Global Marketers Need To Understand Consumer Attitudes

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Global marketers need to understand consumer attitudes in different cultures and countries in order to craft effective marketing strategies. It is well documented that attitudes towards advertising influence consumer exposure and attention to advertisements. Cultural television broadcasting in India only started in 1985 and is therefore relatively new

Advertising involves huge budget allocation towards the promotion of product. Advertisers need to understand the trends and requirements of a particular market in order to design the advertisement accordingly. This study is conducted to examine the linkages between paternal communication patterns, advertising attitudes and television mediation behaviors among urban middle-class fathers in India.

The survey data from this study suggested that the family communications framework could be used for understanding Indian middle-class fathers’ advertising attitudes and mediation behaviors.

As theorized, socio-orientation was related to negative attitudes towards both advertising in general and towards children’s advertising.

Further, concept orientation was related to discussions about television advertising with children. The results of this study have important implications for advertising strategies, particularly the finding that urban middle-class fathers in India have positive attitudes towards advertising.

INTRODUCTION:

Understanding paternal communication patterns and media related attitudes and behaviors are important for advertisers that are interested in reaching both adult and young viewers. This area has received considerable attention in both academic and practitioner research, particularly in the Western world, but few studies have been conducted in developing countries such as India.

The current study used consumer socialization as a theoretical framework and examined Indian fathers’ communications patterns and attitudes towards advertising in general and advertising towards children in particular. Further, it investigated the influence of communication patterns on fathers’ mediation behaviors relating to discussions about television advertising and control of television viewing.

A related objective of this study was to assess the applicability of the family communications patterns framework in Indian context. Studies of cross-cultural consumer behavior are important both for theory development and managerial relevance as they test the robustness and further help in understanding of the global consumer, which is an imperative for global marketers.

The Indian Context

According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (2002) population data sheet, the population of India as of mid-2002 was approximately 1.05 billion. At an estimated growth rate of 1.5% per annum, the population is expected to increase to 1.35 billion by 2025. The urban population in 2002 was approximately 29% with the rate of growth of urbanization at 2.8%. Thus, the sheer size of the urban population (283 million) makes it an attractive market. This population is young. United Nations statistics show that 33% of the population is between 0 and 14 years and 62% is between 15 and 64 years. In fact only 5% of the population is over 65 years.

The proliferation of television has been an important aspect of media consumption among Indian consumers. According to Inamdar and Chandra (2001), 66% of the adult urban population watches television sevesn days a week for approximately 2.25 hours per day. Television is slowly replacing social interaction and becoming an important source for information, entertainment and influence. The advertising industry in India is growing. According to AC Nielson (Witchis, 2000), advertising spending on television rose 22% to the equivalent of $630 million in 2000 and print advertising rose by 13% to $860 million. Thus, assessing attitudes towards television advertising is going to become important because of the proliferation of media outlets in the form of satellite and cable television (Witchis, 2000).

Cultural Orientation and India

Researches (Hofstede, 1980; Verma, 1999) have suggested that the Indian culture is collectivistic. Members of collectivistic cultures emphasize their self as relational and interdependent with in-group members. Roland (1998) observed that Indians have a familial self, which has a strong identity with important groups such as the family and relatives. Sinha (1990) concluded that Indians prefer to remain embedded in their in-groups for deriving their identity, seeking guidelines for appropriate behavior and distancing from out-groups. This is a sizeable body of research that questions the classification of Indian society as being collectivistic and suggests that, in fact, collectivism may be coexisting along with individualism in certain segments of Indian society. For example, Mishra (1994) compared the collectivism/individualism scores of young/old, rural/urban and less-educated/more-educated subjects. He found that, although young educated urban respondents scored high on individualism scores, this was ‘no high degree of either collectivism or individualism on the part of the people under consideration. Sinha examined the effects of scenarios on the choice of collectivism/individualism behaviors. Their findings indicated that, although concerns for the family suggested collectivistic behavior, when compelling personal needs and goals conflicted with the interests of family and friends, this was a shift towards individualistic behavior and intentions.

