h 60 (2007) 932–941

Journal of Business Researc

Advertising message strategies for encouraging young White workingclass males to consider entering British universities

Roger Bennett ⁎

Centre for Research in Marketing, Department of Business and Service Sector Management, London Metropolitan University,84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ, United Kingdom

Received 1 June 2006; received in revised form 1 December 2006; accepted 1 January 2007

Abstract

One hundred and sixty-one 16 to 18 year old White working class youngsters currently enrolled on post-school vocational courses at twofurther education colleges in central London viewed four advertisements designed to arouse interest in the idea of going to university. Two of theadvertisements contain visual images with no accompanying text; two contain purely documentary information. Each advertisement relates toeither a hedonistic or a utilitarian theme. Participants' responses were analyzed with respect to a person's financial status, prior knowledge of thecharacteristics of university life, perceptions that university attendance carries a high-risk of not obtaining long-term financial benefit, levels ofpersonal ambition, and fear of possible social isolation consequent to enrolling on an undergraduate programme.© 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Advertising; Student recruitment; Hedonic versus utilitarian messages; Widening participation; Non-traditional students

1. Introduction

The failure of British universities to attract and retain Whitestudents from working class backgrounds is a major andpressing issue currently facing UK higher education (Archerand Yamashita, 2003; Collier et al., 2003; Gillborn and Kirton,2000; Gorard, 2005; Quinn, 2004). Successive governmentsvoice their commitment to widening access to higher education(HE) yet, by the turn of the millennium, barely 15% of Britishchildren whose parents were unskilled or partly skilled attendeduniversity versus 70% of youngsters with parents who workedin professional occupations (Blanden, 2005). Inequality is acuteparticularly in relation to White working class boys. By 2000,females outnumbered males in British higher education by aratio of 60 to 40 (UCAS, 2004), and the difference was evenhigher where non-White women were concerned. Fifty-nine percent of all (predominantly lower social grouping) ethnic minor-ity females aged 18 or 19 years attended university during 2001compared with 32% of this age cohort for the rest of the nation(Baty, 2002). Overall, ethnic minorities accounted for 15% of

⁎ Tel.: +44 020 7320 1577; fax: +44 020 7320 1465.E-mail address: r.bennett@londonmet.ac.uk.

0148-2963/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.01.018

all UK undergraduates, while comprising just 6% of the work-ing population.

In sharp contrast, participation in higher education (HE)by White males from lower socio-economic categories (at11% of the total UK student population) is disappointing (theaverage for working class females between 1994 and 2004was 14.5% — see UCAS, 2004; Hill, 2005). This state ofaffairs does not reflect the proportion of White working classboys attaining post-school qualifications, however, as morethan 80% of British youths from lower socio-economicgroups remain in post-compulsory education or training afterage 16 (DfES, 2005). Moreover, White working class Britishboys do not underachieve at school relative to males in mostother low socio-economic status categories. Indeed, accord-ing to Gillborn and Kirton (2000), White working class malesperform significantly better at school on average than work-ing class boys of Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani or Bangladeshiethnic heritage.

1.1. Aims of the research

Several government initiatives have attempted to induceworking class youngsters to enter university. In January 2002,

933R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

for instance, an advertising campaign spearheaded by famouscelebrities was launched using hedonistic visual imagery de-signed to illustrate (via pictures rather than words) the pleasuresof university life and hence to encourage working class young-sters to consider progressing to HE (Ahmed, 2002). Other state-funded programmes have been more somber and informative innature and document the financial and other material benefits ofHE (Gewirtz, 2001). In particular, the government's ‘AimHigher’ campaign attempted to describe the enhanced employ-ability and improved earning power of university graduates,targeting this information at youngsters from very poor back-grounds (Blanden, 2005). Growing governmental demands thatindividual universities develop their own schemes for inducingworking class Whites to enroll on undergraduate programmesaccompanied these initiatives (Baty, 2002; Bryson, 2004; Leaet al., 2003). Raising the willingness of White working classboys to explore the possibility of progressing to higher educa-tion necessitates the production of advertisements that possessthe capacity to arouse their interest in this matter. The presentinvestigation includes a sample of White working class 16 to 18old males currently at further education (FE) colleges andattending level 3 courses in vocational subjects that are notnormally associated with progression to university. In the Britishsystem, level 3 programmes occur after basic secondary schoolhas been completed and can lead to university level study. Entryrequirements for vocational level 3 courses are normally thesame as for conventional university matriculation qualifications.For operational purposes, a working class youth is someonewhose family falls within the UKMarket Research Society's C2,D and E social grade classifications. This incorporates peoplefrom manual, partly skilled and unskilled occupational back-grounds and who, in addition, experience some degree of eco-nomic disadvantage. Although rather crude, the above definitionhas been widely used in previous research and correlates sub-stantially with other measures of working classes (see Gorard,2005; Li et al., 2002). The investigation defines a White personas anyone who self-reports their ethnicity as being White, thusrecognizing that whiteness has a cultural as well as a colordimension (Heilman, 2004).

