-group questionnaires, which employ aquantitative method approach, were cross-checked with the quantitative data from thefocus group discussions. Thus, the in-group questionnaires allowed us to obtain answersfrom each individual participant and in that way we could structure the answers in a moreorganized way and distinguish tendencies within those. At the same time, the qualitativedata derived from the focus groups was needed in order to collect information that couldnot be obtained from the in-group questionnaires. This could for instance be gestures,


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mimics, or spontaneous opinions or reactions. Therefore, though we used triangulationwhich is a form within the mixed methods approach, the in-group questionnaires can herebe seen as a complement in order to obtain a fair view of the data. Thus, the main findingsand analysis are focused on the results derived from the qualitative research. In addition,the mixed-methods approach used within this thesis might be considered as a light version

and we are aware of the fact that the method is more complex than explained in thissection and in the way applied in our study.

2.3 Interpretivist ApproachThere are different approaches to research and the way researchers decide to study acertain subject. In this paper we have taken on the methodological view ofinterpretivismtojustify the choice of a qualitative/mixed methods approach. Within interpretivism, focusdoes not lie on measurement but rather on meaning (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). Here,the researcher strives to understand a specific situation within a certain context, why resultscan seldom be generalized to a larger population. This is also why interpretivism is suitablein qualitative studies such as in this thesis. Researchers using the interpretivist approach

argue that there is no single truth and they see the world as constantly changing. Therefore,results are never static and can have different meanings depending on context and viewer.

Further, the interpretivist view has a subjective approach to research and the scholar seeshim/herself as influencing the outcomes of the study (Daymon & Holloway, 2011).In this study we found the interpretivist approach to research the most suitable as the mainmethod used was qualitative. Moreover, the aim was to investigate the meaning of aspecific issue and not to measure it by purely quantitative tools. We wished to understandthe context of the viewers and identify what attitudes they had towards the commercialsand we were open to the possibility of many different results as the outcome of our study.However, even though interpretivism is characterized for being subjective, the intent was

to stay as objective as possible in selecting methods and theories as well as when analyzingthe data.

2.4 Data CollectionThis section will explain two types of methods for data collection; primary and secondarydata collection. For this study, both secondary and primary data collection were used.

According to Crowther and Lancaster (2008); secondary data is data which has beencollected previously by someone else, and consequently has been collected for a differentpurpose (p. 90). For this research,we used articles, books and the internet to findsecondary data. Much of the literature searched was within consumer behavior and focusedin areas of marketing, psychology, food, television as well as purchasing behavior. It isthrough this data that the theoretical framework had been developed.

Crowther and Lancaster (2008) state that primary data can be closely related to methodsand techniques of information collection. In this paper, the primary data collectionmethods that were used appeared in the form of focus groups as well as in-groupquestionnaires. These are further discussed in the sections below.


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2.5 Focus GroupsFocus groups are a qualitative form of collecting data and can consist of approximately 5-9participants (Edmunds, 1999). Furthermore, Edmunds (1999) states that in-depthunderstanding of the target's perspectives or opinions can be achieved through the use offocus groups. The moderators would guide the conversation of the focus group however

participants are able to talk freely within the topic at hand. Focus groups are helpful inanswering questions of how and, in particular, why people behave theway they do (Folch-Lyon & Trost, 1981, p .443). According to Daymon and Holloway (2011), interpretivistresearchers generally use small samples of data; however, the results provide data of highquality.

Advantages of using focus groups include the fact that they are easily coordinated,conducted and analyzed within a relatively short time period (Edmunds, 1999). In addition,the technique of collecting qualitative data through focus groups is also good as it gives theresearcher the possibility to focus on concentrated amounts of data on precisely the topicof interest (Morgan, 1997).

Groups of people are much more convenient to collect data from and at less cost than tointerview individuals separately. In addition, when conducting focus groups, the researchershave direct interaction with respondents and are able to get fast clarification of theresponses and to ask follow-up questions. This type of open response dialogue gives way tocollecting large and rich amounts of data in the participants' own words (Stewart,Shamdasani & Rook, 2007). This in turn would help the researcher with obtaining deeperlevels of meaning, make important connections and identify subtle nuances in expressionand meaning (Stewart, Shamdasani & Rook, 2007). With this, the researchers are able toobserve any nonverbal responses that may carry supplement information to the verbalresponses participants have. Therefore, data analysis can be immediately started during and

after group sessions and preliminary findings can be presented quickly.

There are limitations to using focus groups which must be considered. The firstdisadvantage would have to be that the moderators play a significant role and their opinioncan influence the respondents, leading to biased answers. To reduce such a bias in thisstudy, we were careful in not expressing own opinions and minimized interventions asmuch as possible. In order to make sure that this also happened and to keep focus on thepurpose of the focus group, a script was formed that the we could stick to during thesessions.