The authors also found that males from small urban centers with low education and an agricultural family background opted for purely collectivistic choices, while females from large urban centers with high education and a business family background chose a mix of collectivistic and individualistic choices. These findings indicated that the conceptualization of culture and collectivism/individualism orientations of Indians is complex and factors such as socio-economic variables and situational variables play a significant role in deciding the modal combinations of collectivism/ individualism responses.

Family and Parenting in India

Traditionally, the joint family system with multi-generations living together has been the dominant form of family. However, with modernization and migration to urban areas the joint family is giving way to nuclear family structures. The primary source of socialization for Indian children has been the family. The Indian father is the care giver and is perceived to be dominant, stern and to be eared. The characterization of Indian family culture is mixed, for example researches such as Sinha (1990) have suggested that authoritarianism and dominance by parents leads to a culture within a family that fosters dependence and dampens initiative-oriented behavior. However, a study by Patel-Amin and Power demonstrated that, among contemporary urban families, this is an association between the acceptance of modern values and the use of individualistic child-rearing values and practices (e.g. less psychological control and providing more opportunities). Their study ‘provides a general view of Indian families adjusting to a modernizing India and adjusting their values and behaviors to their changing environment.

In an attempt to make sense of the varied and sometimes contradictory descriptions of family culture and parenting styles that are evident in India, it is suggested that it is useful to consider the role of time and of the economic and social development of certain segments of Indian society as they move from a conservative insular position to one that is modern, industrialized and connected with the rest of the world. Thus, while Indian society has been classified as being collectivistic, it is found that certain characteristics of an individual, such as paternal education, urbanization and family structure, could be associated with individualistic orientations.

Child Parent Media

Consumer socialization is the ‘process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the Family Communication Patterns in Urban India 249 marketplace’. Children learn consumer skills from multiple socialization agents such as peers and media.

However, early learning within the family and different parenting styles had an important impact on the socialization of children. Research in communications has related parent–child interactions to monitoring and restricting children’s consumption of media use, discussions about television programs and the use of statements classified as directive statements.

Family Communication Patterns

The family communication patterns concept refers to the frequency, type and quality of communications that take place among family members. Developed by McLeod and Chaffee (1972), the construct examines the degree to which families encourage the expression of autonomous opinions (concept orientation) and the degree to which families stress relational objectives (socio orientation)

Socio-orientation measures relationship-oriented patterns of communications and concept orientation measures issue-oriented communication, which encourages children to develop their own skills and competence as consumers. These dimensions result in a typology of four communication patterns: these are laissez faire, protective, pluralistic and consensual and are described in

Attitudes Towards Advertising

The attitude towards advertising concept is in general important because it represents one of five primary antecedents of attitudes towards the advertisement, which is a major determinant of brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Thus, in consumer research favorable attitudes towards advertising are positive precursors of brand choice. Advertising is a ubiquitous part of modern life and consumers are exposed to large numbers of advertisements on a regular basis. In this crowded environment, attention to advertisements is not always assured. Marketers know that personal attitudes towards advertising are likely to influence consumers’ exposure and attention.

Researches have conceptualized both an economic and a social dimension of the attitudes towards advertising construct. The economic dimension focuses on the positive aspect of attitudes as being important in their ability for disseminating information and raising standards of living. The social dimension focuses on the negative consequences of advertising. Some of the criticisms are that advertising promotes materialism, is misleading and also promotes sexism, violence and other undesirable values.

Parental Mediation

Mediation behaviors by parents typically refer to three broad categories of communications: criticism, interpretation and disciplinary intervention or control of television programs. Parents feel the need for mediating the influence of television because of concerns with television advertising and limitations concerning children as television audiences. A well-developed body of research documents that children, due to their incomplete cognitive and emotional development, differ from adults in their interpretation of television content. For example, Singer and Singer (1983) noted that children failed to distinguish between fantasy and reality and Corder- Boltz (1980) showed that parental mediation of their children’s television viewing can enhance comprehension, learning and skill acquisition from television programs.

