II. International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design
02-04 May 2013
Famagusta – North Cyprus
CONSUMER PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES: THE CASE OF
FACEBOOK
Antonis Kodjamanis
Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, University of Warwick, UK
A.Kodjamanis@warwick.ac.uk
Spyros Angelopoulos
Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK
S.Angelopoulos@warwick.ac.uk
Abstract
Our paper explores to what extend Facebook advertising generates purchasing intentions, and influence consumers’ buying habits. We
analyse consumers’ opinions regarding issues of privacy and social pressure from online communities, and their effect on consumers’
shopping habits. By conducting a survey, and comparing our findings with findings in the literature, we aim to compare users viewpoints of
internet advertising from the late 90’s with the viewpoints of young people that are constantly exposed to social media. We argue that there
are minor changes in the users viewpoints during that period, and show that users rely more on the internet as a source of information, yet
social pressure and eWoM are still the major mechanisms that contribute to a brand’s success. The main conclusion of our study is that
brands should invest in the social communication aspects of Facebook as an advertising mechanism.
Introduction
Social networking sites form a novel channel in the field of communication. Based on a number of recent research evidence (Drury, 2008;
Iyengar et al., 2009; Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009; Shih, 2009) it can be argued that such sites can be considered as a new medium for
promoting products or services, and as a means for increasing consumption and brand awareness. Nielsen (2010) argues of how
widespread the phenomenon is by demonstrating that users spend on average almost 5.5 hours per month on social networking sites. The
amount of time spent, varies based on the region from 2.5 up to 6.5 hours. In addition to that, the number of active users in social
networking sites has been increased by 30% within one year, with Facebook being the most popular among them, reaching 52% of the
social networking sites population with an average of 19 user sessions per month.
Taking into consideration the widespread acceptance and penetration of social networking sites in the everyday lives of people in
western societies, and their ubiquitous accessibility through computers as well as mobile phones and tablets (Angelopoulos et al., 2008),
our study attempts to shed light on the extend in which social networking sites, offer an environment in which advertising and consumption
persuasion can thrive and mature. In our approach we take into account Tuten’s (2008) argument on the link between social media and
marketing. Tuten (2008) argues that social media as part of a marketing campaign can contribute to the brand awareness and improve its
reputation and image. He also notes the higher possibility of sales, the higher traffic to the brand’s web site, and the overall enhancement of
the fundamental marketing strategy.
Although there are numerous studies that provide a substantial amount of information over this area (e.g. Qualman, 2009; Ryan &
Xenos, 2011), there is little research on the effectiveness of social networking sites advertising from the consumers’ point of view. Our study
attempts to shed more light on the gap, and provide insights regarding the effectiveness of advertising mechanisms on social networking
sites, and how consumers that are currently in the higher education react towards the phenomenon. For the purpose of our study, the term
‘advertising mechanism’ encapsulates all the forms of promoting tools and eWOM (electronic word of mouth) platforms, such as paid ads,
groups / pages, page suggestion, and friends’ recommendations. Moreover, the study attempts to explore to what extend social networking
sites can be used as a stand-alone marketing platform, and as an individual marketing strategy.
The rest of the paper is organized as following: after the brief description of the study, we present our methodology, the
characteristics of the population under study and our sampling approach, the analysis of the collected data and the results of our study, and
we conclude with the findings and remarks, as well as with recommendations and directions for future research.
Methodology
Our study follows a positivistic approach in the form of a survey. The questionnaire was designed based on the work of Schlosser et al.
(1999), which has been one of the most prominent studies on online advertising. The questions proposed by Schlosser et al. (1999) have
been reformatted to reflect the research objective of the project. Whilst the term online advertising encompass the methods applicable to
social networking sites, we need to stress that the term as used by Schlosser et al. (1999) does not include Facebook, since the site was
launched in 2004.
The study focuses on a specific group of people that fulfils an array of criteria, which were vital for structuring the research
approach. As Madden (2010) suggests, people between the ages of 18-26 can be considered as the population with the highest
consumption rate. Moreover this particular age group is highly exposed to information and communication technologies. Another aspect that
sets the university students as an ideal sample population is the mixture of opinion, which results from factors such as culture background
and ethnicity, faculty and interests and the constant exposure to the internet due to the nature of today’s education system.