Another limitation of using focus groups is the fact that participants may act and answer

differently due to different factors such as; insecurity or even shyness. In order to decreasethis bias, we assured participants that there were no right or wrong answers (Edmunds,1999). Participants could thus speak freely and express their opinions without being judged.

When using the discussion type empirical data collection, it is possible that decisions withinthe group will follow an occurrence called herd behavior. Herd behavior is a concept thatexplains how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction like thebehavior that animals portray (Banerjee, 1992). In order to reduce the possibility forparticipants in focus groups to change their minds through following the crowd, weintroduced in-group questionnaires that the participants would answer individually. This

would reduce this bias, giving the researchers the original thoughts of participants. In


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addition, such in-group questionnaires will aid the researchers in explaining whyparticipants responded in a certain way during discussions (Edmunds, 1999). However, asthe TV commercials were shown before the in-group questionnaires were carried out, wecannot guarantee that the respondents might have been influenced by each other inpossible discussions and spontaneous comments taking place during the ongoing

commercials.

Another issue of focus groups when it comes to showing the participants TV commercialsis that these situations are very much constructed and artificial in the way that they willnever exactly resemble a situation where the participant sits at home, comfortably watchingtelevision. In that situation the viewer is probably more relaxed and is not paying as muchattention to the commercial itself as she/he would when participating in a focus group.

Therefore, attitudes towards the commercial within the focus groups might differ fromhow the consumer would see it in a real world situation. This is an issue that has to betaken into account when analyzing the results of the focus groups.

Finally, the researchers can never be certain that all participants are telling the truth,however the benefits of using focus groups were more significant than the disadvantagesand therefore we decided to use focus groups as a qualitative measure when collecting datafor this study.

2.5.1 Pilot StudyBefore conducting the final focus group discussions, a pilot study was run. This study tookplace in February 2011 with a group of 6 mixed gender participants; 3 male and 3 female.

This study was conducted by one moderator and participants were peers at JnkpingUniversity. The participants were not informed about the topic of the study beforehand

which made the pilot study more plausible.

The reasoning for the pilot study was to first test out the internal structure of the focusgroups regarding when the in-group questionnaires should be introduced, when to showthe commercials and such. Further, the pilot study enabled us to approximate the length ofeach session and finally also to test out the in-group questionnaires as well as the groupdiscussion questions. This would aid us in indentifying any problematic areas. Within thepilot study we were also able to identify whether or not gender could be an issue whenrecognizing our findings and analysis of the data.

2.5.2 Sample of the Focus GroupsThe subjects studied in the focus groups were students between the ages of 18-25 currentlystudying at Jnkping University. The arguments for why this segment was selected can befound in section 2.7.1.

The focus groups were designed in the way that one consisted of only females and one ofmales solely. The reason for this was that possible gender differences could then bediscovered. The other two focus groups entailed mixed females and males, where theintention was to find out the respondents opinions regardless of gender. Among the 24participants within the conducted focus groups, the gender proportion was almost half.

There were 13 females and 11 males. One must take note however that there is not anequal amount of participants within each focus group. The reason behind this is that there


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was no certainty that students would show up or keep their word in coming to help outwith this study. Many stated that they would come but did not and others did not want toparticipate for other reasons. Therefore, the number of participants in each group was notcontrollable in this study due to lack of interest, lack of time as well as lack of resources.

In the below chart, the composition of the focus groups is presented as well as thestructure of the procedure.

Figure 2-1 Structure of Focus Groups

Focus Group 1 Females

Focus Group 2 Males

Focus Group 3 Mixed Gender

Focus Group 4 Mixed Gender

9 persons 6 persons 5 persons 4 persons

1) Commercial 1) Commercial 1) Commercial 1) Commercial2) Questionnaire 2) Questionnaire 2) Questionnaire 2) Questionnaire3) Discussion 3) Discussion 3) Discussion 3) Discussion

2.5.3 Designing the Focus Groups & Interview QuestionsThe focus group sessions took place between March and April of 2011 and wereconducted by one or two moderators. The focus group participants were chosen bothrandomly as well as among peers at Jnkping University. The only parameters taken intoaccount when collecting the focus group members were gender and age as well as thembeing students enrolled at the university. To mitigate the issue of the situation beingconstructed and to encourage participants to voice their opinions during the sessions, it

was ensured that the focus groups were held in a relaxed environment for all participants,within single group rooms on the university premises. The participants were able to sit atease and were also served refreshments and snacks, which contributed to a calm andcomfortable atmosphere.After initial instructions from the moderators were given, theparticipants were exposed to the four commercials in a row. After that, they were asked tofill out an individual in-group questionnaire, followed by a group discussion led by themoderators. The in-group questionnaires took participants approximately 20-30 minutes toanswer in silence. The length of discussions was not set, however the four groups diddiscuss for approximately an hour each. Here, the participants were asked to describe theirreactions to the TV commercials and what factors they believed to be important whenmaking a purchase decision. As discussed before, the idea with the in-group questionnaires

was to obtain answers from the respondents with as little group influence as possible. Thiswould also help the respondent to gather his/her thoughts about the commercials andprepare for the group discussion.