1.2. Literature review

As many dimensions of HE are novel to the above-mentioned target audience, marketers employ second-handdevices (essentially pictorial images and factual information) toshow the prospective student the nature of life at university (cf.Hill et al., 2004). Advertisements aimed at this audience couldcomprise, for instance, pictures of obviously happy youngpeople engaged in leisure pursuits completely unrelated toacademic study (dancing, playing football, socializing in a bar,windsurfing, etc.), hence projecting exciting and pleasurableimages (cf. Mittal and Baker, 2002). Alternatively, advertise-ments might focus on the objective quality of the education onoffer, on a university's facilities, student support services, futurejob and career prospects, and so on. The following sectionsbriefly review prior academic literature concerning the benefitsand drawbacks of the strategic advertising options available.

1.3. Visualization strategies versus documentation strategies

An advertisement can consist of pictures with hardly anywords, of words alone, or of a mixture of pictures and words.The messages conveyed may be mainly hedonistic, mainlyutilitarian, or involve both hedonistic and utilitarian elements(Hill et al., 2004). Hedonistic messages focus on pleasure andpersonal enjoyment and are intended to make a person feel moreinvolved in the activity, issue or entity described or portrayed inthe advertisement (Wakefield and Barnes, 1996). This sense ofinvolvement allegedly makes the individual more motivated toprocess the relevant information (Wakefield and Inman, 2003).Utilitarian messages, conversely, emphasize practical matterssuch as, in the current context, the quality of a university'slibrary, laboratories, lecture theatres and IT facilities, and en-hanced job prospects. Messages of this nature are unlikely toevoke emotional involvement (Hill et al., 2004).

Documentation strategies focus on the provision within anadvertisement of specific facts, figures and other informationthat explain or demonstrate a situation or justify a claim orproposition (Mittal and Baker, 2002). They represent a rational,straightforward and objective approach to advertising (Berryand Clark, 1986) and are found to work best when activities (i)can be easily described and recorded, and (ii) do not requiresubjective evaluations (Mittal, 1999). The information providedcould include details of an institution's facilities, the propor-tions of its students obtaining certain types of well-paid jobs,and examples of blue-chip companies that have employed theuniversity's graduates. Celebrities or past students who aresimilar to the target audience might give endorsements of aninstitution and/or of university life in general. Documentationstrategies supposedly confer a number of advantages, for exam-ple, making a potential student feel safe and that ‘university isfor people like me’, creating familiarity with and knowledge ofrelevant issues, and facilitating understanding and interpretation(cf. Mittal, 1999). Hill et al. (2004) find that individuals aremore attentive to documentary information when messagescontain hedonic themes, due to a greater tendency of people tosearch carefully for information about things they find enjoy-able and emotionally engaging. Documentation strategies canalso help a university (as a service provider) to overcome someof the problems associated with the intangibility of the HEexperience (Mittal, 1999; Berry and Clark, 1986). Hill et al.(2004) note that many people associate intangibility with a highlevel of risk. A-priori, therefore, potential students who regarduniversity entry as inherently risky might seek relatively largeamounts of documentary information about university life (cf.Grove et al., 1995), as opposed to relying on visual images.

A possible danger with the use of a documentary approach inthe present context is that the approach could make the idea ofgoing to university seem even more remote and incomprehen-sible to the target audience than previously. Also, documentaryadvertisements are often more effective when message re-cipients are highly motivated to obtain information (Aaker andNorris, 1982; Grove et al., 1995). This situation might not applyto many working class youngsters in relation to their con-sidering entering higher education (Capon and Burke, 1980).

934 R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

Thus, pictures might represent the best way of making the ideaof university more tangible to a White working class youngster(cf. Mittal, 1999). For example, a picture of a sympatheticlooking lecturer counseling a student in a comfortable and well-furnished office could illustrate the quality of a university'sstudent support services. Graduates receiving degree certificatesand/or working in a particular high-status occupation mightdepict the material benefits of a university education. Impor-tantly, pictures (and to a lesser extent certain other forms ofvisual imagery) can determine the natures and directions of theinferences that a person makes about a product, service ororganization (Smith, 1991). As an example, consider Mitchelland Olson's (1981) finding that people exposed to a picture of akitten beneath the brand name of a facial tissue tended toassume that the tissue was soft and absorbent. Pictures generatemental associations capable of creating beliefs over and aboveexplicit promises conveyed in the documentary text of anadvertisement (Smith, 1991). Visual stimuli have the capacity toevoke emotions (Hill et al., 2004) and may be more persuasiveowing to their being more interesting (Collins et al., 1988) andeasier to elaborate (Keller and Block, 1997). They can enhanceunderstanding of an issue (Taylor and Thompson, 1982) andincrease a person's inclination to construct mental associationsaround the imagery (Shedler and Manis, 1986).

