Journal of Islamic MarketingExamining the effect of TV advertising appeals on brand attitudes and advertisingefforts in IranDavood Feiz Meysam Fakharyan Mohammad Reza Jalilvand Marzieh Hashemi

Article information:To cite this document:Davood Feiz Meysam Fakharyan Mohammad Reza Jalilvand Marzieh Hashemi, (2013),"Examining theeffect of TV advertising appeals on brand attitudes and advertising efforts in Iran", Journal of IslamicMarketing, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 101 - 125Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17590831311306372

Downloaded on: 04 March 2015, At: 08:30 (PT)References: this document contains references to 108 other documents.To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.comThe fulltext of this document has been downloaded 976 times since 2013*

Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:Kathleen Mortimer, (2008),"Identifying the components of effective service advertisements", Journal ofServices Marketing, Vol. 22 Iss 2 pp. 104-113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876040810862859Mehdi Behboudi, Hossein Vazifehdoust, Kobra Najafi, Mina Najafi, (2014),"Using rational and emotionalappeals in online advertisements for Muslim customers", Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 5 Iss 1 pp.97-124 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-07-2012-0039Rokiah Kadir, (2013),"Rules of advertisement in an electronic age", International Journal of Law andManagement, Vol. 55 Iss 1 pp. 42-54 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17542431311303813

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 331053 []

For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald forAuthors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelinesare available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The companymanages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well asproviding an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.

Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committeeon Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archivepreservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Examining the effect of TVadvertising appeals on brandattitudes and advertising

efforts in IranDavood Feiz

Department of Economics and Management, University of Semnan,Semnan, Iran

Meysam FakharyanYoung Researchers Club, Firozkoh Branch, Islamic Azad University,

Firozkoh, Iran

Mohammad Reza JalilvandDepartment of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran,

Tehran, Iran, and

Marzieh HashemiDepartment of Economics and Management, University of Semnan,

Semnan, Iran

Abstract

Purpose – In recent years, increasing competition in communicational network of Iran has led toattracting more attention to marketing and particularly, advertising activities. The aim of this paper isto examine the effect of TV advertising appeals of communication companies (in this study, MTNIrancell Company) on customers’ attitude towards their advertising efforts and their brand.

Design/methodology/approach – The aim was achieved through an empirical study involving asurvey. Of 400 questionnaires sent out, 384 were returned. The dataset from the sample underwentseries of statistical analyses, i.e. reliability test, factor analyses (exploratory and confirmatory) andstructural equation modelling (SEM).

Findings – Factor analyses extracted seven dimensions, i.e. one-sided appeal, two-sided appeal,humour appeal, fear appeal, comparative appeal, attitude toward advertising and brand attitude. Allrelated indicators manifested their constructs, respectively. The results show that there is a positive,direct, and significant relationship between: advertising appeals and attitude towards advertising;advertising appeals and brand attitude; and attitude towards advertising and brand attitude.

Originality/value – The paper empirically justified the interrelationship among advertising appeals,attitude toward advertising and brand attitude in an integrated model. Communication companies mayfind this paper useful as perceptual measures can be empirically substantiated using SEM.

Keywords Advertising appeals, Attitude towards advertising, Brand attitude, MTN Irancell,Advertising, Brands, Iran

Paper type Case study

1. IntroductionAdvertising as a major social event expresses a key change in values, beliefs,behaviour and buying patterns of the peoples which influence the lifestyles of

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/1759-0833.htm

Journal of Islamic MarketingVol. 4 No. 1, 2013

pp. 101-125q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1759-0833DOI 10.1108/17590831311306372

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

101

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

people (Usman et al., 2010). Consumer behaviour researchers have pointed out thatindividual differences among message recipients may lead to wide variations in themanner in which people respond to advertising appeals (Moore et al., 1995). Further, asadvertisers increasingly seek greater communication effectiveness, more carefulconsideration needs to be given to the selection of the type of advertising appeal used foreach target group (Ruiz and Sicilia, 2004). Previous studies have identified seven mostused advertising appeals – comparative, humour, fear, sex, two- or one-sided, gain/lossframed, and metaphor-account for two-thirds of all advertisements (Allen and Raymond,2007; Dahlen et al., 2010; Hornik and Miniero, 2010) and close to 85 percent of televisioncommercials (Pechmann and Stewart, 1990). A shortcoming in the advertising appealliterature is a lack of clear, consistent construct definitions and conceptualizations, bothon the predictor and on the criterion sides of ad appeal effects (Hornik and O’Keefe, 2009).Research demonstrated that advertising appeals can affect customers attitude towardsthe advertising (Liu et al., 2009; Hornik and Miniero, 2010) and brand attitude(Wang et al., 2000; Kim and Lee, 2012). However, it is intriguing that there is littlepublished research indicating the interactive relationships among different types ofadvertising appeals, attitude towards advertising, and brand attitude in an integratedmodel. Our objective is to illustrate how attitude toward advertising and brand attitudeare affected by the different types of advertising appeals. The main contribution of thispaper lies in the analysis of the interactive relationships among these factors. In the nextsections, we review the literature on the types of advertising appeals, the relationshipbetween advertising appeals and attitude towards advertising and brand attitude.We then present our research hypothesis followed by a detailed description of themethodology. Analysis and discussion are presented at the end of the paper.

2. Background and theoretical development2.1 Religion and marketing effortsReligion as an institution significantly affects people’s attitudes, values and behaviours(Derun et al., 2010) at both the individual and societal levels. Scholars would agree thatreligion represents unified systems of beliefs and practices relative to the sacred things,and religiosity is viewed as the degree to which beliefs in specific religious values andideal are held and practiced by an individual (Delener, 1993). Weaver and Agle (2002)reported that religiosity is known to have an influence both on human behaviour and onattitudes. They argue that behaviour is influenced by religious self-identity which isformed by the internalization of role expectations offered by religion (Weaver and Agle,2002). In fact, religious beliefs play a significant role in sculpting social behaviour.Differences in religious affiliations tend to influence the way people live, the choicesthey make, what they eat and whom they associate with. Religion defines the ideals forlife, which in turn are reflected in the values and attitudes of societies and individuals(Fam et al., 2004). Such values and attitudes shape the behaviour and practices ofinstitutions and members of cultures. For example, several public holidays are oftentied to religion. The holy days for each religion differ not only in number, but also insignificance. Buddhists regard the birthday of Buddha as the most important dayin their calendar; Christians view Easter Friday and Christmas Day as two importantdates; Muslims regard Ramadan their holiest month and they usually fast from dawn todusk; and Taoist and Confucian followers celebrate a number of festivals within theyear (Fam et al., 2004).

JIMA4,1

102

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

According to Hirschman (1983), the religious affiliations of Catholics, Protestants,and Jews significantly shaped their attitudes towards dancing, magazines, restaurants,and political ideas. There is also a strong relationship between religious persons andgreater concern for moral standards (Wiebe and Fleck, 1980), being conservative(Barton and Vaughan, 1976), and possessing more traditional attitudes (Wilkes et al.,1986). The impact of religion on consumption patterns usually relates to the restrictionof certain foods and beverages, for example, Jews and Muslims do not eat pork, Hindusdo not eat beef, and drinking alcohol is frowned upon if not forbidden by Islam andstrict Protestants. Religion also influences gender roles in a particular culture.In Islamic countries, both men and women must cover their torso and upper legs at alltimes and in the case of women only their faces’ skin may be exposed (Deng et al.,1994). The influence of religious beliefs on individual and social behaviour is welldocumented (Anand and Kumar, 1982; Luqmani et al., 1987; Michell and Al-Mossawi,1999; LaBarbera, 1987; McDaniel and Burnett, 1990; Waller, 1999; Birch et al., 2001).However, a review of the pertinent literature showed only a handful of studies thatdirectly examined the influence of religion on marketing communications. Moreover,the religious studies which did look at the influence on marketing communicationsfocused only on the influence of Islam on advertising content and regulation inSaudi Arabia (Luqmani et al., 1987) and message contentiousness among GulfCo-operative Council countries (Michell and Al-Mossawi, 1999). Both of these studiesrevealed the importance of understanding the Islamic religion in relation to effectiveadvertising. In particular, Luqmani et al. (1987) claim that provocative andunconventional advertising strategies and advertisements must obtain prior approvalfrom religious authorities. Failure to do so will result in alienation of a wide segmentof the conservative Saudi public. The findings from Michell and Al-Mossawi’s (1999)study of Gulf Co-operative Council countries showed religiously strict Muslims scoredlower in terms of recall and were unfavourable towards contentious advertisementsrelative to lenient Muslims. The findings suggest that there is a difference in perceivedcontroversial elements in advertisements between a devout and a lenient Muslim. Thesefindings also highlight the importance of matching creative execution, message content,and, etc. to a society’s socio-cultural environment (Peebles and Ryans, 1984).