According to Cooper and Schindler (2011), interviews can be unstructured, semi-structuredand structured. Structured interviews are those which follow a certain question order whilethe questions are still open-ended. Although this structure is not the most common withinqualitative research the advantage of this is that the data becomes more comparable andanswer variability is assumed to be real (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 169). Further,unstructured and semi-structured interviews put high demands on the interviewers level ofskillfulness and experience for the interview to become fruitful. In structured interviews, onthe other hand, the interviewers neutrality is being kept (Cooper & Schindler, 2011).


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For the above reasons, and being aware of our limitations as students, we used thestructured interview composition within the focus groups. At the same time, with allquestions asked being open-ended, we could still keep the depth within the answers andextract an abundant amount of data from the participants. This means that we were able toadd additional questions to the discussion if necessary and participants could answer freely.

2.5.4 In-group QuestionnaireDaymon and Holloway (2011) argue that focus groups can both be used as a method aloneor in combination with other methods. Thus, in order to reduce the possibility forparticipants in focus groups to change their minds through herd behavior, we introducedin-group questionnaires which reduced this bias and gave the researchers the originalthoughts of participants. In addition, such in-group questionnaires aided the researchers inexplaining why participants responded in a certain way during discussions (Edmunds,1999).

The first part of the in-group questionnaire included questions such as how old the

participants are, where they come from and their interests as well as if they have seen thecommercial before and furthermore purchased the products. It is possible that suchinformation can explain the reasons in which participants discussed the issues the way theydid.

In addition, the in-group questionnaire included some questions that were open-endedwhile some were closed. Other questions had limited amount of answers and some hadexamples that the respondent could choose from. The latter can however be seen as anopen-ended question as participants were also given the opportunity to insert otheranswers in an other option.

The in-group questionnaire that the participants had to answer individually included aquestion where they were to give three products attributes that they believed representedeach commercial shown during the session. This idea was influenced by how Park and

Young (1986) constructed their focus groups when investigating the influence ofbackground music of TV commercials. The mentioning of three attributes forced theparticipants to recall and to summarize the most important (to him/her) features noticed inthe commercial and give a hint on what was considered central to the consumer. The resultof the in-group questionnaires were used to aid us in determining the results of the study.

We were able to review the results by keeping information from the in-groupquestionnaires in mind.

2.6 Data AnalysisIn this section we will explain how the raw data of the study was analyzed. The data analysis is dividedinto three sections, transcriptions, video and audio, and finally language.

2.6.1 TranscriptionsTo conduct a qualitative analysis, focus group transcripts were carried out. Thesetranscripts will not provide all feedback from respondents (Edmunds, 1999, p.93). Thisis because written transcripts do not express body language which is an important part ofcommunication. However, with this said, exact quotations were helpful in identifyingparticipants attitudes towards the products and TV commercials.


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In addition to this, we constructed TV commercial transcripts which provided adescription of the commercials that were used, expressing visually what exactly was shown.

The idea of describing the content and message of each commercial was inspired by Parkand Young (1986).

The main analysis for this study was to identify the most frequently mentioned commentsduring the focus group discussions as well as in the in-group questionnaires and to evaluatethese. Participants are kept anonymous, however, they are numbered according to whichfocus group they belonged to, who spoke first etcetera. We argue that it would not be ofuse to include all quotations from each participant and therefore we have carefully selectedcomments that represent the answers which were common and significant to the findings.

Transcriptions are available upon request.

2.6.2 Video and AudioTo limit the bias in which not all feedback was provided through focus group transcripts,

we decided to record all focus groups through video and audio recordings. In this way, wewere able to see how the focus group participants moved, talked and acted towards eachother as well as reacted to the discussion and questions.

The purpose of using video transcriptions was not to analyze how and why participants usetheir body language, nor what their movements meant, but rather to examine the attitudesthey had towards the TV commercials. Video recordings simplified in keeping track of theconversation to its fullest and to decrease participation of the moderators to a minimum.

2.6.3 LanguageIn this study, questionnaires and transcriptions were in English. Though all participantswere Swedish, we argue that it was necessary to conduct the study in English to reduce anyconfusion in translations when writing the final paper. However, though English was used

within questionnaires and transcriptions, participants were allowed to write and speak intheir mother tongue if they were unable to express themselves in English. If and whenparticipants had difficulty understanding the questions in English, we translated thequestions into Swedish for their convenience. Therefore, when the questionnaires andtranscriptions were collected and summarized, translations between Swedish and English

were made and therefore there is the possibility of translation errors. However, we believethat letting participants express themselves in their mother tongue would allow them to feelmore comfortable as well as give better exploratory answers. Also, it reduces biases in the

way that the amount of misinterpretations of data is being reduced. Further, as we weretwo persons double-checking the answers, this also reduces the issue of bias problems.