The survey follows a simple random sampling approach. By following such an approach, as Henry (1990) claims, it is more
feasible to obtain a variety of responses, because each unit has an equal chance of being selected. The sample of the research comes
from the student population of one of the UK’s top 5 universities. Based on the work of Pfeffernann and Rao (2009), we estimated that the
ideal sampled population based on the total population of the university should be 376 participants. Due to the time constraints of the
research, the total number of participants was 300, which is the 80% of the ideal sampled population. The population of the university
shares a large number of similar characteristics, such as common age group, access to the internet, familiarity with social networking sites
and information technology literacy. Based on the arguments of Henry (1990), and Rea and Parker (1992), if the responses are drawn from
a sample that has been selected carefully and its representative of the population, generalization of the results can occur, and conclusions
will have a high level of accuracy. Consequently, the reduction of the sample is not affecting the validity of the results.
The following table (Table 1) presents a comparison between Schlosser et al. (1999) work and the proposed questions of the
survey, and how they are linked with the literature. As the table illustrates, each question is structured in such way so that the answers can
fill in the literature gaps that were observed, and also demonstrate the link to the work of Schlosser et al. (1999). The majority of the
questions are based on a closed ended five point Likert scale to enable comparison with the results of Schlosser et al. (1999). Two of the
questions were based on Ranking Scale because they aimed to collect specific values.
By following such an approach, the responses have a unique value and the evaluation is more accurate (Fink & Kosecoff, 1998).
The survey has seventeen multiple-choice questions. Each set of questions contributes to the answer of the research question, towards the
objectives of the project. The questionnaire initially profiles the user based on their education background, age and gender. The second part
collects information for the user’s experience with social networking sites, and the purpose that the individual is a member in such web
sites. The rest of the questions are designed to provide results that are related to the level of influence that is generated from such websites
in terms of consumption behaviour, influence from online peer pressure, and effectiveness on increasing consumption from the
53
II. International Conference on
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02-04 May 2013
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deve
elopment of com
mmunities. The last set of questtions examines tto what extend Facebook can b
be seen a marketing mechanism
m, and
whe
ether there is a fe
eeling of violation
n of users privacyy.
The way of
o distribution wa
as online, since the
t participants h
had the ability to
o complete the questionnaire at their
t
conveniencce, and
auto
omatically send the
t results for an
nalysis. Furtherm
more, online distrribution accordin
ng to Truell et al.. (2002) has app
proximately 51% return
rate and 64.31% com
mplete rate of the
e content. In our case the expectted amount of co
omplete question was almost 11 out
o of 17.
Table 1:
1 Previously pub
blished literature and how it is link
ked with the quesstionnaire
Current qu
uestionnaire
Previous
sly published litterature
Do you
y
think that authorities like AS
SA (Advertising Standards Auth
hority) How do
o you feel aboutt the amount off regulation, which the
shou
uld put restriction
ns on what it can
n be advertised on
o Facebook?
governm
ment currently pla
aces, on internett advertising?
Approprriate authorities should be respo
onsible for adve
ertising
regulatio
ons?
Do you think that privacy is violated by Facebook's pro
oduct
reco
ommendation sysstems?
How
w often do yo
ou feel offend
ded (insult use
ers intelligence) by
adve
ertisements that are visible on yo
our profile page on
o Facebook?
Wha
at is the level of influence that is genera
ated from Face
ebook
adve
ertisements rega
arding your shopp
ping habits?
Do you think that companies can
n use Facebookk on its own a
as an
ertising medium?
?
adve
Wha
at is the level of
o influence that is generated from your Face
ebook
Friends suggestions
s regarding your shopping
s
habits?
?
Com
mparing Facebo
ook advertiseme
ents for a prod
duct or service and
Face
ebook friends re
ecommendations
s for a product/service which of
o the
two has stronger influence?
Based on
o Brahim et al. ((2009)
How ofte
en do you feel offfended by Intern
net Advertising?
Most online advertising iinsults my intellig
gence
How ofte
en do you use In
nternet advertisin
ng to help you make
m
a
purchas
se?