2. Method

The study examines two hedonistic and two utilitarianadvertisements: each with one pictorial and one textual version.This does not imply that advertisements incorporating bothvisual imagery and substantial documentation and/or whichinclude both hedonistic and utilitarian messages are unimpor-tant. The purpose of this research is to explore the relativeimpacts of the four fundamental forms of execution in order tocreate a foundation for possible further investigations of thesemore complex and extensive combinations. Moreover, astraightforward 2×2 research design avoids respondent fatigue,permits a repeated sampling approach, and facilitates the anal-ysis of the core elements of the primary research question. Thecontent of the four advertisements follows the style of actualBritish university print advertisements and/or pictures andstatements on the first pages of university web sites that ap-peared during August and September 2005. A research assistantworking on the project analyzed a hundred press advertisementsand 75 first pages of web sites and coded their major elements ashedonistic or utilitarian, visual or documentary. Another facultymember repeated this exercise independently. The researcherscompared the results of the two assessments and resolved dis-agreements through discussion. This generated a battery ofpictures and documentary statements under the four headings.Thirty first year White working class male undergraduates wereasked to rate on scales of one to ten which of the hedonisticpictures and written sentences were the ‘most hedonistic’ andwhich of the utilitarian pictures and sentences were the ‘mostutilitarian’ (simple language defined these constructs). A draftadvertisement for the pictorial version used the nine highestscoring visual-hedonistic elements. The same procedure select-

ed nine pictures relating to utilitarian themes. Next, the ninehighest scoring written sentences describing hedonistic matterswere isolated; likewise for the nine ‘most utilitarian’ writtenstatements. As a final check on the validity of the allocations(and following the procedure recommended by Edell andStaelin, 1983) researchers gave a further group of 46 under-graduates the pictures (hedonistic and utilitarian) used in theadvertisements. Researchers then gave half of these a secondsheet containing the hedonistic documentary statements and theother half the utilitarian documentary statements. The subjectswere required to match each documentary statement with anappropriate picture. Thus students should have placed hedonis-tic statements, if they were truly hedonistic, alongside hedo-nistic pictures and vice versa. The group's accuracy inperforming the task was 96%.

Consequent to this exercise, four advertisements weredrafted, two containing pictures and two just involving words.Each of the pictorial advertisements contained nine smallpictures (all of which had been taken from actual universityadvertisements) showing various aspects of university life. Thehedonistic version carried images of students dancing in a club,participating in sports, socializing, and meeting girls. Con-versely the utilitarian pictorial advertisement had images ofstudents surrounded by excellent library, IT and laboratoryfacilities; of students being personally tutored in a sympa-thetic manner; of their working in attractive, spacious buildingsand well-equipped lecture theatres; and of their successfullygraduating from a course. The documentary hedonic advertise-ment contained written statements concerning points of ahedonistic nature comparable to those depicted in the pictures,while the documentary-utilitarian version incorporated utilitar-ian written elements. All the statements (hedonic and utilitarian)were modified (though only very marginally) from phrasesappearing in real life UK university advertisements. Theadvertisements used a fictitious university name (‘CapitalUniversity’) in order to avoid possible biases introducedthrough the test subjects having prior knowledge or a pre-existing stereotype image of a specific institution. Apart fromthe particular pictures or words contained in an advertise-ment, the layouts of the advertisements were identical vis-à-visimage size, typeface, etc., in order to avoid uncontrolledvariance in evaluations potentially attributable to theseconsiderations.

2.1. The sample

Universities would not wish to admit 18 year olds withminimal educational backgrounds (e.g., the functionally il-literate, or boys with learning difficulties who for academicreasons were required to leave school at the earliest allowableage [16 in the United Kingdom]), as they would not be able tocope with university level work. These boys needed to beexcluded from the study, together with the few White workingclass youths who had already committed themselves to seekinguniversity entry as evidenced by their staying on at school tocomplete A′ levels or undertaking university matriculationqualifications at an FE college. This leaves White working class

935R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

boys with the capacity to undertake a university degree but forwhom a decision to go to university was unlikely or at bestmarginal. Sixteen to 18 year old FE college students currentlyenrolled on level 3 vocational courses satisfy these criteria.These youths possess the basic qualifications needed to pursuepost-compulsory programmes (GCSEs or equivalent in the UKsystem), yet they have opted for courses and vocationalpathways other than those leading to HE. Examples of relevantprogrammes are the level 3 Advanced Construction IndustryAward; level 3 City and Guilds Web Design; City and GuildsElectrical Installation Part 2; the Institute of Motor Industries'level 3 Diploma; and various level 3 Performing Arts Industrymusic and theatre management qualifications. Numerous level3 courses are also taught in the fields of medical care,computing methods (design, animation, graphics, etc.), andtourism.

