Mere exposure effect: I forhold til brands, hvis TV-reklamer opfattes negativt af forbrugeren

Abstract

This master thesis is produced in the period from April 1st to September 15th 2009 and the overall topic is whether ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ is applicable for brands, where the TV–commercial is perceived negative by the consumer. The master thesis is based on a wonderment that some brands, despite of negatively perceived TV-advertisement, are able to increase their market share. The commercial for Cillit Bang “Antikalk” is voted as the worst commercial of the year 2008. Nevertheless, the market share has still been steady growing over the last years. This makes the Cillit Bang’s commercial perfect as a test commercial. Robert B. Zajonc’s theory ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ suggest that multiple exposures create a more positive attitude towards the product. Consequently we want to test if this theory also is applicable on advertising perceived negatively by the consumers as is the case for Cillit Bang. Cognitive consumer theory cannot explain ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ because cognitive consumer theory proposes that the consumer will reject the advertising if he/she does not like it after the first exposure. Newer theory within neuroscience has shown that even though we as consumers like to think ourselves as rational thinkers we are not. If the product/brand is within the category of low involvement the consumer will react emotionally and then maybe rationally afterwards. This means that a lot of a consumer’s decisions are taken without the consumer’s consciousness, because the emotional reactions are unconscious Methodologically this master thesis is based on an experimental approach. The goal o is 1) to test whether ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ is applicable for brands, where the TV-commercial is negatively perceived by the consumers as well as for brands, where the TV-commercial is perceived positively and neutral by the consumer. 2) to describe and explain the results and 3) to understand why ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ is applicable. The results are founded on our own empirical study and the explanations are based on surveys and theories within neuroscience such as theory about the brain structure, the memory, the difference between feelings and emotions, somatic markers and familiarity. The results in this master thesis imply that the ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ is overall applicable for brands like Cillit Bang, where its TV-commercial is perceived negatively by the consumers as well as for brands, whose TV-commercial is perceived positively and neutrally by the consumers. The reason why the ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ is valid is that we as consumers tend to be positive towards things that we are familiar with. This stems from the fact that people automatically and instinctively react negatively and cautious towards something unknown. The more times we are presented with for example advertisements, the more familiar and uncritical and thus more positive we are. The consumer mistakenly confuses familiarity with an increased positivism. When we as consumers are exposed to stimulus like a TV-commercial, we will store the stimulus in our memory unconsciously. The stimulus that is stored unconsciously will appear as a collection of the emotional response that the consumer showed towards the brand at the time of exposure. This emotional response will as a result of multiple exposures become more and more positive. What the consumer will remember is not the TV-commercial, but the collection of the emotional response that the consumer showed towards the brand. The consumer will not remember the TV-commercial, only the brand, which is why ‘Mere Exposure Effect’ is applicable also for brands, where the TV-commercial is perceived negatively by the consumer.