How co
onfident you a
are using info
ormation from online
advertising to make a pu
urchase decision?
Based on
o Gibs and Brruich (2010) and
d Hoffman and Fodor
(2010).
p
from soccial media can in
nfluence buying habits.
Social pressure
Kim and
d Srivasrava (200
07), Iyengar et al.
a (2009), Bagozzzi and
Dholakia
a (2002)
As Veal
V
(1997), and Fink and Kosecoff (1998) sugge
est, a pilot study for
f a survey is esssential in order to identify any isssues with the wo
ording,
the sequence, and the layout of the
e questionnaire. Additionally the
e pilot study can
n minimize the b
biased results from questions th
hat are
d. Thus, in orderr to achieve the maximum validitty of the study, th
he questionnaire
e was initially ran
ndomly
misleading or inapprropriately defined
t observe in wh
hich extend the questions
q
can be
e understood. Fo
ollowing the pilot study,
distrributed to a smaller sample of students in order to
mino
or changes occurred between the
e final draft and the
t official versio
on, and were maiinly related to the
e layout rather th
han the actual co
ontent.
S
Outcomes Of The Study
m a total of 364 responses, the 315
3 were fully co
omplete, and the
e rest 49 were pa
artially complete.. For the purpose
e of this study on
nly the
From
fully
y completed que
estionnaires are analysed. The following graphss present the re
esults that occurrred from the su
urvey. The first tier of
ques
stions is profiling
g the participant.
Figure 1: Profilin
ng the participan
nt by gathering ge
eneral informatio
on
In te
erms of participa
ants profile the above
a
results oc
ccurred: 44.1% m
males and 55.9%
% female respon
nse with 34.6% being
b
18-20 yea
ars old,
29.5
5% being 21-23 years old, 21.3%
% being above 26,
2 and 14.6% be
eing 24-26. The majority of the sstudents were undergraduate (49.5%),
and postgraduate students (48.9%)). From the abo
ove charts the fo
ollowing trends can
c
be observed: a slightly higher amount of female
f
resp
ponses compared
d to male, and a well balanced split
s
between the
e age groups. Moreover
M
by looking at the level of
o education, we
e see a
bala
ance between the
e two categories with approximattely 49% from ea
ach category.
In terms of
o popularity, Fac
cebook is the firstt out of the four. The results of th
he study are pressented in the Figures 2a and 2b. As the
resu
ults suggest, 98
8.4% of the sample are members on Facebo
ook. The majorrity of the Face
ebook memberss use the service for
com
mmunication (96..2%), and multimedia sharing (63.8%). A tota
al of 17.8% use
es Facebook to
o show their su
upport and interrest to
com
mmunities and organization, while
e 14.9% uses the site to gain infformation and re
ead reviews abou
ut product or services, and 14.9% use
the site
s for job searcching. Only a tota
al of 14.3% uses Facebook to me
eet new people.
As a next step, we examin
ned the level of influence that va
arious advertising
g platforms generate, and which resources a con
nsumer
will most likely consider to gather ad
dditional informattion for a producct or a service. The results of the
e study are prese
ented in the Figures 3a
c
Itemss ranked first arre valued higherr that the followiing ranks, the score is the sum
m of all
and 3b. The score is a weighted calculation.
ghted rank countts.
weig
Ranking the mediums of adverting, the following
f
ranking
g occurred: Tele
evision 1852 points, Newspaperss and general in
nterest
mag
gazines 1416 points, Special inte
erest magazines 1330 points, on
nline adverting 1294 points, Billb
boards 1059 poin
nts, Leaflets and
d flyers
998 points, and SMS
S promotions 596
6 points.
II. Internatio
onal Conference
e on Communic
cation, Media, Technology
T
and Design
02-04 May 2013
2
Famagusta – North Cyprus
Figure
e 2a: In which off the following So
ocial Networking Sites are you an
n active member.
Fig
gure 2b: Whats is
i the main purpo
ose that you will use a Social Nettworking Site
ands websites ass well as special interest website
es as primary so
ources to gain additional
a
information for a
The participantss use official bra
product or servicce. Resources like YouTube cha
annels, and Face
ebook pages and
d groups scored approximately half
h the points of the above
two.
anking the above mediums of adv
vertising, which o
one do you think has the highest level of influence
e to you as a con
nsumer?
