View of REVIEWING THE LITERATURE TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF MEDIA ATTITUDE ON AD AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal (International Journal) ISSN-2456-1037

Vol.04,Special Issue 07, (RAISMR-2019) November 2019, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

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REVIEWING THE LITERATURE TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF MEDIA ATTITUDE ON AD AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR

Swati Jain¹, Dr. Anshu Bhati²

1Research Scholar, IIPS, DAVV, Indore.

2Sr. Lecturer, IIPS, DAVV, Indore.

Abstract: This study is an attempt to generate the detail understanding of different media and how does their characteristics significantly affect ad avoidance behavior of audiences.

This study is an in-depth analysis of existing literature for the matter. Consumers nowadays are increasingly becoming selective in terms of perception towards advertisements. Ads are carried through media channels that deliver ad content in the form of information or entertainment. Each medium possess different characteristics in terms of functionality, usage, involvement, captivation of audience attention etc. Study reveals that the consumers perceive media channel depending on their usage, their requirement at the moment, and prior experiences related to the media. Certain media require low involvement and some need high involvement of the audiences. The length of the advertisements on a media, credibility of the content, in formativeness, extent of engagement required by the media, are some of the factors creating impact on the consumer mind set towards a particular media. The attitude towards a media as perceived by the consumer is considered responsible in the formation of ad avoidance behavior for each media. Electronic media specially the broadcast media suffers maximum ad avoidance than the other forms of media. Several factors account for such ignorance. The advancement of technology has provided consumers with ample techniques and reasons to avoid advertisements. Self selectivity feature provided by many communication media fosters consumers to avail selective perception and henceforth leading to increased avoidance of non editorial content.

Through this study efforts are being made to portray genuine effect of media attitude on ad avoidance so as to contribute the findings in business implications. Advertisers can entail these results in reducing ad avoidance and thereby increasing the ad effectiveness.

Keywords: media channels, media attitude, ad avoidance.

1. INTRODUCTION

Communication through media refers to the dissemination of information, entertainment, promotional message or educational content to the audiences having exposure to any of the media. Media is considered to be transporter and delivery system that delivers the content of the message to a number of recipients (Sissors and Baron, 2002).

On the basis of the quality and nature of the information, entertainment or advertisement provided by the media, the consumers decide what media they will be using in which situation. Media can be broadly grouped as broadcast and print media. The former includes television and radio whereas newspapers, magazines fall under print category.

Further on the basis of audience coverage, it can be classified as personalized media (email, telemarketing, sms) and mass media (television, newspapers, radio, online). Media varies in its characteristics in terms of audience coverage, ad length, credibility, perceived goal impediment, and prior experiences. Involvement of consumers required by the media is another important trait that is significantly responsible for usage rate of the media and the ignorance of advertisements on that medium.

People nowadays are highly selective in having media exposure. They prefer media that allows them to do their task while having media exposure. Several studies reveal that people switch over or zap the media as soon as the first advertisement arises. Still the nature of media affects the ad ignorance to a great extent. Some of the media like newspapers face lower ad ignorance. This is because while reading a newspaper, a person willingly or by chance takes a look at the advertisement before switching to the next page.

Though there are several reasons of avoiding advertisements but the characteristics of a media acts as the catalyzing agent to stimulate such avoidance. Television provides massreach to the marketers but is highly intrusive and provides low selectivity to the viewers. Radio contains only audio message and include lots of ad clutter. Newspapers provide selectivity and fulfill the criteria of in formativeness.

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Similarly other forms of media also vary in their nature and are perceived differently by the recipients. Several studies were undertaken (Larkin,1979,Olney et al 1991, Hornick and Schlinger, 1981 and Speck and Elliot, 1998) that discuss the perception of consumers towards different media to decide appropriate media planning so as to reduce ad avoidance by recipientsin varying media.

Media attitude is the critical area to discuss and analyze its effects on avoidance of advertisements in these media. People are getting more techno savvy and avoid ads through various techniques and devices that allow zapping or recording facilities to the consumers availing the facility of selectivity. Most of the electronic media majorly face the ad avoidance as compared to other forms of media. This may be the result of different attitude of such media and its varied characteristics that makes it to face more ad ignorance than the other forms.

