Persepsies van verskillende boodskapstrategieë in reklame: ’n opname onder mans en vroue in die Klerksdorp-omgewing

Abstract

According to literature, contradictory findings exist with regard to the response of males and females on certain advertising messag e strategies, which include rational, emotional and combination appeals. Some findings indicate that women are inclined to be influenced by emotional message strategies, while men prefer rational strategies. Against this, other researchers hold the view that males prefer humoristic message strategies which could be classified as emotional. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether men and women react differently to rational and emotional message strategies in the printed media. Another purpose was to determine whether age and educational qualifications play a role in the choice of specific advertising appeals. The last strategies aim was to categorize the various message in an effort to provide the advertiser with all the strategies at hand, seeing that existing literature deal with it in a disorderly manner. This was an exploratory survey, seeing that South African research on this topic is limited. A population sample was drawn from students at Klerksdorp Techical College. Of the 350 respondents 202 (57.7%) were male and 148 (42.3%) female. Three advertisements of which each contained a different message strategy, but which advertised the same product, were compiled to use as stimulus material. These advertisements contained rational and both positive and negative emotional message strategies. Humor was used as message strategy with the positive emotional advertisement and fear with the negative emotional advertisement. Respondent · had to answer ten identical questions regarding each advertisement. Percentage and frequency of data as well as p and d values were determined. Eight hypotheses were tested, which related to the above-mentioned strategies. It was found, with regard to different message strategies, that gender did not play a dominant role in the receivers' response on advertisements in the printed media. This tendency can be attributed to the fact that more and more females have joined the workforce. This . changing role of females has an influence on the marketing of consumer and organisational products in the print media. It was also found that age and educational qualifications do play a role in the receivers' response on advertisements. It is therefore recommended that when a specific product is aimed at those in higher income groups which normally are more intelligent people, the rational appeal is taken in consideration. Emotional appeals can be used when a product is aimed at young people, but the golden rule should be: when in doubt, use rational appeals. More research is recommended to determine which message strategy will be suitable for the complex and changing South African consumer, seeing that influencing factors may differ in other geographic regions or among comsumers with other demographic and life-style segmentations.