The sample itself comprised 161 sixteen to 18 year oldstudents enrolled on some of the above-mentioned vocationalprogrammes in two FE colleges affiliated with a university.Only people who described themselves as White; whose parentsundertook C2, D or E occupations; and who did not respond inthe very strongly agree or strongly agree categories to a state-ment worded ‘Compared to most other families in my local area,my family is financially well-off’, were included. The district inwhich the two FE colleges are located is one of the highestranking for social deprivation in the United Kingdom and hasone of the lowest per capita family incomes in Western Europe.Overwhelmingly the student intakes of the two colleges werefrom financially poor families. Individuals satisfying the above-mentioned criteria from the first college (N=79) were com-pleting level 3 vocational courses related to: the motor vehicleindustry, carpentry, joinery and construction, or to electricalmaintenance. Students in the second college (N=82) wereundertaking courses in the same fields or in health and fitnessindustry related programmes. Students received questionnairesand associated imagery during classes and returned ninety percent of the questionnaires. Each individual recorded hisreactions to all four advertisements. The study used dependentvariables drawn from the ‘interest arousal’ and ‘informationgeneration’ sections of Bruner and Hensel's (1994) compendi-um of advertising effectiveness scales. A factor analysis of the161 participants' assessments (seven-point scales: 7=verystrongly agree; 1=very strongly disagree) of each of the fouradvertisements revealed similar two-dimensional factor struc-tures in all four cases. Appendix A lists the items in each factor(one labeled as “interest arousal” and the other designated as“informativeness”). For all four executions each of the twofactors explained at least 30% of total variation in the data.Cronbach's alpha values exceed 0.84 in all cases, indicatingsound internal reliability, so the relevant sets of items wereamalgamated into single scales.

2.2. Hypotheses

Researchers propose a number of factors as contributing tothe causes of the under representation in HE of White malestudents from C2, D and E families. These factors might in turn

influence a respondent's reactions to the advertisements used inthe investigation.

2.3. Financial indigence

Although none of the participants in the study reported thattheir families were financially well-off (see above), some werefrom poorer backgrounds than others. Financial indigence couldaffect the subjects' responses positively or negatively. The verypoor might be less interested in all the advertisements becausethey simply cannot afford to attend university (Davies, 1999).On the other hand, the financially indigent might be moreresponsive to all the advertisements as the advertisements mightstimulate thoughts concerning university as a means for es-caping a current unfortunate material position (Mello, 2004).The first hypothesis tested in the course of the investigationfollows (for convenience) the former position. H1: Financialindigence exerts a negative influence on a sample member'sresponses to all the advertisements.

To assess a person's financial status the respondent wasasked (given that he would not know the details of his parents'financial affairs) to indicate his agreement or disagreement (on aseven-point scale) with the statement ‘Compared to most otherfamilies in my local area, my family is financially well-off’. Theanalysis excluded people replying in the top two categories, aspreviously noted. For the remaining (161) individuals, the lowerpoints on the scale were used as a measure of the degree of afamily's financial poverty.

2.4. Perceptions of risk

Possibly many White working class people believe that,relative to its high cost, HE is too risky (Archer, 2002 p.4) andnot likely to lead to upward mobility (Davies, 1999). The lack offinancial assistance for low-income groups to attend universityplus the fear of accumulating large amounts of debt allegedlyresults in the perception of university entrance as a high-riskdecision (Forsyth and Furlong, 2003). The assessment of riskvis-à-vis the financial aspect of university life represents amajor element of potential students' decision processes (Blan-den, 2005). Archer (2002) observes how non-traditionalstudents overwhelmingly attended lower status universitiesthat offered degrees that arguably carry less value in the labormarket, thus reducing their attraction to potential working classentrants. Hence the risk of a low payoff to HE was especiallyhigh among individuals who were contemplating entering thoselower status universities. Moreover, working class males havetraditionally worked in ‘trades’ rather than professions, andtrade skills are not normally taught at university. This couldencourage working class youths to regard HE as irrelevant fortheir future financial well-being and employment prospects(Davies, 1999).

Youngsters who believe that a high-risk exists of not obtain-ing a substantial payoff from a university education relative toits cost (see Archer, 2002) might exhibit less interest in theadvertisements shown to them than others, because fear of debt(Forsyth and Furlong, 2003) and the assessment of risk

936 R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

(Blanden, 2005) are known to play key roles in working classpeople's university entrance decisions. Nevertheless, documen-tary messages supposedly reduce intangibility and hence per-ceptions of risk (Grove et al., 1995; Hill et al., 2004; Mittal,1999), so that sample members who regard HE as highly riskymight respond well to documentary advertisements. Hencehypothesis H2: Perception of high-risk vis-à-vis university entryexerts a positive influence on a sample member's responses tothe documentary advertisements.

Three items informed by Davies (1999) and Forsyth andFurlong (2003) were used to evaluate the degree to which asample member perceived university enrolment as represent-ing a substantial risk. (Appendix A details the questionnaireitems.) Seven response categories were offered ranging from7=very strongly agree to 1=very strongly disagree. Re-sponses to the three items were highly intercorrelated (RN .72)and so were combined to form a single perceptions of riskscale.

