Research Methodology and Justification

The experimental method of data collection is considered most suitable and powerful way to
determine cause related relationship between variables. To find the cause and effect
relationship between the independent and the dependent variables, researchers intervene in
the research setting by either manipulating or controlling the independent variable and then
observe the effects of such manipulation or control of the independent variables on the
dependent variable.
The advantage that experimental research designs provides is that to determining the cause
and effect relationship between variables. One of the main reasons stated for this is the
effective control of contamination on the research investigation from the effects of extraneous
variables by the researcher as compared to other research designs.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between humours advertising and advertising
effectiveness. This research seeks out to investigate the effects of humours advertising on
consumers’ attitude and recalling ability on advertising and brand; and consumers’ purchase
intent for the advertised brands.
This study is concerned with the empirical investigation of the effects of humours advertising
on advertising effectiveness. The factors which have been identified and posited out in the
proposed model of this study include humours advertising as the independent variable,
advertisement and brand-related attitude as well as recall (aided and unaided) as intervening
variables and purchase intent as the dependant variable. Furthermore, the level of advertising
exposure which may moderate the relationship between independent, intervening and
dependant variable is posited as the moderating variable.

Sample Population

Sample population refers to the entire group of people or things of interest that the researcher
wishes to investigate (Sekaran, 2000). According to Cooper and Shindler (2006), population
is the total collection of sample elements about which inferences are drawn. As one of the
primary objectives of this study is to understand the response of final consumers towards
humour advertisements, the target population for this study consisted of adult consumers with
master level education background in the age group of 20 to 28 years old. The following
discussion provides a brief justification for the selection of sample population in this study.
Ideally, it would have been much beneficial if the data in this study were collected from
different strata of the above stated population. However, for validation of theory developed in
this study, the experimental design needed has to fulfil some basic requirements. One of the
main reasons for this is that causality to the experimental group as compared with the control
group is easily assigned. It is also recommended that the more similar the respondents, the
more likely the experimental treatment will affect all the participants in the same way and
hence, more valid and reliable responses can be achieved. Therefore, considering the specific
experimental requirements of this study (Close control over advertising exposure levels,
maintaining the same experimental environment, homogeneity of the sample respondents’
characteristics), the target population for this study consisted of adult consumers doing
master level education in the age group of 20 to 28 years old.
Sampling Method

The sampling method is the way of selecting the sample units of the study. This study used a
convenience sample of university senior students which was mainly based on the purpose and
the specific experimental requirements of this study. The primary purpose of this study was
to investigate the relationship between humour advertising and advertising effectiveness. To
understand this relationship in more depth, this study also considered the level of advertising
exposures as a moderating variable that has been found in previous studies to affect
consumers’ evaluation of experimental advertisements and hence the relationship between
creative advertising and advertising effectiveness. Hence, this study primarily needed an
experimental design that could mainly focus on investigating the effectiveness of humour
advertising in both single and three advertising exposures while keeping the group of
research subjects more homogeneous. Hence, this study used a convenience sample of
university students.

Sample Size

The question that how large a sample size should be is considered as a relative term in the
literature. Emory (1980) states that appropriate sample size vary with the purpose of the
research. He further states that in one case, a sample size of 200 units from a population of
1500 may be quite appropriate, but for other purpose, a sample size of not more than 60
numbers may be sufficient. The sample size for this study was mainly based on the guidelines
stated by Rosoco (1975). According to Rosoco (1975), a sample size larger than 30 and less
than 500 members is adequate for most of the research studies. However, for experimental
research studies with tight experimental control, successful research is possible with sample
as small as 10 to 20 members in size (Rosoco, 1975).

Subjects

The subjects participated in this study were all student consumers enrolled in Management
and Computer Science Departments ofAnna University affiliated colleges. A total of 200
respondents are going toparticipated in the experiment. The students were free to participate
or not to participate in the experiment. The subjects were randomly allocated to two treatment
conditions (single and three advertising exposures) and were shown the stimuli
advertisements.

Experimental Research Design

The selection of an appropriate experimental research design depends upon the study
conditions. In other words, it implies that the objectives of the research and testable
hypotheses of the research should be considered. Hence, before the selection of appropriate
experimental design for this study, the following aspects were considered.

1. This study mainly seeks to know the effectiveness of humour advertising by

examining consumers’ responses to both humour (award-winning advertisements) and
normal advertisements.
2. This study considers three advertising exposures as more appropriate for better
understanding the nature of humour advertisements in terms of effectiveness as
compared to a single advertising exposure.
The above conditions specific to the nature of this study, particularly conditions (1) and (2),
necessitated it to assign subjects to two treatment groups, that is, one group with a single
advertising exposure and second group with three advertising exposures. The type of
advertisement were treated as within the subjects and advertising exposure as between the
subjects variables. Subjects were randomly assigned to each of the two groups: single
exposure group and three advertising group and their responses on the effectiveness of
humour and normal advertisements were obtained.

