STUDYING THE IMPACT OF HUMOR APPEAL IN TVC ON CONSUMER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS BEER BRAND THE CASE OF HEINEKEN BEER

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDYING THE IMPACT OF HUMOR APPEAL IN TVC ON CONSUMER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS BEER BRAND THE CASE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

STUDYING THE IMPACT OF HUMOR APPEAL IN TVC ON CONSUMER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS

BEER BRAND

THE CASE OF HEINEKEN BEER

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS in BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Advisor: MA NGUYEN THI HUONG GIANG Student’s name: CHAU NGUYEN HAI DANG ( BAIU08002 )

Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

May, 2012

THE IMPACT OF HUMOR APPEAL IN TVC ON CONSUMER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS BEER BRAND

THE CASE OF HEINEKEN BEER

Mr/Ms

THESIS COMMITTEE (Whichever applies)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

t is a great honor to express my deep appreciation to people who helped to make this thesis completed successfully Firstly, I’m grateful to my great advisor, MA Nguyen Thi Huong Giang, for her wonderful and enthusiastic support This long process would be difficult to finish without your help Thank you for your effort and your wide knowledge to make my topic possible, your weekly recommendation and advice are always a guidance for me to know where I should improve in this paper I know your busy life leave less time for yourself, but this thesis would be never finished successfully without your contribution You are a wonderful lady who has taught me a great life-lesson ,“always make it simple”

Secondly, I sincerely thank to my best friend group of six ladies who are an inspiration for my study Especially, it is a pleasure to thanks to Ms Do Ngoc Chi Mai, Ms.Truong Hoai Anh, Ms Pham Thi Huyen Tram, Ms Phan Thi Thanh Hang, Ms.Nguyen Thi Phuong Chi, Ms Luong Phan Thanh Phuong, Mr Nguyen Vinh Trieu and Mr Bui Nguyen Tin, who contributed great ideas as well as the effort to the thesis I believe that one of my achievement in university is a forever friendship

Finally- Mom, Dad and my little sister- thank you so much for your unstoppable love and unlimited encouragement for every single thing I do in life Thanks for everyday, you help me to deliver the survey to the respondents You are home where I know I can come whenever I need a true love And thank to you, I know where my own value begins

To all of them, I dedicate this thesis

I

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

ABSTRACT ix

CHAPTER I 1

I BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE 1

II RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: 4

III SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 4

IV LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 5

V RESEARCH SCOPE 5

VI THESIS STRUCTURE 6

VII RESEARCH TIMELINE 7

CHAPTER II 9

I RELATIONAL THEORIES 9

1 Advertising appeals 9

2 Humor appeal and its effect on audience 11

3 Music in advertising 17

II THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL – TRICOMPONENT ATTITUDE MODEL 18

1 The cognitive ( or knowledge) component 20

2 The affective ( or feeling) components 21

3 The conative ( or behavioral ) component 21

CHAPTER III 23

I RESEARCH APPROACH 23

1 Quantitative Approach 24

2 Qualitative Approach 27

CHAPTER IV 31

I SUMMARY OF BEER MARKET IN VIETNAM 31

II INTRODUCTION OF VBL Ltd AND HEINEKEN BEER 32

CHAPTER V 34

I RESPONSE RATE 34

II DEMOGRAPHICS OF SAMPLE 34

III OBJECTIVE 1 42

1 Elements in TVC of beer brand influence on cognitive ( or knowledge) component 42

2 Elements in TVC influence on affective ( or likability) component 46

3 Elements in TVC influence on conative ( or behavioral) component: 49

IV OBJECTIVE 2 51

1 Influence of TVC’s humor appeal on cognitive ( or knowledge) component 51

2 Influence of TVC’s humor appeal on affective ( or likability) component 54

3 Influence of TVC’s humor appeal on conative ( or behavioral) component 56

4 Testing the relationship between three components of attitude 59

5 Compare the difference between male and female 60

6 Comparing conative ( or behavioral) component of attitude among income groups 63

V OBJECTIVE 3 66

1 Reasons to like Heineken’s TVC 66

2 General evaluation towards Heineken’s TVC 67

VI OBJECTIVE 4 69

CHAPTER VI 73

I CONCLUSION 73

II RECOMMENDATION 76

REFERENCES 79

APPENDIX A 83

APPENDIX B 91

APPENDIX C 97

APPENDIX D 98

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1:Research timeline 7

Table 2: Measurement 25

Table 3: Response rate 34

Table 4: Frequency distribution by gender of respondents 35

Table 5: Frequency distribution by age of respondents 36

Table 6: Frequency distribution by marriage status of respondents 37

Table 7: Frequency distribution by occupation of respondents 38

Table 8: Frequency distribution by monthly income of respondents 38

Table 9: Frequency of watching TVC of respondents 39

Table 10: Frequency of beer brands being watched in TVC 40

Table 11: Descriptive statistics of elements impact cognitive component 42

Table 12:Descriptive statistics of elements impact affective component 46

Table 13: Descriptive statistics of elements impact conative component 49

Table 14: Reliability Statistics of Cognitive component 51

Table 15: Item-Total Statistics 52

Table 16: Descriptive statistics of cognitive component 52

Table 17: Reliability Statistics of affective component 54

Table 18: Descriptive statistics of affective component 54

Table 19: Reliability Statistics of conative component 56

Table 20: Item-Total Statistics 56

Table 21: Descriptive statistics of connative component 57

Table 22: Correlation matrix 59

Table 23: Group Statistics 61

Table 24: Independent Sample T-test 62

Table 25: Test of Homogeneity of Variances 64

Table 26: ANOVA 64

Table 27: Frequency of reasons to like Heineken 66

Table 28: Descriptive statistic of current opinion towards Heineken TVC 67

Table 29: Descriptive statistics on respondent’s perception toward humorous TVC 70

Table 30: Post-hoc Test 98

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: A simple Representation of the Tricomponent Attitude Model 19