Suffice to say, an alienated public will certainly have a negative attitude towards theadvertisement and brand recall (Zinkhan and Martin, 1982; Gardner, 1985). Michell andAl-Mossawi (1999) claim an offensive advertisement will not be effective in capturingan audience’s attention or changing his/her attitudes. Furthermore, the guidelinesprovided in the Qur’an might not be strictly followed in the contemporary Muslimcountries. A range of practices exists among Muslims regarding the times and places –ranging from prayer only to all the time – which women are expected to wear the hijab.This different perception influenced advertising industry among Muslims’ world.While in Saudi Arabia and Iran it is forbidden to show other than the above-mentionedbody parts, in Dubai in United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, and Egypt, the mostliberal outdoor advertising is presented in the European version (Al-Olayan andKarande, 2000). In most Muslim countries, Islam also exerts great influence onadvertising regulation. In Iran, for instance, the advertising code is heavily influencedby Islamic values. The Islamic principle of covering the aurat (i.e. private body parts)for women and the prohibition of using women as sex symbols in advertising arementioned but not strictly enforced (Wah, 2006). In sum, reviewing published writings

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

103

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

on religion and advertising led to the categorization of these studies under threecategories. These categories are attitude toward advertising of controversial products(Derun et al., 2010; Fam and Grohs, 2007; Fam et al., 2004), presence of religious values inadvertisements (Al-Olayan and Karande, 2000; Kalliny and Gentry, 2007; Michell andAl-Moussavi, 1995), and the consumers’ reactions to advertisements containingreligious cues or symbols (Henley et al., 2009; Lumpkins, 2010; Taylor et al., 2010).According to the context of current study, the focus is on Islam religion. In fact, ourstudy has been conducted in an Islamic country. Hence, we provided a brief explanationabout this religion.

2.2 Islam as a religionIslam was founded in Arabia and based on the teachings of Muhammad, who is calledthe Prophet. The Arabic word “Islam” literally means “to surrender”, but as a religiousterm in the Koran, it means “to surrender to the will or law of God”. One who practicesIslam is a Muslim. According to the Koran, Islam is the primordial and universalreligion, and even nature itself is Muslim, because it automatically obeys the laws Godhas ingrained in it. For human beings, which possess free will, practicing Islam doesnot involve automatically obeying, but rather freely accepting God’s commandments(Von der Mehden, 1986). Islamic social philosophy is based on the belief that all spheresof life: spiritual, social, political, and economic form an indivisible unity that must bethoroughly imbued with Islamic values. This principle informs such concepts as“Islamic law” and the “Islamic state” and accounts for Islam’s strong emphasis onsocial life and social duties. Even the cardinal religious duties prescribed in the fivepillars of Islam have clear social implications. Islamic law, known as shari’ah (which issourced from the Koran) is a code that prescribes and governs the duties, morals andbehaviour of all Muslims, collectively and individually, in all aspects of life (Coulson,1964; Terpstra and Sarathy, 1994; Luqmani et al., 1987). Olayan and Karande (2000) goon to explain that the shari’ah describes the values that Muslims should hold,including truth, honesty, social and collective obligations and responsibilities, the roleof men and women, and the role of buying and selling. Muslims are not allowed to eatpork, gamble or drink alcohol, and nudity is prohibited. In addition, Muslims must notidol worship (statutes inclusive), must conform to sexual codes and adultery is strictlyprohibited. Children should not deceive or disrespect their parents (Newland, 2000;Michell and Al-Mossawi, 1999; Deng et al., 1994; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1997). Islam ismore than a religion. It controls the ways of society and factors associated with family,dress, cleanliness, and ethics. Muslims are required to live and think in the way thatAllah has stated (Fam et al., 2004).

2.3 Iran as an Islamic countryAs a Muslim country, Iran has its own cultural features. Religion, as a subculture,influences consumers’ perceived values, motivations, and beliefs about products orservices. Iranian consumers, as Muslim consumers, are included in this subject. Iran’sreligiosity is its most striking cultural feature and it pervades many aspects of life.As such, these markets and their consumers could potentially be more complex andunique. Iranian consumers, because of their collectivistic culture and religious beliefs,have a negative view through uniqueness value. It also seems that although hedonicvalue is important for them, it is not as bold as it is in the Western cultures.

JIMA4,1

104

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Although Islam always associates success with moral values, it does not restrict effortsat material progress. It exhorts the individual to make all efforts toward achievement.In Iranian culture, materialism has been linked to success and possession andacquisition are signs of achievement.

Additionally, research indicated that Muslim consumers seek high involvement inall products, due to their faith and a tendency toward risk aversion (Wilson and Liu,2010). In their study of halal-conscious consumers, Wilson and Liu (2011) found thatthey are risk averse, which drives discerning and high-involvement behavioural traits.In fact, the characteristic of risk avoidance also exists in Iranian culture. As a result,quality value and usability have a significant impact on products/services evaluation.Conspicuousness value is the most valuable item for Iranian consumers and it can beshown in advertising efforts. However, economic crisis, inflation, high levels ofunemployment and the escalating prices of essential goods have all squeezed theIranian family’s purse further and further.

It is obvious that in recent years Iran’s communications industry has emerged asone of the fastest growing economic sectors. Commercial advertising is common butsubject to specific rules and regulations, including the time framework to prevent thefragmentation of programmes. By analysing a few advertisements from the pre- andpost-revolutionary periods of Iran, Amouzadeh (2002) argued that advertising not onlymirrors but also structures social realities. He indicated that the pre-revolutionaryadvertisements tend to represent Western social realities which do not recognise localcultural norms. He believed that themes such as the happiness of the family andwomen’s liberty could be regarded Western issues for Iranians at that particular time.In contrast, the advertisements in the post-revolutionary era attempt to construct socialrealities relevant to Iranian society such as national rival soccer teams, supportinglocal industry, and equality for women.

2.4 The MTN GroupMTN Group is a South Africa-based multinational mobile telecommunicationscompany, operating in many African and Middle Eastern countries. Its head office is inJohannesburg. MTN acquired Investcom, thereby expanding to ten more countries,mainly under the Areeba and Spacetel brands. As of early 2007, MTN is active in:

. Afghanistan (Investcom).

. Benin (Investcom).

. Botswana (Botswana Mascom).

. Cameroon (MTN Cameroon).

. Republic of Congo (MTN Congo SA).

. Cote d’Ivoire (MTN Cote d’Ivoire).

. Cyprus (MTN Cyprus).

. Ghana (Investcom, MTN Ghana).

. Guinea Bissau (Investcom).

. Republic of Guinea (Investcom).

. Iran (MTN Irancell).

. Liberia (Lonestar Cell).

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

105

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

. Montenegro (MTN CG) (planned 2011).

. Nigeria (MTN Nigeria).

. Rwanda (MTN Rwanda).

. South Africa (MTN South Africa).

. Sudan (Investcom).

. Swaziland (MTN Swaziland).

. Syria (Investcom).

. Uganda (MTN Uganda).

. Yemen (Investcom, Spacetel).

. Zambia (MTN Zambia).

MTN has a 49 percent stake in government-controlled MTN Irancell, the second-largestmobile phone operator in Iran, and 21 percent of MTN’s subscriber base is from thecountry. In January 2012, the US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran(UANI) launched a campaign publicly calling for MTN to scale back its operations inIran and end its business in the country. UANI charges that MTN technology is enablingthe Iranian Government to track and locate cell phone users which it says is a violationof human rights (The Wall Street Journal, 2012). The company aims at being the leadingprovider of telecommunication services in Iran and provides the following services:

. Provision of wholesale and retail telecommunication services.