2.5. Personal ambition

If financial indigence is in fact a direct disincentive touniversity entrance, the prospect of institutions recruiting largenumbers of additional students from poor families would appearto be bleak given that the incidence of child poverty in Britainhas risen sharply in recent decades (Sanders, 2003). (Between1979 and 1998 the number of British children in householdswith an income of less than 60% of the national median morethan tripled— see Brewer andGregg, 2002). Equally, increasinglevels of financial deprivation within the working class couldimpel a growing volume of socially deprived youngsters to wantto go to university in order to improve their economic cir-cumstances (Mello, 2004). Irrespective of a person's inheritedsocio-economic situation, some individuals may experiencewithin themselves an intense desired to succeed (Davies, 1999).A high achievement motivation could affect a White workingclass boy's educational aspirations and hence his attitudestowards HE. (Lynn (1969) finds that the desire to succeedcorrelates with both commitment to hard work and high aca-demic attainment.) Entry to university could be a vehicle thatwill help an individual to attain personal achievement ob-jectives. People high in the achievement motive, according toMcClelland (1990) are more prepared than others to take risks(e.g., the risks associated with going to university) in order tosatisfy their personal ambitions, and are more likely than othersto want to perform well against pre-set benchmarks (e.g., edu-cational standards and qualifications). Thus a White workingclass boy who is high in achievement motivation might beextremely interested in entering HE and hence will react posi-tively to advertisements designed to encourage entry to univer-sity (cf. Davies, 1999; McClelland, 1990). This might beparticularly true of utilitarian advertisements because an ambi-tious person is likely to be motivated to obtain utilitarian infor-mation (cf. Aaker and Norris, 1982; Grove et al., 1995). ThusH3: A high level of personal desire to achieve exerts a positiveinfluence on a sample member's responses to advertisementswith a utilitarian theme.

A six-item adaptation of Lynn's (1969) eight-item Achieve-ment Motivation Questionnaire (see Appendix 2) measures anindividual's achievement motivation. (The discarded itemsrelate to alcohol use and holidays from paid employment.) Afactor analysis of the items generated a single factor solution(lambda=4.49, alpha= .83) so the items were amalgamated intoa single ‘personal ambition’ scale.

2.6. Fear of isolation

Lack of information, negative neighborhood influences(Heilman, 2004), and inappropriate media stereotyping ofWhite working class youths (Demopoulos, 2005) result in manyyoung working class males regarding themselves as ‘outsiders’where university is concerned (Archer and Yamashita, 2003p.60). This could become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with theresult that large numbers of working class youngsters fail toenter HE (Demopoulos, 2005, p.2). Individual youngsters mighthear stories of university teachers (most of whom will have littlepersonal experience of working class life or issues) failing toengage with working class students (Gorard, 2005; Heilman,2004) and might fear that they will be socially isolated atuniversity owing to their social class (Lynch and O'Riordan,1998; Read et al., 2003). Forsyth and Furlong (2003) noted thephenomenon of students from disadvantaged backgroundsdeliberately choosing less prestigious institutions and degreecourses where they would feel less out of place. Brown (1999)argued that this enabled a low status person to ‘preserve orenhance his or her self-image' and represented a psychologicaldefense mechanism designed to protect the individual's self-esteem (p.87).

White working class boys who suspect that HE institutionstreat working class people badly (see Heilman, 2004; Lynch andO'Riordan, 1998) might respond favorably to visual images ofuniversity life, especially those with hedonic themes, whichmight help assuage fears and make university appear less in-timidating (cf. Mittal, 1999). Visual images of studentscomfortably socializing at university might provoke inferencesthat reassure the person in this regard (cf. Hill et al., 2004;Smith, 1991). Accordingly, H4: The fear that a person willexperience social isolation at university exerts a positive in-fluence on a sample member's responses to (a) pictorial repre-sentations, and (b) hedonistic messages.

Three items from Reynold's (1988) academic self-confi-dence inventory (see Appendix A) measured the fear of isolationconstruct (seven-point scales). As the responses to the threeitems were substantially intercorrelated (RN .63), they werecombined into a single scale.

2.7. Lack of prior knowledge

Lack of knowledge of university life may contribute to thelow level of interest in university among White working classyoungsters. Roberts and Allen (1997) suggest that FurtherEducation Colleges (largely comprising working class students)are less effective than schools both in providing informationabout HE and at encouraging students to progress to university.

937R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

The advice given to working class students might be of lowquality and based on faculty members' assumptions that con-flicts would invariably arise between university life and aworking class person's home background (Forsyth and Furlong,2003). Lack of pre-existing knowledge of what university willbe like is associated with disinterest in the idea of entering HE(see Gorard, 2005; Roberts and Allen, 1997). Thus, lack ofknowledge may have a negative impact on the subjects' re-sponses to all the advertisements. On the other hand, ignoranceof university life might drive an individual to pay relativelygreater attention to utilitarian messages, especially pictorialrepresentations which, according to Hill et al. (2004), Mittal(1999) and Smith (1991), could generate inferences about thematters involved. For operational purposes, H5: Lack of priorknowledge about HE exerts a positive influence on a samplemember's responses to the utilitarian advertisements.

Two items (using seven-point agree/disagree scales) assessthe extent of a participant's prior knowledge, as specified inAppendix A. The two items were highly correlated (R=.78) andhence were consolidated into a single scale.

2.8. Covariates for hedonistic tendency and preference forvisual communication

An individual who possesses an innate liking for hedonisticactivities, that is who is motivated to seek pleasure and fun (seeHerche, 1994), might respond warmly to messages based onhedonistic themes. Possibly, moreover, innately hedonicpeople are more likely than others to want to obtain furtherinformation about things that engage them emotionally, im-plying a predilection for documentary communications (Hillet al., 2004). Wakefield and Barnes (1996) and Wakefield andInman (2003) find that individuals who feel emotionallyinvolved with an issue tend to demand more hard informationabout the issue. Thus H6: A high level of innate hedonistictendency exerts a positive influence on a sample member'sresponses to (a) hedonistic advertisements, and (b) documen-tary advertisements.