Figure 2: A model of attitude formation theory of Eagly and Chaiken, 1993 20

Figure 3: Research Design – Triangulation approach 23

Figure 4: The percent of consumption of 10 leading beer brands in Vietnam, 12/2010 32

Figure 5:The percent of production market share of brewery producers in Vietnam 2010 33

Figure 6: Percentage by gender of respondents 35

Figure 7: Percentage by age of respondents 36

Figure 8: Percentage by marriage status of respodents 37

Figure 9: Percentage by occupation of respondents 38

Figure 10: Percentage by monthly income of respondents 39

Figure 11: Percentage by frequency of watching TVC 40

Figure 12: Percentage of beer brand watched through TVC 41

“Across history from Aristotle to Freud… thoughtful and sensitive people have

always sought an understanding of the problem of humor Humor is an inherently mysterious and interesting phenomenon which pervades human life”

Veatch T C., 1998

ABSTRACT

Advertising nowadays is not simply a tool to increase sales for any products, but it

is also an effective way producers in all over the world use to communicate to their target customers by delivering their products’ messages It explains why advertising appeal is one of very important part in any successful advertising campaign A right and suitable advertising appeal is completely able to create an unexpected success to product brand In reality, it is clearly to see that many advertisements evoke customers interest by using humorous factors Humor is one of the most commonly employed communication strategies in advertising (Aldan D L et al,2000) There are also a lot

of studies and researches about the impact of humor on consumer’s attitude, however

it is still spare due to the broad scale of the topic This is the reason for this paper to study thoroughly and to discover more findings on this topic by using the academic theory as well as model of attitude formation of Eagly and Chaiken (1993), the Tri-component attitude model, to explore the impact of humor appeal in TVC on consumer’s attitude toward the advertised brand This research aims at investigating the impact of humor appeal in TVC on consumer’s attitude through three components, cognitive, affective and conative component of Tri-component attitude model

By applying the triangulation approach which allows to combine both quantitative and qualitative method, the data are collected through surveys and in-depth interviews Furthermore, the findings of the study will help to review the advertising strategy of Heineken in Vietnam market Although there still exists some limitations, the study is also proposed many applicable recommendation and suggestion to enhance Heineken’s advertising success especially in Vietnam market

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Advertising nowadays is one of the greatest ways for producers to communicate with their customers and other stakeholders Most of things in daily life are all advertised, largely range from the high involvement items such as cars, wine, and jewelry to necessaries such as food and hygiene products, from tangible to intangible offerings such

as insurance, travelling and warranty services and so forth

The diversity as well as continuous impact coming from advertising makes producers not be affordable to ignore investing on this promotional element Talking about development trends in the world, in the latest report in year 2001-2006, a study of America Advertising Federation (AAF) and the magazine Advertising Agenda reported that in fact, the advertising industry is very stable growth with revenue growth averaging 4.2 per year with total income before tax estimated about $ 350 billion ( calculated for 100 leading advertising companies as Advertising Agenda selected), possesses the labor force

up to tens of millions of people all over the world (AAF), and contributed to the growth of many famous brands worldwide

In Vietnam, the advertising industry is developing in an intimate relationship with the development of the economy The total industry revenue reached $ 300 million in

2006 while in 2001 it was only $107, 6 million (equal to 1/45 compared to 18 billion USD

in Chinese and 1/20 of 6 billion USD in Thailand ) As reported by market research

company, TNS Media Vietnam, 70% of advertising budget of newspaper advertising is for

5 newspapers and magazines who have the largest audiences including Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, Bong Da, Cong An Thanh Pho and Tiep Thi Gia Dinh Meanwhile, in TV advertising, 80% of advertising budget places on two channels, HTV7 and VTV3 This implied the fact that brands choose to spend on advertising mostly for TV advertising and newspaper magazine; However, because Vietnam advertising industry is still on developing stage, therefore media channels are still the most beneficial choice for brands (wwmt.wordpress.com) Along with the continuous development in advertising industry, it

is clearly to see that the trends of advertising in the world as well as in Vietnam are developing with careful consideration on investment from numerous producers and marketers who want to expand the promotion activities and to better deliver their product messages to every target audience Brewery industry is one of the examples of generous advertising spenders Amongst extensive advertising spenders, Heineken is famous for its frequent advertisings on different media In a report in 2003, Heineken spent 1.5 million Pound in a 2-week-PR & advertising campaign in England to promote for replacing Heineken Export and Heineken Cold Filtered by Heineken Premium in this country ( www.vnbrand.net ) The success of Heineken is not just recognized worldwide

In Recent years, Heineken pushed their marketing campaigns by becoming the organizer of many events in Vietnam that attract attention of young people around Vietnam The young Vietnamese consumers become more and more become familiar with the brand of Heineken through such events as annual New year countdown event, Talented DJ, Heineken brings you a Magical Christmas, etc (www.vnbrand.net) Given their current popularity in Vietnam market, Heineken beer also stands out from other direct competitors by the way they use humor appeal in advertising as the main “tool” to attract target consumers People will never forget Vietnamese audience can remember some funny advertisements of Heineken of starring Jenifer Aniston or the jingle of the song Quando Quando The most recent Heineken beer advertisement named ‘The

the consequence, the significance in advertising of Heineken becomes it own differentiation to distinguish with other competitors as well as to increase the brand equity