. Provision of mobile phone and related services.

. Provision of the internet and data and digital platform related products andservices.

. Provision of all other sources of value added services that is currently availableand to be developed in the future.

. Dealing with e-commerce, mobile-commerce activities of the abovetelecommunication networks.

. Provision of customer services, including but not limited to customerrelationship management and call centre services.

MTN Irancell has a very clear brand identity which is underpinned by the followingvalues:

. Innovation/simplicity. Ingredients including imagination, insight, and creativity.

. Relationship/customer centricity. Ingredients including teamwork, friendly,personal, warm and caring.

. Integrity/fairness. Ingredients including solid principles, trusted, togetherness.

. Can do. Ingredients including optimism, future focus, passionate, andhappening.

. Leadership. Ingredients including foresight, commitment, and guidance.

MTN Irancell tries to provide customers with different types of advertising appealssuch as one- and two-sided appeals, humour appeals, comparative appeals (in relation

JIMA4,1

106

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

to its main competitors – Hamrahe Aval Company) and sometimes fear appeals toattract more and more customers. In 2011, this company spent five million dollars forits advertising campaign. According to the special circumstances in Iran, the companyhas paid a significant attention to its advertising efforts. It has led to be recognized asone of the main telecommunication service providers in Iran.

2.5 Advertising appeals and consumer attitudeAdvertising appeals can be divided into informational (or rational) appeals versusemotional appeals (Brennan and Binney, 2010), two basic strategies commonly used indesigning persuasive communications (Dubea and Cantinb, 2000). Abernethy and Franke(1996) used that classification to conduct a meta-analysis on the influence of ad content onconsumers’ response behaviour. An emotional appeal pictures various sensorial, social, oremotional aspects of one’s experience with the focal item being promoted, in our context,mobile services (Rossiter and Percy, 1997). Studies have documented the wide array ofemotions that advertisements can evoke (Lee et al., 2009; Yang and Smith, 2009). With anemotional advertising appeal, consumers will rather think about the ad execution,and compare their evaluation of the ad to existing brand knowledge and affect. Rationalappeals focus on the practical, functional, or utilitarian benefits derived from the useof the product (Hornik and Miniero, 2010). Interestingly, some empirical evidence hasshown that consumers prefer rational appeals that provide information thatexplains clearly the differences between the advertised brand and its competitors(Tuan Pham, 2009).

A meta-analysis of eight advertising studies shows that advertising that provokes astrong emotional response without providing sufficient product information often breaksthrough the clutter but is unlikely to persuade (Picot-Zane, 2006). Recent research suggeststhat emotional content in advertising can influence brand favorability even when rationalcontent has no effect (Heath, 2007). Hornik and Miniero (2010) conducted a comprehensivequantitative and qualitative literature review of more than a thousand reports to studywhether and by what size advertisements with appeals are more persuasive and betterliked than ads with no structured appeals. They compared the most common appeals (fear,humour, sex, comparative, gain/loss frame, two- or one-sided, and metaphor) to determinetheir relative effectiveness. The results of their cumulative meta-analysis (CMA) revealedthat, the appeals have affected attitude towards advertising. Their proposed model hasbeen shown in Figure 1. In this study, we aggregated two emotional appeals including fearand humour, and three rational appeals including comparison, one- and two-sided (Hornikand O’Keefe, 2009) in the context of communicational companies.

Fear is a negative emotion and is associated with a high level of arousal. Fear iscaused by a threat that is perceived to be substantial and personally relevant toindividuals (Ortony and Turner, 1990). Fear appeal literature indicates that fear can bedescribed by mood adjectives, including feeling frightened, anxious, or nauseous, andalso via ratings of concern or worry (Henthorne et al., 1993; LaTour and Rotfeld, 1997;LaTour and Tanner, 2003) and motivates actions aimed at reducing these unpleasantemotions (Tanner et al., 1991). The different theories and models on fear appealspropose two distinctive approaches of how fear relates to persuasion, namely:

(1) outcomes related to acceptance of a the recommendations of a message,therefore assuming a linear relationship between fear intensity and persuasion;and

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

107

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

(2) outcomes related to rejection of the message (i.e. defensive avoidance, reactance,and denial), thus assuming a curvilinear relationship between the intensity offear appeal used and attitudinal change (Barth and Bengel, 2000; Witte andAllen, 2000).

Although previous humourous advertising has revealed substantial impact of humouron consumers’ psychological responses (Cline et al., 2003; Eisend, 2009), researchersusually regard humour used in advertising as the message that delivers surprise(Elpers et al., 2004; Cruthirds et al., 2012). Psychology research indicated three groupsof mechanisms, namely cognitive, affective, and interpersonal that determine thehumour processing and humour appreciation (Beard, 2008; Shabbir and Thwaites,2007; Lynch, 2002). Despite attempts to provide a general theory of humour (Veatch,1998), it seems that it is the parallel use of the three humour conceptions that provides amore comprehensive interpretation of this individual phenomenon (Gulas andWeinberger, 2006; Lynch, 2002). Speck’s (1987, 1991) humourous message taxonomylinks cognitive, affective and interpersonal mechanisms with advertisers’communication intentions. Speck suggested that three underlying processes(incongruity – resolution, arousal – safety and humourous disparagement) lead tohumourous appreciation. In incongruity resolution process (cognitive mechanism),some type of schema incongruity is perceived, since the advertising content “differsfrom the generally expected beliefs, attitudes and/or behaviours” (Alden et al., 2000).Then some advertising cues provide an explanation on the stimulus-incongruity andlead to the appreciation of humour. In the arousal-safety process (affective mechanism)“laughter occurs when a person has experienced heightened arousal but at the sametime (or soon after the arousal) evaluates the stimulus as safe or inconsequential”(Rothbart, 1973, p. 249). Finally, humourous disparagement is an interpersonalmechanism for creating humourous expressions, where humour is a disguisedaggression and serves as a reward for the joke-teller (Hatzithomas et al., 2011).

The combination of the three humour processes leads to five types of humour, namely:comic wit, sentimental humour, satire, sentimental comedy, and full comedy. Comic wit,

Figure 1.Hornik and Miniero’smodel

ConsumerResponse

Persuasion

Attitude toward theadvertising

Message Appeal

EmotionalHumour

FearSex

RationalComparativeTwo-sided

Gain-framed

Metaphor

JIMA4,1

108

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

involving only the incongruity resolution process, is a mind-game that leads to ahumourous interpretation. Sentimental humour is based only on the arousal-safetyprocess and constitutes an emotional way to engender humour. Satire combinesincongruity resolution and humourous disparagement processes. The audience laughs ata “victim” in an indirect way (McGhee, 1974). Sentimental comedy is the product ofcooperation between incongruity resolution and the arousal-safety processes. Hence, itprovides cognitive pleasure such as comic wit and affective pleasure similarly tosentimental humour. Full comedy is based on the combination of all three humourprocesses (Beard, 2008). It is the most complex type of humour and thus the riskiestcommunication strategy (Hatzithomas et al., 2011). According to the literature, humourousadvertising is better at getting attention, retaining the message, and promoting a positiveattitude toward desirable products (Beard, 2005; Chung and Zhao, 2003).

The one-sided appeal simply presents the positive claims or important attributes ofthe product or brand. Thus, it presents only claims supportive of the product or service(Sherman et al., 1991). A supportive one-sided appeal should not trigger the subject’sdesire to amass bolstering material because of the absence of negative information.The one-sided appeal should incur the highest degree of counter argumentation asproduct attributes are only shown supportively. Applied to advertising, correspondencetheory suggests that one-sided appeals, being the more traditional advertising format,should lead more often to non-correspondent attributions on the part of the targetaudience (Etgar and Goodwin, 1982). In addition, one-sided messages may representthe adaptation level or the type of communication that the consumer is expecting.Rucker et al. (2008) suggested that one-sided appeal can influence customers’ attitudetowards advertising and resulted in the greatest degree of belief change. The one-sidedmessage seems to work best with audiences who are already favorably disposedtowards the communicator’s position, while two-sided messages are more effectivewith audiences who are opposed to the message, or who may be better-educated(Sherman et al., 1991).