2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Several researchers have undergone studies discussing media features, consumer perceptions related to media and ad avoidance behavior towards that media. Researchers developed several models depicting predictors of ad avoidance corresponding to the media channel.

Studies of few researchers have been discussed and analyzed, that relate to media attitude and avoidance for that medium. Besides, the models developed by Ha and McCann, Speck and Elliot etc. have also been referred and discussed. The studies have been discussed in the chronological order in which the study has been conducted. This exhibits a wholesome story of how the studies have advanced year by year related to the ad avoidance in different media.

The findings, discussions, beliefs and the concluded results of the several studies have been portrayed providing a complete layout of perspectives and opinions of various researchers. This helps in analyzing the study in the appropriate chronological manner thereby enlightening readers with the pool of literature of the studies undertaken with different perspectives related to the area of study.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

Researchers have undertaken several studies related to different media and other media related aspects. Each medium have different usage for the audiences depending upon the attitude of the media and thereby affecting the avoidance behavior towards advertisements on each media. Different media are perceived differently by consumers regarding advertisements on each media. People use these media as per their requirements and the characteristics of the particular media. Media traits are studied in terms of trustworthiness, in formativeness, offensiveness and cost involved (Fisker,M. 2012).

The reasons for using a particular media and the tasks that consumers intend to perform during the usage of that media are likely to affect their tendency towards ad avoidance strategy for that media. The structure of advertising avoidance is related to the advertising clutter on the media through which it is channeled. Perceived advertising clutter in a media is considered the central predecessor that is affecting the overall advertising clutter.

According to the functional approach, excessive advertising can be considered to create and increase the negative attitude towards a particular media. There are generally three variables that relate to media and avoidance behavior towards that media, namely, overall exposure to a medium, attitude towards a medium and breadth of exposure within a medium (Speck and Elliot, 1997). Media attitude is the way a consumer personally perceives a medium, influencing how the media is consumed. How a consumer reacts to an advertisement on a particular media is related to the predisposition about that media. The study was undertaken to reveal ad avoidance behavior in different media. The media usages vary significantly placing television on the top followed by the radio. The usefulness of advertising in newspapers is found to have above average ranking as compared to other medium. Lowering the number of ads on TV and magazines might have decreased effect on advertising avoidance. But lowering the amount of advertisements should be replaced by manageable absorption of ads on the media, leading to reduced negative perception towards advertisements. Communication problems also form negative perspective towards a media and hence form positive avoidance behavior for ads on that medium. Searching for valuable

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and relevant information on newspapers is placed high in rank putting radio on second.

Television, magazines are rated worst as the search hindrance is high on captive media that hinders the editorial content through its intrusiveness.

The usage of media also relates to ad avoidance. People cannot explore captivating media at work such as television and thus ignore ads to a great extent on such media. The functionality of the media as perceived by the individuals greatly affects the avoidance behavior towards that specific media. The function of selective viewing on a media also relates to ad avoidance on that media. Audience is selective in viewing and perceiving advertisements on different medium. Avoidance for ads is high for broadcast media than the other forms of media. The avoidance behavior is majorly categorized as cognitive, physical and mechanical (Anonymous, 2012 and Speck and Elliot, 1997). Advertising avoidance has been examined and found to exist across several media. However the extent and the nature of avoidance vary as per the medium.

Ads on various broadcast medium are ignored due to ad clutter, irrelevancy of ad content, co-viewing or engaging into some task while having exposure to the media. Print media faces less ignorance since the techniques of avoiding ads here are limited. Unlikely, online advertising can be avoided through ample number of ways and number of reasons that include distrust, security reasons and distraction. But it’s believed that if the internet is used for the purpose of entertainment then the ads are less likely to be avoided as compared to other purposes of exploring internet. Broadcast media face ad avoidance to a greater extent via variety of techniques that provide opportunity for self selection. Still the online advertising is avoided the most by the audiences as it is considered harmful, distracting, lack trust and are highly intrusive.

