Problem Statement

Nowadays, there are many new products and services that spread all over the markets. The advertisement is very important to company because it will give company and businesses an opportunity to build up a brand and identity especially for a new company or product to introduce their businesses to the public. However, sometimes the ads will create negative perception to the public because these ads sometimes offensive but sometime, this controversial advertising will give positive impact to customer such as it will increase consumers’ awareness and will generate more sales. so, this study is purpose to investigate are the controversial advertising is more effective compare to the uncontroversial advertising.

Research Objectives

The objective of this research is generally to understand the people’s attitude and behavior towards the controversial ads. Specifically, the objective of this study is:

a) What is the impact of the controversial advertising on consumers’ attitude towards the product and company that was advertised and the behavioral intention (purchase intention and word of mouth)?

b) Does consumers’ familiarity towards the controversial advertising will increase the consumers’ positive attitude towards the product and company that was advertised and behavioral intention (purchase intention and word of mouth)?
 

Research Questions

The objective of this research is generally to understand the people’s attitude and behavior towards the controversial ads. Specifically, the objective of this study is:

a) What is the impact of the controversial advertising on consumers’ attitude towards the product and company that was advertised and the behavioral intention (purchase intention and word of mouth)?
b) Does consumers’ familiarity towards the controversial advertising will increase the consumers’ positive attitude towards the product and company that was advertised and behavioral intention (purchase intention and word of mouth)?
 

Introduction

Nowadays, controversial advertisements have been more and more quickly spread in the market. Marketers actually may deliberately or unintentionally make their advertisements controversial. Sometimes they are not realizing that their advertisements are controversial until the advertisement creates much criticism from the public. If the ads are deliberately created to be controversial, it is actually the marketers are intended to gain attention to the audience and bring up positive results. However, if the ads are actually unintentionally controversial, it will be unintended negative consequences which may be harmful to organizational reputation and then also possible to harm the products brands. Moreover, there might be times when marketers are intentional in making their campaigns moderately controversial but their ads results in unintended negative consequences as marketers cannot control the controversy. Because of that, people who receive the message from the campaigns find the ads are too offensive. Therefore, it is possible to make they hate the product brands that promoted in the ads. So, organizations should be able to handle the situation effectively when responding to such situations.

The first place that the definitions of the controversial and offensive advertisement are differ is very important to be noted. Controversial ads can be defined as “advertising that, by the type of product or execution can elicit reactions of embarrassment, distaste, disgust, offence, or outrage from a segment of the population when presented (Waller, 2005). In this sense, the controversial ads will lead to either negative or positive consequences as a results of extreme emotional response they elicit from the receivers. On the other hands, the offensive ads only include those that result in negative consequences and therefore are subsets of controversial ads.

The studies on both of offensive and controversial advertising have gained attention from marketing scholars. The previous literature has addressed issues including factors influencing controversial ads (Beard, 2008; Fam, Waller, & Erdogan, 2004; Waller, 2007), culture and controversial ads (Chan et. Al., 2007; Fam & Waller, 2003), perceptions of audience towards offensive ads, and response to controversial ads (Waller, 2005; Waller & Polonsky, 1996). Waller (2005) was proposed a response model for controversial ads. In this model, he showed the interaction process that starting from the audience being exposed to the ads as well as their mental and physical responses to the ads. His model is very important because it provided a good basis for studying response for controversial ads to help us to understand more deeply about the process from the audience perspective. However, it did not discuss the communication strategies to handle the situations where message receivers found the controversial ads offensive.

Furthermore, when any controversial ads become offensive to any certain group of people, it should be acknowledge the causes of offensiveness or identify the rational reasons why the people perceive those ads as controversial. It is important to any organization as a guide to overcome the problem. There three reasons that the sense being offended. One of the reasons is unintentional ignorance. Unintentional ignorance is very dangerous because it will lead advertisers and marketers to create advertisements that may be sensitive to certain groups of people. Usually, this situation will occur in international ads because the culture over the world is different among each other. Sometimes the advertisers or marketers already done research about the differences of culture among the people over the world especially to the targeted audiences but there are some people those like to know everything about every culture over the world. The second reason is it is so hard for advertisers or marketers to create advertising that can be accepted by every single person. For example, when the advertisers or marketers created advertisement about sex appeal or violence that will focus to the younger generation audiences, but the ads will give negative perceptions to the older generation because they maybe finds the ads very offensive. The third reason is related to the second one that is people who are not targeted in the ads campaign also exposed to the message in the ads (Waller, 2005). The last one is the services, topics or products that advertised may be sensitive by their nature to the public such as condom ads.

InTroDucTioN of mYselF

I’m Nur Asmiha Binti Azmi matric number 24540. I'm was born on 20 January 1990 at Kampung Kulim Pasir Puteh Kelantan. my current education is  in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in business administration in marketing programme. I'm interested in many activities such as reading novel, watch movies especially action movie and sometimes in the weekend, I spend my time to swim especially in the river. ha ha....I don't like swim in the swimming pool because it is too narrow....however, actually there are no swimming pool at my home. ho ho..In addition, family and friends is everything for me. I love my family more than myself. I cant live without them. Yarrr....money is important things in live, but family and friends is great important over every things..

