Do Brands Invest in the Right Advertising Channels ? Development of the Research Tool to Measure the Brand - Media Channel Fit

Details

Supervisors

de Moerloose, Chantal ; Diepers, Birte

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

The objective and the main research question of this thesis was to develop the research tool to the measurement of perceived brand-media fit and to test its performance. The contribution of the undertaken research is twofold. On the one hand, it delivers new and valuable insights to the area of brand media planning, particularly with respect to qualitative criteria of media selection. Applying the brand-media fit framework, managers can easier and with more precision identify media types that are congruent with the brand associations, and therefore are able to better communicate brand image. On the other hand, it contributes to the academic knowledge because it introduces the novel conceptualization of the perceived brand-media fit and the appropriate methodological approach to its measurement. From the academic perspective my work addresses the gap about the lack of research devoted to the examination of a connection between brands and media, thus, extends the currently existing knowledge in the area. In the current work brand-media relationship was conceptualized from the perspective of perceived similarity in abstract associations induced by brands’ personalities and media experiences. Abstract attributes, on which the similarity is assessed, were derived through the structured analysis of relevant literature with the focus on conciseness, clarity and universality of the resulting measurement scale. The research tool, which purpose is to evaluate perceived brand-media fit, was pretested by the means of an internet-mediated questionnaire with the emphasis on internal consistency. Several control measures were implemented to enable drawing conclusions about instrument performance; hypothesized relationships with respect to brand familiarity, product involvement and media usage and enjoyment were confirmed. Hence, the developed research framework can become a reliable and valid starting point for further investigations of studied issue. Particularly, the results suggest that perceived brand-media congruence encourages more favorable response to brands’ advertisement for low involvement products, such as soda drinks, whereas brand-media incongruity is resolved more favorably for products of higher involvement, such as sport shoes. Brand familiarity being a predictable source of more refined cognitive structures about brands leads to significantly more favorable brand perceptions on abstract attributes, thus, moderates the resulting measures of similarity and should be accounted for in later research on the effect of perceived brand-media fit. Media usage logically contributes to the degree of media enjoyment and the latter – to the way different media channels are perceived with respect to applied attributes. This aspect should be considered in the future research by surveying a more heterogeneous sample of respondents in terms of media usage, so that meaningful segmentation can be made prior to examining perceived brand-media fit and its effects. With regard to the managerial implications of my research findings, different media types indeed may be perceived more or less similar to brands’ images and the level of similarity can vary within and between product categories. According to the model, there are highly congruent, moderately incongruent and definitely poorly fitting media choices, when brand and media associations are considered. Some media types can be particularly representative at the certain cognitive dimensions, such as Internet and mobile – for innovativeness, excitement and ruggedness, print media – for competence and sophistication, while others received moderate (e.g. TV) or low (e.g. radio) scores on all dimensions. In the context of the effect of brand familiarity on brand perceptions, it can be suggested that for new, unknown or less familiar brands, for which consumers are skeptical and uncertain about brand characteristics, appropriate media strategy may help enhance brand perceptions on required brand image associations. The same applies for so called brand revitalizing or rebranding strategies, when communication is at heart of the marketing success. The other relevant implication considers the role of involvement on the effect of perceived brand-media fit. That is, for low involvement products the effect of congruence on brand advertisement evaluations is stronger, whereas higher product involvement leads to resolving incongruence more favorably by consumers. However, due to very similar pattern of ad evaluations across two studied product categories, interpretation of this finding, though made in accordance with previous research, should be taken cautiously. A possible alternative explanation for these results is that advertisement in some media (e.g. TV, Internet, print) is considered more acceptable or appropriate by the investigated sample and, thus, more favorably evaluated for these channels in general irrespective of the relation to brands. With respect to other media, radio may seem to be illogical for studied products because of the absence of real-life examples, therefore, evaluated least favorably, which does not necessarily imply the uselessness of this medium. On the contrary, as discussed earlier in the paper it is possible that if approached creatively radio may induce the desired consumer response for congruent brands in terms of communicated brand image and favorable ad evaluation. Mobile advertisement also received quite unfavorable evaluations, which can be related to the fact that it is perceived negatively in general and not with respect to studied brands in particular, due to privacy issues that many consumers are concerned about. Therefore, further investigation, controlling for the attitude toward advertisement in different media, is needed before reliable implications with respect to product involvement in brand-media fit context can be made. Considering the societal value of my research project, i.e. reducing the advertising burden on consumers, clear directions for brand managers of how and in which situations to apply perceived brand-media fit are not yet present, thus, this objective is not met. Nevertheless, current research advocates for a new position on brand media planning that can not only contribute to brand equity by accounting for image-building characteristics of media, but also has the potential to deliver valuable outcomes for consumers by decreasing the overall amount of disturbing advertisement. Perceived brand-media fit certainly needs more rigorous exploration before common knowledge can be built and the implied societal objective achieved. Therefore, I would like to encourage marketing researchers and practitioners not to overlook this promising area.