2.7 Sample Selection DiscussionIn this section, the selection of the sample will be further explained. The sample chosen for this study areSwedish University Students belonging to the generation Y. In addition, the underlying health claims as wellas chosen products and TV commercials are further explained.


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Table 2.1 Division of the population into phases of life

1.Dependents Small Children living at home

2.Independents Older Children living at home3.Liberated 1: 20-30 years old Left home, experimenting, interested in exotic food, eatout often, a lot of fast food, drinking together meansmore than eating together.

4.Parents: 30-55 years old Responsible for a family, father is in charge of cooking,time is a scarce commodity, in everyday life only a smallamount of time (15/20 minutes) is spent on food, at the

weekend more time is spent on cooking.5.Liberated 2: 55 - ? years old Large differences in this group, half have only secondary

school education. For most, working life and leisure timeare separated, woman is a housewife. Eat large meals

ritually, rarely eat out privately, Younger group: treatthemselves, make great demands.6.Old Age: 70 - ? years old This group is growing rapidly. The group is also

characterized by big differences. Many take care ofthemselves and have considerable needs. Other aredependent.

Group 3 - Liberated 1: 20-30 year olds in this population division is described as: there areproblems with time and money and finds cooking healthy food difficult (p.63). This groupis further characterized by the following: Left home, experimenting, interested in exoticfood, eat out often, a lot of fast food, drinking together means more than eating together

(Trolle & Thorsen, 2001, p.65).

However, one shall bear in mind that generation Y is a consumer segment mostly enhancedby marketers and is thus a phenomenon difficult to proof scientifically. Naturally, there arediversities within this generation and as humans are different, all generation Ys are notcharacterized the way described in this section.

The reason why students were selected because they are a fairly homogenous group ofyoung people that have recently left home, have similar economic resources and are neitherteenagers nor adults. Also, as limited research has been carried out on this segment wefound it interesting and relevant for this study. Moreover, students can be seen as early

adopters (Jones, 2002). Also, the reason for choosing Swedish university students solelywas because we wished to avoid language biases, as almost all of the commercials shown inthe study were in Swedish. The reason for selecting the generation Y was mainly becausemost students at universities belong to that generation. In addition, this segment of youngadults have a high frequency of watching TV and other media and as they have beenbrought up with an extensive amount of marketing messages they are critical about whatthey see. Finally, as we both belong to this segment, it resulted natural to investigate agroup that we are a part of and can relate to.


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2.7.2 Types of Health ClaimsBelow, we will explain the frames of the concept of health discussed within this thesis, as

well as some issues concerning health claims.

There are two types of health claims, Type A and Type B. Type A health claims in relation

to diet, that is, claims which describe the link between a food product or a component in afood product and the entire diet, and the prevention or reduced risk of d isease (Trolle &

Thorsen, 2001, p.53). Type B is broad in the fact that producers may claim for allbeneficial health-related effects, or for reduced risk of disease, if the claim is welldocumented (Trolle & Thorsen, 2001, p.54).

Williams (2005) studied consumer attitudes, reactions and purchase behavior changestowards health claims. He concluded that though more research is needed to fullyunderstand the impact of health claims on choice as well as health, health claims cansupport improved nutrition awareness and better food choices (pp. 22-23). Roe, Levy, andDerby (1999) state however, that when health and nutrient claims were presented onproducts, consumers considered them more than if they were not presented. This is furthersupported by a study conducted by Kozup, Creyer and Burton (2003) in which theirfindings suggested that consumers are sensitive to and willing to use any availablenutrition information when forming product evaluations (p. 31).

However, there have been discussions around health claim regulation in accordance to theappearance of health claims on food labels. Ippolito and Mathios (1991) suggest that healthclaims have connections to not only dietary fiber but also other sicknesses, including themore severe such as cancer. In addition, Ippolito and Mathios (1991) research led to howhealth claims helped increase consumer awareness of diet-disease linkages.

2.7.3 Chosen Products and TV CommercialsIn this research, we have chosen four products: milk, butter, cereal and bread. All these canbe considered Type A health claim products as they claim to contain components whichcan be seen as healthy. At the same time, the chosen products have no complete and welldocumented evidences of being Type B (Trolle & Thorsen, 2001). We therefore considerall products shown within the TV commercials of this study clearly belonging to Type Ahealth claims. Further, the four TV commercials were chosen specifically due to the factthat they are recent on Swedish Television at the moment. In addition to this, they areneither positioned in any specific pod nor shown in consideration to any program beforeor after the commercials. Furthermore, target group/s of the products was not considered

here.