Hedonistic tendency was evaluated via four items (seven-point scales) adapted from Herche (1994) (seven-point agree/disagree scales), as shown in Appendix 2. All four items loadedonto the same factor (lambda=3.3, alpha= .9) and thus werecombined.

Ayoungster with a high personal preference for visual ratherthan documentary communication should normally be moreprone to respond positively to messages conveyed throughpictures: hence the necessity to control for variance attributableto this trait. As visual imagery allegedly stimulates the for-mation of inferences (Mitchell and Olson, 1981; Smith, 1991)and thus might make the idea of university seem more tangible(cf. Mittal, 1999), H7: A high level of innate preference forvisual communication exerts a positive influence on a samplemember's responses to visual advertisements.

Twenty items from Childers, Houston and Heckler's (1985)22-item Style of Processing (SOP) scale (see Appendix A)measure a person's preference for using a visual style of in-formation processing. The original scale includes 22 items,

eleven relating to visual orientation, and eleven for verbalorientation, of which two items relate to working in paid em-ployment and the ownership of accommodation, (matters notrelevant for the members of the sample). Items scored on a four-point system: 4=always true; 3=usually true; 2=usually false;1=always false. Following Childers et al. (1985 p.131) eachrespondent had the SOP calculated as a single score for thecomposite formed from the 20 items. This score represented apoint on a continuum ranging from preference for verbalprocessing at one end through to preference for visualprocessing at the other. (Individuals high on both will fall[after proper scoring modification] in the middle of the con-tinuum.) The Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.85, whichwas approximately the same as in applications of the instrumentby earlier researchers.

3. Results

The mean values of the responses of the individualsattending each of the FE colleges (N=79 and N=82 re-spectively) were compared, no meaningfully significant differ-ences ( p=0.05) emerging. As a precaution the two sub-sampleswere analyzed separately post-hoc, but similar patterns of re-sults arose. The two groups therefore combined into a single161-strong sample for subsequent statistical analysis. Row oneof Table 1 shows the all-sample mean values of the responsevariables for each of the four advertisements. Table 1 indicatesthat the documentary-utilitarian advertisement was significantlyless likely to influence this particular sample of White workingclass boys in terms of both its capacity to arouse interest in theidea of progressing to a university course and its ability togenerate feelings of being better informed about the nature ofthe university experience. (The F-values in Table 1 refer tocomparisons of the responses to all four executions.) Thisoutcome is consistent with the view that people tend to be moreattentive to documentary information when hedonic rather thanutilitarian value is involved (cf. Wakefield and Barnes, 1996;Hill et al., 2004). Visually-based advertisements generally had agreater impact on the participants. Table 1 additionally lists themean values of the response variables for sub-groups within themain sample for which significantly different patterns of resultsoccurred. A group of ‘financially poor’ individuals was definedby identifying the respondents (N=32) who had replied in eitherof the bottom two categories of the ‘financial status’ variable(see above). The overall (four-way) F-values shown in Table 1denote highly significant differences in the mean values of theresponses of the financially poor sub-sample to the variousadvertisements. To investigate these differences in more de-tail, disparities in the mean responses of people within thisgroup were compared post-hoc for various pairs of the execu-tions. Financial indigence has a negative effect on the meaninterest arousal response to the documentary-utilitarian adver-tisement relative to the visual-utilitarian version (F[1,30]=9.98, p= .005), and on the mean ‘informativeness’ responsesto (i) the visual-hedonistic advertisement compared with thedocumentary-hedonistic execution (F[1,30]=8.88, p= .01)and (ii) the documentary-utilitarian version relative to the

Table 1Mean values (standard deviations) [report the S.D. for each mean]

Hedonistic Utilitarian F-value Degrees offreedom

Significance

Visual Documentary Visual Documentary

All-sample data (n=161)– Interest arousal 5.5(1.01) 4.7(0.98) 5.0(0.99) 3.7(1.03) 5.75 3,640 0.000– Informativeness 5.4(0.96) 4.4(0.99) 5.0(1.00) 3.9(0.96) 5.91 3,640 0.000

The financially poor (n=32)– Interest arousal 5.0(1.20) 4.4(1.09) 4.3(1.09) 3.2(1.00) 6.66 3,124 0.000– Informativeness 3.9(1.01) 4.5(0.95) 3.6(0.94) 2.9(0.88) 7.27 3,124 0.000

Individuals with very little prior knowledge (n=90)– Interest arousal 4.8(0.89) 4.7(0.93) 5.8(1.22) 3.9(1.02) 5.67 3,356 0.000– Informativeness 5.0(1.00) 4.3(0.98) 5.9(1.19) 4.6(1.02) 3.79 3,356 0.010

Hedonistic tendency (n=29)– Interest arousal 5.9(1.23) 5.3(1.11) 4.4(0.99) 3.2(0.88) 7.99 3,112 0.000– Informativeness 5.8(1.08) 5.3(1.00) 4.5(1.00) 3.0(0.97) 8.12 3,112 0.000

Preference for visual imagery (n=69)– Interest arousal 5.9(1.02) 4.0(0.99) 5.5(1.05) 3.4(0.89) 9.01 3,272 0.000– Informativeness 5.7(0.96) 4.0(0.94) 5.7(1.17) 3.4(1.01) 9.13 3,272 0.000

938 R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

visual-utilitarian advertisement (F[1,30] = 7.79, p= .01).These outcomes suggest that young White males from familiesthat are financially very poor are less likely than others to takemuch notice of advertisements that depict various aspects ofuniversity life.

