Controversial use of Religious Symbols in Advertising
In the field of consumer research, religiosity is found to result in significant consumer behavior differences between those of different religious affiliations or levels of religiosity (e.g. Hirschman 1981, 1982, 1983; LaBarbera and Gurhan 1997; Essoo an
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lism conflicts with collective-oriented values, such as family values and religious values (Burroughs and Rindfleisch 2002) and this characteristic should be positively related to religious controversy. Thus we propose that: H2: Materialism will be positively related to controversial religious advertising evaluation Literature review has revealed that religiosity and the attitudes towards the brands depend on the specific characteristics of the products. Researchers claim the religiosity to be, in general, negatively related to the attitudes towards the brand (Hirschman 1981; Belk, Wallendorf and Sherry 1989). More specifically, religious consumers tend to evaluate the brands in terms of their moral aspects. To the contrary, materialism relates to acquisition centrality. Belk (1988) asserted that a higher level of materialism with an inevitable loss of a sense of community might make individuals less sensitive to behaviors that might affect others negatively. However, Vitell et al. (2001) found that materialism was not related to ethical judgment among consumers in the United States. Thus we posit the following: H3: Religiosity will be negatively related to brand social appropriateness evaluation H4: Materialism will be unrelated to brand social appropriateness evaluation Stillman et al. (2012) undertook the study which results showed that more religious consumers tend to consume conspicuously and spirituality also has a negative impact on seeking for products. LaBarbera and Gurhan (1997) concluded that income and material wealth are valued less highly by more-religious consumers than by less-religious consumers. Under these circumstances it is presumed that religiosity in general has a negative effect on the intention to buy any products. Alternatively, materialism is highly related to the acquisition of possessions (Wong and Ahuvia 1995). Thus, materialism can better explain the intention to buy products in general and, more specifically, these types of products that are not supported by high moral characteristics. Therefore, our study will test the following hypotheses: H5: Religiosity will be negatively related to willingness to buy brands H6: Materialism will be positively related to willingness to buy brands METHODOLOGY The data for this study was collected in Lithuania, by non-random convenience sampling through an Internet questionnaire. 227 respondents participated in the survey. The sample consisted of 67% of women and 33% of men. The biggest portion of the respondents belongs to the 18-29 age group (68.3%). 13.2% of respondents who participated in the study were aged from 42 to 53. Almost the same number of consumers (11.9%) belongs to the 30-41 year age group. The smallest age groups in the sample were 65 years and older (3.1%) and 54-65 age group (2.6%). The respondents of this study mostly claimed that they belonged to the Roman Catholic Church (74.4%). According to the results of the population census, undertaken in Lithuania in 2011, 77.3% of the population see themselves as belonging to the Roman Cat
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