Three theoretical approaches are applied in order to explain the effects of two-sidedmessages. Attribution theory, particularly correspondence theory, describes theprocesses an individual goes through in assigning causes to events ( Jones andMcGillis, 1976; Kelley, 1973). Consumers can attribute claims either to the advertiser’sdesire to sell the product or to actual characteristics of the product. The inclusion ofnegative information leads a consumer to conclude that the advertiser is telling thetruth. This enhances the perception of advertiser credibility. However, the message isnot necessarily more effective in terms of persuasiveness, since negative informationabout a brand may also have a direct negative effect on attitudes toward the brand.Attribution theory has guided the majority of the existing two-sided advertisingstudies (Easley et al., 1995; Eisend et al., 2004). Optimal arousal theory (Berlyne, 1971)suggests that two-sided messages are novel and thereby have a tendency to engenderpositive effect, motivating consumers to pay attention to and process the messagewhich, in turn, increases the probability of favorable changes in attitude. The theoryhas not yet been applied in a two-sided persuasion context, but is recommended byCrowley and Hoyer (1994) as a plausible explanation to conflicting findings of previousstudies (e.g. findings that vary in the proportion of negative information included,which may cause varying levels of discrepancies from an adaptation level). For low to

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

109

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

moderate discrepancies, arousal is probably most effective, whereas too strong ofdiscrepancies may have rather negative effects.

Inoculation theory (McGuire, 1964) uses a physiological analogy and states thatusing mild attacking arguments and then countering or refuting them strengthenscognitions, reduces counterarguments, and as a consequence, enhances attitudes. Thistheory refers to a special type of two-sided messages, namely refutational appeals.Similar to two-sided messages, advertisers present positive and negative informationbut then attempt to refute or discount the negative information, attempting to inoculatethe audience against possible counter-claims or opposing messages provided bycompetitors (Etgar and Goodwin, 1982; Szybillo and Heslin, 1973). Based on thesetheories, on previous research, and on knowledge of general advertising effects,Crowley and Hoyer (1994) developed an integrative framework and suggest a varietyof propositions to explain the persuasive mechanisms of two-sided messages.According to Crowley and Hoyer (1994), if consumers’ prior attitude is negative orneutral, two-sided messages are more effective in altering evaluations, changingattitudes and enhancing purchase intention, and in being more consistent with thereceiver’s attitudinal schema they may therefore encounter less resistance.

In case of positive prior attitude, the two-sided-message increases counterargumentsif consumers are not aware of the negative information (since the message is perceivedas counter-attitudinal). Hence, attitudes and purchase intentions are rather derogated,whereas perceived novelty should be enhanced and lead to higher motivation to processthe message. Still, this leads to more unfavorable attitude changes since morecounterarguments are processed. Two-sided messages are equally effective asone-sided messages if the consumers are aware of the negative information, but stillhold a favorable prior attitude (Crowley and Hoyer, 1994). Additionally, Kamins andMarks (1987) suggested that, given product trial, consumers are generally not deceivedby high levels of puffery in a one-sided form, whereas they appear to be moresusceptible to deception when exposed to a two-sided refutational communication.

Comparative advertising usually contrasts one brand against others in the sameproduct or service category. While this message content approach is still used, itseffectiveness has been the center of controversy since it first began to grow inpopularity during the 1960s. The degree of effectiveness of comparative advertisinghas been linked to its ability to provide consumers with important information, and toevaluate the relative benefits of competitive brands (Sherman et al., 1991). It has beenfound, however, that while comparative advertising produces higher message recall, itmay also stimulate lower claim credibility. This occurs because of increasedcounterarguing by the viewer, and eventual loss of the advertiser’s credibility.In addition, when an advertisement makes specific claims about the negative attributesof the competitor’s brands, results may be dysfunctional. Consumers may becomeskeptical about the entire product category and general sales of all brands in thecategory may suffer (Sherman et al., 1991). According to above discussion, it ishypothesized that:

H1. Advertising appeals (fear, humour, comparative, one-sided, and two-sided) oftelevision has a positive direct influence on attitude toward advertisement.

Advertising research provides evidence that feelings are elicited by advertisings andpositive moods evoked by advertisings facilitate brand attitude change (Pyun and

JIMA4,1

110

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

James, 2011). According to the marketing literature, attitude toward advertising has apositive effect on brand attitudes (Laczniak and Carlson, 1989; Kim and Lee, 2012).Recently, Yoon and Park (2012) investigated whether or not sensory appeal preferencesin advertisements affect brand attitude. Their study indicated that self-referencing andpositive affect both have significant mediating effects between sensory appealpreferences and attitudes toward a coffee brand. Dens and De Pelsmacker (2010) intheir study of 509 Belgians found that advertising appeals (informational andemotional) affect attitude towards brand. Additionally, they found that attitude towardadvertising has a significant impact on brand attitude. Therefore, it is deduced that:

H2. Advertising appeals (fear, humour, comparative, one-sided, and two-sided) oftelevision has a positive direct influence on brand attitude.

H3. Attitude toward advertisement has a positive direct influence on brandattitude.

Figure 2 shows an overview of the conceptual model.

3. MethodologySample and procedureSample. The study focused on MTN Irancell Company, one of the main mobileoperators in Iran. All respondents were users of mobile in University of Shiraz andvolunteered to participate in the study. Respondents were familiar with MTN IrancellCompany and have previously used its services. Questionnaires, written in Farsi,containing items measuring the above dimensions were distributed to 400 users. A totalof 384 respondents returned usable questionnaires; yielding a 96 percent response rate.A cluster-sampling plan was used to collect data. Two stages of sampling approachwere used in this study: first, we provided a list of universities in Shiraz, and then anumber of universities were selected randomly. Finally, students who were studied inthose universities, selected randomly to achieve estimated sample. The majorityof respondents were female (61.8 percent). Further, 71.8 percent of respondents wereunder 25 years old and 62.8 percent of the respondents had university degree. In terms

Figure 2.Conceptual model

Advertisingappeals

Brand attitude

Attitudetoward

advertising

One-sidedappeal

Two-sidedappeal

Comparativeappeal

Humour appeal

Fear appeal

H1

H2

H3

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

111

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

of length of watching TV in week, a half of the respondents (44.9 percent) watch TVless than 1 h, and tendency to watching TV advertising was very low (43.8 percent).

Procedures. Survey questionnaires were pre-tested, using a small number ofrespondents (30 respondents; the pre-test participants did not participate in the finaldata collection). As a consequence of the pre-testing, relatively minor modificationswere made in the written instructions and in several of the demographic items. Therevised survey was then administered to the respondents in the universities of ShirazProvince, during normal education hours. Written instructions, along with brieforal presentations, were given to explain (in broad terms) the purpose of the research.The participants were all given the opportunity to ask questions and were encouragedto answer the survey honestly. Data was gathered during the month of September-December 2012 (Table I).

Questionnaire designThe primary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of TV advertising appealsof communication companies on attitude towards advertising and brand attitude.The research model includes seven factors and each factor is measured with multipleitems. All items were adapted from extant literature to improve content validity (Straubet al., 2004). These items were first translated into Persian by the researchers. All itemswere measured with a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) tostrongly agree (5). Items of fear, humour, comparative, one-sided, and two-sided appealswere adapted from Hornik and O’Keefe (2009). Items of brand attitude were adapted

Characteristic %

GenderMale 38.2Female 61.8AgeUnder 25 71.825-30 25.131-35 2.3Above 36 0.8EducationPrimary or below 12.6University 62.8Post-graduate 24.6Length of watching TV in weekLess than 1 h 44.91-2 h 292-3 h 18.23-4 h 6.9More than 4 h 1Tendency to watching TV advertisingVery low 43.8Low 34.6To some extent 15.4High 4.9Very high 1.3

Table I.Sample profile

JIMA4,1

112

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

from Pyun and James (2011) to reflect the effect of advertising on brand attitude change.Finally, Items of attitude toward advertising were adapted from Kim and Lee (2012) toreflect the relationship between attitude toward advertising and advertising appeals.The questionnaire was in seven parts: a first part with questions about one-sided appeal(three items), a second part with questions about two-sided appeal (two items), a thirdpart capturing comparative appeal (two items), a fourth part with questions abouthumour appeal (three items), a fifth with questions about fear appeal (two items), a sixthand seventh part to identify customers’ attitudes toward advertising and brand (sevenand eight items), respectively. Socio-demographic information of research participantswas obtained by items including gender, age, education level, length of watching TV inweek, and tendency to watching TV advertising.