Research questions:

1. Do humour ads enhance advertising effectiveness to a greater extent than normalads?

2. Do viewers’ response to humour ads and normal vary with the number of advertising
exposures?

Commercials Sample Pool

For humour commercials, the awardwinning advertisements were used. The researcher’s
personal interview with the chairperson for humour award show’ revealed that
advertisements for creativity awards are mainly nominated on the basis of creativity in
advertising idea (novelty), central theme of the idea (meaningfulness of advertisement),
advertisements’ reflection of the target audience and the executional quality of an
advertisement. This criterion closely matches with the components of humour advertising
commonly found in the advertising literature and which have also been explained in the
literature review chapter of this study. To create the pool of normal advertisements (Non-
awarded advertisements), different advertising agencies were contacted. This procedure was
adopted to minimize the effects of product category as well as to ensure that the effects of
4technological advancements in advertising production during the current period are also
well-controlled. Keeping the time period similar for both humour and normal advertisements,
it is more logical to understand the causal effects of the experimental advertisements
comparing humour and normal advertisements for two different time periods.

Stimuli Development

Based on the review of literature in this study, the development of the stimuli advertisements
for this study required to take decisions relating to a number of elements. These included
controlling for the effects of television program in which the experimental advertisements
were embedded and; the effects of brand familiarity on consumers’ subsequent evaluation of
the experimental advertisements. This was done to resolve the issue of creativity
measurement between advertising professionals and general public so that the relationship
between humour advertising and advertising effectiveness could be more better understood.
Hence, the order effects of humour and normal advertisements were controlled using a
procedure already used in previous creativity studies.

Survey Questionnaire

This study used a fully structured questionnaire for collection of primary data. Responses on
different measures of advertising effectiveness except advertisement and brand recall were
obtained using existing scales available in the literature. Advertisement and brand recall were
measured on both aided and unaided basis which is considered as a more accurate approach
of testing memorability. Unaided and Aided recall (advertisement and brand) were measured
using the established principles in advertising literature. For measuring unaided recall,
participants were asked open-ended questions to list the number of brands and describe the
features of advertisements that they just watched during the television program. Similarly, for
measuring aided recall, participants were provided with a list of product categories that
represented the product categories for the brands that they had seen in the experimental
advertisements during the television program. The responses of the research participants were
then again obtained for brand names recall and advertisement features recall. For measuring
consumers’ attitude towards the experimental advertisements, a 6- item scale was adapted.
All the items for attitude and purchase intent in the questionnaire were measured using seven
point Likert Scale (From Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree).

Data Collection Procedure

Data was collected through questionnaire from 200 students enrolled in Business and
Computer studies. Subjects were randomly assigned to each of the two experimental groups:
single and three advertising exposures. The subjects’ random allocation to two separate
exposure groups was based on the procedure adopted. To allow randomization, “Special
Tags” representing the two advertising exposure groups were used (Red for Three Exposures,
Blue for Single exposure group). The randomization process was carried out among the
students enrolled in business management and computer science departments. The red and
blue tags were mixed together so that the subjects could have equal chance of selecting either
red or blue tag. The subjects were free to choose any one tag, either red or blue. Based on
their own selection of a particular tag, a list containing the names of the subjects and their
respective selected tag (that is, either red or blue) was prepared. This entire practice was
repeated in each section of the respective departments which resulted in a total of 100
subjects with red tags and 100 subjects with blue tags. Based on this procedure, the subjects
were assigned to their respective exposure groups. Before starting the experiment,
respondents were told that they are participating in a research project, but they were not
aware that the research study is about the assessment of advertising effectiveness. The
respondents of the study were led to believe that the purpose of the study revolves around the
television program in which the stimuli advertisements were embedded. Hence, just after
watching the television program and the advertisements embedded there in, respondents
provided their personal information and tapped their responses about the television program
which was in fact a manipulation check about the program induced feelings. For measuring
aided brand recall, the subjects were provided with the list of product categories representing
product categories for the brands advertised during the television program and were asked
again to list the brands that they remembered. Similarly, for aided advertisement recall, the
subjects were also provided with the list of product categories as a prompt and were asked
again to recall briefly the features of the advertisements that they had just watched during the
program. To measure attitude towards the embedded advertisements, respondents were asked
to respond to a 6 items, seven point Likert scale ranging from strongly Disagree to Strongly
Agree. Similarly, brand attitude was measured with a 6 items, seven point Likert scale. The
measurement of purchase intent was based on a 3 items, seven point Likert scale. After the
subjects completed this questionnaire, the unaided recall part of the questionnaire was then
put in the envelope of each respective participant.