Advertising and attitude towards advertising has been primarily studied by several researchers. These studies show major concern regarding distrust of consumers towards advertising. Such ignorance has been observed in both traditional as well as new media.

Social networking sites are a growing media exposure especially for teenagers (Kelly, L.et al, 2010).

According to the study, teenagers have negative attitude towards advertising on social networking sites. They pay less attention to pop up ads or links when they are working online. Most of the teenagers usually find online ads as irrelevant and distracting.

The main motive of several teenagers was to engage in their leisure time and get rid of boredom. The goal of connecting to friends and others is hindered by such ads creating lots of annoyance. Advertising clutter is not the actual reason they avoid ads.This is because such ads are hardly being noticed. Their ignorance to such ads also results due to distrust of online ads as it may lead to virus or malwares. Teenagers are aware of such activities and act carefully in such matters. Skepticism regarding relevancy and message of the advertisement along with the lack of credibility are highly rated by teenagers as the driving force to avoid online advertisements.

In a similar study, Shavitt, S.et al (2004) elicited that every media differ in its characteristics and purpose to reach to the audiences. The nature of the media highly affects the attitude of audiences towards advertisements. Overall attitude towards TV, catalog, radio, classifieds and other media was studied by researchers revealing that the catalogs tend to have more favorable connectivity with the consumers than any other medium. Consumers rated business classifieds at the next priority. Consumers have less favorable attitude towards television advertising, radio or any other media. It’s believed that the media that provide self selectivity are preferred more than the other forms of media. Self selected experiences are least allowed in broadcast media. Audiences find interest in advertisements in order to gain information that they find relevant and needful. Consumers provide detailed attention to the ads they find interest in. This is because the intensity of processing an item affects the memorizing capability of that item. Media that provides more self selection for advertisements elicits more favorable attitudes of audiences. Compared to other media, memorizing such ads is highly positive.

Mikael, A. studied media attitudes into three categories i.e. Informativeness, entertainment and credibility. Different users relate to different attitudes of each media.

How users avoid ads and the extent of efforts put in to avoid ads varies as per different media. Radio is considered good media for ads as it needs less involvement but the exposure time is highly required for ads to serve the purpose. Ads are highly avoided in

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online media due to variety of reasons such as negative experience, irrelevant ads and the like.

Traditional media is still considered better to have exposure to ads since they provide information, entertainment and are also taken to be credible. Newspapers are rated high for in formativeness and credibility whereas entertaining attitudes were rated high for magazines. It was also found that newspapers are the medium that leads to least avoidance of advertisements. Electronic media possess less credibility and grab less attention of users towards advertisements. Consumers tend to avoid ads on electronic media as it is easy to switch over. The media that has low involvement is generally avoided to a great extent through several techniques thereby facing greater degree of ad avoidance.

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

We have a number of medium available in the market today that marketers can use to tap their target customers. Advertising is the best form of promotion tools which is accomplished using these mediums. Whether the traditional media (like television, print, radio) or the upcoming media (like internet, SMS etc.), all have been fully utilized by the marketers. But owing to severe competition among the firms, it has become utmost important to understand the consumer attitude towards each media.

Every medium had different characteristics which results in differently being perceived by the audiences. Television can be passively consumed but internet is generally actively consumed. This affects their attentivity towards the media and the ads on it. The more a media passively consumed, more are the ads likely to be ignored on that media.

Marketers hence need to understand how a media behaves and how a consumer reacts in return.

Ad length, ad relevance, the timing, channel and the purpose of using that media by the audience are all the factors that affect the audience perception towards that media.

When a consumer has passive approach towards a media or a channel, the occurrence of ads is considered to be intrusive and irritating. This induces audience to make necessary attempts to avoid advertisements on that media.

Besides individual media attitude, perceived ad clutter by the audiences also results in channel swapping or ignorance of the medium for a while. People have the mindset of ad clutter on all the channels at the same time and hence it leads to ad avoidance to a great extent.

Marketers spend a heavy sum on advertising but the ignorance of ads makes it all go in vain. The detail understanding of attitude towards media and the approach of audience towards each media might help advertisers to strategize effectively and perform media planning effectively.

REFERENCES

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