Perception and consumer attitude towards advertising

Abstract Advertising is one of the most controversial subjects on the public agenda of the 20 Th century and continues to be a controversial subject both in the academic and the public field. Consumers are different as far as their perception and attitude towards advertising is concerned, some have a negative attitude while others show a positive attitude towards it. The attitude towards the advertising phenomenon influences the attitude towards messages and specific campaigns, as well as the attitudes consumers form regarding brands present in the messages. The attitude towards advertising involves more dimensions with different importance depending on various factors. The goal of this article is to identify the dimensions of the consumer's perceptions and attitude towards advertising and the factors that cause them. Keywords: attitude, advertising, advertising phenomenon, cognition, affect

1. Introduction For a long time now, advertising is more than just a way of promoting an ordinary product. Advertising is the support through which the brand image is created and becomes the object of desire to identification for the consumer. In the postmodern society, by possessing an object, the consumer actually buys a self image, a life style; the act of buying rather represents taking a side towards oneself and the others, a social commitment. Thus, through the products that become objects of advertising and the commercial speech, a system of social communication is created, probably the most important system in the history of mankind. This system has a social-cultural nature, due to the fact that it promotes not only objects, but also values, ideas, speeches, lifestyles, behavioral and thinking models. The advertising function can vary from the commercial promotion to the cultural regulation. Consumers develop attitudes towards brands, people, events, advertising, etc. The consumer's need to form an attitude towards an object is associated with its functions: utilitarian, expressive, ego defensive, adaptive. In social psychology, attitudes refer to those belief categories that can be hierarchically ordered from very palpable to very abstract and which subsequently represent the basis for fundamental social attitudes (Triandis, 1971 in Tan and Chia, 2007). Advertising is probably one of the most controversial phenomena and human accomplishments of the past century, debates regarding this subject are still very popular at the moment. Even from the 60-70, achieved research has divided the effects of advertising into social and economic effects (Bauer & Greyser, 1968 in Tan and Chia 2007). In the context of a growing function and of "invading" the social life, a part of the cognitive and emotional resources of the consumers aim advertising. Lutz (1985) in Tan and Chia (2007) show that the general attitude towards advertising is the learned predisposition of the consumers to answer in a consistent favorable or unfavorable manner to the advertising campaigns. The relative attitudes towards the advertising institution and the instruments of advertising - media channels, the form and frequency of the messages etc.- are considered direct antecedents of the consumer's reactions towards the advertising campaigns (Durvasula et. al., 1993). Actually, the attitudes towards the advertising institution represent the result of some perceptions, consumer's beliefs, regarding the way in which advertising affects the

economic welfare in a positive or negative manner, the social life and the comfort of psychological nature.

2. Theoretical Concepts The attitude towards advertising represents the subject of numerous studies, mainly in countries with tradition in the field of advertising, USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, etc. The importance of studies regarding the attitude towards advertising is given by the following reasons (Banwari, 1994): the attitude towards the advertising phenomenon affects the attitude towards the advertising campaigns (Lutz, 1985, in Banwari, 1994); the attractiveness of an advertising message influences the effects of advertising campaigns; the perception regarding advertising influences the persuasive effects of advertising campaigns(Aaker & Stayman, 1990 in Banwari, 1994); The attitude towards advertising influences the attitude towards brands (MacKenzie et al. 1986 in Banwari, 1994) Reviewing the literature regarding the attitude of consumers towards advertising, our conclusion is that it is structured on more levels of analyze based on several criteria: the object of attitude- the attitude regarding the advertising industry and perceptual and attitude reactions towards specific advertising messages and campaigns; the functions of advertising social and economical; attitude functions - informative, sybarite, social and psychological; the nature of consumer reactions- emotional and cognitive. Consumer's attitude regarding the value of information delivered by the advertising messages has been the subject of studies by Durand and Lambert (1985) and Muehling (1987) in Banwari (1994). The appeal to sex and tastelessness in advertising was a theme studied by Larkin (1987) in Banwari (1994). Respecting the ethics in advertising was the main concern in the study of Triff, Benningfield and Murphy (1987) in Banwari (1994). The study made by Russel and Lane (1993) has focused on the attractiveness of advertising messages and their hedonic function. From the same field of interest we can identify the studies that aim the identification and explanation of differences in advertising messages processing between sexes (Maldonado, Tansunaj, Muehling, 2003). The research made by Pollay and Mittal (1993) associate advertising three functions: the informative function, the hedonic and the social function. Shavitt et al. (1998) says that although perceptions on the informative function of advertising are positive, trust in the source of the message is pretty controversial. Attitudes and perceptions on advertising have been investigated especially in the developed market economies (Mittal, 1994). Studies on advertising in the Central and Eastern European countries have focused on creative strategies and on the managers perceptions of advertising and marketing (Pribova and Savitt, 1995; West and Paliwoda, 1996). The countries from the communist block show a low level of trust in institutions and people (Littrell and Valentin, 2005), but show an average level of trust in the media (Ilic, 2005 in Petrovici and Marinov, 2007). A low level of trust is the consequence of two reasons. Changing the social economical development model leads to miss trust in new values and models. In other words, using the principle of homeostasis to understand this phenomenon, it is about the tension created by the news customers experienced in their daily life. Secondly, it is about mutations created world wide by the values specific to postmodernism. Paradoxically, the globalization of economic nature is accompanied by tribalism, by the tendency to live in small clans.