The reasons for why we consider the TV commercials as belonging to a Type A healthclaim can be seen in the below chart.


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Figure 2-2 Type A Health Claims in Chosen TV Commercials

Commercial Type A Claims in Chosen TV Commercials

Alpro Soya milk A soya milk that signalizes that a healthy, balanced lifestyle can beassociated with the product. A famous athlete looking fit, healthyand happy. Scenery with light colors and later a forest where theathlete is running. Text such as 100% vegetable protein, naturallactose free and nourishment from nature.

Bregott Butter A butter with less fat than previous products of the same categoryand brand. Slogan: A much lighter Bregott

The commercial shows a lot of nature in the scenery. Mainspokesperson is a calf running around in the field. Communicatesnature, green landscapes, a free, healthy and happy animal. The cowrepresents the butter itself.

Cheerios Cereal A cereal that claims to be made out of whole grain oats. Theproducer guarantees that the product contains whole grains with asign saying Nestls whole grain Guarantee. The commercial iscartoonish, with the slogan Give those Os a Go and is probablydirected at younger consumers. Communicates fun, happiness,

wellbeing after eating the product and that the whole family likes it.Pgen Bread A light bread that is claimed to be as healthy as a dark bread.

Therefore also children should prefer the product. Communicatesfreshness, healthiness, variety, novelty. No expressed health claimsin text. Rather it is underlying as viewers should associate a darkbread with a healthy product.

2.8 TrustworthinessWe will in this part present the relevant issues of how to ensure quality of research as wellas a why we believe this thesis lives up the requirements.

It is of high importance to every researcher to ensure the quality of research and there aredifferent views on how this shall be done. Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest the alternativeapproach, where trustworthiness is being stressed. This approach is characteristic tointerpretivist research and has become the most used within qualitative research today(Daymon & Holloway, 2011). There are four arguments attached to trustworthinesspresented by Lincoln and Guba (1985); credibility, transferability, dependability andconformability. As the method used for this thesis is mainly based on qualitative research,these concepts were guiding us through the research process in order to reachtrustworthiness.

2.8.1 CredibilityCredibility entails confirmation and support and highlights the issue whether theories usedfor the study are of high quality and relevant to it (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Also, it is about

whether the conclusions drawn from the obtained data can be regarded as credible.


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During the process of this thesis, the intent was to use theories and concepts that wereregarded as trustworthy and relevant as well as of good quality. This issue increases theoverall trustworthiness of the study.

2.8.2 TransferabilityLincoln and Guba (1985) question the issue of generalizability often associated withquantitative studies and they are critical towards the way in which population is seen here.Qualitative studies are most often conducted with a small sample of data and therefore theoutcomes are not generalizable. Instead, Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest transferability asan alternative, where researchers should present the type and amount of information abouthow the qualitative study was carried out, in order for the reader to judge whether the datacan be transferable or not.

To facilitate the issue of transferability of this study, we have described the process of howthe qualitative data was gathered as well as enclosed the in-group questionnaire questions(although these can be seen as a qualitative method) as an appendix to this paper. This is a

matter that can be regarded as increasing trustworthiness.

2.8.3 DependabilityDependability is closely linked to credibility According to Lincoln and Guba (1985),dependability seeks means for taking into account both factors of instability and factors ofphenomenal or design induced changes (p.299). This can be described as how the datacollected have changed through time as well as how the researchers decisions have shiftedduring the process. These factors have an influence in the outcome of the study and mightlead to inconsistency. However, being aware of this matter, researchers can mitigatedependability factors through discussions and reflections.

We argue that the issue of dependability has been taken into account during the studyprocess and the fact that the research was conducted during a few months can decrease thenegative influence of dependability. Further, many decisions have been made through theprocess, however none has profoundly changed the initial scope of this paper. This can beargued to further increase trustworthiness.

2.8.4 ConformabilityConformability suggests that findings and analysis should be connected to the data in a waythat the reader can understand the study. Conformability also includes reducing biases ofthe researcher through for instance triangulation. The conformability criteria further

highlights the importance of researchers to reflect about shortcomings and weaknesses ofthe study (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In this paper we aimed to enhance trustworthinessfurther by including a discussion about the studys weaknesses and issues that could havebeen done differently.This can be seen in the conclusions part.

2.9 Strategies to Guarantee Research QualityThere are several techniques to obtain trustworthiness of research in a more practical sense.Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest member checking,where the researchers interpretationof data is being verified by the individuals that have been studied. The aim is to reduce


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misinterpretations and to come as close as possible to the very core of the respondentsown opinions.

In our study, member checking was not carried out. However, all focus groups were videorecorded and in this way the outcomes could be verified afterwards. This also means that

all data reflects the exact words of the participants. We are aware that our individualinterpretations will affect the final analysis of data; on the other hand we argue that videorecording reduces biases and misinterpretations and increases trustworthiness of our paper.