Heineken is a typical illustration about the success in using humor as a main appeal in advertisements There are many researches showing that humor is powerful and being widely used in advertising industry To be more detailed, humor is recognized being one of the most frequently used techniques in modern advertising It is estimated in Markiewicz's research in 1974 that the humor usage in television and radio advertising is

as high as 42% compare to others media, Super Bowl advertising has become very popular in the U.S., and the top ten advertisements based on meter results all used humor

in 2003, 2004, and 2005 ( Gulas and Weinberger, 2006) Also, according to Weinberger

in 1995, more than $150 billion is spent on advertising in national media in a year, with between 10% and 30% of that amount going for the placement of ads that are intended to

be humorous (para in Spotts, Weinberger, and Parsons, 1997) According to TNS Media Intelligence report in 2008, advertisers in the United States spend about $45 billion a year

on humorous advertisements on the basis of the total advertising expenditures in 2007 (Strick Baaren, Holland, and Knippenberg, 2009) Given the fact that consumers in over the world are different in cultures, their perception, absorption and attitude toward a same

global humorous advertising could be various Heineken, however, is renowned for its

global advertising campaigns that are used in many different countries Consequently, Heineken may face with some issues relating to the taste and attitude of local customers toward its advertising Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the impact of humor appeal used in advertising on Vietnamese consumer’s attitude toward beer products as general and toward Heineken beer as specific This study is to review Heineken humorous advertisings (specifically TVC) and suggest a more effective advertising strategy for this beer brand in Vietnam market in the near future

II RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

This study is conducted to accomplish these following research objectives:

- To determine the factors in TVC that influence the target audience’s attitude

components

- To discover if TVC’s humor appeal can influence on audience’s attitude towards

brand beer Heineken

- To understand target audience’s current opinion towards TVC of Heineken

- To support applicable recommendation for Heineken in improving its TVC’s

humor effect on target audience ‘s attitude

There is a large number of research studies on humor appeal in advertising as well as its impact on customers or brand Most of those researches used experiment to explore the impact of humor on attention in magazine advertising ( Madden and Weinberger, 1982), humor’s effects on persuasion ( Markiewickz D., 1974) , relationship of humor and ad response (Thomas W Cline, Moses B Altsech, James J Kellaris, 2003).More general researches are study about the impact of humor on advertising effectiveness (Harlan E Spotts; Marc G Weinberger; Amy L Parsons, 1997) and humor in advertising overview ( Sternthal B and Craig C S., 1973), etc In sum, those researches study deeply about the impact of humor appeal in advertising on behavioral and effective response of consumers However, the approach of attitude was not studied thoroughly in those researches, in which they just mentioned attitude partly as an aspect that could be influenced from humor appeal Therefore, there may still exist a gap in research about the impact of humor appeal on consumer’s attitude that need to be explored Hence, the reason for conducting this research is definitely of many benefit in academic field as a premise research or supplement material to further researchers who expect to study in the similar topics with a bigger scale.In addition, similar studies about the impact of humor appeal in TVC and advertising on Vietnamese consumer’s attitude toward brewery product and

brands are considerably limited and not yet sufficient It is clearly that the researches on this topic will firstly benefit for Heineken’s management and marketer as well as advertising practitioners to review their advertising approaches and improve their current advertising strategy.Then,basing on the findings, this researcg will help Heineken to set

suitable strategy to improve their consumer’s attitude toward Heineken brand

During the time conducting research, it is inevitable to face with limits existing due

to unexpected obstacles First of all, lack of time and human resource made the research conducted with relatively small sample which only covered the response of students and employees from HCMC instead of spreading to the bigger scale to get more valuable result In addition, even though survey could be conducted, through online tools, in other three big cities such as Hanoi, Da Nang or Can Tho where exist a big number of Heineken consumers, but those feedbacks were not counted To be clearer, the author decided to conducted research mainly on HCMC market, it did not study much in other big cities around Vietnam However, the finding is still justified due to the main distributor of Heineken – Vietnam Brewery Limited Company is located in HCMC Moreover, HCM City is the city where Heineken beer is drunk with largest consumption in Vietnam considered to have the biggest percent of Beer producing capacity ( 23% ) according report from Vietnamnet in 2005 Therefore marketing strategies and activities of Heineken beer mainly focus on target consumers in HCMC

Secondly, because the research focuses to study on impact of humor appeal on consumer’s attitude including cognitive, affective and conative approach, so other components of advertising such as rational appeal, visual and audio factors as well as other behavioral dimensions of consumers will not be studied thoroughly in this research

This research thesis studies the existing impacts , if any, of humor appeal used in

TV advertising on consumer’s attitude toward beer brands More specifically, the case of Heineken beer TVC in Vietnam will be examined in more details for the purpose of this study Although Heineken beer uses many global TVC for various countries, including Vietnam, this thesis scope is to study only the impact of Heineken’s TVC in Vietnam market Also, due to the limit in labor as well as geographical capability mentioned above, all interviews are done in boundary of HCM city In addition, the results and findings withdrawn from this research study will be used as material to help Heineken have a deeper view on the impact of their current advertising strategy on Vietnamese consumers Heineken can base on these findings to suggest a more effective way in its prospective advertising campaigns in Vietnam market Moreover, this study also is expected to become a premise for further future researches on similar topics

This thesis covers five main chapters as following:

 Chapter I: Introduction

This chapter is to introduce generally about the study It presents the context background, then coming up with research problems and research objectives Moreover, it also contributes a view on research scope, limitation as well as gets through research significance of the study

 Chapter II: Literature reviews

Literature review is for reviewing previous relational researches in similar In addition, it also presents theoretical framework and model applied as foundation for analyze, suggestion, and solution in this study

 Chapter III: Methodology

This chapter describes about methodologies of how to conduct this research It aims at introducing conducting method, explaining the process from getting data, adjusting the scale and data from various approaches

 Chapter IV: Heineken company introduction

A general view about Heineken brand as well as its official contributor in Vietnam is to be discussed in more details in this chapter,

 Chapter V: Data analysis and findings

Chapter V is to introduce the process of data analysis, then present the main findings and

discussion

 Chapter VI: Conclusion and recommendation

To present the result, then come up with suggestion on solution and how to implement and what should be done to restrict the limitation in further researches