Analytical procedureThe statistical procedures and measures used in this paper are methodologiesrecommended by Hair et al. (1998), Bontis (1998) and Khong and Richardson (2003).These methodologies aim to find the causal relationships among advertising appeals,attitude toward advertising, and brand attitude. The procedures and measures, inchronological order, are:

(1) reliability analysis;

(2) exploratory factor analysis;

(3) confirmatory factor analysis; and

(4) structural equation modelling (SEM).

4. FindingsReliability analysisReliability is the “extent to which a variable or set of variables is consistent in what it isintended to measure” (Hair et al., 1998, p. 90). Reliability analysis in this paper refers tothe internal consistency of variables, measured by interval scale items, in a summatedscale. Therefore, the summated scales, which are the concepts or constructs, shouldbe measured by highly correlated manifesting variables. In short, the summated scaleof the manifesting variables is consistently determining their respective constructs.In the context of this paper, there are three summated scales, i.e. advertising appeals,attitude toward advertising, and brand attitude. Cronbach’s a was used to verify theinternal consistency reliability. Cronbach’s a values greater than 0.07 are acceptableand deemed to be adequate (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Using SPSS, a statisticalsoftware package, the results of reliability are as follows.

The research variables including fear appeal, humour appeal, comparative appeal,two-sided appeal, one-sided appeal, attitude toward advertising, and brand attitudeshow a significant internal consistency of 0.821, 0.729, 0.695, 0.743, 0.857, 0.868, and0.885, respectively. This indicates that the survey instrument (questionnaire) can be areliable tool to measure the seven concepts (constructs) consistently.

Exploratory factor analysisWhile this analysis is used to reduce numerous variables to a more manageable set offactors (Aaker and Day, 1986), no constraints are made on the variable loadings.Therefore, each variable will indicate loadings on the set of factors. Consequently,

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

113

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

exploratory factor analysis is used to summarise and reduce the data. Using SPSS, theresults of exploratory factor analysis, with the assumption of extracting via principalcomponents method and rotating via varimax, are given in Tables II and III.

The rotated component matrix revealed seven significant factors, i.e. one-sidedappeal, two-sided appeal, humour appeal, fear appeal, comparative appeal, attitudetoward advertising and brand attitude. Based on the literature mentioned earlier, theseven concepts (constructs) examined are one-sided appeal, two-sided appeal, humourappeal, fear appeal, comparative appeal, attitude toward advertising, and brandattitude. The seven factors which emerge from this analysis could be classified andnamed as:

(1) one-sided appeal (variance 53.12 per cent);

(2) two-sided appeal (variance 8.63 per cent);

(3) comparative appeal (variance 7.06 per cent);

(4) humour appeal (variance 6.43 per cent);

(5) fear appeal (variance 5.72 per cent);

(6) attitude toward advertising (variance 50.29 per cent); and

(7) brand attitude (variance 10.70 per cent).

In order to define which factors determine the advertising appeals, attitude towardadvertising, and brand attitude, confirmatory factor analysis method was used (givenbelow).

Confirmatory factor analysisWhen conducting confirmatory factor analysis, variables are assigned to specifiedfactors. It is common that variables with high factor loadings will be assigned todescribe the respective factors. Therefore, variables that have low loadings onrespective factors are constrained to zero (Hair et al., 1998). According to Carmines andZeller (1979), the acceptable threshold for factor loading is 0.3 or above. Consequently,variables with loadings less than 0.3 will be constrained to zero. Results of confirmatory

FactorOne-sided appeal Two-sided appeal Comparative appeal Humour appeal Fear appeal

Appeal1 0.852 0.201 0.160 0.094 0.222Appeal2 0.711 0.373 0.406 0.089 0.040Appeal3 0.638 0.072 0.366 0.396 0.235Appeal4 -0.109 0.530 0.160 0.438 0.510Appeal5 0.289 0.816 0.148 0.230 0.046Appeal6 0.145 0.159 0.855 0.261 0.042Appeal7 0.130 0.176 0.848 0.342 0.042Appeal8 0.337 0.096 0.151 0.859 0.065Appeal9 0.495 0.367 0.028 0.614 0.195Appeal10 0.371 0.259 0.153 0.625 0.280Appeal11 0.398 0.407 0.201 0.108 0.579Appeal12 0.267 0.160 0.377 0.127 0.782

Notes: x 2 ¼ 2.859; p ¼ 0.000

Table II.Rotated componentmatrix of independentvariables

JIMA4,1

114

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

factor analysis are presented in Table IV. Based on the confirmatory factor analysis, allof variables were retained. Most item loadings are larger than 0.3 and t-values indicatethat all loadings are significant at 0.001. The retained variables will be used inestimating a model via SEM method.

Structural equation modellingSEM is a model analysis technique encompassing methods such as covariancestructure analysis, latent variable analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis,and linear structural relation analysis (Hair et al., 1998). Generally, SEM is used toestimate “multiple and interrelated dependence relationship and the ability to representunobserved concepts in these relationships and account for measurement error in theestimation process” (Hair et al., 1998, p. 584). SEM is particularly useful in this paperbecause it can estimate “a series of separate, but interdependent, multiple regressionequations simultaneously” in a specified structural model (Hair et al., 1998). Therefore,SEM is the most suitable analysis to estimate the strength of causal relationshipamong advertising appeals, attitude toward advertising, and brand attitude.

In estimating the goodness-of-fit indices (GFI) for measurement and structuralmodels, x 2 test was used. In addition, the root mean square error of approximation(RMSEA) was used as an absolute fit index. The incremental fit index (IFI), theTucker-Lewis index (TLI), and the comparative fit index (CFI) were used asincremental fit indices. For GFI, RFI, CFI, and TLI, coefficients closer to unity indicatea good fit, with acceptable levels of fit being above 0.90 (Marsh et al., 1988). For rootmean square residual (RMR) and RMSEA, evidence of good fit is considered to bevalues less than 0.05; values from 0.05 to 0.10 are indicative of moderate fit and valuesgreater than 0.10 are taken to be evidence of a poorly fitting model (Browne andCudeck, 1993). Figures 3 and 4 show the specified relationship between advertisingappeal, attitude towards advertising, and brand attitude. The overall model fit wasgood, x 2 ¼ 283.06, df ¼ 98, Normed x 2 ¼ 2.89, RMSEA ¼ 0.079, RMR ¼ 0.01,

FactorAttitude toward advertising Brand attitude

Aad1 0.758 0.043Aad2 0.859 0.045Aad3 0.582 0.341Aad4 0.596 0.387Aad5 0.706 0.211Aad6 0.793 0.162Aad7 0.607 0.262BA1 0.435 0.657BA2 0.577 0.666BA3 0.397 0.784BA4 0.367 0.558BA5 0.446 0.559BA6 0.144 0.930BA7 0.131 0.935BA8 0.222 0.533

Notes: x 2 ¼ 4.812; p ¼ 0.000

Table III.Rotated component

matrix of dependentvariables

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

115

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

GFI ¼ 0.95, CFI ¼ 0.96, IFI ¼ 0.96, RFI ¼ 0.93, NFI ¼ 0.96, NNFI ¼ 0.94, andAGFI ¼ 0.90. The effect of advertising appeals on attitude toward advertising andbrand was significant ( p ¼ 0.000 , 0.001).

Hypotheses testingAll tests are directional t-tests of the critical ratios of the regression weight estimatesover the estimates of their standard errors provided in the LISREL output. As shown inFigure 4, all of three paths specified in the hypothesized model are found to bestatistically significant. When t-values are in the range of 21.96-1.96, the hypothesiswill reject (Hair et al., 1998). As predicted, H1 was largely supported by the data of thisstudy, in that advertising appeals had a positive and significant effect on attitudetoward advertising (b ¼ 0.85, t ¼ 11.92). As predicted by H2, advertising appeals wassupported by the data, in that advertising appeals had a positive and significant effecton brand attitude (b ¼ 0.62, t ¼ 8.55). The structural equations results supported H3.The results are shown in Table V. As predicted by H3, attitude toward advertising waspositively related to brand attitude (b ¼ 0.36, t ¼ 4.92); supporting H3.