2.9.1 TriangulationTriangulation is another way of ensuring trustworthiness of research. As described earlier,in this study we used in-group questionnaires to confirm and enhance the data of focusgroups, which can thus be seen as a between-methods approach of triangulation (Denzin,2009). Thus, the use of this method can further increase trustworthiness of our research, astwo different kinds of data collection methods were used, leading to the same results. Inaddition, the fact that we were two researchers that conducted this study, analyzed the

results and came up to the same conclusions, also increases trustworthiness.

2.9.2 ReflexivityReflexivity is also a method of increasing quality and reliability of research where theresearcher takes on a critical view on his/her own role both as a researcher and as anindividual (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). It is about reflecting on your own influence on theprocess as a whole and how your perspective might filter the outcome.

We believe that, although the aim was to stay objective, our own personal experiences andvalues, social and cultural backgrounds probably affected the interpretation of data and the

fact that we, as well as the focus group participants, are students at the same university hadan impact on the results in some way. However, we argue that being aware of this facthelped us to stay objective which increases the trustworthiness of our study.


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3 Theoretical FrameworkIn this section of the thesis we will present theories which will aid in analyzing the empirical findings,answering the presented research questions and the purpose. The theories presented concern different factorsthat influence consumers in relation to commercials.

3.1 Model of the Emotional ProcessThe consumers mind is complex and naturally very diverse due to a number of factors,such as; cultural and social background, personal preferences and mindset. Holbrook andOShaughnessy (1984) suggest the Model of the Emotional Process where thepsychological-cognitive perspective on marketing is stressed. This model can be seenbelow:

Personal Values

Message, Object Cognitive Evaluations Physiological FeelingsOr Event Beliefs Changes

Desires ExpressiveBehavior

Figure 3-1 Model of the Emotional Process (Holbrook & OShaughnessy, 1984).

The model starts off with the message (being an object or an event) that reaches theconsumer and is affected by his or her personal values and cognitive beliefs. This leads upto an evaluation caused by feelings and gives rise to psychological changes that also causefeelings, ultimately leading to desires and after that different kinds of expressive behaviors.

The final outcome might be; for instance liking/disliking the message, or in other wordsthe commercial. This model can be seen as the very basic structure behind the process of

viewing of TV commercials.

3.2 Marketing & EmotionsSeveral scholars highlight the relationship between marketing and emotions. Holbrook andOShaughnessy (1984) stress the importance of taking emotions into account whenstudying advertising and present the Model of Emotional Process, discussed above.

Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer (1999) also emphasize this issue and describe emotions as a mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts(p. 184). Further, Bagozzi et al. (1999) argue that emotions are always followed by differentkinds of psychological responses, such as higher pulse and different facial expressions.Moreover, they state that consumers sense and express emotions in a conscious, deliberate


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and purposive way, but also unconsciously, automatic and unreflective. Bagozzi et al.(1999) divide advertisements into two main groups:

Thinking ads, where focus is put on utilitarian consequences of the use of a productor a service, or factual information.

Feeling ads, where the intention is to enhance the emotion consumers will feelthrough using the product or service presented in the advertisement.

3.3 The Unconscious Influence on ConsumersBargh (2002) presents a critical view on consumer behavior research, arguing that there is anotion among researchers that consumers are perfectly conscious about their buyingbehavior. Bargh (2002) claims that the focus is too heavily directed at notion and insteadhighlights the unconscious side of consumer behavior. Further, Bargh (2002) suggests two

ways in which consumers are being unconsciously affected by marketing messages;subliminally, where the consumer is not aware of the effect on his/her mind, and

supraliminally, where the consumer is aware of the influence but not to what extent.

We know that TV commercials do work: The economic impact of TV advertising issubstantial and documented (Krugman, 1965, p. 351). However, it is difficult to evaluateexactly to what extent TV commercials influence consumers and how that process lookslike; We are faced then with the odd situation of knowing that advertising works but beingunable to say howmuch and why (Krugman, 1965, p 351). Park and Young (1986) arguethat the extent to which the viewer will be influenced by a commercial depends on the levelof personal relevance of the content. This means that if the viewer finds the commercialrelevant, he or she will dedicate more attention to the message and thus the level ofinfluence will increase.

3.4 The Commercial and the MemoryBagozzi et al. (1999) state that memory is important when discussing emotions andadvertisement and that the mood state of the consumer affects the memory. For instance, apositive mood state will increase a persons ability to recall information. Du Plessis (2005)focuses on the function of the brain and its storage functions of what a person sees andexperiences. Du Plessis (2005) also stresses the importance of memory in relation tocommercials and claims that an advertisement needs to influence the memory in order forit to have an impact on the viewer at all.

