ADVERTORIAL WITHOUT ADVERTISING DISCLAIMER: an analysis of its impact on purchasing intention on fashion blogs

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1 1 ADVERTORIAL WITHOUT ADVERTISING DISCLAIMER: an analysis of its impact on purchasing intention on fashion blogs LITERATURE REVIEW This research intends to measure the influence of advertorial posts on the readers purchase intention, which is believed to be moderated by the involvement readers have with the product itself and also by the opinion position readers hold (either leader or seeker). Next, literature review will make it clearer. Internet has allowed individuals to search and produce information in a simpler and more direct manner, with no bureaucracies. Blogs are now both a source of information and recommendation, surpassing its initial use as an extension of the author s personal journal. This alteration happened due to technological progress and expansion of cyberspace. (Schifrin, 2005; Singh, Veron-Jackson, & Cullinane, 2008; Sullivan, 2002). The spreading of the blogs as a conversational platform has turned it into a valued tool in the cyberculture, providing exchange and interaction neither seen nor explored before (Kozinets, Hemetsberger, & Schau, 2008; Marlow, 2004). What used to be a trend and opinions sharing space has become a respectful business. The revenue could come not only through the sales of banners, but also through the selling of posts, which are no longer truthful testimonies. Instead, they are advertising, either discrete or hidden (Martin & Smith, 2008; Storey, 2013). Then, blogs posted mainly editorials, but now it is possible to find a large variety of advertorials, that are posts including some sort of advertising embedded in it, which may or may not present an advertising disclaimer (Walsh, 2007). Those bloggers that have a large number of seekers are hired by companies to advertise their products or brands on the blog. That type of contract may be a marketing tool for companies in different industries, ranging from clothing, shoes and women accessories to wine producers and airway companies. They all try to reach consumers through such famous bloggers (Bloomberg TV, 2013; Gray, n.d.; Hauteville, n.d.; Storey, 2013). Bloggers influence consumption and inspire trust making them more significant as a communication tool. Those who read blogs see the bloggers as opinion leaders, reasons being their access to new products, the credibility they were able to build over time, and even their empathy (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Kozinets, De Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010). The credibility held by the blogger is relevant because people need and desire reliable sources (Gillmor, 2006). Rettberg (2010) says that people will trust or distrust bloggers according to their perception of the bloggers honesty. Since blogs have acquired good reputation, many bloggers are turning the blogging activity into their full-time profession, being able to keep financial independence through the sales of advertisement possibilities. Because blogs are dictated by a theme, it is possible to attract and retain companies whose brands and products are aligned with the blog content (Rettberg, 2010). Kim, Pasadeos, and Barban (2001) tested how powerful advertorial may be on printed media, and concluded that such format increased perceived message relevance, attention to written message, message elaboration, and message recall over the use of a standard advertisement format. Responses to labeled and unlabeled versions of the same advertorial did not vary significantly (p. 265). However, the relationship between companies and bloggers may have a side effect that is the breach of trust readers may experience, since a sponsored post may lessen both blogs

2 2 and bloggers credibility (Rettberg, 2010). The reason behind it is the fact that advertising a brand or product may force bloggers to post something confliction with their beliefs. Still Zanette, Brito, and Coutinho (2013) indicate that advertisement unrelated with the bloggers values is ignored by the reader, which means that the blogger s credibility is not tainted. Therefore, it is believed that diverse types of postings may influence readers purchase intention in distinct ways. In this research, two kinds of posting were analyzed, being (1) advertorial with disclaimer and (2) editorial or advertorial without disclaimer, since its main characteristic is not to be completely noticed. Thus, our first hypotheses are: H1: Readers Purchase Intention is lower for advertorial posts with a disclaimer. H2: Readers Purchase Intention is higher for editorial/ advertorial posts without a disclaimer. Opinion leaders are individual that manage to influence others, modify their opinions and, also, become a reference in that specific subject (Watts & Dodds, 2007). As a rule, they initiate the process of acceptance of new products and trends. Especially when it comes to fashion, opinion leaders show higher need for uniqueness than opinion seekers (Bertrandias & Goldsmith, 2006). The success of a new product in the fashion industry is determined by the adoption from the majority of consumers in that market (Polegato & Wall, 1980). Such adoption may be initiated and accelerated by the opinion leaders (Sproles, 1979), people who are interested in or concerned about fashion, advising or sharing it with consumers (Goldsmith, 2000). When consumers follow such recommendations, they may be called opinion seekers, and are an important part of the diffusion process, since they act upon the information gathered from the opinion leaders (i.e.: they purchase, wear, adopt brands and products) (Flynn, Goldsmith, & Eastman, 1996; Goldsmith, 2000). The main difference between leaders and seekers is that the latter do not show the same level of interest and knowledge of the former and, because of that, uses them as a source of information (Flynn, Goldsmith, & Eastman, 1996; Goldsmith, 2000). Leaders and seekers are not mutually exclusive, which means that seekers might get information from leaders, and then become leaders themselves to a different group of seekers (Goldsmith & Clark, 2008). Therefore, it is noticeable that readers purchase intention may be influenced by the opinion position held, if they are leaders or seekers. So, the hypotheses are: H3: There is no difference in the opinion seekers purchase intention for either types of posting. H4: Opinion leaders purchase intention is higher for editorial/ advertorial without disclaimer posts rather than for advertorial with disclaimer ones. Consumers delegate various meanings to objects, establishing therefore different connections with products. The understanding of how such connections are built and kept, and how they may vary from one person to another are of interest to both researchers and managers (O Cass, 2000). Thus, the search for the understanding of product involvement has issued a vast literature featuring multiple definitions, like the ones by Laurent and Kapferer (1985), Mittal and Lee (1989) e Zaichkowsky (1985, 1986). However, in this research we adopted O Cass (2000) definition, which states that product involvement is the interaction between an individual and an object and refers to the relative strength of the consumers cognitive structure related to a focal object (p. 548).