Table 1:Research timeline

1 Prepare research proposal

2 Apply for approval

In 1997, Kotler used to point out in his study that advertising appeal is the theme of an advertisement In order to make the audience receive a necessary message, advertisers have to put some driving power into the message This driving power is appeal Every advertising appeal represents an attraction, which evoked consumers’ desires or interest Berkman and Gilson (1987) defined advertising appeal as an attempt at creativity that inspires consumers’ motives for purchase and affects consumers’ attitude towards a specific product or service In another study in 2003, Kotler also divided advertising into two categories, rational appeal and emotional appeal

 Rational Appeal

To meet the varying demands of their target consumers, advertisers commonly use rational appeal and emotional appeal in their advertising in an attempt to influence consumer behavior (Chu, 1996) Stafford and Day ( 1995) defined rational appeals a presentation of factual information in a straightforward way and characterized by objectivity In another study in 1984, Puto and Wells referred to this rational approach as informational advertising According to Kotler and Armstrong (1991, 426), rational appeals “relate to the audience’s self-interest They show that the product will produce the desired benefits Examples are messages showing a product’s quality, economy, value,

or performance.” Rational appeals rely on their persuasiveness, the power of arguments

or reasons for brand attributes By rational advertising appeal, the product can be emphasized by its benefits, in which consumers’ self-benefit is the key proposition, and the function or benefit requested by consumers of the product or service is articulately presented in advertising ( Lin, 2011) Kotler ( 1991) also added that in an advertisement, its stressed that a product or service could achieve the function and benefits consumers desire

 Emotional Appeal

In contrast to rational appeal, Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) suggested that emotional appeals come from the emotional, experiential side of consumption Kotler and Armstrong (1991) defined emotional appeal as an: “attempt to stir up either negative or positive emotions that can motivate purchase These include fear, guilt, and shame appeals that get people to do things they should or stop doing things they shouldn’t Communicators also use positive emotional appeals such as love, humor, pride and joy” Emotional advertising appeal places stress on meeting consumers’ psychological, social,

or symbolic requirements, where many purchase motives come from Emotional appeal advertisements seek also aim to make the consumer feel good about the product, by creating a likeable or friendly brand and they rely on feelings for effectiveness emotional

appeal includes positive and negative emotional appeal Positive emotional appeal covers humor, love, happiness, and so forth, while negative emotional appeal involves fear, a sense of guilt, and so on

In summary, it is clearly that there are two main advertising message appeals, those are emotional and rational appeal and this is general proposed that these appeal should match the characteristics of goods or services and the purpose that producers expect customers accept their delivered message However, in order to support for this research, the emotional appeal will be more focused and especially humor appeal, one of the emotional appeal, and its effect will be studied thoroughly

2 Humor appeal and its effect on audience:

 Humor Appeal

Humor is a medium that serves for many purposes in social interactions in our everyday lives: it either represents friendliness and politeness (Brown and Levinson, 1987) or reduces threat and criticism (Holmes, 1998) It is a shortcut to approach an individual in a positive manner or it can be used to give the individual a bad or offensive message in a constructive manner

Defining humor has not been an easy task, that is why there are many researchers and authors made various definitions Veatch in his study in 1998 described humor as

“Humor, that certain psychological state which tends to produce laughter” In an earlier review of humor in advertising, Sternthal and Craig (1973) offer three different approaches to define humor:

i In terms of stimulus properties: Presence of humor is characterized by jokes,

understatements, turns of phrases, puns, double entendres, satire, irony, slapstick or incongruity

ii In terms of observed responses from an identifiable stimulus, such as

heightened arousal, laughs, smiles… exhibited by an audience in response to a

particular message However, the intensity and duration of arousal, smiles, and laughter are difficult to scale

iii In terms of perceptual responses of the audience: Special tests measuring the

extent to which a message is perceived to be humorous by the audience This may be achieved by pencil-and-paper test which measures the extent to which individual feel a message to be humorous and entertaining

Kelly and Soloman, in their research in 1975, define humor in advertisements as (1) a pun, a humorous way of using a word that suggests two interpretations; (2) an understatement, since sometimes the humorous advertisement means something that is less than the real; (3) a joke, since the humor in advertisements is sometimes presented without any seriousness; (4) something ludicrous, which is just used for the purpose to laugh; (5) a satire, as sarcasm is used in some of the humorous advertisements to show vice or folly; (6) irony, since sometimes the words are used to express the opposite meanings; and, what the researchers say is the most important one, (7) intent, which is the perceived purpose of advertiser to be humorous

Another research of Catanescu & Tom (2011), they added two more categories of humor classification , including comparison and personification into classification system employed before in research of Reick (1998) And finally, this system defined seven types

of humor: exaggeration, pun, sarcasm, silliness, surprise, comparison and personification

To be more detailed, (1) comparison means putting two or more element together to produce humorous situation (2) Personification is specified by attributes human characteristics to animals, plants or objects (3) Exaggeration means overstating and magnifying something out of proportion (4) Pun is using elements of language to create new meanings, which result in humor (5) Sarcasm is defined as sarcastic comments or situation are classified as silliness (6) Silliness this can be ranged from making funny faces to ludicrous situation And (7) Surprise includes all advertisement where humor arises from unexpected situation The fact that different media uses certain types of

humor more often suggest that the effectiveness of the humor types may differ by medium Different types of humor may be better suited for different types of products as well ( Catanescu & Tom, 2001) Moreover, Catanescu & Tom also revealed that humor is used more in television ads than print ads These findings support the belief of advertising that television is a more effective channel to use humor

Humor is widely used by advertisers all around the world For example, a quarter of all prime time television advertisements in US use humor appeal (Weinberger and Spotts, 1995; 1997) Advertisers in the 1990s argued that they should adapt the use

of humor to changing societal factors, such as “the mood of the times and the economy in general” (Beard , 1998) The use of humor became more and more popular among advertisers after that, and humor has become one of the most popular strategies in television advertising Advertisers and marketers also recognized that humor plays a significant role in promoting brands, and consequently fuelling purchase intentions Unlike sexual appeal, humor is far less controversial and is otherwise appreciated and embraced( Moncada N., 2010) Both Dr Cline and Dr Kellaris have demonstrated that simple humor in ads can inadvertently generate greater assessments towards the brand and product or service