5. Discussion, managerial implications, and future researchThe current research focused on advertising appeals and its effects on attitudetoward advertising and brand attitude in the context of communication industry

Factor Item Mean SD Standardized loading t-value a

One-sided appeal Appeal1 2.67 0.881 0.75 16.66 0.857Appeal2 2.94 0.911 0.93 14.94Appeal3 2.83 0.953 0.84 –

Two-sided appeal Appeal4 3.34 0.992 0.67 – 0.643Appeal5 3.27 0.941 0.72 11.09

Comparative appeal Appeal6 3.10 1.205 0.79 – 0.695Appeal7 3.10 1.213 0.71 11.30

Humour appeal Appeal8 3.11 1.197 0.55 – 0.729Appeal9 3.11 1.209 0.70 10.45Appeal10 3.03 1.255 0.78 10.31

Fear appeal Appeal11 2.86 1.005 0.84 – 0.821Appeal12 2.84 0.953 0.86 19.60

Attitude toward advertising AAD1 2.89 0.934 0.58 11.93 0.868AAD 2 2.72 0.918 0.67 14.11AAD 3 2.82 0.831 0.63 13.16AAD 4 3.08 0.986 0.71 15.23AAD 5 2.93 0.981 0.65 13.77AAD 6 2.93 0.986 0.70 15.05AAD 7 3.03 1.781 0.61 12.74

Brand attitude BA1 2.96 1.023 0.75 16.72 0.885BA2 2.69 0.967 0.87 20.54BA3 2.77 0.884 0.91 22.09BA4 3.03 1.045 0.63 13.05BA5 2.95 1.014 0.69 14.98BA6 2.96 1.038 0.58 11.53BA7 2.76 0.879 0.56 11.10BA8 3.02 1.043 0.38 7.40

Table IV.Loadings of theconfirmatory factoranalysis

JIMA4,1

116

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Hypothesis Independent variable Dependant variable b t-value Result

H1 Advertising appeals Attitude toward advertising 0.85 11.92 SupportedH2 Advertising appeals Brand attitude 0.62 8.55 SupportedH3 Attitude toward advertising Brand attitude 0.36 4.92 Supported

Table V.The results of

hypotheses testing

Figure 3.Standardized path

coefficientNotes: c2 = 283.06; df = 98; p-value = 0.00000; RMSEA = 0.079

Figure 4.Significant coefficientsNotes: c2 = 283.06; df = 98; p-value = 0.00000; RMSEA = 0.079

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

117

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

(in our study, MTN Irancell). Analysis of information obtained from a questionnairerevealed that the elements of advertising appeals including fear, humour, comparative,two-sided, and one-sided have significant impact on formation of attitude towardadvertising and brand attitude. In addition, attitude toward advertising had asignificant impact on brand attitude. In addition, two-sided appeal had the highest rankamong other appeals. It should be noted that, previous studies considered sex appeal asa predictor of attitude toward advertising. However, our study was conducted in anIslamic country. Hence, cultural context of Islamic countries and their law ledto removing sex appeal from our analysis. As a result of the analysis, the followingmajor suggestions in utilizing advertising appeals can be outlined:

(1) Advertising contributes to consumers’ knowledge about quality productswhich in turn lead to positive attitude towards advertisement. Consumers havepositive attitude towards advertisement if they bring pleasant memories inconsumers mind. Hence, exciting advertisements attract their customers andcreate positive buying attitude towards the advertised product.

(2) The use of advertisements with a common appeal makes advertisements morepersuasive and better liked but also the effects are not especially great. Theimplication is that advertisers should consider carefully the cost of appeals toensure appropriate return on investment.

(3) According to the findings, emotional and informational appeals including fear,humour, one-sided, two-sided, and comparative, for a given brand not onlyengender positive evaluations of the brand itself, but can also most stronglybenefit brand attitude as a whole. Erevelles (1998) reports that positive moodsthat advertising stimuli evoke enhances brand attitudes. This outcome isapparently also the case for using suitable appeals. With informational andemotional appeals, on the other hand, consumers rely more on their evaluation ofthe advertised brand to alter their brand attitudes.

(4) The more positive respondents’ feelings about advertising in general, the moreattention pay to the advertising, and more they are persuaded by it. To the extentthat advertisements themselves shape overall attitude towards advertising,offers aimed at:. helping consumers better understand the role of advertising in the

marketplace; and. running advertising that is honest, fresh, entertaining and informative, will

make advertising a more viable part of the marketing mix.

(5) Marketers can use experts and designers to provide customers with suitablecontent of advertising programs. It can lead to form positive and persuasiveattitude toward advertising and brand. Marketers should include advantages,applications, attributes, and other information about their products (in our case,mobile services).

(6) Marketers should utilize creative ideas in their advertising appeals to formpositive attitude among audiences toward advertising programs. It can lead tosell more and more products. In fact, customer would not guess the result andfollow advertisement curiously. Hence, it is important that marketerscontinuously change the content of advertisement to be fresh and persuasive.

JIMA4,1

118

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

(7) Utilizing synergy principle in advertising activities can help organizations tomore effectiveness in their efforts related to forming positive attitude towardtheir brand. Advertising tools should be convergent and stable elements shouldbe employed in their designation. It helps to customers to tie integratedcommunication systems (advertising, sale promotion, public relations, personalsale, and direct advertisement) into each other.

(8) Marketers should use differentiation principle in their advertising activities.Never follow the crowd. Organizations should differentiate themselves fromtheir competitors by using unique, fresh, and different advertisement.

(9) Marketers and managers need to be aware of the religious perceptions of theconsumers in their target market in order to become successful in marketing theirproducts/services and to gain public acceptance. They must be aware of someimportant and sensitive ethical issues which may make their products/servicescontroversial in the eyes of the consumers and create offensiveness. Taylor andRaymond (2000) stated that religion and social values concerning modesty andthe offensive nature of the products/services make it difficult to promote sociallysensitive products/services.

(10) Finally, religion is an element of culture that pervades every aspect of a society.Therefore, its effect on behaviour cannot be underestimated by marketers.Cultural dimensions are very dynamic in a society, but religious tenets form astable and static pillar in the society. Once the fundamentals of a religion havebeen grasped, marketers can be assured they will not be changing all toofrequently. Religion is not a fad that can be dismissed by the marketer as ashort-term change, but rather it is a long-term phenomenon, and should be anarea of further research for marketers. For global marketers it is advisable todevote considerable time and resources on understanding religious beliefs uponentering a new market, particularly where Islam is the faith of the majority.Understanding the impact of religion on the value systems of a society and theeffect of value systems on marketing efforts must not be underestimated.

The first limitation of this study is that the target industry was only telecommunicationindustry. To generalize the results of current study, future research could look intoextending the study population to include collect input from other types of industriesand organizations. The second limitation of our study is the use of student samples inuniversities of Shiraz Province, Iran. Although students are often being used as a proxyto what the “real” consumers think, for example in experiments or cross-culturalstudies, they may be less fitting when the study involves religious beliefs. Being youngthere may be some question as to the strength of their religious belief, and how itinfluences their perceptions.

References

Aaker, D.A. and Day, G.S. (1986), Marketing Research, 3rd ed., Wiley, New York, NY.

Abernethy, A. and Franke, G. (1996), “The information content of advertising: a meta-analysis”,Journal of Advertising, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 1-17.

Alden, D.L., Mukherjee, A. and Hoyer, W.D. (2000), “The effects of incongruity, surprise andpositive moderators on perceived humour in television advertising”, Journal ofAdvertising, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 1-15.

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

119

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Allen, M. and Raymond, P. (2007), Media, Messages, and Meta-analysis, Mass Media EffectResearch: Advances Through Meta-analysis, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, Mahwah, NJ,pp. 15-30.

Al-Olayan, F.S. and Karande, K. (2000), “A content analysis of magazine advertisements from theUnited States and the Arab world”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 69-82.