Figure 3a: Ra
As the following
g bar chart demo
onstrates, Faceb
book groups / pages are the ca
ategory with the lowest ranking regarding the ga
athering of
information and reviews for a pa
articular product or service. Only about 30% of th
he responses are
e coming from people
p
that are members
m
in
corporate groups. From that am
mount less than 37%
3
is a membe
er in more that 3 corporate group
ps. More specificcally, a total of 30.2%
3
from
ms to be a memb
ber of corporation
n groups like Apple, Coca-Cola etc.
e with 63.5% being
b
members to
t 1-3 groups, 18
8.3% being
the sample claim
a member in 4-6
6 groups, 5.8% a member in 7-9 groups, and th
he remaining 12.5% being a me
ember in more th
han 10 groups. Having
H
the
above in mind it can be said thatt the participantss of the study do not trust or follo
ow large numberss of groups. Com
mparing this state
ement with
a
that the majority
m
of users doubt the trustw
worthiness of grou
ups.
the previous barr chart it can be argued
II. International Conference on
n Communicatio
on, Media, Technology and Des
sign
02-04 May 2013
3
Famagusta – No
orth Cyprus
Figure 3b: Which of the follo
owing you will firrst consider as a resource for pro
oduct/service reviiew and additional information
In order to understand the level of in
nfluence that Fac
cebook generate
es, we devoted th
hree questions in
n our survey, and more specifica
ally the
participants were asked to provide an answer regarding:
•
The level of
o influence gene
erated from Face
ebook advertisem
ments regarding their shopping habits
•
The level of
o influence gene
erated from Frien
nds suggestions regarding their shopping
s
habits
•
The influence of Facebookk advertisements
s compared to Fa
acebook friends recommendation
ns
Based on the resultts, more than 50
0% of the sample claims that Facebook has no
ot any influence to their shoppin
ng habits, while 34.6%
claim
ms that Faceboo
ok generates low
w levels of influence to their sh
hopping habits. Moreover,
M
friend
ds suggestions does
d
not influence the
shop
pping habits of th
he 43.2%, while 35.2% claimed that friends suggestion have a low
w level of influen
nce to their shopp
ping habits, and 16.2%
belie
eve that friends suggestions ha
ave an average
e level of influen
nce. The remain
ning 5.4% claim
ms that friends’ suggestions ge
enerate
high
h/very-high levels
s of influence. More
M
than half of the sample belie
eves that friends
s’ recommendatio
ons have stronger influence com
mpared
to Facebook
F
ads. Only
O
6.7% of the sample believes
s the opposite. A relatively large
e percentage of the
t sample (34.3
3%) believes tha
at zero
influ
uence is generate
ed neither from Facebook
F
ads no
or friends suggesstions. While the above results ou
utline a first nega
ative impression for the
effec
ctiveness of Fac
cebook as an advertising
a
medium, 45% of the
e participants cla
aimed that adve
ertising through Facebook could
d be a
subsstitute for the trad
ditional media off advertising.
In terms of use
ers privacy and quality of the advertised conten
nd approximately
y 64% of the sa
ample claims tha
at authorities like
e ASA
shou
uld be responsib
ble for the contro
ol of the advertis
sing content. Add
ditionally most of
o the responderss believe that the
e content of Faccebook
ads are not insulting their intelligen
nce, and they ra
arely fill offended
d from the adve
ertised content. A
Additionally, in terms
t
of users privacy
p
ation the responsses vary. An am
mount of 48% se
ees Facebook re
ecommendations systems as a clear
c
violation of users privacy due the
viola
colle
ection of personal data. Moreovver, approximate
ely 25% of the respondents disa
agree with the sstatement, and 27.3
2
% have a neutral
n
resp
ponse towards th
he issue.