 

DimEnSioN oF ReSeaRcH

    

My research is about exploratory and explanatory or causal research. As explained by DJS Research Ltd., exploratory research is simply allows the marketer to gain a greater understanding of something that he or she does not know enough about. Differing mainly in design from descriptive research, exploratory research is used principally to gain a deeper understanding of something. The design is far more flexible and dynamic than that of descriptive research. So, refer to my research topic, just because I known that the offensive advertisements will make the ads to become controversial, it does not means that I understand the attitude and behaviour towards the advertisement. While explanatory research focuses on why questions. For example, it is one thing to describe the customer’s attitude and behavior towards the controversial advertisements. It is quite a different thing to develop explanations about the reasons of the factors that make the advertisements become offensive. The way in which I develop research designs is fundamentally affected by whether the research question is descriptive or explanatory. It affects what information is collected. Answering the ‘why’ questions involves developing causal explanations.

    There are two dimensions of use of research that are basic and applied research. Basic research or fundamental research is the sources of most new scientific ideas and ways of thinking about the world.  For example, academics (professors and lecturers) engage in basic research in an effort to understand and generate more knowledge about various aspects of businesses, such as “how to improve the effectiveness of information system?” It is different with applied research that tries to solve specific policy problems or help practitioners accomplish tasks. In the context of business research, it is use to solve a current problem in the work setting. For example, “Apple’s iPod sales increased by 200% from 2001 to 2008, however it was decreased by 6% in 2009. What is the reason for this decrease?”  So, my research is about basic research because I will engage in an effort to understand and generate more knowledge about the customer’s attitude and behavior towards the controversial advertisements, such as “what are the attitude and behavior of customers towards the advertisement that create controversial?

     There are two time dimensions in research that are cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. In the cross-sectional studies, a study can be done in which data are gathered just once, perhaps over a period of days or weeks or months in order to answer a research question. There advantages and disadvantages from this kind of time dimensions. It is cheapest and cheap. That is one of its advantages, but it cannot capture social processes or change. Longitudinal studies are studying people or phenomena at more than one point in time in order to answer the research question. It is more powerful and can capture social processes or change compare to cross-sectional studies. However, it more complex and sometimes costly. So, refer to my topic research, its time dimension is longitudinal studies because its need to study more than one point in time in order to answer the research question. Another that, data are gathered not only just once, but it needs to explore many times until it satisfied. Sometimes gathering the data still in progress even though the research has finished. 

FacTs aNd TheOrY

The terms fact and theory are words with different meanings. In the scientific world, facts are what one can readily observe. It can relate to any objective and real phenomenon. Otherwise, theories in science are likened to the explanations to what has been observed. Refer to my topic issue; the facts are the negative perception of consumers towards collaboration between MAS and Air Asia and the theory are the explanation the reasons why customers put the bad perception on the issues. So, the theory is customers put the bad perception towards the collaboration because it will give the negative impact to them. This collaboration will less the frequency of flight, higher ticket prices, poorer service levels and reduced job prospects. 

HoW tO NaRRoW DoWn tHe ReSeaRcH ToPic

       To narrow down the topic, firstly, I will perform a research. I will use the internat and go to the UNIMAS's library to find some journals and book that can be used as a guide to gain more knowledge about the topic area. Then, I will finds for the subtopics that can be used to narrow down the research topic. Secondly, I will brainstorm the topic and ask anyone's opinion about the topic. Then, I will write down the topic on a sheet of paper. To make it easy and clear, I will write it as down as many related words and ideas as I can. When all the things are finished, I will try to categorize them and collects words and ideas that are related to each athers. After that, I will focus on aspect of the topic and emphasizing on the implication or effect of the chosen topic. I will consider the time and place of research. For example, the study will take place at Kota Samarahan and Kuching, Sarawak. Finally, I will focus on age, gender and ethnic background of that unit of analysis whether it is individual, household or organization.

InDucTiVe oR DeDucTiVe tYpE oF rEsEaRch

      Theories based on deduction and induction help us to understand, explain, and predict business phenomena. When research is designed to test some specific hypothesized outcomes, as for instance to see if controlling aversive noise in the environment increase the performance of individuals in solving mental puzzles, the following steps ensue.

    The type of my topic research is deductive type. Deductive type is a research that use deduction processes to answer any particular issue. Deduction processes is the processes by which we arrive at a reasoned conclusion by logical generalization of a known facts. Refer to my research topic, we know that the offensive advertisements will make if become controversial and will influences the attitude and behaviour of customers towards it. 

"wHaT iS ReSeaRch"?

   Research, a somewhat intimidating term for some, is simply the processes of finding solutions to a problem after a thorough study and analysis of the situational factors. Business research can be described as a systematic and organized effort to investigate a specific problem encountered in the work setting that needs a solution. In the context of manager, business research comprises a series of steps designed and executed with the goal of finding answer to the issues that are of concern to the manager in the work environment. There are several steps in business research. Firstly, know where the problem areas exist in the organization. Secondly, identify as clearly and specifically as possible the problems that need to be studied and resolved. Then, gather information, analyze the data and determine the factors that are associated with the problem and solve it by taking the necessary corrective measures.