 Humor appeal and attention:

Studies have shown that 94% of advertising practitioners see humor as an effective way to gain attention, and 55 percent of advertising research executives consider humor to

be superior to seriousness in arresting attention (Weinberger and Gulas, 2006) Herold (1963) said that humorous advertising is more likely to draw people's attention, increase memorability, and enhance message persuasiveness by “attracting attention in a relevant way, then by imparting pleasant information an making a soft sell, all in a mixed atmosphere of relaxation and integrity” Both advertising researchers and practitioners believe that through humor, attention and awareness are successfully achieved (Beard, 2005; Madden and Weinberger, 1982; Weinberger and Gulas, 1992) In their

review of literature, Weinberger and Gulas (1992) cited from Duncan ( 1979) and Madden (1982) to support humor –relatedness differently affect attention In fact, they argued that controlling the relatedness of humor made the finding of experimental studies in advertising unanimous and support for humor’s positive impact on attention Because increasing attention creates opportunities for more extensive information processing, so humor in an ad may lead to an enhance of message processing

Joe Sedelmaier, a guru of humorous ads, has long claim that the presence of humor effectively increases attention to ads Using industry data, Madden and Einberger in 1982, found that humorous magazine ads outperformed non-humorous ads in term of generating and holding attention Moreover, in 1995, Weinberger and his colleagues also found evidence that humor is directly linked to both attention and recognition Spotts, Weinberger and Parsons in 1997 also used industry data to show that humor enhanced initial attention, aided brand recall and held attention for both high-risk/expressive goods ( e.g: snack foods, beer) and high-risk/functional goods ( e.g, appliances) Duncan and Nelson ( 1985) also demonstrated humor’s positive impact on attention

Compared with non-humorous advertisements, humorous advertising tends to have more positive results on drawing people's attention In a laboratory test of attention effects of humor in advertising, Speck compared humorous advertisements with non-humorous with four attention measures, naming initial attention, sustained attention, projected attention and overall attention, He also found that humorous advertisements outperform non-humorous advertisements on each of these attention measures

 Humor appeal and liking:

The reason why humor has been widely used in advertising is due to its power of creating likability towards the advertisement from the consumer It has been found by Weingerber and Spotts (1989) that advertising practitioners coming from the U.S and U.K are generally favor in the use of humor on advertising A couple of reasons are found and supported by many other researches that humor can enhance one’s favorable attitude

towards an advertisement It is reviewed by Weingerber and Gulas (1992) that ten advertising studies and seven non-advertising studies report a positive effect of humor on liking while only two advertising studies and three non-advertising studies report neutral

or mixed findings By experiment, in the study of Gelb and Pickett (1983), they successfully tested the hypothesis of the perceived humor in an advertisement is positively associated with liking the advertisements There is numerous researches supported that likability to an advertisement directly associated with the likability to a brand (Gelb & Zinkha, 1985; Mitchell & Olson,1981; Shimp, 1981; Zhang, 1996) Theoretically, Shimp (1981) argued that the increased favorable attitude towards an advertisement would enhance the likability toward the brand advertised and eventually affect the consumer’s choice of brand Marketing literature gives similar strong support for enhanced liking through the use of humor which has been shown to increase both liking of the ad ( Belch ,1984; Gelb and Pickett 1983; Duncan and Nelson 1985;Speck 1987) and liking of the brand ( Gelb and Pickett 1983;Gelb and Zinkhan 1986;Duncan and Nelson 1985)

Since the likability toward an advertisement is strongly mediating the likability to

a brand and even the choice of brand, so in the research of Cheng and Duo about “ The Advertising Effectiveness of projecting humor element in to sexual appeal”, they stated that the use of humorous elements can enhance the favorable attitude towards the advertised brand Biel and Bridgwater's study in 1990, and Haley and Baldinger's study in

1991, indicated that liking may be an important element in the effectiveness of television advertisements (Weinberger and Gulas,1987) Recent studies, such as Tomkovick, Yelkur, and Christians' study in 2001, found that humor was the most important variable

in influencing liking (Gulas and Weinberger ,1987)

 Humor appeal and persuasion:

Beside creating effect on attention, liking and awareness, humor appeal using in advertising also has persuasive effect on consumer In the study of Sternthal and Craig in

1975, they concluded that the distraction of humor may lead to persuasion However, they

also noted that this persuasive effect of humor is at best no greater than that of serious appeal Their conclusion received advocate from U.S ads executives Madden and Weinberger later in their study in 1984, also supported that conclusion by stating that there was only 26% of practitioners agreed with the proclaim humor is more persuasive than non-humor Whereas, this was experienced a sharp contrast opinions from British studies, they found out that 62% of whom viewed humor as more persuasive than non-humor and only a small 7% disagreed with this assertion ( Madden and Weinberger, 1989) Similarly, In the research of Osterhouse and Brock, “Distraction Increase Yielding

to Propaganda by Inhibiting Counterarguing”, they maintained that increasing level of distraction yielded a decrease in counter-argumentation and an increase in persuasion, thus people are more likely to be persuaded by a communication when distraction is present than when it is absent Speck ( 1987)found three of five humor treatments enhanced two measures of persuasion: intention to use the product and perceived product quality It was stated by McCollum/Spielman in 1982 that 31% of humorous commercials exhibited above average scores of persuasiveness Other advertising researches also indicate that, other factors may interrupt to moderate the effect of humor on persuasion ( Weinberger and Gulas, 1992) For instance, Lammers and his colleagues ( Lammers et al 1983) found positive effect for humor on persuasion but this effect only for males Similarly, Chattopadhyay and Basu ( 1989) also found another factor, in their study subjects with a prior positive brand attitude were more persuaded by humorous treatments than ones who maintained pre-existing negative brand attitude