Petrovici and Marinov (2007) have studied the consumers attitudes towards advertising in Bulgaria and Romania. They start from the hypothesis that resembling cultural features can lead to similar attitudes towards advertising. Both Romanians and Bulgarians have shown growing interest in western products and brands. In our opinion there are two possible explanations for this behavior. The first explanation is given from the understanding of the historical context in which consumers from the two countries have evolved. The transition from panopticon to the proposition of a lifestyle and a self image has favored the association of consumption with the symbols that reflect style and image options of every consumer. A second explanation is given by the cultural values that guide the consumers behavior in the two countries. Some studies accredit the idea that the Orthodox Church and byzantinism determine the preference for brightness, for search of signs of the social position and ostentation. Compensatory consumption, which can lead to ostentation consumption, is a frequent aspect in the Romanian history (Miron, 1996). Thus, it is talked about originality, original solutions, uniqueness. This type of consumption is a reaction to the threat of social status and personal frustration. Until 1989, advertising in the Central and Eastern European countries had a negative connotation, as it was seen as a tool capitalist propaganda (Wells, 1994). Although advertising existed, this was more informative than persuasive, being associated to new products and services. Import products were sold through specialized outlets and were not advertised to avoid social discontent from the majority of the population which had restricted access to them. Consumers from Romania and Bulgaria have a more positive attitude towards advertising as an institution, compared to the reaction to the instruments used to promote advertising. In Bulgaria, the informative value of advertising and the usefulness of delivered information in purchasing brands are the most important, while in Romania the entertainment value of advertising proves to be more important (Petrovici and Marinov, 2007). In Romania research on advertising was conducted by academics or marketing research specialized firms. There can be pointed out: the study made by the research company Daedalus for the Leo Burnett and Target agencies, regarding the Romanian managers attitudes towards advertising agencies and their delivered services; the study by the Fessel GfK institute regarding consumers perceptions regarding advertising; the studies by Moldoveanu and Miron (1995) regarding consumers attitude towards the role of advertising, the form of the messages and the Romanian managers attitude towards advertising;

3. The Main Results of the Theoretical Results It is observed that, in general, messages are better accepted, while the advertising institution has a negative image. Singh and Vij (2007) show in their study that, in fact, consumers criticise the social consequeces of advertising, but appreciate its economic contribution positively. From another point of you, studies disclose that the messages are the ones that interest the consumers and not the advertising institution. Philippe and Debruck (Brochand and Lendrevie, 1993, p. 490) show that the averse image of the advertising phenomenon is but the translation of guilt the target audience proves at the activation of its own wishes. The image of advertising is formed of the negative or positive attitude towards its various functions. The main functions that have been reffered to when talking about consumers attitudes towards advertising in the above studies are:

 Positive attitudes Advertising helps the acquitance with new products; Advertising helps the economy to evolve; Advertising is a factor for economic recovery in a period of crisis Negative attitudes Advertising is missleading; Advertising has to be well regulated; Advertising makes us buy things we dont always need. The literature accredits the idea of the ambivalence of consumers attitude towards advertising based on the investigated environment. Criticism brought to advertising is mainly linked to the environments through which advertising messages are broadcasted. According to studies, advertising is more unfavorably perceived, in the so called captive media (television, radio), than in the ones that offer great liberty to the consumer (press, display). In some studies, printed ads have more hedonic and/or informative value than the ones broadcasted on television (Somasundaran & Light, 1991 in Ling, Piew & Chai, 2010). Advertising in printed media is often associated with a useful source of information, while TV ads is perceived as having hedonic value or an entertainment function (Mittal, 1994).According to Smith (1999) in Tan and Chia (2007) the difference between television and press is given by the way the audience uses them. In the case of television, media managers are the ones that choose the moment and the transfer rate of information, while in the case of press (print) the receiver does that. In comparison, Internet ads are seen as more intrusive (Li et. al, 2002). Still studies that show that on the Internet the user holds control over the messages he is exposed exist (Huizingh and Hoekstra, 2003). Schlosser (1999) has reached the conclusion that advertising on the Internet is more credible and has a higher informative value than advertising in other media. Furthermore he has reached the conclusion that attitudes and perceptions regarding the two functions are very different for similar subjects. According to the research of Dynamic Logic (2001), Harris Interactive (2001), Statistical Research (2001) in Tan and Chia (2007) web users have different attitudes towards advertising in this channel, based on the ads format. ODonohoe (1995) considers that monitoring the attitude towards advertising based on the creative styles used, reproduces reality better. In order to determine the attitude towards advertising, we oriented ourselves after Banwaris study (1994). He devides the attitude towards advertising in the following dimensions: general opinions regarding the utility and importance of advertising; the audiences perception regarding the following aspects: advertisings capacity to inform and help the customer in buying products; the trust advertising gives the customer in the buying process; the capacity to help the customer buy products which create a certain image; the capacity to create entertainment; the capacity to be congruent with the customers own values; the perception regarding the economic effects advertising products; the perception regarding the effects it has on mass media; behavioral reactions in the moment of exposure to the advertising messages; the public opinion regarding advertising frequency; the public opinion regarding legal regulations towards advertising; the public opinion regarding the aesthetic value of advertising.

Figure 1. The conceptual framework of attitude towards advertising

Consumer characteristics: general satisfaction, values, tolerace, etc. Attitudes towards the media

Cognitive reactions towards an advertising campaign

Attitude towards advertising Attitude towards the role of advertising Attitude towards a specific advertising campaign

Characteristics of the business medium economic, social, cultural

Affective reactions towards an advertising campaign

Through this article we proposed ourselves to conduct an exploratory study to identify the dimensions of perception and attitude towards the advertising phenomenon. Our study has three parts: a documentary study, a qualitative research with the help of an in-depth interview and of an interview guide, conclusions of the first two stages will be used in the realization of a quantitative research in the end. The attitude towards the advertising phenomenon is a continuum that varies from very disadvantageous to very advantageous, although mechanistic approaches that divide consumers into consumers that have a phobia of advertising and customers that like advertising. Another remark is linked to the dynamic nature of attitude towards advertising. It has evolved together with society, being influenced by economic cycles, the evolution of values and lifestyles, information saturation, mass-communication, but also by the adoption of the Internet as a communication environment for more and more consumers The in-depth interview will be structured as follows: Perceptions and attitudes regarding the macroeconomic role of advertising the influence on economic welfare, rational use of resources, the influence on the economic cycle; Perceptions and attitudes regarding the macroeconomic role of advertising the sales influence, the impact on the prices, the competitive role;

The social role of advertising the social mirror quality, the creation of values and consumption models, the influencing of materialism, visualizing the social differences, the ab alienation of consumers, the civilizing role of advertising; The informative and epistemic function of advertising; The hedonic function of advertising. Other perceptions- the degree of advertising enactment, the aesthetic value of advertising, the attitude towards advertising nimieties. The degree of social and economic satisfaction for the questioned persons; Priority values specific for the questioned persons. Psychological orientations of the questioned persons.

4. Conclusions Various studies have concluded that the majority of consumers perceive advertising as an absolute entity, but dependent on the context at the same time. They consider that advertising has its own cultural and historical identity, but it is necessary to use cultural decoding configurations in order to make sense (ODonohoe, 2001). A conclusion has been reached, that consumers attitudes toward advertising are complex, multidimensional and ambivalent (ODonohoe, 2001). Ambivalence refers to the fact that advertising is perceived both as something agreeable and intrusive.As a form of popular cultural manifestation, advertising offers the consumer satisfactions of hedonist, aesthetic or intellectual nature; while excessive repeat of both the form and content lead to depreciation and finally annoyance. Advertising cannot be treated individually, apart from the social and cultural context in which it is formed (McCracken, 1987), and this aspect needs to be incorporated in the research models linked to the study of this phenomenon (ODonohoe, 2001)

Acknowledgements: This article is a result of the project POSDRU/88/1.5./S/55287 Doctoral Programme in Economics at European Knowledge Standards (DOESEC)" . This project is co-funded by the European Social Fund through The Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in partnership with West University of Timisoara.

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Aknowledgement: This work was supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/ CPP107/DMI1.5/S/78421, Project ID78421 (2010), co-financed by the European Social Fund within the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development 2007 - 2013.