3 3 The relationship between product involvement and fashion clothing has already been investigated by other authors, such as Browne and Kaldenberg (1997) and O Cass (2001), that analyzed the involvement construct related to the fashion clothing consumption and selfmonitoring and materialism. Different behavior between those who present either high or low involvement has been identified in prior researches. Individuals showing high product involvement present a lessened purchase intention and overall impression of the product when an ad does not feature strong selling arguments, which is a situation that cannot be observed in individuals showing low product involvement. Famous endorsers have also failed in increasing such attitudes on highly involved people (Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). Kinley, Josiam, and Lockett (2010) may provide an explanation for such phenomenon, since they have pointed out that young consumers showing high product involvement with fashion clothing search actively for information and analyze advertising content more carefully. So, it is expected that: H5: Readers showing high product involvement with fashion present a lower purchase intention when the posting is advertorial with disclaimer rather than when it is editorial/ advertorial without disclaimer. METHOD A 2 (editorial/ advertorial with or without disclaimer advertisement) X 2 (high or low involvement) X 2 (opinion leader or opinion seeker) between-subjects experiment was undertaken. As dependent variable, readers purchase intention of the product being advertised in the post was considered. As source credibility might affect message persuasion (Nan, 2013), a fictitious fashion blog was used instead of a real and known one. Thus, two pages were created, each featuring one type of posting. A plausible story was developed aiming to insert the blogger into the participants universe and create a closer relationship between them. According to the story, the blogger lives in São Paulo, is 22 years old, blogs about famous national and international brands, and is quite influential, holding approximately 10 million visits every month. Also, she is frequently mentioned on other famous fashion blogs. Following that story, participants were randomly presented with one of the two types of posting, which then separated them into two groups: (1) those who saw advertorials with advertisement disclaimer and (2) those who saw advertorials without advertisement disclaimer. One question after the measurement of the dependent variable served as manipulation check, ensuring the desired effect. For the measuring of the variables, Putrevu and Lord s (1994) scale was used for purchasing intention, O Cass (2002) for product involvement, and Flynn, Goldsmith, and Eastman s (1996) for opinion position. All scales were originally in English, therefore a reverse translation process to Portuguese was used with the support of two English fluentspeaking people. Thus, the best wording for each scale item was determined while keeping the original meaning. Some of the items had to be altered to better suit this research, relating them to the experiment setting. The answers were recorded in a 7-point scale, anchored by strongly agree and strongly disagree. Data was collected through an Internet platform. Initially, two questions verified the respondent s gender and blog reading habit, once the sample should be comprised of women who were fashion blog readers only. Next, respondents were presented with one of the two