There were two studies that directly compared levels of message intensity on persuasiveness of a humorous message by Bryant et al (1981) and Markiewitz (1972) This intensity factor has two dimensions: the intensity of the humor and the intensity of the surrounding message Bryant and the colleagues examined the difference in the level

of humor and found out that the use of low levels of humor provided the same level of persuasion as no humor use, whereas the extensive use of humor would create detrimental

surrounding message and revealed that the addition of humor to a low intensity soft sell approach supported the level of persuasive, while the addition of humor to a hard sell approach actually harmed persuasion The intensity factor of humorous message appeared

to have certain effect on level of persuasion However, since the limitation of works on this area, absolute conclusion cannot be drawn In general, it is possible to state that humor may be persuasive but no more so than the non-humor ( Sternthal and Craig, 1973)

3 Music in advertising:

Studies of advertising music share an underlying theory in which music is an affective background component that causes attachment to the product without the cognitive involvement of the viewers For example, Gorn's (1982) experiment exposed two groups

of students, pretested for musical preferences, to simple pictures of pens accompanied by country or popular music and then presented a "purchase opportunity." Results showed a relationship between music that was liked and purchase behavior Gorn concluded that his students were conditioned to purchase the pen by the pairing with music Music's functional role in an ad, according to positive affect theories, would be as pleasant background (Gorn 1982, p 94; Park and Young 1986, pp.11-12; Simpkins and Smith

1974, p 362; Stout and Leckenby 1988, p 207) Thus, the affective construct is essentially sensualistic: respondents are presumed to be responding to background music (liked or not) rather than to any meaning the music might have Just as words in a language become meaningful by virtue of being joined in a system of relationships called

a grammar, the elements in a commercial are made meaningful by their relationships to each other So the combination of non-verbal elements in an ad comes to have meaning via a peculiar sort of grammar that can employ all these symbols simultaneously: words, voice, music, color, shape, and motion

Music in advertising is part of "an interdependence of elements which is complex, intermediate, and reciprocal, as against the simple, direct, and irreversible dependence implied in classical causality" (S F Nadel, quoted in Merriam 1964, p 215) It is active,

playing a part, and making a contribution to the total task As such, music should not be isolated from the complex interrelationship of verbal and visual symbols that always accompany it in a specific message Music never appears in an advertising context with-out at least one other executional element: the announcer voiceover, the words in a jingle,

or the photography in a television commercial

Schiffman and Kanuk in 2007 defined attitude in consumer behavior that “is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way with respect to a given object” Similarly, Eagly and Chaiken, 1993 also defined that attitude is

a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor There are also some studies mentioned the attitude of audience towards advertising, Kotler (2000) further elaborates attitude as an individual personal evaluation, emotional feeling attached and action tendency toward some objects

or ideas In relations to the advertising industry, Bauer and Greyser (1968) take the view

of attitude towards advertising as the audience behavior towards the advertising Audience behavior towards the advertising can be indicated through consumers’ favorable or unfavorable response towards a particular advertisement (MacKenzie and Lutz, 1989) According to Mehta (2000), consumers’ attitude towards advertising is one of the influential indicators of advertising effectiveness because consumer’s cognitive ability towards the advertising are reflected in their thoughts and feelings and subsequently will influence their attitude towards advertising (Mackenzie and Lutz, 1989)

The conceptual model of research is based on the concept of Tri-component Attitude Model developed originally by Fishbein, 1975 According to this model, attitude consists of three main components: a cognitive ( or knowledge) component, an affective (

or feeling ) component and a conative ( or intention) component

Figure 1: A simple Representation of the Tricomponent Attitude Model

(Source: Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) Consumer Behavior, 9th edition Pearson

Education International, Inc., p.235)

However, the idea that attitudes are formed on the basis of cognitive ( knowledge), affective (likability), and conative (behavioral) components has been proposed in numerous discussions and research of attitudes, particularly in the area of marketing (Lutz

1991, Eagly and Chaiken 1993) Therefore, among those previous researches, this study will apply the concepts of attitude formation theory (Eagly and Chaiken 1993), which was also developed based on the concept of Tri-component Attitude model of Fishbein ( 1975)

to examine objectives as the following model

Figure 2: A model of attitude formation theory of Eagly and Chaiken, 1993

( Source: Kwon J & Vogt C., 2008, Identify the effect of cognitive, affective and behavioral components on residents’ attitude toward place marketing)

1 The cognitive ( or knowledge) component:

Schiffman and Kanuk ( 2007) defined the first component in this model as the knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources This knowledge and resulting perception commonly take the form of beliefs; that is , the consumer believes that the attitude object possesses various attributes and that specific behavior will lead to the specific outcomes In another study, Ajzen and Fishbein 1975, 1980, Eagly and Chaiken 1993, also identified that cognitive factors are created when individuals gain information about the attitude object and thereby form beliefs Information (knowledge) is gained by direct experience (participation, involvement) and indirect experience with objects (Simmons and Lynch , 1991) Ramanuj Majumda ( 2010), in his study, also explained the cognitive components in Tri-component Attitude model with comparison to stages in Hierarchy of Effect Model of Lavidge and Steiner In which, cognition represents an individual’s knowledge about particular object , which includes attributes

Cognitive component

Affective component

Conative component

Attitude toward object or entities

and benefits based on consumer ‘s own experience and information gathered from marketers and other consumers about product This stage encompasses the steps of awareness and knowledge of Lavidge and Steiner’s hierarchy