Figure
re 4: Level of influ
uence between ffriends and advertisements on Fa
acebook
Disc
cussion
Schlosser et al. (199
99) identify that 60% of the resp
pondents believe
e that the govern
nment should be
e more flexible with
w internet adve
ertising
regu
ulations, and red
duce its efforts towards
t
them. Additionally,
A
67%
% of the same sample
s
claimed that appropriate authorities should be
resp
ponsible for adve
ertising restrictio
ons online. In terrms of the overa
all regulation forr the online adve
ertising, more th
han half of the sample
s
argu
ued that the auth
horities are applyying the right amount of regulatio
on towards online
e advertising. On
nly 22% claimed that this amountt is too
little. From the current questionnaire, more than 64%
% of the response
es are resulting from
f
people who claimed that AS
SA or similar auth
horities
shou
uld put restriction
ns on what is adv
vertised through Facebook. Thuss, a lower amoun
nt of people belie
eves that advertis
sing through Faccebook
shou
uld be more resstricted. Taking into account that major change
es occurred in the
t
online advertising environm
ment, people are
e more
com
mfortable online ads.
a
Since brands are investing
g a high amount of their marke
eting budget in the social media
a advertising it can
c
be
assu
umed that the am
mount of the adv
vertised content has
h been increassed exponential in the recent yea
ars. Additionally, due to the adop
ption of
vario
ous data mining
g mechanisms, the advertised co
ontent results frrom a variety of sources that arre promoting the
e same or very similar
good
ds. As a result, in some cases a Facebook page can become o
over-crowded witth paid ads, adss with social con
ntent, and suggestions.
Con
nsequently users
s rely on the resttriction of variou
us ads or ad con
ntents in order to
o have a Facebo
ook profile that is
i not bombarde
ed with
adve
ertisements.
The majorrity of firms use various mechan
nisms to collect sspecific information from users. As Van den Poe
el and Buckinx (2005),
(
and Shen et al. (200
09) argued, follow
wing browsing pa
atterns, search q
queries, visited lin
nks and other techniques, compa
anies are able to
o partly
pred
dict the future on
nline behaviour of
o the user. Even
n Facebook has dedicated settings on how to target specific use
er groups via corrporate
page
es. By observing
g the results colllected from the questionnaire
q
it can be said thatt a large number of users recognize the issue. Almost
A
50%
% of the responses believe that there
t
is a violation of the users privacy when it comes to the re
ecommendation systems of Face
ebook
II. International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design
02-04 May 2013
Famagusta – North Cyprus
Facebook can be described as a vault of personal data. Although most people recognize the issue, it cannot be argued that is illegal. Since
the user agrees to all the terms and conditions and the third party applications that are associated with this service, automatically agrees to
personal data exposure. Companies take advantage of such vulnerability, and develop targeted campaigns for specific groups of users.
Combining the results with the massive amount of registered Facebook users it can be argued that users are not highly concerned with this
matter. Since micro-targeted marketing is well spread in social media services, the majority of the users feel comfortable to expose personal
information over time.
Taking in to account that data mining and recommendation systems are highly applicable in Facebook, it cannot be expected that a high
amount of users will be offended by the advertising content. As Schlosser et al. (1999) identify, 71% of the respondents are never-toseldom offended from internet advertising in general. A total of 54% disagree that content from internet ads insult their intelligence, and
22% have no strong feeling regarding the issue. Based on the survey, an amount of 61% claims that they rarely-to-never feel offended by
Facebook ads, with only 17,5% of the overall sample being offended in regular basis by Facebook ads. By comparing the results it can be
argued that online advertisements were never related with insulting issues. Moreover, since data mining is becoming highly sophisticated,
the majority of the ads are based on users previously expressed preferences. Hence, a significant number of such ads reflects the users
taste or purchasing desire, and could not be offending or insulting.
A high amount of the respondents (67%) seldom-to-never use internet advertising as a help for their purchases. Additionally, 30%
of the sample does not feel confident to use advertisements as a source of information that will determine their purchasing decisions.