Moreover, Du Plessis (2005) argues that the length of the commercial is crucial: the longerthe exposition of the commercial to the viewer, the higher is the probability of theconsumer remembering the commercial. Further, whether a commercial will stay in apersons mind or not, depends on its length, intensity and frequency over time. At the sametime, the commercial should not be too long, as the viewer can lose interest (DuPlessis,2005). Krugman (1965) states that it takes four to ten seconds of a commercial for the

viewer to decide whether to continue watching or not. Therefore, the beginning of thecommercial needs to send out a positive message. On the other hand, Gorn and Goldberg(1980) stress the issue of viewers becoming annoyed and loosing attention when TVcommercials are repeated frequently. Even though many TV commercials can be regardedas simple and silly, this is an issue that should not be dismissed as unimportant, as the


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triviality of commercials are important when trying to understand the influence of massmedia on consumers (Krugman, 1965). Thus, a simple commercial does not mean that theconsumer is not being affected.

3.5 Positioning of Television CommercialsKraak and Pelletier (1998) state that Television commercials and prime-time programshave been identified as important influences on the types of food that children ask theirparents to buy for them and the food they buy for themselves (p.18).

Henderson and Kelly (2005) argue that Marketers decisions about which foods topromote and what positioning to use to promote them can have an impact positive ornegativeon public health, particularly given the evidence of the power of advertising toaffect food choice (p.194). Resnik and Stern (1977) claim that In order for a commercialto be considered informative, it must permit a typical viewer to make a more intelligentbuying decision after seeing the commercial than before seeing it (p.50). Thus, scholarsstress the link between the recall of positive emotions in an advertisement and the success

of it. TV commercials can also be affected by the TV programs in which they surround;Advertizing context typically has some positive or negative content that can triggeraffective reactions (Coulter, 1998, p.41).

One must also consider whether commercials are put within a pod or shown separately. Apod is a series of commercials streamed together in one. The positioning of a certaincommercial can to a high extent influence the reaction that consumers may or may nothave to it. For example, if a commercial is first in the pod sequence, this commercial mayobtain more attention as it is the commercial which directly follows the program that theconsumer was watching. The positive or negative feelings that the viewer has towards theprogram that was interrupted can thus be continued into the first TV commercial shown.

Some scholars mention likingwhen discussing consumer psychology and behavior relatedto viewing of commercials (Berridge & Wienkelman, 2003; Murry, Lastovicka & Singh,1992). Murry et al. (1992) investigated consumers liking emotions towards a televisionprogram with embedded commercials and highlight the importance of the specific contextof the commercial within the pod. They could see that the most influential commercials

were those first exposed in the pod as well as those that were processed in a moreinvolvingmanner (2003, p. 449).

3.6 Influence of Family on Purchasing BehaviorMoschis (1985) claims that there has been too much focus on the influence of mass mediaon consumer behavior. Instead he stresses the interpersonal communication among familymembers, mainly the consumer patterns that parents transfer to their children both directlyand indirectly. Further, other crucial sources for shaping consumer behavior other thanmass media and family, Moschis (1987), and Churchill and Moschis (1979) mention peersand school. Ward (1974) also claims that a persons consumer behavior is being shapedduring adolescence.

When looking at the household, Julander (1989) states the following:

At the heart of the decision process for food lies the general problem for households toproduce meals; two to three meals per day, year after year. Not only that, these meals


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should satisfy the needs and wants of all members of the household. A missing productcan ruin a meal and being out of stock can strongly affect the satisfaction of the householdmembers. These decisions not only are highly frequent but also extremely important forthe general welfare of the household (Julander, 1989, p. 2).

According to Kraak and Pelletier (1998), previous research shows that the two mainenvironmental influences on a childs purchase decision are family and television, eventhough many other exist. Kraak and Pelletier (1998) stress the issue of family influence onhealth aspects, stating that; the family has been identified as one of the most influentialenvironmental factors affecting food- and nutrition-related decisions and behavior (p.16).

Food purchasing behavior is not only influenced through the parents but also through thechildren themselves. Story and French (2004) state that there are strong arguments thatchildren exposed to food advertisements will favor advertised food products with a higherfrequency compared to children that have not seen such ads.It has been discovered thatnearly 50 percent of parents believe that meal and grocery choices and restaurant selectionare influenced by their children (Kraak & Pelletier, 1998, p.17). Furthermore, Kraak andPelletier (1998) also state that parents are two to three times more likely to name a child -not themselves- as the family expert for selection of fast food, snack food, restaurants andnewbreakfast cereals (p.17).

3.7 Influence of Price & Brand QualityPrior research shows a relationship between quality and price (Lichtenstein & Burton,1989; Caves & Greene, 1996; Rao & Monroe, 1989). Della Bitta, Monroe and McGinnis(1981) argue that one purpose of sale advertisements is to enhance the shoppersperceptions of value and to increase their interest in the product or brand (p.424).