Amouzadeh, M. (2002), “Social realities in Iranian advertising”, The Linguistic Association ofKorea Journal, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 179-209.

Anand, C. and Kumar, M. (1982), “Developing a modernity attitude scale”, Indian EducationalReview, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 28-41.

Barth, J. and Bengel, J. (2000), Prevention Through Fear? The State of Fear Appeal Research.Research and Practice of Health Promotion Cologne: Federal Centre for Health Education,available at: www.juergen-bart.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/preventionthroughfear.pdf

Barton, K. and Vaughan, G. (1976), “Church membership and personality”, Social Behaviour andPersonality, Vol. 4, pp. 11-16.

Beard, F.K. (2005), “One hundred years of humor in American advertising”, Journal ofMacromarketing, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 54-65.

Beard, F.K. (2008), “Advertising and audience offense: the role of intentional humor”, Journal ofMarketing Communications, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 1-17.

Berlyne, D.E. (1971), Aesthetics and Psychobiology, Meredith, New York, NY.

Birch, D., Schirato, T. and Srivastava, S. (2001), Asia – Cultural Politics in the Global Age,Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

Bontis, N. (1998), “Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models”,Management Decision, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 63-7.

Brennan, L. and Binney, W. (2010), “Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing”,Journal of Business Research, Vol. 63, pp. 140-6.

Browne, M.W. and Cudeck, R. (1993), “Alternative ways of assessing model fit”, in Bollen, K.A.and Scott Long, J. (Eds), Testing Structural Equations Models, Sage, Newbury Park, CA,pp. 136-62.

Carmines, E.G. and Zeller, R.A. (1979), Reliability and Validity Assessment, Sage,Newbury Park, CA.

Chung, H. and Zhao, X. (2003), “Humour effect on memory and attitude: moderating role ofproduct involvement”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 22, pp. 117-44.

Cline, T.W., Altsech, M.B. and Kellaris, J.J. (2003), “When does humor enhance or inhibit adresponses? The moderating role of the need for humor”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 32,pp. 31-45.

Coulson, N. (1964), A History of Islamic Law, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Crowley, A.E. and Hoyer, W.D. (1994), “An integrative framework for understanding two-sidedpersuasion”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 20, pp. 561-74.

Cruthirds, K., Wang, V., Wang, Y. and Wei, J. (2012), “A comparison of humor styles in US,Mexican television commercials”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 30 No. 4,pp. 384-401.

Dahlen, M., Lange, F. and Smith, T. (2010), Marketing Communications, Wiley, New York, NY.

Delener, N. (1993), “The effects of religious factors on perceived risk in durable goods purchasedecisions”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 27-38.

JIMA4,1

120

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Deng, S., Jivan, S. and Hassan, M.-L. (1994), “Advertising in Malaysia: a cultural perspective”,International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 153-66.

Dens, N. and De Pelsmacker, P. (2010), “Attitudes toward the extension and parent brand inresponse to extension advertising”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 63, pp. 1237-44.

Derun, E., Butt, M., Fam, K. and Jong, H. (2010), “Attitudes towards offensive advertising:Malaysian Muslims’ views”, Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 25-36.

Dubea, L. and Cantinb, I. (2000), “Promoting health or promoting pleasure? A contingencyapproach to the effect of informational and emotional appeals on food liking andconsumption”, Appetite, Vol. 35, pp. 251-62.

Easley, R.W., Bearden, W.O. and Teel, J.E. (1995), “Testing predictions derived from inoculationtheory and the effectiveness of self-disclosure communications strategies”, Journal ofBusiness Research, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 93-105.

Eisend, M. (2009), “A meta-analysis of humor in advertising”, Journal of the Academy ofMarketing Science, Vol. 37, pp. 191-203.

Eisend, M., Hahn, K. and Schuchert-Guler, P. (2004), “Effects of consumer’s prior awareness andmarketer’s voluntariness of negative disclosures in two-sided messages”, working paper,Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin.

Elpers, W.J., Mukherjee, A. and Hoyer, W.D. (2004), “Humor in television advertising:a moment-to-moment model”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 31, pp. 592-8.

Erevelles, S. (1998), “The role of affect in marketing”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 42 No. 3,pp. 199-215.

Etgar, M. and Goodwin, S.A. (1982), “One-sided versus two-sided comparative message appealsfor new brand introductions”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, pp. 460-5.

Fam, K.S. and Grohs, R. (2007), “Cultural values and effective executional techniques inadvertising”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 519-38.

Fam, K.S., Waller, D.S. and Erdogan, B.Z. (2004), “The influence of religion on attitudes towardsthe advertising of controversial products”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38 Nos 5/6,pp. 537-55.

Gardner, M. (1985), “Mood states and consumer behaviour: a critical review”, Journal ofConsumer Research, Vol. 12, pp. 251-67.

Gulas, C.S. and Weinberger, M.G. (2006), Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis, M.E.Sharpe, Armonk, NY.

Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatman, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1998), Multivariate Data, Analysis withReading, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Hatzithomas, L., Zotos, Y. and Boutsouki, C. (2011), “Humor and cultural values in printadvertising: a cross-cultural study”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 28 No. 1,pp. 57-80.

Heath, R. (2007), Emotional Persuasion in Advertising: A Hierarchy-of-Processing Model,No. 2007.07, University of Bath, School of Management, Bath.

Henley, J.R., Philhours, M., Ranganathan, S.K. and Bush, A.J. (2009), “The effects of symbolproduct relevance and religiosity on consumer perceptions of Christian symbols inadvertising”, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 89-103.

Henthorne, T.L., LaTour, M.S. and Nataraajan, R. (1993), “Fear appeals in print advertising: ananalysis of arousal and ad response”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 59-68.

Hirschman, E. (1983), “Religious affiliation and consumption processes”, in Sheth, J. (Ed.),Research in Marketing, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 131-70.

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

121

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Hornik, J. and Miniero, G. (2010), “A comparative and cumulative meta-analysis of advertisingappeals”, Working Paper No 7/2010, Faculty of Management, The Leon Recanati GraduateSchool of Business Administration, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, August.

Hornik, J. and O’Keefe, D.J. (2009), “Adapting consumer advertising appeals to cultural values:a meta-analytic review of effects on persuasiveness and ad liking”, in Beck, C.S. (Ed.),Communication Yearbook, Vol. 33, Lawrence Erlbaum, New York, NY, pp. 38-71.

Jones, E.E. and McGillis, D. (1976), “Correspondent inferences and the attribution cube:a comparative reappraisal”, in Harvey, J., Ickes, W.J. and Kidd, R.F. (Eds), New Directionsin Attribution Research, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 389-420.

Kalliny, M. and Gentry, L. (2007), “Cultural values reflected in Arab and American televisionadvertising”, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 15-32.

Kamins, M.A. and Marks, L.J. (1987), “Advertising puffery: the impact of using two-sided claimson product attitude and purchase intention”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 6-15.

Kelley, H.H. (1973), “The process of causal attribution”, American Psychologist, Vol. 28,pp. 107-28.

Khong, K.W. and Richardson, S. (2003), “Business process re-engineering (BPR) in Malaysianbanks and finance companies”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 54-71.

Kim, H. and Lee, C. (2012), “Differential effects of fear-eliciting DTCA on elaboration, perceivedendorser credibility, and attitudes”, International Journal of Pharmaceutical andHealthcare Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 4-22.

LaBarbera, P. (1987), “Consumer behavior and born again Christianity”, Research in ConsumerBehaviour, Vol. 2, pp. 193-222.

Laczniak, R.N. and Carlson, L. (1989), “Examining the influence of attitude toward theadvertising on brand attitudes”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 19, pp. 303-11.

LaTour, M.S. and Rotfeld, H.J. (1997), “There are threats and (maybe) fear-caused arousal: theoryand confusions of appeals to fear and fear arousal itself”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 26No. 3, pp. 45-59.

LaTour, M.S. and Tanner, J.F.R. (2003), “Appealing to our fears”, Psychology of Marketing, Vol. 20No. 5, pp. 377-94.

Lee, L., Amir, O. and Ariely, D. (2009), “In search of homo economicus: preference consistency,emotions, and cognition”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 173-87.