4 4 stimuli, answered to the independent and dependent variable scales, to the manipulation check and also to demographic questions. During the month of March 2013, 355 valid cases were collected, being excluded male respondents (27), non-blog readers (98), bloggers (51), who are not the average reader of this kind of blog, and those who did not perceive the intended manipulation (202). The large number of respondents who were not aware of the intended manipulation was also found in Kim, Pasadeos, and Barban (2001), once the nature of the advertorial disclaimer is to be slightly noticeable. DATA ANALYSIS Firstly, data were analyzed as to its normality, and results proved it to be normal. Next, all scales had their reliability tested, with the following indexes for Crombach s Alpha:.868 purchase intention,.941 for involvement,.787 for opinion seeker, and.768 for opinion leader. A principal component analysis confirmed the scales unidimensionality. After validating the scales structures, an analysis of variance was made considering respondents purchase intention as dependable variable. Advertorial with disclaimer condition had 103 respondents and without disclaimer condition totalized 252 respondents. With the exceptions being the purchase intention and with/without disclaimer variables, all other variables were split into two groups according to its median. Table 1 Test of effect between subjects Type III Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Significancy Partial Eta Squared Corrected Model 108,26ª 7 15,47 11,10 0 0,18 Intercept 2081, , ,74 0 0,81 Type of posting 39, ,53 28,36 0 0,08 Involvement 15,76 2 7,88 5,66 0,004 0,03 Opinion Leader 19,09 2 9,55 6,85 0,001 0,04 Opinion Seeker 1,36 2 0,68 0,49 0,614 0,00 Error 483, ,39 Total 2856, Total corrected 591, Table 1 shows the results of the ANOVA. The main effect of the type of posting is significant, indicating that the average purchase intention is higher in editorial/ advertorial without disclaimer post condition (F (1, 347) = 28,363, p < 0,001, = 0,25), confirming H1 and H2. We can also verify an indication of support for H3, once it was not found a significant difference on the interaction between the type of posting and opinion seeker, suggesting that such profile of readers does not have their intention of purchase affected by whether the post is editorial or advertorial (F (2,347) = 0,488, p = 0,614). Hypothesis 4 predicts that purchase intention of those who are considered to be opinion leaders would be higher when impacted by an editorial/advertorial without disclaimer post rather than an advertising one. Such effect may also be observed, since the interaction between the two variables is significant (F (2,347) = 6,85, p = 0,001, = 0,17), being the average purchase intention M leader editorial = 3,346, SD = 0,191 vs. M leader advertising = 2,569, SD = 0,110. The interaction between type of posting and product involvement also generated the expected results, being significant and supporting H5 (F (2,347) = 5,655, p = 0,004, =

5 5 0,15). That is, it is possible to say that purchase intention is higher for those highly involved with fashion when the post is editorial rather than advertising (M high involv editorial = 3,480, SD = 0,167 vs. M high involv advertising = 2,430, SD = 0,111). FINAL REMARKS As blogs started being used as a source of recommendation, many bloggers created a reputation of credibility and trust amongst their readers. Thus, such bloggers have been able to turn this activity into a full time job, once companies got interested in advertising their products and brands on such medium. One of the tools they use is advertorial post, whether they are explicitly identified as advertising or not. However, giving the commercial aspect the product recommendations may taint blog s credibility. This research showed that reader s purchase intention toward that product and brand is lower when the blogger decides to use the blog to advertise products and brands. Readers may believe the advertising does not represent the actual opinion of the blogger, which then decreases their intentions to purchase the advertised product. Readers see the blogger as someone who dictates values, attitudes and behavior, being an inspirational and aspirational entity, and see the products indicated by them on their blogs as a way to fit in. In the role of opinions seekers, readers will therefore tend to do as indicated by the bloggers, no matter whether it is advertising or not, since that is the way they feel they may fit in. However, for those readers who are opinion leaders to certain reference groups, yet seeker of the bloggers, the type of post may have different results, being the editorial only the better suited to generate higher purchase intention, which confirms one of the hypothesis herein described. Notwithstanding, there is one matter that poses a direct interference on the readers purchase intention, which is the level of product involvement. In the case of highly involved people, it is possible to say that the existence or not of advertising impacts their behavior, since editorial posts assure higher purchase intention, also confirming one of our hypothesis. One possible reason for that is the level of information that highly involved readers already possess and gather, making the bloggers opinion less relevant when the post is clearly an advertisement. The results also indicate a potential problem in the relationship between bloggers and readers. Knowing that advertising posts generate not so efficient results, bloggers may be tempted to practice stealth marketing, receiving money from companies and omitting the advertisement aspect of the post from their readers, which has clear ethical issues and may generate a credibility crisis if found out. Also, the large number of respondents who did not correctly identified the editorial/ advertorial posts may serve as an indicator that the concealed artifice works effectively. This practice can mislead consumers, maybe not even damaging the relationship between blogger and reader. Based on the results discussed here, we can also discuss opportunities for new research. It is recommended evaluating the effectiveness of the advertising posts as to actual sales generation, not only purchasing intention. It is also recommended to investigate different product categories and audiences with different profiles.

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