Discussions about television

Conceptually, family communication modify the effects of other socialization agents, high level of concept orientation would be related to discussions about television advertising. Ritchie (1991) suggested that concept orientation implies an egalitarian ethic, in which no person asserts power and each recognizes the others’ claims to be knowledgeable. The emphasis is on a free flow of information.

Given that each member respects the other’s knowledge, communication orientation would relate to information sharing within the family. Further, parents may recognize that, in order to maintain an egalitarian ethic in the family, it is important to engage children in conversation and decision making. In this way, high communication families discuss television and help children interpret it. On the other hand, Austin (1993) looked at control orientation and found that parents who were more control oriented were less likely to engage their children in discussion about television.

Hypotheses

H1: Protective fathers will hold more negative attitudes towards advertising in general than pluralistic fathers.

H2: Protective fathers will hold more negative attitudes towards advertising in general than consensual fathers.

H3: Protective fathers will hold more negative attitudes towards children’s advertising than pluralistic fathers.

H4: Protective fathers will hold more negative attitudes towards children’s advertising than consensual fathers.

H5: Protective fathers maintain greater control over their children’s television viewing than pluralistic fathers.

H6: Protective fathers maintain greater control over their children’s television viewing than consensual fathers.

Methodology

Sample

Fathers of children aged from three to twenty one years from middle-class families were sampled. Fathers were surveyed because the Indian father is the primary care giver and are perceived to be dominant, stern and to be feared (Kakkar, 1978).

Procedure

The sample was obtained from Delhi and NCR. Data was collected from 119 fathers who had children between the ages of three and twenty one year. We randomly selected every third person at mall intercept. Each question in the questionnaire was explained to the interviewees.

Measures

Family communication patterns

Family communication was examined using two scales. The concept-oriented dimension measured the extent to which the parents involved their children in purchase decisions and encouraged them to develop their consumption preferences. These scales capture the totality of concept-oriented communication and had been used in previous research (Carlson and Grossbart, 1988). The second scale consisted of five items and measured the socio-oriented dimension (Moschis et al., 1984). This concept measured the degree to which the parents expected their children to advise to parental expectations regarding consumption. Both scales were Likert-type five point scales with anchors ranging from very often to very seldom.

Attitudes towards advertising

This scale has been used because of its versatility and its ability for capturing skepticism towards advertising and because of its focus on overall beliefs towards the practice of advertising. All items were measured on a five-point (agree strongly to disagree strongly) scale. For second scale measuring attitudes towards children’s advertising was used.

Media-related behavior

Parental behaviors relating to television mediation were assessed through two measures (discussions about television advertising and control of television viewing) previously used by Rose et al. (1998). Discussions about television advertising (three items scale) were measured by asking how frequently the fathers talked with their children about the contents of television advertisements. Lastly control of television viewing was measured using a three-item scale.

Data analysis

Three models were assessed (family communication patterns, advertising attitudes and mediation behaviours) using MS Excel.

Model Testing

First, the descriptive statistics of the respondents were analysed. Next, four groups of fathers were identified on the basis of their communication patterns. The groups were made by median splits of the concept-oriented and socio-oriented scales. Finally, univariate statistics was used for testing the hypotheses. ANOVA was used in which family communications was the independent variable and attitudes towards television advertising, attitudes towards children’s advertising, discussion about television advertisements and control of television viewing were the dependent variables.

Results

In terms of family communication patterns, the Indian fathers stressed concept-oriented communications (46%) over socio-oriented communications (26%). Overall, the Indian fathers had positive attitudes towards television advertising and children’s advertising. Further, they placed fewer restrictions on television viewing and reported having fewer discussions with their children.

Family communication patterns and linkages.

The hypotheses were tested in a one way ANOVA with family communications as the independent variable. Further analysis was performed with paternal education, family socio-economic status and age as the covariates.