Liu, F., Cheng, H. and Li, J. (2009), “Consumer responses to sex appeal advertising:a cross-cultural study”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 501-20.

Lumpkins, S.C.Y. (2010), “Sacred symbols as a peripheral cue in health advertisements: anassessment of using religion to appeal to African American women about breast cancerscreening”, Journal of Media and Religion, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 181-201.

Luqmani, M., Yavas, U. and Quraeshi, Z. (1987), “Advertising in Saudi Arabia: content andregulation”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 59-71.

Lynch, O.H. (2002), “Humorous communication: finding a place for humor in communicationresearch”, Communication Theory, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 423-45.

McDaniel, S. and Burnett, J. (1990), “Consumer religiosity and retail store evaluative criteria”,Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 101-12.

McGhee, P.E. (1974), “Cognitive mastery and children’s humor”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 81No. 10, pp. 721-30.

JIMA4,1

122

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

McGuire, W.J. (1964), “Inducing resistance to persuasion: some contemporary approaches”,in Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Academic Press,New York, NY, pp. 191-229.

Marsh, H.W., Balla, J.R. and McDonald, R.P. (1988), “Goodness-of-fit indexes confirmatory factoranalysis: the effect of sample size”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 103 No. 3, pp. 391-410.

Michell, P. and Al-Mossawi, M. (1999), “Religious commitment related to messagecontentiousness”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 18, pp. 427-43.

Michell, P.C.N. and Al-Moussavi, M. (1995), “The mediating effect of religiosity on advertisingeffectiveness”, Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 151-62.

Moore, D.J., Harris, W.D. and Chen, H.C. (1995), “Affect intensity: an individual differenceresponse to advertising appeals”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 22, pp. 154-64.

Newland, L. (2000), “Under the banner of Islam: mobilising religious identities in West Java”,The Australian Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 199-222.

Nunnally, J.C. and Bernstein, I.H. (1994), Psychometric Theory, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill,New York, NY.

Olayan, F. and Karande, K. (2000), “A content analysis of magazine advertisements from theUnited States and the Arab world”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 69-82.

Onkvisit, S. and Shaw, J. (1997), International Marketing – Analysis and Strategy, 3rd ed.,Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Ortony, A. and Turner, T.J. (1990), “What’s basic about basic emotions!”, Psychological Review,Vol. 97 No. 5, pp. 315-31.

Pechmann, C. and Stewart, D.W. (1990), “The effects of comparative advertisement on attention,memory and purchase intentions”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 180-91.

Peebles, D. and Ryans, J. (1984), Management of International Advertising, Allyn & Bacon,Boston, MA.

Picot-Zane, L. (2006), “Is advertising too emotional?”, Brandweek, 9 January.

Pyun, D.Y. and James, J.D. (2011), “Attitude toward advertising through sport: a theoreticalframework”, Sport Management Review, Vol. 14, pp. 33-41.

Rossiter, J.R. and Percy, L. (1997), Advertising and Promotion Management, 2nd ed.,McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

Rothbart, M.K. (1973), “Laughter in young children”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 80 No. 3,pp. 247-56.

Rucker, D.D., Petty, R.E. and Brinol, P. (2008), “What’s in a frame anyway? A meta-cognitiveanalysis of the impact of one versus two sided message framing on attitude certainty”,Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 18, pp. 137-49.

Ruiz, S. and Sicilia, M. (2004), “The impact of cognitive and/or affective processing styles onconsumer response to advertising appeals”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 57,pp. 657-64.

Shabbir, H. and Thwaites, D. (2007), “The use of humor to mask deceptive advertising:it’s no laughing matter”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 75-85.

Sherman, E., Greene, J.N. and Plank, R.E. (1991), “Exploring business-to-business direct mailcampaigns: comparing one-sided, two-sided, and comparative message structures”,Journal of Direct Marketing, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 25-30.

Speck, S.P. (1987), “On humor and humor in advertising”, unpublished doctoral dissertation,Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

123

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Speck, S.P. (1991), “The humorous message taxonomy: a framework for the study of humorousads”, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 1-44.

Straub, D., Boudreau, M.C. and Gefen, D. (2004), “Validation guidelines for IS positivist research”,Communications of the AIS, Vol. 13, pp. 380-427.

Szybillo, G.J. and Heslin, R. (1973), “Resistance to persuasion: inoculation theory in a marketingcontext”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 10, pp. 396-403.

Tanner, J.F., Hunt, J.B. and Eppright, D.R. (1991), “The protection motivation model: a normativemodel of fear appeals”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55 No. 3, pp. 36-45.

Taylor, C. and Raymond, M. (2000), “An analysis of product category restrictions in advertisingin four major East Asian markets”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 17 No. 3,pp. 287-304.

Taylor, V.A., Halstead, D. and Haynes, P.J. (2010), “Consumer response to Christian religioussymbols in advertising”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 79-92.

Terpstra, V. and Sarathy, R. (1994), International Marketing, Harcourt Brace College Publishers,Orlando, FL.

Tuan Pham, M. (2009), “Emotion and rationality: a critical review and interpretation of empiricalevidence”, Review of General Psychology, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 155-78.

Usman, M., Ilyas, S., Hussain, M.F. and Qureshi, T.M. (2010), “General attitude towardsadvertising: cultural influence in Pakistan”, International Journal of Marketing Studies,Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 124-34.

Veatch, T. (1998), “A theory of humor”, Humor, International Journal of Humor Research, Vol. 11No. 2, pp. 161-215.

Von der Mehden, F. (1986), Religion and Modernization in South East Asia, Syracuse UniversityPress, New York, NY.

Wah, L.C. (2006), “Cultural influences in television commercials: a study of Singapore andMalaysia”, Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 57-84.

Waller, D.S. (1999), “Attitudes towards offensive advertising: an Australian study”, Journal ofConsumer Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 288-94.

(The) Wall Street Journal (2012), “US lobby group seeks MTN pullout from Iran”, The Wall StreetJournal, 23 March.

Wang, C.L., Bristol, T., Mowen, J.C. and Chakraborty, G. (2000), “Alternative modes ofself-construal: dimensions of connectedness-separateness and advertising appeals to thecultural and gender-specific self”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 107-15.

Weaver, G. and Agle, B. (2002), “Religiosity and ethical behavior in organizations: a symbolicinteractionist perspective”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 77-97.

Wiebe, K. and Fleck, J. (1980), “Personality correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic and non-religiousorientations”, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 105, pp. 181-7.

Wilkes, R., Burnett, J. and Howell, R. (1986), “On the meaning and measurement of religiosity inconsumer research”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 47-56.

Wilson, J.A.J. and Liu, J. (2010), “Shaping the halal into a brand?”, Journal of Islamic Marketing,Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 107-23.

Wilson, J.A.J. and Liu, J. (2011), “The challenges of Islamic branding: navigating emotions andhalal”, Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 28-42.

Witte, K. and Allen, M. (2000), “A meta-analysis of fear appeals: implications for effective publichealth campaigns”, Health Education & Behavior, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 591-615.

JIMA4,1

124

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

Yang, X. and Smith, R. (2009), “Beyond attention effects: modeling the persuasive and emotionaleffects of advertising creativity”, Marketing Science, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 935-49.

Yoon, S.J. and Park, J.E. (2012), “Do sensory ad appeals influence brand attitude?”, Journal ofBusiness Research, Vol. 65 No. 11, pp. 1534-42.

Zinkhan, G. and Martin, C. (1982), “Message characteristics and audience characteristics”, inBagozzi, X.R.P. and Tybout, A.M. (Eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 10,Association for Consumer Research, Ann Arbor, MI, pp. 27-31.

Corresponding authorMohammad Reza Jalilvand can be contacted at: rezajalilvand@ut.ac.ir

Effect of TVadvertising

appeals

125

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.comOr visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)

This article has been cited by:

1. Milad Kalantari Shahijan, Sajad Rezaei, Christopher Nigel Preece, Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail. 2014.Examining retailers’ behaviour in managing critical points in Halal meat handling: a PLS analysis. Journalof Islamic Marketing 5:3, 446-472. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Dow

nloa

ded

by U

nive

rsite

Lav

al A

t 08:

30 0

4 M

arch

201

5 (P

T)