A sub-sample of 90 boys comprised all the participantswho replied in the bottom three categories of the compositefor this variable, thus possessing exceptionally limited priorknowledge about the nature of the university experience.Within this group, significant post-hoc positive effects be-came evident in relation to both the interest arousal and theinformative responses to the visual-utilitarian advertisement(F[188]=6.96, p= .01, and F[188]=7.99, p= .01 respectively),and to the informativeness reaction to the visual-hedonisticversion (F[188]=5.11, p= .025). As anticipated a-priori, peo-ple high on hedonistic tendency were more responsive to allthe advertisements that contained a hedonistic theme. The

Table 2Test of the hypotheses

Standardized regression coefficients

Hedonistic

Visual Documentary

Interest arousal Informativeness Interestarousal

I

Financial situation (H1) .21(2.45) .23(2.03) .2Personal ambition (H3)Fear of social isolation (H4) .36(4.05)Prior knowledge (H5)Hedonism (H6) .49(5.09) .44(4.09) .36(2.88) .3Preference for visualcommunication (H7)

.51(6.66) .39(4.22)

T-values in parentheses.

pictorial advertisements influenced to a relatively greaterextent those youngsters with a preference for visual imagery(see Table 1).

Table 2 gives the standardized regression coefficients(T-values in parentheses) resulting from a series of regressionsattempting to explain levels of response to the four advertise-ments on the basis of the seven hypothesized independentvariables (six composites plus the stand-alone five-point itemfor financial status). Table 2 shows only the parameters thatattained significance at the 0.05 level. Level of perceived riskdoes not appear at all in Table 2 because the (seven-point)composite for this construct was insignificant in all cases, hencerefuting the second hypothesis. The table shows that financialsituation positively affected the sample members' levels ofresponse in seven out of the eight cases. Thus, financially worseoff individuals were nearly always influenced by the advertise-ments to a substantially lower degree than were others. This

Utilitarian

Visual Documentary

nformativeness Interestarousal

Informativeness Interestarousal

Informativeness

5(3.02) .26(2.44) .29(3.42) .29(3.13) .20(2.22).33(3.47) .34(3.06) .26(2.99) .23(2.50)

−.40(5.02) −.36(4.46)6(3.08)

.38(3.31) .40(3.92)

939R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

supports H1. Personal ambition exerted a significant impact inall of the utilitarian executions, so H3 is also accepted. Highlyambitious boys felt the utilitarian advertisements had (i)informed them, and (ii) aroused their interest more than theless ambitious boys felt this. The visual-hedonistic advertise-ment seemingly assuaged respondents' fear of experiencingsocial isolation consequent to attending university and neitherthe hedonistic or visual advertisements generally had this effect.This partially supports H4. The lower the extent of a youngster'sprior knowledge of what university life involves, the more likelyhe was to find utilitarian advertisements (visual and documen-tary) to be informative. Hence the results support H5 in relationto informativeness, but not vis-à-vis interest arousal. The resultsclearly support H6 and H7 concerning the roles of hedonistictendency and innate preference for visual communication.

4. Conclusion

Visualization strategies have substantial potential for inform-ing and arousing interest amongmembers of this particular targetaudience in the idea of attending university. Pictorially-basedexecutions evoked higher responses than the documentary ad-vertisements for both the hedonistic and the utilitarian versions.The pictures seem to transmit information relatively easily andhelp the viewer mentally experience what was on offer. Pre-sumably, visual advertisements made the prospect of universityattendance appear more tangible to the sample members. Thevisual-utilitarian version was especially effective for influencingyoungsters with little prior knowledge of university life. Par-ticipants regarded the documentary-utilitarian advertisement asless informative and less interest arousing than any of the otherversions. However, the documentary execution (as predicted)fared better in the hedonistic context. In general the hedonisticversions were more effective than the utilitarian advertisements.The utilitarian executions were less likely to affect participantsfrom financially poor families, implying that concerns regardingpossible financial hardship while attending university mayrepresent a major factor inhibiting the willingness of Whiteworking class boys to contemplate the idea of progressing to auniversity course. The regression analysis indicates that young-sters fearing that they would experience social isolation if theyentered university were more responsive to the visual-hedonisticexecution than individuals not fearing social isolation. Percep-tions of the levels of risk associated with going to universityfailed to attain statistical significance ( pb .05) in any of theregressions. Possibly, very few of the sample members hadassessed risk factors in a conscious and systematic manner,resulting in little variation in the data relating to this variable.Additional research would be useful regarding this matter.