Although 62% agrees that internet advertising is informative in general it can be said that it is not a highly trusted source for subjective
decisions. Television is considered the most influential mechanism for advertising. Facebook groups or pages are the ones with the least
responses. The vast majority of the respondents believe that Facebook generate no influence through advertising. Although the results are
not encouraging, and definitely do not suggest that Facebook is an influential advertising platform, a significant percentage of the sample
agrees that Facebook can be used on its own an as advertising medium. Taking that into account it can be argued that Facebook generates
an environment that attracts consumers from an aesthetic point of view. Since the majority of the sample clearly argues that television and
print media are generating a higher amount of purchasing intention compared to Facebook and internet advertising in general, the only
assumption that it can be supported is the aesthetical capabilities of Facebook. Furthermore, the recall of the ad is an important parameter
that has to be taken into consideration. So at this point it can be argued that television and print media are acting as the information
senders, and Facebook as the environment that the consumer has the chance to explore, and understand the brand or the product. Hence,
users see Facebook as an interacting environment rather than an information broadcaster. Our results are in line with Eikelman et al.
(2008), and Drury (2008) regarding message generation and message distribution.
One of the areas that it has been extensively covered throughout the project is the implication of social pressure when it comes to
purchase decisions. As the majority of the resources claim, social groups play a significant role on influencing and forming opinions of
individuals. Based on those parameters the study tried to explore the extend to which such statements reflect the status quo on Facebook.
A significant amount (43.2 %) argued that suggestions from facebook friends do not affect their purchasing intentions. Combining all the
positive responses to that question, almost 57% of the total sample confessed that friends on facebook are generating a level of influence,
and their opinion has an impact on what they want to buy. Based on what it has been discussed so far, eWOM might be more beneficial
when it comes to influencing consumers. Assuming that people with an extensive knowledge on a specific topic generate eWOM in most
cases the chances of influencing are higher. Influence from social pressure might result from people that are known to the user not as
friends, but as active people in an online community that holds extensive knowledge upon a specific topic. In addition to the above, since
brands are adopting the idea of social advocates, the above can occur in a higher frequency with the support of specialized individuals. To
conclude with, social pressure and social influence shift towards individuals with deep understanding of a product or a service rather than
individuals with links to an influential consumer.
As the results suggest, Facebook friends’ suggestions develop a significantly higher amount of influence compared to ads that
are generated directly from Facebook. In addition to that, an total of 34.3% indicates that neither of the two methods generates any
influence regarding their shopping habits. A similar situation as the one proposed by Iyengar et al. (2009) occurred. The generation of
various status groups is responsible for the responses that resulted from the questionnaire. As the results indicate, ads with social context
are the ones with higher chances of succeeding.
Conclusion
Facebook is a platform that has as a main purpose to connect people, and encourage social interactions; companies should invest on such
features, and put effort to create campaigns with the above as foundations. Taking into account the results of the study, Facebook is
becoming a promising platform for promoting a product or a service. Although a number of the results do not provide substantial amount of
information for the future of such a mechanism, users are aware of the phenomenon. Social pressure is a key factor when it comes to the
success of a marketing campaign that is executed via social media.
Social networking sites are the link between the brand and the consumer. Based on that, the majority of the firms are following
this route to attract consumers, and generate eWOM for their products and services. As the survey suggests, the succeeding parameter is
not entirely based on the brand and the development of the campaign, but also to the social advocates that will occur from that process.
Although Facebook can be used on its own as an advertising channel, it cannot be established that it will be beneficial for the brand. A safer
approach is the blending of Facebook with the traditional media of advertising and the generation of an interacting environment between
user and brand prior the purchase.
As the results from the survey suggest, firms should follow a social-centric approach, and embed interactive engagement in the
marketing campaign that will be used as the primal force in the generation of eWOM and social advocates. Based on the nature of the
service, the exposure of personal information is almost unavoidable. Since the internet has became a part of our everyday lives, various
authorities that are responsible for the safety of personal data are trying to minimize the exposure of personal data with application of
various restriction, and terms and condition that must be clearly visible in any web site that relies heavily on the personal data of the user.
Future research endeavours could employ interpretivistic approaches to explore the concepts in depth, by also using various Higher
Education Institutions for a comparative analysis to investigate how students understand the advertising mechanisms of Facebook. In
addition to the above the future study can take a slightly different focal point and explore the effectiveness of eWOM through Facebook and
how users react to the phenomenon.
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II. International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design
02-04 May 2013
Famagusta – North Cyprus
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