2 The affective ( or feeling) components:

The affective components are consumer’s emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand ( Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007) In the study “ The relationship between affective, behavioral and cognitive components of attitude”, Thomas M.Ostrom ( 1969) tried to make explicit the contents of three components of Tri-component Attitude model,

in which “the affective components was understood in term of statements represent favorable to unfavorable feelings These statements should express like or dislike, feelings , and emotional physiological reactions The statements express emotional reactions to a cognition or behavioral act This component is called affective components” Similarly Eagly and Chaiken (1993) suggested that an affective factor is based on emotional experiences or preferences However, both positive (e.g., delight) and negative affect (e.g., anger) can arise from experiences with the product or service attributes (Derbaix and Pham 1991) Positive affect and negative affect make independent contributions to satisfaction or dissatisfaction judgments about products or services (Horley and Little 1985) For instance, people who have positive affect reactions to an experience with product or service attributes are more likely to evaluate an attitude object favorably (satisfactorily), and people are unlikely to evaluate the attitude object favorably if they experience negative affect reactions (Westbrook 1987, Eagly and Chaiken 1993, Oliver 1993)

3 The conative ( or behavioral ) component:

The last component in this model is concerned with likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object ( Schiffman and Kanuk , 2007) They also stated that according to some interpretation, this component may include the actual behavioral itself Conation is

frequently treated as an expression of the consumer’s intention to buy in marketing and consumer research Moreover, Thomas M.Ostrom (1969), also indicated that connation should reflect personal personal action tendencies, they should be statements of pass action, future intention and predicted behaviors in hypothetical situation A behavioral (conative) factor is connected to a person’s overt actions in relation to the attitude object (MacKenzie and Lutz 1989, Eagly and Chaiken 1993) According to Havitz and Dimanche (1999) and McIntyre (1992), involvement is viewed as a core concept in explaining individuals’ participation in activities and their actions with respect to the attitude object Involvement has been conceptualized in relation to both products and actions by many researchers For example, Driver et al (1990) conceptualize involvement

as a behavioral commitment differentiated by individuals in term of their activity Hupfer and Gartner ( 1971) suggest that involvement is related to “a general level of interest in or concern about an issue” without reference to a specific position

Figure 3: Research Design – Triangulation approachFirst of all, for exploratory approach, in-depth interview is applied to discover factors

of advertising such as factors that consumers consider as elements will affect their attitude, or how consumers think and define about the concept of humor as well as emotional appeal, etc From their responses , the researcher considers to use these findings

as input in questionnaire Next, a survey is conducted online through emails and Facebook

in which questionnaires are distributed to qualified respondents Coming up with the result from data of survey, in-depth interview method, again, is applied to get a deeper understanding from respondents This final in-depth helps to know more and analyze thoroughly from the answers of questionnaires So the researcher is provided a view from

Exploratary Research

( Qualitative)

Descriptive research ( Quantitative)

Exploratory research ( Qualitative)

comparing between both results from survey and in-depth interview, then any suggestion

or recommendation to Heineken strategy would be raised from this qualitative research

1 Quantitative Approach

1.1 Sampling

 Target population: consumers of Heineken beer in Vietnam

 Sampling frame: there is no sampling frame because the survey is conducted by

snowball method which basically depends on acquaintance or relationships of

researcher The reason will be explained later

 Sampling pool: students and employees aged reach and above 18 years old living in

HCMC

 Sample criteria: students and employees aged reach and above 18 years old living in

HCMC , ( used to) watch TVC about beer products and ( used to) drink Heineken

beer

1.2 Recruitment and procedure :

To collect data, the process divided into two ways Firstly, using snowball method,

a non-probability method in which respondents receives information from different places through mutual intermediaries In other words, the more relationships are built through mutual associations, the more connections can be made, and those new relationships as well as information can be shared and collected easier It is a useful tool for building networks and increasing the number of participants ( Goodman, 1961)

Schindler and Cooper ( 2006), also mentioned that snowball sampling , individuals are discovered and may or may not be selected through probability methods This group is then used to refer the researcher to others who possess similar characteristics and who, in turn, indentify others., “snowball” gather subjects as it rolls along Therefore, snowball method is considered to be the most appropriate way to deliver questionnaires through subjects who are met the above sampling’s criteria To be more detailed, the researcher distributes the questionnaires online through emails of people who she has acquaintance

or relationships with, then these respondents will introduce others similar and qualified subjects that they may know for the author to joining doing questionnaires This process continues until the number of questionnaires reaches expected number and the author get enough data from those questionnaires

Secondly, using snowball sampling method again, the questionnaires also are posted on the author’s Facebook to invite her qualified friends or relatives to finish questionnaires Using a social network seems to be a good choice due to its enormous cover , so it is easier to reach qualified subjects for this research

1.3 Measurement

Table 2: Measurement

General information Nominal Gender, Age, Occupation,

Income, Marriage status

Elimination question Nominal Living place, Age, beer

drinking experience, beer watching experience

Do you agree with these statements?

How much do you agree with the following statements?

[ Yes/No]

1=total disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral,4=agree, 5=total agree

Impact of humor appeal in

Heineken TVC affect

attitude’s components

Five-point Likert Scale

How much do you agree with the following statements?

1=total disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral,4=agree, 5=total agree

Current opinions toward

Heineken TVC

Nominal

Five-point Likert scale

Which elements in Heineken TVC make you like it?

How much do you agree with the following statements?

[ List of elements] 1=total disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral,4=agree, 5=total agree

1.4 Data Analysis

By applying SPSS software to analyze:

 Descriptive Statistics: Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features

of the data in a study They provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures Descriptive statistics provides frequencies, measures of central tendency and dispersion Together with simple graphics analysis, they form the basis of virtually every quantitative analysis of data

 Frequency Test: Frequencies options include a table showing counts and percentages, statistics including percentile values, central tendency, dispersion and distribution, and charts including bar charts and histograms

 Reliability Test: According to Cavana et al (2001), ―Cronbach’s alpha is a

reliability coefficient that indicates how well the items in a set are positively correlated to one another Cronbach’s alpha is computed in terms of average intercorrelations among the items measuring the concepts‖ The value of this coefficient can vary from 0 to 1 The value of 0.8 or higher of an alpha coefficient was proposed to be accepted by Bryman and Cramer

(1990) However, according to Nunnally (1978), the value of 0.6 and above

is acceptable, especially for initial investigations

 Independent T-Test: The independent t-test compares the means between two unrelated groups on the same continuous, dependent variable.