The present investigation confirms the findings of previousstudies and the conclusion that the mix of visual and docu-mentary elements within an advertisement could exert powerfulinfluence on responses. The major practical implication of theresults is that university executives need to recognize thatspecific types of advertisement are necessary in order to attractyoung White working class males, and that traditional uni-versity advertising may be unsuitable for this purpose. A further

practical implication of the results is the desirability of univer-sities using campaigns with multiple advertisements andthemes when seeking to induce young White working classmales to contemplate university entry. Various market segmentscoexisted within the sample, notably the hedonistically in-clined, the personally ambitious, and those with little priorknowledge of the characteristics of life at university. Eachgroup responded relatively more or less positively to specifictypes of advertisement, and the differences were significant.Universities that are serious about attracting White workingclass boys need therefore to invest in the production and dis-semination of a range of different advertisements, each pro-jecting a unique theme. Another implication is the apparentinadequacy of advertising (presumably of any genre) for in-fluencing youngsters from families that in financial terms areexceptionally poor. Special measures are required to affect theperceptions and university enrolment behavior of this particulargroup. Limitations associated with the research are that thestudy only concerned static print media advertisements, andthat the study included only ‘level three’ vocational students.The latter might not be truly representative of the total populationof young White working class males who possess the potential tocomplete a university course. Moreover, the participants werecompelled to view the advertisements, whereas in real life theseindividuals might have chosen to ignore them. Neither the timenor the resources were available to present the respondents withan extensive range of pictures and textual descriptions ornumerous alternative combinations of pictures and/or words.Replication of the research using other media would be valuable,especially television and cinema advertisements where widerranges of images, sound and movement are possible.

Appendix A. The questionnaire

Section 1. Personal details1. One/both/neither parent(s) attended university. 2. Post-

code. 3. Age. 4. Occupations of father/mother.

Section 2. Responses to the advertisementsSeven-point scales: 7=Very strongly agree; 1=Very strongly

disagreeInterest arousal1. This advertisement certainly makes me interested in the

idea of going to university.2. My attitude towards the idea of going to university is more

positive after seeing this advertisement.3. An advertisement like this one would be very useful for

encouraging people like me to consider going to university.4. This advertisement makes me want to investigate in

greater depth the possibility of going to university.5. I would probably not be influenced towards going to

university by this advertisement.Informativeness6. This advertisement provided me with useful insights about

life at university.7. This advertisement tells me a lot about the kind of

experience I would have at university.

940 R. Bennett / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 932–941

8. This advertisement tells me a lot about the facilities thatthe university in question offers its students.

9. I learned things from the advertisement that I did not knowbefore.

Section 3. Attitudes and perspectivesFinancial indigence10. Compared to most other families in my local area, my

family is financially well-off.Perceptions of risk11. The risk of not receiving any significant financial

advantage at the end of a university degree course outweighs thecost of spending three years at university.

12. The education I would acquire at university wouldprobably not help me get a better job that I will be able to getwithout going to university.

13. Going to university is too risky considering the financialhardship it will involve.

Personal ambition14. I have always wanted to work hard in order to be able to

be the best in whatever I do.15. I find it easy to forget about my work outside normal

working hours.16. I feel annoyed when people are not punctual for

appointments.17. I dislike seeing things wasted.18. I would prefer to work with a congenial but compe-

tent partner, rather than with a difficult but highly competentone.

19. Inefficiency makes me angry.Fear of isolation20. I have often felt I am the sort of person who goes to

university.21. I would not feel confident about fitting into university

life.22. I would feel isolated if I went to university.Lack of prior knowledge23. At my FE college I have been given a lot of useful

information about possibilities for going to university.24. Lecturing staff at my FE college have spent a lot of time

advising me about what I need to do to be able to enteruniversity.

Hedonistic tendency25. Seeking fun and enjoyment is a major goal of my life.26. I work hard at having fun.27. Having fun and enjoyment in life is more important to me

than a successful career.28. Recreation is a necessity for me.

Section 4. Visual/verbal orientationsFour-point scales: AF=Always false; UF=Usually false;

UT=Usually true; AT=Always trueVisual orientation1. When I have forgotten something I frequently try to form a

‘mental picture’ to remember it.2. There are some special times in my life that I like to relive

by mentally “picturing” just how everything looked.

3. When I am trying to learn something new, I'd rather watcha demonstration than read how to do it.

4. I like to daydream.5. I like to doodle.6. I find it helps to think in terms of mental pictures when

doing many things.7. After I meet someone for the first time, I can usually

remember what they look like, but not much about them.8. I seldom daydream.9. My thinking often consists of mental “pictures” or images.Verbal orientation10. I prefer activities that require a lot of reading.11. I enjoy doing work that requires the use of words.12. I can never seem to find the right word when I need it.13. I do a lot of reading.14. I think I often use words in the wrong way.15. I enjoy learning new words.16. I often make written notes to myself.17. I like to think of synonyms for words.18. I like learning new words.19. I prefer to read instructions about how to do something

rather than have someone show me.20. I spendverylittle timeattemptingtoincreasemyvocabulary.

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