Della Bitta et al. (1981) claim that the promotion of a lower price can create two decisionproblems for the seller. These include how much to reduce the price and how tocommunicate the fact that price has been lowered (p. 416). They continue by stating thatthe first, how much to reduce the price, creates two other concerns. The first would be ifthe price is only reduced by a little bit, consumers would perceive the change asinsignificant and it would therefore not affect their purchase decision. Secondly, if thereduction is too large, consumers would react to the change as if something was wrong

with the product which would in turn make the consumer question the quality.

3.8 Knowledge about Food and Health in CommercialsAccording to Bhaskaran & Hardley (2002) the societal changes affect consumers attitudes

and consumer behavior towards food; convenience and lifestyle factors would increase theconsumption of food: The fast pace of work and social schedules are leading ever moreshort cuts in cooking and food consumption and it could be that consumers are lookingmore and more to functional foods to make up for nu tritional deficiency in their diets (p.603).

Knowledge about food does not have to be the familiarity of a product but also thepossibility to use products within daily eating routines. Knowledge does not always have toinclude knowing nutritional content of products but also what they look like and how theyshould be prepared. According to Julander (1984), there are dimensions for classification ofproduct groups. These include dimensions such as storability, purchase frequency and


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impulse consumption attractivity. Storability refers to that homes nowadays are equippedwith better technology such as freezers and therefore techniques in production are offeredto freeze products to make them easier to store. Purchase frequency refers to how often aproduct is part of the shopping process. A high frequency means that products are part ofbasic supplies and are thus bought regularly. These basic supplies are then seen as products

that should be of interest to consumers to buy at a reduced price. Impulse consumptionattractivity refers to products with the intention to tempt consumers to more consumptiondue to their availability. These are products often seen at the checkout counters such as icecream and candy. All these factors are also taken into consideration when using products indaily eating routines.

There is also knowledge that can be viewed as negative knowledge (Holmberg, 1996). Thisknowledge might be a products harmfulness to health, or how the overall handling andproduction of a product can affect quality. When it pertains to specific householdmembers, negative knowledge can be seen as allergies to substances that must be avoidedor persons that need to be treated with special attention when it comes to food, such as

vegetarians.

3.9 Critique towards how Healthy Food is Portrayed inCommercials

Henderson and Kelly (2005) argue that; food companies play a role in countering theincrease in obesity by creating more healthful foodsand explicitly promoting the foods onthe basis of weight-friendly nutritional properties, such as being low in fat, low in calories,or otherwise contributing to a healthful diet (p. 192). In their study of food advertising in

TV commercials, Lank, Vickery, Cotugna and Shade (1992), found health and nutrition tobe a powerful selling factor, which can be seen as an indicator of consumers increasinginterest in fitness and diets. However, Lank et al. (1992) noticed that 43% of the

investigated food commercials that described the products as healthy in various ways wereactually food with high content of sugar and low nutritional qualities. Lank et al. concludethat while commercial messages are promoting health, those messages may beincomplete, confusing, or incompatible with the product they are advertising (p. 383).

Henderson and Kelly (2005) are heading at the same conclusion and point out that: Less isknown about the types of nutritional claims that appear on television, the most importantmedium used for food advertizing (p.192). Thus, it is not an easy task for consumers todetermine whether the product showed in a TV commercial actually is as healthy as itclaims to be. The market for healthy food is certainly a profitable business opportunity forcompanies and many are therefore tempted to stretch the truth a bit.

Bhaskaran and Hardley (2002) state that manufacturers are useful conduits for informationon diet and health, however consumers seem to be skeptical of manufacturer claims.

Within their research, they found that; younger consumers in particular indicated that price,taste and promotional offers influenced their buying decision and their switch to functionalfood was only if they had decided to buy a health product (Bhaskaran & Hardley, 2002).


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3.10Concluding Key ConceptsIn this section we will present a short conclusion emphasizing the key concepts that have been reviewed in thetheoretical framework and furthermore indicate their relationship to the purpose and research questions.

In order to answer the first part of the two folded purpose and furthermore the first tworesearch questions, understanding what shapes consumers attitudes towards the marketingmessage is important. The consumer is each day exposed to a large amount of differentforms of advertisements competing on the consumers attention (Ekstrm, 2010, McClunget al. 1985), leading to interpretations and finally decisions taken depending on themessages they receive. This process, known as the Model of the Emotional Process, isinfluenced by factors such as the consumers values and beliefs. The final decision can be

whether to buy a product or not (Holbrook & OShaughnessy, 1984).

Researchers enhance that emotions should be taken into account when studying advertising(Bagozzi et al, 1999). Further, Bagozzi et al (1999) state that emotions are followed bypsychological responses as well as facial expressions and they further divide commercialsinto two groups; thinking ads and feeling ads. Emotions can evoke positive or negativefeelings towards the commercial. Positive feel

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Attitudes Toward TV Commercial