 Anova- One-way between groups: The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means

of three or more independent (unrelated) groups

 Correlation Analysis: The Pearson Correlation is applied to test the relationship

among the 4 independent variables and one dependent variable

2 Qualitative Approach:

There are three main methods for collecting data in qualitative research, each is particularly suited for obtaining a specific type of data These methods are participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups ( Marshall, 1996) When participant observation is used, researcher aims to become immersed in or part of the population being studied, so that he can develop a detailed understanding of the values and beliefs held by members of the population For focus groups, researcher brings together a small number of subjects to discuss the topic of interest In-depth interviews also use the same principle but subjects are interviewed individually Researchers seldom involve asking a set of predetermined questions, what they usually do is to encourage subjects to express their views at length In this thesis, for qualitative approach, the in-depth interview method is applied for two main purposes which then lead to two different in-depth interviews before and after collecting data

The first purpose is to discover factors of advertising that generate effect on consumer attitude ( such as brand awareness, recognition, brand liking, purchase intention, etc) as well as how the concept of humor appeal is different in their mind, those findings or factors then will be used to raise questionnaires For achieving the first aim, the author conducts in-depth interviews to two subjects who are chosen by convenience sampling

methods, because they have close relationships with the author and it is convenient for both interviewer and interviewees to have a face-to-face deep talk together The list of interviewees are:

 Ms Pham Thi Huyen Tram – International University- Senior student

 Ms Nguyen Tran Phuong Chi – Employee

The protocol below including two main questions that is used for construction the interview:

1 According to you, what are the factors of a certain advertisement that make you

like, enhance soon your recognition towards the brand and push your intention to possess that product? Please list some determinants and explain why

2 How do you think about humor in advertising?

3 In you opinion, what can be considered as humorous factors in a certain TV

commercials?

For the second purpose, the in-depth interview again is applied to get a deeper understanding about findings from the result of questionnaires This time, in-depth interview play vital roles in confirming the result, find more reasons especially to answer the question why they choose those such answers, and explain deeper about their own suggestion towards ads of Heineken Similar to the first in-depth interview, interviewees also are chosen by convenience sampling method in which subjects have relationship with the author that create convenience in processing the face to face interview

The list of interviewees are :

1.Ms Truong Hoai Anh – Senior student

2.Ms Do Ngoc Chi Mai - Employee

3.Mr Nguyen Vinh Trieu- Employee

The following is the script in term of unstructured questions which is used in in-depth interview The questions are generated base on the findings from data analysis applied by SPSS and the objectives of the study

1 To determine factors that influence the target audience’s attitude components

- Why the elements of delivered message of product in a certain beer brand TVC ,

emotional content, informative content, significant color theme have influence on your knowledge and likability toward the brand? Explain detail for each element

- When you consider to make decision to buy or to try a certain brand beer

advertised in TVC, why you need to learn about information and care about the message of this product?

- Why the other elements do not have much influence on your intention?

- Why the element of message of product can bring to you the knowledge about the

brand, make you feel like and even push you to try the advertised product?

2 To understand impacts of TVC’s humor appeal on consumer’s attitude towards

Heineken

- How humor appeal in TVC of Heineken can affect your awareness and knowledge

toward the brand ?

- How does it make you feel like the brand Heineken and even prefer than other

brewery brand?

- Can the humor appeal in this TVC push your intention to buy or to try Heineken

beer ? Why or why not?

3 To discover target customer’s current opinion towards TVC of Heineken

- To Heineken TVC, please explain why the “humor created in each ad” and the

“creativeness in content” become the reason that make you like Heineken’s TVC?

- Why did you agree with both ideas “ focus on emotional content” and “change

advertising way” ? Are two ideas different in your understanding or it just is a mistake due to the similarity among generated ideas? If you have own understanding, please specify

4 To support applicable recommendation for Heineken in improving its TVC’s

humor effect on target audience ‘s attitude

- What do you think about the surprise in humorous Heineken TVC? Is the surprise

one of element that make humor in TVC? Please explain in detail

- How do the elements of embedded music and performance of actor play role in

determining the humor in an ad

- How does Heineken change and renew their advertising way? What do you expect

from this change?

CHAPTER IV

INTRODUCTION OF VIETNAM BREWERY LIMITED COMPANY

(VBL Ltd.) AND HEINKEKEN BEER

Vietnam is considered a fast growing emerging market in Asia area Firstly, it is rooted from big number of young population People younger than 45 years old occupies 50% of Vietnam population, which is estimated over 83 million people ( Statistic Bureau, 2010) In addition, the average GDP growth rate of Vietnam recent years is about 9% annually, a very high figure among Asian countries, which goes along with the increasing income So, nowadays, consumers have more choices in term of both local and international brands According to Customer Insights research agency, beer is the third intake for Vietnamese in general, after bottled water and tea, and excesses coffee and milk Ministry of Industry and Commerce( 2011) estimated that the volume of beer consumed in Vietnam increased dramatically to 2.5 billion litter in 2010, almost double the volume in 2003 ( 1.29 billion litter)

For Heineken’s market, in 2010, Vietnamese has consumed 200 million litter of Heineken beer and has become the third biggest consuming market of Heineken in the world after US and France (Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, 2010) And in 2015, with this developing rate, Vietnam is predicted to become the biggest market of Heineken In Vietnam domestic market, Heineken also occupies a noticeable percentage of market share and becomes the third-most-consumed-beer- brand in Vietnam with 16.8% including 10% for Heineken can 330ml and 6.8% for Heineken bottle 330ml ( Sabeco market research on brewery industry of Vietnam, 2010)