Hypothesis 1, which posited that protective fathers who stressed socio-oriented communications would have more negative attitudes towards advertising in general than pluralistic fathers, was not supported, and hypothesis 2, which stated that protective fathers will hold more negative attitudes towards advertising than consensual fathers, was also not supported. The p-value of less than 0.05 gave us enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis.

H1

REJECT

ANOVA

Source of Variation

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups

2628.12

1

2628.125

8.655

0.026

5.99

Within Groups

1821.75

6

303.625

Total

4449.87

7

 

 

 

 

H2

REJECT

ANOVA

Source of Variation

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups

2178

1

2178

12.404

0.012

5.99

Within Groups

1053.5

6

175.58

Total

3231.5

7

 

 

 

 

With regard to attitudes towards children’s advertising, protective fathers held more negative attitudes than pluralistic and consensual fathers, thus supporting hypotheses 3 and 4. The p-value was more than 0.05 in both the cases

Hypotheses 5–6 examined paternal mediation behaviors. Hypotheses 5 and 6 posited that protective fathers who stressed socio-oriented communications would maintain greater control over the television programs viewed by their children than pluralistic and consensual fathers. Both these hypotheses were not supported. This set had theorized that pluralistic fathers discussed television advertising with their children more frequently than protective and consensual fathers.

H3

ACCEPT

ANOVA

Source of Variation

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups

468.1667

1

468.16

1.019

0.369

7.708

Within Groups

1836.667

4

459.16

Total

2304.833

5

 

 

 

 

H4

ACCEPT

ANOVA

Source of Variation

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups

1261.5

1

1261.5

4.375

0.104

7.708

Within Groups

1153.33

4

288.333

Total

2414.83

5

 

 

 

 

H5

REJECT

ANOVA

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups

912.666

1

912.666

195.57

0.00015

7.708

Within Groups

18.666

4

4.666

Total

931.333

5

H6

REJECT

ANOVA

Source of Variation

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups

308.166

1

308.166

63.758

0.0013

7.7086

Within Groups

19.333

4

4.833

Total

327.5

5

 

 

 

 

Discussion and Practical Implications

A significant finding of this study was that the Indian fathers had positive attitudes towards television advertising. With regard to mediation behaviours, the Indian fathers had discussions about television advertising with their children and exercised control over their children’s television viewing. Thus, except for discussions with children, all the relationships between collectivism and advertising attitudes and mediation behaviours were also not evident. These results would suggest caution in using broad generalizations about cultures, particularly in complex societies such as India.

Specifically, this study found that socio-orientation was related to negative attitudes towards general advertising and children’s advertising. Further, as theorized, concept orientation was related to mediation behaviours such as discussion with children about television advertising.

Practical Implications

This study has some implications for advertising practitioners. The most important is the result that the advertising attitudes of urban middle-class fathers are less sceptical. These results suggest that the Indian fathers in this sample reported that they liked television commercials and could believe what the commercials said. This is an important finding because Indian children may not have the socialization towards advertising that is sceptical in nature since the fathers’ television advertising attitudes are not yet negative.

Further, the study showed that Indian fathers stress communications with their children (46% were concept oriented). Children seem to play an important role in consumption decisions with the children’s opinion being asked and their advice taken. Advertisers could use these findings for designing advertisements with children providing endorsements for certain products such as educational software, beverages and packaged foods. Advertisements for children could also be used for building product knowledge, brand awareness and affect. Urban middle-class fathers in India are in the process of becoming more sophisticated and informed and, at this stage, they seem to value the utilitarian benefits of television advertising.

As stated previously, cultural television broadcasting in India only started in 1985 and is therefore relatively new (Unnikrishnan, 2002). Moreover, because of the opening up of the Indian economy, there has been an increase in the availability of consumer products. Liberalization has resulted in the rise of consumerism and a plethora of choices for the consumer. In such an environment, advertisers could reinforce the utilitarian influence of advertising by informing and educating the viewer about new product offerings in particular and consumption in general.

Advertisers could use children’s advertisements for communicating with children

and through them for communicating with fathers, since communication between

Indian fathers and children seems to be an important aspect of the father–child

relationship.